Scratch build Slim Cab

[Sshado]

I am building a slim cab for my neighbor. He wants to keep the costs down, so there will be no graphics. He is a Miami Dolphins fan (he likes the colors), so I am trying to incorporate that color scheme. I want to do something like Epyx Alien cab (curves, simplistic color).

For now, I need help with the shape, I have two designs, which one is better?

[Generic Eric]

Neither one look like they hit the chair rail.  I like the one on the right.  It really matters how handy you are with the jigsaw.

[stuckpixel]

2nd one is the best IMO.

If you want to keep costs down - you might be able to do some semi cool stuff with a couple colors of paint and stencils and/or taping sections off.

[Sshado]

I have to agree, after posting it, I am not liking the first picture at all.

My main concern now is the balance issue. The base is only 22 inches wide, I need to distribute the weight so it doesn't tip.

[johnrt]

How tall is it? Be careful so you don't wind up with a too large monitor bezel with a lot of empty space. (if you know what I mean).

[yotsuya]

How tall is it? Be careful so you don't wind up with a too large monitor bezel with a lot of empty space. (if you know what I mean).

Excellent point. Your bezel space is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. You don't want to look like that Goonies cab.

[EMDB]

How tall is it? Be careful so you don't wind up with a too large monitor bezel with a lot of empty space. (if you know what I mean).

It can house a bezel AND a marquee...

[yotsuya]

How tall is it? Be careful so you don't wind up with a too large monitor bezel with a lot of empty space. (if you know what I mean).

It can house a bezel AND a marquee...

Unless the marquee is really tall, that's still going to be too much space.

[Brian74]

Admin panel?

[yotsuya]

Admin panel?

How tall would that admin panel need to be?

Build it in Sketchup. That's going to be your best bet.

[EMDB]

Admin panel?

How tall would that admin panel need to be?

Build it in Sketchup. That's going to be your best bet.

Marquee + speaker panel + Bezel + Admin panel 

[a1pharm]

Find other plans that have great proportions, make note of where certain points are (CP height, monitor placement, marquee placement).  Put  these points on your plan.  Connect the dots in a fashion similar to your first post.  It will create an ergonomic cab while allowing you to apply your own pieces of flair.



Cheers!
 

[yotsuya]

Admin panel?

How tall would that admin panel need to be?

Build it in Sketchup. That's going to be your best bet.

Marquee + speaker panel + Bezel + Admin panel 

Upper Marquee + speaker panel + lower marquee + Bezel + Admin panel + glove compartment + popout drink holder tray 

[Brian74]

Admin panel?

How tall would that admin panel need to be?

Build it in Sketchup. That's going to be your best bet.

Marquee + speaker panel + Bezel + Admin panel 

Upper Marquee + speaker panel + lower marquee + Bezel + Admin panel + glove compartment + popout drink holder tray 

+1

[Generic Eric]

Admin panel?

How tall would that admin panel need to be?

Build it in Sketchup. That's going to be your best bet.

Marquee + speaker panel + Bezel + Admin panel 

Upper Marquee + speaker panel + lower marquee + Bezel + Admin panel + glove compartment + popout drink holder tray 

Top box + Marquee box + Rear access box + Monitor Area + Bezel + PC/PCB area + Control Panel + Coin door + Base

[AzureKnight]

Admin panel?

How tall would that admin panel need to be?

Build it in Sketchup. That's going to be your best bet.

Marquee + speaker panel + Bezel + Admin panel 

Upper Marquee + speaker panel + lower marquee + Bezel + Admin panel + glove compartment + popout drink holder tray 

Top box + Marquee box + Rear access box + Monitor Area + Bezel + PC/PCB area + Control Panel + Coin door + Base

Don't forget the virtual pinball monitor....

All kidding aside, I like the second one better as well.

[Sshado]

OK, yes, it looks tall due to my poor skills in Excel. (currently teaching myself SolidWorks, I will update later). In the picture here, it shows where the Marquee and the Monitor will be. Currently, the Control panel is about 33" high, I will raise it to 36" as the entire cab is about 72" tall. The monitor will be 32".

[johnrt]

And the width of the cab?

[Sshado]

Probably about 30" wide.

[Sshado]

OK, another question. He (the one I am building this for) can care less about a coin door. I was thinking of getting the UNREAL coin door (sticker) from Groovy Game Gear, has anyone seen or used this?

