Island-Cocktail and Intro

[gryhnd]

Hi everyone,

Newbie to the forum as a poster, but a very long time lurker.

Any friends from over in the GameEx community will already recognize this, but it was suggested I post about my most recent cab project here as well.

I've previously built a MAME upright, which also runs Future Pinball and is powerful enough for my son to play various PC games on (MMORPGs, SIMs type stuff and so on).  It joined a smaller, commerical style repro cabinet that I purchased on the cheap (damaged) from BJs, and is what got me going on the "roll your own" track.

Here's where the GameEx guys can move on, the rest will all be a repeat for you 

Both of those cabs contain horizontal screens, and I'd been really jonesing for a vertical unit to play Tempest, Centipede, etc on. Well, I've also been working on a HT in the basement. It's not quite done, but enough that we can party in it. Some well attended parties made us realize we needed more surfaces for placing drinks, snacks, etc. when we have a large crowd, so we (the wife and I) agreed a small island would be ideal. I figured I'd use this opportunity to create a unique cabinet: an island-cocktail.

Pics in the next post.  I won't reproduce everything here, but if you wish more detail you can view the progress report at http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=7306&st=0&start=0. If you want even more nitty gritty, and lots of pics to bore you to tears, the entire build is documented here: http://www.skinners.us/skinners/Misc/CocktailArcade/

[gryhnd]

So what began life as some spare kitchen cabinetry:





a big (22") Craigslist monitor:



and parts from Groovygamegear (shout out to RandyT...your stuff rocks) and X-Gaming:



plus a cheapo $49 eBay PC:

[gryhnd]

..after 4 months of off and on again labor, culminated this weekend in the final product:




(that's a pattern mahogany inlaid Pacman)

[severdhed]

very cool...good job.   i love the pacman inlay

[gryhnd]

Aside from the obvious controls, it's also setup for Future Pinball.  The left and right most buttons at the P1 position are flipper controls (otherwise L/R mouse buttons for the trackball). Since there are no appropriate "sides" to put the flipper controls on, they needed to be up top.  The plunger button though, is in a more traditional location at right-hip level. The cluster of 4 fire buttons operate in FP for various nudges.

The plunger also functions as a hot key (via Xpadder) for changing the volume (plunger+P1 = down,plunger+P2 = up) and entering the MAME config screen (plunger + P1Credit).

The glowing red and blue buttons on the side of the screen are for Exit and Pause, respectively.

The PC is pretty low end, but it's only supposed to be for MAME and basic FP, and it does a-OK at these. Hell, at $49 the price was right regardless. It's a Dell Optiplex GX260, 2.4gHz, 512meg, XP-Pro and an added low-profile nVidia 6200 AGP card. The modular nature of the GX260 was a real bonus when it came to decasing and installing into the cabinet.

[gryhnd]

very cool...good job.   i love the pacman inlay

Thanks!

[cboy]

nice! Looks like you could have recessed the joystick mounting a little thou.

I like it overall 

[gryhnd]

nice! Looks like you could have recessed the joystick mounting a little thou.

Thanks. I actually did it that way on purpose to keep a low profile look. I tried various heights and "in real life", having them low down was best.

[gryhnd]

On the topic of glass: I've seen lots of pros and cons on the various options of plain glass, tempered, or plexi/lexan.

One thing I didn't see mentioned (any?...maybe my search foo here isn't so good) is what I use: laminated safety glass.  IOW...same stuff you have in your automobile: if it breaks all the pieces stay where they are. 

Where I live and the glass company I use, they have to send out for tempered, and they tell me compared to the laminated safety it's a lot more expensive.  The piece in this project is 1/4" with polished edges and ran me about $25.  I've also got it in my upright.

[drventure]

Very nice. Love the inlay.

Does it have casters or is it the "draggable" type?

And If I built that into my kitchen island can I write off my mame cab as a "home improvement expense"?   

[gryhnd]

Very nice. Love the inlay.

Does it have casters or is it the "draggable" type?

And If I built that into my kitchen island can I write off my mame cab as a "home improvement expense"?   

My first try ever at inlaying...I was terrified 

It has casters hiding under there, yes.

A write off?  Hmmm...never thought about that one!

(edit for typos)

[gryhnd]

Oh, last unsolicited picture. I really like these LED fans from Newegg.  I think they have a nice look. The blades are orange and the LEDs are white, yielding a very "smooth" effect...for lack of a better term, and complimenting the color of the cherry cabinetry:



The flash takes away from it a bit, but I think you can get the idea.

