Cheap Mini TMNT Arcade (new pics)

[Staudt]

It's been more than a year since I started working on my first cabinet, and boy, I have learned a lot about building this kind of stuff since then.
While I still need to finish the art of my first one, I really miss the building part of it. Luckly, I have found some free time in the upcoming weeks to start a small project and I might just have the all the hardware for it.


So I have this Asus Netbook that served me well as a secondary PC for 3 years and now has been replaced by newer hardware. I figured I could give it a new life by turning it into a mini arcade cabinet.

Having a mini cabinet that (1) is usable by my 2 year old son and (2) enables me to actually carry it around to play with friends in places other than my room is something I've been wanting to do for some time now. So this is the idea I came up with: Since it is still a usable pc, no point in disassembling it if I can just mount it inside the cabinet the way it is, as if the cabinet is some sort of a Netbook dock. I think I can do that and maintain it as a usable laptop if I ever need it as such.

I also have a lot of buttons, two controllers, light and some other stuff left over from my previous build, I should already have most of what I'll need.


So while tracing around and taking measurements, I found two problems with the "dock" idea: First, It doesn't open very much, the keyboard may get on the way of the controls. And second, the screen is very low and very near the keyboard, which I may not be able to completely hide behind the bezel. I don't think those problems are deal breakers of my current plan, but I need to keep them in mind.

As for the looks, my favorite cab has always been TMNT. It is also the most recognizable cab here in Brazil because there weren't many original cabinets (most were generic cabinets built here to cut transportation costs) and TMNT being one common exception. So building a mini TMNT cabinet will not only look like my favorite, but most people will recognize right away.


Onto the drawing board. I followed original TMNT cabinet layout at about 1/2 scale faithfully, with only two exceptions: First, I made it thinner, no point in being so large when the netbook is so thin. And second, I raised the screen angle from the original 45 degree inclination (which would be impossible without the keyboard touching the controls) to somewhere around 70 degrees.


Toying a little more with this idea, this is kind of what it looks like. It seems perfectly sized for my 2 year old and will also work as a bartop on for adults, though the controls are higher than usual for a bartop. Being a bartop is just an extra, so guess this is the best I can get for both applications. I like it.

Oh, and as for the dock, I'm thinking I can slip the netbook through the control panel space, below the bezel by opening the control panel like this:


Just to give a sense of proportion, this is my plan compared to a real size TNMT cabinet, it is about 1/2 scale: (BTW, thanks to this guy who made this awesome sketchup of the original cab)


So that what I have for now, I hope to hear what you guys think before I start. Feedbacks and ideas are very welcome.

[Malenko]

looks like a neat idea. perhaps a removable base, that the bartop sits in for the kid to play?  Do you have the side art? My buddy wants a TMNT themed bartop but I cant find the artwork anywhere.

[Staudt]

looks like a neat idea. perhaps a removable base, that the bartop sits in for the kid to play?  Do you have the side art? My buddy wants a TMNT themed bartop but I cant find the artwork anywhere.

The removable base idea is a good one but I like full cabinets better, even at the cost of comfort. That's the main reason why I haven't considered making a bartop yet.
I haven't looked for the full size artwork yet. But have you tried downloading those MAME art packs? It probably has it, I'm only not sure if it is high enough resolution.

[PL1]

GoG has TMNT repro sideart here.

Not sure if they can scale it down for you.   



There's also alternate version TMNT sideart here at Arcadeoverlays that some KLOVers designed.
(sides, CPO, and marquee shown)




Scott

[Staudt]

Bit of progress on my planning, so far it looks like this:



I'm not entirely satisfied with the screen angle, it's still too high compared to the original TMNT cab. This is about the best I can get in dock form, maybe I can push about 5 extra degrees when I'm building it and still accommodate everything.
I'm also a bit concern about the screen position. If the screen is too close to the plexi (like the original) it will sit low on the bezel, I'll have to push it back a little to bring it to the middle, but I'm not sure how I'll fill the empty area around the screen. Have to remember that it is a doc and the screen will come in and out.

As a b-plan I can always scrap the dock plan and make it a dedicated cabinet, it would solve those problems, but that's also the easy way out I don't wanna be taking.
On with the planning...

[Malenko]

make it out of cardboard first

[Staudt]

make it out of cardboard first

Yeah. I'll play a little more with the actual netbook over paper drawings. I'm actually aiming to start the project this Saturday, so there's limited time.

Also, I found some super cheap construction-grade plywood that is quite strong and is more than good enough for this build. One board should be enough for nearly two constructions, meaning I'll have enough material for screw-ups and plan B's.

[Staudt]

First day of the build. My aim was to use this construction plywood that I have and see if it will actually work out.



This sheet (already cut in 3 strips) is meant for construction sites, it is made of obviously lower quality wood than regular ply. Still, it is quite sturdy, since it's meant for outdoors, it should last as long as any other option really. Downsides are that it is quite thin (12mm rather than my ideal 14mm) and it's pretty ugly (which doesn't matter, it will be covered by laminate anyway) .
But hey, for $10 is worth a try! Worst case scenario this will be a test construction.

