Little Ms. Pac-Man, A Portable Cocktail Cab

[griffindodd]

The WeeTail Cab - Little Ms. Pac-Man

A Portable Cocktail Cabinet for kids to play while sitting on the floor, or adults to play on a table at home or take to parties, playable by humans 1 - 1000 years old.

Finished Cocktail Cabinet


Concept Art


Initial Sketches


Configuration:

• 5/8" particle board laminated cocktail case with acrylic top
• HUGE!!! 21.3" Samsung 214t Syncmaster 4:3 IPS LCD Screen
• 2 Player face-to-face
• 4-way sticks with pink bubble tops
• LED lit Custom Dustwashers from TEFightstands
• LED yellow & black buttons, 3 per player
• LED pink & chrome P1/P2 start & coin Buttons
• LED lit Ms. Pac-Man speaker & ghost fan grills
• Ms Pac-Man color matched Pink T-molding
• Custom Ms. Pac-Man artwork on sides/bezel/CP

Wood Cut Template Files - Zip Package attached at the end of this post

I've uploaded these template wood cut files for anyone to use as they wish to make their own build of this cabinet. I don't use sketchup or CAD programs to create my builds so everything may not be perfect, I have however used these files to build the cab myself and had no fitting issues.

You can build this entire cab out of one 4'x4' panel of 5/8" wood, or 2x 2'x4' panels of 5/8" wood. All measurements are based around 5/8" media, so if you use something of a different thickness you will have to adjust the templates to compensate.

If you want to use them, modify them or stick them on your fridge go ahead.







Art Files - Zip Package attached at the end of this post

There are two art packs:
- PDF's of the Sides, Control Panel, End Caps and Bezel for those of you that just want an easy way to get it printed.
- Adobe illustrator Art files for anyone to use or modify as they see fit.

Side Art


Control Panels


Bezel


End Caps


Serial Plate

[griffindodd]

Videos

illuminated color changing speaker and fan grills.

First play by wifey...

[griffindodd]

Sure enough I couldn't let some of the materials and gear that I had left over from the revolution build just sit in the garage gathering dust, so I decided to put one of my ideas into action and start on this build. It should go pretty quickly as it's not too big and will use simple and familiar techniques.

Various parts are on in the mail, and I already have everything else.

Here we go again!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[CoryBee]

We will be here

[yotsuya]

Rablack97, your pants have been warned! 

[griffindodd]

Rablack97, your pants have been warned! 

Lol, don't encourage him.

Added rough sketches to OP

[Le Chuck]

Battery powered?  Should be.  Looking hawt in the sketch phase.

[griffindodd]

Battery powered?  Should be.  Looking hawt in the sketch phase.

Was wondering about that, would make it heavy as hell, what kind of battery solutions are there out there for this type of thing? Anyone already done battery powered rigs? What kind of play time on a {Board that shall not be named} with an LCD like that?

[griffindodd]

Please forgive my terrible knowledge of watts, amps and jiggadoohs, but let's assume I am using a 100w power supply and my monitor pulls 65w on it's own. If I wanted to use the rig for 4 hours straight gaming at full tilt that would mean...

165x4=660Watt Hours = Avergage of 3.4375 AMP hrs at 12v

So I'd need a 3.5 AH (35,000 mah) battery to do this??

[TEFightStands]

Nice design I cant wait to see this one in action.

[rablack97]

I've retired my excited expressions.......

I'll be boring like everyone else.....

Looking good man, yay, hoorah......awesome design, can't wait till next post.....yay hoorah

This is being dramatized as Droopy the damn dog......

[deathterrapin]

165x4=660Watt Hours = Avergage of 3.4375 AMP hrs at 12v

So I'd need a 3.5 AH (35,000 mah) battery to do this??

I think your maths is a bit off there, i make it 55 amp hours.

[Le Chuck]

I think if you want to push the envelope on this (as far as going cordless portable) you'll need to look at some alternative solutions to the monitor and some low power consumption boards.  I'm going to be ordering one of the 808 pi boards as they have a pretty good boost in capabilities (enough to run neo-geo games well I'm hearing) and that would be one route coupled with a battery powered monitor (link to an as of yet unreleased 15 incher or currently available 9" model), or this looks pretty choice for a tablet hack using hacked wii-motes. 

[EightBySix]

What about emedding a UPS into it? If they run a PC setup, you should get a few hours from just a monitor. Been looking into it myself for my coffee table, and leisure batteries (for use in motor homes, caravans etc) seem to have the right characteristics.

[griffindodd]

Well, one thing I certainly am not interested in is pushing the envelope tech-wise on this build, I had quite enough of that on the Revolution build

I'd rather keep this simple, as light as reasonably possible while making it rugged enough to withstand being lugged around and abused by kids. So that being said I'll just stick with the basics.

