i planned and researched fro about a month while i was waiting for my freelance chacks to roll in, once i did that i ordered all the stuff frrom happs & ultimarc. it took about a week for everything to arrive. i went to home depot, bought the MDf had them cut into 12" strips for me, brought it home and made my first control panel in 2 nights after work, it worked like a charm in front of my g3 on the desk.....
so it stayed that way for about a month until....
a millipede cabinet fell into my lap from a friend, it didnt work and was pretty beatup, but thats ok, simultaniously 2 macs fell into my lap as well as a slew of freelance work (read: more $$ for the cab, my wife has restricted my spending on this hobby to cash i make on the side) so i got the cab and the macs, it took me about a week to get the computer all up to speed and configged and whatnot, a few days to gut and clean the cab, one night to build the monitor shelf and control panel, another to figure out the sound system (which works on the existing speakers with a computer subwoofer powering the whole thing), another night to rewire the marquee, and install the keyboard drawer. it was playable about a week after i got it, i just couldnt continue to look at it night after night without using it, so i made it usable and then am working on all the cosmetic stuff
but i still have alot to do:
get a bigger monitor
get my optipac working with the spinner and trackball
get an upgrade card for the mac
get a video ram upgrade
get the swapable control panels all wirted up to the quick connect switches, and latch system
get my oscar restrictors installed
and a bunch of cabinet wood repair i have been puttin off
my cab runs, macmame, geomame,cpsmame, playstaion emulator, nintendo emulator, n64, super nintendom atari 2600, turbo graphix 16, gameboy, its a boomin mp3 jukebox with 3 hard drives, and surfs the internet.
as far as im concerned it will prolly never be done. my goal is to have a few mame cabs, one with a trackball CP, one witha spinner CP, one for joysticks and a driving one. but that will have to wait until we get a bigger place atleast