New to the Forums. Need some recommendations and/or help.

[Erice9000]

Hello all. So I am new to the forums, and I would like some help or suggestions on my first build. Here is what I know I want so far. I would like a pedestal style, 4 player with track ball, POSSIBLY a flight stick as well (not a huge deal breaker), with a 55 inch Samsung flat screen. HDMI or DVI input on the PC. I would love to run MAME and possibly other emulators as well. I know there are prebuilt kits out there, but I am no stranger to woodworking, I work in the IT field, so I really may just need different designs so that I can decide. Places to get blueprints and/or button layouts would be a huge plus. Thanks for the help!

[Erice9000]

I was looking around in the forums, and this is almost exactly what I want. Is there a place that I can get the dimensions or cut diagram/hole placements?

[vwalbridge]

Did you notice that "frakenpanel" was is the name of that image?

[Erice9000]

That's why I said I am new. I saved the image as it was to post as an example of what I wanted. If I did something wrong, just let me know.

[pbj]

Four sticks with buttons and a trackball are gonna nail 99% of what you want to play.

[vwalbridge]

Four sticks with buttons and a trackball are gonna nail 99% of what you want to play.

^This. And I'll take it a step further and ask how often you really have 4 people over to play 4P games?

Also that control panel has angled Joysticks and you don't want that.

I feel like a broken record with this statement but make a list of all the games you like to play and build a panel around that. Not the other way around. Without cheating and using google, I bet your list of "must have games" is less than 20.

Start by looking at the Hall of fame thread. (*Note: start on the last page and work backwards so that you see the most recent builds first)

[Erice9000]

Thing with the 4 player, I have a 9 year old and a 6 year old son, and we play quite a bit of games together. They have a few neighborhood friends that come over all of the time as well. They also love the old arcade games like TMNT, Simpsons, etc. I love the "flight simulators", so I would like the flight stick but now that you guys made me think about it, I would only play about 3 simulator games, so not worth the extra price (or space). I didn't think of the angled panel, that would suck for someone on the 3 or 4 player side. Trackball is a must though.

[PL1]

For printable button/joystick layout templates, check out Slagcoin.

Also check out the FAQ:
(wiki is still down, but here's a link to a copy on the Internet Wayback Machine)


Scott

[Locke141]

My first build was a 4 player pedestal and I love it I had some steam games in mind for mine. If you are look at for just arcade games I'd look at PBJ's turtle box.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,137637.0.html

[pbj]

Sigh.  My poor conure.  Rest in peace.