[Ond]

Very tasty!  The wood inlay, everything,  I love those fans man - gotta get me some of them 

[javeryh]

Wow very nice.  This is definitely a unique design and perfect for the HT/gameroom!  Was the inlay difficult?  How did you achieve such a tight fit?  It really adds some pop to the cabinet!   

[gryhnd]

Wow very nice.  This is definitely a unique design and perfect for the HT/gameroom!  Was the inlay difficult?  How did you achieve such a tight fit?  It really adds some pop to the cabinet!   

Appreciate it!  The hardest part of the inlay (beyond the panic of cutting into my only table top) was designing the pattern and getting it looking just right (aligned, perfect circles - I made a circle jig for my router for Pman, etc).

For the cutting, I picked up an inlay kit for my router. I purchased mine locally, but it looks almost identical to this one. They are designed to create a near perfect fit.  Just back bevel the inlay parts a little with some sandpaper, and be sure the inlay thickness is a bit proud to allow you to sand it down flush.

Here's Pacman and dots after they were cut out of the mahogany:



This is the backside of my pattern with tape, ready to be stuck to the table:



Then after routing:

[IG-88]

WOW!!    I missed this one. Very nice job! What did you have to pay for all that if you don't mind saying?

[Kurt]

wow that is cool, stained wooden cabs are starting to grow on me.

[gryhnd]

WOW!!    I missed this one. Very nice job! What did you have to pay for all that if you don't mind saying?

Thanks.

I've got no idea at the moment of what it ended up costing.  I'd have to put some thought into it. Matters are complicated because, for example, the cabinetry was just extras from the package deal I purchased and installed in the H.T.  I got all those cabinets (uppers and lowers), the solid surface counter, under mount sink, faucet, and lighting for $750.

Anyway, I'll ponder it when I have a moment. It would be an interesting exercise. Probably not one I'd want my wife privy to 

[javeryh]

Got any pics of the H.T.?   

[Epyx]

Got any pics of the H.T.?   

+1

Maybe on AVSForum?

[gryhnd]

Got any pics of the H.T.?   

Sorry for the delay. Been a tough week back here. My wife's father is in the hospital, I was camping with the scouts for a few days, etc.  I'll try to get some pics posted as soon as I can.  You can get a fair idea of 75% of it by looking at the pics up above in my original post regarding the island-cocktail.

[gryhnd]

Got any pics of the H.T.?   

Ok, here you are.  Please bear in mind that the HT is still a work in progress, financial considerations have put a halt to things for now. 

For example, doors need trim, as does the fridge/micro and the equipment rack.  The big white rectangle on the ceiling is where the fiber optic star field will go (have all the parts, just need to do it), the lally columns will eventually be dressed up to look real nice and be lit from within, and there's no finished floor just the dricore sub. Etc etc, whine whine.

I also don't have a wide angle lens, which makes the space look smaller in these pics than it really is. The entire room is about 20x24.

[gryhnd]

WOW!!    I missed this one. Very nice job! What did you have to pay for all that if you don't mind saying?

I found a spreadsheet I had done up for this originally. It covers various parts like the table top, joys/encoder/spinner/trackball/buttons, some tools like the hole saw, router templating kit and so on. It doesn't include a price for hunk of mahogany I was given that I cut Pacman from, nor the cabinet because, as mentioned above, it was a left over from the other cabinetry I installed in the HT. If you google around for something similar, I'm coming up with $300-500 for a similar rolling cabinet/island, fwiw. I'd never pay that...I'd scour Craigslist.

So that spreadsheet said $525 for the bits and pieces I could easily quantify. More of course if you try and factor in a the little things like screws, electrical connectors of various sorts, and so on.

Holy crap...now I know why I never like to look at the numbers! 

[javeryh]

Wow sweet.  You are living the dream.  I'm working towards a HT/bar/game room in the basement but I need a (fairly large) addition on my house in order to even think about it.  Right now it is just a pipe dream.   

[Epyx]

Nice pics!

Very envious of your finishing as I have the space but not the resources or time to complete the basement at the moment.  The agreement when we moved in was that the basement was mine to do with what I wanted...almost 900 square feet taunting me...need to focus on debt this year so I can make it a reality like yours...GJ! 

[wilno45]

Love that inlay.