bartop screen size

[brock.sampson]

I'm building a bartop for a friend of mine as a present.  I have a 17" lcd I'm going to use in it.  I'm on the fence of whether I should make a 1 player bartop or make it a little wider and make it a 2 player?  Is the 17" too small for a 2 player bartop?  If I go 2 player route I'm guessing it will have to be about 22" to 24" wide to comfortably fit a couple of guys in front of it.

[leapinlew]

I'm building a bartop for a friend of mine as a present.  I have a 17" lcd I'm going to use in it.  I'm on the fence of whether I should make a 1 player bartop or make it a little wider and make it a 2 player?  Is the 17" too small for a 2 player bartop?  If I go 2 player route I'm guessing it will have to be about 22" to 24" wide to comfortably fit a couple of guys in front of it.

24" Wide is a pretty good sized bartop. A full sized Donkey Kong is 22.5" wide. I built a 2 player bartop with a 24" control panel called the Widowmaker (you can see the build in my signature). I used a 17" LCD. Here is a pic of the cabinet:


Good luck!

[brock.sampson]

How wide is the main portion of the cabinet?  I think I'm leaning towards a single player bartop but with dual joysticks for robotron, smash tv, crazy climber, etc.  I'll build a stand alone box for a 3" trackball I have.

[leapinlew]

How wide is the main portion of the cabinet?  I think I'm leaning towards a single player bartop but with dual joysticks for robotron, smash tv, crazy climber, etc.  I'll build a stand alone box for a 3" trackball I have.

The top part, where the 17" LCD lives, is just barely big enough to house the LCD. The bottom part is 25.5" (Can't remember the exact measurements, but it's real close to 24".

[Turnarcades]

It's not for everyone, but this design has a 17" monitor. It's fine for 2-player play, if not for long periods of time.



Whatever you choose, be sure not to go overboard - A Bar-Top is a space-saving alternative so you won't be able to add all the extras a regular machine's panel would have. If you don't have room for a full cab but want lots of controls you may do better building a 'Box Arcade' (controls and PC in one unit) that just plugs into a TV or something.

[Epyx]

The other option is to go with DMWorking247's Taxi Cab style bartop.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=78492.0

The beauty with this design is that you can plug in controllers (1p/2p) as required and mix and match.

This is the design I will be using (minus the front plate sticking out) for my bartop. The idea is a bartop that I can bring to whoever is hosting "guy night" and set it up for poker/sports intermissions what not...