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Galaga Bartop 19" LCD Rotating Display *UPDATED 11/26/12*

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Ritalin:
Hey all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
Ok, so my New Year's resolution is to build an arcade cabinet. After reviewing many of the options available my end space is limited so I want to go with a bartop/tabletop arcade cabinet.

This will be made on the cheap. It will be powered by old computer parts lying around the house.
They are:

Toshiba Satellite 2805-S202
PIII @ 500 Mhz
256MB RAM
10 GB HD
Dell 1905 Ultrasharp 19" LCD (Pretty big for a bartop I know)
Old External PC Speakers

Powered by:
MAME 0.65
MaLa v1.04 front end

Luckily I've been reading these forums a lot and have installed tiny XP on the lappy, with all games running smoothly. The key factor of this bartop is that I'd like to make the screen rotate (manually) between vertical and horizontal.

Here is a simple sketch of the basic cab layout (ignore the missing trackball on the left):



The image on the left is in the vertical orientation.
The image on the right has the display rotated in the horizontal orientation.

Since this is a bartop/tabletop, I've disassembled the laptop and taken out all non-essential parts. The LAN, floppy, laptop display, internal speakers, touchpad and internal keyboard are all gone. I want this baby to be as light as possible and not a power hog.


Setup running in the vertical mode


Setup running in the horizontal mode

Games are running VERY smoothly. So far, so good.
The Dell 1905 LCD is great too because it's made to rotate. Visual angles don't have many dead or dull spots and I figure I could use the mounting bracket inside the cab for the swivel.

CONTROL PANEL QUESTION:
I'm a bit new to all of this and would like some input on the controls I should include. Again, this is a small tabletop, but because of the rotating LCD and the size of the LCD itself, it will likely bit a bit wider than expected. Control panel width will be about 23" wide. Is that too small for two player controls?

I was thinking a Player 1 joystick on the left, three buttons for player 1, then a trackball in the middle, then a Player 2 joystick with three buttons for player 2 (as shown in sketch).

Is this control setup too ambitious for a smaller setup?
Any input is appreciated as I still don't know how many buttons I truly need for each player, etc.

That's it for now.
This project has officially been launched! :D

EDIT: This originally started as a rotating display project. For a bartop, the 19" LCD was just too big for cab to look good (too wide.) I'll save teh rotation idea for my full stand up cab someday.

EDIT 2: I just can't give it up. The monitor rotation is back on.

Singapura:
Since this is a table/bartop you might want to consider making a detachable panel for the trackball. Things get really crowded with 2 joysticks and a trackball and you'll want a bit of space to comfortably spin the ball.

dmworking247:
Hi Ritalin,

Your plan concepts look very close to my own bartops that I'm nearing completion of at the moment... you might want to look at my project thread for some ideas.

You're likely to find if you're going for a 'rotating' LCD that you'll end up with a larger (especially taller) bartop than you planned on. Since you're going for a manually rotating LCD (at first, I was going motorised),  I would suggest the method i'm going to use which is a bezel with the LCD mounted on the back of it that you can pull out, rotate, and put back in easily. If you go for rotation INSIDE the cabinet, you need to consider a LOT of extra room because the LCD when halfway rotated is diagonally longer than the width.

If you're stuck on having a trackball I also second the recommendation to do a removable control panel. 23" is NOT big enough for 2 player controls and a trackball in the middle... for that matter its going to feel cramped enough for just 2 player controls even with only 3 buttons each.  My bartops will be able to do virtually everything my upright can do but two players will never be its strong point, although I can plug two 'single player' control panels in at the same time (due to them being removable).

I'd also make sure you test ALL the games you're likely to want to play with that configuration, as a PIII500 is not going to be able to run Mortal Kombat, Golden Tee, anything 3D, etc... even things like Snow Bros or Bubble Bobble might choke a bit when the screen gets busy (my first config was a PIII 600 and I recently upgraded it to a P4 1.7ghz for that reason). Similarly you'll quickly run out of room with a 10gb drive unless you're going to be selective with the games you put on it.

Good luck with your project, I look forward to watching your progress since its a very close theme to my own (I hope for my own sake I beat you though since my projects have been going for months :D )

DaOld Man:
That machine will run Alien Vs prediator? When I built my first machine, I tried a P3 550 mhz and it wouldnt run hardly any of the newer games. Even Galaga 88 was so choppy it wasnt playable. I wound up going with an AMD 950 mhz, and I plan to change it out to a 2.4 ghz P4 this spring.
Anyway, looks like you are off to a good start.
I suggest you go ahead and put a motor on the monitor. I dont think it will take up that much more room.

leapinlew:
With a 19" bartop - I wouldn't even worry about rotating the monitor for vertical games. They'll display of decent size already. My 2 player bartop uses a 24" CP and it's the smallest I would go for a 2 player cabinet.

2 player bartop:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65651.0

Galaga Themed small bartop:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68683.0
I also used a laptop for this project.

My advice would be to ditch the rotating idea. It'll force you to build a cabinet with a very large monitor enclosure to deal with the rotation, or the rotation will be such a pain you'll quit doing it. Put it behind some smoked plexi and you won't even notice the wasted space on the monitor.

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