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So, whats the damage? Here are the various costs. I want to be clear that I set out to make something similar to those "commercial" cabs that people are making. I also want to play newer lightgun games at 1440p and higher.

The reason I am putting the costs here is because I know a lot of people are probably seeing these on Youtube and also see how much is being charged. Well, here is what it costs me in parts. I had all the tools already so no pricing on things like that. Keep in mind that I also use a lot nicer hardware that those cabinet builders, especially the display. The structure itself is of better materials as well. You can look at components that I used and determine where costs can be saved.

For example, you can get an TV display for half the price. I did not want to cut a hole for a remote IR sensor, and also I wanted free-sync at 4k. So I chose a screen that uses wireless tech for the remote and also supports a 120hz refresh rate without screen tearing. It's a gaming display and I have zero regrets on it.

You also don't need an acrylic bezel. I personally love the sheen and look. You can just use hardboard and cut a hole it it, which runs for like $20 for an 4x8' sheet.


Total cost: $3565

== CABINET ==
$ 310 - Wood (plywood, framing, base)
$ 150 - 1/4 (48"x48") acrylic for Bezels + Control panel
$ 120 - Materials (screws, bondo, paint, sand paper, rollers+brushes, felt, etc...)
$  35 - T-Molding (T-molding.com)
$ 320 - Full Artwork prints
------------------------------
$ 935


== CABINET COMPONENTS ==
$ 580 - 43" Main Display (Samsung NEO G7)
$ 400 - 28" Active Marquee Screen (VSDISPLAY 28 Inch 1920x360 IPS Stretched)
$ 210 - Sony SS-CS5 speakers + AIYIMA A07 Pro TPA3255 Amp
$  40 - i-Pac2 (T-molding.com)
$ 130 - Stream Deck (ebay)
$ 120 - odd & ends (USB cables, gx16 connectors, brackets, power socket/switches, wire, led strips, etc...)
$  25 - 6 LED PushButtons (Ulitimarc).
------------------------------
$1505


== COMPUTER ==
$ 190 - Motherboard - MSI Pro Z760 WiFi
$ 190 - CPU - 12600kf or 12600k
$  30 - CPU Fan - SE-224-XTS
$ 400 - Graphics - 3070 ti (ebay)
$ 100 - Power Supply - Corsair RM750e 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold
$  90 - Memory - TeamGroup T-Create Expert 32GB Kit CTCED532G6000HC30DC01
$  70 - Harddrive - 1TB Western Digital Blue SSD
$  30 - Windows 10 Pro (International OEM License)
$  25 - ATX Test mount frame (aka the "case")
------------------------------
$1125

I also want to take a minute to talk about the guns. I use 8-pin GX16 sockets for the lightgun ports.  Again, not too much detail since there is a lightgun forum, but I just wanted to show how the cabinet is connected.

It has 4 ports total, supporting up to 4 players. Then, there are dual power buttons to disable the recoil if desired. Each power button affects 2 ports. So the left side as 2 sockets + 1 power button, and the same for the right side.

My cabinet software will do a bunch of calculations to determine which lightgun should be used for each player. For example, if there is just 1 gun plugged in and it's on ports 3 or 4, then I assign it to player 2 because it's plugged into the right side of the cabinet. If the game happens to only support 1 player, then I assign it to player 1. If the game is a 4-player game and a gun is plugged into port 3, then it is assigned to player #3.

I configure the gun per game and handle outputs (i.e. replacing mamehook).



The GX16 sockets are a combined USB2.0, and then 12+24v pins added. This will allow me to create lightguns that have a 12v or 24v recoil, without the need to plug them in separately. So the 12v guns will use the 12v points, and the 24v gun will use the 24v pins. Just plug an play.

After the cab was together with everything installed, I then started adding the hardware.

Here is the top with some of the Marquee boards mounted.



Here are the speakers and amp mounted in the center section. I just used wood around their perimeter and across the top to keep things in place. Please note that the speakers are moved out of place so that you can better see what I mean. The wood surrounds the bottom of the speakers so that they can't move.



