Arcade - Game Exhibition - scratchbuild upright/candy crossover *now T-molding*

[Akuma]

Hello to everyone.

I thought I might aswell start my own project topic here.

I have had the idea of building my own cabinet for about a year now. Some months ago, I built a control panel to test my skills and to stop thinking about my ex girlfriend. Now, another girlfriend later, I think it's time to start with my real project.

Details of what I want to achieve:

- upright cabinet in classical design (Lusid with specific changes tailored to my needs)
- 27" or 29" TV using an ArcadeVGA 2 and the tv's european RGB Scart connector which will give near arcade monitor quality at a nice price. At least once it is a good thing to live in europe ; )
- since I am using a tv, it'd be stupid to neglect any console support, so I plan to incorporate support for DC, Saturn and a PS2 by createing a self made multi connection interface to hook up the control panel to the consoles.
- I plan to make the CPs interchangeable - maybe even Frosty-style rotationable but maybe that'd be a bit too much for my first project.
- I'd love to have the TV manually rotationable but this will be the hardest part to achieve. Especially since the cab should be only 80 cm or less wide. I think on pulling it out to the front a bit so that the 4 edges are out of the cab, then rotate it and then put it back inside. Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck for that : )

I will start as soon as I can aquire a TV for a decent price. there is one near my location on ebay which ends on sunday. The TV matches all my categories (100hz, cubic front shape, etc.) so I need everyone's luck that it's prive won't rise over my limit which isn't too high this month. Ohhh... I wish for that TV soooo much! : )) I can't start before I got the TV because I need the exact measures.

Okay - not many pics to show you guys so far. Only my test CP which I built which has some flaws which the done cab won't have and a pic of the test rig with a 17" crt monitor. Even if the test rig is crappy, it's enough to get my pals crazy on playing Street Fighter or Windjammers : )
Also I am working on startup and desktop images (using Windows 98SE). I already made a logo for the cab even though I have no good name yet. The logo incorporates the RGB signal I will use. Okay, so much for now - I will update this topic whenever new stuff comes up to post.

Cheerio!

[Akuma]

sorry, double post - please delete

[ARTIFACT]

heyy good luck with your project! make sure to post lots of pics as you make progress

[Akuma]

Thank you Art. As Saint said in his book - posting your progress is a way to give back something to the community. And I am determined to do so : )

Just read through your Artifact Game Museum topic. Veeeery inspirating! Now I know, that I will create some custom pixel art for my marquee aswell : ))

[ARTIFACT]

haha cool! thanks for reading my project - great if any of it inspired you in yours.

looking forward to follow it!

thats vanother great thing about this community: the instant replies and support encourages you to make progress and to share it, asksk for advice as you go, etc.

take care!

[Akuma]

DAMN!

Got outbid on the TV. Was bidding on the last second, but someone else already placed a higher bid (25 Euros more than the original "buy it now option")

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190149371694&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=009

Well, well, well... Okay... Now I got to wait 2 more days until another auction is finished. Maybe, it will turn out good, that I didn't get the TV, since the one I am watching now has a 72 cm diagonal which is a bit more than 28" and therefore one extra inch to the TV I got outbid on : )

So, I will have to focus on something else in between - I guess I will think of a name and create the marquee design... : )

[Akuma]

  OH YEAH!

I GOT IT! I GOT IT!

I am sure that this little cube filled with an electron gun will work out greatly inside my cab : ))

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=190149371694

I hope that I can collect it early tommorrow. Then start measuring and begin with building the cabinet! I AM SO EXCITED! : )))))

[Malenko]

lookin forward to the progress, Gouki is my second fave character, right behind Dan Hibiki

Im also diggin the SF comics I just ordered a SF art book from amazon maybe I can scan some stuff out of it for the CP/marquee if you still with a street fighter theme. besta luck!

[Akuma]

Hey, thanks for the offer! For the theme I have not decidet anything yet, but I highly tend to make the cabinet kinda universal and clean without any dedications or references to any games/ companies/ consoles.

hehe : ) Akuma/ Gouki was my most fav. character back in the days of Alpha 2 and also got me my nickname among my friends. Unbelievable, that the name was available in this community.