Oh, and by the way, I'll laminate the cabinet instead of painting. It should be much easier and hide any imperfection on the wood.

So on with the construction. first I cut the sides with a jigsaw, both sides at the same time by screwing them together on the waste area.



You might notice that in the bottom there's quite a bit of shattering. That's from my circular saw, cutting with a circular saw across the grain can damage the edges quite a lot. On the other hand, the jigsaw is getting very clean cuts on any direction. I'm actually thinking of doing all my cuts with the jigsaw and then straighten them afterwards with a plane. I did that with the few pieces I had already cut and it worked, it's more work though.



To close this post, so far I'm happy using this cheap ply, I think I'll actually stick to it. As a last test, let's try the t-molding cut and see how it does. But that's for the next post...

[Staudt]

Ok, it's time to try t-molding.

This cheap ply has the cover and core of a harder wood and the sheets in between are pine filler. When cutting the t-mold, I'll actually be cutting the harder wood core, which means the pine filler may just ash and fall apart. Other possibility is it may just shatter all over the place. I first tried on a scrap to see how it works out.



And what do you know, it actually worked perfectly. You can see in the picture I cut on an are with so shatter just to see how it would turn out and the cut was clean on the middle sheet. Test fitting the t-molding it held perfectly and secure. It will not fall apart.
It is also worth mentioning that I used this slot cutter bit. The size is just right and much cheaper than the 'official' t-molding router bit.
Ok, so time to cut the sides. Not a lot of surprises there. It turned out great, actually.



I guess this is a good time to share some of the things I learned from cutting the t-molding on cheap plywood:

• Leave the good side of the sheet up. When I was passing the router over a border with some shatter, it raised the router the cut didn't come out straight. Lucky I noticed that soon enough.
• Do multiple passes and gradually increase the depth. Really, if the router is speeding down or wandering around, you're forcing it and the cut may shatter the edges.
• Be patient. Reclamp and reposition whenever you need more stability. It's kind of a boring process, but doesn't take long.

Since this sheet is thin (12mm), the t-molding (usually meant for 15mm) will have some of the edges hanging out, I saw someone in this forum actually trim down the t-molding, but I don't think that's necessary, I kinda like it thicker than the wood.

So to close a very positive afternoon, I clamped the few pieces I had to see how it looks so far:


Good thing about building such a small cabinet is that I can always clamp it all together and see how it looks and adjust. I'll do that several times until the final assembly.
Next step, I'll probably cut the rest of the pieces and make the control panel box. I need the controls early so I can start fitting the Netbook.

[Staudt]

Lot's of updates:
First, I decided scrap my plans to allow the control box to open. After some testing, I noticed it wouldn't be strong enough to take a bunch of kids leaning into it. So now the Netbook will be inserted from the back door instead. Building the control box was fairly straightforward, I screwed it together and use these mounting bracket with holes that enable adjustment so I can fit it to the cab and adjust after the lamination or reassembly.


Then I routed the controllers flush with the surface.


Now that the control box is ready and I can start test fitting the Netbook and see how the screen will be positioned. After several attempts, the only position that works needed the screen to be very far inside the cab. This will force me to either hide the large space between the controllers and the bezel or making a "fat" bezel that would swallow the empty space with the plexiglass far from the screen.

Well, I hated both options. After a lot of consideration, I'm actually going to scrap the Dock plan and instead remove the screen from the Netbook to use it as a monitor. That way I can have the screen and bezel at it's best angle. The down side is I can't use the netbook externally anymore. But that's ok.

So now that I settled for a dedicated arcade cabinet (and no longer a dock), time to start assembling. I added all remaining wood joints and screwed everything together. This is what it looks like now:


And on the back I opened space for a large door:


I'm very happy with the result so far. Next step is to fit the Netbook to the bezel and then laminate it all to (finally) make it pretty.
As always, wish me luck.

[Staudt]

Catching up with the two days of work: First I started laminating the cab.
Trimming the laminate with a router is easy, but to trim the insides I had to use an exacto knife so I could keep the pine strips on. Man, that was a boring process.
I also routed the monitor board to sit the monitor and added some cool side handles to carry it around. After that, the cab looks like this:


I really liked the handles.

The following week, I got back to it and this is what I found:

I was a very rainy week and my workshop has too much ventilation. I guess the high humidity unglued some of the laminate. Either that or the ply doesn't stick very well to formica glue. Either way, I'll have to re-glue two or three pieces, but I'll leave that for later.

The monitor (which is a netbook screen) had these tiny holes and I couldn't find screws that would fit. The solution I found was to use thin wires and hold it like toys are held to their boxes (twisting the wires in the back). It works well and it holds it like this:


I also found some plexiglass (very thick, but will do), so I routed it to fit the bezel and marquee. I painted some areas that can't be laminated (such as the door borders and small corners) and I also cut a temporary bezel make out of poster board.
As of last weekend, this is what it looks like (the plexiglass still has the protective cover):


Next weekend I'll look to finish the bezel, mount the rest of the netbook, add the t-moldings and wire it all. Hopefully all that will be left is the art.
As always, wish me luck.

