Author Topic: Time Warp (The Woody Clone Project) (Read 7675 times)

rcrules · « **on:** October 20, 2006, 10:45:53 pm »

I finally started my MAME cabinet after a fair amount of procrastination because I couldn't decide on a design. First, I was going to build an upright, but the wife didn't think it would fit in with the decor. Next, I thought maybe a bartop or a cocktail. Then I was going to build a modified cocktail like the Quasicade CFX. That was until I saw Knievel's Woody Masterpiece. . .

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55789.0

Knievel's design was a perfect combination of size, features and looks, the wife even liked it. So, with Knievel's help, I started building the cabinet. Currently, I am about 75% done and I will post pictures of the build process shortly.

The cabinet will consist of. . .

19" LCD monitor
AMD 2500 CPU
Happ 3" Trackball
Happ Buttons
3 - Mag-Stik Plus Joysicks
I-PAC 2

I would like to thank everyone here in advance, because I have learned everything from what kind of glue to buy, to whether or not to t-mold all the way around cabinet sides. I would like to give a special thanks to Knievel for all of his help and guidance.

I don't have a pithy name for the cabinet yet, so name ideas are welcome.

rcrules · « **Reply #1 on:** October 20, 2006, 11:26:29 pm »

After making a pattern out of 1/2" plywood, here is one of the sides.

Here is the base before the kick plate was installed.

Just in case I needed to level the cabinet slightly, I installed adjustable feet.

Here is the base complete.

rcrules · « **Reply #2 on:** October 20, 2006, 11:47:58 pm »

To make it easy to move the cabinet to the basement, I opted to use metal cam/dowels to assemble it. Here is the side with the dowels attached.

Here is the back of the cabinet with the cams and dowels attached.

leapinlew · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2006, 12:31:47 am »

ahh! Looking great... Knievel is an inspiration for us all...

As for names:
BAD ASS MOTHER 4000, twice as fast as your ass!
or
The wife even liked it

What games do you plan on playing on it?

MaMeNnO · « **Reply #4 on:** October 21, 2006, 01:18:25 am »

Looks good so far. I'm wondering aren't the adjustable feet a bit to far from the outside? I mean, the base looks very stable, but when you have to use the feet it may become a little instable.
Are you planning to stain it like Knievel's cab?

rcrules · « **Reply #5 on:** October 21, 2006, 10:49:20 am »

leapinlew:

Thanks for the name ideas. I would probably have a hard time with the artwork on the first one.

I haven't messed around with many games in MAME yet except for some of the classics. This whole project started when the wife and I were watching TV and a new Nintendo commercial came on. The commercial had Mario on it. The wife said, "remember Super Mario Bros."? I said, "yeah". She said, "that was so fun". I told her about MAME and we spent the weekend playing old games.

MaMeNnO:

Yeah, the adjustable feet might not do much. I saw them in a woodworkers magazine and ordered them. They were only $6 so I put them on for the heck of it. The 4x4 base was overkill stability wise, it was just for some added weight. The cabinet is stained (I had a heck of a time deciding on stained or black).

rcrules · « **Reply #6 on:** October 21, 2006, 11:04:46 am »

Here is the base and the two sides clamped together so I could mark the sides for the dowel placement.

After the sides were attached to the base, I clamped the back of the cabinet in place and marked the dowel placement. This is the whole thing attached together.

theCoder · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2006, 01:14:20 pm »

For names, how about:
Mario Revisited
Mario Lives On
Remember Mario Bros.
Slim Jim
Way-Back Machine

Good luck with the build.

leapinlew · « **Reply #8 on:** October 21, 2006, 02:21:37 pm »

Give it a number for it's name... like the day you and your wife got married

090906

or make that number binary

000000000 00001001 000000000 00001001 000000000 00001100

or

MAMECADE

rcrules · « **Reply #9 on:** October 21, 2006, 09:30:01 pm »

Hey, I like some of those name ideas - thanks.

The next two pictures show the admin panel and keyboard drawer mounted.

MaMeNnO · « **Reply #10 on:** October 22, 2006, 02:07:58 am »

it coming on very nice and really quick!

rcrules · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2006, 09:56:05 am »

I actually started the cabinet a couple of months ago and it is about 75%ish done. I am stuck in a hotel for a month so, I am finally posting the pictures. I spent all my free time, before the month long trip, getting the cabinet done far enough that the wife could play on it while I was gone. The main part of the cabinet is done (the control panel is not built and no artwork). I threw an X-Arcade solo control panel on it for the wife. I hope to post the rest of the pictures I have today.

rcrules · « **Reply #12 on:** October 22, 2006, 10:43:57 am »

Here is the front piece that holds the LCD screen. Like Knievel, I used the LCD VESA mount to attach the monitor to the wood with 4 bolts.

rcrules · « **Reply #13 on:** October 22, 2006, 10:49:39 am »

WIFE ALERT! IF SHE IS IN THE ROOM, DON'T LET HER SEE THIS PICTURE.

