*Finished!* Bubble Bobble Tabletop Arcade

[mashdizzle]

I just finished some 3D designs for my future MAME tabletop arcade. Since this will be primarily a one player design, I will be using a old pentium 2 system I recently aquired. Hopefully, I can figure out how to post pictures so I can get some feedback on this project. Let me know which design(s) you like....

[spacies]

All of them.

[bluevolume]

The first Galaga looks great, but are you planning on building a dedicated game?  I would think that you'd want a multi-game, and the Galaga layout isn't going to support very many games.  If you stick with only verticals that narrows it down some.  Think through what games you'll actually want to play before you settle on a design.

[SteveJ34]

I like design 1 but I am biased as Galaga is my number one game.

As others suggested, think through the games you will want to support and the button design that will go with the CP layout.

Nice start....now get busy cuttin' wood!

[mashdizzle]

Its going to be a standard multi-game system. The size will limit the controls to one player, but so far I'm planning to put in an 8-way joystick, 6 main player buttons, 1/2 player and coin buttons, and two buttons on each side for pinball games. I'm leaning strongly with the second from left galaga (kinda pointless to make the theme tron, and not put spinners/trigger joystick in it). Probably save that theme for the full upright 

***
Whipped up a rough control panel before bedtime....

[bluevolume]

I would strongly suggest that you either add a 4-way joystick, or at least buy the stick from Ultimarc that can be switched from 4-8 from the top.  You do not want an 8-way joystick on a Galaga themed cabinet.

[leapinlew]

I would strongly suggest that you either add a 4-way joystick, or at least buy the stick from Ultimarc that can be switched from 4-8 from the top.  You do not want an 8-way joystick on a Galaga themed cabinet.

I don't totally agree with this, but I don't disagree. I'd be more worried about the monitor. Your button layouts say horizontal, but the theme of the cabinet is saying vertical. All your cabinet designs used a vertical monitor layout. Whats the point of 6 buttons with a Pentium 2? Might as well just put 2 buttons in, and call it done.

[javeryh]

With a PII, I'd go vertical and use 2 buttons (3 if you must play Punch-Out!!).  Also, I second the recommendation of the U360 - you won't ever have to worry about using the wrong controls.  Finally, I'd move all of your admin buttons to the front panel and off of the top.  It looks cleaner and there's less confusion, IMO.  You are off to a good start - I like the designs.

[Kaytrim]

Yea, I agree about dropping a few of the buttons.  With a vertical monitor you can go with some of the clasics like Pac Man, Gallaga, Donkey Kong, 1942 etc.  They only use 0-2 action buttons and one coin with player 1 & 2 start buttons.

Street Fighter looks terrible on a vertical monitor.  If you want to go with fighters then change the theme of the cab and put the monitor in the horizontal position.

With a P2 processor you will be limited to older versions of MAME.  Look at spystyle's DOS setup CD for a good setup.  I used this on Dad's Bartop and it works fine.  If you go with DOS then forget the U360 go with the MagStick plus.  DOS doesn't support USB and the U360 needs Windows XP with a decent front end for the switch on the fly capability.  Your old P2 probably couldn't handle that setup.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[mashdizzle]

Excellent feedback everyone! A few notes on the layout: monitor will be mounted horizontal, 4/8 way adjustable joystick is definately being considered but needs to be changeable from the topside, the buttons and joystick will probably (at least for now) be interfaced thru a keyboard hack otherwise the ipac ps2 version will be used. Right now the pentium 2 system is being used as the prototyping system, I have a p3 800mhz motherboard/cpu that could be used once I verify that it is in working order (just recieved the proper power supply). I plan on playing old school and quite a few of the more recent games to include fighting games. That is the primary reason for throwing in the 6 main buttons and having the monitor horizontal. The control panel will probably be reduced to 4 or 5 buttons (at least for the main player buttons) in the final version.

[bluevolume]

Glad to see you're considering the 4/8 way option.  If at all possible, you need to try playing some of the older 4-way games using an 8-way joystick.  Its not as big a deal for Galaga (2-way), but for games like Ms. Pac Man, Mr. Do, Dig Dug; you will want to smash that 8-way joystick off of the panel.  Take my word on this one.

[mashdizzle]

LOL! 

[Anubis_au]

Bluevolume speaks the truth. Go with U360s if you can. They are very versatile in how they map / respond, depending on the game played.

[mashdizzle]

Well the hard part of my keyboard hack is done. I just finished mapping out the key matrix. I have to say that the hack isn't as hard as I thought it would be. The wires are soldered to the board edge connector and reinforced with hot glue. This seems to work out pretty well. Well onto the next part of my project: getting that P3 800mhz motherboard to work. So far, it seems like its booting up properly but I really can't tell cause the video cards aren't working with it. I've tried two AGP cards and one PCI and no dice. Guess Ill dig into the manuals to make sure that I haven't screwed anything up...

[leapinlew]

Nice - Old school!

But why would you do that? For $20ish bucks you can have one that is guaranteed no ghosting, blocking, etc. So I supposed your not going to use the U360's?