I am building this with an option to convert it to a San Jose Sharks cab in case my neighbor backs out, would I be better off just putting in the authentic coin door?

[a1pharm]

Cost of a coin door = $100, which is probably around 7-10% of the cost of the cab.  It's unnecessary, but so is this whole project.  I would say go for it.

If, however, your budget simply can't accommodate a real coin door, don't mess around with a fake looking sticker.  As soon as someone goes to use the coin door, and they find out it's a sticker, it takes away from the craftmanship of the cab.

Get a real one or nothing at all.

[Sshado]

Good point. I will put one in. Maybe get some custom tokens too

[Nephasth]

$100 coin door? Find a different source.

[yotsuya]

You're going to put a 12 1/2 inch wide door on a 30 inch cab?

I wouldn't do it.

[Cobolisdead]

Yeah, why not just put a coin button or something instead?

[keilmillerjr]

OK, another question. He (the one I am building this for) can care less about a coin door. I was thinking of getting the UNREAL coin door (sticker) from Groovy Game Gear, has anyone seen or used this?

I am building this with an option to convert it to a San Jose Sharks cab in case my neighbor backs out, would I be better off just putting in the authentic coin door?

I got my used happ over under REAL coin door on eBay for around $40. Probably one of the least costly parts of my build so far.

[Sshado]

You're going to put a 12 1/2 inch wide door on a 30 inch cab?

I wouldn't do it.

A1pharm did it with his and it looked fine:



same with Martijn:

[yotsuya]

If you think that looks fine, more power to you. I'd just as soon leave it off and throw some artwork there. But that's me - I didn't play on 3 foot wide cabinets BITD. Also, those doors don't look right because they are so LOW to the ground. In my opinion, of course. You asked the question.

If you say the guy doesn't even care about a coin door, leave it off.

[BadMouth]

Got a tall skinny happ over & under coin door on my 32" wide cab.
I like it.


I'd skip the coin door completely rather than use a sticker or a non-functional one.

[yotsuya]

Got a tall skinny happ over & under coin door on my 32" wide cab.
I like it.


I'd skip the coin door completely rather than use a sticker or a non-functional one.

I would agree with you there. A over/under on a wide cabinet at least fills up a lot more space than a standard one. Visually, it looks fine.

If you HAVE to go with, do an over/under. Unless you like this:

[a1pharm]

You're going to put a 12 1/2 inch wide door on a 30 inch cab?

I wouldn't do it.

A1pharm did it with his and it looked fine:



same with Martijn:

+1

[Sshado]

This will be a very slow build as I am building as I order parts. Wife isn't working so it is a little harder to justify it to her. I did manage to cut out the side yesterday, still need to smooth out the curves before I router the second side. I also decided not to curve the back to add stability.

[Sshado]

Just worked on this a little bit today, got the hole cut, duplicate side made, and slot cut for t-molding.

[Sshado]

I decided to not go as wide and got a 29" TV for the display, this makes the entire cab about 28 inches wide. I also went with the Over Under Coin Door. My orange T-Molding came in, I installed it and it is starting to look like an Arcade cabinet .

[yotsuya]

Nice save there, bro. I like it better already. 

[Brian74]

Nice save there, bro. I like it better already. 

+1

[Sshado]

I am about to buy the Acryllic that goes over the monitor. Should I buy a clear Acryllic or smoked transparent? 1/4 thick...

[Fursphere]

Really a personal preference.  I like both honestly. 

The smoked can help "hide" things better.  Are you going to build a separate bezel, or paint the back of the acrylic to make a bezel? 

[Sshado]

Planning on painting the back of it.

[Sshado]

Another question. This arcade will have Hyperspin and only MAME (no other consoles). Fry's has a computer for less than $200 that I believe should run it just fine. It has the AMD E1-6010 with integrated Radeon R2, am I right that this would be fine?

[BadMouth]

Another question. This arcade will have Hyperspin and only MAME (no other consoles). Fry's has a computer for less than $200 that I believe should run it just fine. It has the AMD E1-6010 with integrated Radeon R2, am I right that this would be fine?

Someone who only plays the classics and uses an old version of MAME will tell you yes.
Someone who plays 3D games (Blitz, Tekken) and shmups from the 90's on a current MAME build will tell you no.

I don't have any experience with the processor you mentioned, but googled it and saw a spec of 1.35Ghz.
Newer processors do more with less Ghz, but I'd still be afraid of it falling way short.

