Attempt at a Bubble Bobble Cabinet

[diynot]

Hi there,

I'm embarking on a project to build myself an arcade cabinet for Mame and 16bit/8bit emulators as well as a few PC games.  It's going to be a steep learning curve but I'm looking forward to the challenge.  The combination of low DIY skills and high personal standards will make the challenge even more so.

Anyone interested in following my project can find my Build Blog at http://buildinganarcadecabinet.blogspot.co.uk/

I'll no doubt be popping in and out for advice and opinion and will update this thread as and when milestones are reached 

Cheers
Lee

[diynot]

I've now added more Bubble Bobble artwork to my build blog, including side art.

The artwork is not my own work as such, it's a reworking of art available elsewhere but hopefully it is of use to someone!

I've also ordered my MDF so soon the real fun starts 

Cheers
Lee

[diynot]

Update

MDF has arrived and have made a start with the construction  - this is going to take patience 

Any suggestions / comments etc welcomed!

http://buildinganarcadecabinet.blogspot.co.uk/

[diynot]

Okay so I made a little progress since my last posting

(full blog at http://buildinganarcadecabinet.blogspot.co.uk/)

I've now after some feedback / advice on colour scheme, here's a mockup of what I hope it will look like, for me I'm thinking its white kickplate and blue control panel front - thoughts?

Any comments / suggestions much appeciated!

Cheers
Lee

[Louis Tully]

.

[jdbailey1206]

+1 on the white front.  Definitely share your work here.  Sharing is caring.....unless its an STD.

[ChanceKJ]

Why don't you just wrap the art around the front. And if you're putting in a coin door just work the design around it.  Then, yeah, grab some diamond plating and tremclad it white for the Kickplate.

[AzureKnight]

How about the white one but make the CP front blue.  That makes the front color line up with the side color better IMO.

[diynot]

Thanks for the feedback guys, appreciated

As I have already started the blog I will copy my existing blog entries here to show progress and post any blog updates here as I go;

Thursday, 11 September 2014
Build an Arcade Cabinet...am I Crazy?

Okay, so I've decided I need an arcade cabinet.  I initially thought this was one of the usual faddy ideas I have but after three weeks this one hasn't gone away so I guess I have to build a cab now.  Luckily I have a really cool Wife :-)

I have long been of a fan of the old 16 bit and 8 bit games consoles and computers and have been picking up both games and machines from ebay here and there but due to a lack of space in our home, I've now decided that it would make more sense to build an arcade cabinet which contains a PC loaded with emulators of my favourite games consoles and games.

There is no budget as such so I will be trying to do this on the cheap, although I have this week listed a shed load of retro gear on ebay to raise funds for this;

Commodore 1541 floppy drive
Commodore 1541 floppy drive
Commodore 1541 II floppy drive
Commodore 64+NIC  (Ethernet Adapter!)
Commodore Amiga 500
Commodore 64 C
Empty Commodore C64c case
25 x New Old Stock 5.25" Floppy Disks
Empty Amiga 600 Empty Box in Good condition
2 x Commodore 64 Datasette
Commodore 1701 Video Monitor
Various Amiga disks

My inspiration to build an arcade cabinet has come from the brilliant Koenig Project Mame Website (http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/) where you can download plans for making your own machine from MDF (below)



The main snag with this option is that I am not know for being any good with DIY and the prospect of accurately cutting MDF sheets in a straight line to the required size does not fill me with confidence.  A way round this is to order the MDF sheets all cut to size from the web (local timber merchants won't do it), the only two cuts will then be the sides where I need to give the cab it's distinctive shape.

Plan B - If I chicken out on this (and depending on how the ebay auctions go) I might decide to order a smaller "Midi" sized arcade cab from Rich's Bartop Arcade's on eBay.  Perhaps a bit too small but no cutting required!

Plan C (and this is very unlikely) is that I may order a full size, flat pack arcade machine from The Retro Pit.  This would give me a full size cab with no wood working skills required, however it doesn't include a hidden shelf for a keyboard and mouse like the Koenig design does and I quite fancy playing the odd game of C&C Red Alert or some of the Chris Sawyer games.  This is way more than I want to spend!

