Metalhead's Arcades (2.0) *Updated: 13 April*

[M3talhead]

Ok guys,

I've been here a little while but thought I'd keep an online version of my arcade "journals" since several people have asked about my previous projects. For those that dont know, I resurected an original Gauntlet cabinet over the summer of 2003. Here are a few pics of my progress (sorry for the bad resolution on the first set. It wasnt until later that I got a decent digital camera).

Arcade 1.0
****************

Originally, when I bought the Gauntlet cab ($115 working), it had been converted to a V-Ball machine that had a REALLY tacky "Barney-purple" laminate on the sides. That was the first thing to go.

http://img196.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img196&image=image594ru.png

Next on my list was an easier way to move the cab around as I worked on it. A new set of swivel casters suited it just fine. P.S. For those of you building your first cab, something often overlooked is how you move your arcade around. 2 straight casters in the back? 2 swivel and 2 straight casters? All swivel?

http://img211.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img211&image=image612hj.png


After I had the cab to where it could be easily moved around, I began working on  the big stuff. The old, burned-in monitor was discharged, removed and discarded.
http://img173.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img173&image=image359dd.png

The PCB, manuals, buttons, joysticks, and speakers all went on eBay and actually got me $50 for all items. I aquired a new 21" monitor from work (they were throwing it out cause it made a "buzzing" sound and was past its warranty). After playing with the power cable, I got the buzzing to stop and had a working 21" display for nothing!"

http://img131.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img131&image=image252gs.png
http://img131.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img131&image=image227af.png

Now the cab was coming together. My I-Pac had arrived, along with my t-molding from t-molding.com, Virtual Lightgun from Lik-Sang.com, and joysticks from X-Arcade. I added my PC, repainted the coin doors with a black textured paint, and began the wiring on my control panel.

http://img173.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img173&image=image327un.png
http://img173.exs.cx/img173/6641/s0044oi.jpg
http://img115.exs.cx/img115/8065/arcadepics003small1qa.jpg
http://img115.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img115&image=s0067op.jpg

The control panel ended up taking quite a bit of time since I decided to use 2 pieces of sheet metal on top of the wooden frame since the control panel had 2 large holes cut out of it and I had some extra steel laying around. The fabrication of the sheet metal was finished in about 2 weeks of on and off work by first sketching out the hole patterns in pencil, and then going over them with a titanium bit. Since you cant easily make holes larger than 1/2" in sheet metal without the aid of a punch or press, I used a 1/4" bit and made 12 smaller holes just on the inside my penciled in circles. Once they were all tapped, I went over them with a dremel, removing the material between the holes and sanded the insides down. This left me with a smooth hole large enough to fit buttons and joysticks through the 2 layers of steel. I finished the whole thing off with 2 coats of primer and a sheet of Lexan I got from a local glass and mirror shop. If I remember correctly, it was about $50 for a sheet 36x24. The end result though was really stunning.

http://img223.exs.cx/img223/7083/arcadepics002small6ys.jpg

After about 3 months of on and off work, it was completed. Most of my time was tied up with the control panel, but my hard work finally paid off. I could play every game in MAME flawlessly, as well as HotD with minimal jitters.

Final result!
http://img223.exs.cx/img223/7402/arcadepics001small2hp.jpg
http://img54.exs.cx/img54/4985/arcadesummary9ei.jpg

I also documented each purchase and "freebie" in Excel.
http://img240.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img240&image=sssarcade4gi.png

[M3talhead]

Arcade 2.0
*********
Ok. Lessons learned from Arcade 1.0, here is my new project. Its a Mortal Kombat 3 upright that I got for $50! It doesnt work, but I'm not that concerned with its functionality. Having a working monitor would have been nice, but unfortunatly, that wasnt the case. The board was beyond my skill to repair, and ever since I got stationed overseas, its been next to impossible to find a place locally that deals in any kind of picture tube repair. So I'm on my own for finding a replacement monitor/chassis. (*Update* I went ahead and bought a new 8-liners chassis to replace the fried monitor board)


I learned several lessons I hope I can pass on to future "MAME'ers".

1.Take lots of pictures if you can. Document everything. If the bug bites you, you're going to want some references to pour over when you decide to go at it again and build something bigger and better.
2. Budget your money. Dont cheap out on something if you cant afford it at the moment. The final result might bum you out. Save your money and do it right the first time. There's nothing more embarassing than having a friend come over to play SFII and have him point out flaws in your craftsmanship.
3. Take your time. Rushing the project just so you can play it only makes it look worse in the end. Plan everything out and dont cut corners.
4. Dont lose faith! It may seem like a huge task, but if you just chip away at it, you'll end up suprised at how far you've come.


Ok, now that I'm done ranting, lets get down to business.

As I said before, I got the cab for a mere $50. It had 44702 hits on it, which means that the arcade has seen quite a bit of wear ($11,175.50 worth of play).






Here's a shot of the tag used by the dealer.


The cabinet utilized a Hantarex Polo 25", common in many upright cabinets including Killer Instinct. The monitor was busted, and since tv repair shops are non existant out here, I hade a few choices to make. Tthe biggest problem I faced was that I'm stationed in Europe, but would eventually be heading back stateside in 18 months. I didnt want a monitor that was dependant on 220V power, so I decided to go with a replacement chassis from 8liners.com. I'll update the page with pics and a tutorial as soon as it arrives in the mail.

[M3talhead]

After taking about 30 pictures, I began the breakdown of the cab, making sure to document every wire and connector incase I made any mistakes. The power supply, PCB, power cord, control panel harness, sound wire harness, and video were all disconnected and places aside so I could clean up the interior of the cab.














Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! Nice and clean!




After the control panel was disassembled, it was cleaned out to get rid of 10 years of dust and dirt.


Scrap. Some of the buttons may be reused. I'll have to see.


This had to be the coolest find while cleaning out the cab. Its a coin from the Netherlands before they switched over to the Euro in 1999. The date on it is 1972. I wonder how many other games this little coin has been in......

[M3talhead]

I recieved my packages from t-molding.com and Happs last month.  Now I have my trim and main components. I cant start assembling control panel quite yet because the I-Pac I ordered (along with the AVGA) somehow got mishandled by DHL and ended up somewhere in BFE. Anyways, I called DHL and had them re-route the package. Should be here sometime next week.

I opened up the box from Happs and found my 2 Super 8-ways inside, along with 16 black buttons and 3, 7-pin locks. I took apart the coin doors, keeping the coin mechs stored in ziploc bags so I dont lose any components. The locks were installed on the coin doors and rear access panel in about 10 minutes.






Happs contents








The coin doors are really chewed up, but they'll recieve a nice coat of textured paint as soon as I get a chance to pick some up at the hardware store.




The finished lock assembly on the rear access door.

[Gunstar Hero]

Wow. $50 for a complete (dead) MK3 machine?? 

Nice find. I'd scrap my cab in sec for one of those. 

Although I like the MK2 "Raiden" sideart a bit better. 

[M3talhead]

More cleaning today.

Since yesterday's cool find of the Netherland guilder (coin), I wanted to see if anything else interesting had fallen in the crack where the play counter was mounted. In order to get to its lower compartment, I needed to lift the stainless steel access panel that was screwed into the frame.






Unfortunatly, there was nothing there but cobwebs and dead insects.

While I had the access panel off, I decided that now was a good time to remove the 6 bolts holding the lower coin door frame to the cab. I'll sand and prep the doors sometime this week. I've decided to use a flat, low textured black paint instead of a gloss to keep with the authenticity of the machine. My goal is for someone to look at the cabinet when its turned off, and think its just another arcade.

I've also ordered my 4 rolls of black vinyl from  PartsExpress.com (Item# 260-018). This should be enough to cover the sides, front, CP, and give me a little room for any calculation errors (though I dont expect any). Either way, I need just over 3 rolls of 2'x20' to cover any exposed areas. I decided on the vinyl because my previous experience with contact paper showed me how much of a pain it was to  get it unrolled and placed where you wanted it to go without it curling up on you or sticking to itself. It wasnt a terrible process, but the end result was a little cheap looking and not very durable (the longevity of contact paper isnt very impressive when you have friends coming over and alcohol is present on most of those occasions).  Additionally, I considered that while paint may be easier to touch up in the event of a scratch or ding, its a lot messier when you've got to work within the confines of a relativly small apartment. I also wasnt sure which paint would be best to cover the existing laminate or how it would react to it. It just made more sense to go with a few rolls of vinyl.

[M3talhead]

Here it is.


A clean, gutted MK3 arcade. Most of my major components are in, but I'm still waiting on a few more pieces, the vinyl rolls, monitor chassis, aVGA and I-pac. I've put off buying the computer until I have everything else completed. No need in rushin out to buy a machine thats only going to be cheaper in a month anyway, right?

*Note: The burn in on the monitor is much more pronounced in the photo above. Looking at it directly at it in a lighted room, you dont see any at all. Funny how cameras pick that up huh?

There's not much else to do now except start shopping for a replacement control panel board and paint the coin doors. Since I have no MAME computer or working monitor (other than the one I'm using to type this with), I'll have to wait a few more weeks to begin installing and configuring the system. The t-molding arrived a while ago (along with my MAME set on DVD from Freemameroms.com) , but I dont want to start cutting that up until I get the vinyl on. Running the edges of the vinyl into the t-molding grooves will give the cab clean lines and just make it as a whole, look better. Attention to detail is what its all about.


A big thanks to "mameburner" at Free MAME Roms for this outstanding DVD romset! Very quick to ship and professionaly burned. Great job guys!

