Arcade Coffee table

[bemerritt]

So last night my buttons and joysticks came, as well as my approval to join this site. So the project has officially begun. IVe spent a lot of time looking through all of the posts gathering info for this and that and thought it was time to explain my setup. I am VERY open to suggestions seeing as all that is currently accomplished is the holes drilled for the buttons and joysticks.

The Plan:
Make a coffee table with built in arcade controls and pc running it all. The coffee table will be roughly 48"x20"x20", completely enclosed. It will be made of MDF with a top layer of plexi (yes i am using plexi rather than lexan).

-2 8-way joysticks
-6 buttons per player, 1 One Payer, 1 Two player
-4 xbox ports, converted to usb

The top of the table will also feauture a 15" flat panel mounted below the plexi. ALso, the top will be on hinges to allow me to get inside the table easily

Under the hood:
-Pentium dual core 2.0 Ghz
-1 gig of ram
-250 gig harddrive
-wireless card
-windows xp media center edition
-modded xbox. I had to put it in there seeing as it got me started into this kind of thing. The controller ports will work for both the xbox and the pc using XBCD.
-audio/video wireless transimtter.

for the majority of the time i will be running a dual mointor setup, using the monitor under the plexi to control the music. i will then wirelessly send the video signal to a tv to display media center as well as maximus arcade.  the audio will also be sent to a reciever next to the tv.


to sum it up:
im a poor college student working on my engineering degree and need something to occupy my summer other than my internship. This table is supposed to allow me to kick it on my couch, pass around some glassware and brews, while having an arcade/media center all within my reach.

i would love to hear your comments and criticism. i have left many things out i am sure. it all makes sense in my head and i would like to hear from the people that have provided me with the knowledge to come up with this (i think unique) idea.

*pics soon to come

[javeryh]

Sounds cool - make sure it's comfortable though.  I'm not so sure about trying to pull off a dragon punch while hunched over a table...

[bvicarious]

Only thing I would suggest right now is to use greylite glass for the top, so when the arcade is off you won't see the screen underneath    But then there's also greylite plexi, not sure it compares to glass in light transmission though.

It would be awesome if you could hack a touch screen underneath the plexi, and be able to control the music  or start a game just by touching the table.

[bemerritt]

i love the idea of not being able to see the screen until its on. i thought about the touch screen, but thats where the poor college student comes into play...

[Franco B]

First of all welcome to the forum

bivicarious beat me too it but you definitely want to use glass for your table top, if you use plexi it will just scratch when you rest your first beer on it. Make sure you get it tempered too so it doesnt break if you rest a beer on it a little too hard.

As regards for your flatscreen LCD, make sure it has a decent viewing angle as alot of the cheaper/older ones have a narrow viewing angle and you will naturally be looking at the screen at a sharp angle.

Apart from that it all sounds good to me, keep us informed!! 

(btw bvicarious, ssssh on the touchscreen thing, at least give me chance to post mine  )

[bvicarious]

(btw bvicarious, ssssh on the touchscreen thing, at least give me chance to post mine  )

Not if I beat you to it 


*searches ebay for touchscreen*