Yet Another Ultimate Arcade 2 Kit Mod(s)

[scorned4sega]

INTRO

So about a year or so after watching a Tech Tested video series in which they built a custom cocktail cabinet (Part 1: ) (on a side note they finally finished it so I’m going to have to watch parts 6 and 7), and reading their related blog post explaining the different varieties of joysticks and buttons available (Choosing Buttons and Joysticks for a Custom Arcade Cabinet:  http://www.tested.com/art/makers/464539-choosing-buttons-and-joysticks-custom-arcade-cabinet/), I discovered the Slag Coin website as well as St. Clair’s Project Arcade, 2nd Ed. I had also visited and played some of the classic arcade games at Andretti Indoor Karting & Games in Atlanta, GA as well as a couple of other games. I grew up playing in arcades from the mid 80’s and the mid 90’s and all of these reignited my passion for arcade games. After reading Project Arcade, Slag Coin, and various websites documenting custom arcade builds, I decided to create my first arcade cabinet.

I started planning it back in September of 2014 and at the time, I had no experience with woodworking so after comparing the various cabinet kits available online, I decided to buy MameRoom.com’s (or North Coast Customs) Ultimate Arcade II kit. I bought it off of Ebay for a couple hundred dollars less than on their website with free shipping. I also bought the marquee retainers, marquee Plexiglas, and t-molding separately from their website. Everything arrived in the mail all together in 3 separate boxes and arrived really quickly within 3 days or so.
 
Here is the "construction zone" as my fiancé calls it. Otherwise known as my dining room. 



I also decided to build my own control panel that I can customize to my preference. I’ve been working on the bottom half of the cabinet off and on, mostly every other weekend or when I have the time/energy, for about 6 to 8 months now.

The PC will be running MAME along with the following emulators:
•   NES
•   SNES
•   N64
•   Gameboy Color and GBA
•   NDS
•   TurboGrafx 16 and CD
•   Sega Master System
•   Sega Genesis
•   4:3 Steam Games
•   PS1
•   Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube (depending on compatibility status)

COMPUTER
•   OS: Win 8.1 x64
•   ThermalTake Dokker mid-sized desktop tower (the product description says that it supports a 200mm fan but most fans won’t fit inside the top of the case)
•   CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb Quad-Core 3.7GHz Socket AM3 125W HDZ980FBGMBOX Desktop Processor
•   CPU Cooler: Enermax Liqtech 240 All-in-One Liquid Cooler 27MM Thick Radiator w/ Duo High Pressure Airflow Fans
o   I used 2 slim 120mm fans installed to the bottom of the cooler (which barely cleared my RAM sticks because of their heat spreader fins) and installed the 2 120mm fans that it came with onto the top of the case using machine screws
•   Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD65V2 Desktop Motherboard - AMD 990FX Chipset - Socket AM3+
•   RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
•   Video card:  ASUS EAH 4890/HTDI/1GD5 Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
o   The ATI 4800 series were the last models to support component out through an adapter
o   The card is running legacy Catalyst Control Center software and drivers which all run fine in Windows

•   HARD DRIVE: Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F180GBGT-BK 2.5" 180GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
•   PSU: Corsair 750W modular power supply
•   WI-FI: TP-LINK TL-WN823N 300Mbps Wireless Mini USB Adapter
•   ASUS USB Adapter with Bluetooth (USB-BT400) for connecting my NES themed wireless Bluetooth controller http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Wireless-Classic-Controller-Android-Gamepad/dp/B00MB6CNN8
o   I also have an old Bluetooth adapter which I can use to connect a PS3 controller wirelessly. The drive software makes it appear as a Xbox 360 controller so that I can use it for Steam in addition to emulators


I will be using either GameEx or Maximus Arcade for the front end.


