The Vewlix Fighter Cabinet - WIP. The cab is dead my friends.

[Gatsu]

Whats going on cats & kittens. A couple of years ago I built a stand-up cabinet that ran pretty decently. It was something my father and I did during the summer while I was on break from college. We both had a good time putting it together.

A few months later, I put the cabinet in my little flea market shop I was running with a friend and alot of the other flea market booth runners kids loved to come over and play the thing. So it was good.

Well after that flea market got shut down, that cabinet ended up getting the guts removed and the cab was left outside under some tarp. The wood got wet and it warped horribly. Nothing from it could be saved. The TV that was in it is sitting in my bedroom, and I still have the coin door. The rest was either sold or thrown away. A sad sad story.

After a year or so of craziness, moving into a new place away from my parents, lots of projects....I've come back to my gaming roots. And I want another arcade cabinet. One that I can be proud of...and won't get left out in the rain to be destroyed.

My ULTIMATE goal for this cabinet, is to have it be a dedicated 2-player sit down Street Fighter IV cabinet. But for right now $6,000 for the Taito X2 kit is way out of my price range. So I'm starting to save up for it little by little. I'm hoping the cost comes down once the game hits home consoles next year. But we'll see.

So until I can afford the SFIV kit, I'm slapping a custom PC I built for a past Arcade Console project in there. Just gotta add some RAM.

This cabinet is gonna be a little more modern in its design, and have some newer tech. Not gonna be going with the traditional monitor. Gonna be using a 30" LCD 720p HDTV I have in my game room currently.

It took me a while to decide on a cabinet style. There's so many of the candy styles that I like...and a few other sit-down cabs that caught my eye. Even the VeWlix cab that SFIV is currently in was an option. But that was probably a little too complicated for me to make myself...and I have zero measurements to go by.

So...I decided upon the Lindberg style cabinet. With a few modifications of course.


The cabinet that really caught my eye though was this one: (modified Lindberg)


The guy who made that cabinet thankfully has all of the measurements and some building details. So I'm gonna follow that and modify as I see fit.

The 2 biggest changes will be actually building a box for the LCD TV to sit in (to cover the speakers and make it match the rest of the cab), and adding a lighted marquee box above the monitor. And both players will be on the same side for now. Later on once I can afford the SFIV kit, I'll move the 2nd player to the opposite side and mount a 2nd monitor, then just use a HDMI splitter to go to both screens. But for now both players will be on the same side.

This cabinet will be pulling double duty. Since I would be out a game TV for my Xbox & dreamcast, I'm going to leave the inputs open on the back of the cab so I can still use it for a game center. Just gonna have the 360 & dreamcast off to the side of the cabinet.

I'm gonna go different in the controls area as well. Gonna try a set of Sanwa sticks and buttons. I've grown up on Happ...but I've heard Sanwa lasts longer and is alot more precise for fighters. So I'm gonna give it a try. If I don't like it I can always swap them out for Happ later.

The specs for the PC are:
Pentium 4 2.4ghz CPU
1GB of RAM
60 GB Hard Drive
DVD-RW Combo Drive
Windows XP Pro SP1

Nothing special, but decent enough to play what I wanna play mostly. (just gotta get Chankast working on it and I'll be golden). Right now its running Mame with MaLa as a frontend. Just got some tweaking to add a bucket of awesome to it.

For Audio, I'm looking at a 2.1 Surround Sound system. The speakers would be mounted on the sides of the LCD mounting box, the sub would remain in the cab. Volume controls would also be inside the cab.

Also a standard 2-player coin door that I salvaged from my last cabinet project. I might upgrade to a newer one though. Its kinda fugly and old.

As for color scheme of the cabinet....I'm not sure. I like dark colors. Nothing shiny. I prefer Satin finish, but smooth. Probably Red and Black. But mostly Black. Only artwork will be on Marquee unless I just happen to design something so badass it needs to be on the cabinet somewhere else. We'll see.

Just gonna have fighters on the cabinet. Nothing else. I use my desktop pc for other Mame stuff. This is a fighters paradise cab.

To come with some extra funds to kick-start this project, I sold my Nintendo Wii. That'll get me the MDF and the joystick parts, the rest of that has to go to bills.  :'(

But at least the majority of the electronics I already have.

