Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: Troz on September 02, 2004, 12:08:02 am
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Since I mentioned my cabinet in another thread I thought I would officially announce it before I hijack another thread. It is an unnamed cocktail cabinet based on the Track & Field/Atari Football cocktail design with a tiny bit of the Midway cocktail design. The Midway design I'm borrowing is the hinged monitor access panel. I wanted easy access to the inside of the cabinet and I thought that was the best way.
My current control panel designs are at http://www.twistedrails.com/mamecab (http://www.twistedrails.com/mamecab). The games influencing the design of my panels were 2 player Marble Madness, 2 player Rampart (potentially 3), and 2 player Smash TV. Everything else should work with the control layouts without needing specific new designs, although I'm sure there are some exceptions.
My biggest design issue is figuring out how best to secure the glass. Since the top will be on a hinge like the Ms. Pac Man cabinets I need the glass secured. Any ideas?
-Karl
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that looks a LITTLE small. you think four people can crowd around it? hehe. seriously though, i like the design. i haven't got a suggestion for the glass but i have a thought on the control panels. im a bit of a symmetry fiend so if i were making that machine id make the two 'side' control panels have exactly the same shape as the main ones. thats just me of course. keep us posted ;D
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The problem of the glass is a tricky one, as corner clips arent really practical for your design. one solution is to have your glass cut with holes in each corner for securing to the top (like a wall mirror has) but your glass will be mega expensive.
IMO it looks like the glass will be trapped from moving horizontally by the 3 CP's and you can trap it at the back also.
may be easier to simply remove the glass when you want to open the top up. you could put a Very slight recess along the back to get fingers under the glass edge.
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First question - do you want to have the glass move with the top (in which case some molding areound the top will handle it), or removable?
If you want it removable you can just ensure that the back edge of the CPs are higher than the top to form a lip, then put a removable edge (i.e. half-round molding) along the back edge. When you need to get in the cab, unscrew the molding then slide out the glass.
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The problem of the glass is a tricky one, as corner clips arent really practical for your design. one solution is to have your glass cut with holes in each corner for securing to the top (like a wall mirror has) but your glass will be mega expensive.
IMO it looks like the glass will be trapped from moving horizontally by the 3 CP's and you can trap it at the back also.
may be easier to simply remove the glass when you want to open the top up. you could put a Very slight recess along the back to get fingers under the glass edge.
Don't ever get glass with holes in it. I worked at a mirror shop for a while and those mirrors with holes in them broke if you even looked at them funny.
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just recess the glass into the cab. There is no need for clips then. The glass can fall out yes but only if you tip the cab on it's side.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will just recess the glass into the cabinet top and deal with removing it when I need to get inside the cabinet. Afterall, I shoudln't be diving in there TOO often.
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Don't ever get glass with holes in it. I worked at a mirror shop for a while and those mirrors with holes in them broke if you even looked at them funny.
Damn I wish I had of known this before! I had my glass done 1/4 inch think with 2 holes in each corner and when I did a test run with the wood over it using non proper bolts, in some holes the glass has cracked out a bit which doesn't look good. Is there any way to fix it so the cracks don't show? They maybe in the middle of the two sandwiched pieces of glass.
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After weeks of preparations I finally started construction. This was my first time working with wood and was not as easy as I thought it would be. No major problems with my measurements thankfully. Overall I spent around 10 hours over the weekend!
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Can I add my 2 cents regarding the style design?
Your long side control panel should perhaps have the bottoms curved to match the curve of the "end" control panels.
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Yeah, I had thought about that too and have had several people tell me the same thing. I'll probably end up doing that.
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Yesterday was the date I wanted to have something playable as we had a big party here. I ended up getting one control panel hooked up and just dropped the computer inside the cabinet, not mounting it to anything. Everyone seemed to love it! It was the first time my partygoers had seen anything like it.
I did end up going with the curved ends for the long control panel. Thanks for the suggestions as I think it turned out much better that way.
An issue I'm having is how to secure the long control panel since it will be swappable. The latches I purchased from Arcade Depot aren't going to do the job since they're too big (!) for the vertical space I alloted. Any suggestions on other solutions?
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Where'd you get the mini coin door?
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Where'd you get the mini coin door?
You can get a new coin door like this from www.arcadeshop.com for $69. Look on the parts page for cocktail style coin door.
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Sweet! Thanks!
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I got mine from Happs for $63. http://www.happcontrols.com/coindoors/40005500.htm
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(double take) Wow, a cocktail you can play a 2 player Smash TV game on! :o
Looks like once it's done it will be easily one of the nicer 3 panel cocktail machines out there.
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That's an awesome looking cocktail! I actually thought of doing one very similar a while back while constructing my cabinet. The only difference is mine was going to have all four sides used, with different control layouts, very similar to what the rotating-CP-making members have done. Instead of rotating, you just walk to different controls. For instance, one side could have 3 4-ways, two in normal fashion, and one in Q*bert configuration. Another could be in fighter configuration. And so on, etc. I also wanted to have a omni-directional frontend so that you could choose games from any side without extra walking around. Feel free to use any of these ideas, as I've resigned this idea in favor of a full-size cabinet.
-Matt
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That's an awesome looking cocktail!
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I've updated my control panel designs (http://www.twistedrails.com/mamecab)and hope to get the panels completed within the next two weeks.
The four sides is a good idea but it'll be a space monster.
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lookin fine :D
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Looking good m8!!!
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That's an awesome looking cocktail!
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i think i se what you mean. but the preview in the middle will obviously only be correctly viewable from one direction, right?
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First off, Troz, I'd like to apologize for hijacking your thread. If you want me to move this conversation elsewhere just let me know. Now, I've drawn up a highly advanced and highly detailed hi-rez conceptual rendering of my idea for danny_galaga.
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now i get it! thats a pretty tricky idea. can you do it is the next question i guess...
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Whew, it's been a while since I updated this. I've finally continued work on my cabinet, swapping out the 6 J-Sticks I had with 4 49-way joysticks. The two-player, four-joystick panel was too cramped to get a comfortable game of Smash TV in so I've scrapped that idea.
All of my current progress on control panel design and artwork can be found at www.twistedrails.com/mamecab (http://www.twistedrails.com/mamecab).
I'm hoping to be finished within this month finally. And the controls will be the last item I hook up. I don't want to fall into that trap again...
(http://www.twistedrails.com/mamecab/underlay.jpg)