Sub sub mini cabinets

[Jigenjuke]

Well guys. here it goes.  A buddy of mine here in Japan asked me if I could make him a replica "puck man" cabinet small enough for him to put his pens and pencils in at work.  After having some luck with his little project.  I thought that I would try my hand at making some mini replicas.  I searched around here in the forums and found a site with cabinet plans.  I am going to start with around 15-20 cabinets.  They will all stand about 11 inches high.  Originally, I thought that I would just put a mock monitor into these cabinets but soon realized that here in Japan most of the classic arcade games are available for download for use on our wonderful Japanese cell phones.  I started fiddling around about found out that the size of the cellphone display matches perfectly for the size of the cabinets that I am making.  I cut pieces for Galaga, Ms. Pac, Pacman, and Donkey Kong.  I will update with pictures as I fumble along.  let me know what you guys think

[ivwshane]

I'll let you know as soon as I see pics:D

[ark_ader]

11 Inches is definately do'able, the only problem is screen size and the controls, but you can get around that with gamepad hacks.

11 inches will be perfect for the desk.  Are we thinking PS1 LCD and Pico, Nano or normal ITX?

I'm interested in just seeing the final product.

Good luck! 

[patrickl]

I build my PocketGalaga with an iPAQ inside. It's also 11" tall and the 3.5" screen is a pretty good fit for a 19" monitor at 1:6 scale.

[Jigenjuke]

Here is another pic.

[Jigenjuke]

And a final pic.

[Jigenjuke]

And a final pic.

[Jigenjuke]

Have a couple of concept photo's.  Sorry I tried to take better pics of the cell phone playing Galaga but the quality was pretty crappy.  Anyway, here ya are. 

[patrickl]

Cool 

Are you going for playable or for miniature replica? (ie screen slanted back like on an original or not)

[ivwshane]

Damn that's sweet!

[Jigenjuke]

going for both playability and accuracy.  Thanks for the props so far.  I want everyone looking at pictures of the machine to stop and ask themselves if it is an original or replica.  I know that I have a long haul ahead of me but, I am a fairly accomplished model maker, so I'm gonna give it a go.  thanks guys.

[patrickl]

The reason I ask is because when you put the screen at the original angle, you won't be able to see it properly. Or you have to put your eyes at about the location of the marquee (where they would be with a full sized cab).

[Jigenjuke]

Yeah, I understand what you are saying.  I am shooting for a replica that can be played.  I don't promise that it will be comfortable but I want it to work.  I know that it will be cramped but I want it to look as real as I can make it thus I am molding parts out of rubber for the t-molding and building a mold for liquid plastic to make a replica midway/bally coin door.  Not everyone will be satisfied with the playabillity but hopefully I will be able to wow you guys with how realistic the mini mini cabs looks.  When I am finished with all 15-20 cabs I will build a diarama 80's style arcade to put them in.  Anybody have plans for a Tron cabinet and a Star Wars cockpit cabinet?

[Jigenjuke]

Patrickl, by the way.  Love your Galaga cabinet.  Is the cat a player too?  I have an old Pocket PC and haven't figured out how to load MAMECE on it.  I like the pocket PC and it is 433Mhz but I have a tablet PC that has replaced it.  I would love to take the Pocket PC apart and put it into a mini mini cab like you have done. 

[patrickl]

I know that it will be cramped but I want it to look as real as I can make it thus I am molding parts out of rubber for the t-molding and building a mold for liquid plastic to make a replica midway/bally coin door.

Not everyone will be satisfied with the playabillity but hopefully I will be able to wow you guys with how realistic the mini mini cabs looks.  When I am finished with all 15-20 cabs I will build a diarama 80's style arcade to put them in.

Ha, ha cool.

A client of mine is a plastic extruder factory. For instance, they make the t-modling for Ikea. I'll have to ask them to start making 3mm wide t-molding for the sub sub mini replica market 

Anybody have plans for a Tron cabinet and a Star Wars cockpit cabinet?

There were some threads on Star Wars cockpits. HoopstarsGarage and rovingmind were working on plans, but I don't think they ever got them finished. There was a thread with measurements: FINALLY! Star Wars Cockpit Measurements .

Also, http://3darcade.mameworld.net has a lot of 3D models (including Star Wars and Tron).

BTW maybe this is not the right time to mention this anymore, but the jakobud Galaga plans you used are slightly off. Re: Calling Ms Pac/Galaga owners

Patrickl, by the way.  Love your Galaga cabinet.  Is the cat a player too?  I have an old Pocket PC and haven't figured out how to load MAMECE on it.  I like the pocket PC and it is 433Mhz but I have a tablet PC that has replaced it.  I would love to take the Pocket PC apart and put it into a mini mini cab like you have done. 