[M3talhead]

I finally got the monitor out of the cabinet today. After weeks of cleaning and snapping photos to document everything, its now ready for its own dust-off and photo shoot.

Before I just started unscrewing everything, I was careful to take measurements of where the monitor was positioned and a few pictures to help me line everything back up so there were no problems during reassembly. The first step was to take a permanent marker and outline the monitor's position via its mounting brackets.





After I had outlined all 4 corners with the marker, I removed the top lock nuts holding the monitor in place, followed by the bottom ones. I wasnt worried about the tube falling forward, since nearly all of the weight was behind the screw-studs and was tilted back at an angle.







Now comes the big heave-ho! I prepared my workbench with an old blanket to rest the tube on and make it easier to work with. I was expecting a 25" arcade monitor to weigh a lot more than it did, but came out without any problems, so I set it down and started cleaning it up.

(*Note: Just so people dont think I'm a total idiot, the monitor was previously discharged before removing it from the cab. Always ensure a monitor has been fully discharged before handeling or sticking your little fingers anywhere near the anode cap.)


You can see the abuse the cabinet has been through by the big horizontal gouge on the sideart and all the chipped MDF on the side of the CP (where the Midway logo is). Though it might not look that bad to you, to me its one of the main reasons I'm going with the vinyl rolls to cover the side.

[Gunstar Hero]

You're covering the sideart? Man, that seems like a bad call to me. It doesn't look too far gone for a little touch up... well, to each his own I suppose.

[darktemp]

I'd cover it too.  I hate sideart that looks like a photo instead of a drawing.  Konami for instance has some of the most dated and ugly marquees and sideart because of this.

Excellent work so far.

[M3talhead]

My packages from DHL finally arrived after an amazing trip around the world. As I said earlier, the shipping orders got mixed up and it somehow went from the UK, to NY, to Minneapolis, to Florida, to Belgium. Long way to go for a little pcb! 

Atleast its here.


I like the re-design of the I-Pac most of all. When I built the Gauntlet cab, I had one of the older boards, a bit bigger with the I/O ports on opposite ends. This one (I think) is a little more compact and has the I/O ports on one end, side-by-side. A much better design IMHO. Another nice thing Andy (at Ultimarc.com) does, is burn the software and drivers on a Datasafe disc. This is a much better media to write information to than regular cds because they are less prone to "CD rot". CD rot occurs when a disc has been in storage for a long period of time, and the foil layer on top of the cd containing the information begins to "bubble up" and chip off. I have several cds I burned not but 2 years ago, that are already losing data because of rot.


Now that I have the aVGA card, all I need is the computer I'll use to run MAME with. I have my desktop I could test it with, but with no monitor chassis replacement, I'll have to wait until that arrives before going any further. Right now, Dell has a really good MAMEable system for about $350 ($450, less a $100 rebate). Its a 2.8 P4, 512 ram, CD-R/DVD combo, 40GB HDD, onboard LAN/audio/video, and even comes with mouse, kbd, and XP preinstalled. Not a bad deal at all.

*Note: If you ever send anything ANYWHERE, via USPS, always, always, always, get it insured, no matter the value. The postal service gets my packages here 2-3 days earlier than standard Priority mail. Its like having 100% insurance for whatever it is you're mailing, plus a faster delivery. (I think they take better care of it too)

[SirPeale]

You got the I-PAC?  Why not the J-PAC, then it would have been pretty much plug-and-play?

[M3talhead]

You got the I-PAC?  Why not the J-PAC, then it would have been pretty much plug-and-play?

Because I'm not keeping the JAMMA equipment. Look at the control panel  from my Arcade 1.0. You'll see how I wired everything together. This is not going to be a dedicated cabinet, so I didnt really need the J-Pac.

[SirPeale]

You got the I-PAC?  Why not the J-PAC, then it would have been pretty much plug-and-play?

Because I'm not keeping the JAMMA equipment. Look at the control panel  from my Arcade 1.0. You'll see how I wired everything together. This is not going to be a dedicated cabinet, so I didnt really need the J-Pac.

It would have made the wiring a ton easier.  Unless you're going to pull the arcade monitor, and use a PC monitor.  If that's the case...man, that sucks.

[M3talhead]

Aside from the enjoyment I get from creating my own custom control panel, the wiring in the cab was in serious question. Several of the wires and terminals were corroded, broken or brittle. Instead of replacing each broken component, I decided to start from scratch like I did in Arcade 1.0 and use the cab's original CP as a template on which I could design and build what I wanted. This avoids a lot of pain and suffering that I dont want to deal with. Wiring the CP up myself eliminates any questions that might arise regarding what condition everything is in.

(Plus, its really cool to see people's reaction when you tell them you did everything yourself.)

I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, which really shows when you look at Arcade 1.0's CP. It was my first CP job and I was really proud of it, since most of the other attempts by first timers I saw online looked a little "hacked" and unorganized. I cant stand things just being rat-nested together.

[M3talhead]

Ok, so it finally stopped snowing and raining for a few days. I checked outside and it was a little gray, so I decided that if I wanted to get out and paint the coin doors, now was the time. I knew I'd only have a small window of opportunity to get everything done, so earlier this week I went ahead and had everything sanded and preped.


Satin black spraypaint. 240 grit sandpaper. This is about all you need when refinishing coin doors. Keep in mind, most doors and frame assemblys are powdercoated, not painted, giving them an extremely durable finish. You can do a Google search to learn more about powdercoating and how you can do it yourself with an ordinary oven. Its a little more involved (and expensive), but if you really want something thats going to be bulletproof......


Taking apart the doors from the frame only required that I remove 4 screws. Some people skip this step and just paing the doors while still assembled, but if you care about attention to detail as much as I do, take the extra 3 minutes and disassemble it. Once everything is painted and put back together, you wont have to worry about paint flaking off the hinges after a few openings and closings.


Be careful when preping the surfaces of the doors. The sandpaper is only used to "rough up" the old paint so it gives the new paint something to grab on to. If you rub to hard or go overboard with it, you could very easily remove that  "pitted" texture the doors have. I did that on accident in a few places, but I didnt have much of a choice. The powdercoating had chipped away on some spots of the frame, caused by previous abuse and attempted break-ins. Sanding those spots and blending them in to the paint was the only option I had.


The lip of the door was in pretty bad shape. You can tell that someone had at one point or another, tried to gain access to the coinbox by forcing a screwdriver or prybar between the door edge and frame. I fixed this by using 2 pliers and working the edge back to a clean line.


It wasnt easy




 There's really nowhere to paint in my apartment, so I settled for the next best thing.......the bed of my truck. I grabbed my can of satin black paint, lower coin door and frame assembly, and headed out before I got caught in some nasty weather.

[M3talhead]

Now that the paint is dry on the lower coin door/frame assembly, I can start on the upper.  Here's the final result.

Before

After


What's more, is that my paitence and self control with the sandpaper paid off, and I was able to keep the original texture using only 2 thin coats of paint.

[quarterback]

Great job on the coin doors.  You've inspired me to actually do mine as well one of these days.  I figured I wouldn't bother but the results you got look like it's definitely worth it.

[M3talhead]

I finished the upper coin door today. Only 5 minutes of prep and about a half hour of waiting for the paint to dry left me with the same great result as the bottom door I did yesterday. After I took this picture though, I noticed a small ding smack dab in the middle. I guess it just goes to show how far a little paint and time can improve the overall look of a coin door.



*Note: The little white specs and off-colored flakes are just pieces of dust that got attracted to the paint after it dried due to some static electricity.

[SirPeale]

Aside from the enjoyment I get from creating my own custom control panel, the wiring in the cab was in serious question. Several of the wires and terminals were corroded, broken or brittle. Instead of replacing each broken component, I decided to start from scratch like I did in Arcade 1.0 and use the cab's original CP as a template on which I could design and build what I wanted.

I would have just replaced the JAMMA harness, but that's just me.  You still get the kudos for wiring it yourself, plus the bonus neat wiring job, and getting to keep your arcade monitor.

[M3talhead]

Whew!

OK. Update...

I received my Parts Express package yesterday and inside were the 4 rolls of pica vinyl I ordered. This stuff is about what I expected in terms of thickness, feel and grain.



One thing I never could tell from all the pictures of this vinyl, was the size of its grain. Oscar's Centipede cab used this same vinyl, but I could never see how detailed the texture was, since all of the shots didn't have any sizeable reference. I put a dime in this photo to show the grain size on the vinyl. This really is a great product for covering cabs though.



Next, I prepped the surface for the vinyl by removing the external hardware (monitor bracket and CP latch bolts) and washed it down with soap and water and let it dry. I then took a razorblade and went over all the bumps and screw holes and sliced them so they were flush with the rest of the surrounding area. I can only guess that the previous owner of the cab had a few cup holders screwed into the side and then removed them, leaving several raised "mounds" on the sides right where you might think one would be.



Now came the tricky part. Lining up the vinyl. This is something that really helps when you have an extra set of hands, but it can be done my one person if you just go slow and take your time. I gave myself a lot of slop and room for error by hanging about 1/2-3/4 of an inch over the edges incase it was laid crooked. Luckily, I got it right on the first time, and rolled the rest of vinyl down the length of the cab with one hand pulling the paper backing from underneath, and the other running back and forth on the leading edge to work out any trapped air. That was the most difficult part, making sure that all the bubbles were out and that any imperfections in the surface (dirt, pieces of MDF, gunk, etc...) didn't get under the vinyl. If I had to pull it up, it could have distorted the vinyl as it was lifted, causing a problem that wouldn't be easily fixed. After I was done rolling the vinyl, I went over the entire surfave looking for any bubbles I missed, and worked them out using my razorblade. I laid it at about a 45* angle and drew it across the bubble, flattening it and pushing it to the closest edge. This turned out to be a great way of doing this, as the blade is perfectly flat and didn't scratch the surface at all.







