please forgive...

[jennyo]

Hello,

I am a super-newbie, having just discovered this fascinating build-your-own-arcade community today. I'm worried that what I'm going to ask is going to be a total no-no here, but I'm hoping some kind soul will be able to clear up a point of confusion for me.

I should warn you in advance that I am about to use the words "X-Arcade" and "HotRod" so don't read on if you are hardcore enough to be offended by this!

If I were to build or acquire an empty cabinet to mount a PC and monitor into, would one of the pre-fab arcade controls like the HotRod or X-Arcade look and fit okay? Would it wobble around? Can I secure it? Would it totally suck?

I'm not sure I'm up for building my own controls, but I want it to be GOOD, dammit.

Any opinions and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
jenny

[lo_cash]

It should be pretty easy to do what you describe.  But, how it gets done is really going to depend on the cabinet you buy.  Do you know where your cabinet is coming from?  Do you have an idea of what you want?  Take a look at the examples page, a number of the one there are cabinets that have been modified to accept home made control panels, the method should be similar.

Good luck

[klutzo]

Hi Super Newbie!

Not to worry.. Many Many of us buy Predone controls. There are others like SlikStick, Arcadeinabox, and lots of others as well.

If you are half way decent, or are meticulous about things, no reason why you shouldnt build your own control panel.  I'm in the process of building one myself.

Cost will be the big factor here.. instead of laying out 200-400 bux on a control panel, you could custom build your own for less money, AND lay it out to your exact personal dimensions...  That's what I'm doing.

2 joysticks, 1 trigger stick, 1 spinner, 1 trackball and a whole lotta buttons. FYI.

=>

[Mike]

You might as well build your own because hacking the premade joystick to fit in the cabinet will probably be just as hard. If you want something easy to do buy a cabinet with a simple flat wood control panel. Basically find one that looks like one board. Then to make your own you just need to cut a peice this same size and drill the holes for your controls. It will cost you probably about a $100 to build one yourself. You'll need to order an ipac from www.ultimarc.com and get your controls from www.happcontrols.com there are other places to get the controls but happs is probably the easiest and the quality is really good. ArcadePC may be more what your looking for though. They sell prebuilt cabinets to your specification if you don't want to do the work and will spend the money. They are designed to work with a computer I don't know how much you've read so far but another concern you have is the monitor. I won't go into detail because you may have already read something on it and then i'd feel like i was talking down to you.

[rick6668]

It's so nice to see these responses to a Newbie like myself.  I'm in the process of getting a cabinet myself and the IPAC is on order.

Good luck on your project jenny.