[jdbailey1206]

Great work.  Would have loved to seen green ball tops to represent the color of the turtles and used blue (Leo), purple (Donatello), red (Raph) and orange (Mikey) for the buttons.  Oh well.  Either way, nice work!

[Staudt]

Great work.  Would have loved to seen green ball tops to represent the color of the turtles and used blue (Leo), purple (Donatello), red (Raph) and orange (Mikey) for the buttons.  Oh well.  Either way, nice work!

Thanks! I haven't arranged the button colors yet, I have some more laying around somewhere.
The only ball tops I could find were red. I will probably try to paint one of them, I guess oil-based spray paint works. Has anyone ever tried that?

[jdbailey1206]

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=368

 

[Staudt]

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=368

 

Yeah. But since I'm in Brazil, the shipping cost is quite high and it would take a while to arrive. I guess I'll try painting first and see what happens .
Thanks!

[SnaXen]

Why not get a cheap 15" monitor and mount it in permanent?!

And then use the notebook with the lid closed when you insert/dock it in the cab.
That way you dont have the angle problem with the monitor. I guess it will be better to play at a 15" monitor aswell.

Anyway, great work so far, and I like the idea.   

[Staudt]

Why not get a cheap 15" monitor and mount it in permanent?!

And then use the notebook with the lid closed when you insert/dock it in the cab.
That way you dont have the angle problem with the monitor. I guess it will be better to play at a 15" monitor aswell.

Anyway, great work so far, and I like the idea.   

I did considered that. But I sized the cabinet for the netbook monitor (10") and a 15" monitor wouldn't fit, and I only scrapped the idea of a dock after I had already built the cabinet.
But I do actually prefer the 10" monitor size for this built because it matches my 2 year old son's height, and it also keep this build really cheap.
Eventually when my son grows I'll build a larger one with a 17" that will match his size standing and mine sitting at the same time.
Thanks for the feedback!

[Staudt]

Two weeks ago I brought the arcade home for wiring and testing. And by testing I mean to see if it will survive a 2 year old using it.
This is what it looks like when it arrived home:

Before the wiring, I think it's important to mention that I had a bit of trouble with the t-molding. When I adjusted the screen angle, I had to redo the t-molding cuts and I screwed up a bit, making it too wide. The result was that near the screen on one side the t-molding didn't hold at all. That got me VERY worried.
But then I vaguely remembered reading somewhere in the forum that someone used hot glue to hold the t-molding and I figured I'd try that. The result? It worked like a dream!
So here's an important lesson kids: If you screw up your t-molding cut, hot glue holds t-molding very well. Shame that I can't find where I got that from.

So wiring. I got two cheap USB controller and soldered wires on them. One of the usb controller boards didn't seem to take heat very well and I lost a bunch of buttons in the process. Other than that, It worked just fine. Here's what it looks like:

And that's where I stopped, I figure I'll leave it here for a while to test and see what else needs to be done before finishing it. There's a bunch of stuff to do: Most of the laminate needs to be re-glued, the top piece needs to be replaced (it bent for some reason, but the position is not right anyway), the bezel can be improved, the marquee needs better holders (and I'm thinking about bending plexiglass), I hated the acrylic buttons (I've had those laying around, but are too stiff), I'll replace with standard ones. And then, the art.

So, there's still a bunch to do, but we already are having lot's of fun with it. My 2 year old is loving it:

[AAirhart]

Welcome to the mini TMNT club

[Staudt]

Thanks! Your cabinet certainly has influenced this work, I'm a big fan of it.
I have been looking for a high-res version of the TMNT side art but can't seem to find it. Where did you get yours?

[AAirhart]

I have an ok version of it. Got a dropbox?

[Staudt]

Yes I do, I sent you a personal message in the forum with my Dropbox user.
At least two more people already asked me for it, would you mind sharing it in a public link (or allowing me to share)?
Thanks!

[Louis Tully]

.

[Staudt]

Hahaha. Very true!
In fact, just yesterday my son managed to turn the cabinet over himself by trying to climb it the exact same way! Luckily the cabinet is not very heavy.
I figure I'll add some heavy weight on the bottom to make it more stable, but that will also make it more climbable 

Other than that, the cabinet is surviving well so far. You're right, no better quality test than a 2 year old full of energy.

[Malenko]

Just get a "dresser anchor" they sell them at furniture stores to run a line from the wall to the back of a dresser / mirror / entertainment stand /etc

[MastarArcade]

...I think I just found what I need to build my 3yr old for Xmas!

[Staudt]

...I think I just found what I need to build my 3yr old for Xmas!

It's an awesome gift and very rewarding project to build, for sure.
Not only for playing arcade games, but also to play kids videos and free up your TV a little. Trust me, that is a great point for convincing your wife

[MastarArcade]

It's an awesome gift and very rewarding project to build, for sure.
Not only for playing arcade games, but also to play kids videos and free up your TV a little. Trust me, that is a great point for convincing your wife

Yes, gets them off the TV, and for our current arcade machines, I don't have them in "Free Play" mode because we use them as a prize for good behavior. I carry around a pocket full of quarters with me, and my hand them to my son when he's being good... or eats all of that "delicious" broccoli

[Louis Tully]

.