Author Topic: Neverending Arcade Project (Read 6846 times)

IncrdblHulk7 · « **on:** November 04, 2004, 08:48:47 pm »

Sorry for the subject title - I dont really have a name for my machine yet?!?!?

I have been procrastinating posting pictures or starting a webpage, since all my spare time has been focused on building my machine. Anyways, here is what I have so far ....

The cabinet is loosely based on the Ultimate Arcade II plans (tailored to my parts).

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 04, 2004, 08:53:29 pm »

The machine is going to have:

Toshiba 27" TV
Coin Door
4.1 Speaker System

and a modular control panel (gots to give props to Doc for the idea)

The control panel is 32" wide (slightly wider than the cabinet - which is 27")

It will be able to accept interchangable 4" or 8" panels (each being 13.5" deep)

I havent quite worked out the details of the fasteners ....

Here is a picture of the setup.

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 04, 2004, 08:54:07 pm »

close up

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 04, 2004, 08:57:32 pm »

Progress has been slow the past couple of weeks - but I have managed to populate , laminate, and paint a bunch of the panels.

In the end I am going to have the following:

4"
P360 x2
Ultimate x2
Spinner
4Button x2
Ikari x2
TiggerJoystickx2???

8"
4-way with buttons
3" TB
2.25" TB
6Button x2 (or maybe 7 - if I do the SF+Neo layout)

Here are some pics of the progress ...

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 04, 2004, 08:58:27 pm »

more ...

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:05:27 pm »

For the modular interface - I decided to go with DSub connectors.

I took a piece of wood and mounted all of the DSub receptacles I would (dream) of needing. The back-side has all the wiring, OptiPac, and Rotary Interface. Notice that all of the Ipac wires are fed into a bunch of wiring blocks - that connects to a DB37 wire.

On the other end of the DB37 wire is the Ipac. I did it this way so that I could easily opt to hook up a gaming console to the system. I even bought a DB37 switch to do the swtiching (but I gotta get this thing built before trying that one out).

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:06:33 pm »

Here is the main connection panel flipped over ....

I need to clean up the edges of my labels

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:08:25 pm »

Back to the cabinet ...

I decided to go with the stained cabinet look. Here are the results so far.

(Added the Black T-molding to the bottom and CP so far)

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:09:02 pm »

and the other side ...

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 04, 2004, 09:10:04 pm »

So, let me know what you think or if you have any questions!

Hopefully I will make some more progress this weekend and will have more pics next week.

Gunstar Hero · « **Reply #10 on:** November 05, 2004, 12:16:14 am »

I see why it "never ends..."

...you're really going all out!!

Matt, GoC · « **Reply #11 on:** November 06, 2004, 02:00:16 am »

Interesting... speakers on the side. Lookin' good!

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2004, 07:42:37 am »

I got the idea for the additional 2 speakers on the side from someone else's cabinet project - so I cant take credit for that one. Now that I got the speakers all wired up - I can say that this setup helps disperse the sound all around - useful if listening to MP3s.

Here is a picture of the progress I made this weekend. (Forgot to take a picture until the very end of day)

Added internal shelving, doors(back), placed the speaker system and TV, worked on the CP some.

Matt, GoC · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:37:02 pm »

Beautiful work I must say... but, uh, how do you get ino your refridgerator

?

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2004, 12:50:52 pm »

HAHA. I figured someone would ask about the background in my last picture!

I am actually doing all of the cabinet construction work at my parents house - as I dont have much room in my apartment. (Plus it helps out alot that my Dad is a general contractor!!!)

I store it in their old garage - my Dad has a freezer out there to keep extra food and all the deer meat that he and my brother get. (Notice the antlers on top of fridge). So nobody really goes in and out of that fridge much!

Matt, GoC · « **Reply #15 on:** November 09, 2004, 12:34:03 am »

What's that black thing above your coin door?

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #16 on:** November 09, 2004, 07:57:16 am »

That is the control box for the Logitech z560 sound system I have. It has a Volume, Bass, Fade, Power, Surround, and headphone jack controls. I cut out a small slot in-line with the coindoor for it.

armax · « **Reply #17 on:** November 15, 2004, 05:01:32 am »

Incrdblehulk, nice modular layout. What kind of wiring blocks are those and where did ya pick them up at?

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #18 on:** November 16, 2004, 01:23:08 pm »

Armax - just sent you a PM - but I might as well reply here too!

The terminal blocks were purchased from www.jameco.com

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&categoryId=11542

Other places to look are digikey.com or mouser.com

I got the 12-position ones. I needed 3 of them since there are 28 IPAC inputs and I am also feeding the power and GND lines through them as well.

All my wiring has been with 28 gauge DSub wire and 22 gauge power/GND wires (some mixing and matching too). The wiring blocks worked great regardless of the wire gauge I used - just placed wire under screw and compressed it (It is just a screw-down terminal)

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #19 on:** November 16, 2004, 01:54:04 pm »

Well, no progress on the cabinet this past weekend. However, I did get my computer parts.

