Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: silar on April 05, 2013, 04:58:43 pm
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I've been wanting to do this since Mame came out around 1997, so roughly 16 years later, I finally picked up my empty cab. It's a 1982 dated Robotron 2084. came with the sides laminated in a red color formica. Also came with the original Coin Mech Inc. coin door and mechanism, and front smoked glass. It diid not have any control panel attached, so I was going to have to build my own.
I opted to remove the laminate since it made the sides a bit thicker and sticks out just past the existing T-molding.
Here is a drawing I made to scale in sketchup of the cab and what I am doing for a control panel.
I'll post more pics later when I get them off my phone...
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Here is what the cab looked like when I got it.
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I took the security bars off and filled the holes, sanded and repainted blue. I also cleaned up the coin door and mech and made my own inserts for the reject buttons....
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Here's what the cab sides look like without the laminate. I pulled it off and have a lot of hardened contact cement to deal with, but am slowly working on it.... BTW, from what I have found... a heat gun and scraper work better than using any chemicals, and leaves less of a mess.. ;)
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Here's the control panel based on my sketchup drawing. T-molding slots are already cut. I went for a fighter type layout with buttons on the sides for pinball also. The top is removable and I'll house the keyboard and mouse in there... This is right after I assembed the control panel base and filled the screw holes and a few dings...
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Starting to paint the base and panel... Not in the house. I just brought it in once the paint had dried a bit... It was starting to get a bit cool out there...
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Here's the panel. I opted for the XIN-MO interface. I should have filled the grain on the plywood, but oh well, It'll give me a chance to redesign the panel later to add a trackball.
As you can see, I tried to go as cheap as possible. Zippyy ball top joysticks and Arcade Prime buttons. All from Groovygamegear.com I plugged it into my system temporarily and tested it, and everything works great. I actually like those buttons!
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I got the T-Molding in today from gamemolding.com, a board member here. It is exactly the yellow I was hoping for. Matched my yellow buttons nicely.. I'll definitely order from him again!
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Here's the light for the marquee. It's a 13" under cabinet fluorescent from Walmart for about $10. Kinda hard to make out in the pic...
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Here's the speakers and amp. I actually lucked into these from a friend at work. He is a huge car audiophile. The amp is quite a bit bigger than I want, but I got it all for free so I really can't complain. Eventually I'll make this also into a Jukebox and add a sub...
Making a new speaker panel which I'll paint black. The grills will be painted the same blue and the speakers are red, so it'll all somewhat match the whole cabinet color scheme..
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Here's the control panel just about done. Still working on the sides of the cab...
The blue tape is where I'll need to trim the t-molding for the edge of the cabinet..
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No input? Suggestions?
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I like the bright colors, makes it look like a toy box. Are the blue buttons as camouflaged as they look in the pics? They look nearly the same color as the cp.
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I like the bright colors, makes it look like a toy box. Are the blue buttons as camouflaged as they look in the pics? They look nearly the same color as the cp.
They kinda are. After I put the buttons in, I'm starting to think about changing them to red. I have a few spares..
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Got some more work done. Got the sides sanded down and have been gluing/patching the bottom edge since someone apparently drug it around and some of the plywood separated. Also got the speakers mounted and some other misc stuff...