The Fox-Box Bartop

[thefox]

Hi,

A long time lurker here for a few years. Finally got armed with enough info from you wonderful people to embark on building my first project. Also plucked up enough courage to share my modest attempt with you guys. This is a fairly standard Bartop build, with my two sons aged 10 and 13. Electronics, IT, woodwork, art and gaming, all combined - What better father-son project could there be?

Anyway, here are some pics...


This thing started life a very simple control panel. No CP templates here, i'm afraid. We just placed fingers in a comfortable position onto some old off-cut MDF, then marked, measured and duplicated for Player 2.




Picked up some used controls and an ipac2 from ebay. The kids did a fine job of cutting & crimping.

I want a real old school feel, but something a little different to the standard C.P. art. We found a very simple solution...



We played with that control panel for months, wired up to the laptop. Then the urge to build a cabinet around it became too strong to resist !

Using some fairly widely used plans from the net, but adjusting them slightly (making the cab 500mmm wide to accomodate the 2 player CP.), and puling the guts out of a shuttle PC, we began building...




Thanks for looking. If you're interested I will post more pics of further progress.

[BobA]

Good start and welcome to the board.

[chemikalguy]

I'm right there with you, brother!

I built my controller a month or so ago (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,131013.0.html), and in a few months will be building my bartop, so I'm watching your thread.

Scott

[thefox]

Some more progress...

Ordered T-Molding from the wonderful Arcade world UK (formerly gremlin solutions). Arrived next day. Just waiting for a slot cutter from GGG in the US, and for some good weather to spray paint the cab. Meanwhile, decided to test out the fitting of everything else.

Pulled the guts from the shuttle PC. and fitted them in. The I.C.E. cooling system sticking out of it really gets in the way, and has a noisy fan, but it still fits, so it will do for now.



Also, I realised that the VGA cable to the monitor will stick out of the back, and we want everything flush at the back. The problem was solved by one of these little beauties:


The speaker and lights will be powered from the PSU so no need for a strip of smart sockets. But to make sure we have just the one power cable out of the back, we ordered one of these, which will split to the monitor and the PSU:



Painted the plexi :




Its getting there !

[thefox]

Got a marquee printed. Cheated a bit - loaded up inkscape and made some small changes to a mame classic. A few slight variations.

Trouble is, my marquee area is 50cm by 10cm, so a slightly unusual size. Had to streeetch the image a bit to fit, but I quite like the result.

Then saved it to pdf, took it to our local staples store, and got 3 images printed on A2 satin paper for £14.99.



 Anyone have any ideas for side art please ? We would like something early-80's old school looking, so the cab will be mat black, maybe with orange/yellow/red, Defender or scramble style, but dont know really know where to start !

[PL1]

For sideart, you may want to start by using the list of free download art sites in this post.


Scott

[thefox]

Thanks, scott. That's a helpful starting point.

[Drnick]

Looking good so far.  Head on over to Arcadeartlibrary for everything you will need for the side art.  Nice job on getting the shuttle in there comfortably.  I ultimately gave up on using a shuttle because of that dumbassed proprietary heatsink/cooler system.  I'm not sure but I think that I gave it up as a lost cause because it didn't have standard mounting points so was a PITA to replace.

[thefox]

Its been a while, but there's been plenty of slow, steady progress in that time...

Got some sideart , with massive thanks to JDfan.



Had some router problems, well documented here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,132630.0.html



Part of the problem was a cheap, badly suited router. Part of the problem was that i assembled the cab BEFORE routing (bad idea). Part of the problem was that I am evidently not very good with a router !

Apart from the slot cutting, the other most difficult part was the paint. I found it really difficult to get a perfect matt finish with spray paint. In the end, I just kept spraying, fine sanding, spraying and sanding, until I settled on a reasonably good finish after about eight coats.

The T-molding needed some hot glue to help hold it in place. This was actually my first experience with a hot glue gun - loved it. Now everything in our house has been hot glued. I will remove the cat from the ceiling as soon as I can (just kidding).

I used one of these for sound:



Okay so its its not the most powerful set of speakers in the world, but I am mainly interested in pre-1985 games anyway, most of which used fairly insubstantial mono speakers, from what I recall.  As USB speakers go, these don't sound too bad at all, plus I found that the cab itself helps as a sounding-board for a bit of extra bass.

The cab is more or less finished now. I am having some i-pac issues (a separate thread), and I am not yet sure of the best way to hide the edges of the plexi. But the kids have been enjoying playing it.

We discovered the delights of 'Juno First' the other day, and have been having a Juno-fest hi-score battle in our house since.

I will post some pics of the finished cab here soon.

[thefox]

Okay. Finally put some finishing touches to the bartop today. Am pretty pleased with it. As a divorced dad, it has been a great project to spend quality father-son time on.

Our humble little bartop is pretty slung together compared to many of the impressive projects on here. but its been an enjoyable learning experience, and has given us a taste for more. Next up ? A full sized cab. Galaga maybe, or perhaps Juno first, just to be a little different. Just need to find some space...