In terms of what I have already it's so far;

A PC good enough to run emulators for the systems I am a fan of

A viewSonic VP201s 20" LCD monitor (4:3 aspect ratio) which I managed somehow to win boxed on 3bay for £16 and should arrive any day.  I wanted a 4:3 because the older 16 Bit and 8 Bit games look ridiculously stretched on widescreen.  Other 20" LCD's which were 4:3 and I'd heard were good are Dell 2007FP, Phillips 200P3, Samsung Syncmaster 214T and I have been keeping an eye out for any of these four at the right (cheap) price.



...and

An LED Stereo VU Meter which I'm kind of not sure what I'll do with.  It's a small circuit which blinks the LED's according to the music / sound you play through it.  I'm thinking I may add more LED's and  use this in the Marque.  Anyway it was only £6.99



Once I decide on the cab itself I plan to run Windows XP with Maximus Arcade front end (http://www.maximus-arcade.com) and emulators for SNES, Mega Drive, Amiga, C64, PS1 to start off with.  Depending on the quality of video through the LCD I may well purchase a scanline generator.

Still yet to decide on colour scheme / artwork but have a few ideas floating around...

At the moment everything hangs on the eBay auctions and how well they do (or don't!) .

[diynot]

14th September 2014
VewSonic VP201s 20" LCD monitor Arrives, Unboxing

So, the £16 20" LCD Monitor arrived, here are some pics in case anyone out there is looking for a decent size LCD at 4:3 aspect ratio;

Unboxing



Testing (Playing!)


Picture from SNES emulator looks a bit rough as you'd expect being scaled up, looks better when the scanline effect is added.

[diynot]

14th September 2014
Arcade Art


Think I have now decided to go with a Bubble Bobble theme on the cabinet art as it's one of my favourite C64 games, plus as the cabinet may end up in the bedroom of our Baby that's on the way it's less likely to inspire nightmares than Terminator is. 

Scooby Doo still might sneak in there though, I realise there probably never was a Scooby Doo arcade machine so it's not really "authentic", but hey it's Scooby Doo!

Here are some of the ideas I've been playing with (click for larger image);


Will make a final decision when I know what size / shape cab I'm building, which in turn depends on how the eBay auctions go...

[diynot]

20th September 2014
Bubble Bobble 300 dpi Bezel


The last of the eBay auctions ends in an hour or so after a week of non payers, late payers and relisting.

After eBay fees, postage etc etc it's looking like the budger is £160, so no kit from Rich's Bartop Arcades or the Retro Pit, looks like it's the DIY route  :-S

As it looks like I'll be using the Koenig plans I've been trying to find Bubble Bobble artwork which will fit.  I was unsuccessful but found some artwork for a Bartop sized cabinet @ http://zonaarcade.forumcommunity.net/?t=45266890 - The actual side art etc were only 150 dpi which may look blocky when printed, luckily the downloaded included .PSD files which included each element at a higher resolution as seperate files so I decided to use these to recreate the art for the Koenig cabinet in 300dpi.   



So far I've created a 300dpi bezel which can be downloaded in Photoshop PSD, PNG and GIMP XCF formats;

PNG file (15MB)
Photoshop PSD file (52.5MB)
GIMP XCF File  (38MB)

Plenty of work ahead to re-work the other art.

Messing around with graphics takes my mind off the fact there is some serious wood work ahead :-(

[diynot]

21st September 2014
Bubble Bobble 300 dpi Control Panel

Found some time this morning to waste and knocked up a Bubble Bobble themed control panel, decided to leave "Bub" and "Bob" off my design as they're already on the Bezel and sideart, plus I think the panel looks busy enough as it is.

Again, the panel is sized for the Koenig cabinet plans but as I've included the Photoshop PSD and GIMP XCF files they it can easily be adapted.



PNG Format (10MB)
Adobe PSD Format (28MB)
GIMP XCF Format (20MB)

[ChocolateApple]

I'm just gonna chime in here with with...

Nice design. Good luck with the build.

[diynot]

23rd September 2014
Bubble Bobble 300 dpi Control Panel

I've decided that me attempting to cut wood in a straight line across several components is probably a bad idea.

I tried approaching several local timber merchants and none were willing to cut 18mm MDF boards to size for me.

I found a company named Savoy Timber (http://www.savoytimber.com).

By the time I pay postage probably it will be quite a bit more expensive than buying sheets and cutting them myself but hopefully less margin for error since there will only be the two side sheets for me to cut.

