Joust II cabinet - new and improved

[Dave Bullet]

Hi there.

Making my first sit down arcade cabinet (too old to stand for hours on end :-)

Couldn't find a layout that suited.  I wanted a side by side with room underneath so you can sit upright with controls neatly at hand.  I've gone with an augmented Sega layout (bottom row of buttons aligned, with Hori spacing and removing the rightmost 2 buttons).

Reason for posting?  Get criticism / feedback to make it better and avoid newbie mistakes.

S-ketchup model in progress here (using photobucket as I don't have enough posts to use the photo sharing sticky post to upload 'em):




I'll have to overlay measurements next.  Things have changed since I last used s-ketchup (eg. offset measuring seems to have disappeared - unless its in the pro version)

[leapinlew]

Have you checked out the Joust cocktail plans? Or blast city style cabs?

I haven't studied yours. At a glance, they look good. Looks like you plan on playing some fighters?

[yotsuya]

I actually like this because it knows it's an arcade cabinet, and not a coffee table in disguise. Good for you.

[BadMouth]

I'm not a fan of cocktail cabs, but I like that you've tried to get some angle on the screen so the player is looking at it more than across it.

I'm weird about sitting too far left when playing one player.  Do you plan on playing this by yourself or with a Player 2 most of the time?

What are all the button holes in the center for?

[BadMouth]

On the Sega button layout:

I went with a similar layout and convex buttons because I wanted my cab to have a modern look.  I do like it for games that have 3 buttons or less.
On the games with more than 3 buttons I find myself looking down at my hands a lot more.  I lose track of where my fingers are in space and have to reset.  That didn't happen with the straight street fighter 6 button layout with concave buttons I had before.  It's not a huge problem (I only notice it when playing fighting games), but if I ever build again or redo my control panel I will go back to the old school buttons and layout.

I'm sure there are plenty of other people who love their convex buttons and curved layout or they wouldn't be so popular.

[Dave Bullet]

Have you checked out the Joust cocktail plans? Or blast city style cabs?

I haven't studied yours. At a glance, they look good. Looks like you plan on playing some fighters?

Thanks for the suggestion.  Yes I have checked out the Joust "angled" side by side.  The problem there is you are angled to the screen both horizontally and vertically which I'd find a bit odd.  I also wanted the leg room for sitting under so you aren't hunched over.

[Dave Bullet]

I'm not a fan of cocktail cabs, but I like that you've tried to get some angle on the screen so the player is looking at it more than across it.

I'm weird about sitting too far left when playing one player.  Do you plan on playing this by yourself or with a Player 2 most of the time?

What are all the button holes in the center for?

The angle serves two purposes.  offset the vertical viewing angle so it's more square on to the players and also help reduce any reflection element of the glass top.

You are right in the horizontal offset will exist for either player.   I thought this was not much different to an upright 2-player cabinet where either player is slightly offset from the screen.  I've done a test run using my daughter's adjustable drawing table and it's not too bad.  I've got a 20" 4:3 LCD display I'm using.  But yes, horizontal viewing angle is a disadvantage here compared to the traditional opposing player cocktail cabinet.

A few of my kids are interested in this.  Many of them have seen MAME but many years ago.  They play PC games together and I have 4 boys who like fighting :-) so hopefully they give it more punishment than I will :-) so a 2 player optimised cabinet is ok with me.

The extra buttons in the middle are (going across):
Start 1 / coin 1
Exit / esc (top), pause (bottom)
Start 2 / coin 2

I'm also considering putting a graceful shutdown button for the Raspberry Pi somewhere (eg. underneath).  Might label it the "panic" button :-)

The hole underneath is for the coin mech.  I'm going to put speakers side by side.  Unsure if I'll buy coaxial or recycle some others and design a crossover.

[Dave Bullet]

On the Sega button layout:

I went with a similar layout and convex buttons because I wanted my cab to have a modern look.  I do like it for games that have 3 buttons or less.
On the games with more than 3 buttons I find myself looking down at my hands a lot more.  I lose track of where my fingers are in space and have to reset.  That didn't happen with the straight street fighter 6 button layout with concave buttons I had before.  It's not a huge problem (I only notice it when playing fighting games), but if I ever build again or redo my control panel I will go back to the old school buttons and layout.

I'm sure there are plenty of other people who love their convex buttons and curved layout or they wouldn't be so popular.

I'm going with convex buttons too (apart from player1/2 start buttons.  the printed ones seem to be concave).  Reason for convex is the advice on slagcoin.com's site (very very useful resource!)

I found the sega layout wasn't natural on the 2nd row of buttons.  if you rest your palm, your natural reaction is to splay and pull your fingers back in in a vector aligned with the wrist, not twist your fingers down to the left slightly... hence the vertical arrangement as a compromise (and to meet minimum spacing requirements for the 30mm Sanwa buttons).

I will aim to make the control panel removable (hidden screws, no glue) so it can be replaced later.  Same with the monitor cavity.  the monitor supports will be removable so a new monitor can be fitted if the old one dies (and I'm forced to go 16:9 if 4:3 become as scarce as hens teeth).

[Dave Bullet]

I actually like this because it knows it's an arcade cabinet, and not a coffee table in disguise. Good for you.

Thanks.  It seems to be the thing to give it a name.  The front looks like half of an anvil.  the backside looks like a slab and as streamlined as a bus.

So the Bus-anvil or anvil-slab.  Something functional and not aesthetic.

Cocktail cabinets to me do not involve two people as well as they could in the gaming experience.  When the other player plays, you can't easily follow an inverted screen, so you "check out".  Side by side - both players can continue to be involved.  It also makes Gauntlet and other 2P concurrent games possible.

[leapinlew]

I still think you should get a Joust cabinet, post pics of it and then announce you're going to mame it.

Then sit back and watch the fur fly!

[Dave Bullet]

Sick of chumbucket (photobucket).... trying my google drive...



Change of plan for access panels..... thinking of removing the back one and having both the underside of the control panel and coin (front) panel hinged to allow full access.  main reason is access to the cabling and bottom side of the monitor should something go funky.  I don't think rigidity will be affected given the rest of it is anchored.  I could provide a vertical cross brace across the front for added stiffness.  All guys need added stiffness at some point.

[Dave Bullet]

I still think you should get a Joust cabinet, post pics of it and then announce you're going to mame it.

Then sit back and watch the fur fly!

   ... yes  "Joust II - much improved over the stupid original"  I like that idea.