Comments and Suggestions for new cab.

[kaustik]

Well... I ordered parts 3 years ago and am now just getting around to building a cabinet next Saturday.  My wife and I are moving into a two bedroom apartment and I finally have space for one.  I was getting a little depressed having a few hundred dollars of arcade parts sitting in our storage locker.  I think I have decided on using Lusids plans (thanks to whoever posted a link for the plans since sadly his site seems to be missing).

My question is directed to those that either have used his plans or are familiar with them.  Are there any pitfalls or problems that may arise in the construction of this cabinet?  Cabinet construction is not my forte and have enlisted the help of a friend.  Or to those that have used his plans, is there anything you wish you would have changed about yours?

My parts are as follows:

3" Happs Lighted Trackball with 2 buttons
2 8 way joysticks each with 8 buttons
1 4 way joystick with 2 buttons
Tornado Spinner
Hagstrom KE72T Encoder

Still unsure about the monitor.  I live 2 miles from the BSC which offers the KDS KVS-21 PIXEL TOUCH 21" monitor.  Kind of leaning towards that since I wouldn't have to pay shipping.  Does anyone know if this will fit well in Lusids cabinet design?

Two other questions.  It has been 3 years since I purchased my encoder card.  Is it possible to program the card in a Windows environment yet?  And... The plate that I received with my trackball seems to be a little too small.  The trackball works fine without it.  Once in place it seems to constrict the movement to only the x-axis.  Would it be wise to order a new plate and hope it fits better, or try to use a metal file to open the hole a smidge?

Thanks for your time and your comments.

kaustik

[Apollo]

3 years! Oh my god! You must have the patience of Job.

I haven't built Lusid's design but from all the feedback it must be pretty awesome ( and it looks great ).
I only have one suggestion which I strongly urge you to take up. Invest in a 25" arcade monitor and an ArcadeVGA card. I know this may slow down your building of your cab but believe me it will be worth it. Otherwise you are going to have waited 3 years and you may end up with an inferior product at the end of it.

[kaustik]

I just don't know if I can justify the cost for a 25" monitor.  Maybe in the future... but for now I just want to get the thing working.  A VGA monitor seems to offer less hassles.  Being able to run in Windows is one of them.

[AlanS17]

Before you go with lusid's plans, there is a new set of plans released very recently you may want to look at. Vectoraster posted plans for Midway cabinets. They are absolutely gorgeous and well balanced. They're based on a real (and famous) arcade machine used for the Mortal Kombat games, NBA Jam, Blitz, Area 51, the Killer Instinct games, and so forth. They really are that good. I would recommend them over Lusid's plans in a heartbeat. (That plus nobody else has used them yet since they're new so you can have a cabinet that doesn't look like everyone else's.)

[AlanS17]

Here's the link to the other post...

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=8828

[kaustik]

Well...

Thanks for the link.  I can't believe I missed that thread.  The plans are well detailed and the website gives a great walkthrough of construction.  I am tempted to make that one.  The only thing that makes me hesitant is the control panel size.  The layout is perfect except one thing... a 4 way joystick.  I'll play around with the design in Visio and see if I can't work something out.

Thanks again for the link.  Vectoraster is an awesome design.