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"The Griffin" - Finished August 28, 2010!
SephYuyX:
So, refocused on getting back to the software aspect of the arcade.. and I seriously underestimated the amount of effort and time needed to get things running.
44 consoles (3 of those being flash games, pc games (SF4 and BBCS), and arcade games (near half of the size and files come from mame), 52GB worth of files, and around 43,000 games, and will just keep growing at this point lol. For most of these systems I have all the games, but like I said earllier, some of the systems games are just too big to have all of them. Right now I just have 1 ps2 game, 1 ps1 game, a couple DC games, etc, just to get things working.
Ive been using emulators formany many years, so finding ways to obtain them wasnt an issue, and I thought getting them to work would be just as easy. Nintendo, Sony, and Sega systems were easy to set up, only a few minutes each, however the rest of these legacy consoles.. ouch. It was hard to find a good emulator to use for them, the bios files werent too bad, but getting things to all work properly together was a different issue.
Getting the emulator and games to work is one thing, but to get them to work smoothly and seemlessly with the arcade front end so that it looks and runs flawlessly is another thing. Some emulators arent too friendly being ran via frontend, and there was a lot of trial and error, but maximus arcade the front end im using, made it a bit more easy that it would have been.
So all in all.. getting the software side of things to work took much longer than I thought, it took at least 40hrs, and sadly im not completly done yet. While everything is running probably, I still have to do a bit of controller configuring, but that shouldnt be too bad.
jimmy2x2x:
Hahaha!
Yeah I know exactly what you mean, then after you get it all working, you might want to setup favourites lists for each emu so you can find things a little easier, guests and youngsters will also benefit from this!
Its pretty much an ongoing thing, a refining process you will probably find that you remove certain emulators to make the master menu a little less cluttered.
SephYuyX:
Yeah, I thought about doing that, I figure ill do it as I come along the games I play and add them then. Ive got a list of things to do, but none of them super important must get them done.
SephYuyX:
Im finally finished!
Buttoned up the back. I think I mentioned earllier that I glued up the top board since I dont think Ill ever need to get in it. When the middle and lower boards were off it was easy enough to get to everything, adds more stability too. The middle board is mainly for support, I really didnt need it there, but it does help block the marquee light. The bottom board holds the TV from falling out
Yup, back of TV
Bottom of it; PC and woofer with the wires all ran and looking pretty. Need to find a good surge protector, but other than that
Full view of the back, hopefully never to be seen again for quite some time
Finished shot of the marquee
Finished shot of the bottom looking down
Finished shot of the control panel
Finished shot of the bottom half
Finished shot from the front
Finished shot of the side art.
Final cost sheet. I originally figured around $1k, so 1.25 isnt too bad. I dont forsee many more costs to it aside from some maint in the distant future. Aside from that I plan on buying a good surge protector, and probably a controller, so itll end up being $1.3k. Not bad I think.
I really wish I kept track of the time I worked on this thing. The building took me on and off over a year, because I didnt have a solid game plan, had to wait on parts/etc, couldnt work during some of the colder parts of the year, laziness, busy with other things, etc.. If I had everything together, materials, plans, etc.. It would probably have taken me two or three work weeks at most. No reason for the whole project to go over a month.
Im also a very meticulous person, so it was measure 50 times, mark a line, measure 20 times, start to cut, check 10 more times, then cut. I hadnt done a major woodworking project like this in many years, so I had to relearn a few things, redo a few things, etc. So if I had to do it again, it wouldnt be a problem at all.
But would I want to do it again? Not any time soon hahaha, and I would do pretty much everything differently.
I think the next time I do something like this itll be for my home theater/game room, and then I may build another, but building a room solely for a HT is huge project within itself.
Finished shot of it. Ignore the dog! Next to my dads juke box that he rebuilt from scrap many a year ago.
Close up final shot. Yup yup, finally all finished and done. Looks good. A love/hate project, but very happy with it in the end. Im glad I decided to build this
Cover shot.
Silas (son of Silas):
I really like the way this turned out. The artwork is excellent and really pulls the finished cab together. The CP is so cool. A cab to be proud of.