Thanks. PocketGalaga was more an excercise for me to start woodworking. Main goal was to get it playable and that the PocketPC needed to be intact and recoverable. So it doesn't really look realistic. It was great fun to build though.

I didn't use MameCE since it was too slow. Although I did install it without problems. I think the only trouble I had was with the ROMs (they needed to be in some older version). Or is your OS a newer version that MameCE doesn't support?

[Jigenjuke]

Cool, NP.  I guess that I will have to modify the Ms. Pac and Galaga's then.  Thanks for the info.  A buddy of mine ordered a bunch of PICO motherboards for his company for a project that got cancelled at a later date.  He asked me if I had any use for them yesterday, so maybe instead of cellphones I'll put the Via Picos in these cabinets.  Kinda over kill for such a tiny screen but cool all the same.  Cheap though, his company is only charging me 5000 yen for each board (basically like 50 US bucks), so I told him I would take the lot of them :applaud:kid in a candy store. 

Patrickl, what did you print your graphics for the side art, control panel, and kick plate on?

[patrickl]

Cool, NP.  I guess that I will have to modify the Ms. Pac and Galaga's then.  Thanks for the info.  A buddy of mine ordered a bunch of PICO motherboards for his company for a project that got cancelled at a later date.  He asked me if I had any use for them yesterday, so maybe instead of cellphones I'll put the Via Picos in these cabinets.  Kinda over kill for such a tiny screen but cool all the same.  Cheap though, his company is only charging me 5000 yen for each board (basically like 50 US bucks), so I told him I would take the lot of them :applaud:kid in a candy store. 

Cool. That's going to be an expensive project. Now where to find such a big assortment of LCD screens? In different sizes I guess and able to work with a PICO motherboard.

Patrickl, what did you print your graphics for the side art, control panel, and kick plate on?

It's a simple photoprint that I made with my big Epson printer. Even though it's supposed to be archival pigment ink, the blacks did fade a lot (or "bronzed' is the word I guess). I should have covered it in laminate like I did with my (full size) Galaga control panel. Or at the very least cover it with photo spray or maybe coat the whole mini cab in a layer of laquer.

[Jigenjuke]

Hey there again guys.  I decided to re-cut the parts for Donkey Kong.  I wasn't really that happy with how they turned out the first time around.  I will post pictures once I have a chance to assemble them.  I have been thinking about using 1mm contact sheets for the sides of the cabinet.  I painted the pac-man cabinet yellow and was not happy with the results.  The contact vinyl is pretty good and there is a company here in Japan that will match colors for me.  I am thinking that this is probably a better way to go than painting these mini minis.  We'll see.  I got the mixing compound and about ready to start making the molds for the coin doors, buttons, joystick toppers and t-molding.  I am quite suprised how well thing are going, but I am sure that I will run into all kinds of snags when I insert the guts.  Sorry, no pics for now, but soon I promise. 

Just a question for you all.  Which do you think is better, the Donkey Kong Blue or Red?  Let me know.

[patrickl]

1mm would look too thin. I went with 3mm (birch ply) for the wood since that translates to the same 1:6 scale I used for the cab (regular would being 3/4" or 19mm).

[bvicarious]

hi jigenjuke, it sounds like we're working on similar projects. I'm building a bunch of 1:4 mini cabs and had some of the same questions you do. For the sides, control panel, marquee etc I used adhesive vinyl decals on top of color matched paint and was pleased with the results, but I might top it with varnish or something to smooth it out and make sure they don't peel. For the buttons I was going to mold and cast my own, but settled on buying some small ones that look nice and have good action. They're about 1:2 scale so it kinda throws the proportions out of wack, but they look good on the control panel and are very playable. If yours end up being about 1/8" they should be comfortable to use, thats 1:6 scale right? Are you casting an entire assembly similar to a regular arcade button? For the coin door, I modeled and printed it on a 3d printer then made a mold of that, but I couldn't make lit/working coin return buttons, definitely next on the list. Casting your own t-molding is pretty hardcore. I had two options: custom order 9,000 feet of 1/4" t-molding, or buy a couple rolls of 1/4" colored vinyl tape. I went with the tape. Color me green with envy over $50 Pico-ITX boards.. thats a steal at twice the price! Do you know how well they run mame?


Having made a blue DK, I'd vote for the red one.. it stands out more and really pops.

[melarky]

Looking great, you've got some serious patience to do this all by hand.  I have done smaller cabinets in the past, but I used a CNC to cut out the parts.