My first question for input from you all. What kind of sound system should I slam into this thing? Don't wanna blast the house down, but a little shaky in the pants won't hurt my feelings any.  

Im working on a mock up of the marquee right now. I'll post it once Im done.

[javeryh]

Sounds like a cool project.  I like the look of that sit down cabinet (if you can call it that) but I prefer playing fighters next to someone.  I can't wait to see this one get going...   

[Gatsu]

player 1 & 2 will be next to each other for now. I'm gonna make an extra control panel for when the upgrade happens next year. 

[Franco B]

Cool project.

It shouldnt be too hard to build a monitor enclosure and get it to match the rest of your cab. You could always face it in acyrlic (like mountains juke) for a smooooth finish.

I guess you want to either use fairly thin MDF for the monitor enclosure or use a more standard thickness and then route reliefs for the monitor, depending on the form of the monitor. The last thing you want is a nice thin flat panel cased in a bulky box IMO.

Good luck

[Martijn]

he, good luck with your project, 30 inch LCD is great 

The cab gives me a modern arcade style type of idea, when street fighter iv for PC/console comes out. i will definitely will play it are your machine 

will you intergrate the controls of the consoles somehow to the control panel?

[Gatsu]

he, good luck with your project, 30 inch LCD is great 

The cab gives me a modern arcade style type of idea, when street fighter iv for PC/console comes out. i will definitely will play it are your machine 

will you intergrate the controls of the consoles somehow to the control panel?

Not sure how Im gonna do that yet. I can probably rig some adapters for the older consoles like the dreamcast & PS2....but I'd have to wire directly for the 360 controllers. Not sure yet.

Got a question for you guys about the type of cabinet. I'm leaning towards the Lindbergh style still.....but then I found this:



Its....so......pretty....

As for building a box for the monitor/tv. I think I might be able to just take the television apart, then sand and paint the casing to match the rest of the cab. Would be alot easier than building another box for it....and will save on heating/cooling issues for the TV. LCDs get warm quick. All I'd have to do then is mount the Marquee box to the back of the case instead of the monitor box.

[Gatsu]

I think I found the speakers Im gonna use in the cab.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121122



$105.99 on newegg. But I know walmart down the road from me has it for much cheaper. Around $50 or so.

Not gonna have any sound running into the LCD television. Just gonna have the PC go straight to the 2.1 speakers.

The 2 speakers will be mounted on the front of the cab just above the control panel, and the sub will be in the base of the cab.

[Gatsu]

Thinking about it...

Should I get a set of PC speakers like the ones i posted above? Or should I go all out and get a full 2.1 system with amp?

I was thinking that if I did get the SFIV kit later on, would it work with PC speakers, or with a home theater system?

I haven't messed with the hardware yet so I have no clue....I'd figure it would work on either one since the Taito X2 is just a PC with embedded XP Pro.

[Martijn]

i think you can never have it pefectly set for the future, you should build like you want it now, a simple sound system upgrade can always be applied. Any sound for an amp can also be used on this logitech system.

can this logitechspeaker set play digital input? thats maybe the only point

[Gatsu]

Its just has output for the speakers, and a plug to go to the PC speaker plug.

I might see if I can get a decent 200W 2.1 system somewhere for sale. X-mas is coming up...so lots of sales soon.

[ivwshane]

I like this style more than the other one!

he, good luck with your project, 30 inch LCD is great 

The cab gives me a modern arcade style type of idea, when street fighter iv for PC/console comes out. i will definitely will play it are your machine 

will you intergrate the controls of the consoles somehow to the control panel?

Not sure how Im gonna do that yet. I can probably rig some adapters for the older consoles like the dreamcast & PS2....but I'd have to wire directly for the 360 controllers. Not sure yet.

Got a question for you guys about the type of cabinet. I'm leaning towards the Lindbergh style still.....but then I found this:



Its....so......pretty....

As for building a box for the monitor/tv. I think I might be able to just take the television apart, then sand and paint the casing to match the rest of the cab. Would be alot easier than building another box for it....and will save on heating/cooling issues for the TV. LCDs get warm quick. All I'd have to do then is mount the Marquee box to the back of the case instead of the monitor box.

[Gatsu]

Yeah I'm kinda leaning towards the Vewlix as well....because I found a set of PDF plans for it. There's a guy in france I believe whose building one out of wood and he posted his plans up in their forum. So I snagged them.