EDIT 13. september:

Picked up the TV yesterday and pretty straightforward - the picture sucks. Not TVs in general, but this one for sure. Either it's interiors are too old or it's the 100hz system which makes the picture look weired when movement in a 3D game or scrolling in a 2d game takes place. I was so unhappy and was looking for something more like a monitor. And yeah, I found something on ebay which I eventually got - at a great price too! http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320155745870&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=011
I mean, come on - a 29" crt for 39,- Euros! Gonna pick this one up at the weekend. Also, I bought a major quantity of mdf today. I plan to start by cutting out the sides tommorrow and maybe also prepare the base. Will see, hof far I will get : )

Plan to start by cutting out the sides and maybe even contruct the base. My order from Arcadeshop containing my casters might show up so starting with the base would make sense : )

[Akuma]

Not much to post so far - started with the sides on friday and already finished the base on saturday (no pic of the finished base). Picked up the monitor I got cheap on ebay and it turned out to be a true treasure! A Mitsubishi Megaview XC-2930C! For 40 Euros! That monitor is also capable of 15 kHz which will come in handy when hooking it up to consoles, but that lies in the future and I got to focus on the woodworking stuff first. Haven't had enough time for it yet (and won't until thursday). Too sad that I am not allowed to make alot of noise with my power tools on a sunday but my landlord would kick me outta my appartment in no time : ) Also, I thought about a project/ cabinet name. Not sure yet, but since I want to keep it unreferring to anything, I might just call it Axel's Arcade Machine or something like that (yes, Axel is my nickname : )

Well, until the next post then...

Cheers

[Cakemeister]

Just don't pick a name with MAME or CADE in it and you'll be fine.

[Akuma]

Sure, no "mame" or "cade" in the name : )

I think I will really go with the simple name of Axel's Arcade Machine - but not decided yet : )


Okay, hi everyone! A small update of what I could do so far. I'll have got more free time tommorrow, so I think I can make a major leap towards completing the cabinet shell tommorrow.

I am done constructing the monitor shelf with it's 30° angle. I discarded the idea of a rotating monitor since it's not really compromisable with my other, more important goal. I am keeping the whole thing modular, so that it can be disassembled into several pieces. WHy? Because I plan to move into a new home within the next 2 years. I am living on the 3rd floor at the moment and the stairs are kinda narrow and I see no point in building a cab, putting alot of money and sweat into it and then have to break it apart just to move into a new house. So that's that. The rotating monitor will be saved for my next project in the future (when I got a new home) : )

Tommorrow, I gotta build the basic under-cabinet between base and monitor shelf. Shouldn't be too hard - just got to measure the correct height. I pretty strayed from my original plans and do some sort of on the fly engineering and assembly. Not the best way, and absolutely not the german way of engineering, but well - whatever : ))

So, here is a pic of the finished base and the monitor shelf. And one of an excited german guy, testing the strenght of his monitor shelf. "If it can hold my 85 Kilos, then it can hold the 60 Kilos of the monitor!"

Alex

[Akuma]

Okay, has been some time since I get to work on the cab very irregularly.

So far, I made the under-cabinet and set up a test rig. for one week I played and tested height and everything else. I am not too satisfied with the monitor's sharpness - maybe it's too old. The 30° angle is fine, but the monitor was too high. conclusion - lower monitor by 15 cm. Besides that, I wired the start and reset switch to translucent pushbuttons and placed the power and hdd led inside them. I will definitely use this on the cab : )

After lowering the under-cabinet, I attached the left side yesterday with powerbonder and screws. After it had one night to dry I attached the right side today.

Since I lowered the monitor, the overall size of the cab is reduced. Due to that fact, I decided to not make it modular detachable for easy transport but build it very strong so that it can be transported without the need of a heart attack : )

If everything works as planned, I will construct the speaker/marquee top, which gets "planted" on top of the cabinet tommorrow as well as cutting off the excess of the top. Maybe I can even start with the new control panel.

Since I did most of the cab design while building it (which is quite uneconomical and unpractical), I am happy to say that I now know how I want the cab to look like when it's done. Unlucky me, I don't know which colours I should give it as well as how to name it. Damn, why did Artifact already call his cab "Game Museum"? I like this name so very much!

Well, here are some pics I took. The test rig and what it looks like now.

