4 player arcade table

[l2i]

Hi Everyone
So I have decided to start my first project and build a 4 player arcade table that will sit behind my couch and play on my Panasonic pt-ax200u projector. So I thought I would list all of the parts I plan on using and some ideas and see what everyone thinks. First off I have already started to build the box and made the top 18" by 70" I think this will give me enough space to fit the 4 players and anything else I decide that I want. The box ended up 6 and half inches deep which should give me enough room to put a micro atx motherboard in with a power supply and all the rest of the parts. I want to put in a couple of fans to keep everything cool inside so I need to find a way to put some slots in the box for them. For the legs I have had 2 inch black piping cut and will use floor flanges to fasten it to the box and to keep it flat to the floor. Parts that I am going with listed below.

Arcade Parts
-2x Sanwa jlw-tm-8 (ultimarcs j-stik version)
-2x Ultimarc ultrastik 360s
-1x GP-Wiz Max usb version
-4x Led-Wiz 32 port usb lighting and output controllers
-1x Electric Ice-T RGB Trackball
-38x Electric Ice RGB pushbuttons (don't know if I will change the amount yet)
-2x Turbotwist 2 Arcade spinners
-I also would like to use a flight stick just don't know which one yet!

Computer Parts (all parts I have lying around except the processor)
-Intel Boxdg45id Lga 775 G45 micro atx motherboard
-Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz
-4gb of gskill ram
-Geforce 8600gt 256mb card
-Hiper 580watt modular power supply
- usb lg dvd drive
-1tb western digital sata hard drive

Other parts
-25 feet of hdmi cable with a dvi adapter
-35 feet of optical toslink audio cable
-35 feet of cat6 cable
-4 aluminum cup holders (I will counter sink these in the control panel)


My primary use for the table will be arcade games but I also figure I can connect a keyboard and mouse and sit on the couch if I want to play pc games or watch movies. As for the control panel graphics I am open for suggestions, there is a lot of real estate to cover! I would like to use mamemarquees.com to print whatever artwork I come up with. I know I am going to run into a lot of different problems along the way but I think I covered most of the basics. I do apologize for my thoughts not being very organized but that is why I am posting to see what I am forgetting about, since so many of you have so much experience in building I thought this would be a great place to start.

I do have a few questions that I would like to ask.


1.   How many buttons do people usually add for the track ball and spinner? (I see that they support up to 3 buttons for the trackball)
2.   Besides the 1-4 player buttons and an escape button is there any other buttons I should consider?
3.   With about 28 rgb buttons and 4 single led buttons plus the rgb trackball will I need to tap into my power supply or will I be able to just use a powered usb hub.
4.   Since I haven’t bought the processor yet is there a better idea besides the quad core? I see a lot of people using 3 GHz dual cores and over clocking them to 4 GHz to make most mame games work. I just don’t know if I could cool it well enough with the space I have.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and I welcome any questions or concerns you might think I will run into.

[l2i]

Just got the legs and flanges last night! I think I will have a chance to finish putting together the box and attaching the legs by the weekend.  I will upload some pictures when I am done with this step.

[severdhed]

sounds like a cool project...get some pics uploaded

[arzoo]

3.   With about 28 rgb buttons and 4 single led buttons plus the rgb trackball will I need to tap into my power supply or will I be able to just use a powered usb hub.

My experience has been that as long as you only wire one LED to each port (3 ports per RGB), then you should be fine without the extra 5v.

[severdhed]

to answer some of your questions.

while you can add buttons for the trackball/spinner, they are not necessary.  what i did is wire up player 1 buttons 5 and 6 to the mouse encoder as left and right mouse buttons.  that way you can still have mouse buttons when you need them, but you dont have to add clutter to the panel.

as for which buttons you should have, dont' forget about coin buttons for each player, and also Pause is very nice to have