Minimalist Plywood Bartop - 1st Humble Build (Complete)

[chacolla]

Hi guys! What an amazing forum - this is my first topic here as I've just recently finished my first arcade cabinet. The purpose of this was to be a low cost, minimalist design that would allow to me play my favorite games as a kid growing up (born in '87, started my gaming 'career' with an NES and spent half my childhood on Super Mario games).

Someday, I want to build a full sized 4-player cabinet, but I wanted to start small and get practice with this first. I have very little experience with woodworking and don't have access to many good tools. This build was completed with a cordless drill, circular saw, orbital sander, Dremel, and mainly leftover PC parts, and leftover plywood from old projects.

I finished this a few months back and was hesitant to post it here, solely because of the level of quality that most of you have when building your cabinets. I continue to be amazed at the level of craftsmanship and detail for most guys on here and unfortunately, I just don't have those skills yet. So please go easy on me for my first time, but I do welcome and accept all constructive criticism as it will only lead to better results next time!

On to the pics and build thread! I recently created this album to share with family and friends and then decided to share publicly here.

http://imgur.com/a/2raaz#vQfFno4

Finished product:


Finished "Retro Gaming Center"


A little additional information:

This started after summer ended here in the Northeast US. I already had all the wood and tools I needed to build this, as well as almost all the PC parts from old builds that were sitting in storage in the basement. I picked up a 19" Dell UltraSharp monitor at Goodwill in MINT condition for $19. Yes, I know this is a 5:4 screen and not a real 4:3, but I truly don't mind the small bezels for 4:3 games. Plus it works slightly better for vertical games and some of the retro emulators which had taller than 4:3 native resolutions. All in all, it's a fantastic screen.

So I decided I wanted to buy the arcade supplies and really do this to start getting some practice and experience, plus have something fun to work on in the cooler months and on rainy fall days. I wanted it to look like a piece of furniture, rather than a real arcade cabinet with vinyl graphics. Not that that isn't awesome, it's just that I wanted this to fit in a little better with my home decor so it wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb in my family room. This also meant I was not going to have a marquee...the goal was to have the minimalist design with the slimmest bezels possible so that it just looked like a sleek wooden box with a giant screen on it. I think I succeeded in that overall.

After the bartop was finished, I needed something to put it on so I could play it. The kitchen island wasn't going to work forever. So I set off to Goodwill again and found that coffee table for $11. Wood was in overall decent shape but the surfaces were gross. Installed longer legs and added the bottom supports and shelf for support. It is roughly 40" tall and the control panel is about 3-4" off the surface, so for a 5'11" man like me, it is literally the perfect standing height to play games.

Stained it, added the underlighting for a cool effect, and then realized I had all this extra space that I didn't know what to do with. I figured that since I hardly used my 26" LCD TV and Wii that was in the basement, I'd bring those upstairs and make this whole table a dedicated retro gaming station. Now, I have pretty much all the classics from my youth all the way up to my late teens/early 20s - MAME, NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, PSX, GBA/GBC all emulated on the arcade with most of those also emulated on the softmodded Wii. The Wii also has a USB hard drive hooked up loaded with my GameCube and Wii backups as well.

Finally decided to end the project by making it a TRUE two-person setup. Decided I needed an extra joystick and the flat HDMI cable for screen #2. Again, trying to stay very low on the budget, I picked up the iCade bluetooth stick for roughly $15 shipped. It's standard arcade button fare with micro-switches and what not. I tossed the bluetooth encoder and wired up an ebay Zero Delay encoder I had and some extra micro-switches that were softer than the included ones (included ones were incredibly stiff and hard to push). Also added the two rear 24MM buttons for Coin Up and Start and swapped out the red balltop with a white one. Connects via USB in the back of the arcade, switch the TV to HDMI Input #2 and it automatically mirrors the display for player two to have their own screen. There is no video delay at all and the sound only comes out of the arcade speakers.

Specs (Items noted with * were purchased for this build):
1/2" Pine Plywood and 3/4" Pine Board Construction
*19" Dell UltraSharp S-IPS Panel - 1280x1024
MicroATX Intel G35 Motherboard
Intel Q6600 Quad-Core 2.4ghz
4GB DDR2
60GB SSD
*Lepai 20W desktop amplifier with 5" midrange car speakers.
*Ipac2 from Ultimarc
*Happ Competition buttons
*Sanwa J-Stick (4/8 switchable).
*25C credit button and pause/exit buttons on front.
*Side buttons for pinball (future use, never set this up).
*1/4" plexiglass screen cover, spray-painted black bezel.

Software:
Windows 8.1 Pro - boots then autoruns Maximus Arcade
Emulates the following:
-MAME (powerful enough to run pretty much any game I throw at it)
-NES
-SNES
-Genesis
-GBA/GBC
-PSX
-Dreamcast
-PC Games such as SSF IV AE.
-XBMC for videos and music - works great as a jukebox.

*GPU has DVI out to the monitor and HDMI out to the TV.

Wii:
Softmodded to run Wii and GameCube backups (Wii via USB, GC via backed up DVDs), emulates NES, SNES, GBA/GBC, Genesis.


Let me know what you guys think! Thanks for taking a look!

[Slippyblade]

Welcome to the forums.  This is a heck of an introduction IMHO.  There is never anything wrong with simplicity when it's done well, and this looks great.

[Aceisback]

Nothing wrong with your setup. I am finishing a mini bartop (that is almost the same shape as yours) with a Raspberry Pi and I used plywood. I like how yours turned out. I painted mine, wanted to finish it like you did, but I am not good with stains and such.

[chacolla]

Wow, thanks for the nice words! Was not expecting that.

Aceisback, would love to see your build if it's posted anywhere.

My brother gave me a nice router and jigsaw for Christmas so I am already thinking of the next build!

[a1pharm]

Some thoughts:

1. Your bartop does not look like a typical bartop.  It doesn't look bad, just different.
2. You have proven you can follow tight tolerances in small spaces.  I don't know what other types of woodworking skills you would need to make a truly fantastic cab... especially that now you have the last tools you really need (router and jigsaw).

You're off to a good start, good luck on your future builds!

[Aceisback]

Wow, thanks for the nice words! Was not expecting that.

Aceisback, would love to see your build if it's posted anywhere.

My brother gave me a nice router and jigsaw for Christmas so I am already thinking of the next build!

I don't actually document my builds, but I will post a pic when it is finally done (hopefully by the end of next week if not sooner. All I can say is my artwork is going to be homegrown so it may be interesting.

[TeamTEOR]

Nice!! Welcome to the group.

Have you had any issues with Maximus Arcade exiting emulators? Every time I leave a game it glitches out and I have to use a mouse to exit the emulator

[Louis Tully]

.

[chacolla]

Thanks guys! No issues with Maximus Arcade other than project 64 not working. I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I have another smaller build I'm starting now and p64 works fine on that PC through Maximus. The red front button exits out of each emulator flawlessly, though.

[Louis Tully]

.

[danny_galaga]

That is some pretty neat work for someone who doesn't think they are that great. Better than my attempts. Since most cabs tend to be painted or covered in laminate, your next one will be even better since there's nothing you can't fix with some putty and a sanding block