New project announcement & completed - black scab

[nukedawg]

Well I guess I should have announced this back when I started back in May but never got the chance.
I will post the completed pics first then followed by my progress from start to finish.

nukedawg's portable self contained arcade box - black scab




A BIG Thank You to everyone in the BYOAC community, I am forever grateful.
http://portablearcade.vox.com/

[nukedawg]

It all started back in the mid 80's when I got my first Vic20, soon upgraded to the C64 when I found myself enthralled with video games. This passion has lived on throughout the years with a dream of owning my very own arcade cabinet one day. In the late 90's I found some of the early emulators and have delved into many of them since, playing alot of the old classics on many different game consoles including arcade machines.

I read a few articles a few years ago on the net about people building/converting arcade cabinets to host a computer and run emulators on them. On May 6th 2007 I finally got around to getting a place to record my efforts at building one of these arcade cabinets. I started researching a month before, ordered the Project Arcade book, and have scoured over the BYOAC website.

Originally, I had ideas of making a normal sized cabinet that could also 'transform' and lower to be able to sit in comfy chairs for long game play rounds. The mechanics of it as well as the stability of the cabinet made me rethink and eventually scrap that idea.

While researching, I found a page in german http://www.shift.at/2004/mame_mobil.php that showed how one guy put a PC inside the control panel to make it portable. I knew from this point that was what I would build for myself. I also decided to make the unit dock into a full size cabinet which would house the monitor, sub woofer, speakers, etc. The portable unit will house the arcade controls, wiring, PC and a couple of smaller speakers.

Hopefully the "portable" part of the cabinet will be done within a few months (due to school and money issues). I MUST have the "portable" part complete by Thanksgiving at least as this is where some good gaming will go down =)

[nukedawg]

Well I decided on a design for the stand up cabinet that will be similar to Mameroom's Ultimate Arcade II plans included with the Project Arcade book, looking even more like the cabinet "Mame Not Over" by GSXRMoviestar

A quick mockup of the shape using masking tape on the wall. I tried to lay out the tape to scale but just wound up with a rough estimate at best. It's obvious that the thing would topple if I made it they it looks now. But hey, it's just for ideas.

[nukedawg]

Originally I had planned on using an old Gateway rack mounted P3 server with hot swappable SCSI drives but after testing the latest Mame version (115), it was obvious that I would have to use an old 0.6x version and loose out on playing alot of games.

My brother-in-law had an old Dell P4 2.8ghz PC that he almost destroyed (seriously) while having some bad raids while playing Final Fantasy XI online. He would get angry and rip off a part of the PC and beat it against a tree! (I saw it happen one day lol). Eventually the case was missing the entire front bezel, and side panel. He got angry one day and threw the case against a wall, bending the case all to hell. He retired the PC to storage after getting a new one (I pray for his new PC). I asked him for the old one and after adding 256mb of PC2700 and a 20gig HD (all I have to spare atm), I got it up and running. It's even using shared video memory (egads!) for now. Eventually I will add a video card with TV out so when I take it to friends, I can connect to either a TV or monitor.

[nukedawg]

Well I decided to order most of my parts for the control panel which were all bought from Ultimarc.com. I placed my order on Friday June the 1st, it was confirmed with tracking number on Monday the 4th and I received it on Wednesday the 6th. My DHL package has arrived!!!

After researching joysticks and control panel layouts I decided on 20 buttons: 7 for each player, 2 coin, 2 player start and 2 extra admin buttons. I also ordered the Mini-pac USB optical encoder with the extra wiring harness. I also ordered 2 Ultrastik 360 joysticks with 2 sets of restrictor plates and 2 hard springs.

I arranged some of the button nuts (hehehe button nuts!) on a paper control panel mockup to check placement of the controls.

For now, I will be only installing the joysticks, and buttons. Eventually I will be adding a mouse and HD hack for the spinner (already have the HD spinner) and then I will buy some kind of arcade trackball at a later date when I can afford one. I will also hack together a Happ's 8way joystick and the handle from a Logitech Digital Extreme stick for a good 8 way plus fire joystick.

