- I may have mentioned it before but the CP is NOT ridiculously weighted. I think that misconception is perpetuated by everyone thinking it's ridiculously big.
- I know an arcade monitor would be nicer than a TV. The TV was $30...what kind of monitor would I get for even $100? I don't agree with the spend the money or don't bother theory...
The one thing I'd like to stress is I've had all four players beating on this thing and everyone agrees the playability is AWESOME. I'm actually now enjoying all feedback (less the epic failure remark still ) so keep it coming. If nothing else it will serve as:
a) A good way for purists and those who believe cabs must be works of art to have a good laugh
b) Constructive feedback for anyone who will build a cab or is building one
c) A way for anyone with virtually $0 budget who wants something workable to realize if it's fully playable then just make it look as good as you can and enjoy!
you make some good points, and you did pretty well for your budget. i'm not an arcade purist nazi, i say make it the way you want it. if you got a tv for $30, thats awesome. nothing wrong with that. just for future reference, you can pick up a trim router at harbor freight for $25 that would make a world of difference. i didnt have a router for the first 3 or 4 control panels i built.. before i built this last one, i bought one and man did it make a difference. just the little details like rounding over corners, and properly installed tmolding made a huge improvement in the appearance of my panel.
as for the size of the panel, it's not that it is absurdly large...it is just a little large in proportion to the cabinet you have chosen. we have a partially complete cabinet here at work ( I work for a good friend of mine who started his own PC tech/consulting business..our shop is in his basement). it has a pretty large control panel also. (54"x18") however we are in the process of making it into a showcase style setup. right now it just sits on a wooden stand, that is not attached to the stand that the 36" gateway destination monitor is on. it normally sits about 8" away from the monitor, but when we are playing 4 player games, we just pull it back a little more so everyone has a good view of the screen. it is not really a cabinet yet, since we got everything working, progress has pretty much stopped. but due to the size of the monitor and the fact that it sits back away a little, the panel seems very proportional. we built this panel pretty cheap. there is no tmolding, and the top is just 3/8" plywood covered it woodgrain shelf paper.(which is surprisingly durable) the box is made out of 1"x6" pine boards, with a plywood bottom.
we went cheap until we tested everything out before building a final panel...the problem is that was well over a year ago. the weird thing is that out of all the games we could play with this cabinet. 95% of the time it is Donkey Kong, Centipede and DigDug. we probably could have built a tiny panel with only a 4way stick, trackball and 1 button and had been fine...but he got the 36" monitor for free, so we designed everything around that.
the pic is crappy, but i took it with my cell phone and the lighting sucks here in the basement.
we know that when we eventually get around to building the cabinet in around the monitor and make a new panel, that we will take our time this time around, use MDF and Tmolding, cover the trackball mounting plate, hide the joystick bolts and get everything looking nice. but the fact is, it is often better to go cheap first until you figure out what needs changed. if you want a 4 player panel, the size you have is nice because it is comfortable for 4 adults to stand next to.