New Warlords Cocktail Build/Plan.

[theskuh]

While going to college we used to have intense 4 player warlords battles. So after running into my college roomate after not seeing him for 8 years, got the wheels turning on a 4 player warlords cocktail cab.

What I have so far.

- Good woodworking skills/experience and basically every tool needed to build almost anything.

-  A 27" TV monitor with only composite in. (could be upgraded before or after build though I don't want to spend a ton on a monitor right now when the spinners will be a pretty good expense)

-  An old compac laptop with svideo out. (currently running  an older versin of mame32 but I couldn't get warlords running on it. Need to track down an older version of mame tonight) 

What I want

A custom cocktail cabinet that will replace my current coffee table. I am hoping to keep the cab Low in height. maybe 20"-22" tall. It doesn't have to look exactly like a traditional cocktail.

What I need to figure out

- Ergonomics

I want to be able to play it from two loveseats on each side of the cocktail. So the control panels would be set up roughly like the warlords cab. I also want to have at least one control panel on an end for pacman galaga etc. It has to be comfortable to play from the couches. I am not sure how to test this except by making a mock up. Or possibly adding removeable control panels.

- fitting everything in

I have to put together a good design to work around my existing equiptment and be able to be upgraded if i want to get a better monitor or cpu.

- designing the control panels

I really have no clue here. So will need some help figuring that and the ipac etc out.

I would love to here some ideas from everybody about this project.

thanks

tom

[leapinlew]

Thats a mighty big cocktail! Should be cool. Take lots of pics.

Have you seen this:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61582.0

[theskuh]

Yeah i just checked out that corner unit that is neat. I designed a new desk at work with a mointor setup just like that for previewing video. it hasn't been built yet but when I first saw that cab it looked familiar. 
Unfortunately my old house is small and I don't have a corner for a cab like that. My downstairs is packed and upstairs has drastic sloping roof ceilings.

I guess 27" is big for a cocktail? I am pretty clueless about building cabs. I have started to read alot of threads.  I totally dig the massive dinning room table cab.

I will draw up some plans tonight for critqueing. the most important thing I think is making it comfortable to play.

And lots of pictures is not a problem!

 

[leapinlew]

the most important thing I think is making it comfortable to play.

At least make it comfortable to play for 1 person... you did say this is competitive warlords right? 

[theskuh]

At least make it comfortable to play for 1 person... you did say this is competitive warlords right

I can wire something up! Tom why is my spinner getting so hot? lol

Here are my first thoughts.



I like how the control panels look but i think the ends might be brutal on the legs. I have to think something up. maybe rounded detachable saftey corners?

[theskuh]

baby steps.

I was just was messing around with the old compaq laptop and it is a PITA. thinking I might have to run the cab off my macbook until I can figure something out computer wise but I imagine by the time I get the cab built that I will have stuff sorted computer wise. The compaq is just not good and since going mac I have forgotten much of what I once had known about configuring windows machines. Have IT for that. 

I was looking at the mini itx solutions. Some of that stuff looks pretty cool. I could also probably get a mb/chip off ebay. I have some misc computer parts lying around. The hard part for me computer wise is just figuring out how I want to set it up. Linux/windows whatever. I just want to build it realtively cheaply with parts on hand. I have an old powermac but that thing keeps on trucking for normal web/office duties so I can't bring myself to relagate it to mame.

 It is seems easy to spec out the latest X2 or core duo machine but I find it somewhat trickier to plan a build for this.