Gonna take a while to convert all those measurements to standard english.

[Gatsu]

jeez...I am so torn on choosing a design for the cabinet.

I like the sit down ones.....but I saw a Mortal Kombat 1 cabinet that just made me drool.

I've got a 27" color tv that could go into an MK cab, and the joysticks and whatnot already. Just need the wood and the artwork.

Would anyone happen to have a set of plans for an MK 1 cabinet that they'd be willing to share? And what size screen goes into it?

[ivwshane]

jeez...I am so torn on choosing a design for the cabinet.

I like the sit down ones.....but I saw a Mortal Kombat 1 cabinet that just made me drool.

I've got a 27" color tv that could go into an MK cab, and the joysticks and whatnot already. Just need the wood and the artwork.

Would anyone happen to have a set of plans for an MK 1 cabinet that they'd be willing to share? And what size screen goes into it?

http://www.jakobud.com/

[Gatsu]

Oh friggin sweet! Thanks man.

I got one more question for anyone thats put together or owns an MK cabinet. Is there any way I can squeeze a 27" television into it?

I've been looking around in the iwanta ads and in a few stores....and I haven't really found a 25" tv anywhere.

Maybe see if I can find a 25" lcd....although that would be hellaciously expensive. And hard to get one thats not widescreen.

[leapinlew]

http://www.happcontrols.com/monitors/49072600.htm

[leapinlew]

I think I found the speakers Im gonna use in the cab.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121122
$105.99 on newegg. But I know walmart down the road from me has it for much cheaper. Around $50 or so.

If you can find the Z 2300's for $50 "or so" at Walmart let me know. $100 is a good price for them.

[Martijn]

jeez...I am so torn on choosing a design for the cabinet.

I like the sit down ones.....but I saw a Mortal Kombat 1 cabinet that just made me drool.

I've got a 27" color tv that could go into an MK cab, and the joysticks and whatnot already. Just need the wood and the artwork.

Would anyone happen to have a set of plans for an MK 1 cabinet that they'd be willing to share? And what size screen goes into it?

go with mk1 i dont really like these high end cabs. Makes me feel like sitting in front of a hd tv with a ps3 or 360

[Todd H]

Oh friggin sweet! Thanks man.

I got one more question for anyone thats put together or owns an MK cabinet. Is there any way I can squeeze a 27" television into it?

I've been looking around in the iwanta ads and in a few stores....and I haven't really found a 25" tv anywhere.

Maybe see if I can find a 25" lcd....although that would be hellaciously expensive. And hard to get one thats not widescreen.

Try Billabs. According to Ummon, they are supposedly going to be selling a 26" LCD (model # BL26C0T) that is a replacement for 25" and 27" CRT monitors.

1-770-912-5853

[Gatsu]

I was looking at some of the "arcade LCDs" and they are even more ungodly expensive than the originals.

Can't really do the $600+ for a monitor. Thats more than I can really justify right now. Unless I found a cab with a new monitor already in it for a good price.

And I've already got a 27" tube TV and a 27" LCD tv at my disposal. So....I dunno. I may just have to go with what I've already got and add 2" to all the middle boards for the MK cabinet.

I'm gonna go cabinet hunting this weekend. Gonna take a measuring tape and notebook incase theres none for sale. At least I can get measurments.

But I know a guy that has a Killer Instinct 2 cab that he MIGHT let go if I give him a good number. Just gotta make sure the board works so I can sell it.

[Martijn]

I think I found the speakers Im gonna use in the cab.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121122



$105.99 on newegg. But I know walmart down the road from me has it for much cheaper. Around $50 or so.

Not gonna have any sound running into the LCD television. Just gonna have the PC go straight to the 2.1 speakers.

The 2 speakers will be mounted on the front of the cab just above the control panel, and the sub will be in the base of the cab.

Now my cab is coming along, i am thinking about upgrading the sound, the satellite speakers are OK, but the bass is missing..

i found this set on the 2nd hand market not used for 90usd

maybe ill buy it and implement it

[Gatsu]

alright. I'm going with the Mortal Kombat 1 cabinet.

I just really love the artwork on it, and it just encompasses all of the time I spent in arcades and brings back so many good memories.