See ya (maybe tomorrow)

[Akuma]

Okay, just a short update - I finished the CP today. Okay, I almost finished it - all that is left is rout the joystick cutout and the T-mold groove. I will probably do this tommorow - have to decide first if I will go with a plexi overlay or something different.

I also have to figure out a way to mount the control panel in a stable yet detachable way - some mistake I did in the beginning is now coming back for revenge - I shouldn't have cut off the wood supporting the CP. Ah well, I will find a way.

I also have to do four cuts tommorow - after they are done, I think I will have made a major progress towards completion. Have to build the trapezoid speaker and marquee shelf then. I see light at the end of the tunnel : )

Also: I finally found a name which I really like - simple, self explaining and universal usable: ARCADE - GAME EXHIBITION

And you might have seen the little hint in the edited topic subject - upright candy crossover. I know, it doesn't really look like one yet - but stay tuned, you will see it come together soon : ))

[Anubis_au]

Sure, no "mame" or "cade" in the name : )

I think I will really go with the simple name of Axel's Arcade Machine

I'm fairly certain the word arcade has 'cade' in it

Just kidding.

Nice build you have going. Good luck with it, and I'll be watching.

[Akuma]

Since I had some last minute appointments today, I coudn't achieve as much as I originally planed - but at least I made the cuts needed. See picture 1.

Also, i made a little mockup - looking quite artistic, almost surrealistic - so feel at ease when viewing, you are NOT high on crack! : ) See picture 2.

Now I see that my intended design will work greatly. Actually I choose the colour by accident but it looks cool in my opinion, so I guess I will go with white paint, maybe even high glossy, and white t-molding.

It's not much left - I feel so full of power now : )

@Anubis: I didn't say I shouldn't include "cade" : ) Arcade is universal enough : )

[Akuma]

Long time no update!

Well, it's 5:00 am in the morning here and I just returned from a friend's birthday party at one of the cheapest, sleeziest hook-up disco/ club whatever which was as far away from being fun as Will Smith is away from being cool. So if you ever come to visit Germany and happen to come to the city of Cologne, make sure to visit the "Klappsmühle", if you are looking for a quick, easy to get and inexpensive holiday "flirt". It just made me sick - I realize that I am getting too old for this "isht" - sad there are so many of my generation still loving this lifestyle but - whatever.

Okay, enough of my society criticism! Time for some news.

In the meantime between my last update I didn't get to do alot since I was ill and not too over motivated. I started painting the cab about a week ago. I have never been too keen at painting and my other topic in the woodworking section indicates, that I was a bit concerned about getting a nice smooth finish. After several coats I somehow got very frustrated. This was when I started the topic in the woodworking section. After the first set of answers I started to sand it a little more but ended up with messing up the surface in a way. While sanding, some paint chunks got heated up by the powersander and literally melted into the paint (acrylic paint wasn't the best decission). At this point (friday) I got veeeeeeeeery enraged, frustrated and was building up alot of HATE! So I drove to my DIY store and looked for options. I remembered of what I used for my prototype desktop arcadecontrols - I used some sort of vinyl - cheap laminate, in a matter of speaking. I was more than a bit sceptical if I could apply it to a large area like the sides and ended up buying only one of the biggest sheets which is enough for one side. At home I cooled down a bit of my anger and applied it. And without having believed in it - IT WORKED OUT GREAT! The parts of the side which got messed up can only be guessed and there are no air bubbles which I didn't got flat. A really nice surprise! I decidet to sleep a night and see how it will look the next day. To keep it short - it still looked great so I went on to get more of this stuff: Alkor standard adhesive and decoration foils in plain colour.

The company has a website in english too: http://www.alkor-deco.de/englisch/index_e.html

I applied it on the other side today and in the front on the control panel - I was even able to cut and place it so close that you have to look verrrrry verrry close and hard to tell where the foil is connected to the sides.

I then drilled all the cable holes and cleaned the cab from all the dust. Pre wired the controls and waited. I waited for a friend to arrive to pick me up for this awsome party. But before we left, he assisted me in putting this heavy 29" CRT into the cab. I then was able to set up the system for play. And what should I say? IT'S AWSOME! Just could play a little bit before we had to leave but I will sure be return to play now until my eyes fall down (which isn't gonna take long though). Veeeeery cool! At least I can play now and finish it bit by bit in this final stage.