It was way too hot and dusty out in the garage to stain the pieces so I did them in our dining room (with windows open around the house). The wife almost had a heart attack when she came home and saw...

rcrules · « **Reply #14 on:** October 22, 2006, 11:37:28 am »

The staining was the least enjoyable part of the build. I tried to take the easy way out (I thought) and use a product that was stain and poly combined. The combo stuff was hard for me to keep a consistant thickness so, the color looked terrible. Luckily I had only stained the inside parts so, I sanded the parts back down to bare wood (only on the parts where it would be seen).

Knievel mentioned in his Woody thread that maple was hard to stain dark. I wish I had read that post better because he was absolutely right. After doing some research, I found out that hard woods do not take (dark) pigmented stains well because they do not soak into to the wood. When you apply the stain it just sits on the top and then when you wipe off the excess, most of it comes off.

Most of the home improvement stores carry the pigment type of stain. There is another kind of stain that is actually a dye and it is easier to stain hardwood to a dark color. I ordered dye from Rockler.com. So, once I had the sanding done, I colored the wood with the dye and then I put on 3-5 coats of poly.

The picture below shows the two different colors. The really dark color on the top is the combo stuff, the color on the bottom is the dye and poly.

Here are all the pieces stained, sitting in the garage for a week, to let the poly cure.

rcrules · « **Reply #15 on:** October 22, 2006, 11:57:38 am »

Here is a shot of the leathery looking t-molding. (edit: I guess it doesn't show the leather texture very good in the picture)

This shot shows the temporary X-Arcade control panel on a piece of spray painted wood to mount it.

rcrules · « **Reply #16 on:** October 22, 2006, 12:12:00 pm »

The speaker grill location. The 4" holes are lined in t-molding and speaker grill cloth I got at from the craft store Joann.

Keyboard drawer with an old keyboard and mouse. I plan on getting a wireless keyboard/mouse for it.

Here is the bottom door open with the computer in it. The computer case was so big the subwoofer wouldn't fit in the cabinet. I will probably get a smaller pc case to put in there sometime.

Timoe · « **Reply #17 on:** October 22, 2006, 01:04:05 pm »

HOly Cow! That looks great. Where do you guys get this stuff? Are there plans or something?

The finish looks great, even on the backside of the door.

Anyway, good job, now get that x-arcade off of there already.

IG-88 · « **Reply #18 on:** October 22, 2006, 02:48:23 pm »

Quote from: Timoe on October 22, 2006, 01:04:05 pm

HOly Cow! That looks great. Where do you guys get this stuff? Are there plans or something?

Ya, I'd love to build one with those cam locks. How do you get those all too line up squarely? Do they have templates or something?

Also, what kinda software are you running on it?

rcrules · « **Reply #19 on:** October 22, 2006, 08:46:14 pm »

Timoe:
Thanks for the words of encouragement. The cabinet came from the mind of Knievel. He was kind enough to share the dimensions with me. The finish color is really hard to take pictures of. I tried with natural light and the flash on the camera. I am ordering the rest of the control panel parts so I can get the X-Arcade off of there STAT.

IG-88:
Rockler.com sells a jig for the cam locks. The jig only works for two pieces of wood that make a perfect "L" shape. If the pieces make a "T" shape you can use the jig for half the holes and you have to measure the other half of the holes. I made a simple jig for drilling the holes in the "T" shape.

CAUTION: the "minifix" cam locks that Rockler.com sells are not very strong because the dowel part does not "screw" into the wood. The dowel only sits in the hole. I got the "screw in" kind at outwaterhardware.com, I have also seen this type at homedepot. Rockler.com does sell a heavy duty camlock but they are huge.

If your measuring skills are good, you could measure the placement for the cams and locks. I didn't trust myself so, I clamped each piece together and made a mark on each piece so I knew they would line up. Once I practiced on a couple of pieces of scrap, it wasn't hard aligning them.

