Beginning my Cab!! --ArcadiA

[DanteBK]

Warning: This will be kinda lame because I don't have a digital camera. But I've been studying this site for a while and I want to participate so . . .

I'm basing my design off the excellent Project Arcade book by Saint. I'm changing the control panel design to add 4 admin buttons grouped together and extra buttons for the dedicated 4-way. I'm also using a 27" Sharp TV a la my other inspiration: Arcade Paradise.

So far I'm still gathering parts. I'm hoping on June 26th to start and finish the cutting with a friend of mine who used to work in construction.

I just spent the last hour cleaning a dirty 14-year old messed up and yet oddly beautiful coin door I got off e-Bay. One of the contacts was on NC and there was a bunch of extra solder covering the NO, the coin inserts didnt match (one said $1.00 and the other said 25c x 4), and the player 1 coin mech simply didn't work at all.

No problem. Took the door apart, rebuilt the broken mech (parts simply in wrong place) and made my own coin inserts using Paint of all things. Also, cleaned out the LITERALLY!! cobwebs inside the drop box. Oh, and I scraped off the solder with a pair of scissors.

It feels like my first real progress. It feels GREAT!!

The name of the cab is ArcadiA --according to my dictionary, Arcadia is a region in Greece known for it's simple inhabitants, who are nearly isolated from the civilized world--a notion I felt a certain connection with.

-- DanteBK

[Witchboard]

Hate to burst your bubble, but I think that's the name of nipsmg's cabinet.

[Witchboard]

Okay, 120 views and nobody else is commenting.  You guys don't have to let me look like THAT big of an a$$h0l3.

Keep us posted Dante, that's great that you're making progress.  It's more than I have done at this point.  Finding an original name is going to be the hardest part of building my cabinet.  Seems like everything I think of, I do a google search and it's already there.

[CthulhuLuke]

Well as long as you' don't take credit for a name it shouldn't matter what the hell you call a cab.  Because when someone walks into your house, they're not going to have that OTHER Arcadia sitting next to yours, it'll just be your cabinet.  This isn't a commercial business or anything, its just a bunch of us nerds making arcade crap

[DanteBK]

I think I'll stick with ArcadiA. I agree with Cthulhu . . . I mean, if this were a forum for dog lovers, and I had come on saying I just bought a Terrier named Charlie and taught it to roll over, and it turned out that another regular user of the forum already owned a beagle named Charlie that he'd taught to fetch -- would we be having this conversation?

As far as progress goes, my computer I bought off ubid.com just crashed and seems irreparable. So much for buying stuff off the internet.

[bdsjake]

if you build it, you get to name it.

 

[DanteBK]

Progress Update: After 45 minutes on the phone with Compaq's tech support, computer now fixed. Also, today we cut all MDF pieces as shown in Project Arcade. They are leaning against the wall in my office/soon-to-be-gameroom waiting for me to go buy screws and casters and stuff to assemble them. The only thing worrying me now is borrowing/renting a router and figuring how the hell to use it.

Side note: I already want to build another one, is that normal?

[walls83]

It would be abnormal if you didnt want to build a 2nd cab.

what was wrong with your PC.  

[DanteBK]

It would be abnormal if you didnt want to build a 2nd cab.

what was wrong with your PC.  

It was another one of those whoops I'm retarded situations, like when I thought I could learn how to use Paint Shop Pro. I bought the computer refurbished with no setup disks, recovery stuff, whatever ... so a few days after I got it, it said some Windows files were corrupt ... I could bring up a recovery console but didnt know my administrator password, and since it was used, I assumed there was one... Compaq tech support (a few frustrating days later when I finally called) told me to try pressing enter without typing a password. So anyway, that worked. I'll be lucky if I get through the week without setting myself on fire at this rate.