Pac-Man cocktail cab

[CGRemakes]

Ok, I have a few questions for you all.  One thing I've been thinking about building is a dedicated Pac-Man coctail cabinet.  I have basically all the parts I need already, so it will be a very low cost build.  I have an old 486 laying around and a cheap 14" vga monitor that's just collecting dust, so what I would like to do is just wipe out everything on the hard drive and just have DOS, and run JROK's classic conversion of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.  This leads me to my next questions:

1)  How would I mount a full 14" CRT monitor in the cabinet?  Most builds I've seen have an arcade monitor.

The tower is very small, and the monitor is not very deep, so I'm hoping I can fit them both in there without having to either gut the computer or take the shell off the monitor.

2)  It's not essential, but I would like to run the games vertically.  This may not be possible if I decide to go the JROK route over the MAME route.  I'm just trying to keep things as legal as possible, but I like the look of it much better vertically.  Is there DOS software that will rotate everything 90 degrees?

[armad1ll0]

The nice replica cocktails I've seen have a more authentic 19" and it would be nice for other related cocktail games to work in there also. I intend to build one someday and use it as sort of a chess table too. It would be nice to eat breakfast and read the morning news on it, surfing the I.

[SirPeale]

I'm in the midst of building a cocktail from scratch myself. That was the one thing that eluded me.  How DO you put in a monitor?

[Lilwolf]

Lots of possible answers for the monitor....

1)  Cut out a whole that it will not normally fit (barely) so it just rests in there..  This is only acceptable for some monitors... But you would probably want to build up another layer above for the bezel.

2)  Have it sit on it's back side.... IE, build something for it to stand on...

3)  Best answer... Take it out of it's case... then mount it... This takes opening it up, removing the tube, finding out how the tube was mounted and mount it that way!  

WARNING!

a) Monitors can (and will) KILL YOU if you aren't careful!  ALWAYS assume that it has a charge until you discharge it yourself!  monitors hold a TON of amps even when unplugged!  I DON'T WANT TO HEAR FORM A WIFE/MOTHER/FRIEND WHO COMES HERE TO MENTION THAT ANY OF US DIE!

b) Warrantees are removed when you do this

c) Tubes aren't as strong when tehy are shipped normally with the packaging... IE opening up the case, the tube inside is easier to break then an arcade monitor, or industrial monitor!  So be VERY VERY careful... heard of some who lost a few hundred bucks setting their monitor down!

[SirPeale]

3)  Best answer... Take it out of it's case... then mount it... This takes opening it up, removing the tube, finding out how the tube was mounted and mount it that way!  

What I meant was, how were monitors originally mounted in Pac style cabinets?  Obviously the shroud would have to be removed.  Are there special brackets?

[phizzle]

On My space invaders cocktail i cracked open a 13" vga monitor and mounted it like the original was, fits perfectly, perhaps you should get a 14" and mount it like the original was...


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the space invaders had two bars across the middle of the cocktail, with holes to mount it on the tops of each, the monitor had holes on the corners to mount it, it was just a standard 13" monitor, it fit perfectly, i can get pictures if you would like.