A question on Bartops and MiniMames

[HeadRusch1]

I've got a full size cab....big ol 4 player CP on the thing....its pretty, I love it...but its a monster. 

Its also horizontal, with a 20" CRT acting as my monitor (for that s-video low-rez authentic look)

However....I have spares of everything but an optipac.... and I'm very much tempted to do a vertical dedicated cab.

Thing is...I have no more room, so I've been thinking of a Cabaret-style cab or even a vertical dedicated cocktail.......a bartop would likely be more practical, but it makes for some cramped 2 player action (I'm thinking vertical spinner joystick games like Time warriors, etc....and I dont havea  bar.  so then a MiniMame came into idea.  A cocktail would be nice, but honestly cocktails are a pain in the butt to play after a little while, and I've already got all the end-tables I need in my home

I HALF thought about just adding a CP to the SIDE of my mame cab to make a franken-cab.....mount the monitor and tuck a control panel off the side.....I know, FUGLY but...you know...
I've got the space   (I dont run sideart on my cab due to the paint finish i chose).....

But I'm sure other folks have gone through this dilemma before......maybe a bartop...on a stand..to make it like a cabaret....I dunno.

Just curious what others have done.

[caver01]

Have you seen my somewhat portable cocktail? If you have a spare LCD, it's a nice small option. This is my only cab, so I tried to maximize playability of many games including multiplayer (and even some old Apple II stuff) without letting it get out of hand in terms of size. Plus, I can take it with me, put it on a table and play (and put it away when tired of it). I also added some legs from IKEA that I can put on to let it stand on its own. I added neoprene washers under the leg brackets to act as non-skid feet when the legs are detached. Take a look at the pictures and videos here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=89491.0

[javeryh]

A cocktail will take up more space than an upright.  A bartop would be cool I guess but you probably need a semi-permanent spot for it unless you want to keep dragging it out of the closet or whatever.  I've built a mini-cab and they don't take up too much space but an adult has to sit in a chair in order to play.  Maybe look into building a slim cab like the Woody or something that spacies has built.  They don't take up much space at all.

[ark_ader]

It is much more fun building a small cabinet to scale, than making a hybrid or something completely original IMOP. 

I'm currently building one which is roughly 16 inches high by 12 inches wide, based on my favorite arcade cab.  With cheap laptops available on ebay, you can pretty much make any traditional cab one third smaller or less.

Reduction of wood, cost and space to store it, is very appealing if you live in a small house or apartment.  A great project to build with simple tools.

Figure out which cabinet you really like and try to make it as small as you can without sacrificing comfort.  Bar tops are great but tend to take up more space on the desktop.

The hard part is finding the theme and cab type.  The rest is the same as if you were building a bigger cab.  My best advice is , what ever design you go for, just use wood and glue.  Nails and screws are more trouble than it is worth.

You can find good examples of cabinets here.

Let us know how you get on.