Mini Galaga - Playable and around 22" tall. Uses a jakks board and 5" LCD

Mini Donkey Kong - Not playable and around 11" tall.  Made a lamp out of it, it was mostly just a proof of concept to check out the accuracy of the plans I had

Big Mini Donkey Kong - After cutting the lamp and verifying the plans were good, I scaled the plans up to about 5' tall and cut it all out and made a Donkey Kong for my sons room.  It'll fun mame on it, has a 17" CRT monitor in it right now, used mostly to watch TV in his room until he gets older and gets into arcades more, he's only 18 months

Mini Mario Brothers - This was a quick project thrown together for a local valentines box contest.  The box had to be video game themed and the winner got a DS Lite or something.  We didn't win unfortunately .

[Jigenjuke]

Ok Guys, I have decided to go off on a different tangent.  I will finish two cabinets that I was satisfied with the cuts.  Galaga and Donkey Kong.  I have not decided if I am going to take the time to take apart a couple of cell phones two put into these cabs.  I am really happy with my progress and pics will follow, but due to a windfall of 10 pico motherboards, I have deccided to go with 1/4 scale, comfortably playable, replica cabinets.  I was really lucky to have these boards fall in my lap and I feel that putting them in 1/10 scale cabinets would be a waste of technology and frankly kind of decadent.  I haven't decided which ten mini's I will be making but suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  I will post pics of the sub sub mini's this weekend. 

end of line...

[The Evil Collector]

Cab suggestions, hmm.....this list could get big. You could go with the obvious classic choices I suppose but why not do something that you don't see much? How about a KidNiki or Elevator Action or Black Widow. Or how about Venture, now thats a cool game.

By the way what is pico mo-board anyway?

Nevermind. Looked it up. Pretty cool. How much did you have to give for all those? 

[ablizno]

Well it would be really sweet if you could build the 6 player xmen cab replica... but doubt u would

[vidmouse]

This is just too cool.  You've inspired me.
I just dug up an old Palm m130 I had
that my wife claimed was "broken" and fixed it.
Unfortunately I can't run palmmame on it
since the os is only 4.1 but I can run some
palm shareware/freeware on it... found a few
on the net that should do...

Will let you know how the minicab goes in
a project announcement later.

[Jigenjuke]

Yeah thanks for the link melarky, love you mini's.  Well, I started cutting pieces for the 1/4 scale cabinets and am pretty excited about what I hope will be a great outcome.  I have a couple questions.  I want to get art for the marquee's control panel overlays printed out.  I know there are a lot of places out there.  I have been doing the research here on this forum.  Who would you guys recommend?  Also I kinda wanna save money and shipping as I live here in Japan, so I was wondering if it would be better to submit all the artwork to be printed out on one large photoshop doc (for say three cabinets at a time.)?  And finally Melarky, I noticed that you went for a industrial  micro joystick.  How did that work out?  The reason I ask is there is a manufacturer here in Japan that makes a joystick similar to this..... (see photo below) but the main difference is that the one made here in Japan feels quite nice, returns to center via a small spring and is not made mostly out of nylon.  They said that they would also shop me metal shat extensions that have a screw on the end for what ever I decide to use for a ball top.  My main question in case you couldn't see it coming is this...  mini-pac or keywiz will work with these I assume (after all, all it does like any microswitch is close a circuit, right??)  Thanks ahead of time guys.  Pics won't be for another few days.  Wifey has the digital camera on vacation. 

[danny_galaga]

yes, if that mini joy is just switching (on/off) then any keyboard emulator will work. or a gamepad hack. its just a switch after all. hell, you could wrap tin foil around two fingers and tap them together if you wanted!

just curious about the pico board. will it fit completely inside your cab, and what about the power supply?

great work by the way. very inspiring (",)

[patrickl]

just curious about the pico board. will it fit completely inside your cab, and what about the power supply?

I was wondering the same. Seems like these motherboards are seriously tiny 7x10cm (3 by 4inch). There was an example of someone putting it in a Gameboy.

[bvicarious]

jigenjuke, that joystick looks interesting, do you have one in your possession yet? I'm wondering what the scale of it is, because awhile ago I used a tiny (about the size of a quarter) thumb d-pad that looked like it. It didn't have a wide range of motion or a spring-to-center like that one, it just kinda clicked in the direction you pushed it in. If yours is like a real joystick and is that small, I wouldn't mind getting a hold of a few of those myself. As for printing, I don't know about japan but here I was able to get a reaaally local print shop, right down the street actually, to print my stuff. I gave them an .AI file with everything I needed already laid out to make it easy for them, and since I was paying by the foot I crammed as much stuff horizontally as I could. Have you found any shops in japan that can do it? Anyone with a large format printer that can do vinyl/laminate should be fine, at this scale quality shouldn't be a concern. Finally, yes minipac et c. will work, it looks like the joystick has the standard NO/NC/Ground tabs.

