Dreamcast Arcade - A Father/Son Project

[sdpadres69]

NOTE  My son and I spent the better part of the summer building our first arcade cabinet.  It was such a great experience that I decided to document the project purely for memories sake.  We spent countless hours reading the various project threads on this site for ideas, information, and entertainment.  This topic is my write up.  It is pretty lengthy and full of details so that neither of us forget the great times we had.  I can only hope that we inspire others the way many of you have inspired us...  

For his 15th birthday, my son decided that he wanted a full-sized arcade cabinet for his bedroom.  I found this remarkable.  While I spent the entire decade of the 80s throwing quarters into arcade machines, he had no such experience.  Funny thing is that he seems to be as nostalgic for the 80s as me.  His favorite music is 80s metal and loves the NES he bought for $8.  Even given this background, I was surprised he wanted an arcade video game.  

Initially, he considered buying a game right out of the arcade.  He just missed on a Marvel vs. Capcom 2 cabinet for $300.  But after giving more thought to the idea, he came to the realization that he didn’t want an arcade cabinet that only played one game.  He thought how great it would be to combine his desire for an arcade cabinet with his love for the Sega Dreamcast.  Sounded easy enough, so together we started researching the project.

It turns out that that the idea of putting a Dreamcast into an arcade cabinet is not unique.  Lucky for us, many enthusiasts have documented their efforts on the Internet.  There is a lot of information of what to do and what not to do.  We did a lot of research and put a game plan together.

We went on a small buying spree to get the ball rolling and to ensure that the project would not die in the idea stage.  We picked up Happ buttons and joysticks on eBay and a VGA box and power cord from Rocketboy.com.  We found a working Dreamcast with no wires or controllers at the swap meet for $1.  My aunt donated an old Dell monitor (I always say cheap is good but free is better).  

We quickly came to the realization that neither of us has any useful skills when it comes to building an arcade cabinet.  And even though we already had a Dreamcast and monitor on the cheap, this project was going to cost more than a few bucks.  To finance the effort, my son requested cold hard cash from his Grandparents for his birthday.  He also sold a Miracle Piano for the Super NES that he had purchased at a thrift store.  In total, he raised $450.  Our budget was about $400.  So it seemed we should be covered on the money side.  We set out to acquire the skills.

The first challenge we had to overcome was the cabinet itself.  We found a comprehensive guide on the Internet about building a cabinet from scratch.  It was a fun read and looked easy enough.  However, when we started pricing out wood, t-molding, paint, and the tools necessary to complete the box, it was clear we could run out of money very quickly.  And with no woodworking experience, there was a good chance the thing would turn out horrible.  It was time to develop a Plan B.

We placed a want ad on Craigslist for an empty cabinet.  Within hours we had a response from a collector who had an old arcade game that was on its last legs.  He even sent some photos.  The cabinet was perfect.  Literally, I could not dream a cabinet up in my head that would be better.  The wood was in excellent condition, the dimensions were ideal, it had a nice natural wood finish with no side art to deal with, it was a professional build, and it cost $75.  Best of all, it fit in our Mazda van.  We were on our way.


(the cabinet before it was gutted and sold to us)


(the cabinet at home...check out that big smile and the keys for the coin door - sweet!)

[sdpadres69]

We excitedly brought the cabinet home, cleaned out the cobwebs, threw in the Dell monitor (which fit perfectly behind the bezel), hooked up the Dreamcast and pretended that we were playing at the arcade.  It was time to get down to business.

We turned our attention to the interior of the cabinet.  We built a shelf for the monitor and a shelf for the Dreamcast behind the coin door.  We removed the coin mechanism and replaced it with two battery powered pen lights to illuminate the coin accepters.  These were small tasks, but they were necessary to get the project started in earnest.

The first major challenge we had was wiring the buttons to the Dreamcast.  Again, we turned to the Internet and found articles about hacking control pads.  Given our complete lack of skills, the thought of soldering 11 wires to the tiny controller pads seemed like an impossible task (we did try but the results were a bit embarrassing).  We learned that Mad Catz controllers had two benefits: (1) the analog triggers took the form of digital buttons and (2) the circuit board featured tiny holes where the wires could the threaded through without soldering (call us wussies, but this was the only way).  The hardest part is finding these underappreciated controllers.