I know I can get the control panel and marquee art easily enough. But the side art has yet to be readily available at sites like mamemarquees.com. Any suggestions for getting that? Because if I can't get the art....theres not really much point in the project at all. lol.

Theres also gonna be 2 slight modifications. Gonna have to make the cabinet a tad wider to fit a 27" viewable monitor, and add a sixth button under the block in the control panel.

But other than that....its gonna be as close as possible to the original.

So if anyone can possibly shoot me some neato reference photos, that would rock!

Thanky!

[brock.sampson]

I used a gutted blitz cabinets for my last two projects.  That is essentially the same cabinet except the portion where the coin door is just extended straight out instead of at an angle.  I used 27" sharp tvs in both.  I was a little concerned with uncasing a tv so I simply took a saw and cut down the sides to make it fit without modifying the cabinet.  Also fits the factory bezel pretty well.

[Gatsu]

cool. thanks for the info.

I'm confident about building the majority of the cab. Its just mounting the tv, making the bezel, and placing all the artwork that has me a little shaky. lol.

[Gatsu]

a great opportunity presented itself....then went all FUBAR on me.

I go to a local flea market...low and behold I see a Killer Instinct 2 machine. Out of Order. I do some asking around, and get the owners phone number.

I call and ask him whats wrong with it, he doesn't know, but $50 and its mine. I'm talking a KI2 machine thats in really good cosmetic condition. Easy conversion to MKII and/or Mame for $50.

I say I'll take it, when can I meet you? Todays fine, before the flea market closes at 6. So I say around 5:00 and he says sure.

I get there at 5:00, wait till 6. He never shows.

So....damn. A great opportunity lost.

[Gatsu]

A small update. But an update none the less.

I can't seem to find any good cabinets in my area to gut for Mame purposes. So...I guess I shall build one.

For the past few weeks I've been going back and forth about designs and finally finally decided on one.

Gonna go with a mix of classic and newer LCD-based fighter cab. Gonna have a ton of artwork on it with t-molding and all that. But the basic look will be very tekken/lindberg style.

I wish there was a way to get mame to take more advantage of the LCD screen...but oh well.

I'm gonna need some help/input for a few things though. I wanna put a PS2 and an Xbox 360 in it as well for newer fighters. How would I wire the joysticks so I wouldn't need to do alot of wire swapping every time I wanted to play a different console? And I'd like to wire the whole cabinet so the PC & monitor come on when I hit one button.

I'll post my little google sketchup design later tonight when I get out of the x-mas party I'm stuck going to. 

[HaRuMaN]

Your best bet on the controls is to wire everything to DB-25 connectors, and then use a DB-25 data switch.  Turn the switch one way, PS2 controls are active, turn it the other way, Xbox 360 controls would be active.  I think you can get DB-25 4-way switches, for a possible total of 4 different systems to be hooked up at the same time.

[Gatsu]

would there be a way I could rig that switch to the outside of the case so I can switch controls without having to open the cab up?

[Epyx]

Gatsu, I have a 3 way DB25 switch. I happen to be using all the ports as external ports for up to 3 player via modular CPs (DB25 cables).  However, it wouldn't be that difficult to take the dial switch and flush mount it externally. The biggest hassle would be just ensuring you have enough wire length as all the DB25s go to the switch dial and that makes for 100 wires...a lot of soddering

The other option would be to cut a custom cut out consisting of slots for the 4 DB25 ports and a hole for the dial switch. That way you can use the existing wire length. This would work if you don't want to hack the existing switch box.  Either way you will still have to wire to your IPAC or whatever you are using...

[HaRuMaN]

Also, depending on your budget, you can use DB-25 breakout boards to avoid having to solder mutliple DB-25 connectors.  (That would be the way I would do it)

[ivwshane]

A small update. But an update none the less.

I can't seem to find any good cabinets in my area to gut for Mame purposes. So...I guess I shall build one.

For the past few weeks I've been going back and forth about designs and finally finally decided on one.

Gonna go with a mix of classic and newer LCD-based fighter cab. Gonna have a ton of artwork on it with t-molding and all that. But the basic look will be very tekken/lindberg style.

I wish there was a way to get mame to take more advantage of the LCD screen...but oh well.