[ablizno]

yes, if that mini joy is just switching (on/off) then any keyboard emulator will work. or a gamepad hack. its just a switch after all. hell, you could wrap tin foil around two fingers and tap them together if you wanted!

Hmm that got me thinking mabey i will make a funky ddr mame cab that uses metal pads on a glove, each finger being a different direction and the tumb being the object that completes the circuit..... hmmm

[patrickl]

What's wrong with using a nail, 2 microswitches and some wood to "build your own joystick" 

[melarky]

This is a great project, can't wait to see the outcome.

As for the joysticks, I got mine from P3America (specifically, I got this one: http://www.p3america.com/pp/851.htm).  It's a decent joystick, but nothing spectacular.  From the specs, you can see it hooks up just like a normal joystick (has 4 micro switches).  As I mentioned in my thread, if I had it to do all over again, I would have just stuck with the Jakks joystick.  It has almost the same foot print when out of the case, and is maybe a little more durable and more functional than the one I did end up using.  Live and learn.  It's been a while, but if I remember correctly, I think the joysticks I got from P3America were like $16 each, I could be wrong though.  You just have to call them up and get a quote from them.  They had other joysticks that looks good too, no real particular reason I finally decided on the ones I did, it may be worth checking out their other stuff.

The artwork for my cabs was all printed by a local printer in my town.  I took the artwork from localarcade.com and resized/edited it to fit my cab, and then had it all printed locally on varying material (depending on application).  For instance, for the Marquee, I just printed it in color and then had it laminated.  I then glued the laminated piece in place with super glue.  It doesn't sound that great, but it looks good and works very well.  The side art/cpo/kickpanel was all printed on adhesive backed material to make it easier to apply.  I tried spraying my own adhesive on some ms. pac-man artwork and applying it before I switched to galaga, and it was a nightmar, it was so much better to get the adhesive backed stuff from the printer.  You should definately check out local print shops before going the internet route as it's so much more convenient and usually quicker to be able to source that close to home.

Good luck and keep us updated.

[Jigenjuke]

Yeah, thanks.  I'll look into sourcing close to home here.  Unfortunately, here in Japan, those kind of business normally charge a premium, and it might be better just to have it printed with one of the big boys in the states and have them ship here. 

The Pico is great.  Yes it does fit wonderfully into the cabinets.  Being only 7x10 cm (the size of a deck of cards) if fits wonderfully.  Of course when you add the PSU which is also pretty small, and the Compact Flash Drive daughter board, things get a little more cramped, but still very manageable. 

Someone asked how the pico performs with mame.  I was extremely happy with the results.  Keep in mind that I am running mostly late 70s to early 90s games, (if anyone is interested I can test later games)  I had a little problem with hardware stretching but that wasn't too difficult to sort out.  It ran Dragon's Lair and other LD games from DVD with no       
problem.  Any way pics to follow soon I hope.

[IG-88]

What's wrong with using a nail, 2 microswitches and some wood to "build your own joystick" 

Ha! I love it! Did you build that? If so what is it in? Thats pretty ingenious! 

[patrickl]

What's wrong with using a nail, 2 microswitches and some wood to "build your own joystick" 

Ha! I love it! Did you build that? If so what is it in? Thats pretty ingenious! 

It's on my . A picture of it next to my cat is at the beginning of this thread.

It's only 2-way, but it works quite well.

[NiN^_^NiN]

I saw this thread a few days ago and started doing some testing myself and found out that i could fit a NES and a 2" screen into one of these small cabs you made by just using a nes on a chip and taking a space invaders game out of the big grey cart it would fit nicely and could be run of 4AA batteries in the base of the arcade.

I did some testing with a joystick and used a Sewing pin (which looks like a arcade joystock actually)
and just used some cork to stop the joystick popping out and just used some metal for the contacts and put the ground wire on the pin it worked great actually i did use it as a 4way joystick as i just used mame and a keywiz to test as it was easier to hookup but i don't know if the pins metal will hold out the metal is flimsly it might bend over time altho replace ment would be simple.

I was gonna build a pong cabinet as i have a old 5" tv and was gonna build probably between a 10 and 20" cab for it but i really don't have the time to do it

Hopefully the pin idea will be helpful to some of you guys

[Yvan256]

Hopefully the pin idea will be helpful to some of you guys

It sure is! Thanks!