Once one side was done, I flipped the cab over and did the other. I then finshed the front of the cab the same as I did for the sides. The only thing that was  trickier for the front, was keeping the vinyl straight, as it had a tendency to sag into the coin door space. When it did, it pulled away from the edges and screwed up the alignment. It eventually worked out in the end by going slowly, checking, rechecking, and checking again the alignment every inch or so. It was a pain in the ass. 



Now then, a little red T-molding here.......



.......the coin doors.........



And there you have it.

The cab looks just as good as I had imagined it. The only thing missing now are the 3 biggest components...
                      1. The monitor (new chassis is on its way)
                      2. The computer (pricing out the best deal)
                      3. The control panel (Need to find someone with a router)

[AmericanDemon]

Looks good!  The vinyl really brought the cab together.  I love side art, but the solid black looks great on that cab.

[quarterback]

I agree, it does look good. 

That vinyl isn't as wide as your cab, right?  Did you have any trouble lining up the 2nd pieces as you finished each side?

[M3talhead]

Looks good!  The vinyl really brought the cab together.  I love side art, but the solid black looks great on that cab.

Thanks. This is exactly the style and feel I was going for. Black and red, subtle, yet sharp. I didnt really care for the sides that much anyway. The problem with that kind of artwork, is that its not something that can be replaced, and if its damaged, it cant be fixed without it looking like crap.

I agree, it does look good.

That vinyl isn't as wide as your cab, right? Did you have any trouble lining up the 2nd pieces as you finished each side?

The vinyl was 24" (61cm) wide, so it obviously wasnt going to cover the side with just one strip. I used a method described once before on BYOAC, where you overlap the 2 pieces by an inch or so, then cut through both layers and remove he excess material. The only difficult part was peeling the top layer and removing the strip underneath it to make a perfect seam. You have to be very careful not to press down on the overlaping piece to hard, or peel the top layer back to quickly, or with to much force. This will stretch and distort the vinyl to a point where you will get wrinkles in the edges that cannot be worked out. I found this out the hard way. Luckily, I had an extra roll to redo it with. I did one side like this, but the other, I left alone. It was to difficult to get right without warping the edges, so I just lined up the edges as best as I could (about an 1/8-1/4 inch) and left it at that. You really cant even tell that they overlap unless you point it out. The coin door was perfect. The width was exactly 24", maybe 24 1/4".

To anyone considering this to a busted up cab, do it. Its worth it. 

[M3talhead]

Wohoo!

A new toy! I received my shipment from 8-Liners.com today. I'm replacing my 25" Hantarex Polo chassis and went ahead and started the disassembly of the old monitor.




Unfortunately, I wont be able to start the assembly and testing of the new board until next week, 'cause tomorrow I'm headed off to Ireland for a 7 day vacation (read: St. Patrick's Day extravaganza). There will be much alcohol consumption, as well as tours of the Jameson whiskey distillery and Guinness breweries. I'll be sure to take lots of pics (you know how I am) and post them for your jealous eyes to feast upon.

[M3talhead]

Well folks, I made it back alive.

I have a ton of pictures from Ireland (about 400) and just cant tell you how much fun I had. After I toured the Guiness brewery, my friend had to "physicaly" remind me that I couldnt live there....



......but it would be a great life! (and no, I didnt steal the truck. I coundnt even if I wanted to, they drive on the wrong side of the road, remember? )

[M3talhead]

SUCCESS!!!

(sort of....)

I hooked everything up internally to the monitor. I double, triple, even quadruple checked to make sure I had every single connection properly wired, crimped, and in what I believed to be the right places. Then, after wiping the sweat from my brow, I closed my eyes and pluged it in.......

*crackle*......*crackle*..............*crackle*...... ~hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~

Whaddya know, it worked! The picture came up (no RGB inputs though) and displayed a brilliant white horizontal line. This is because I have an issue at the yoke, but I'm looking into what the problem might be.

[M3talhead]

Problem solved.

I'm going to start off by first thanking Guru and Ken for the support and troubleshooting tips in the monitor and video forum. I couldnt have dont it without you guys.

As it turned out, when I was crimping on the terminals for the H/V posts, I didnt crimp one of the wires properly, leading to poor contact with the vertical posts and a thin white line in the middle of the screen. After attaching a new end to the faulty wire, the screen came up as it should, with only minimal size and positional tweaking needed to correct the picture. There was a little barrel distortion, but that was fixed by adjusting the pincushion pot, which was tucked away next to the flyback.



Now all I need to do is attach a monitor cable to the RGB inputs on the back of the chassis, and I should be in business.

[M3talhead]

Today I was able to score a busted Dell monitor for salvage. I unscrewed it and removed the VGA cable without any hassle. Just 4 screws for the case, and one for the cable mount and that was it.



Then, using a digital multimeter, I figured out the pins on the molex end to that of SVGA plug using a continuity test. Once I had the wires mapped, I clipped the ones that werent going to be used, and separated those that were to be spliced. My idea was that I would use molex or serial connections at the ends for quick disconnect.

*Note: Almost every store in town is closed due to the Good Friday/Easter weekend  holiday. I'll have to wait until the 29th to get my connectors.

[M3talhead]

Update:

Well, as it turns out, I was one of the lucky few chosen by Retroblast in their "Honorary Starcade" contest. I won a Starcade DVD with this photo.....




In other news, I finished the splice on the video cable coming out of the monitor. It took less than a half hour, with the hardest part being the continuity checks between the VGA plug and the molex connector. Anyway, it just means I'm one step closer to getting this thing together. I wasnt able to hook up the monitor though because it slipped my mind that my desktop has a PCIx slot, not AGP, so testing the display with the AVGA I bought will have to wait until I build and buy the machine I'll use for good.

[AceTKK]

ouch, all that work for the monitor and you aren't even able to test it?  Plz keep us updated and congrats on the award!

-Ace-

[RetroJames]

Yeah, right on for winning the contest and great job on the cabinet.  Love the attention to detail! 

[IntruderAlert]

I still have the Hantarex in mine
Do you think the pinouts are the same?
If you made note of them please post them when you get the chance

[M3talhead]

If you're using an AVGA card, the only thing you need to worry about it where your R,G,B,Ground, and H/V sync will go in relation to both plugs. I used the following diagram for my cable splice.


VGA Pin #                            Monitor's wire harness                 
1 - Red ---------------------------- Red (1)
2 - Green ------------------------- Green (2)
3 - Blue -------------- ------------- Blue (3)

6 - Red Ground   \
7 - Green Ground \
8 - Blue Ground     >---------------- Black (4) -- Ground
10 - Ground         /

13 - H Sync \___________________ White (5) -- Combined HV Sync
14 - V Sync /

Look very closely at the end of a computer monitor's 15 pin D-sub connector. You will see (starting in the upper left corner) sequential numbers going from left to right. These identify the pin # of the PC monitor's wiring, which I've identified above. Pins 5, 9, 11, 12, and 15 are not used in this splice, so dont worry about them. After you remove the cable from the old PC monitor, use a digital multimeter and starting with the #1 pin on the 15 pin D-sub, check wires at the end for continuity. Write each color wire down and what pin it is wired to. Once you have everything mapped out, solder your monitor's video cable to each of the corrisponding wires.

Make sense?

[IntruderAlert]

Nice explaining!

I've made my own cables like this before for projectors and such
I wasn't sure about the pinouts on the arcade monitor but I must admit that I haven't even looked yet.

I hope you get your PC soon so that you can test yours out
I'm leaving for a few days so I won't be getting anything done for a while on mine 

[M3talhead]

News:

Today I bit the bullet and finally pieced together a new computer through Newegg. I wanted to have a machine that could run most MAME games at 100% and leave room for whatever else I might want to use it for. When I built  Arcade 1.0, I kept this in mind and occasionally used it as a dedicated game server for Battlefield: 1942 and BF:V. This turned out to be very handy during LAN parties, because the machine I pieced was powerful enough to run the server in the background and still allow you to play Marvel VS Capcom through MAME.

When you've got 12 people over beating the crap out of each other on PCs, its nice to take a break after 4 straight hours of mayhem and play a few oldschool titles. During one party in particular, we ended up quitting about 3 hours into it because whenever people would get frustrated and pissed off from dying so much, they'd run over to the cab and play an arcade games as a breather. Pretty soon, everyone just said "To hell with it..." and we started a Street Fighter tourney right then and there. 

Something about people leaving behind $10,000 worth of high-end gaming rigs to play outdated arcade systems that have less processing power than their video cards brings a smile to my face. 

Anyways, here's the specs of tha machine I bought:

Apex CASE /350W PS
N82E16811154017
$29.50

MoBo MSI|VIA K8T800 PRO K8T NEO2-F    
N82E16813130469
$98.00

AMD 64 |3000+ ATHLON 64    
N82E16819103486
$146.00

512MB CORSAIR DDR 400mhz    
N82E16820145026   
$51.00

Western Digital HD 80GB WD800JD 8MB %    
N82E16822135106
$60.50              
            
Subtotal
$388.99

Shipping and Handling
$21.35

Total
$410.34[/color]

[AceTKK]

That's a whole lotta processor for a MAME cab.  But, really, the price/performance ratio on AMD stuff is so good you might as well go for it.  My AthlonXP 2800 (oc'ed to 3200 speeds) runs everything @ 100% (except for the obvious few).  You might want to pop that Athlon64 into your main/gaming rig and use your old chip for the cab.