Personally I won't use anything under 3Ghz anymore unless I'm just trying to find a use for an ancient PC.

EDIT: Try the games you want to play out on various other PCs you have access to and see if any of them choke.
It's all about where you draw the line.  Ridge Racer plays wonderful in MAME, but requires a $200+ processor to run full speed.

I have 3 emulator systems in various capacities at the moment.  They are all 3.4Gz Athlon X3 processors with used 9800GT video cards.
They cost around $250 in parts at the time, not including the OS.
They are just barely good enough to run the Tekken games in MAME and Naomi shmups in Makaron emulator.  The Naomi shmups choke a little bit if run on Demul emulator.
PC games like Super Street Fighter IV and Mortal Kombat Komplete run surprisingly well at 1280x720 and medium settings.
This is back a few generations, so I wouldn't recommend building the same thing now, but it gives you an idea.

Current MAME builds are optimized for Intel processors.
If building today with the same budget, I'd probably go for a 2.8Ghz or higher i3.

[BadMouth]

They're used, but it looks like Arrow stocks some 3Ghz+ i3's in your price range.
http://arrowdirect.com/search?q=#/?_=1&page=1&filter.category_hierarchy=Desktops&filter.cpu_type=Intel%20Core%20i3%20Gen1&filter.cpu_type=Intel%20Core%20i3%20Gen2&sort.price=asc

See the thread about arrow in the everything else subforum.
Someone mentioned a 20% off code.

I used a 50% off code around Christmas to get a 3.2Ghz Pentium 4(no OS) for $16. 
I wouldn't recommend a P4 unless it's just going to play 2D stuff or as a temporary measure.

EDIT:  The i3's at arrow were around $220 before discounts when I posted the link.  The price seems to fluctuate wildly depending on what discount codes are valid.

[Sshado]

OK, I decided to bump up the computer and buy the parts to build it myself. Gonna cost about $600, but will probably be worth it. Here is a parts list:

3.2 GHz Dual Core Intel Processor
MSI LGA 1150 Micro ATX MotherBoard
Western Digital Blue 1 TB 7200 RPM HD
8 GB Kingston HyperX Fury RAM
750 Watt ATX 12V Power Supply
Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Video Card
Windows 7 Ultimate

[stuckpixel]

$99 for the Pentium G3258 and a MSI motherboard (full ATX - but a solid board): http://www.microcenter.com/site/brands/G3258Bundle.aspx

If you haven't already pulled the trigger on the proc/mobo, that might be worth looking at.

[stavros693000]

My pc specs are ......Intel core 2 6300 @1.86 GHz
                              500gb Hard drive
                              ATI Radeon 5450
                              2gb ram
I got it from the local computer shop for $200 australian used, which is about $160 USD
And it runs Hyperspin smoothly and plays HD pc games like MKKE,StreetfighterXtekken,Ultra SF4 at medium seetings at 60 fps
IT does struggle to run Playstation 2,and demul which is dreamcast or saturn i think.

But if you only intend on running hyperspin and mame you certainly dont need to spend $600 on a pc
The link that BadMouth posted , those pc's for $200 are more than enough for what you need.
Also if you shop around on ebay, they have a ton of used/refurbished desk tops with better or similar specs to mine for around $200-$250 USD.

Anyway the components you mentioned to build your own sound pretty sick if you dont mind spending the $$$ it will run everything from mame to Call of Duty.

I would like to upgrade mine one day so i can play injustice gods , COD and all the new HD pc games

[Sshado]

I already spent the money...

I should have this one done by the end of the week. I really wish I would NOT have put the holes in on the sides, it is making it a ---smurfette--- to line up the monitor and control panel, but I am making it work.

[a1pharm]

Keep powering ahead, it's looking great!

 

[Sshado]

Thanks, I am waiting for a few parts (some wire connectors for the lights). I didn't realize they were coming from China

I did get the control panel completed and built the computer. I can't find my external DVD drive to install Windows so I ordered one from Amazon, waiting for that too. Hopefully I will have most of it complete by next week, or at least some progress pics.

[a1pharm]

If you're looking to burn some time (maybe lots of time) you can look into making a "boot disc" out of a USB drive.  You can use this to install the OS, instead of waiting for the DVD drive.  It might be more work than it's worth, especially if you have the drive en route.  Just a thought.