MONITOR:L G DU-27FB34C 27” CRT supporting component out and power return
POWER STRIP: TRIPP LITE AV88SATG 8-Feet Cord A/V Surge Protector
SPEAKERS: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1


TOOLS
•   Black & Decker MATRIX Drill http://www.blackanddecker.com/products/power-tools/portable-power-tools/drills/matrixtrade-20v-max-lithium-drilldriver/bdcdmt120
o   The drill has a modular design where you can replace the drill with about 5 different attachments
o   I picked the router attachment on sale at WalMart for $15  http://www.blackanddecker.com/products/power-tools/portable-power-tools/specialty-tools/matrixtrade-router-attachment/bdcmtr
o   I later picked up the trim saw attachment (http://www.blackanddecker.com/en-US/products/power-tools/portable-power-tools/saws/matrix-trim-saw-attachment/bdcmtts), which is really handy for smaller and shorter cuts, and replaced the stock blades with 3-3/8” fine tooth blades (Century Drill and Tool 08236 Cenalloy All Hard Steel Plywood Circular Saw Blade, 3-3/8-Inch by 80T http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C20LAJQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

•   DEWALT DW2535 3 Piece Countersink Drill Bit Set
•   Kobalt Circular Saw (it’s a Lowes brand I think) paired with a 60T fine tooth blade
•   Black & Decker JS660 Jig Saw
•   MCLS 6077 ¼” 15 piece router bit set http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001S2RAWA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
•   Black & Decker oscillating sander
•   11/64” T-Molding router bit
•   17 piece spade bit set (Irwin Tools 1792761 Speedbor Blue-Groove Pro)
•   Face mask with respirator
•   Various rulers, T squares, clamps,


MAIN GOALS
•   Install caster wheels
•   Mount 2 140mm intake fans on the front of the cab; mount 2 140mm fans on the back access door panel for exhaust (I had 2 of these just lying around from an old PC build)
o   The reason that I decided to add fans to the cab is because my CPU cooler is a hybrid liquid cooler so it needs incoming air to manage CPU temps. I tried searching the forum and google for pics of builds with intake fans on the front next to the coin door but I didn’t find anything. I did find pictures where people had installed speaker grills on the front next to the coin door so is that is basically what mine will look like. The other factor is that the cab design has the bottom and top half closed off from each other by the monitor shelf so there isn’t free airflow to the top of the cabinet.

•   Install cabinet hinges and a cam lock onto the back access door panel
•   Possibly include an admin panel for the PC power and reset buttons, along with other admin buttons
•   After reading all of the forum threads about how nice grey tinted glass makes the monitor appear, I also want to install glass over the monitor bezel. I just need to find some samples of clear and light grey glass so that I can compare the 2 to see which one will look the best
•   After measuring my CRT when shopping for a 27” plastic bezel, it is looking like my TV might not fit inside the cab unless I remove the plastic case so I most likely will need to build a wooden monitor mount. If I have enough plywood left over after finishing the CP, I might also make a wooden bezel.
•   Build a CP that will support 2 players with 2 8way joysticks and 1 dedicated 4 way. For the 4 way, I’m leaning heavily towards Groovy Game Gear’s True Leaf Pro or the Pac Pro joystick. I’ve already picked up a Seimitsu LS 32 and LS 40 that I will be using for the 8 way joysticks. I haven’t decided if I want to add a trackball yet; I never really played any games growing up that used one, but I’m still considering it. After seeing Groovy Game Gear’s 7” racing wheel attachment for their spinner, I definitely want to try to include a spinner into the final design for 360 degree racing games. I most likely will be using GGG’s CLASSX™ Colors Leaf Switch Compatible buttons. I will have 2 or 3 buttons with True-Leaf Pro switches for use with the 4 way joystick. From what I’ve read here leaf switches sound really nice!:) I’ll probably get a selection of their other switches to test out and see which ones I like the best for the main player 1 and 2 buttons. I was originally going to go with 8 buttons each for use with emulators but I might cut it down to 6 or 7.

[scorned4sega]

CASTER WHEELS

Here is the section of the plans that I made in Excel based on Lusid’s plans for the CP and the new base. I had to make some adjustments on the fly to correct some errors that I made when measuring.




