Custom Xenophobe based Mame Cabinet

[Naloomi]

I've always loved the look of the Xenophobe cabinet. I spent hours at the arcade on this particular game, dropping quarters every so often for more life. Because of this, I have decided to build my own Mame cabinet, based off of the Xenopobe cabinet design.

I've taken some measurements and begun construction on my cab. Some design plans are:

• The ability to swap out control panels. This means all the buttons for control of the cabinet have to be on the each individual CP somewhere.
• The ability to easily adjust speaker volume, and yet not have this control visible.
• I'll be using a 27" CRT television in place of a computer monitor (means the wife gets a new TV. She's excited about that part)

Since I was doing this from scratch (no prebuilt cab for me to work from) I had to get some measurements. Now, I missed some during my initial measurements, but made up for it with a compass. Since I am not worried about it being a 100% replica, I simplified some of them to the nearest .25". I also made some minor modifications to simplify things in regards to some of my plans.

I'm working on getting some images posted. I do hope you like the work done so far.

Here is the side panels layout:



Here are both panels, already cutout (note: the are uneven. I noticed this as I was putting things together)


And here are both side panels connected to my bottom:


I want the speakers hidden in the cabinet (no visible holes, etc) and yet easily accessible. I devised this way of doing this:


As you can see in this pic, the speakers will sit behind framework, which will be on a hinge so that I can access the speaker volume controls (note, I have corrected the side panels at this point):

I plan on using some sort of cloth material to cover the 'framework', something that wont disrupt the sound much, but will still look good. Suggestions on that would be welcome.

I hope you all like...

Naloomi

[leapinlew]

Looking great. I'm curious how the 27" part of this cabinet will work? Also, what do you plan on doing about the wire mesh where the speakers go?

I'm almost scared to show you this, but check out what I did to my Xenophobe style cabinet (which was already bastardized).
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=55021.0

One cabinet I've always liked was lower hell:
http://lowerhell.com/mame/

Good luck with the build, I'll be watching. 

[bfauska]

• The ability to swap out control panels. This means all the buttons for control of the cabinet have to be on the each individual CP somewhere.

I would suggest that your re-visit that idea.  For the least redundant purchases you may like the idea of putting the encoder in the non-swapable portion of the cabinet and wiring any system-wide controls (admin, coin, player, etc...) directly to the encoder and placing them an on a permanent part of the cabinet.  For the rest of the controls wire a connector (db25 for example) to the encoder and a mating connector to each swapable CP and it's buttons/controls.  I think that if you were to put ALL controls on the swapable CP then you would still need to wire a connector to your encoder or purchase multiple encoders and swap the usb or ps2, AND you would have to buy a copy of each admin, coin, player, etc... button for each CP.

Just a thought based on the bit of info you provided.

Your progress looks great by the way, and I would suggest (as lew brought up) some either perforated metal sheets or expanded metal mesh between your speaker cloth and the actual speakers.

[Austin.Wolff]

Xenophobe was actually the cabinet I was going to get before I got the Prisoners of War cab.

[psychotech]

Looks promising!

Like the speaker placement too. But if you do have any unused space on the speaker panel....

Oh well, should have read the post while I was writing ... So, heed the words of bfauska, for he talketh words of wisdom

(You won't need that many control buttons after you've set-up the machine, anyway. And even then you could place all the control buttons somewhere on the cabinet's main frame. Install all the shift/shazaam/p1/p2/credits/pause/quit/etc. buttons on the main cab (maybe on the speaker panel top, if you have any unused space there, or the CP box front..?) and use something like molex or db connectors for the control panels?)

http://www.cablestogo.com/resources/db.asp

Keep up the good work! Spying also

psychotech

[Naloomi]

• The ability to swap out control panels. This means all the buttons for control of the cabinet have to be on the each individual CP somewhere.

I would suggest that your re-visit that idea.  For the least redundant purchases you may like the idea of putting the encoder in the non-swapable portion of the cabinet and wiring any system-wide controls (admin, coin, player, etc...) directly to the encoder and placing them an on a permanent part of the cabinet.  For the rest of the controls wire a connector (db25 for example) to the encoder and a mating connector to each swapable CP and it's buttons/controls.  I think that if you were to put ALL controls on the swapable CP then you would still need to wire a connector to your encoder or purchase multiple encoders and swap the usb or ps2, AND you would have to buy a copy of each admin, coin, player, etc... button for each CP.

Your progress looks great by the way, and I would suggest (as lew brought up) some either perforated metal sheets or expanded metal mesh between your speaker cloth and the actual speakers.

I hadn't considered that, and I was really dreading buying multiple keyboard encoders. (I'll be using the I-PAC from Ultimarc). Going with the db25 is a great idea. Thank you very much for that.

As for my speakers, I was considering going with 'screen mesh' like that used in screen windows and such. Over that I would put some material. Thoughts?

Naloomi

[mcfreak]

What are the dimensions of those three smaller speaker boxes?   That would be a kick ass place for three LCD's that show Artwork, instruction Cards, in game video, or something along those lines...

[Naloomi]

What are the dimensions of those three smaller speaker boxes?   That would be a kick ass place for three LCD's that show Artwork, instruction Cards, in game video, or something along those lines...

Each box is approximately 5.5" x 6.5"

Naloomi

[mcfreak]

Here you go, Throw in three if these: eBay Link
They are RCA only but maybe some cheap PCI cards with svideo out...

Mind you, not for playing the game but for screenshots, other game material during game play...

[theCoder]

As for my speakers, I was considering going with 'screen mesh' like that used in screen windows and such. Over that I would put some material. Thoughts?

On my last project I used some heavy plastic mesh made for yarn embroidery projects.  I cut a small recess in the front hole.  The plastic insets just below the surface and looks fairly decent.

[Naloomi]

I just wanted to update this posting. I am still working on the cabinet, but I have run into some 'measurement' issues.

The computer that had all the dimensions on them was stolen. Thus I have been unable to finish the cabinet. If someone has access to an original Xenophobe cabinet that they can take measurements on, please send a PM or post here how I can contact you so that I can finish this off.

Thank you very much.

Naloomi