Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: paigeoliver on March 10, 2012, 12:24:52 am
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I was wondering if anyone has done up a round cocktail table? I have a couple pieces of round glass just about the right size for the top (salvaged from some commercial dryer doors).
I searched through the project announcements forum and didn't find anything.
Round cocktails seemed to be the norm in the earliest days of arcade games (before Space Invaders), there were lots of them that looked like this.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=118746.0;attach=181004;image)
But the only more modern one I could find was this style, which looks pretty ugly (plus the glass I have seems bigger than that).
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=118746.0;attach=181006;image)
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I had given it serious thought off and on again over the years. There are a few very interesting commercial designs if you can find them.
Unfortunately, I've grown to discover that I largely prefer rooms that don't have furniture cluttering up the center of the floor. I prefer to have everything off against the walls. My wife, however, really likes "traditional" layouts that often involve furniture taking up some portion of the main floor in a room. eg a coffee table between the couch & TV. The original round cocktail I modeled was absolutely not conducive to this kind of layout.
However, the tables I spotted were a little bit larger, generally in the same vein as coffee tables, none quite as small as what you have pictured there. On that note, what cabs are they?
I dug through some of my old notes and I did find a couple of links:
The last post was in 2010 so...
http://underdesign.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/building-my-cocktail-mame-arcade-cabinet-on-the-cheap-part-1/ (http://underdesign.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/building-my-cocktail-mame-arcade-cabinet-on-the-cheap-part-1/)
Then there was someone who did place a round or oval glass on top of an old cocktail but I can't seem to find the link anymore
However, the main reason why I keep revisiting the round cocktail is the table top made by Rotor Table Games Inc. (http://www.sandsmuseum.com/coinop/games/confuciussay/confuciussay.html)
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The first picture is a Pong clone the second picture is a cocktail you could buy from Dynamo with no game installed.
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With an LCD, it would be possible to make a semi-normal looking table with a smaller pedestal.
Not sure how I would handle the controls, but it's an interesting idea.
Gives me something interesting to think about while I'm tied to my desk at work.
EDIT: That picture SavannahLion posted gives me some crazy ideas. Like a 32" LCD with pinball controls on one end, shmup controls on the other, and fighting game controls on third side. That could even be done with a square table....hmmm. (Personally, I don't like looking down at the screen on cocktail cabs though)
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The first picture is a Pong clone the second picture is a cocktail you could buy from Dynamo with no game installed.
I'm not so keen on the Dynamo, but the Pong clone looks nice. To use the term very loosely, the Pong clone looks more ornate. The Dynamo is just a stupid box with a round top glass, really lame. ::)
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A round cocktail just seems begging to have a rotating monitor installed for an actual 4 player cocktail. Ok, I know, complete and utter overkill, but still...
+1 on savanhalions comments, the "plate on box" looks terrible. That other table (with the angled sides) at least has some character.
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I don't see any reason to have a rotating monitor to have a 4-player cocktail. 4 player games are basically all simultaneous (not counting trivia). Thus the number of 4-player games easily playable on a 4-player cocktail would be relatively small. your classic Konami style beat em ups wouldn't work. However some other titles would.
Gauntlet and Gauntlet 2 would work. Checkmate, Sprint 4, Warlords, Hot Rod and a few others would work as well.
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That's what I get for posting before I've had my coffee.
Yeah, 4p games ARE mostly simultaneous (if not all simultaneous).
Ok. Maybe a giant round dining size coffee table where every person get's their own screen.
Wait, no, I did not just write that.
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Here is what I have. I have two of these doors. The glass can come out and appears to be 30" across.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=118746.0;attach=181041;image)
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There's no scratches on them?
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Simpler solution than a rotating monitor: have control panels on each of the four sides, and put the base of the cabinet on a turntable. The first example pic sort of looks like this. Player(s) stays seated and rotates the cabinet to the desired H or V position.
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No they aren't scratched up. Had spinning laundry polishing them up for 10 years!
There's no scratches on them?