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Gamester's ARCADE GALAXY
Gamester:
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EDIT:
How it all began...
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Hello All,
Let me just start by saying that I'm a (late) thirty-something guy who spent many quarters in the arcade back in the 80's. I was absolutely intrigued by this whole "MAME" phenomenon when I was first introduced to it in the late '90s. I played around with it on my computer some, and then put it away, deciding it was neat, but really just not the same experience as playing the games in the real arcade.
Then a few years ago I stumbled upon a couple actual MAME-based cabinets on the internet that people had created. I was totally amazed, and began researching how they built them. That eventually led me to this terrific forum, where after researching more, I was hooked, and I knew that some day I would have to build a machine for myself.
For a couple years I gradually gathered a few odds and ends that I knew I would need for my cabinet. I picked up a Happ high-lip Trackball and an over/under coin door on Ebay. I also used an Amazon gift card I had lying around to get a Smart Strip power strip, which I had heard good things about around here. In 2006, thinking I was ready to get started on my long-time dream project, I also had Knievel cut a control top for me. But then, sadly, life got in the way and all of those parts sat on the shelf collecting dust for the past three years....
BUT now, after one false start, "some day" has finally arrived -- I'm going full steam ahead on building my cabinet, officially called "Arcade Galaxy."
The basic cabinet shape will be roughly based on the long admired "Neon Mame" design that Knievel unleashed years ago.
I'm planning to use a 27" arcade monitor. Controls will be Ultimarc U360 joys, 6 buttons per player layout (lighted buttons), spinner and an illuminated trackball.
I'll be chronicling the whole process here, so stay tuned.... ;D
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leapinlew:
good luck
Gamester:
Spent last weekend working on the box for the control panel. Used some 5/8" MDF we had conveniently lying around.
Gotta love MDF... nasty stuff.
Safety first... ;)
This is a jig that my brother-in-law and I made to cut the angles for the sides. Not pretty, but effective...
Woohoo, the angles all matched up... It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the sides have a 1" slope, and the top-front and top-rear edges have a 5 degree bevel. After lots of careful measuring and cutting (taking way longer than I care to admit), the pieces turned out perfect.
The assembled box. We routed the outer corners and used a pocket joiner and glue for the joints. It's very solid!
Gamester:
My little furry companion helped me with the photo of the control panel... ;) Knievel cut the control panel for U360 joys, which at the time he was not familiar with. He did a good job on the recesses, considering, and I just cleaned them up a bit using my dremel to achieve a perfect fit. All ready for primer here...
And the perfectly matched acrylic top...
Got the primer going too. This was after the second coat. Have done some sanding and another coat since. I'm hoping to do a really shiny finish like javeryh achieved on Bella's arcade. I know it's going to take LOTS of elbow grease to get that perfect piano-like finish though...
These seams in the front are going to take some work to get perfect. I'm almost there though... (it looks better now than when this pic was taken)
Gamester:
I also spent the past few weeks toiling over the theme for the cabinet and playing around with artwork. Before I settled on the "Arcade Galaxy" theme, I thought I wanted to do a WWII theme (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94367.0). After several iterations and much frustration with the lack of high quality *color* source images I decided to shelve that idea for now. I may revisit it on a future project.
Besides the reasoning above, I also found out that my wife wants to put the machine in our living room :cheers: so I wanted to do a theme that was a little classier and more gender neutral.
Here's my first shot at the new theme. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I think it's at least close conceptually to what I'm looking to achieve. It looks a little busy to me in the small picture, but I'm cautiously optimistic that when it's blown up to its final size (nearly 3 feet wide), it's going to look much less so. I tried to incorporate as many of my favorite classics as I could, without going overboard. It was hard to draw the line and quit adding more characters, but I know the less is more approach is best.
The general idea of the design is that the arcade characters are kind of popping out of a stylized "space portal."
Oh, and I have to throw in there that every one of the stars in the background was applied by hand to ensure that they had the suitable detail! No blurry, blown up NASA photo backgrounds here... ;)
I'll probably do a full size mock up later today to see how it looks and fits on the panel.
Anyway, it's a work in progress. I'll probably change it up several times until I get something I'm happy with.
Comments and/or suggestions are certainly appreciated.
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