Side by side sitdown cabinet

[DaveBullet]

Hi there,

This is my first and only (does anyone ever stop at just one? project.  I'm excited (as we all are) and keen to share for others, incase this design of interest.

Goals:
1. Sit down cabinet to have long playing sessions (too old to stand for long these days)
2. Side-by-side instead of cocktail.  This allows for beat 'em up and shooter (e.g. Gauntlet) playing
3. Play a variety of consoles - conventional arcade, home consoles/computers (I have long had a love affair with my c64 and vic20), laserdisc games (I have Space Ace and Dragons Lair on DVD)
4. Support coin slot play to make as original as possible
5. Decent sound (custom speaker design)

I welcome any criticism, questions etc... It's all about anticipating problems and fixing them before hammer hits wood.

I've attached sketchup mockups and the built mock panel.  I'm using the Sega Astro City button layout.

The system will run Batocera on a Pi 3b+

Buttons are as follows:
Purple = Select (hotkey for other functions e.g. volume, MAME menu, save state etc...)
Start = Start (multi-function - hold 2 seconds to quit emulator / game)
24mm green = coin for each player
Player 1 / 2 start (as depicted)

Joystick spacing is a little wider to buttons for each player.  I found this more comfortable than crossing arms.  You can see the centre line between joystick and buttons for each player = human body centre when playing.

There's about 500mm space between player centres.  I found this is sufficient room without banging elbows (unless one beats the other! - then it's a simple stretch).

I'll be using a 4:3 HP 20" monitor to maintain the viewing ratio typical of consoles/arcade games of the period.  The monitor will be mounted using the VESA panel on the monitor.

I have it all working.  I've tuned the buttons, scripts and emulators so it is all pretty fluid.

An on/off push button will be placed by the amp (you can see the mockup below the control panel, above the coin slot).

I'll add switches to enable coin for player1/2 so you can toggle (or both) for adding credits.

I'm happy to provide a parts list - location for purchase if helpful.

[javeryh]

Welcome.

I'd move your admin buttons away from your action buttons. You don't want to accidentally hit them in the middle of a game and exit out or start adding coins or something.

Any reason why you are going with the triangular legs and not a more enclosed cabinet? Seems like over time the edges of the feet will take a beating especially if they are exposed.

For a build like this, I think you'd be happier in the long run using a PC instead of a Pi 3b+. MAME will not fully run on it so you are going to be sacrificing arcade emulation. As far as I know a pi runs very very very old versions of MAME - some over 20(!) years old! I suppose you could always upgrade later on.

Have you thought about your joysticks?  I assume you need 8-ways for all the console games you are planning to play but if you like the 80s classics like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, etc. you might consider a 4-way stick or maybe even a ServoStik so you can switch.

Good luck.