-Ace-

[M3talhead]

No dice man.

My desktop is a P4 3.0. Suits me just fine for surfing and minor graphics work. Doing what I do for a living doesnt give me much time anymore for hours and hours of PC gaming. Besides, its becoming rediculously expensive to keep up with the latest hardware. I've done it long enough and now I think I'm ready to stop playing the catch-up game. Not only that, while titles may be getting more detailed and indepth, they're also getting out of hand in terms of price. I remember when a top selling game for my 286 was no more than $30 the day it came out. Paying $60 for a game like Doom 3 and then shelling out another $350 for the video card it requires is just more than I'd like to chew. I mean really, do the math. I spend on average about 5 hours a week playing games. I'd have to play that game for a long ass time before I get my money's worth out of it.

Now MAME on the other hand, well, I think we all know what we can get out of that.

[IntruderAlert]

That'll be great for the newer games
I'm looking at similar specs myself for my MKII cab

I know that I want at least 2ghz
I was worried about celeron or sempron performance but caffinefiend says he gets full speed and no frameskip with his 2.2 ghz celeron & 300 some megs of ram
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,34514.0.html

I don't want to spend any more than necessary so I might end up going with something like that

But with your system you definately will be in the ball game for a looooooonng time 

[M3talhead]

After a few months going back and forth on different marquee designs, I finally came up with one I'm going to keep.



As for the CP, I'm still working on it, but I can tell I'm getting very close!

[M3talhead]

I've decided that I'm going to leave the CP alone as it is. I also created the front artwork and decided to go with a simple collage of different arcade logos. After a little perspective work, I combined everything to get what you see below. Not bad eh?

[Truecade]

I'm just curious what material you used for your control panel/marquee graphics.  Also, how did you apply this material to the CP?  Did you cover it with lexan?

Thanks

[M3talhead]

The artwork has not yet been printed, what you see is a superimposed image I did using photoshop. When I do get it printed though, I think I'm going to go with Mamemarquees.com. They've got a great reputation and come highly recommended.

[oldsage]

The artwork has not yet been printed, what you see is a superimposed image I did using photoshop. When I do get it printed though, I think I'm going to go with Mamemarquees.com. They've got a great reputation and come highly recommended.

Ahhh... Photoshop...

[IntruderAlert]

everything looks great!
but i would consider getting rid of the arcade company logos on the front of the cp
it seems to distract from your design
could you post another pic minus the logos for comparison?

[M3talhead]

Hee's what it looks like with no black fog on the CP and no logos on the front.

[oldsage]

Hee's what it looks like with no black fog on the CP and no logos on the front.

Maybe you should keep the fog, but only on the top of the CPO and the bottom front? Am i making sense?
Also, as i said on your artwork thread, maybe you should have a black tattoo-like design on the front sides... Just some black shape done the same style as the shape behind the "versus" on the marquee?
Are you getting my drift?
BTW, are you planning on having a bezel graphic done?

[M3talhead]

Maybe you should keep the fog, but only on the top of the CPO and the bottom front? Am i making sense?
Also, as i said on your artwork thread, maybe you should have a black tattoo-like design on the front sides... Just some black shape done the same style as the shape behind the "versus" on the marquee?
Are you getting my drift?
BTW, are you planning on having a bezel graphic done?

At current, no, I am not planning on using a bezel other than the one that came with it. With just the CPO, marquee, and front piece, printing alone will cost me over $100. Besides, I like the plain bezel it came with. Its the original and fits perfectly. My plans are to keep the artwork as simple as possible, and I dont even think I'm going to rig up any instruction cards.

On another note, its very hard for me to let go of the manufacturers' logos I designed for the front. I dont know why. Maybe its because it was an idea I had with Arcade 1.0, but never implemented because at the time I didnt have access or an indepth knowledge of photoshop. I'll have to play around with it some more before I finally decide.

[oldsage]

Maybe you should keep the fog, but only on the top of the CPO and the bottom front? Am i making sense?
Also, as i said on your artwork thread, maybe you should have a black tattoo-like design on the front sides... Just some black shape done the same style as the shape behind the "versus" on the marquee?
Are you getting my drift?
BTW, are you planning on having a bezel graphic done?

At current, no, I am not planning on using a bezel other than the one that came with it. With just the CPO, marquee, and front piece, printing alone will cost me over $100. Besides, I like the plain bezel it came with. Its the original and fits perfectly. My plans are to keep the artwork as simple as possible, and I dont even think I'm going to rig up any instruction cards.

On another note, its very hard for me to let go of the manufacturers' logos I designed for the front. I dont know why. Maybe its because it was an idea I had with Arcade 1.0, but never implemented because at the time I didnt have access or an indepth knowledge of photoshop. I'll have to play around with it some more before I finally decide.

I was actually hoping you want to stay with a blank marquee...
If you can't let go of the logos, i have an idea that might work out, although i don't know to much about photoshop so i dunno if this will work... If photoshop can do this, i would suggest changing every logo to grey scale, and replacing white with red... If photoshop is capable of that, it could make the logos blend more...
Again, am i making any sense?

[RetroJames]

You said that was a 25" monitor?  What are the other dimensions if you don't mind me asking.  Height, Width, Depth)

[M3talhead]

I'm 6"2 and slouching a little in that picture if it helps. I dont have any exact measurements right now, but there it is. The overlay is one I photoshopped a long time ago.

[IntruderAlert]

If you don't want to let go of the logos could you post a file of just the front CP artwork so that we can see more clearly what you have going on there?

[oldsage]

If you don't want to let go of the logos could you post a file of just the front CP artwork so that we can see more clearly what you have going on there?

That would be in his artwork thread...

[M3talhead]

Its official: I'm retarded.


I ordered my computer for the cab from Newegg on the 1st of the month, but realized I purchased the wrong CPU when I opened it up today. Instead of buying a processor for a socket 939, I recieved a 754. Totally incompatable. I went back to look at my invoice to make sure that it wasnt something they did on their end, like send me the wrong model. I noticed that on the invoice, it doesnt give any more detailed information other than "CPU: Athlon 64 - 3000". I can only assume that when I added the processor to my cart, I must have clicked on the wrong one since they were almost identical ad side by side.

Long story short, I now have to send the CPU back, take a $21 restocking fee hit, and wait another week for them to send out the right one. I've done business with Newegg for years, but this is the first time I've ever screwed up an order.

[M3talhead]

Ouch.

Today I had a little mishapp on base. I had just finished PT routine and went to the raquetball courts to play a few games with some buddies of mine. About half way through the 2nd game, I recieved a kiss from another guy's racket. My front-left tooth took the heavy blow and snapped it clean off. Unfortunatly, I have to wait until tomorrow to see an oral surgeon about getting it cemented back on or having a crown made because it was decided that its not "life threatening" (gotta love the military medical system ).

Anyways, I'm in a mild sort of pain but decided to let you guys in on it since it appears I've pissed off somebody's diety with the string of bad luck I've been having. Enjoy.

[oldsage]

Ouch.

Today I had a little mishapp on base. I had just finished PT routine and went to the raquetball courts to play a few games with some buddies of mine. About half way through the 2nd game, I recieved a kiss from another guy's racket. My front-left tooth took the heavy blow and snapped it clean off. Unfortunatly, I have to wait until tomorrow to see an oral surgeon about getting it cemented back on or having a crown made because it was decided that its not "life threatening" (gotta love the military medical system ).

Anyways, I'm in a mild sort of pain but decided to let you guys in on it since it appears I've pissed off somebody's diety with the string of bad luck I've been having. Enjoy.

Lol! My exact same tooth fell off! But mine broke while i was playing this weird Japanese train game... You know those "cart" things that you push and pull a lever to move on the track? It was some sort of a weird simulation of this, and it was really fun too... But once i really got into the game and started wildly "throwing" the damn lever, it swung right into my mouth, and i almost "flew" backwards... That's probably one of my most memorable arcade experiences... Funny to see someone here that lost the same tooth...
We were actually considering suing the ass off that damn hotel (it was that New York hotel in Vegas...), but eventually decided to drop it... International law suits against a huge hotel chain isn't really my cup of tea... 
Hope they reconstruct it well for ya... Mine is good looking, but it almost fell a few times... But that's just cause my dentist sucks...

[M3talhead]

Finally.

I recieved my replacement CPU and slapped everything together. After attaching the monitor to the AVGA card, viola! Who-da thunk it'd work? 

Anyways, I still need to get XP on the new drive and start loading everything else. I'm just happy that I can get working again.

[kenzo42]

man, that must have been quite a blow!

1) root canal, cast post core, crown
2) pin build up, crown.
3) if it didn't hit the pulp, maybe a resin repair. it'll probably break and stain too, if you go this route! there's not much left to work w/.

it'll set you or the military back at least ~$2000 (not including the resin).

nice cab!

[tommy]

I personaly prefer the MK3 graphics then what youve done, all in all not bad.

[M3talhead]

man, that must have been quite a blow!

1) root canal, cast post core, crown
2) pin build up, crown.
3) if it didn't hit the pulp, maybe a resin repair. it'll probably break and stain too, if you go this route! there's not much left to work w/.

it'll set you or the military back at least ~$2000 (not including the resin).

nice cab!

Thanks.

Yeah, the whole getting smacked in the mouth with the racket really sucked. Luckily, the military took care of everything. I have a temp right now, but in about 2-3 weeks, I'll probably have it pulled and replaced with a false tooth.

