Short introduction and new Bartop MAME Project Progress

[evasyar]

Hello my name is evasyar and I am new but an enthusiast in all things 80's arcade and EMU.  I also like doing wood working and wood sculpting.

After all the perusing and a little bit of inspiration from some of the builds I read about this fine forum; I finally got the guts to build my own Bartop MAME arcade with switchable control panels;

Here is what I did so far w/e 2/2/2013;








It is a work in progress... So far it is fun and empowering.  I am glad I did not buy a kit.   

[evasyar]

So far so good.  I still have to tackle some ventilation areas; then also some holes at the lower back panel for the smart strip to go through; then on to the 'adaptable' control panel.  Please relay some pointers and ideas to me if anyone has any or know any existing topics I can draw some ideas on. Thx!

Here is my progress for this w/e 2/16/2013;

I got the 4:3 Dell Monitor in there. Tight fit and the back screw-on scheme is a bane with help from spouse (what a good sport !) I got it mounted.  Not perfect it is crooked slight but it is in there...










I look forward to building the adaptable control panel to this...

[crtrrss]

Nice Build!!! but how will an interchangable control panel mount to it?? I dont see how you could achieve that without making it look unnatural.

[evasyar]

Hello there...

Yes, about the control panel fitting, hard to see right now but I will reveal the CP real soon but the gist to fit the CP is; the CP slide fit to the little frontal 'lip' front of the monitor. The planned CAT-5E cables that will hook on the keyboard/mouse interface module will go through that little 'lip' (have not drilled any holes yet).

Then the planned side of the CP box will extend further out to the main box and the main cab will have holes on the sides that will fit screws/wingnut combo on both side to 'connect' the CP securely to the main cab.  Maybe its a bit hard to imagine right now w/o seeing the actual CP fitting on the main cab but as soon as I build out the CP and 'dry-fit' it on there you will get the gist.  For the CP - I only plan to build out 2 configurations; (1) is with two-player joystick/8-button and with a big roller mouse in the middle of it and (2) strict two-player panel NEO-GEO style.  Yup - this is the 'interchangeable' method of control paneling I have in mind for this Bartop.  I will post more pictures as I build out the control panel and tweak the Bartop some more... 

[crtrrss]

that is a good idea but i think that it would stick out too much and would look weird

[Unstupid]

From your regular playing position can you actually see the entire monitor with that marquee in the way?

[crtrrss]

It will not block much but it depends on how high the machine is. It's all about viewing angles

[Unstupid]

It will not block much but it depends on how high the machine is. It's all about viewing angles

Who asked you?  Obviously from this picture you can't look perpendicularly at the screen.  That means he will be ducking down to an angle that will have his eyes below the bottom of the marquee.  So he will have to be staring at the screen from a low angle, which if it is a TN panel will look like crap.  If it is a TN panel he may want to mount the monitor upside down since looking at the screen from upper angles usually look better than the lower angles.  It's all about the angles!   

[crtrrss]

I answered your question for him. The wooden part that holds the marquee casts a shadow on the screen which means that it will slightly block the screen of your head is far above the marquee.