I've placed the order tonight, wonder what the quality is like once it arrives?

I've also just realised that I left out the keyboard drawer from the original quote (doh!) so just shot off a grovelling email to Savoy to see if it can be added.

Edit 25.09.2014 - Savoy have come back to me and allowed me to add the keyboard drawer for £2.50, haven't come back to me about when it will all be delivered though...

[diynot]

5th October 2014
Joystick Testing

Goodies from Ultracabs arrived yesterday (Sat) so spent a bit of time playing around (testing, ahem) to make sure that everything works.  Once I had the correct wires connect to the correct switches everything was good.  Made use of an old box to experiment with layout, think I prefer joystick on the right, might build the can with one left, one right...the glass of red wine is for medicinal purposes of course.


The other bits and bobs like the keyboard,  LED strip and wheels also turned up, just need the flippin' MDF to show up now!

[diynot]

I'm just gonna chime in here with with...

Nice design. Good luck with the build.

Thanks!  We'll see how it looks when finished though 

[diynot]

14th October 2014
MDF Arrives & Cutting Cab Sides


So the MDF finally arrived...the instructions for the courier said "knock loudly" which is not something I requested.  Hopefully Savoy timber request the same for all their customers and not just the ones who make a pain of themselves by constantly phoning to ask where their order is :-)

Seemed well packaged but the edges of the cut were a bit poor and needed sanding :-(

I began by drawing the outline of the cab on the sides and found out the measurements on the plan don't allow enough for the control panel front plus the drawer, so added a bit extra there.

Having drawn out the outline I used a borrowed jigsaw to begin cutting.  The straight cuts were pretty much a piece of cake but I struggled with the curves, the jigsaw wanted to carry on going...

Goggles and a mask were worn at all times!

Rather than cut one side and use that to "trace" the second I'd secured both side sheets together with clamps to make it one run of cuts.  Whether this then made it more difficult to cut the round edges due to the increased thickness I'm not sure.

Once cut, a palm sander was used to smooth the edges and the sides, wood primer suitable for MDF was then applied.

[diynot]

25th October 2014
Construction Begins!


When I originally cut the cab sides I had the intention of priming each piece of MDF before even thinking of piecing the cab together, however I changed my mind on this because;

I'm impatient
The plan's don't fit exactly (floor!)
It will be easier/quicker to prime it all in one go
I bought 4 x 3 meters lengths of 4x4 pine to use as batons and have made a start now piecing things together.  The MDF screws from eBay turned out to be junk so have now gone with drywall screws from B&Q.  For each screw on an outside surface I pre-drilled and then used a counter sink tool to ensure that the head of screw will sit below the surface.  The idea is then to fill these holes and sand over them.

The surface of the mdf has several imperfections after being moved around, drilled and cut, I've decided to complete the actual build and then smooth these out.

I cut the speaker board using a rotary saw piece and found two things out;
Make sure to drill in the hole you premarked if you want the holes to align (see pic :-( )
Second hand drills people gift you can be dangerous
I have a few ideas to sort the misaligned speaker holes but will leave that for now.

I've also started to think about how I've go to mount the monitor.

[diynot]

25th October 2014
Construction Begins!


When I originally cut the cab sides I had the intention of priming each piece of MDF before even thinking of piecing the cab together, however I changed my mind on this because;

I'm impatient
The plan's don't fit exactly (floor!)
It will be easier/quicker to prime it all in one go
I bought 4 x 3 meters lengths of 4x4 pine to use as batons and have made a start now piecing things together.  The MDF screws from eBay turned out to be junk so have now gone with drywall screws from B&Q.  For each screw on an outside surface I pre-drilled and then used a counter sink tool to ensure that the head of screw will sit below the surface.  The idea is then to fill these holes and sand over them.

The surface of the mdf has several imperfections after being moved around, drilled and cut, I've decided to complete the actual build and then smooth these out.

I cut the speaker board using a rotary saw piece and found two things out;
Make sure to drill in the hole you premarked if you want the holes to align (see pic :-( )
Second hand drills people gift you can be dangerous
I have a few ideas to sort the misaligned speaker holes but will leave that for now.

I've also started to think about how I've go to mount the monitor.

[diynot]

8th November 2014
More build pics

Progress has been slow lately due to decorating and the nights drawing in, meaning it's dark when I get home from work.