I have also contemplated adding a mouse and HD hack to controll a steering wheel for racing games. My idea is to use the same principle as setting it up for a spinner but attaching a steering wheel instead. Kind of like the Turbo Twist 2 with mini racing wheel. I found a good deal on a real European racing style steering wheel for under 20 bucks (plus 15 for shipping). It is lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber construction and even has 2 buttons used for controlling Nitrous. I can use the buttons for fire buttons or something I'm sure.

[nukedawg]

Well I haven't purchased any wood yet and i am eager to check out my new parts so i decided to install them into a couple of chicken boxes from Wingstop (Mmmmmmm good!) temporarily. I wired all the buttons to the Mini-pac but I did have one problem with the wiring harness I purchased not being long enough to span both sets on buttons. I had to go and purchase wire, male and female quick disconnects and a crimper. The reason I bought the wiring harness was so I could save time in not having to create my own. I guess I should have read closely that the harness would only span 320mm (I think thats right). I would have purchased the wiring extension kit also. Oh well, I got the wires crimped and extended the wiring for player 2.



My brother-in-law came over this weekend so we could test the setup out. It worked like a charm! I did have some issues with Zinc not detecting any joystick movement. I tried using the Winterblast 1.6 plugin and still it wouldnt work. I decided to just use Joy2key and map the directions like that. Now it works with no problems. After a few hours of play I installed the new spring and the round restrictor plate into Joystick 1 but had some issues with it. In the directions on the Ultimarc website it says to

"Place the restrictor plate over the holes and re-fit the PCB using the black pillars and long screws supplied in the kit. The wide end of the pillar is against the restrictor."

One one side, the restrictor plate has an small area indented where the black pillar fit into. After putting it all back together, the joystick had a bad sticking problem. I removed the spring, tried again but still the same problem. I didnt know what was making it stick. After removing the restrictor, I found that the small black circle thing (not sure what it is) on the PCB had part of it's paint or coloring worn off. I believe that the magnet was too close and was rubbing against it. I read on the internet other people not sure how much torque to put on the screws as there is a certain clearance that the magnet needs.

I broke the joystick down again but this time I flipped the restrictor plate over where it was smooth and no place the black pillar fit into. I just screwed it all down and now it works ah so beautifully. I haven't had the chance to change the other one but I am sure I will. It seems alot of people, including me, feel that the stick has too much play and really needs that restrictor.

[nukedawg]

Well I set the cardboard-cade up and attached the boxes together with duct tape (love that stuff!) and mounted it to a monitor stand sitting at an angle and then used bungee cords to attached to 2 milk crates. Yah yah I know it's ghetto but at least it works at this stage =>

I have been working on the software setup for the PC as well as the menu system and getting all the games on to the PC. I did buy a Maxtor 300gb hard drive for storage on the system.

[nukedawg]

Well due to summer school classes, I have not been able to work too much on the cab but I did purchase the wood for the control panel. I bought MDF after really considering building the control panel out of fine sanded birch plywood but after seeing how the edges on some of the boards I looked at were splitting and were very ragged, I decided against the plywood. I will just have to be careful with the MDF and seal it good before the primer and paint job.

Also I have been working on getting the software set up. I will be using Mala as a front end with the UltraStik plugin for my U360 joysticks. The cab so far has Mame 0.117 compiled to add high scores and remove the nag screens. I also have PacMame 0.58 installed as well as ZiNC 1.1 up and working. I am currently configuring and getting MiSFiTMame 0.113.7 ready for the cab. I have the Mame game list narrowed down from 6680 to a lean 2568 games. This is a work in progress as I tested these games out on a different system that is not as fast as the game cab PC. I have a folder of games that I marked as 'slow' and need to test them on the cab. The number of games then will rise according to which work smooth on the cab PC. This list currently has parent roms and clones added if there is no working parent. Also added are any clones that are really different than the parent, not just level changes but bigger differences. There are only a few and I have only worked through the first 1/5th of the total so far.

[nukedawg]

Well school is starting in the morning and after a 2 weeks off and 1 week on vacation, I had a little time to work on the cab.

I was able to drill the holes for the joy and buttons. Also I made measurements for the parts that need to be cutout for the PC but will have to make the cuts next weekend.

