First time Project - the Brentendo

[brentnet]

I came up with a design somewhat based on the Weecade, but I'm beefing up the size a little bit so that I can make it a two player cabinet. The entire reason I'm doing this is so I can play with friends 8-10 times a year. Otherwise, this guy will likely sit on the shelf a fair amount.

I've come up with a rough design (see attachment)

The control panel plan has already changed. I'm going to try to put eight buttons (I know... somewhat cramped), but I plan to play a lot of different systems and not just MAME (currently, MAME, N64, NES, Playstation, Genesis, and SNES). I'm going to set them up (shown in attached image).

So far, I've got Hyperspin installed. I've done a ton of downloading videos and themes (hint, google romname.png or romname.mp4 and you find a lot of people who have Hyperspin directories shared on the web). I've grabbed what I can from emumovies and Hyperspin forums, but the daily download limits for free users make it difficult.

I know I could spend the money to join Emumovies and Hyperspin, but I'm trying to do this quite on the cheap. Maybe someday, but I don't need all these movies and themes to games I'll never play anyway. Being thrifty is kind of a common theme to this entire project.

Anyway, I've purchased almost all my materials and am trying to get ready to start this. The problem is making time is very difficult. Besides work, I'm a 9th grade / assistant varsity basketball coach, so now is an especially busy time of year. Add to that, I live in MN, so it's not the easiest time of year to work outside cutting up a bunch of MDF. So, this project might take me a few months to complete.

I'm going kind of generic with controls. I bought the X-Arcade BYO kit. It was the first thing on the machine that I bough. I didn't realize that you could buy individual parts. Actually, I take that back. I did, but having a package of all the connectors, joysticks, buttons, cards, ect. was very appealing. I'm planning using 2x8 buttons, a player one and player two button. I'm going to steal one of the connectors to use a NovaGemCDR Coin Drop button I bought. I've got one extra controllable button and then I'm hoping to turn one of the buttons into a computer power button and then that be the "master" surge protector outlet that (hopefully) turns on everything else.

I've also recently picked up a 24x24 piece of Lexan for a bezel. I have to pick up another, but I want to make sure what size my control panel is going to be before I grab another one.

I've also picked up some USB speakers (not sure if I'm going to decase or not), cheap speaker grills, and black t-molding. I have a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 MDF I need to pickup at the local lumberyard that's been cut into four 2x4 pieces which saves me a few cuts and allows me to get it into my car.

I'm thinking of painting my cabinet instead of spending the money on vinyl. I've already got paint that I would need, plus worst case scenario - it looks terrible and I could just order graphics later. I do think I am going to order a marquee at some point, but I'm just waiting until I finalize size.

I picked up a dirt cheap Dell 2007FP off of eBay. I was going to go with a smaller 15" LCD tv I had laying around the house, but figured it would look pretty small in what's likely going to be a pretty large bartop. Lastly, I've got an old school wall bottle opener that I'm going to mount to the machine because who doesn't love a bottle opener?

Right now, I'm looking at a design that is 24 inches wide, 34 inches tall and 21 inches deep. Huge for a bartop, I know. I'm debating making it a little thinner with a control panel box that kind of juts out a little bit like maybe a mini version of the TMNT 4 player. I've got to mock it up w/ cardboard to see how I like the size. I may also stick with the wide version but make it a little bit shorter.

One other option I'm debating (and I'm curious is anyone has ever done this). I'm debating building a base that can serve a second purpose (maybe a little extra storage). That I could put some sort of clamp on the base that makes the bartop piece removable. That way, I could store it in my garage like a normal arcade cab, but I could move it upstairs if I needed to. I'm guessing the top piece itself would be around 80-100 lbs. Not super portable, but movable in a pinch.

Anyway, I've done a ton of browsing and have kind of picked ideas from here, there, and everywhere. I'll try to post pictures during the construction process.

[DaOld Man]

Welcome to the forum!