I bought a new Athlon64 system to use as my main computer and am going to use my existing AthlonXP 1800+ for the arcade.

I spent most of the weekend getting both machines on their feet.

The one snag I ran into was that I was banking on using an old short computer case in the arcade. (I know some people advocate not using a case - but I like the idea of having some protection!) Well I seemed to have overlooked the fact that the old case did not accept the ATX form factor motherboards.

I based the cabinet dimensions loosely on the old case dimensions. So I broke out the dremel and started restructuring the internals of the case. So now it all fits and works great! (Looks a little rough - but it is inisde Cab anyways)

.... one step closer to getting a working arcade!!!

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #20 on:** November 16, 2004, 01:57:36 pm »

I think I may have come up with a name for my arcade.

Absolut Arcade

Like the Absolut Ads (Absolut, Absolut Vanilla, Absolut Razz, ......Absolut Arcade), - but with a arcade machine in place of the writing. I have a sketch on paper and need to start work on it in PhotoShop/Illustrator.

The Marquee would have to be with the bottle on it's side - since it is long (not tall).

So ... what do you think? Has anyone done that before?

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #21 on:** November 28, 2004, 11:21:56 pm »

I got alot of stuff wrapped up this past Thanksgiving weekend.

I finished up most of the loose ends on my Cabinet and finally got the PC installed and took it for a spin.

(I have the Cab down at my parent's house - please disregard the hunting stuff in the background!)

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #22 on:** November 28, 2004, 11:27:09 pm »

Here are two more pictures

Note:
1) The modular panels need to have Tmold installed on the front edge.
2) On side of panels in slightly warped - need to sand it down.
3) I need to come up with a Marquee!
4) Some other odds and ends.

I played a bunch of games with my brothers this weekend - it worked pretty good.

The only issues I had were that the 2 P360s I have were not working very well. The would misbehave during gameplay (not allowing player to go UP)

The only other issues were SW related.

geomartin · « **Reply #23 on:** November 29, 2004, 12:03:11 am »

That's a heck of a collection you've got hanging on the wall there! How far back do you have to stand when playing Silent Scope2?

2600 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2005, 10:40:46 am »

How noticable are the seams of the laminate on the CP? Anything you would of done differently with them?

versapak · « **Reply #25 on:** January 17, 2005, 11:29:04 am »

I am not a big fan of the wood look, but overall I really like your cab.

I like the modular control panel, but I would have put a strip of wood along in front of the control panel. Then you could have had a nice even t-molded look, instead of seeing all the seperate control modules.

Prolly a lot more work than it sounds in my head, but you could have had a swing down lip in the front. You could swing it down to replace a module, and then swing it back up to lock all the modules in, with a very clean looking edge.

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #26 on:** January 17, 2005, 05:20:33 pm »

versapak - thanks for the compliment!

Sorry for the lack of updates ... I will post updated pictures soon ...

As for the seams between the panels ... They are slightly noticable to my eye, but I would not say that they detract from the cabinet.

jdjuggler · « **Reply #27 on:** January 28, 2005, 10:36:04 am »

You've done something on the cabinet that I was trying to figure out on paper.
The keyboard drawer part of the cabinet does not "stick out" underneath the CP. Meaning that the front of the cabinet, under the CP goes straight down.
I want to do this on my UAII plan.
I wanted to know if you could explain what changes you needed to make in the assembly of the cabinet for this to happen.
Thanks,
JD

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #28 on:** February 14, 2005, 12:06:51 pm »

Sorry for the delayed response!

I started out with the UAII plans - and used them as a rough "first draft".

I changed some of the dimensions slightly - to better fit the contents of my Cab (TV, computer, speakers, etc..). With the original UAII design - it does not support the coin door that I used. That was my main motivation for flattening the front (to support the coin door I had already won off Ebay).

The keyboard drawer is attached with 24" drawer sliders - so when it is extended - it clears the lip of the CP.

Hope this helps.

IncrdblHulk7 · « **Reply #29 on:** March 20, 2006, 03:07:23 pm »

Almost a year has gone by since I finished my arcade cabinet. The final name for the cabinet is "Absolute Arcade". The finishing touch was installing marquee.

So I finally got around to creating a webpage to document my arcade project (as well as some others). It is a work in progress. I need to work on the ending to the Arcade write up and the other projects are no more than pictures for the time being.

Here is the webpage ...

http://home.comcast.net/~smithmw/

muzland · « **Reply #30 on:** March 20, 2006, 06:38:06 pm »

Hi IncrdblHulk7,

Great looking cab.

I am also building a modular panel and I am having problems with the joystick panels coming loose. Have you any pictures of your thumbtack system as I can't seem to visualise it?

By the way, my cab is also the neverending cab story. I will finish it one day

Cheers
Muzland


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