[nukedawg]

Well after planning on getting at least the cut outs for the PC and power supply completed this weekend, a good friend of mine was around and convinced me to go ahead and get it put together as well.

We pre drilled the holes for all the screws, and the two piano hinges, screwed them all down and it finally started taking shape! We also sanded and placed the I/O panel in the back wall of the box. Also my friend got a little sanding done all around the entire box to knock down a little of the edge, thanks!!

[nukedawg]

And through the week in between working on homework,

I was able to work on the cabinet and get almost everything installed. I also booted it up just to make sure it was still working since it was moved around alot in the past few weeks and hasn't been turned on. I was able to install the buttons, joysticks, keyboard encoder, motherboard, power supply, hard drive, power light/HD light, power button, two hinge supports and two locks.

Right now, I just wanted it put together and be able to use it to get the software tested andworking properly, soooooo, the button wiring looks like crap!! After the painting is complete I will get the wiring neat and organized but for now it will have to be a rats nest.

I also bought a pair of Creative Labs Gigaworks T20 speakers today but I will have to wait a few weeks before I can cut spaces for them on either side of the power button. I originally heard these speakers in a Frys in Houston and was extremely impressed. Also I was impressed with the Bose Companion 2 but I liked the way the T20's looked and sounded. For only two speakers with no sub, they sound incredible! Yesterday I bought a small pair of Logitech X140 speakers but I was not happy with the 30 dollar speakers. The Gigaworks at 100 bucks was pricey but well worth it!

So no more updates until I am able to get the speaker cutouts or get it painted, also will have to get a video card with TV out to complete to project.

[nukedawg]

I went to visit a friend of mine today and he was throwing out an old Atari Vindicators arcade cabinet that he found a few months ago setting out on a curb. It was water damaged when he got it, plus player 2 controls were thrashed. He told me that it was working at least for player one but I never saw it working myself and since then it has been sitting where it got even more rain damage. It was sad as I remember how much I had played this very game and how much coinage it racked up from me back in the day.

He needed to get rid of a bunch of crap in his garage and said I could grab what I wanted from it before he put it to the curb. I was able to get the coin door, the motherboard and the Vindicators marquee and metal marquee frame. I will use the coin door and marquee when I complete the fullsize base for the portable arcade cabinet.

[nukedawg]

Well after a few weeks more of school taking up most of my time, I finally was able to cut out the holes for the Creative Labs Gigaworls T20 speakers I bought.

They sound really really nice and fit perfect into the cabinet. Nice!! Now all I need as far as equipment is a video card with TV out capabilities but that will have to wait.I also went ahead and disassembled the entire box to get it ready for priming and painting. I am hoping that I can get at least some of the priming and sanding done this weekend but I have projects due this coming Monday in my sculpture and ceramics classes.

Man I love those speakers!

[nukedawg]

Well it's finally complete! Well almost..... I still have to get a tv out video card, trackball and a spinner, but for now, for a long while, this will have to suffice :>

The paint job sucks bad. The box has a nice shine but has runs. The top has been sanded to a matte finish to cover up the paint runs. So for now, it will have to do.

Also I finally named the beast - black scab. The name stands for 'self contained arcade box'.

[Green Giant]

So far it looks like everything is coming along nicely since it sounds like it isn't done yet.

I agree about the paint job, looks splotchy right now.  Just sand and recoat a few times, maybe some clear laquer as well.

Asside from that you really need t-molding and some sort of CPO with plexi.

Sounds like you are saving space for the trackball cause otherwise that lip overhang would be excessive.

Over all good progress, keep posting.

[nukedawg]

For now the portable unit is complete. Once school is out for summer next year I can work more on it. I really can't spring for a good trackball and spinner and my attempts at at a DIY spinner failed 2 times. The paint job will be redone at a later time as well. As far as the t-molding is concerned, I just haven't really thought alot about that. Yes, I know I really do need to get some, it will also have to be later.

I am not sure that I can add any plexi as an overlay on the top due to how I mounted the U360's from the bottom. There is not much clearance for anything on top, unless, I route a space out for the joysticks. All the things I knew I would need to do but was rushed since I didn't have a router.