Well. Today was a busy day. I recieved my replacement processor from Newegg a few days ago, but only got around to installing it today. For some reason I'm still having a bit of trouble getting the mobo to recognize the SATA drive I bought, but for right now, I've got Win2k up and running on a spare 20 gig IDE I had lying around.

Once I had everything set, I went ahead and put the monitor back in, followed by the CPU case.











..........more to come!

[M3talhead]

I bought the wood for the new CP today and had it cut there at the hardware store. The only downside was that they didn't have a router, so I still need to find someone with the tools to make the T-molding grove.



Anyways, I got the thing home and started marking the holes used to mount the latches and piano hinge hardware. The easiest way to do this is to lay the old CP on top of the new one and use the tip of a bit to make the new marks.



Once piloted, I secured the hardware with a few leftover wood screws I had. Not realizing it at first, the wood was so soft, I accidentally stripped one if the holes screwing in a bolt and had to drill a second so it would be secure enough to hold the hinge. This makes me wonder though if I should go back to my original idea of using a sheet of Lexan on top to keep the wood from getting nicked and gouged. I put a sheet on Arcade 1.0's CP but it didn't really need it since it was made up of sheetmetal. This time though, I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to slap one on the top of this CP.





After everything was screwed and secured, I found another little problem with my handywork. When the CP was laid into place, it was a bit of a squeeze either because the cut made by the guy at the hardware store wasn't entirely straight, or I had mis-aligned my screw holes and mounted the hinge with a slight angle (though I'd like to blame it on the hardware guy myself..... )



No worries though. After a bit of sanding and trimming with a file, it was a good snug fit all around and latches as if it came straight from Midway. I'm going to hold off on drilling the button and J-stick holes though until I have the CP overlay printed. The last thing I need is to spend $60+ on printed artwork, only to find out my hole pattern on the overlay doesn't match my pre-drilled CP. I figure the best way to ensure everything lines up is to wait until I receive the artwork from Mamemarquees.com and then lay it on top of the panel and mark the holes then.
For now though, I'm going to have to wait though until I get the $110+ to send to Scott.

[Bones]

Everything is looking great Metalhead.

[M3talhead]

Thanks 'Bones.

I try to pay close attention to detail.

Its all about documentation. You can never take enough pictures.

[M3talhead]

Bummer.

After attaching all the hardware and admiring my work, I gave the CP a satisfying pound with my fist for a job well done and heard something I didnt want to........*CREEEAAACK*


Shitt.



I left my fist on the CP, shocked. I didnt even hit it that hard!!!!!!

"Please tell my I didn't just break the CP."




Yep.





But hey, look on the bright side, better to find how weak it is now than after I have a $60 laminate adhered to it, right?

[kenzo42]

Yeah, the whole getting smacked in the mouth with the racket really sucked. Luckily, the military took care of everything. I have a temp right now, but in about 2-3 weeks, I'll probably have it pulled and replaced with a false tooth.

DON'T LET THEM PULL THE TOOTH!!!!
i've saved WAY worse than that w/ 100% success. if they want to pull it, they are too lazy to save it (unless there is a vertical fracture or something else that i don't see in the pic). bridges fail often at the cost of the 2 other adjacent teeth (they can look bad too) and implants take ~8 months and 2 surgeries. besides, yours isn't even that bad.

sorry for the tangent, just looking out for my byoac'ers!

[M3talhead]

Yeah, the whole getting smacked in the mouth with the racket really sucked. Luckily, the military took care of everything. I have a temp right now, but in about 2-3 weeks, I'll probably have it pulled and replaced with a false tooth.

DON'T LET THEM PULL THE TOOTH!!!!
i've saved WAY worse than that w/ 100% success. if they want to pull it, they are too lazy to save it (unless there is a vertical fracture or something else that i don't see in the pic). bridges fail often at the cost of the 2 other adjacent teeth (they can look bad too) and implants take ~8 months and 2 surgeries. besides, yours isn't even that bad.

sorry for the tangent, just looking out for my byoac'ers!

Lol. Post an arcade project and recieve free dental advice!!

Only at BYOAC......LOL



Well I'm not 100% sure if they're going to pull it or not. They said that in a few weeks I'd have to go back and get it evaluated. Personally, I'd rather them save the tooth and put a cap or crown or whatever you call it on there. The broken piece actually had several smaller cracks in it, making it look worse than it really was. On the up side, the temporary repair looks pretty good. Most people think that the small break in the reattached piece was where tooth broke off, but I have to point out that it was much closer to the gumline.

Anyway, no dental procedure is going to make it look any worse, so I'm all for it. 

[tommy]

Lol. Post an arcade project and recieve free dental advice!! 

Only at BYOAC......LOL



You have your teeth all over your project thread. 


Im very surpised that wood cracked so easy, do you try to bite it or something. 

I do like the way you describe your project as it happens and show pictures of you working ,it looks decently professional. A+ on presentation.

[M3talhead]

Progress on Arcade 2.0 ("VersuS"), has come to a halt now that my desktop PC's motherboard has fried. It seems that Dell has been having issues with Dimension 4700 boards go out for no reason shortly after the 1 year warranty expires, but have not made the decision to recall any of them because 1) its an electronic component, and 2) it does not affect enough of their business to make it worth their while.

Well my friends, it has affected me!

With no motherboard, I have not running PC other than my laptop. All the PS files I planned on printing through Mamemarquees.com are now locked away on the HDD until my new replacement mobo arrives (which should be in about 3-4 weeks).

Living out in the middle of nowhere really sucks.....

[Timstuff]

Metalhead, I got a coin door off of ebay about 2 weeks ago, and I used your instructions for restoring it. It turned out great! All that was left to do was to wash the plastic parts and replace the locks, and now she's all set. Thanks for posting that info!

[rohan]

Awesome cab; bummer about the mobo.  I remember being an E-4 in the Air Force dorms with 4 cabs in my room...They thought I was crazy.  Don't trust military dentists as they are incompetent.  Be stern with them, or they'll try all kinds of unnecessary stuff that could really hurt.  I now have wierd scrapes along my teeth near the gumline because some dental tech thought it would be o.k. to try to remove plaque with a drill(I am not making this up)  Couldn't you just interface your laptop with the cab in the meantime? I know I wouldn't be able to wait.

[M3talhead]

Metalhead, I got a coin door off of ebay about 2 weeks ago, and I used your instructions for restoring it. It turned out great! All that was left to do was to wash the plastic parts and replace the locks, and now she's all set. Thanks for posting that info!

You're the first person I know that enjoyed my article enough to put it to practice. Glad to hear I could contribute to the hobby.

I'm not sure whether or not I was entirely clear on the status of my PC. It was my desktop mobo that died, not the new mame board. That one is tucked away nice and neat in the belly of Arcade 2.0 (of which I'll take more pictures of soon....).

With the desktop out of comission, I cant get to any of my files or programs. The only thing I keep on my laptop is the OS, Firefox, Jet Audio, and Zone Alarm. Its a very basic setup since I never really planned on using it as a backup machine. I found a replacement mobo on eBay fot $100 and clicked that "Buy it now" button like it was Brook Burke! Hopefully, the seller has sent it out so I can get it by the end of May.

But like I said, without that mobo I cant continue progress:

No mobo = No HDD
No HDD = No Photoshop images
No Photoshop images = No files to have printed
No files to have printed = No CP overlay
No CP overlay = No hardware mount points
No hardware mount points = No joysticks/buttons
No joysticks/buttons = No Ipac wiring to do
No Ipac wiring to do = Nothing to work on.....

[M3talhead]

Wow, 20 days without an update seems like an eternity.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though. I got my new motherboard and case yesterday and got everything back up and running. I also sent Scott @ Mame Marquees my artwork for printing and he said they should turn out really well.

I guess the only thing left to say is.........."I'm back!"

[Timstuff]

Yay!

[AceTKK]

cheers!

[M3talhead]

Not much news today other than an email I recieved saying the atwork has shipped from Mamemarques.com. I still need to get a replacement control panel. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

[M3talhead]

YAY! Updates!

I recieved my package of artwork in the mail today (from Mamemarquees). I can finally get back to work on Arcade 2.0.

I was disappointed. I ordered 3 pieces (a marquees, sideart, and CP), but the colors on the CP and logo panel were a lot more faded than what I had anticipated. The marquee on the other hand, seemed to have a blueish/purple tint , even though the artwork I submitted used no blue at all (only reds, yellows, and black). I'm almost certain its a printing issue, because when I made all 3 pieces in Photoshop, I created a background template for all 3 just for this reason. I wanted all the colors to be the same on all 3 pieces.



As soon as I get done writing this update, I'll shoot Scott an email and see if we can figured out what happened and if there's anything we can do to get the next one right.

After wiping down the front of the CP, I applied the logo sheet.

Before:




After:


You can see how the colors look a little "washed out" in the picture above.



I cut the holes out for the piano hinge bolts......



A little trimming.....



....mounted the hinge hardware....



And the final result.


I'll work on the CP tonight. I first need to decide if its worth priming the MDF I bought for the control panel before I apply the laminate, or to just put it on there as it is.

[AceTKK]

I would definitely get in touch with Scott right away and find out what went wrong.  Those prints are not in line with the quality of work he's done before.  I don't mean to be rude, but those look BAD.  Hopefully you guys can work something out.

-Ace-

[M3talhead]

I've been emailing Scott back and forth about the artwork. He's really a stand-up guy and has been very helpful. After I sent him the pictures and explained to him the situation, he said he sees what the problem was and is going to tweak his machine this week and get back to me.