I'm gonna need some help/input for a few things though. I wanna put a PS2 and an Xbox 360 in it as well for newer fighters. How would I wire the joysticks so I wouldn't need to do alot of wire swapping every time I wanted to play a different console? And I'd like to wire the whole cabinet so the PC & monitor come on when I hit one button.

I'll post my little google sketchup design later tonight when I get out of the x-mas party I'm stuck going to. 

Wheres the pics? Or examples?

[Gatsu]

I've been tweaking the design before I post it. I get out of work early today so I'll post some mock-up images this afternoon.

also have the marquee and control panel artwork done already.

[Gatsu]

well...here be a google sketchup mock cabinet design. there's gonna be a bit more to it than this....but thats the basics.

[mako72]

my 2 cents: I have those logitech speakers and they will blow you away. If you are going to incase the screen, then I would reccomend building the marquee into the casing so its flush. kinda like the vewlix. another thing you might want to consider. If you want to play your xbox on another TV with a vga input for regular gaming, then get a VGA splitter and run a cable to the other tv . Thats what im going to do for my arcade cabinet and just wire a wireless controller to the joystick in the cab. here is my ghetto version of a sit down street fighter cab. just pull up a chair to the dresser.
p.s. ill be posting some pics of my sit down candy cab soon.

[Gatsu]

I dont think Im gonna encase the screen....it might cause alot of extra heat which will cause the set to die alot sooner. So I'll probably just mount the screen right to the cab and make some case mounts for the speakers instead.

Also...I don't think I'm gonna have my 360 in the case. It'll be on its own shelf, but still hooked up to the monitor at least. I don't wanna risk screwing up my Elite 360 just to play SF IV in the cab. So Im gonna be snagging SFIV on PC instead. Since it has online functionality I can have the cab hooked up on my network. Means Im gonna need to seriously upgrade my mame pc though....new motherboard, cpu, video card...time to hit up newegg!

[Gatsu]

Did a little more research on newegg for some PC parts.

Here's what I got.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 Wolfdale 2.66GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor - Retail
$119.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115132


---------------------
GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$54.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357


----------------------
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
$39.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

----------------------
Recertified: EVGA 320-P2-N811-RX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
$79.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130410


----------------------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$49.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261

----------------------
COOLMAX RM-750B 750W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
$69.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159094
----------------------

TOTAL: $414.94

Not bad for a dedicated Mame PC with an Nvidia 8800 GTS card. And perfect for Street Fighter IV when it drops.
It'll be running XP Pro since I hate vista.

watcha think? Is that power supply enough for what I've got? or do I need more? I wont be using the SLI feature or anything on the motherboard.

[bgspot]

Can't wait to see your project take off. Your cab is exactly how i was gonna do mine. An all in one fighter cab with the look of those new japanese fighter cabs except i was gonna use a ps3 instead of a 360. Now i think i may just build a show case control panel and have a 32" lcd mounted to a wall. Who knows your project may motivate me to go with my original plans. Good luck with your project and keep us posted!

[Gatsu]

go with your original plans man! don't cheap out and slap the monitor on a wall! thats no fun....you can't put coins in the wall! lol. 

It took me a while to decide on a design, and I'm still tweaking it as I go to make it more stream-lined and functional. Gonna stick with just a PC in it for now since I can run Dreamcast and most PS2 fighters through an emulator.

Thankfully Street Fighter IV will be on PC and 360...so I can install it on my mame pc and not have to worry about messing up my 360 in the cab. It'll have USB ports/PS2 controller adapters so that people can plug their controllers in instead of having to use the joysticks if they don't want. (that might be tricky to configure...).

But seriously...you've gotta go with a full cabinet man. There's nothing like owning your own cab.

This forum has reignited my love of the arcade...and driving around my town makes me sad... to see all the older arcades I used to hang out at are either now closed, or just barely hanging on. The home consoles have pretty much killed arcades.

If I had the money to toss around, I'd start an arcade of my own. But I know it wouldn't survive unless it was in a major city and focussed on just fighting games.

[Gatsu]

posted these in the artwork forum. figured I'd post them here too since its a bit of an update. Lemme know what you guys think.
Its the marquee, CPO & sideart.

[thatitalian]

Awesome!!! My only suggestion is that you reduce the shine or the alpha level on the capcom logo as it looks a little out of place. Other than that, WOW!!! It looks SOOOOO good!

I hope you making this available for download! (well, for me at least! )