Phoenix bartop

[Pharmer_Scott]

Chapter 1: Winging It

Where do these things get started?  First I wanted a pinball machine for the basement rec room.  Guess what?  They're expensive!  So I got all excited one day about this monitor I found at a thrift store.  I knew about MAME and knew a little about the homemade cabinets and thought how cool it might be to play arcade games at home, not just pinball.  So it morphed into a full cabinet idea.  Then I hit these forums and saw incredible bartop builds.  (NinjaSquirrel....wow....)  I had just built a dry bar out of rehabbed cabinets and granite and it seemed like a perfect spot for a bartop......this was last May ('14)  The forum lurking began.  The late nights staring at how you people make these things. ("What you mean, you people?")  The possibilities seem endless and the end results are often stunning (I still can't believe that steampunk one...goodness gracious)  What do I want?  What do I absolutely have to have?  What games do I want?  What machine will I use?  How to orient that monitor?  The questions were endless and I eventually settled on:
Bartop
2 player games, mostly fighters and scrollers, but I love the classics too. 
trackball - I had seen a small one somewhere.  Centipede, missile command and golden tee were happening or I wasn't building it.
Landscape orientation on the monitor
Existing PC - old but more than capable <---more on that later
My own cabinet plan

Why not use an existing plan?  Truth is, every single one was either not quite what I wanted or so incredibly complex there's no way I could accomplish the skill level necessary to produce anything but a sub-par product.  There are of course several plans that are well documented and successfully copied, but my creative side needed flexing.  My apologies to anyone seeing this and wanting the plan....there it is in picture #1.  I could throw on some measurements if you want, but I hope you like weird 1/16" measurements.  It's a good thing I'm not OCD because this box would have been trashed after day 1 and all my tools with it.  I sketched up a plan around the monitor I found, and using some of the plans on here, I determined the dimensions I *probably* needed.  Looking back, I can't believe how incomplete my plan was....this was definitely "winging it".  My next step was to mock it up a little with some cardboard but I got bored with that.  Let's cut stuff!!  I literally free-handed my plan onto MDF, and after it was cut, I modified it again and once I had the template I liked, I routed the other panel to match. 

Here ...we....GO!

[Pharmer_Scott]

I found slot blades for my router at Harbor Freight and thanks to all the build guides on here, slot-routed the main panels before putting it together.  I started with 1x2's for interior support.  Maybe I didn't try hard enough or have the precision for it, but I pulled them all off and replaced with 2x2's for more area for a screw to grab.  My first cut was on 6/8/14 and by the time I was ready to mount that monitor in there it was 6/29.  I was making decent progress but already seeing where a good plan is priceless.  I wasn't sure how my monitor was going to fit to my homemade bezel, and I started wondering about my marquee because it had some really odd angles.  "Winging it" was dragging me into dark places...I trudged forward. 

[Pharmer_Scott]

I hadn't thought of a theme yet.  So many great ideas out there.  I decided I didn't want the graphics to be anything that existed on any arcade.  That meant I needed to design it myself.  yeah...here I go again.  So life took over and over the next month or so I hardly worked on it.  It started to become decision time:  Go with completely generic arcade-y look or make it personal.  I loved the Star Wars builds but I may or may not have a TON of Star Wars stuff already in that basement, and I needed something that would get no wife-pushback. 

It hit me.  Battle of the Planets.  G-Force.  Gatchaman!  That plane that somehow spontaneously combusted for dramatic effect without cooking the inhabitants (or whichever G-Force member that got left behind to fly it....Tiny or Keyop probably, or just poor 7-Zark-7, the robot that we Star Wars fans had to accept because R2-D2 was nowhere in sight on Saturday mornings)  Battle of the Planets was as much a part of my adolescent Saturday mornings as the Bugs Bunny hour.  It wasn't on very consistently but when it was, you can bet I was right there in front of the TV. 

That spaceship ....The Phoenix.  I was "winging it" after all.   I had a theme!

I took elements from what I could find online, threw them into Gimp but they were too dull and pixelated.  I wound up making my own layers that were colorful modified versions of what I had found online and arranging it so the controls wouldn't be in the way.  I sent a high quality version to gameongrafix.com.  Unfortunately, UPS lost it.  PROPS to gameongrafix.com - without hesitation they printed a new one and sent it to me.  The other one showed up a few days later, having been delivered accidentally to a neighbor a few blocks away.  UPS ...not so much on the props.  Have you even GPS'd ever?   

[leapinlew]

Yes! Love the theme. So many awesome memories. In fact, I'm scared to go back and re-watch them now for fear of ruining the memories I have.