A very helpful website that I read was http://www.arcadecab.com ArcadeCab.com. The author gives a very in-depth walk-through of the build process for 2 arcade cabs that he built. I based my plan to install the caster wheels based on his method where he routed out a dado into each side of the cab for the base to fit into.

Here is his diagram from the ArcadeCab site:




I decided to use ¾” birch plywood to build the new base for the cab and the control panel. The only 5/8” wood that I could find through local retailers was pine, which was slightly warped and didn’t look like it would be as sturdy. I bought a 4 X 8’ section of plywood and had Lowe’s cut it into thirds so I could fit into the back of my Camry   I used 2 2” straight casters for the rear of the cab and 2 2” locking swivel casters for the front, rated at 125 pounds each.

In order to get all of my measurements of the new base, I assembled the bottom half of the kit. I then marked lines with a blue sharpie to mark where the original base was aligned on the panel’s black finish. At first I tried a white pencil but it wasn’t able to leave a mark on the black surface. I then made a cut line for the bottom of the new base 1 15/16” up from the bottom. I made the dado that I would route out ¾” thick to fit the birch plywood that I would be using. 1 7/8” up would have also worked. I didn’t want to go to high up because I didn’t want the new base to interfere with a slanted back panel that goes in at a 45 degree angle. I adjusted his diagram by using a 1” thick X 2” wide x 33” long ledger board placed vertically below the dado on each side of the cabinet to support the base.

I live in an apartment so my front porch is my work area. I cut three different passes for each dado with a ¼” straight bit.
My first attempt at using a router. The router jumped on me a bit. The red clamp shown below only has bare metal on the adjustable side that was touching the outside of the panel. Unfortunately the clamp bit into the finish so that there was a small bit of bare wood showing. I have now started putting a small square of cardboard in-between the panels and the clamp in order to protect the finish.




The other side came out much better




I decided to use laminate to cover the new base (which I had never done before) but the only laminate that I could find locally was black matte Wilson Art laminate. Lowe’s didn’t carry the Formica black matte laminate that I originally wanted.  I picked a 4 x 8’ sheet from the store and then cut it down to size with the trim router attachment for my drill. Then I sprayed the underside of the laminate and the base with Spray 90 adhesive.




I used wooden dowels so I could adjust the position of the laminate before I applied it to each side of the base. Then I flattened it out and permanently attached it to the wood using a rolling pin. I didn't feel like waiting for a J Roller to arrive from Amazon. Plus they are about $20 more.




Next I routed off the excess laminate with the router attachment for my drill. You have to leave a 1/2" or more overhanging the wood so that it will fit right. You might not be able to see but it I didn't laminate the edges of the shelf sides where they will slide into the slot in the sides.




Here’s the laminate fully installed.




After a royally botched attempt at adding touch up paint to the outside panel that my clamp scratched, I ended up relaminating that side with black matte Vertical grade Formica laminate that I bought online (it’s a little bit thinner than the normal kind). I bought it from http://www.cabinetmakerwarehouse.com/black#.VV4AkPlVjK0] [url]http://www.cabinetmakerwarehouse.com/black#.VV4AkPlVjK0[/url].  Shipping was around $30 but if you buy additional sheets they don’t charge you any extra shipping.  In my opinion, the Formica black matte laminate is a perfect match and matches much better than the Wilson Art brand.

A test fit of the fully assembled bottom half except for the caster wheels and the wheel support boards.




I also put the original base on top of the new plywood because the Wilson Art didn’t full match the finish of the UA2 panels. I also did this to give extra material / thickness to support the bolts for the caster wheels.




I ended up placing the shelf too high up so the caster wheels barely cleared the carpet. Here I elevated the wheels by cutting and adding two extra 3/4” plywood strips. I then added 3 L brackets to the upper and lower sides of the cabinet. I attached the lower portion of the L bracket by using a #8 5/8” sheet metal screw that goes through the 1 X 2” board into the side of the cab. The top half of the cabinet is secured to the new plywood base and the original MDF base using a 1 ¼” wood screw. I secured each castor strip to the base using 3 sets of 1 ¼” wood screw pairs.