There is a vintage video game store in our area that took interest in our effort.  They sold us 4 controllers (we only need 2 for our 2 player cabinet, but we counted on screwing up a couple so we bought out their inventory).  Next, it was time to determine the button layout.

We tested the button layout by installing the buttons in a cardboard box.  After our first attempt, my son declared that the search was over and that he had his favorite (which was the layout he originally desired, but I wanted him to try it out first before we drilled the control panel).

Next we wired up the controllers so that we could play games using the buttons in the cardboard box.  Being able to play using the buttons was a treat even though we knew we had a month of working on the cabinet ahead of us.



(the world's ugliest arcade controller)

The control panel was the next area to get attention.  The cabinet has a really nice control panel.  It is made of 1/8 inch steel and can easily be removed from the cabinet.  The only problem was that the control panel had been drilled to fit any number of games.  This meant that while the old bowling game that was in the cabinet had 3 small button holes and one track ball hole, the contact paper covering was hiding a number of additional holes.  

We determined exactly where we wanted the button holes on the control panel plexiglass.  Next, we had a plexiglass place make us a pretty new piece using Lexan.  In the making of our new Lexan piece, they ended up drilling the old plexiglass (as they were using it as a template) which turned out to be a blessing.



I was able to drill new holes in the control panel by using the old plexiglass as a guide (a task that would have been impossible without the template).  Within an hour or so, all of the button holes were drilled.  It turned out that several of our holes conflicted with the existing holes.  To mitigate this problem, we cut a piece of thin plywood a bit smaller than the control panel and we cut our holes into the plywood.  This way the buttons would have something to screw against.  It worked perfect.



Next, we used some old computer speakers to wire the cabinet for sound.  We also picked up an under-cabinet flouriscent light for the marquee.

In the meantime, my son was using his artistic skills to create a one-of-a-kind marquee and control panel overlay.  They turned out beautiful.  We found a local sign maker and turned him loose.  I was certain he was the right guy for the job.

While waiting for the signs, we wired up another controller in the box so that we could engage in some 2 player action.  We also purchased a power strip that allowed everything in the cabinet to power up (the light, speakers, and monitor) when the Dreamcast is turned on.

The signs were supposed to take 5 days.  Well 5 days turned into 2 weeks.  I completely lost my patience as we were stuck until we had the control panel overlay.  We finally decided to take the art work for the control panel to Kinko’s.  Within 4 hours we had our art work and we were working the exacto knife, diligently making holes in the vinyl for the buttons.


(like a surgeon...cutting for the very first time)

Within a couple of hours, we had the buttons installed and wired.  It was time to fire everything up to make sure it was working.  I found a wonderful test disk at http://www.cosmicbreaks.com/arcade.  It graphically shows which button is being pushed as it is being pushed.  All the buttons appeared to work fine.  

[sdpadres69]

My son wanted the first game to be Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  He popped in the game, we chose our characters, and I prepared for my pummeling.  My son got a few good punches in and was ready to destroy me by pressing the A and X buttons at the same time.  The game stopped and the screen indicated that his controller had been detached.  

Clearly, we had an electrical problem that we figured we could fix.  Well, we couldn’t.  We wired a back up controller which had a new batch of issues.  I think the issues were self inflicted as I crossed up a power and ground wire which probably fried the circuit board.  Unfortunately, it took us several more hours of troubleshooting to determine that we had another bad controller.  Happily, the fourth and final controller did the trick.  We put it all together and played video games into the night.

So we are basically done with the cabinet.  To date, we have spent $399 and the project took 44 days to complete.  The only thing left is the marquee sign which will add about $30 to the total.  Since we have never heard back from the sign guy in the past month, I guess he just completely flaked on us.  We will have to find the right guy for the job.