I went back and rewatched Dungeons and Dragons and it was not a good idea. Same with Return of the Jedi.

[Pharmer_Scott]

I realized I had neglected to really think about the back of the cabinet.  As a reminder:  I didn't have a plan!  It was time to give it a look.  I had also not made the marquee quite deep enough to handle the speakers I had so....to the back they go!  This isn't what I wanted but now I'm paying the price for my approach.  I wanted the back panels to look nice, while being something I can remove easily to get to the guts of the thing.  So I used the thinner MDF boards.  First attempt (no photos) was to try kerf cutting.  Fail. That stuff is too thin and weak.  Next attempt was a system of hinges.  Nope. 

Ultimately I used cabinet latch magnets to hold 3 panels on the back.  They're cheap and small, and will not affect the monitor or hard drives.  Each panel had to be beveled correctly to accept the one next to it.  Future me:  I would not do it this way again.  Yes, that is a sunflower seed package.  I devastated the local supply of seeds through this build.  Oh yeah....we're well into September now. 

Next I turned my attention to the control panel.  I used the extra vinyl that showed up late as my template, then drilled the appropriate sized holes.  I left the trackball below the surface. To secure it to the CP, I de-cased it and attached the top part to the CP with screws.  The ball and bottom part just snap in.  I probably would do it differently next time and try to mount it completely flush with straps underneath.  Maybe. 

Problems:  I had not designed my 2P joystick far enough away from the trackball case!  To modify this with a new CP is easy enough but then my vinyl would have to be redesigned.  I wound up soldering the wiring later....Plan, people.  Plan.  I also cracked the plexi top when I drilled through it without the correct support.  I was rushing a little and it cost me.  It wasn't on the first or second hole either.  It was the LAST OF 19 HOLES!   S.O.S. band said it ....Take the time, do it right. 

[reptileink]

Loving the lengthy new member posts! Really kills time reading tomes during work (no sarcasm).

Looks like you are on your way to a great build (although I have no idea what your theme is) assuming anime?

Also love that you are doing your own thing here. No knock on bar top builds, but a lot of them are the same format (as mine will be...lol), but refreshing to see something different! 

[Pharmer_Scott]

Thanks!  Theme is Battle of the Planets, which was a 70's Japanese anime that somehow wound up on American TV with Casey Kasem voicing stuff as per standard Saturday morning cartoon etiquette.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Planets

 The crazy part is, I'm leaving out and glossing over a ton of mistakes and commentary about stupid things I did!  This project has been an awesome learning experience.   

[reptileink]

Ah, I was born in 76, so it was all GI Joe, Transfomers, WWF cartoons, Hanna Barbera, etc.

[Pharmer_Scott]

Let's get to that control panel, shall we?  This is the exciting stuff.  I had previously ordered a custom cut piece of lightly smoked glass.  I think it was $45 and totally worth it. 

I can't think of any major mistakes here except that when I mounted the support rails inside the cabinet, I hadn't allowed for the plexi thickness, so those got rebuilt.  At this point, I'm still unsure how my CP is going to rest against that glass.  I wanted it to keep the glass in place, in tandem with the bottom board of the marquee (missing from these pics).  I wound up notching the inside support rails and that keeps it in place very well.  You can see my wiring is nothing you'd write home about.  I am truly in awe of those CP's with routed wiring channels and all that.  I don't have the patience for that but maybe if I plan better next time I can do that too.  There's that word again...

Last pic is when I started putting in the T-molding.  Doesn't seem very exciting until it's all on and you think "Daaaaaaang"

[Pharmer_Scott]

So this is present day.  I'm skipping over most of the winter and spring where it just sat there in the shop. 

I used rope light for the marquee light.  It seemed plenty bright until I got my marquee print put in there.  It's now fairly dim, but I also didn't want it to dominate the basement.

You also see how I attached my CP.  I hadn't really allowed enough space for a hinge and the ones I kept trying just didn't make it look right or pushed it up above the level of the side walls.  Instead I used these cabinet latches with vinyl clasps.  Again, they're cheap, and will keep it from moving around too much.  It's new, so I don't know if I love it yet or not, but maybe someone else is looking for a low clearance way to get the CP attached.  The CP itself is a tight fit side-to-side so I just needed a way to keep it from moving vertically (toward the glass).  The added bonus is that I can easily pop it out and switch the joystick to a 4-way. 

I'm not thrilled with the marquee and need to paint the bottom board still.  I think I can make it look right with a little creativity, but again I'll have to wing it a little.....more to come!

Let me know what you think!  I think it turned out OK for starting from scratch.  I still need to work on the frontend (QMC2 on Ubuntu) but it's playable and the kids are loving it!