Well its been a while but she's finally finished! Like all these projects the final 10% takes the longest.
Since last time I have:
Installed a power plug - I wanted to be able to stick a regular extension cord in... the plug i ended up is a bit ugly (see pics), but it looks ok. in hindsight i probably should have gone a computer style plug, it would have had less of a 'footprint'.
Installed my cheap ebay speakers. They actually sound ok (considering). I was able to pull them apart and screw the speaker inside the table so they sit nicely out of the way and project their sound into the floor, but still enough sound for playing.
Installed the USB ports in it. Really happy with how these came up, you can hardly notice they are there. I got some USB things from
here but they looked a bit ugly i thought, so i pulled them apart and just used the internals. they fit like a glove.
Installed some covers over underneath the control panels cause i was worried something would get caught on a wire and pull it all apart.
Made some smaller dustwashers out of thin plywood and stained/lacquered to match the table.
That's about it i think. Now all i need to do is build some stools, which i have some ideas about (thinking Mario Mushrooms, how do i get that one past the wife!?!).
Had a couple of parties and its got some good use, particularly the horizontal games (Pacman, Frogger) and NBA Jam seems to be constantly being played!
A few learnings and things i'd do differently next time:
Move the pause button. I think it makes perfect sense where i've put it but the amount of time someone bumps it, the screen goes blank and people think they've broken something!
Get the Hard Springs on the ultimarc 360 joystick. the soft spring really does suck. I need to order the hard ones but shipping to australia makes this on its own an expensive exercise, and now that its all together, getting the joysticks out will be a nightmare!
More care on button hole drilling. Mine arent square and it annoys me, next time i'd be more careful with this.
4 buttons only - I put 6 buttons on it for fighters but am yet to play one!
As mentioned above, a computer style power input to keep the size of the power inlet down.
Cant think of anything else i'd do differently, really happy with it!
Now for the cost of it all. In my first post i said keeping the cost down was a priority, now to see what the damage really was (all in Australian dollars):
Coffee table - Free (had it for a number of years and it was in need of some TLC anyway).
Dell laptop - Free (broken hinge, never use it)
Controls from Ultimarc - $260 (most of this was due to the cost of the U360 joysticks. I also got a IPAC2, but later worked out i could have got the adapter for the U360s to map the pushbuttons. Shipping to Australia's not cheap either).
Glass top from local glass shop - $30 (way cheaper than expected - didnt get it tempered as the glass shop said not to bother with that size).
USB ports from Ebay - $20.
4 port USB hub from local store - $30 (massively ripped off, i could have got it for $5 off the net but i didnt want to wait).
Button stickers from these forums - ~$10
Speakers off ebay - $15
Electrical plug - $10
General hardware - ~$80 (spray paint, stain, lacquer, screws, bolts, cable holders, stick on velcro, push on cable connectors, etc)
So that makes the grand total around the $450 mark... probably a little more than i anticipated but most of that cost is in the controllers, which is obviously hard to skimp on.
As promised, here's some final pics and an obligatory action shot (if you want to see full size have a look at my
flickr page :
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Topic: Cafe au Cade - Coffee table arcade conversion - Finished with loads of pics! (Read 16245 times)