[Sshado]

Yeah, I was going to do that until I realized I was still waiting for other parts that are holding me up. Thanks for the suggestion though.

While I wait, I decided to build a Vigolix for a daycare this weekend

[Sshado]

Didn't get as far as I had hoped on the Vigolix, but here is where I am with that:

[yotsuya]

Round that top off, man, lest you trip and impale yourself on it.

[Sshado]

Round that top off, man, lest you trip and impale yourself on it.

Probably should considering it is for a Daycare

[Sshado]

Well, finished the Vigolix for the daycare. Here are some pics and a pic of my (slow) progress on the standup:

[Vigo]

Lucky daycare kids!  Looks very clean.

[Sshado]

Here is the 3D model so far:

[a1pharm]

how are you liking that screen angle?  It looks close to 30deg? 

[Sshado]

I played it a bit and I kind of like the angle. The angle was forced due to the port holes

[a1pharm]

I bet the angle is nice (larger monitors are harder to see well when they are up close and at 15deg angle).  My 15deg angle monitor took some getting used to because of the size.  I assumed you wouldn't have any "adjustment" issues I did because of your angle.

Thanks for letting me know!

[Sshado]

Finally got around to working on this again. There is a strip under the monitor that I am thinking of adding a couple of discreet black buttons for Pause, Power, and Admin (tab) and maybe coin buttons, but right now I have the reject buttons acting as coin buttons. Here are a couple of pics of how it looks so far:

[reptileink]

I think this one is great! Not to flashy, but enough eye candy. The over/under door doesn't look at all out of place. Great job!

[Sshado]

I think this one is great! Not to flashy, but enough eye candy. The over/under door doesn't look at all out of place. Great job!

Thanks for the compliment I am actually pretty happy with it so far.

I bought an orange button to be the power button on the strip under the monitor, but now I am worried it will stand out too much and will probably just do black.

[reptileink]

Yea, I would choose black as well, no need for the start button to stand out so much. 

[Sshado]

Are there any buttons that people really like to have? I was just thinking Pause, Power, and Admin, but anything else?

Also, should I keep the coin buttons in the coin reject, or put them on the "admin" panel as well?

And last question, should I put the power button somewhere more out of the way, or is the "admin" panel fine?

[a1pharm]

Are there any buttons that people really like to have? I was just thinking Pause, Power, and Admin, but anything else?

Also, should I keep the coin buttons in the coin reject, or put them on the "admin" panel as well?

And last question, should I put the power button somewhere more out of the way, or is the "admin" panel fine?

Buttons you should have:
1. Admin button (hidden)
2. Power button (hidden)
3. Pause button (on the CP) - maybe 2 (one easily accessible for P1 and P2)
That's it for non-player buttons.

As for the coin button, do whatever floats your boat.

Cheers!
 

[emphatic]

I would have no admin or pause buttons at all, like on real arcade machines. Remember that time you hit PAUSE in the arcades? No, that's right, you never did. I would instead make the player 1 start button a SHIFT button, so if you hold it, you'll get to exit the game (ESCAPE key) when you press P1 FIRE1 (or PAUSE for lame scenarios).

This is of course just my opinion.

[Sshado]

I would have no admin or pause buttons at all, like on real arcade machines. Remember that time you hit PAUSE in the arcades? No, that's right, you never did. I would instead make the player 1 start button a SHIFT button, so if you hold it, you'll get to exit the game (ESCAPE key) when you press P1 FIRE1 (or PAUSE for lame scenarios).

This is of course just my opinion.

I think I am going to agree with you, I have been trying to stick (sort of) close to authentic without a bunch of buttons, so, I will not be adding any more. On a side note, I am converting the arcade to a San Francisco Giants theme, here is a quick 3D model. Anyone know where I can find mini wooden Bats for the joystick handle?

[yotsuya]

Anyone know where I can find mini wooden Bats for the joystick handle?

I'd try eBay.

[a1pharm]

Talk to this guy:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,143651.0/topicseen.html

[Sshado]

OK, I am finally putting in the finishing touches on this one. I am 99% done. I am just waiting for a coin release light and am having one big issue.

I have a Mini-Pac that works great, but every once in a while, when I turn the machine on, none of the arcade controls work. I exit out of Hyperspin, open notepad and test all the controls and they do work. Then I open Hyperspin again and sometimes it works, other times I have to unplug the USB to the Mini-Pac and plug back in. Does anyone have any idea how to stop this from happening?