Looks like youre off to a good start.
I would definitely loose the 15" monitor and go with a 19". at least 17"
Check arrowdirect.com for some good deals. There is a thread in "everything else" that you might find a current discount code. Right now I think reddit will get you a discount.
Im not sure 24 inches wide is too wide for a bartop. Im currently working on one that is 24" wide.

Good luck with your project. Im in Kentucky and it is cold here, probably not cold compared to where you are though.
Also, you might want to check out http://bartopmania.com it is geared to bartops, however Im not suggesting you move your project updates to there, there are several bartops on here, but you might get some more ideas from there.

[brentnet]

Yup - I already did get a 20" Dell (2007 FP). Picked it up for $37 including shipping on eBay.

[Malenko]

I really hate to be negative, but that marquee doesn't make any sense to me.

1 Nintendo's Paper Mario over a Super Mario logo
2 Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog
3 Nintendo's N64 Link
4 former Sony exclusive mascot, Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot
5 Mike Tyson over the arcade punchout logo (which didnt have Mike Tyson in it)
6 The Turtles
7 A dead wrestler overtop of a company logo that doesnt exist anymore
8 and finally, an Anime style picture of Michael Jordan who wasnt in NBA Jam over the jam logo.

I dont understand how they form a cohesive marquee (and I think you accidentally pasted a small version of the marquee near link). Idea seems centered around the original NES. the only thing up there that's close to an NES game was TMNT, and I guess the Ultimate Warrior counts since he was in those terrible acclaim wrestling games.

Maybe highlight your favorite NES games instead?

Lastly, in the isometric mock up, the flipped controller looks weird but you said you were probably going to paint it instead of graphics.

[yotsuya]

I really hate to be negative, but that marquee doesn't make any sense to me.

1 Nintendo's Paper Mario over a Super Mario logo
2 Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog
3 Nintendo's N64 Link
4 former Sony exclusive mascot, Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot
5 Mike Tyson over the arcade punchout logo (which didnt have Mike Tyson in it)
6 The Turtles
7 A dead wrestler overtop of a company logo that doesnt exist anymore
8 and finally, an Anime style picture of Michael Jordan who wasnt in NBA Jam over the jam logo.

I dont understand how they form a cohesive marquee (and I think you accidentally pasted a small version of the marquee near link). Idea seems centered around the original NES. the only thing up there that's close to an NES game was TMNT, and I guess the Ultimate Warrior counts since he was in those terrible acclaim wrestling games.

Maybe highlight your favorite NES games instead?

Lastly, in the isometric mock up, the flipped controller looks weird but you said you were probably going to paint it instead of graphics.

I concur. These are all excellent points.

[brentnet]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not really going with a singular theme. The look is NES-ish, but I'm just going on what some of my favorite games were growing up. I'm not 100% married to the theme right now. My goal is just  to be kind of personalized to me and what games I loved growing up. Completely understand that the marquee doesn't make sense to you (or anyone else for that matter). I could wax poetic about why I choose each one of those, but it's for personal or nostalgic reasons.

First of all, I grew up in a household where my parents didn't allow to have a videogame console until I was 15. So much of my childhood memories are about going over to friends house's and playing videogames or begging for quarters at a Pizza Hut.

Mario is on there just because I spent hours and hours playing all of the Mario games (I don't know that I've ever even beaten one, to tell you the truth!) Sonic represents the Genesis which was kind of the "it" console with my friends when I was in about 6th grade. I remember getting a phone call from a friend who got a Sega for Christmas and was excited thinking how I'd get to play Sega at his house now. Zelda is that "deep dig" game that I'd play at friends houses. We'd alternate lives. It seemed like we'd pull that game out for years and years trying to learn all the little secrets (anyone else remember looking at those mini maps that came in Nintendo Power magazine). Crash represents my first console I owned (PSX). I saved up money to buy the PSX and ordered the game online. I remember getting home from school one day and the Crash disc was in the mail. I thought it was the coolest game I'd ever played at the time. Punch Out was (and still is) one of my favorite games. I loved the Turtles arcade game even though I thought the NES game was impossibly difficult. I also was a big WWF fan growing up and even though the games were admittedly horrible, I spent as much money as my parents would allow in quarters. And NBA Jam was just the greatest game ever (and I realize MJ wasn't in the game).

