My first everything box

[lanman31337]

Long time viewer, first time poster.  I've always wanted to build or have an arcade cab, and we just bought a new house that I can fit one in!!!!  I decided to build a cabinet because it would be cheaper to build than to buy one and customise it.  I'm setting it up 4 player for Gauntlet and TMNT and games like that, plus i'm running some other emulators n'at in it.



I used Lucid's cabinet design... kinda.  I edited it for a 32 inch television, and I didn't like his control panel and speaker panel, So I did up my own.  The control panel is going to be similar to talking octopus' panel - http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/ - except I'm doing different button layouts.



Dimensions are 74 tall x 36 wide x 38 deep. 




Some home made cabinets I've seen have a flat marquee, but most arcade ones are angled - I decided to angle mine down.



I hacked apart a set of speakers from best buy that I bought for 20 bucks to put up in the marquee hole - they're a 3 way set of speakers and they sound really good.  In the front bottom I'm going to put a set of 8 inch speakers, and maybe a single 12 as well.  I have to see how much room I'm going to have for all the other game systems I'm putting in it.

[ChadTower]

Nice work so far.  That's going to be a very large cabinet, with a 32" screen and 4 player panel.

[lanman31337]

I wanted it to be a comfortable 4 player, not a "hey, you're in my personal space 4 player cabinet"  Many of times it was a tight squeeze to play x-men with some of the bigger kids when I was younger, and I wanted some breathing room.  Plus with the bigger screen it's no problem for some StepMania or to watch a movie even.

[Chris G]

Ya, that's going to be a beast!  But if you have the room... why not?  Have you decided on a color/art theme yet?

 
Chris

[lanman31337]

Actually, yes and no.  I was going to paint it some sort of blue color, do the MAME screenshot collage for the marquee, and the marvel vs capcom 2 overlay on the talking octopus site.  I might even try to do a collage on the sides of the cabinet of game characters.  I'm also open to suggestions of course 

[Extreme8]

If you've made the speaker panel any smaller or closer to the monitor than the LuSid design you're gonna want to be sure to use shielded speakers.
I went with a similar design and ran into problems with off-the-shelf 4" car speakers.
I expect that a 32" monitor will be worse than my 27" in the same circumstances.

Just something to keep in mind.

[JasonA]

I'm jealous of how wide you're making that thing.  If I went over 31 inches wide, there'd be no way for me to get a machine through any of the doorways in my house ....

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished machine!

[leapinlew]

I'm jealous of how wide you're making that thing.  If I went over 31 inches wide, there'd be no way for me to get a machine through any of the doorways in my house ....

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished machine!

Good question - how wide is this thing?

[superbigjay]

Good question - how wide is this thing?

Dimensions are 74 tall x 36 wide x 38 deep. 

Guess it answers your question 
Jay

[superbigjay]

Hello lanman31337,
I see that you have wheels under that cab.  they don't seem to be lockable.  Will it be stable enough??
That cab will be really heavy with that 32" TV  , so that might prevent it from moving while playing on it...
Jay.

[lanman31337]

If you've made the speaker panel any smaller or closer to the monitor than the LuSid design you're gonna want to be sure to use shielded speakers.
I went with a similar design and ran into problems with off-the-shelf 4" car speakers.
I expect that a 32" monitor will be worse than my 27" in the same circumstances.

Just something to keep in mind.

I went taller than Lucid's design to accomodate the bigger television, and also to accomodate non-shielded speakers.  Most 32 inch tv's are around 27 inches tall - I have 31 inches to the bottom of my marquee bottom/speaker shelf and should have no problems with the magnets.

Hello lanman31337,
I see that you have wheels under that cab.  they don't seem to be lockable.  Will it be stable enough??
That cab will be really heavy with that 32" TV  , so that might prevent it from moving while playing on it...
Jay.

Yes, it'll be plenty stable enough.  I cut the pieces in my garage and assemble them in my gameroom.  It's much easier to move around, and i'd never be able to get my foot underneath.  When it's done it's going to be mobile still, so that way I can sweep the carpet behind it and underneath it.

I'm jealous of how wide you're making that thing.  If I went over 31 inches wide, there'd be no way for me to get a machine through any of the doorways in my house ....

