1/5th Scale Pac-Man Cabinet

[Daz_Genetic]

I wasn't going to post my build progress on this, but I thought it might keep me motivated.

Building a playable 1/5th scale Pac-Man cabinet. Will contain realistic and functional scale controls aswell as a detachable control panel (Possibly interchangeable for other button layouts). Building it out of realistic materials, and am trying to make it (cosmetically at least) just like the real thing.

Screen is on order, and Raspberry Pi will run the game.

I started the build using Jakobud's plans (scaled down of course), and I'm realizing quickly that they are not very accurate. Any time I try to take measurements from photographs, nothing fits right. So this is going to be a little bit of a hybrid. Some accurate, some not. I'll make sure I have access to a real machine next time around.

I'm building CAD files as I go, and will release those once I'm done with the project. There will also be some 3D printed parts, and I'll release the files for these too.

[vwalbridge]

Cool! I've built a couple mini machines so I will be following with interest.

[Daz_Genetic]

Haven't had much time to work on this over the last couple of weeks, but the screen did come in the mail.


Screen in place. It's a 5 inch widescreen touch screen. Don't need the touch, but I couldn't find one without it. With a 4:3 image in the center of the screen, it's roughly the right size for this scale.


Quite proud of my vent holes in the back. Bought a dollar store strainer and cut up the mesh into squares to cover the holes.

I have made my metal marquee brackets. Quite difficult to bend metal accurately at this scale. I'll post pics of those once I have them in place.

[Vidiot]

This is really cool. Which version of the Pi are you going to use? Also, do you know what you are going to use for the controls yet?
Following with interest! 

[Daz_Genetic]

This is really cool. Which version of the Pi are you going to use? Also, do you know what you are going to use for the controls yet?
Following with interest! 

I have an original Pi and a Pi3. The original Pi seems to run the older games just fine, but doesn't plug directly into the screen. The Pi3 mounts directly onto the back of the screen, which will make things neat, but I feel like it's overkill for this project and a waste of money since I have other purposes for it.

Ideally, I'd love to get a Pi Zero, but I can't find anywhere that has it in stock.

For the controls, I'm going to be using an Arduino Pro Micro Knock-off). The one I have has 14 inputs and since it's based on the Leonardo chipset, it can be configured as a USB GameController/Keyboard/Mouse, so there won't be any drivers or programming required on the Pi. Just plug and play (hopefully)

If you mean the physical controls. I'm going to be creating a real microswitch joystick using my 3D printer and some small switches. I want the buttons and joystick to look scale accurate, but I'm not too concerned with under the control panel. Would be cool to make some scale leaf switches, but I'm not that crazy.

[Slippyblade]

Scale leaf switches would be far easier to fab than micro-switches.  I mean, seriously, two strips of metal with buttons on the ends...  can't get much simpler!

[Daz_Genetic]

Scale leaf switches would be far easier to fab than micro-switches.  I mean, seriously, two strips of metal with buttons on the ends...  can't get much simpler!

I think you're misunderstanding. I'm not fabricating the actual microswitches. Those are purchased. I will be 3D printing a housing for the microswitches and joystick.

[Slippyblade]

Nah, no misunderstanding.  I was just pointing out, badly perhaps, that including leafs in the design wouldn't be all that much extra work.

[Daz_Genetic]

I just know if I went that route, I'd want it to be a scale accurate replica of the leaf switch joystick and buttons, and I just don't have enough reference to pull that off.

[Slippyblade]

Got it.  That's the OCD perfectionist talking there.  I respect that! 

[JDFan]

Perhaps use the micro leaf switches

[Daz_Genetic]

Some updates from this long weekend. Didn't have as much time to spend on it as I would have liked, but I made some decent progress. I cut a real glass screen. Wasn't 100% sure if this would be glass or plexi on a real cabinet, but I like the feel of the glass. It's a lot more rigid at this scale. Plexi of the same thickness would bend easily.


Glass screen in place with test bezel artwork. Printed on my B&W laser printer. Just testing the exact size before I get it printed properly.


Marquee brackets and real speaker in place. Brackets are bent out of real sheet steel. Held in place with 3 tiny screws. Still trying to figure out the best way to print the marquee.


Pi booting to show screen's size/location. Hadn't configured the cropping and screen rotation in this shot.


Interior view of the speaker with a 3D printed bracket I made.The speaker and lights are powered by the guts of a small battery powered speaker that I found at goodwill (works fine at 5v, so it can be powered from the Pi without modification). Swapped the speaker's blue LEDs with white LEDs that I salvaged from a dollar store flashlight. They can go much brighter, so I will have to change the existing resistor out for something more appropriate.


Exterior speaker bracket. Also 3D printed, but this one is painted. Hard to see the perforations in this picture but it has lots of holes to let the sound through. I'll try to get a better picture next time.

[youtube][/youtube]
Here's a video of it all put together so far. It's just a YouTube video of Ms. Pac-Man playing on the screen as a test for the video and sound. I don't have the LEDs positioned properly yet, so there's hotspotting in the marquee. You can also see some of the work I've been doing on the control panel. More information about that will be in the next update.

[vwalbridge]

Really cool project. And very nice work thus far. 

I love the micro builds.

[Vidiot]

Yes! This is looking great so far! Rock on!

[Daz_Genetic]

Did some work on the control panel this weekend.

I hope the sense of scale works in these images. I feel like it's easy to imagine that this is much larger than it is in real life. For example, the leaf switch that was recommended to me earlier, I could maybe fit just one of those under the control panel. My entire joystick would fit into a standard arcade button hole.


Yes, I'm OCD. This is my attempt at a midway joystick in 1/5th scale. Real sheet steel, folded and built using only hand tools.


Positioned in the wooden frame of the control panel. "Routing" a recess in the plywood is really easy actually. You just use an Xacto knife to cut through one of the plys and you can pry it out. Ignore the ball. It's too large. I 3D printed it oversize so that when I sanded it smooth, it would come down to size, but I overestimated. Final version will be printed in red.


Metal cover in place. My fake carriage bolts are small brass nails. These will be threaded as soon as I get the Die. Tiny nuts will hold them from the other side.


Control panel in place on the machine. Will eventually be held in place with magnets. Does anybody know if it's possible to have your RetroPie gameslist automatically change based on the controls you have connected. I'd love to make it so that you are presented with only the games playable with the current control panel.


And now it's a fully functional microswitch joystick. The switch array is too large to fit down through the joystick hole, so I 3D printed a small plate to mount them too. It also doubles as a 4-direction limiter.

[Vidiot]

  That is some damn fine work there. Very nice!

[Slippyblade]

This is insane!  and amazing.  Loving your work.

[Nephasth]

Yes, I'm OCD.

It pays!

[vwalbridge]

Necro bump. Got any updates to this project OP?