I am running Windows XP and MAME 1.08. I had never used a frontend before (besides MAME32 that is). I tried MAMEWah but couldn't get it to work (quickly anyway). I put on MALA and a handful of games for the wife to play. I will mess around with the frontend, other emulators, jukebox and booting directly into a front end when I have time to play.

rcrules · « **Reply #20 on:** October 23, 2006, 09:29:39 pm »

A shot of the LCD with a bezel made from construction paper. I don't have any glass for it yet.

An overall view of the cabinet.

rcrules · « **Reply #21 on:** October 24, 2006, 08:04:08 pm »

I didn't have a printer big enough to print out the whole control panel so I printed it in several sheets and attached it to the plywood template using reference marks (the white push pins). In the background there are my 3 sawboards, thanks to DrewKaree. I also used Timoe's joystick mounting tutorial for routing out for the odd shaped trackball hole.

marknetwork · « **Reply #22 on:** October 24, 2006, 08:28:36 pm »

I am sooo glad you're not using the x-arcade I was surprised when I saw it in a picture. Keep the updates coming!

bsellers100 · « **Reply #23 on:** October 24, 2006, 09:36:23 pm »

looking great. I plan on starting my cab in the next 3 weeks and this small size is perfect for my planned game room. Any chance either you or Knievel can post the size or the plans for the rest of us?

philby85 · « **Reply #24 on:** October 24, 2006, 10:13:57 pm »

Looks great! Knievels woody is a classic design. I too would love to see the plans.

Great Job.

philby

semicycle · « **Reply #25 on:** November 19, 2006, 12:22:10 pm »

Could you point me to a link for Timoe's joystick mounting tutorial. I could use that for the trackball cutout on my cp too. Keep up the good work man. Everything looks great.

rcrules · « **Reply #26 on:** November 20, 2006, 10:44:56 am »

Thanks!! Here is the Timoe tutorial...

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=51235.0

No progress on the cabinet. It has been too cold in the garage.

semicycle · « **Reply #27 on:** November 20, 2006, 12:49:08 pm »

Thanks alot

rcrules · « **Reply #28 on:** January 06, 2007, 07:52:10 pm »

Well, now that the holidays are over, it's time to make some progress on the cabinet.

I needed to route out the trackball plate so it would sit flush. I installed the mounting plate in the control panel. Then, using Timoe's methods, I figured out how much gap I needed to leave so the router sleeve would be in the right place. The sleeve was 1/2" and the bit was 1/4" so I needed a 1/8" gap. I decided to use a 1/8" allen wrench as my gauge. I put the allen wrench next to the plate and then screwed wood down to the control panel. (I should have used wider scraps on the left and right sides).

Here it is with the plate installed.

rcrules · « **Reply #29 on:** January 06, 2007, 08:06:22 pm »

Originally I wasn't going to have a spinner. Then, RandyT came out with the TT2 and I just had to have one of those so, I added the hole for the spinner.

I still hadn't figured out exactly how I was going to route out the hole for the trackball yet, but then this albatross of an idea popped in my head. Drill a 3" hole in a piece of wood and hack it up until it fits in there. Align the 3" hole with the plate and bolt it down. Then I mounted the lexan to the control panel, drilled a hole to let the router bit through and routed it. It worked really well. I don't know if I could recommend this method because if the hole isn't the perfect size and in the perfect spot, you will route yourself some metal off the plate and possibly ruin your bit. Luckily I didn't do that.

rcrules · « **Reply #30 on:** January 06, 2007, 08:14:59 pm »

I routed out the t-molding slot so now it's time to finalize the artwork.

Thanks to Knievel, my control panel artwork is going to look like his Arcade Mania project. I was thinking about using "Blast From The Past" as the name...

Then I saw Pixelhugger's artwork samples and saw the name "Time Warp". I think that is a better name.

I wanted simple and subdued artwork because of the potential to clash with the wood color, and the fact that I don't know Photoshop very well (and I am not very creative either). Any ideas on the marquee or name are welcomed.

rcrules · « **Reply #31 on:** February 27, 2007, 01:17:00 pm »

Progress on the cabinet has been slow enough but now I am moving so there won't be ANY progress for a few months. With all the great Woody cabinets that have been showing up here recently I thought I would make a last entry before the Woody is torn down and put in storage.

Here is the Marquee (from Mamemarquees) cut to size and just taped into place because I don't have the retainer done...

Here it is lighted on an overcast day...

rcrules · « **Reply #32 on:** February 27, 2007, 01:23:17 pm »

The lame X-Arcade replacement control panel (un-wired)...

A close-up of the TT2 spinner (I'm so glad I decided to add it at the last moment)...

So, hibernation it is for the Woody Clone Project. I will still be coming here daily to check out all the cool stuff though!!


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