My portable arcade machine

[pnut]

here is the link to the pictures http://www.pnut.ca/thumbnails.php?album=78

Syetem Specs:
AMD64 3000+
512 DDR 400 MHZ
ATI 9200se 128 Meg
120 Gig HD
DVD/CD-Rom Reader

it was a fun project and everything was build from scratch. i had no layout or anything to follow other then a couple of CP layout while determining how to put all the controls in. the artwork was found on the net and i had a friend paint it on.

i will build the rest of the cabnet and attach the control panal in the future.

let me know what you guys think?

[cholin]

Wow thats pretty sick.  I think Ive only seen one of these before, where you plug it right into the TV.  Nice job.  Made me wonder though, how's the heating?

[j123vt_99]

very cool.. how heavy is it?

[JonnyBoy]

Gosh Darnit. I'm in the process of building the exact same thing and he finished first, now I don't get anybody wowing at mine because it'll be old news!

It looks killer by the way.

[pointdablame]

Gosh Darnit. I'm in the process of building the exact same thing and he finished first, now I don't get anybody wowing at mine because it'll be old news!

It looks killer by the way.

It's been done before anyway.... you'll still get praise for finishing

It looks realy nice OP.

BTW, this should prolly go in Project Announcements

[armax]

no need for us to moderate, that's what moderators are for.  Nice job, you oughta give more details on it's construction.  I for one would love to see more projects like this.

[cholin]

This could save me alot of wood!  I just need that computer to arrive.........

This would be perfect for a room.  Its like one of those little Namco things that you plug into your TV.

[pnut]

It was all made from 1/2" MDF wood. So it does weight a bit. Id says around 30 pounds. The dimensions for the box are 3'x5"x7 1/2"(back) 6 3/4"(front) and the CP are 3'x10".

Cholin you asked about heating. Well it

[JDSkydiver]

Whats the TV interface?

I';m interested in building one for the kids to plug & play on the game room TV, and I can steal it back at nights in my room when they go to bed!

JDSkydiver

[Skippy2k]

Thats the same type of CP i'm making at the moment.  All i'm using is chipboard for the top and sides and hardboard for the bottom and it seems sturdy enough.

Computer wise its an old Nforce board with a 1.4 athlon with a old 10gig drive, no cd-rom drive if I need to add roms I just stick them on to a usb harddrive and transfare them that way.

Weight wise its not too heavy just the legs get in the way.

I would post a pic to show u lot but I don't know how to add pics into posts.

 

[Zathras]

Looks good and cool idea!

One thing I was wondering - has someone made one of these with either fold down legs or perhaps screw in table legs?  That way you if you took it someplace that didn't have a convenient table you wouldn't have to put it on your lap

[cholin]

The last one I saw was just a simple, put it on the floor.  Are you blowing the air in our out of the box?

[markb]

Cool control panel. I built a portable a few weeks ago however I left the CP in varnished black as I have no artistic talent whatsoever.



Mine however runs a Celeron 300mhz as opposed to Pnut's A64 3000+ (where's the envy smilie?)

I thought about building in folding legs however to be stable enough to play the likes of Track & Field would require a lot of extra weight and at the moment it is easily carryable so I'm just using a small coffee table instead.

[pnut]

The tv interface is s-video. I can easily drill a hole and attach a rca video jack. but no-a-days all tv's come with s-video and the tv quality is much better.

I have one fan blowing air in on the right and the one on the left blowing air out. along with the power supply blowing air out also.

artistic talent? I don't have either. I had a friend do that part.. 

The main reason I went with a A64 was bc I thought I could also use it to play pc car racing games on my tv. I just need to buy a steering wheel and I'm all set.

I was thing about putting fold out legs. but I wasn't sure how stable it would be while playing. and not to mention it would add the the total weight. I can always find 2 boxes to lay it down or just play from the floor.

[cholin]

Imagine that.  You have a control panel that you simply plug into a TV and into a wall and TADA, you're playing games or using Windows on your TV.  Even funnier would be seeing that thing plugged into the wall and into an Ethernet port for updating   Im considerring making one of these things instead of the whole cabinet, considerring they play the same, only a cabinet is bigger with too much empty space.  People say the air in their cabinets is bad, well...I dont see how if this little beast can play at a reasonable temperature and not burn your lap.

[vrf]

So, has anyone ever made one of these with a built-in LCD monitor?

[DrewKaree]

This seems to be a popular idea right now.  I'm working on one, ever so slowly

I was contemplating two different leg styles, one seems to be WAY wider than I need (the banquet table style), but would be the more stable choice.  The reason I'm leaning that way as well is because I have a crappy worthless banquet table, and using the legs for this will make it easy to throw the rest out (ain't it hard being a pack rat?)

These are the two styles I was thinking of, and the fold-down card table legs wouldn't require anything more than an ~an inch of overhang in case you didn't want to use 'em

Card table legs:




Banquet table legs:




Looking through the leg selection, I just came across these and actually carefully read the description for the first time.  These look like they are the cat's ass for this purpose!

[unix4hire]

One thing that came to mind to create sturdy extendable legs is taking the fold-up extension off 3 or 4 razor scooters, invert them and somehow attach them to the bottom of the base.  Of course this wouldn't be cheap.