[CoryBee]

17" laptop, incorporate the laptop battery? 

Good luck, I want one of these! 

[griffindodd]

Updated the OP with concept side art and control panel

[Termin8tor]

17" laptop, incorporate the laptop battery? 

+1
Just what I was thinking. Sketch looks good, I will be following with interest. 

[Termin8tor]

Carrying on with the laptop idea you could probably pick one up quite cheap off ebay with a broken hinge. Pop in a SSD to increase the battery life and it should be good for a few hours gameplay.

[jmike]

 
  Looks really good so far. Love the art, any chance you sharing it? I was thinking of doing a mini cocktail arcade but this design is more appealing.

 

[griffindodd]

  Looks really good so far. Love the art, any chance you sharing it? I was thinking of doing a mini cocktail arcade but this design is more appealing.

 

I can definitely make my files available when I have finished, although my files are pretty basic

[Nephasth]

I like this concept! 

Agree with the laptop route, having a cord running out of this during play would detract from the design.

[griffindodd]

Updated with concept art and bezel.

[Le Chuck]

Loud and proud 

[SpaceHedgehog]

That concept art's looking sweet  Lot's of people seem to be building things for kids at the moment; any excuse, it seems, and tantamount to an addiction in my book!

+1 for the laptop route as well.

[Unstupid]

Looks cool!  I don't like the idea of using the laptop cause then you have the headache of mame, windows, the front end etc etc...  For come thing this simple just use a 60 in 1 or an arcade sd board, and a larger 19" monitor... Really where are they going to be playing this thing that they can't plug it into the wall?  Btw I been thinking about building something similar since I seen this one in YouTube:

[griffindodd]

I've uploaded my wood templates for this build to the 1st post for anyone who wants to use them. As I haven't built it yet I cannot guarantee the template is perfect, but if you want to download it and try banging one of these out feel free, just don't complain if something is wrong.

I've designed it so you can either use 2x 2'x4' panels or one 4'x4' panel to make the whole cab so it's very cheap and easy, just make sure you use 5/8" thickness material as all the measurements are based around that.

If you do bang one of these out post a picture and show us here in the thread.

[yotsuya]

 

[emphatic]

Very cool project.

[griffindodd]

Rolled on down to Fedex Kinkos today and got the line art for the wood printed for $12, then grabbed some 2'x4' 5/8 particle board from Lowes for $7.50 a sheet.

Spray mount into place ready for cuts this weekend.

[Nephasth]

This would look good with some pink IL buttons from Paradise...

[griffindodd]

Spent a few hours annoying my neighbors with my tablesaw and my router this afternoon. The template has worked out well, everything slotting together the way I had hoped, so the basic blank cab is all cut and ready for laminate and some dry assembly.

[PL1]

Looking good.   

My only concern is the structural strength of the "fingers" on the outer edge of the CP.

Considering the lever length, it looks rather succeptible to breaking, especially if you slot it for t-molding.

Shorter "fingers" or cutting into the uprights instead of the CP might help.


Scott

[BobA]

Great little concept for a mini tabletop cocktail.   Thanks for sharing your templates and artwork.

[bluemini17]

this is a neat design, i am following with great excitement 

[griffindodd]

Speaker panel design, will have LED's behind it to light the holes...

[cigardude]

Cool design, especially the sides!

I have a bunch of LCD monitors that are not in use anymore, but they wash out at that kind of angle. What did you specifically look for when looking for a monitor?

 

[dfmaverick]

Since the beginning, I've been wondering how much room under the CP do you have for the joystick? Just wondering if you run into space issues underneath with the straight sides on the end .

Great looking design.

[griffindodd]

Cool design, especially the sides!

I have a bunch of LCD monitors that are not in use anymore, but they wash out at that kind of angle. What did you specifically look for when looking for a monitor?

For an LCD in a cocktail you are best looking for 'IPS' displays, they have an extremely wide viewing angle and do not wash out. I am using a 21.3" Samsung Syncmaster 214t in this build which has a 178 degree viewing angle in X and Y planes. These screens are simply amazing, I cannot say enough good about them. You can find them eBay used for around $70.

As for space under the control panel it shouldn't be an issue as the joystick is set quite far forward toward the screen, it's the reason why the Player start and coin panel is slanted to give more hand room on the joystick travel. Also I plan on mounting the plates sideways, so hopefully there won't be any mounting issues.

[griffindodd]

Testing the position and fit of the Sammy screen in place. This thing is HUGE!!! I love the fact that this little machine will actually have a bigger display than my full size cab