johnnysmitch's CAF Arcade

[wrxh8r]

Its about $20-30 for window in a pc

[ChadTower]

That would be hellacool as a marquee or as the artwork around the monitor glass.

[johnnysmitch]

Just thought I'd throw out a quick update:
Got to test out the arcade for user-friendliness last weekend, as I had a small party at my place, and people managed to navigate the frontend and all pretty well (I've switched around the buttons a bit in mamewah to make my center pause button launch games  in mamewah).  I'm updating my skins right now with some graphics showing which button loads games and which button switches lists.
I got in a couple cupholders that I found on ebay (the square, flipdown kind) and I'm loving them - they blend in nicely with my machine (I'll update my pictures pretty soon).
My vinyl decals are holding up well except for around the joysticks - I stupidly made the arrows end right up against the dustwashers, so they instantly catch the edges and curl up the vinyl - good thing i've got some extras - I'll have to modify them a little bit.
I haven't forgotten about the lightup sticks - I'll be refining my shaft design a bit this coming week, as well as build my molds and see how well I can cast the tops. Keep your fingers crossed for me .
Still on my todo list is finish my detail painting on the sides/front (want to add some silver outlining around my flames to make them pop), make a nameplate for the front face of my CP (that will also serve to somewhat hide the seem in the vinyl upholstery), finish configuring a couple emulators (daphne and zinc), and finally put up my website.
Guess it wasn't such a short update after all  

[ChadTower]

Hey, what is the monitor you're using?  Is that from a Sega cab?  I have a 50" vf2 I'm going to start maming this weekend and if you're using a similar monitor you could probably help me a bit in getting the arcadevga settings and such right...

[Matt, GoC]

He's using a big TV he won at a raffle for a $1.  Lucky SOB...

[ChadTower]

So what video signal type is it using?  I would guess component or svid?

[gregor7777]

I just saw this announcement and shat myself.




OAN, how's the picture quality on the TV? Are you using component?

[johnnysmitch]

The TV's a crappy RCA - I won it in a raffle at walmart, and it was obviously a display unit that they could never sell anyways, as it's got a big 'Walmart TV' logo burned into the screen [not very noticeable while playing on it though - only really on light solid color screens]. Pretty nice for $1 tho   . I'm using S-Video to feed it, and the picture quality is pretty good. It's no monitor, but I'm happy with the quality, and I love playing all these great arcade games on such a big [52"] screen. Plus I can roll my arcade off to the side and use the TV as normal with no hassle.

[MoonDog]

Any word on making your MameWAH layouts available?  I think you did an awesome job on those and I'd love to add them to my system.  Have you considered making an Atari 2600 skin?

Your setup is definitely CAF!!!

[jagnogg]

I don't have any pictures handy at the moment to illustrate it, but basically I just hid a cold cathode light under the aluminum angle at the top and bottom of the plexi; I originally made it more complicated than it needed to be when I was trying to use the aluminum angle as the sole means of holding up the plexi...

[johnnysmitch]

Yes, the etching should work fine with lexan (in fact it might be a little easier to etch, since lexan scratches more easily). The reasons I used plexi instead of lexan for mine is because plexi is typically cheaper and you can cut plexi cleanly with a glasscutter-type tool (deeply scoring and snapping) instead of having to bust out the circular saw and making a mess.
To answer your second question, you will get some glowing effect as long as there's a light near the etched material - but the glow is much brighter/more pronounced if you edge-light it. As I think I mentioned earlier, mine isn't totally edge-lit - my lighting is behind the top and bottom of my plexi, not on the edges, so you could get some idea of how bright it is when not edge-lit. When I ever get around to making my project website, I'll try to throw up some comparisons on lighting positions. Good luck!