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished machine!

Slowly but surely I'm plugging away - I'm getting married here in July so that's eating up a good bit of my time, plus we just bought the house not three weeks ago.  In July I'm going to be ordering the controls and getting the marquee and cp art printed.

[superbigjay]

Slowly but surely I'm plugging away - I'm getting married here in July so that's eating up a good bit of my time, plus we just bought the house not three weeks ago.  In July I'm going to be ordering the controls and getting the marquee and cp art printed.

Pull he plug now!!!
A new house,
a new wife,
a new cab.

Honey we have to talk...
You have to make a decision...
it's me or the cab!

[lanman31337]

Actually, I lucked out - I get to keep all three  she's a HUGE Crystal Castle fan, and she loves some of the classics.

[lanman31337]

Here's the start of my cp design - can anyone see any problems with it?



I know it's missing a few buttons, but will it be comfy for 4 players?

[miles2912]

Honestly it looks too cramped.  Check the spacing between your 1p and 2p joysticks and buttons.  Make a quick mock up on cardboard and see of that feels ok to you.  I would ditch the 7th button for some more room.  I don't play any games that use a 7th button but if you plan on it I would re-think the design.    Maybe re-position the player 3 and 4 spots?  You have a bunch of dead space in the middle.. maybe cut the size down a bit.  Oh and measure every doorway this will go through to make sure you will be in good shape. 

Don

[lanman31337]

I moved some things around - the only thing i can think of is maybe dropping the 2 middle players down.  I have the 7th button so I can do neo-geo games.

[leapinlew]

I wish there was a way you could setup player 3 and 4 to be parallel to the screen so you could play Total Carnage, Smash TV, etc.

[leapinlew]

Good question - how wide is this thing?

Dimensions are 74 tall x 36 wide x 38 deep. 

Guess it answers your question 
Jay

Is that the total size with the CP?

[lanman31337]

oh god no, that's total size of the cabinet.  CP is going to be 47 x 19x prolly 5 or 6 high.

[Chris G]

Hard to tell without knowing all the measurements, but the outer player controls seem a little close to the edges, particularly the far right buttons...

[javeryh]

I posted something similar to this just yesterday in another 4P CP thread:

1.  It's huge. 
2.  People are going to start telling you not to angle your P3 and P4 joysticks.  I would tell you that P3 and P4 are hardly ever used and probably unnecessary considering the amount of real estate they add to the CP but you have to do what's important to you.  To me there are maybe 5 or 6 4-player games worth playing which isn't enough to justify building a giant CP.
3.  The 4 Admin buttons on top and the trackball do not appear to be centered.  Why?  I'd also consider a separate admin strip under the monitor to handle these (see any of Knievel's cabs).
4.  I'd change the layout of your 6-button configuration to something more ergonomical - like the attached layout or something similar.
5.  Ditch the 7th button for P1 and P2 or move it to the lower left.

[lanman31337]

I posted something similar to this just yesterday in another 4P CP thread:

1.  It's huge. 
2.  People are going to start telling you not to angle your P3 and P4 joysticks.  I would tell you that P3 and P4 are hardly ever used and probably unnecessary considering the amount of real estate they add to the CP but you have to do what's important to you.  To me there are maybe 5 or 6 4-player games worth playing which isn't enough to justify building a giant CP.
3.  The 4 Admin buttons on top and the trackball do not appear to be centered.  Why?  I'd also consider a separate admin strip under the monitor to handle these (see any of Knievel's cabs).
4.  I'd change the layout of your 6-button configuration to something more ergonomical - like the attached layout or something similar.
5.  Ditch the 7th button for P1 and P2 or move it to the lower left.

1. It's most definitely huge, but I'm going 32 inch television also.
2. I play a good bit of gauntlet, x-men, TMNT, simpsons, etc... to justify the 4 player.
3. I see now they are crooked, those were going to be the 1 - 4 player start buttons.
4. Definitely good call on that button layout - it'll be much more comfortable to play.
5. I can always use my thumb for that 4th button for Neo-Geo, i can map it to the first button in the lower level.

[Chris G]

4.  I'd change the layout of your 6-button configuration to something more ergonomical - like the attached layout or something similar.