Today I also ordered the badass Logitech Z-2300. Hard hittin' bad boys : ))

What is left to do:

- have the CPO printed

- finish the detachable speaker/ marquee topbox, in detail this means putting the foil on it, placeing the speakers in it, making a mount for the cathode light and the marquee, cutting the marquee's plexi aswell as design a marquee at all, add a hinged backside

- apply T-Molding (have to decide colour first and order it)

- build the monitor's bezel including a hinged frame which also holds the tinted glass

- add the coindoor with the lower access door, have to wire the coindoor a bit and get the 2,- Euro coin mech to stop from internal jamming

- add the keyboard drawer

- add the self-named I/O panel which will contain admin buttons and console / USB adapters

- wire the controls correctly the way I planned (interchangeable)

- later: hack some console stuff like joypads and video outputs to make it useable with the monitor (since it also supports 15 kHz)

- add the side arts, want to keep them simple and colourfull like they are found on japanese candy cabs

- add a metal kick palte at the front bottom

did I forget anything? : )

Okay, enough for now. Just the pictures and a sidenote. Since I did the assembly indoors in my living room, I just realised that being single has it's good sides ; ) Okay, now some pics!

CHEERS! And goodnight!

[javeryh]

Looks great - I love the shape.   I've always wanted a Candy Cab in the house but they are always WAY too expensive! 

[waveryder]

You can get hold of FOBT candycabs cheap! My candy only cost me £65. Akuma lovin the cab, Serious lack of curves though. A candycab should be like a fat chick, curvey in all the right places!

[Grasshopper]

You can get hold of FOBT candycabs cheap! My candy only cost me £65.

Wow, that's incredibly cheap. Can you tell me where you got it from?

[Akuma]

well, I would like a sit down plastic candy myself but I am so picky that I only want a Sega one, esp. an Astro City or Naomi universal - and those cost a bit : )

about the curvyness I gotta say that this is not 100% true : ) The basic design is inspired by an SNK candy (see pic) - not much curvyness going on there.



And also I think of it as a crossover with classic upright features - for example I wanted an oldschool coindoor - no coin mech in the control panel. Not that this is a bad thing - I just wanted a coindoor : )) And the most important part - curves and woodwork is a combination not too good for relative inexperienced guys like me : )

EDIT: If I remember correctly, he got it from ebay? I once saw a website of a guy selling exactly those for alot more : )

[waveryder]

I know there are some candycabs without curves, It was more a comment sharing my personal love of the curvey ones. (or an unhealthy obssesion with fat chicks! ) Loving the project though cant wait to see where your going with it.

Bought mine from ebay, a few on there now going for £55

[Akuma]

Ahhh, I see what you meant : ) And yes, Betty is one curvey chick ; ) BTW: I wondered more than once which keywords you used to find betty on ebay.

Okay, small update - today was coindoor time. But it isn't wired yet - but this is only a matter of time.

And I also acquired a little figure of SNK's Blue Mary which will decorate the area surrounding the cab - at the moment (and in the pic) she's sitting on top of it. This is where I get back to curvey chicks: Curves are generally good, but I prefer the non-fat curvey ones ; ) I especially have to giggle over the way physical effects are simulated in form of her "secondary sexual characteristics" pointing to different directions

[Akuma]

Just a short update:

CAN YOU SEE THE LIGHT? It's just sucking me in!

After wireing the coin 1 button to the coin mechs some days ago and the endless fun of feeding the coin mechs over and over again, I decided that it was time to light those guys. It's funny how little details like this make you happy : )

BTW: Speaking of little details - I'd like to promote my topic in the main forum concerning sound engineering a coin drop sound true to the original. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=73273.0 Need ideas for this one!

Okay, I expect to receive the CPO within the next 18 hours. I am curious, if you guys dig the simplicity in the cpo's design (which won't be shown before it's assembled) or if you won't like it : )

Regards!

Alex

[Akuma]

With some delay, I received the cpo today. ANd I got to say that I am not really satisfied. They cheated me over 1 cm! And the overall quality is kinda poor... Yet I decided to keep it as a temporary solution - better than nothing. Maybe you can't expect too much for Euro 36,-

Anyway, I enclose some pics. I gotta say though, that it doesn't look as wavey as it appears on them. The plexi makes it look a little bit better than it looks without. BTW: I took my inspiration from the Sega Astro City candy cab's control panel.