[Wade]

I didn't read the entire thread but was there a reason you used pine instead of plywood?  Plywood is much stronger than ordinary pine and wouldn't have broken.  On the bright side if you glue and clamp the crack it can be repaired as good as new.

Wade

[M3talhead]

Well, the problem was, I needed a control panel, but live in an apartment and dont have the tools/room for a tablesaw or any other real powertools. When I went to the local hardware store, there were some pre-cut pieces of wood used for modular shelving. One of the shelves happened to be the exact same dimensions as my CP.  I also thought that if I put laminate and lexan over it, it would protect it from scratches and knicks. I knew it would be soft, but I didnt know it would be THAT soft.  Since then I've managed to get a piece of MDF cut and shaped to my specifications.

[Wade]

Yeah, I understand that, sometimes I buy certain wood because it is a convenient size already.

The softness wouldn't be an issue with lexan or some kind of hard laminate.  But, it is the grain that is a problem.  As you have seen, it is fairly easy to break pine along the grain.  Plywood doesn't have this problem since they alternate the grain pattern each layer.

MDF will also work great.  In fact it is even better than plywood for this application, in my opinion.  It is so much smoother.

TTYL and good luck!  Looking good so far!
Wade

[M3talhead]

OK, so I've got the new MDF cut and mounted on the cabinet. Scott over at Mamemarquees is really shining in the customer service department. Because of a minor postal mistake and the artwork coming out not as expected, he's been gracious enough to tweak and reprint all 3 pieces artwork and send 'em back out to me at no charge.

I tell ya, customer service!

Anyways, I mounted all the artwork and began mounting the buttons and joysticks.















The IPAC and wiring will come probably tomorrow, as I've already had a few people from on base ask if it will be playable this weekend. (Its amazing how many people show intrest in your "waste of time" once you have artwork applied and controls mounted, regardless of whether they're connected or not.)

But anyways, like I said, Scott is printing better colored artwork for me this week so I think I'm going to use what I've already applied to the cab as a kind of "what-kind-of-damage-can-it-take" test. I'll see what abuse it can withstand, how deep I need to scratch it to deface it, and what fluids will stain or discolor the laminate. I figure I'm going to replace the stuff anyway, so why not put it to good use? 

[ras2a]

Looking VERY nice indeed

[M3talhead]

Its been a while since my last update, so I thought I'd put a little something down.

I messed up a bit routing the CP tmolding slot, so I'm going to have to redo that.... . No big deal though. I started mounting and configuring the PC over the last few days and its been a bit of a headache. Originaly, I purchased an Athalon 64 to run mame and any other server type applications I might want to use in the future, but I scored a free 1.6 Gateway from a friend at work so I'm trying to get that thing squared away. Its wierd though, I cant figure out why, but BIOS is super-slow. I mean, when I switch between menus, it draws the ASCII characters across the screen at a crawl. The CPU isnt overheating (as far as I can tell), and I have 640mb of ram to play with. Something isnt right. Anyways, I went ahead and installed XP, and it runs fine. No sluggishness whatsoever.

Below are a few pics of the install.

I hacked up an old PC case with my trusty Dremel, and used the sheetmetal for my hardware mounts.





A little more Dremelin' for the stacked hard drives.......













So far I havent run into any heat issues, but then again, I've only had it on for an hour or so at a time, and its always been with the back open. I dont know yet if the mobo supports temp monitoring (I dont think it does), but I'll find out sooner or later.

I needed to find a way to extend the power button so I could reach it when the coin door was open. I decided to extend the power cable by splicing in an extension, but didnt want it to look all ratty. I remembered watching a program on the Discovery channel years ago (dont ask me what it was), but these guys used a cordless drill to twist bundles of wire neatly together, so I decided to give it a shot.

In about 3 seconds, I had a perfectly twisted pair and it was so easy, I did it again just for fun!





You also might ask yourself, "How does a 6'2" guy such as myself work inside a cramped little arcade cab?".










Like Origami.......

[Bones]

Looking good!

[skarr]

looking great,

but it's too hot to do anything here in belgium atm

[M3talhead]

looking great,

but it's too hot to do anything here in Belgium atm

No kidding. I had 2 fans and the windows open, and I was STILL sweating like a pig! I'm originally from Florida, so I was kinda used to it. The heat itself wasn't really an issue, but without any moving air, it became almost unbearable. When it gets hot here in Belgium, the warm air has nowhere to go, so it just sits there.

Anyways, last night I stopped messing around with that 1.6 mobo/CPU, and went ahead and installed the Athalon 64 last night like I originally planned. Everything is running smooth as silk now and the only thing left to do is some minor FE tweaking and wiring the Ipac (which I'll do in a few weeks). Also, the reprinted artwork I got from Scott looks MUCH better than the first set. This one isn't faded and turned out just as I expected. I cant say enough good things about Mamemarquees.com 

As for the near future, I'm going back to The States in a few days and wont return until the 18th of July, so don't expect any real updates from me anytime soon. I will however, be checking the forum from time to time in case anyone has any questions or comments on my project. (I might also drop hint or 2 about a Top Secret arcade-enhancing "side project" I've been toying around with over the past few months!)

Stay tuned~!

[M3talhead]

Well I'm back from the 'States, and man did I need that. A year and a half overseas and you kind of forget what its all about you know? ANyway, I still have a week off before I go back to work, and you can be sure I'll be posting updates!

[M3talhead]

Today has been filled mostly with post-vacation cleanup and settling back into routines, but I did have some time to devote to MameWah today.

Not long before I left on vacation, I installed and configured MameWah just enough to get it running. I also played around with different layout designs and ended up with what you see below. I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm thinking about changing the upper right "tattoo box" that contains the preview screens. I had to stretch the MameWah preview layout horizontally for it to fit in the space I drew on the background image. Unfortunately, I forgot to save the original image with individual layers intact. Instead I flattened it and saved as a .jpg.........stupid.



If I leave it as it is, I wont be that big of a deal, but I have a feeling that its going to be one of those tiny voices in the back of your head that says "You can make this better". The only problem with listening to that voice, is that while its usually right, its a pain to fix. I'd essentially have to redo the layout background image all over again from scratch if I wanted to fix the tattoo box, possibly replacing it with just a simple outline and have the preview window displayed inside it without any distortion.

Anyways, I setup MameWah and now have 6 organized categories:

[li]All Games[/li] (All 5016 games, minus .chd titles)
[li]Arcade[/li] (No clones or bad roms)
[li]Neo-Geo[/li] (Duh..)
[li]Fighting/Brawl Games[/li] (MvsC, MK series, AvP, TNMNT, KoV...etc)
[li]Flying/Shooters[/li] (Aero Fighters, 19xx series, Silkworm.....etc)
[li]Classics[/li] (Pac-Man, Dig Dug, DK series, Defender....etc)
[/list]

I haven't gotten around to setting up the 2nd hdd for .chd games and a few YDJK titles. I've been doing a lot of googling on people who've made YDJK buzzers for standalone boxes. I particularly like the design hosted at ArcadeParadise.com . I'd probably end up making the same kind of buzzers, but would install a jack of some type at the end of the wire and interface it somehow with the front of the cab so everything is tucked away neatly inside (basically an extension of a CP switch).

Anyway, here's what it looks like with the lights turned off and the curtains drawn...








Cool huh?~

[M3talhead]

One more update for today.

I spent most of the afternoon stripping XP down and customizing boot options to make it more "arcade like". Anyways, I was playing around with the idea of an XP bootskin, and didn't like anything I came across on the web, so I made my own.

Now I know there are a lot of people who just take the MAME logo and slap it in a .bmp file for booting and call it a day. Not me. I wanted something creative and unique, because as I've said before, if you plan on building a cab, paying attention to the details pays off in the end.

Here's what I came up with:



I decided to incorporate the RAM and ROM checks found in most arcade machine POSTs for a bit of nerdy arcade humor. To most people that play this machine though, I'm sure they're going to be a bit puzzled/impressed as to how "hard" is must have been to write that "code" and insert it in the middle of a BIOS. The green/black monochrome screen also took me back to the days of my IBM PC Jr. and was the first thing I thought of when I was thinking about what I'd want in a skin.

And in case you're wondering what C.D.A.S. mode is.....
Coin
Detection and
Authentication
System


.....and here's how it looks on screen. As I'm sure you're all aware, due to cameras not being able to capture true colors on a monitor without looking like crap, it looks a little out of contrast, but I can assure you that the screen is a deep black and the green is a nice bright neon, reminiscent of the old monochrome monitors from back in the day (I had both green and orange monochromes myself).







            Can you say "Global Thermo-nuclear War"? 

                                             .   



.

[KDOG]

What program did you use to change the boot screen?

[M3talhead]

What program did you use to change the boot screen?

Its a little program called BootXP (v2.5). Its not freeware but there are "ways" of making it so. Check google.

[M3talhead]

Yesterday I decided to start the next stage of my cab and install the speakers so I'd have something to listen to while I was working.

Originally, I planned on using Kevin's tutorial on Retroblast and just hack 'em up. Instead, I decided to just use the 2.1 Altec speakers I had on my desktop and mount them in place of the 8 ohm factory ones. They're plenty loud enough, and I wouldn't have to mess with anythin other than just sticking behind the marquee. It didn't occur to me though that Midway would use unshielded speakers in this cab. I found out the hard Way when I took them out and found the color purity was all jacked up the minute I removed them from their brackets. There were 2 distinct blue patches right at the top of the monitor. I started to panic a little when I realised I'd have to buy/build a degaussing wand, but then I wondered if I could do a half-ass degaussing job by simply waving the magnet slowly as you would a wand. Well, It worked! I just went slow and used the speaker magnet to "move" the blue patches off screen. Problem solved.