And then the computer and power strip is mounted at the bottom. The power strip is one of those "smart" strips that disables a few sockets depending if power is being drawn from one of the main sockets. The computer and 43" display are always powered on. The marquee, speakers, and lightgun power supplies are only powered if the computer is turned on.



ORIGINALLY, I was going to use 1/2" plywood for the backing. But the cabinet is really sturdy and I also wanted it breathable. So, I used hardboard. I added some boards with slots that the hardboard can slide into. I also mounted fans to the hardboard which are wired into my computer.



I also use a Streamdeck to kick off some games. I'll be adding more shortcuts later.



And I also added USB ports to the bottom since the computer isn't easily accessible.

 

Next, I popped on the plexiglass bezel and added a frame around it to hide my poor measurements. Let's just say that the cab isn't 100% square and the plexiglass was far from a perfect fit:





I then started mounting the Marquee LCD and 43" Display.

I used a few L brackets for the Marquee:





And then I just used some VESA hardware and a 2x7 board to keep the display in place.



The IR LEDs for the lightguns needed holes in the plexiglass bezel, so I created a jig. I used tape to mark off where the holes needed to be placed after the screen was mounted. I then used the jog to align and drill the holes.



Afterwards, I painted the backside of both the Marquee and Display bezels. This was a DISASTER. The Marquee's bezel came out beautiful, but the primary bezel bubbled up. I waited the correct amount of time before spray painting, and I cleaned the plexi first. I'm not sure what cause the bubbling.





It was an expensive mistake, but, I fixed it by buying "mirror black" vinyl wrap off of Amazon. They had 10" car-wrap samples that were fairly cheap. It actually came out really nice. Not as nice as the paint would have came out, but I'm still happy with it. The only downside are a few seems that are not really noticeable.



And here is everything light up.

After the core cabinet was put together, I then took it all apart, painted, and applied artwork. Painting took a while because I wanted a very nice finish. I ended up rolling on a black base coat, sanding, and then spray painted. I spent a lot of time painting and the final result looks almost like it was vinyl wrapped. I'm very happy with how the paint turned out.

To give some context on how things are held together, I used a pocket-hole jig to create pocket-holes in strategic locations that wouldn't interfere adjacent pieces or other hardware. Here are various panels with them drilled around the perimeter.









And here is the base:



And here are the various pieces being put back together as I apply the artwork. I also want to say that I don't regret getting the "luster" artwork finish over the gloss. With everything together, I really like the finish and I could not be happier. Gameongrafix did a really great job with the prints.







And here's the cabinet back together:

Try this one please

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vzsh7JXoAMkmT8_U2TtZ6v_GwNPjr_At/view?usp=drive_link

Thanks. Honestly the worst part is configuration and software, which I've been working on for a few months. Most emulators use raw device input or they'll use your mouse index to configure the player #. So gun #1 is not always player #1 depending on how things are plugged in, or if the emulator has the specific lightgun configured for a particular player.

My software goes in and edits the configs for each emulator and game based on the port # that the gun is plugged into. I.e. Devices plugged into port 2 are updated in the emulator to be player 2. It doesn't completely configure the games, but it does update the device indexes or device Ids in the configs. It also handles outputs to trigger recoil and whatnot to the correct gun.

Originally I used mamehook for outputs, but Mamehook is a pain since the outputs are defined by the USB Com device #s. These don't usually change once they're set, which poses the same problem mentioned in my first paragraph. So...I modified all of my mamehook ini files to use common mamehook-scripts, and then my tool corrects the COM port in those scripts before the game is launched. I.e., it changes the Player 1 recoil script to point to the correct COM port.

But, I ended up scrapping mamehook since it doesn't support every game. So my software replaces that as well. It configures the lightguns (such as setting 4:3 or widescreen settings) and also handles the outputs to trigger the gun's recoil and whatnot.

I'll leave details in the lightgun sub-forum when the tool is more complete. It's won't be a plug-and-play since it was made for my lightgun cab, but will be open sourced. Each game needs to have a profile in the tool in order to know how the lightgun should be configured, so it's not drop and go software.