My theory (which makes sense to me, but to each his or her own) is my videogame history kind of blends together. I don't have one game or one system that was it for me. Plus, I think it sometimes looks strange to have a theme from one game and then play different games (example - playing Contra in a Street Fighter themed cab would seem weird to me). The whole idea behind making my own bartop cab is that I'll play all kinds of different games, so I wanted to give it a theme that touches all bases.

In all honesty, the games I played the most growing up were sports games... Tecmo Bowl, NBA Jam, NBA Live, Madden, NFL 9x, World Series Baseball, Ken Griffey Baseball, RBI Baseball, Bases Loaded, Double Dribble, etc. That was literally 90% of the gaming I did with my friends growing up. I was trying to figure out how I could do a sports theme cab, but hard a hard time figuring out how to incorporate a bunch of pixelated looking guys from SNES or "Player 99" or "QB Eagles" and make it look cool.

[Malenko]

No need to justify it to me. I thought you posted it in hopes of getting feedback to improve it. Even if its an amalgamation of things you like, having paper mario over a super mario logo artistically doesn't jive. Your cab, your art, your choice. 

However the WWF arcade games were awesome. Superstars was good, but Wrestlefest to this day is still amazing. I was talking about the NES games, they were god awful. Bonus points to you if you incorporate YUK DUM BOO BUM  into the art (and I hope you get the reference).

[brentnet]

Bases Loaded! Loved that game...

I apologize if I'm coming off as over defensive. I really do appreciate the feedback. To me, Mario is Mario. I've never even played Paper Mario, so it doesn't bother me. Just thing it looked cool.

You have my mind at least thinking of how I could do some sort of retro sports games amalgamation (that's a big word for this early) design. But I'm trying to do it on the cheap, so I'm trying to figure out how I can figure out a paint scheme for the cab plus a marquee that looks cool...

[bfauska]

1 Nintendo's Paper Mario over a Super Mario logo
2 Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog
3 Nintendo's N64 Link
4 former Sony exclusive mascot, Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot
5 Mike Tyson over the arcade punchout logo (which didnt have Mike Tyson in it)
6 The Turtles
7 A dead wrestler overtop of a company logo that doesnt exist anymore
8 and finally, an Anime style picture of Michael Jordan who wasnt in NBA Jam over the jam logo.

That's impressive, both that Melenko knows all those inconsistencies and that every title mentioned had one. I think to the casual observer you're mostly going to have people notice that several of those games weren't on NES but within the games I don't think the average Joe would catch that it's the wrong Mario or that Jordan wasn't in NBA Jam. One way to alleviate this and make the sort of mash-up/amalgamation that you mentioned would be to add more consoles in the representation. It risks looking disjointed but I feel like I've seen some successful use of the iconic features of various consoles mixed together to show the all-in-one nature of this kind of project.

[Generic Eric]

Make your game, play your game.  Consider this whole thing to be a 3 part process.

• Aquire, Build, Configure PC.
  
• Build Bartop.
  
• Complete artwork.
  

I'd suggest configuring your PC to use an encoder with real arcade controls.  Cut a 2 player test board in a fight stick box to test your layout.  Testing each of those games you want to play on your bartop layout.

Here is why.  Not every game is suited to the arcade experience, I've spent a few dollars on humblebundle & steam games to find this out for myself.  Several suggest that by playing on arcade controls, you loose the couch experience we had with consoles.   


So, there it is; more advice you didn't ask for.  In the end its your machine.  Make your game, play your game.

[lamprey]

Damn I read the title as "Bartendro" not "Brentendo"..

.. just came for the drinks..