Here is everything all assembled. I spray painted the 1 X 2 and the caster strips flat black.

[dkersten]

The PC will be running MAME along with the following emulators:
•   NES
•   SNES
•   N64
•   Gameboy Color and GBA
•   NDS
•   TurboGrafx 16 and CD
•   Sega Master System
•   Sega Genesis
•   4:3 Steam Games
•   PS1
•   Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube (depending on compatibility status)

If I were a betting man, the money would be on the fact that in six months you will play no more than 15 Mame games with this and after the novelty wears off, all those other emulators will never be used.  Not being harsh or trying to discourage, just telling the truth.  You will end up spending at least 100x the time doing setup for all those emulators as you will playing.  Each and every game will need special attention to get it to work the way you want.  Nothing about an arcade cab is plug and play.  Expect at least twice the amount of work to get your front end and mame to work right as you will spend in construction, especially if you have intro vids, attract modes, and plan to run a lot of different games.

Personally, I would avoid fans in the cab.  Two reasons:  1) if you vent the top and bottom of the cab, the heat will rise on it's own and create a convection effect, pulling in cool air passively at the bottom and cooling things very effectively.  2) Fans wear out.  If you like maintenance and having to tear this apart every couple years to change out noisy fans even when you are down to playing it once a month, then by all means, have at it with the fans.  But if you do use fans, you would be smart to get in and tear it all down inside and dust it out every few months or one day you will open it up to find an inch of dust clogging and overheating every component inside.  Most liquid cooled setups can have a single or double slow moving fan on the radiator, and that would be WAY easier to maintain than cabinet fans.

Just my 2 cents.  Good luck with it!

[scorned4sega]

Dkersten, thanks I really appreciate all of the advice! I'll keep that in mind for the next cab I build from scratch in the future when I have more room and an actual garage and space to work in.

Unfortunately, I've already cut the holes for the front and rear fans. I've taken the dust factor into consideration so I'm including removable mesh filters on the outside of the front fan (facing the inside of the cab) so that I only have to remove the hex nuts from the machine screws to clean the filter. I'm also using aluminum fan filters / grills on the front but they're probably more for appearance (I want them to blend in with the front of the cab so that they look like speaker grills) than functionality as they probably won't keep out too much dust. I also have fan controllers installed on the PC so I can slow the fans down if they get too noisy. I do make it a point to try to regularly get in and clean out my PCs as I'm quite familiar with the amount of dust that builds up. Worst case, I can just remove the fans completely and block the holes for the front fan and then let convection do its work as you advise from the openings in the back door of the cab.

I probably should have stated this in the beginning of the thread but I'm currently playing catch up with the documentation as I'm roughly half way done with the bottom half of the kit.

You are definitely right as far as me probably not playing most of the emulators. I've had the 2 front ends on my PC for a year to a year and a half and never bothered to fully configure them. I do realize the amount of work that will be involved though with the front ends and configuring each game in MAME to work with the controls, etc. I'll probably just focus on getting everything  configured for MAME and then worry about the consoles later.

[scorned4sega]

FRONT PANEL

To install the 140mm intake fans onto the front of the cab, I placed the 140mm aluminum fan filters (OKgear brand http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007EVKIXW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) against the outside edges of each side and placed them so they were centered between the top and bottom of the panel.

I am also using a 4 port fan controller on the front of the PC so that I can balance out noise vs. cooling (Scythe KQ01-BK-3.5 KAZE Q 3.5 inch Fan Controller http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JH1ARY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

I then clamped down a spare board so that I could drill the holes for the machine screws that would hold the fan grills on the outside of the cab and then the fan with a thin mesh fan filter facing the far inside of the cab(Thermaltake Magnetic Fan Filter Cooling AC-003-ON1NAN-A1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KHO0CZW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).




