Main > Project Announcements
DonkeyKong Jr Bartop Project - Finished
DonkyKong:
Hi, This is a Project I just completed on the Weekend and had been 2 Months in the making. I will copy paste the forum thread I started 2months ago over @ www.aussiearcade.com.au.
Hope You enjoy.
DK
DonkyKong:
This project is being done as a Xmas present for my 2 nephews, They just love to play on my Upright and Cocktail cab's when they come over.
Why?:
Well I built my cocktail cab 6-7 years ago it gave me great satisfaction, There was little info and hardware around at the time I built it back then. Certainly next to no Aussie stores that you could buy stuff thru or at least I knew of at the time.
Anyway I upgraded Mame to a later version and added faster CPU etc and that broke my ArcadeOS and just got sick of play with it and did nothing with it for years the 1st nephew was around 1yr's old at this time and up until he was 7 he had never seen it going. Seeing he had gotten to the age he could play without me worry about him braking it or the like I thought ---Cleveland steamer---! I should get this thing working again. So after a few weekends of redoing the software and hardware side of my Cocktail cab it was up and running again.
This rekindled my whole enjoyment of retro gaming once again, I then bought an 26" upright Cabinet off ebay. I started to visit Aussie Arcade and loved dmworking247 and spacies work or their bartop's and thought what a great idea, Its not a LARGE project like a full upright cab (which take up too much room anyway) and something that can fit happily in either nephews bedroom
(maybe some fights over this in the future) :P
Why a DK Jr cabinet?:
1: GFX availability was the first priority DK Jr Marquee,CPO,Bezel and Side art are all available.
2: Cabinet shape. Based off an arcade upright cabinet with the bottom cut off (coin door/kickplate).
The DK jr cabinet seem well suited to sitting on a bench and the angles and curves aren't that hard to work with and i like the classic look of 80's cabinets and artwork.
I think "Junior" is appropriate given its a small version of the upright. :)
Oh and If you haven't seen the "King of Kong" Doco do yourself a favor it's a Great! The guy uses a DK Jr upright cab to play DonkeyKong on. :D
Parts needed or things yet to do:
1: Orange Laminate (I have and now have used)
2: Black Top Ball for Joystick and Red 20cent Back lit Credit Button (I now have from Ozstick)
3: If i should go 48 in 1 or Mame PC (48 in 1 for now, Might do a PC later for it) I Went for PC as the 48in1 was pretty average at best.
4: What type of light i will use in the marquee (Got a 12 volt 300mm twin tube light from Super Cheap Auto)
5: Get some White and Black T-Molding and Slot Cutter (Got the T-molding from Gamedude and Slot Cutter from Trades Direct)
6: Where to have Speaker/s and or Ventilation. (Speaker I've decided will be the same as the original with small routed slots on the front, Air Vent is open @ the botton and 10mm holes drilled in top of the rear Access Door)
7: Get Speaker/Amp (I'm using a Amp/Volume Module pulled from a Logitech 2.0 PC Speaker set)
8: Learn how to use illustrator to make changes to the Artwork. (I've made what I think is the final changes to my Artwork before Printing) (Thanks to spacies and MetalSkin for their Insert Coin Artwork)
9: Who and where to get Artwork Printed. (Ordered and received Artwork) Bezel from www.mamemarquee.com and the rest from www.somaprint.cn
10: What Plastic to use on Control Panel,Bezel & Marquee (Perspex is on order) From local Glazer.
11: What and where to find some Chrome or Polished bolts for CPO (I now have some Mirror Screws)
List may get added to or edited as i progress with the project.
Any comments and or suggestions are more than welcome :D
DK
DonkyKong:
Today I worked on the dimensions after waiting for a 2nd hand Dell 15" LCD to arrived I had bought off eBay, I made a few side view sketches on Cardboard first then proceeded to make a full mockup Prototype from Chipboard and Craftwood (MDF) packing sheets before I cut up my Black Lamiwood sheet Which also is a packing sheet.
To see if the dimensions look the same as the Original Cabinet (to "scale" which is hard when its based off the following picture).
I will upload some pictures tomorrow of work in progress.
This picture is just the DKjr.png from mame cabinets.zip which I modified and cut the bottom off. Which I'll be basing the Bartop off.
DonkyKong:
Progress Day 1:
After building the mockup Cabinet and looking at it. It looked too high and thought that might just be the monitor in the vertical position making it look off as well as having no Artwork. So to give me a better idea i painted the temporary Bezel on the left and right of the Monitor black to make it square as the DK Jr Bezel is almost square, That looked better, I Printed out some Artwork and stuck it on and that again helped.
But after looking at my Photo's few times against the original Cabinet picture I wasn't happy and had to make a few changes the following day.
DK
DonkyKong:
Progress Day 2:
Well after not being happy with a few things with the design of the cabinet the day before I set about making changes to it this morning.
1: Reduced the overall height but 60mm.
2: Reduced the height of the Bezel buy 60mm.
3: Increased the height of the Marquee buy 10mm and changed the top and bottom 16mm board on the Marquee to 12mm board.
4: Reduced the depth of the Cabinet in the Control Panel area.
5: Reduced the depth of the Control Panel itself.
6: Moved the Buttons closer together. (This isn't final as it will depend on the Artwork)
7: Reduce the size of the large curve from Control Panel to Bezel area
I took just as long to make the changes today as it did to make the mockup Cabinet yesterday :(
None the less I am now happy with the way its looking.
To you guys you probably cant see the difference in the photos that well.
But you should be able to see the difference between the Control Panel depth in the above and and below pictures.
The above picture you can see the Control Panel is too deep and out of place, Where the bottom picture it looks much better.
The mockup Cabinet won't go to waste, Of course it will give me final measurements but the sides I'll use as a routing jig for the lamiwood sides of the finished Cabinet.
I have yet to order in the laminate. I've decided I will go with Laminex Mandarin (orange) for the side,front and top of the cabinet.
DK
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version