Having cut the speaker holes in the incorrect positions (spot it in pic), I had to re-cut again.  After the "fun" I had with the round saw piece I used the jigsaw.  They haven't turned out perfect but the plan is to hide the speakers with speaker cloth anyway.  I also decided on the re-cut to swap the speakers (bigger ones) and tweeters (smaller ones) around.

I've may use the botched speaker piece to hold fans at the back of the cab. 

An MDF sheet with a hole cut out of it holds the LCD in place. 

Screw in hooks are used for cable management.

Originally I was going to have a flip down hatch rather than a  drawer but it didn't work out so have gone back to the original plans.

Have used filler to fill the counter sunk screw holes, once dried will need to sand.

[diynot]

9th November 2014
Sanded and Primed (1st coat)

Sanded the cab this morning applied the first layer of primer
The lazy part of me is wondering how many sanding / priming sessions there are going to be...many of the filled in screw holes are still visible so more filler also required :-(

[diynot]

15th November 2014
Half a Control Panel

Having a taken a look around the different common control panel layouts (http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html) and feeling confused and overwhelmed, here's what I have decided upon for layout;



Although I might be going against convention I've decided on a left hand and a right hand control since although I'm right handed I prefer joystick control either left or right depending on the game - For most commodore games I'm used to right hand control, whereas Sega and Nintendo joyspads had directional control on the left, so it's a kind of best of both worlds.

I measured out the positions on the MDF by re-creating the lines shown in the diagram with a ruler and pencil.  I pre-drilled the holes with  a small wood drill bit.  Using a 28mm spade bit and a borrowed drill I have so far cut six button holes and one joystick hole.  It's kind of pain in backside job which takes more time than you expect.  I called it a day for tonight as the battery on the drill was low anyhow.  Due to the thickness of the wood the joysticks are shortened by quite a bit but it's easier to mount them neatly under the control than it is above the control panel.  If it becomes an issue I'll simply add joystick shaft extenders.

[diynot]

4th December 2014
Slow progress...!

Okay, so finished the other half of the control panel...

I also got the speakers wired up to a cheapo Amplifier from ebay and an old  PC subwoofer secured in the base  of the cabinet.

The marquee lights are now all wired up, although I need to fit a switch to flick between full lights and UV meter controlled lights, or I may just do away with the UV meter - I have a feeling it will be annoying :-)

I applied more filler to the counter sunk screw holes which were still visible.  To kill time while the filler dried I played a couple of games  of Sonic the Hedgehog, although this was obviously just a scientific exercise to test the joysticks etc :-) .  Have to say I'm please with the kit from UltraCabs.

I've also completed the bit I was fearing the most - cutting the T-Molding slot - with the cab on it's side I was very conscious of there the blade might end up if it dropped out of the Router!  Thankfully the job is complete and the family jewels are still in one piece!

Have ordered all acrylic sheets from sheetplastics.co.uk (funded by ebaying a Commodore 64), once they have arrived I can finalise the positions of the monitor, then speakers and start painting!

I've also listed more Commodore 64 stuff on ebay since I found out how much the vinyl art is going to cost :-(

Have been "umming and arring" as to the colour scheme for the cab so have come up with a couple of mock-ups - so far I'l thinking white drawer and kickplate?

Haven't done anything constructive in over a week as I've been ill with "Man-Flu", mostly just felt sorry for myself instead...

[diynot]

6th December 2014
Acrylic Sheets Arrive

Got home yesterday to find a mystery package with a ton of bubble wrap left in our porch.

After unwrapping literally ten layers of wrapping I found my acrylic sheets.

Amazingly my measurements were correct and everything fits snuggly



Extra photos show the now cut T-Molding slow and the fact that using an electric sander to smooth out bumps has taken lots of the primer off - time for another coat!

[ChocolateApple]

You *may* want to revisit your control panel layout, unless you really hate player 1.

Not hating, but player one will probably always lose at street fighter.

[Louis Tully]

.

[jaharr01]

Why don't you just wrap the art around the front. And if you're putting in a coin door just work the design around it.  Then, yeah, grab some diamond plating and tremclad it white for the Kickplate.

++1 I heard Yotsuya had a bunch of that real shiny diamond plate for sale that he left over from doing his arcades, He also has a bunch of those sets of balls that hang from the back of a trucks for sale too, if you know anyone who needs a set.Just pm him