Glass top - front room style take on a cocktail cabinet

[RichardL]

Start of my 'front room acceptable' retro arcade side table;

It was going to be bartop, but I wanted vertical old-school games & don't have the space for a full cocktail cabinet so ended up trying something a little different with an off the shelf glass top table.

Its based on a Dwell.co.uk side table, with a 19" monitor under the top glass. Theres not much room to hide the components, but I think I can just about get a sound system in there while retaining the original look of the table.

I was going to blog, but ended up with only a couple of entries:
http://richards-arcade-machine.blogspot.co.uk

By no means finished, but the concept is going in the right direction.
The challenge now is to hide the cabling!





I just spent today trying to assemble a scan line generator - and failing - my soldering skills are not what they were :/  . .. still more to tinker with.

[emphatic]

Very cool table. How comfortable is it to play games on? Back strain?

[RichardL]

Cheers;

Yup - certainly not to play for hours,  but not a bad position if sitting on the couch or foot stool.

The controls are about knee height

The real (unfixable) problem is the '276 in 1' Jamma board I am using has sound issues on a couple of my favourite games - Gyruss & Juno First.

[griffindodd]

I like how you are thinking with this, it would be great if you could completely hide the controls when not in use (flip over?) so no-one would know it's even an aracade machine when turned off - very stealthy.

[PL1]

I like how you are thinking with this, it would be great if you could completely hide the controls when not in use (flip over?) so no-one would know it's even an aracade machine when turned off - very stealthy.

Like this?

Press latch (green) to release the CP which pivots on a hinge (red).  The two legs turn on an offset pivot point (black) and fold out -- only one leg shown in this side view.


Scott

EDIT: Updated diagram and text.

[surface tension]

That's really cool! Very neat and compact.

[RichardL]

I'm trying to fit the initial machine entirely within the two top levels, i.e.

Top level - monitor under the glass, + prob a scanline gen in there too
Middle level - controls, xxx in 1 card, power supply & speaker (the power will have to be boxed in to be safe)
Bottom level - will revert to a glass shelf

Its a small coffee table, so the 19" monitor 'just' fits in the top, I can hide its power and VGA cable down one corner leg, each shelf side is around 5-6cm high - not much to play with!

Currently its a stock wired Jamma harness so everything is too long

I was going to box in under the top & middle shelves, but on second thoughts I may try to leave them open to help with ventilation; the only parts that get even warm are the monitor - but no so much if the brightness is low, & the power supply

This pic shows the space under the panel, its 9mm ply with the edge routed back for a flush top; the xxx in 1 is aligned to line up the bolts through the panel & leave enough room for wiring etc - not much space left though:


I have been distracted by having a working machine 

It also seems I need something connected to the player 2 cables to adjust settings on the xxx in 1 - a small joypad out of some spare switches will probably work hidden under the main panel.

[RichardL]

There is a wildcard option too -

At some point I could box in the whole bottom section - middle to bottom shelf which would give lots of room for a genuine Mame box, & very minor mods to move from vertical to horizontal monitor - coloured acrylic sides set into the rebates might work;

[RichardL]

Distracted with other projects (http://richards-gbs-zero.blogspot.co.uk) - but managed to spend a little time on my old arcade table; The speakers and amplifier now installed + hidden all the power / wiring away. Originally I was planning to get all these components in the depth of the middle shelf - but it seemed easier to construct a simple box for them:



Hiding in the corner of the front room when not in use:


http://richards-arcade-machine.blogspot.co.uk

The 276 in 1 card is the major let down now - so many of the games have poor sound

If I ever get round to it the only remaining item would be to merge the power into a single cable & vinyl cover the control panel and sound box. The problem (for me) with arcade games is once you get to the point you can play them the build slows down.

Sorry to dig up my old thread - its the same machine - just very slow build

[EightBySix]

Nice, practical design - love it.

[AGarv]

Very clever design - I like it!

Did you say this was a mod of an pre-made table you purchased?

[Rick]

This is very, very cool. Like, I'm surprised it isn't one of those "hey, look at the cool thing I found for $3,000 that I'd never pay $3,000 for" things. I love the uniqueness of this build!!!

[RichardL]

It was a side/occasional table from a firm called dwell in the UK. http://dwell.co.uk/search/side%20table/
I was really initially looking for a glass top coffee table to convert - this side table did the job - not cheap - but the idea was to
   a. not destroy the table anyway (too much)
   b. end up with something that could live in the front room and still function as a table - wife test

TBH/Hindsight a slightly smaller monitor might have been better - but the chinese company I bought from sent me a larger one than ordered.

But overall it came out better than I could achieve from scratch.

My house is a decent size, but I just couldn't justify a full size cocktail or upright cabinet.

There is always a possibility of boxing in the whole bottom section which would have plenty of room for a decent computer rather than the small 275in1 card I'm using.