Projects from Past to Present ( Portable, Retrofit, Mini Arcade, Antique Radio )

[masamunex]

Hi, here are multiple projects that I've completed over the years. The time frame ranges from 2004 to Present. 

This is the my first venture into the whole Mame/arcade hobby. I wanted to build something that could give an arcade like feel without the cost of building an entire unit. This one was build from scrap wood and an old system that I had upgraded from. It was crude but was thoroughly enjoyed. It was eventually sold.



 This Rastan Cabinet was picked up locally from someone who was giving it away. It was a complete cabinet but it was stripped of all of its components. The rollers on the bottom were gone and the bottom sides of the unit were a little frayed but it was free. I retro fitted the cabinet with a 19" crt monitor and a 1.2Ghz AMD Duron machine inside. I was too lazy to paint the monitor bezel and left it white. Since it only had 2 action buttons I added a third button so I could play most games but there was something left to be desired. This was the called "The Big Machine" by my nieces and nephews. It was eventually sold because it was just taking up too much space.






 The Mini arcade was completed August of 2010. It was a birthday gift for my youngest nephew. I originally built this out of left over particle board but when I learned how hard it would be to put a nice finish on particle board I decided to rebuild using MDF. I'm very glad I decided to rebuild because it turn out great. The rustoleum satin black enamel finish was rolled on with a foam roller with sanding between the three coats (search javeryh for his painting techniques). The edges of the cabinet were hand sanded using a mold that I formed from another piece of furniture. The sanding was meticulous but it was well worth it.

It has a Socket 370 motherboard with a 1.3Ghz Celeron cpu but handles Nintendo 64 games quite well. It is currently taking abuse.






 The Crosley antique radio replica project was something that I have been putting off for a very long time and it was finally completed. The original unit would freeze when I played CD's so that's when I decided to convert it. It has socket 478 motherboard with a 2.4Ghz Celeron inside. Also it has 6 USB ports, an external volume knob and the front button panel is fully functional. This was given to my second to eldest nephew.
 
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[drventure]

Nice work! Is your radio conversion a touch screen, or did you just connect up to all the buttons on the front panel?

[TopJimmyCooks]

On the Crosley, what device did the front panel come from?  It looks very good with its antique brass/bronze finish.  Good electronics skills and soldering skills to get that PCB tied in.   

[masamunex]

Nice work! Is your radio conversion a touch screen, or did you just connect up to all the buttons on the front panel?

Thanks! No the monitor is just a standard 15" flat panel monitor. The buttons on the front panel are wired to a keyboard pcb using a keyboard hack method. It has all the buttons required for the standard mame configuration and it also has media functionality buttons such as play, stop, mute, etc.

On the Crosley, what device did the front panel come from?  It looks very good with its antique brass/bronze finish.  Good electronics skills and soldering skills to get that PCB tied in.   

The front panel came from the factory that way. It's a really nice looking unit that's why I knew I just had to convert it. It took a little work to get all the wires wired correctly but it wasn't all that bad. It is more time consuming than anything else due to the fact that I used a keyboard hack. If I were to have used a key-wiz type device it would have been super simple. Thanks for the kind words.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Oh, OK, I thought it was an old radio or record player, but it was a retro look cd player/tuner. Still a very nice adaptation.