(little sister playing her favorite game....can a mini ms. pac man be in her future?)

The one thing the arcade cabinet was missing was a nice stool.  At the swap meet we found the perfect stool.  The only problem was that the chrome legs were really rusted.  The best part was that the stool was free.  We brought it home and used 220 sandpaper to sand away the rust.  It sounds stupid, but it worked great.


(guess who always gets to sit in the comfy stool)

The Dreamcast has a very large library of games that will work without using the analog stick.  The one unfortunate part is that driving games don’t work in the cabinet.  My son’s solution was to build a driving cabinet.  The simpler idea was to purchase a racing wheel – which we did.  Using the Mad Catz MC2 wheel, we place the petals on a wooden box and the wheel in our lap.  It is a great way to play Metropolis Street Racing and Crazy Taxi.

We are still fine tuning everything.  We need an inexpensive way to control the volume of the speakers (which are behind the marquee and the volume control is not easily accessible).  There are also some scratches in the bezel that we need to fix.  

This ended up being the perfect summer project.  My son picked up many new skills such as basic electrical (wiring, checking continuity, stripping wires, and he attempted soldering), workworking (using a saw and drill, taking measurements), and project management.  I had no idea how involved this project would be.  Literally, there were hundreds of steps involved and they had to be planned and completed in the right order. My son made all of the decisions carefully and ultimately ended up with a finished product that is everything he wanted.

The best part was the many hours that my son and I spent working together.  For a couple of noobs who had no idea what they were doing when we started, I have to say it went pretty smooth.  Every time we encountered a problem, we worked together to find a solution (and at no point did we feel like we had no options).  So while having the arcade cabinet is great, even better is the memories that we take away from it.

As far as the negatives go – the only one I can think of is that we now have the arcade bug but my wife won’t let us have another one!!!

[Green Giant]

Congrats on the project and great write up.


As for the driving wheel, perhaps an update to the control panel is due for a removable swappable system. 

[javeryh]

Nice job and great write-up!  I would love to build a cab with my father now OR my son someday when he is old enough.  To me, playing the old games is great but the best part about this hobby is putting it all together.   

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I wonder how many games are compatible with this technique? Would be pretty cool to have a bunch of games selectable from a menu without swapping discs.

[sdpadres69]

That's a great idea.  Swapping disks is the one of the negatives of the Dreamcast.  I definitely want to look at the SD card mod.  We have another Dreamcast that we have laying around that would be fun to mod.

[Nephasth]

Awesome to see a 15 year old take interest in a hands-on technical project! Congratulations on the build and great memories!

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Yay internets:
http://dc-sd.com/
US $21.99
Free Shipping

Code: [Select]

This is a 'plug & play' SD/TF card reader that fits perfectly into the serial port of the Dreamcast.
It's all ready to use - just requires the Dreamshell SD loader disc, then you can run games and applications directly from an SD card!
Estimated Time of Arrival   

    USA: 7 - 15 days
    Europe: 10 - 20 days
    Other countries: 15 - 30 days

A compatibility thread:
http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/thread-1329.html
Looks like it's kind of hit or miss, and it's a small list of games tested.

http://www.dcisozone.com/downloads/1799/DreamShell-4-Beta-4.html
Software to boot the DC.

This will probably make running other emulators on the DC much easier also.

[ChadTower]

The best part was the many hours that my son and I spent working together.

That's my favorite part too.  Working with my son is awesome.  Congrats and well done!

[SNAAKE]

Awesome to see a 15 year old take interest in a hands-on technical project!

I build sticks and cabinets when I was 15 and by myself..EASY!

(project looks good so far)

[emphatic]

Very nice. LOL at the surgical gloves.

[DaOld Man]

I agree with all the comments about father and son projects.
Great work on the cab, and welcome to an awarding addiction that a lot of people share. Welcome to both you and your son.
Cant wait to see how many projects your son will turn out in the following years.

[madmatt]

Looks great.  I hope to do something like that when my child get older.  He is only 4 now, but DAM does he
have the gaming bug like I do. 

MM

out