While thinking about how to secure the speaker cases in place, I rooted around in my toolbox for some wire or screws to strap it down with, when  came across 4 medium tension springs. You know those desk lamps that use the springs to keep its 2 arms in place? I had one a long time ago and when it broke, I kept the springs. I had no idea what I'd use them for at the time, but I figured out a creative way to apply them here.



I placed the speakers in the position I wanted them in, then put the spring's end loops over the mounting posts and attached a nut to hold them where I wanted them. With a dab of Loc-Tite, the nuts were in place and I slid the speaker cases underneath the springs. Its not the most typical of installations, but it works and it makes it easy to work on them if I ever need to (though I doubt it).





I also went ahead and installed an extra 4 port USB hub near the front of the cab so I wouldnt have to run a bunch of wires all the way to the rear of the mobo, as well as make it easier to plug in a thumbstick if ever the need arose. Essentially, I just wanted to be able to finally close the cab up for good ad move it into place in the corner of the room.



Eventually, I'm going to install a ethernet jack on the lower right side of the cab, close to the back so I can add it to my home network. Someday, I'll install a wireless network card, but until then, I'll settle for what I have now.

Oh, one more thing. Watching my custom boot screen load got me thinking. I needed a new windows startup .wav. If you're curious as to what it is, you can find it here.

[M3talhead]

No pictures, but a small update.....

I bought a new section of MDF and cut it to specs for a "new" control panel. The first one I did (the one you see at the top of the page)  is one I wasnt happy with after I  routed it. The T-molding did not have a solid fit and when the button holes were drilled, I pressed to hard towards the end and ended up "blowing out" the back of the MDF. I guess my DeWalt (read: lack of paying attention while drilling) was just to much for it. So, I decided to build another one. This time, I only drilled half-way through so the pilot tip stuck out the bottom, then flipped it over and pushed all the way through. This left me wit a perfect underside that would mount the button nuts flush against the board.

Once I get around to routing this one properly, I'll add the reprinted, more colorful CP overlay to it and rig the wiring. I'm still deciding if I want to use a 25 pin D-sub and go the interchangable-CP route, or just hardwire it like the Gauntlet cab and forget the driving games and YDJK series. I really want to be able to play YDKJ with its own dedicated panel, but we'll see...

[M3talhead]

Got started on the wiring today.

I want to get this thing up before the weekend arrives, and really, the only thing left to do is lay the overlay, wire the CP, and install the IPAC software.


Laying the CPO....





Cutting the button holes...





Installing the IPAC.....



What a mess...



Ground wires done....




Next on the list:
1) Buy more spade connectors
2) Wire positive terminals

[M3talhead]

Finished the CP a few days ago but never got around to posting any updates, too busy playing. 


The finished underside of the CP.....



Left.....



and right....


Custom bootscreen....


CP overlay....


and MAMEWAH interface screen.


I have to say, I'm much more pleased with the way this cabinet turned out than I was with Arcade 1.0. I'm now looking forward to a sit-down driver cab for PS2/Xbox/PC driving sims. I'm really looking for something like Bob808's cab, which can be seen here.

Its going to be a while before I commit to something like that though. Not only do I not have the space for it right now, but I dont know where my next assignment is gonna be, or if I'll even have room for all the stuff I have now (not to mention the additional space I'll need for all the woodworking tools).

For now though, I'll be updating this thread with ideas I had before starting this project. Remember that "super-secret-totally-awesome" idea I hinted o a while ago? Well, I guess now is the time......

Beer + arcade cabinets = The Keggerade!

What is it you ask? Why, its an arcade that actually makes good use out of all that empty space inside. I'm sure most people here have seen keggerators before (if you dont, its basically a minifridge designed to chill and dispense kegs of beer) but my idea was to mount all the electronics high in a cab, maybe in the void  behind the marquee. The rest of the cabinet would house a keggerator and tap system. It wouldnt be that hard to rig up. The only thing you'd really have to be concerned with really is keeping the whole thing well ventilated. Just imagine. You're frantic game of Frogger has parched your throat. You need something to quench your thirst but you dont want to walk the extra 8 ft to the fridge. Now you can reach over  to the side of your cab and pour youself a nice frosty mug of your favorite beer from a tap protruding from the side without having to leave you barstool!

Cool huh?

[Bones]

Man, that's some neat wiring and the cabinet looks awesome. Well done!

[M3talhead]

Just placed an order with BITS Limited for an LGC4 Smartstip. I saw this on Kevin's website last year when he first reviewed it and I always wanted to have a "one touch solution" for this cab. As its setup right now, I have to go around and unplug the cab from the wall every time I want to turn it on and off. I'd rather just have the surge protection and single "on" button in one convenient package. It came out to $44.80 with shipping via USPS Priority Mail, so we'll see how fast it gets here.

 Be sure to expect a few pics.

[M3talhead]

The Bits power strip arrived today. I'll post pictures this afternoon.

[M3talhead]

Bits LTD customer service sucks.....

See this thread

[M3talhead]

Still havent recieved a reply from Bits LTD. I'll give it a few more days........

In other news, I finally got my T-molding bit and arbor from T-mold.com. I used them instead of Tmolding.com only because the latter had run out of router bits and had no "restock date". Anyways, I broke out the router and cut my long awaited groove for the t-molding. It came out pretty well, I only needed to hot glue one spot to hold it in place. I also recieved my black P1 and P2 buttons from Peale this afternoon (nice merch. Peale!  )



Those 2 details were the only things really bugging me as I neared the end of this project (though I still toy with the idea of a kegger-cade  ).

 

[Timoe]

more pictures

[M3talhead]

more pictures

Of what?

[AceTKK]

Looks great man!  Glad to see everything worked out with this project.

-Ace-

[M3talhead]

Thanks Ace.

I got my replacement coin reject buttons/bezels today. I ordered them on eBay from an arcade vendor that goes by the handle "valcasales" out of California. They were quick to ship and I recieved exactly what was described in the auction (2 Red "$0.25" Reject Buttons, 2 Button Bezels, and 2 Button Springs for Coin Controls's doors). At 14.95, they weren't the cheapest I saw online, but they were close and didnt mind shipping to my APO box.

[M3talhead]

Since Timoe wanted to see a few more pictures and I havent had a real update in a few days, here are a few pics of what I think might be a finished product.

[Timoe]

There's more pics 



Is that a beer opener on the front there down below?

[M3talhead]

There's more pics 



Is that a beer opener on the front there down below?

I like to refer to it as a "Bottle enhancement utility"

[M3talhead]

Wow, long time without an update.

I bought the cupholders today and got a pair of barstools from a friend of mine that owns a pub down the street. I snagged em for 10 Euro. Cheap for around here, but more importantly, they have character!

Unfortunatly, while cleaning up the extra flashing on the plastic cupholder with a razorblade, I cut clear through the flashing and sliced open the middle finger on my left hand. It broke clear though the 7 layers of skin and down to the subcutaneous tissue. Not pretty. (The metal brace is to keep the wound from breaking open incase its bumped)

[Bones]

You know 'Bones, no project, no matter what kind, is complete without atleast one drop of human blood.

[M3talhead]

Well, the finger is finally healed to a point where I can start typing normally again. I removed the splint last week, and have just been taking it kind of easy the last few days.

Good news: It healed just fine.
Better news: Its gonna be a scar, and chicks dig scars. 

On the arcade side of things, I had a catastrophic failure of the arcade's hard drive this week. When I configured the PC several months ago, I used 2 10GB drives I had laying around knowing they were old to begin with. Well, it appears now that they've decided to turn tits-up on me. The C: had a huge number of bad sectors and performance had been degrading slowly over the last few weeks. I caught a good deal on a 120GB drive at a a nearby BX and decided to snag it while I could and load it when I got home. XP Pro installed smoothly and I was lucky enough to be able to copy over the Administrator's user profile and most of the D:, as those were still accessable when I set the old drive to slave. I'm just wrapping a few things up now, mainly waiting for the computer to copy over all the roms in my romset (right now its on disk 3 of 8 ).

That's about it.

[Wade]

Looks real good.  I have a suggestion though.

It is a LOT easier to mount all the PC hardware onto a board, like a scrap piece of plywood.  Then, you don't have to work inside the cab like that.  If you need to do PC work, just unscrew the board with the 4 screws or so used to attach it to the side/bottom of the cab, and take the whole thing out.  I learned this after a couple of MAME cabinets with the hardware mounted inside.  My last one had a wooden shelf held in by the back door, which can just slide out to service.

Wade

[nullb0y]

wow.... i love seeing good cabinets turned into anouther mame bot..... ::sigh:: there are lots of empty cabinets out there

[M3talhead]

wow.... i love seeing good cabinets turned into anouther mame bot..... ::sigh:: there are lots of empty cabinets out there

If you read me first few posts you'd see that this one was completely dead. How is that not an "empty" cabinet? Besides, when you say there are plenty "out there" how could you possible know what the market is like where I live?

When was the last time you were in Belgium?

[nullb0y]

i retract my statement out of my own stupitidy

[M3talhead]

A few weeks ago I ordered a set of coin mechs for the cab (I got sick of using the cardboard-cut-out guides I taped up...) and they finaly came in the mail today. I'll post pics as soon as I get them installed.

You know, its getting harder and harder to find things to work on now that everything is done.

[Havok]

A few weeks ago I ordered a set of coin mechs for the cab (I got sick of using the cardboard-cut-out guides I taped up...) and they finaly came in the mail today. I'll post pics as soon as I get them installed.

