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NeedlesMcGirk's First Upright Cab Attempt - Arcade Anthology *Finished!

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needlesmcgirk:
Greetings!

First I'd just like to thank all of you in the BYOAC community.  I wouldn't have been able to get any of this done without all the help and inspiration from you guys.

All my life I have loved arcade games.  I remember my favorite thing to do was go to the arcade and spend all the quarters I could come up with on games like TMNT, Street Fighter, MK, etc.  I guess this is really the 2nd generation of arcade games, but I also loved the classics that were a little before my time, especially pacman.  When I found out about MAME I knew I had to do this sometime.  A few years later I have finally gotten started.

I decided to put some pics up, etc. and I hope to get some response and some good feedback/criticism from you guys as I can definitely use it.


01.29.07 - First Post: Details and Pictures

PC:  Pretty simple PC.  Just built a cheap, fast one.
AMD 64 3700+ 2.2 ghz
Asus Motherboard
512 MB RAM
60 GB HDD
Cheap ASUS Video Card (got 256 MB RAM though, which is a plus)

The front end is Mamewah.  I'm waiting for the marquee to get finished before I work on the art on the layout.

PICS:

Control panel top with formica and holes for controlls drilled out:



Heres the control panel top with the controlls installed.


These are all Happs controls and purchased from Tornado Terry.  Player 1 and 2 and Competition, 3 and 4 are ultimates.  the middle joystick is a Ms. Pacman dedicated 4-way and I must say it performs wonderfully.

I am planning on replacing the screws that hold the joysticks in place with black ones and making them flush with the formica.  I've heard they make screws that are flat on top without screwdriver guides, I think those would be great too if I can find some...


The wiring job.  Its not pretty, but it gets the job done!  I purchased a wiring kit from divemaster127



The finished control panel and box.  There are some clamps (fancy window style) in the back and piano hinge on the front.



The Cab:






I used standard 3/4" mdf and cut it all with a skill saw.  I basically used Lusid's plans, and they worked out pretty well.  Obviously I went away from his control panel plans (I had to have 4 players!).

You can see in the front where the control panel goes there are 4 straight-bolts that insert into the bottom of the control panel box where they are tightened with wing-nuts inside the box.  This works great for keeping it sturdy, but also keeping it detachable.  There is also a keyboard drawer.

Unfortunately the paint job went sour.  It was a beautiful day when we painted it, but it end up getting cold and not warming up again for a while, so it didn't dry well.  After these pics were taken we sanded the whole thing down and smoothed out the air bubbles etc., and now I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up so it can get a new coat.  A lot of the other finishing touches are also on hold because of this.

The speaker panel has also been cut and holes for speaker grills have been jigsawed.  I'm using some cheap Cyber Acoustic 2.1 speakers.  68 watts is good enough for me on this cab.

The TV is a 27" Sharp I picked up from Goodwill pretty cheap, and it is working very well for this.  I also got a Happs bezel and trimmed it to fit, but it won't be installed until the paint job is finished.

The marquee is currently being worked on by a friend.  I'm not too creative so I just shot her some ideas and hopefully she will come up with something great.  its basically going to be a montage of classic arcade characters.  There will be updates on this so I can get some feedback from you guys!

needlesmcgirk:
Alright, finally got some days off over Easter to finish this thing up.  Due to the overwhelming response on this thread, I know you are all thrilled to hear this.

My plans right now are:

Cut 1/2" off the top panel (I didn't leave room for the marquee)
Finish painting the cab
Insert some blocks to keep the TV in place
Install the speakers and speaker panel
Install the bezel
Install half the marquee retainers (I don't have the marquee yet...)
Pound in the T-molding

I'll probably also take out the wood support blocks for the top panel and use L Brackets instead as I've read that the blocks will keep light from hitting the marquee on the sides.

Other than this, just I'm sure there will be a few other finishing touches that I'll need to do.  I just can't wait to get this thing finished up and play some games.

javeryh:

--- Quote from: needlesmcgirk on April 02, 2007, 01:44:48 pm ---Due to the overwhelming response on this thread, I know you are all thrilled to hear this.
--- End quote ---

 ;D  Nice.  Your cab is looking good so far.  The paint job is the hardest past so I can definitely sympathize - it's been holding me up for a few weeks now too.  What color t-molding are you planning on?  Are you going to have any side art or a CPO?  What are those two buttons on the top of your CP for?  What about a coin door?  So many questions!!!!  Keep the pictures coming!!!

(+_+):
Tsk, Tsk, you angled your outer player joysticks. I did too.  ;).

More pics please.

needlesmcgirk:
I'm going to have some side art eventually, I just haven't really thought about it too much yet.  Right now someone is working on the marquee for me, so whenever that gets finished up I think the side are will be related to that, as will the front end graphics.

Right now the t-molding is just standard black, which is kind of boring so it might get changed in the future depending on how I feel about it, and the eventual side art I guess.

I think the coin door would be a really cool addition to put in later, but right now I'm just leaving it as is without it.

The two buttons on the top of the CP are admin buttons (escape and pause).

There was an issue with angled player 3/4 joysticks?  Anyway, I figured this would be the most comfortable for those players, and I've tested it out and it seems to work pretty well. Of coarse we all know that player 3 and 4 are for jerks, right?  ;)

I think the biggest disappointment I have right now with this are those joystick screws on top of the CP that just scream ugly.  I'm looking into ways to hide these or make them look better, including getting some black screws and some screw caps/covers  Any ideas will be great.

I'll definitely be taking a bunch of pictures as I'm getting back to work on this thing.  I'm really excited.  Glad to get some feedback!  Any input is greatly appreciated!

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