[mashdizzle]

I'm not sure what joystick I'm going to use. Alot of it depends on the final speed of the computer. I got the Pentium 3 board fired up and you can definately see the difference in speed but the problem is that the AGP slot is not working on the motherboard (I've tried two different AGP cards). At the moment, I'm using a 8mb (GASP! ) PCI card. If I can figure out this video card issue then alot of things will change (most notably, an upgrade to the latest MAME instead of version .37. If that happens then the joystick choice will change due to the games that are playable. Lots of stuff for me to figure out but going one step at a time. As far as leapinglew's question, I'm using mostly salvaged hardware so I'm seeing how far I can take it before buying into interfaces. If this was an upright cabinet I would skip most of these steps and get an ipac and go get a modern computer.

[Kaytrim]

That P3 computer you have should be able to handle up to MAME .85.  That is what I used in Dad's Bartop.

[mashdizzle]

Well, its been a little while and I finally found some time to start work on the cabinet. I ordered a Happ Super and some of their pushbuttons and they should be in by the end of the week. I'm going to use 4 for player controls, 2 for player 1/2 start, 1 coin, and 1 shift. I'm thinking about using one button on each side of the cabinet for pinball but not quite sure if I will do it, maybe someone has an opinion about that? I'm also thinking of ditching the Galaga theme and going for a more 'multicade' theme (it is more appropriate). I think i'm going to arrange the player buttons in a Neo-Geo configuration as it seems like the most natural hand position. Anyways, hope you like the progress and more pictures are coming!

p.s. Chime in on KeyWiz vs Ipac, i'm leaning towards a KeyWiz

[leapinlew]

Looking good... personally. I like the galaga theme, but since the cabinet isn't galaga shaped - a multi-cade theme would probably be fine.

Question: what do you intend on doing about the t-molding?

[mashdizzle]

I'm still trying to figure out the color for the t-moulding. I can't decide if I want to make it all black and let the artwork take the stage, or make the t-moulding contrasting, like white.

[mashdizzle]

New pics (yes the marquee is temporary!)....

[leapinlew]

hmm... you might as well add 1 button real close to the joystick for a good defender/stargate layout.   

[mashdizzle]

nearing completion...

[Bloinkxp]

Very clean looking.

I really like how you are re-using a lot of older equipment!

-d

[mashdizzle]

its definately cheaper (free) and works well 

[leapinlew]

Can you use a router to cut a slot for the t-molding at this point? It seems like it might be dangerous and a screw might be in the way. No? Am I misunderstanding something?

[mashdizzle]

you are absolutely correct about hitting a screw if i rout out for the t-moulding. i should have used blocking to attach the panels to each other instead of screwing directly into the "end grain". i might rout a shallow slot around the screws and just trim the t-moulding to fit i'm also thinking about rounding over the edges. i think i might regret it though. if i had routed for the t-moulding from the beginning then i would have figured out that i should be using blocking. oh well, good to know for next time. i will be recessing the speakers into their panel then covering it with a speaker fabric unless i can find some cheap grilles.

[leapinlew]

Psychotech has had good success cutting the spine off a T-mold and gluing it. You can check out his projects for an alternative to routing.

Good job on a great looking machine.

[IG-88]

Nice looking cab  Question: how did you make the bezel? It looks really nice.

[mashdizzle]

i shaped the bezel with nothing but a wood rasp and some bondo. for the artwork i just free-handed "bub" and filled in the color with water based paint then used a sharpie to fill in the line work. same proceedure was used on the button icons and control panel. i just used a piece of plexi to cover the bezel after it was installed.

[mashdizzle]

Psychotech has had good success cutting the spine off a T-mold and gluing it. You can check out his projects for an alternative to routing.

Thanks leapinglew! I decided that i'm going to use t-moulding (as opposed to rounding the edges). I will just have to notch the moulding around the screw areas. I would regret it if I rounded the edges, it just wouldn't feel like a real arcade cabinet. I'm also going to move to a white background marquee, the 13 inch flourescent bulb just doesn't put out enough light. I'm working on recessing the speakers and installing hand bent screen over them.

I guess I never explained the reason for the change of artwork. My daughter really loved the game Bubble Bobble when I got the arcade up and running and since I didn't build a true galaga style cabinet I changed my artwork plans. She loves it and it will allow me to build a full size galaga cabinet later on, or maybe a small dedicated vertical one 

But why would you do that? For $20ish bucks you can have one that is guaranteed no ghosting, blocking, etc. So I supposed your not going to use the U360's?

I was seriously going to buy an Ipac2 for this project and use the keyboard hack temporarily but it has worked so well that I'm going to keep it. Once I mapped out the key matrix I used all the keys on one row so that I would have no ghosting problems. It works great!

[mashdizzle]

Just some final stats:

Salvaged Items (found in trash)
    Pentium III 800 mhz
    10 gig hd
    256 mb ram
    256 mb video card (I know, overkill)
    15 inch monitor
    keyboard hack

Items purchased:
    Happ super 8 way joystick
    Happ buttons (10x)
    4x8 particleboard (note: this stuff sucks - use mdf)
    24x18 plexi
    paint