You know, its getting harder and harder to find things to work on now that everything is done.

You shouldn't be done with it anyways. You are supposed to get half done, and then keep playing it, unfinished...

[Silver]

You know, its getting harder and harder to find things to work on now that everything is done.

With "just" two 8-ways and 6 buttons on your CP, theres a whole world of of crazy controllers to fit onto all those removable cp's you thought were too much hassle..... 

Looks real nice - like it!

[M3talhead]

You know, its getting harder and harder to find things to work on now that everything is done.

With "just" two 8-ways and 6 buttons on your CP, theres a whole world of of crazy controllers to fit onto all those removable cp's you thought were too much hassle..... 

Looks real nice - like it!

The whole idea was to keep everything simply, as if you could walk into any arcade and see this game there. While I feel Frankenpanels have their place, I didnt want to clutter the panel or hide the artwork. The swapable CP idea I had is something I realised wouldnt be worth the effort, for this reason; Taking a few minutes to swap out CPs just to play games like Missle Command, Centipede, or Tempest, just didnt seem practical to build and interface one to play a few more games.

I am however, still looking for a minifridge with 4.4 cu ft. of internal space and external dimensions that will allow it to fit inside the cab. The problem is not finding one, but finding someone who will ship it to my APO.

[M3talhead]

Happy 1 year Anniversary "VersuS"! (Sort of)

It was one year ago on December 24th 2004 that I bought an old MK3 cab and began this project. Still haven't been able to find an appropriate minifridge to begin work on the Keggerator system, but I haven't given up yet!

[M3talhead]

Well I've finally finished the first of 3 "You Dont Know Jack" hand buzzers for the CP. I still need to make a run to the hardware store for a few more components so I can assemble the last 2 units, but you can expect a write-up with pics in 2-3 days!

[mccoy178]

Excellent!

[M3talhead]

Well, after more than 5 months of playing "You Don't Know Jack" on the arcade and ignoring the little voice in the back of my head telling me to build some hand buzzers, I finally caved in. Using the tutorial at Arcadeparadise.org as a starting point of sorts, I decided to take the design a step further and make some really unique and "professional" looking hand buzzers. Since "You Don't know Jack" can only support a maximum of 3 players at a time, I only needed to create 3 buzzers. Each one took about 30 minutes to assemble and finish.

Material list:

(3) Handset phone cords, or one really long one to cut into thirds
(3) 6" metal or plastic pipes
(3) Mountain-bike rubber hand grips
(6) Plastic furniture endcaps, like those found on cheap metal tables and chairs
(3) 8" of red and black wire, 18-22 ga
(3) 1/2" vertical momentary pushbuttons (not microswitches)
(3) 1/8" 2-Channel audio jacks - Male
(3) 1/8" 2-Channel audio jacks - Female

Tools needed:

Soldering iron & solder
Electrical tape
Hot-glue gun
Strippers (no, not that kind!)



Start by working a handgrip over a section of pipe.

 

Using the soldering gun, solder the 8" lengths of red and black wire to the momentary pushbutton and independently wrap the connections in electrical tape to prevent short circuits. Set that aside.



If the handset cords you're using came terminated with RJ-11s, clip them off. Slip the plastic audio jack cover over the phone cord and remove about 1/2" of the outer sheathing to expose the 4 telephone wires. Clip the 2 middle ones, you only need the wires on the sides.

 

Strip and tin the 2 remaining phone wires (they're 26ga). Then crimp the metal 1/8" audio jack to the external insulation of the phone cord while keeping the exposed telephone wires from wandering in the middle. Carefully solder the wires to the outward facing sides of the terminals and test for continuity with a multimeter.

 


Heat up a hot-glue (hotmelt) gun and inject a small bit between the newly soldered connections to give it support and prevent the frail wired from breaking off.

 

Thread the plastic jack cover onto the jack to close everything up. Make a hole appx 1/4" in diameter at the end of a plastic endcap. Thread the other end of the phone cord through the cap as shown and tie a knot to prevent it from being pulled out by accident.



Connect your button/wire assembly to the unfinished end of the phone cord by stripping the wire as described before and soldering the 2 outer wires to the un-finished ends of the red and black wires (It doesn't matter which one goes where, just as long as they make a good connection). Wrap the wires up independently with electrical tape to prevent shorts in the buzzer.



Next, make a hole in another plastic endcap the same diameter as the button's threaded mid-section. Work the it through the pipe, and push it though the new endcap's hole.
Once you get it through, thread the small nut onto the button-shaft to prevent it from backing out of the cap. Roll up the ends of the bike grips and push the endcaps over the pipe. It'll take some elbow grease to get them on, but once they're there, you wont have to worry about them coming off by accident any time soon. Flip the grips back down over the cap and you're done!

 

Tomorrow I'll post the last part of the write-up: how to to integrate the female jack into the control panel.

[babydickonboard]

thats pretty sick.

[javeryh]

Genius.

[M3talhead]

Interfacing the handbuzzer with the cab is actually easier than making the buzzers themselves...

First, identify which tabs on the back of the female jack blocks you need in order to make the connection to the keyboard encoder. You only need 2 tabs, so once you figure out which ones make contact with the respective sections on the male jack (at the end of the handbuzzer), clip the unwanted tabs off and leave the 2 you need.



Cut 2 lengths of wire equal to the distance between the keyboard encoder and where you'll be mounting the jack. Solder each wire to one of the tabs you saved earlier. If you want to make things a little more organized, you can make a TWP (twisted-wire pair) by following tip #6 located here.



Drill a hole equal to the width of the jack somewhere on or near the CP and push the female jack through the hole from the inside of the cab. I decided to place mine under the front face of the CP so wasnt visible and would keep the lines of the cab clean. Tip: Use a Dremel or narrow file to shape the hole so the jack makes a better fit.





Position the opening of the female jack block so its flush with the outer face of the cab. Hold it there and fill the drilled-out hole with hot-glue from inside the cabinet, preventing the jack from moving around when you go to insert the plug.





When the hot-glue cools, run one wire from the jack to the "ground" on the encoder, and the other to an open input.

[MYX]

Not sure how I missed this, but friggin great job.
I like that you are using audio jacks for extra buttons. I am doing the same thing for a fire button for battlezone. I was thinking about using 1/4 in. but 1/8 is less scar space.

[M3talhead]

Small update.

I wasn't happy with the small push buttons I used when I started this little side-project, so I replaced them with some larger, beveled butons with a higher spring rate. The best way to describe these new buttons is that they feel much smoother and more "assertive" when you press them. Not so cheap and "clicky" (if that makes sense). They were a little more expensive (+$.50) but are so worth it. I guess its just one of those things you can't really sacrifice quality on. 

[CartmanDP1]

nicely done, ill have to add the to the long list of things i'd like to do. LOOOOOONG list. A cab truly is never finished.

[Bones]

That is bloody awesome you crazy bastard.

[MYX]

The bigger buttons look great on the handles. They look like something you would buy at a store.

[M3talhead]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Because I know you're all asking the same question, I went ahead and tallied up the cost to make one hand buzzer (This is assuming you have a soldering gun and solder):

Pipe - $1.50
Furniture caps (2) - $.50
Button - $1.50
Wire - $.05
Telephone cord - $5.00
Bike handgrips - $1.50
Audio jack (male) - $.35
Audio jack (female) - $.35

Total: $10.75

[M3talhead]

Well, another year has passed and VersuS is still kicking! Its' travelled half way around the world from Belgium to Guam, and is still as fun as the day I finished it!

[BobA]

You went to Guam with your cab from Belgium?  How would you go about shipping a cab that far?   Just interested as I never plan to move that distance but it would be interesting to know how to do it.

[MinerAl]

Excellent work!

I have a plan for a similar set up, but I hate (suck at) soldering, so I'll go to radio shack and buy two longish audio cables wit the 1/8" plugs on them already.  It'll cost me more, but my un-burnt fingers will thank me.

[M3talhead]

You went to Guam with your cab from Belgium?  How would you go about shipping a cab that far?   Just interested as I never plan to move that distance but it would be interesting to know how to do it.

I'm active duty military, so the Gov'mnt pays to ship everything.

[bfauska]

I'm active duty military, so the Gov'mnt pays to ship everything.

I tend to get annoyed when I hear about somebody getting things that seem above and beyond necessity from my taxes, BUT for the folks that sign up to potentially put their life on the line so mine stays safe and free I say we should ship arcade cabinets any freaking place they want.  Thank you for your service and I am glad you get to take something along to have some fun while we send you all over the world. 

Also I don't know if I've said it already or not, but that is a mighty fine cabinet and I think the buzzer idea is fantastic.  I have a projector set up for movies and TV and one of my computers is hooked to that, I think I should make some buzzers for that, I could put it on my cabinet, but it seems like YDKJ would be really fun on the big screen with a couple friends.  Thank you for sharing your project with us.

[M3talhead]

I'm active duty military, so the Gov'mnt pays to ship everything.

I tend to get annoyed when I hear about somebody getting things that seem above and beyond necessity from my taxes, BUT for the folks that sign up to potentially put their life on the line so mine stays safe and free I say we should ship arcade cabinets any freaking place they want.  Thank you for your service and I am glad you get to take something along to have some fun while we send you all over the world. 

Also I don't know if I've said it already or not, but that is a mighty fine cabinet and I think the buzzer idea is fantastic.  I have a projector set up for movies and TV and one of my computers is hooked to that, I think I should make some buzzers for that, I could put it on my cabinet, but it seems like YDKJ would be really fun on the big screen with a couple friends.  Thank you for sharing your project with us.

Thanks.