Alex

[Akuma]

Wow, been only 1.5 months since the last update? Feels like I haven't been working on this for 3 months. Well, just felt like making a short updates for the sake of keeping this "diary" as complete as possible.

Added the keyboard drawer, using special tabloid drawer hinges, which fold the front plate without being too visible. Have to peel away some paint sometime in the future though.

Next up, I'll be working on the I/O panel above the drawer and then upwards from there. Just one thing I need to think about. As I'd like the surface to be flush and clean without any handles or knobs to slide out the keyboard drawer, I have no clue how this could be done, when the upper panel is in place. Hmm...

[Daniel B.]

Akuma, I think this is turning out awesome! If I could complain about something, it too, would be what appears to be a shoddy cp overlay print! Maybe try someone else?  It will be interesting to see the height on this as well. I can't wait to see what it looks like with stools next to it. I guess I'm having a hard time picturing it. To me, it should be a sit down! - Speaking of which, you have inspired me to do a snk/pony sitdown style woody!

keep up the good work here and "abroad" 

[Akuma]

Thanks for your opinion, Daniel!

I couldn't work tooooo much on the machine lately, since other things were (and are) more important at the moment. But I recently received my T-MOLDING! AWSOME! Light blue rocks, even though it's not as light as I'd suppose a light blue to be, I love the actual colour even more! I ordered it from t-molding.com and I can really recommend them!!!

Anyways, I expect a parcel with a nice PC Speaker system by tommorrow. Then, I can uncase the volume control and mess around with the insides which I plan to place on the "System I/O panel" (above the keyboard panel). So, by tommorrow I should have all the stuff I need for finishing the panel - I guess I will do this the whole day tommrrow then. Did I ever mention my withdrawel from the Logitec Z-2300 system? This is because the bass is just TOO MUCH! I thought the louder the better, but I guess I'd really get trouble with my neighbors. Why? I suspect it's because the subwoofer is enclosed in the bottom of the cabinet, the cabinet itself becomes a gigantic bass speaker box and increasing the subwoofers power - even on the lowest bass level, it#s still too loud. So I will use a creative labs inspire T-2900. I got a T-7900 for my PC and I am quite happy with it, so this was an obvious choice.

BUT I will use the Z-2300 for another project, which I already started on a small scale. This one is gonna be awsome, so much to tell you but the rest is yet a secret. Damn, I got so many ideas lately! ideas for 3 or 4 more projects whom 1 is the one I just mentioned which I just started, and at least 1 of the others being very likely...

For the marquee, I gotta start from scratch again. I now made up my mind - I was inspired by the Sega Astro City cabinet's marquee until I now realised, that an Aero City style marquee would be much more fitting!

So, stay tuned.

[Daniel B.]

That t-molding really set's it off nice! Now I'm REALLY excited to see this thing finished. It looks very clean- I think our "candy coated friends" would be pleased 

[Spacedueler]

I'm getting ready to break ground on my own project really soon. The main hold up for me is picking the monitor. I've decided on the controls and layout- very similar to yours. Congratulations on getting so far and a great job at that.

How is the XC-2930C monitor working out? I had found that one in my web searches and have been considering it as one of my choices. How sharp is the picture/color while working in Windows/Videos etc? Also have you played with the 15khz resolutions for playing the classic arcade games. There's a few monitors out there that claim to do it all.

[Akuma]

My gosh - thanks for reminding me that I still have to finish this project!

Well, the monitor - I actually got me a second one! ; )

It definetly is a nice monitor, but I would need to manually degaus the one that's inside the cabinet since it has a red distortion in the top left corner and a dull spot in the centre. Geometry isn't like new, given that it is over a decade old, still it gives a very very nice picture! Concerning the resolution in windows - it is okay but because of the size, I find it is somewhat hard to work on the screen if you stand right in front of it - gaming is great non the less! And yes, I also tested it on 15 KhZ with a real Jamma PCB (Street Fighter III - New gen.) and it worked just as good (thankfully it has RGBHV aswell as RGB-C input)! If you can get it as cheap as I could, just get it!!