Blatant Q*bert rip-off cabinet

[Qesmann]

Recently I’ve been taking up some minor woodworking projects. This makes a person more aware of how things are made, so when playing a Ms. Pac-Man cocktail at a bar, I realized that I could have my own arcade cabinet with just some wood and some working. This started my obsession with getting my own cabinet built. When I saw a Q*bert cabinet at work, I knew that I found the perfect model. I liked it because it’s small and it has funny pictures. I had an extra computer sitting around that I was thinking about selling, but now I found a good use for it.

I measured the Q*bert cabinet and modeled my own version of it in AutoCAD. Then I ordered everything I needed and spent about four or five weekends making it.



Besides wood, some of the parts are:

• UltraStik 360s
• Acer 19” LCD monitor
• Control panel overlay from Mamemarquees.com (from a custom image)
• Other artwork from eBay
• Happ coin door

There is a secret keyboard drawer:



The admin buttons were hidden in the previous pictures, but the next one shows the “quit” and “pause” buttons on the left side of the bezel.



Here it is in the middle of being assembled:



Next is the underside of the control panel. The playing buttons are connected to the U360s. But I needed more buttons to accommodate the two admin buttons and two coin slots. So I rescued an old keyboard from the trash and ripped out its key encoder. After a lot of messing around I figured out where to solder wires to support the keys I wanted.



Here’s the naked plywood:



Here’s the AutoCAD model during the design stage:



I tested out a bunch of frontends, but they didn’t really do everything I wanted, so I wrote my own. And since I wrote it, it does everything I want, and it’s way more customizable than anything else I’ve seen (in case I get bored of this design).



Like many others, I’m using a smart power strip and a single on/off button connected to the computer’s motherboard. I immediately reaped the benefits of using a real arcade cabinet by destroying my old Robotron high score from the Xbox 360.

[javeryh]

Wow - nice job.  I could never build one of these things without asking a ton of questions here and you post a completed cab with your third post.   

[Singapura]

Any chance of releasing the front end? It looks very nice, elegant and clean. 

[Qesmann]

Any chance of releasing the front end? It looks very nice, elegant and clean. 

Thanks!

I'm not sure that others would be willing to jump the hurdles necessary to get this working. Since I was making it for myself, I didn't write any tools for easy setup or control configuration (although the arrow key and joystick support should work most of the time). The list of emulators and games must be manually entered into XML files. The commands to start the emulators must be manually entered too (but my files would be a good starting point).

The game selection screen is an HTML file being controlled by Javascript. Customizing the look and behavior is done exactly the same way as designing a web page. If somebody was desperate for a solution that used an HTML page and Javascript, then I'd be willing to work with them.

[BUCKETHEAD]

That is a great looking machine my friend!

You did a excellent job!

Very, Very, Very, Nice !

 

[DaOld Man]

Great job, man!!!!
 

[Portnoy]

Wow! Well done! Q-Bert is one of my all time favorite games.  I plan on making a dedicated vertical eventually and it will either be a Q-Bert or Pac-Man replica.  5 weekends? I must be doing something wrong considering I started mine in March  Your cab came out great!  Just curious, first game played when it was done? ( Q-bert would be the obvious answer but you never know )

P

[Qesmann]

Wow! Well done! Q-Bert is one of my all time favorite games.  I plan on making a dedicated vertical eventually and it will either be a Q-Bert or Pac-Man replica.

Nice! That'll be cool to see.

5 weekends? I must be doing something wrong considering I started mine in March

Let's just say that I was a little obsessed with getting this done.

Just curious, first game played when it was done? (Q-bert would be the obvious answer but you never know)

Well... heh... while Q*bert is my favorite cabinet, there is one game that I hold above all others: Robotron. I had to play that first (what a perfect game). Q*bert was second.

[ratzz]

Nice cab. I love the Q-Bert artwork as well.

Congratulations on great (and quick, mine is nearly up to a year!!!) work, hope you'll stick around and help out with mine when I get stuck!