To draw the cut lines for the circle, I held the fan against the side of the cab and the clamped board so that I could trace the outside edge of the circle from the inside of each fan. I then disassembled the bottom half of the cab and used a small hole saw attachment as a guide for my router attachment. On a side note, my router doesn’t have any screw holes on the baseplate so I am unable to use any kind of commercial circle jigs with it.




Unfortunately I took out the spot for the middle cam locks to fit into when making the holes for the fans. The material was also really thin and weak on the outside edges so I cut away a little more than I intended to. Fortunately the fan grill will cover this up so no one will be able to notice it.

 

Here is a test fit of the fan grill and the fan. The mesh fan filter should also block additional light from the inside of the cab.




Next I spray painted the inner part of the panel where I cut out the holes for the fans flat black.




Since I took out the middle cam locks, I secured the side panel to the sides of the cabs with L brackets and 5/8” sheet metal screws. The front panel is also glued to the side panels with wood glue. I wiped the excess glue off right away with paper towels and a damp rag so that I could avoid having to scrape dried glue off with Goo Gone, which I had spent several hours doing on a previous glue attempt.

[reptileink]

Looks like you are off to a great start. Because I usually skim text for eye candy, did you state you had a theme going for this build? 

[scorned4sega]

Looks like you are off to a great start. Because I usually skim text for eye candy, did you state you had a theme going for this build? 

Thanks, it's been a lot of work so far but the end result has been more than worth it! 

No, I hadn't gone into the theme yet for the cab as I'm still mulling over ideas. I'm using dark navy blue T molding so I wan't some custom artwork that will match it. I'm thinking that I will create rough mockups in Inkscape (the open source version of Adobe Illustrator) of what I want and then have either GameOnGrafix create and print the custom artwork or get some quotes from an artist on here to make everything for me. I don't really have the knowledge or experience with graphic design to give the art that really polished and professional look that I want as I've only done basic image alterations using Gimp.

Here are my initial ideas:

MARQUEE
I'm thinking about using the title "Bit Explorer" in a pixelized font with some text effects to give it some depth as I want something that will capture the essence of the 8 bit and 16 bit, etc. era of games.

I'm thinking about loosely using this


or this


and then modifying it so that the image is not 8 bit and more modern looking and then replacing Ryu with another game character that will still give it that exploritative feel and mood. I'm also thinking about possibly including some other game characters in there as long as they blend in and fit the theme of the marquee and don't look out of place or too busy.


CONTROL PANEL

I found the original of this years back on DeviantArt but I was unable to find the webpage for it to see if there is a higher resolution version of the image.



I am still working on creating the layout for the joysticks and buttons and everything in Inkscape so I am waiting to see how the artwork will look once I add all of the holes and see which portions of the image get covered up. I'm also not sure if it will be too busy. If it doesn't turn out right I could possiblly split it in half and then use each side for the side art. I also don't know how nicely the image will look once I blow it up to 28.5 to 30ish inches long by 18" wide (I still haven't made up my mind on the exact dimensions for the CP) as the original image resolution is 1628 x 1238 pixels, 96 dpi, and 24 bit depth (I've attached the original image). I've considered tracing it in Inkscape to vectorize it but I'm sure that this will take a very long time considering how detailed and complex it is.

SIDE ART

I'm still working on ideas for the side art but I'm thinking of doing a character mural / scene with some of my favorite games in a similar style as the possible CP artwork. I'm thinking of using upper torso images of Bebop and Rocksteady with the 80's style depiction, one on each side in the bottom corners, and then fill in the rest with vectorized game characters. I've found some vector art that I can use from the ArcadeArtLibrary; I still need to go through http://www.arcadeartwork.org/index.php?/category/182 to see if I can find any more that I can use. I also have some low quality source images that I can try to trace and vectorize.

Once all of this is done I still need to find a way to tie all 3 or 4 of the images together so that they all fit the theme and don't look out of place. I'm going to use the same or similar colors from the possible CP overlay as one way of doing this.