Ah, bfauska's layout... I decided to use that myself.

[javeryh]

4.  I'd change the layout of your 6-button configuration to something more ergonomical - like the attached layout or something similar.

Ah, bfauska's layout... I decided to use that myself.

It's soooo comfortable.  I forgot who designed it - I'm glad you reminded me so when I'm pimping his design I can give him credit.

 

[lanman31337]

That is definitely a good call.  I printed it out and put my fingers out - bliss.  I could play hours of street fighter and not get sore!  I *really* like this forum - I ask for suggestions, I get positive suggestions.  Thank you all who have posted and who will post.  I'm working on building the rig to power it now - 4800+ amd dual core, 2 gig ddr2 800, 320 gig seagate barracuda.  i figured to go all out - maybe they'll support the games that don't run full speed soon.

[bfauska]

4.  I'd change the layout of your 6-button configuration to something more ergonomical - like the attached layout or something similar.

Ah, bfauska's layout... I decided to use that myself.

It's soooo comfortable.  I forgot who designed it - I'm glad you reminded me so when I'm pimping his design I can give him credit.

 

Glad everybody likes it.  When I saw it posted I thought it was mine but wasn't sure, I was just going to say it looked familiar and leave it at that, but Chris confirmed it.  Thanks Chris.  I have been quite happy with it myself and am fairly certain I will use it on my cab since I like it on my desktop CP so well.

[Chris G]

New entry into the BYOAC nomenclature:  "The Bfauska layout"

4800+ amd dual core, 2 gig ddr2 800, 320 gig seagate barracuda.  i figured to go all out

Uh... ya, I think you're good to go - and then some!

[lanman31337]

I went with 2 320 gig drives, 2 gig ddr2 800, and the 4800+, should be here sometime next week.

[lanman31337]

Computer is built, god it is fast.  Plays even some of the newer games at 100% or close to it.    I built the control panel for the most part this weekend, just need to tidy it up and put the hinges on the front:

[lanman31337]

I've been picking away here and there, and got some more stuff done as you can see:

[GlennM]

Have you stood you and the Mrs side by side at all the spots, those outer two players will be might uncomfy, wives are great subs for friends when you need to check size of stuff

[lanman31337]

I'm not exactly the smallest guy (6 foot 270 lbs) and before I build it I printed out the template and had some guys around my size or bigger stand beside me. it's not bad at all.  The missus is petite, you could fit 8 of her at the control panel and still have room!

[lanman31337]

Tonite I got the marquee installed - turned out good



I'm using a florescent light in behind, and i have some speakers tucked away with quick connects off the back side.

[lanman31337]

So today I decided to do this:



Slowly but surely she's getting built.

[lanman31337]

It went from ^^^^^^^

to

[amadama]

Looking good.
Let me ask you, why are you not going to put T-molding on your cab? This is one of the nicest finishing touches to any cab.
Anyhow, good luck with the rest of your build. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest.
Alex

[lanman31337]

Yeah, i'm definitely going to go with some.  I just gotta track down someone locally with a router and the bit so i can cut it.

[lanman31337]

Got some painting done up and finished, here's the results.

[theCoder]

Dimensions are 74 tall x 36 wide x 38 deep...

...If I went over 31 inches wide, there'd be no way for me to get a machine through any of the doorways in my house ....

So you are building this in place?  It should help on the resale value when you go to sell the house in the future.  Best of luck on your marriage, house, and cab.

[lanman31337]

Yes sir, I'm building it in my game room.  I've been putting up plastic drop cloths to protect the carpet from paint, and the shop-vac cleans up any sawdust and debris.  Thanks for the words of luck, Saturday's the big day.  I'm not going to be able to touch it until next Monday, which I should have my coin boxes and cages, and put in the other buttons and joystick hack, and wire everything up!

I'm really glad I didn't finish the control panel first - I probably wouldn't have finished the project.

[lanman31337]

Finally, post wedding, i have time!!!!  Some updates -



It's organized and color coded, compliments of cat 5 and red ground wire.



There's the top.

Everything is wired except the buttons for pinball and the coin doors.  Played some tron and arkanoid with the spinner, some missile command with the trackball, and some street fighter and gauntlet.  WOW, I love it!!!!