My first project! A bartop.

[JazBrown]

Hello everybody,

 I've been lurking here for about 2 weeks and quickly became enamored with the whole idea of building my own arcade cabinet. So I decided to jump right in and build one. So far this has been the most fun I have had in ages! One of the few occasions where snags are actually kind of fun to problem solve (I used Ikea shelf brackets to mount the monitor).

I chose to build a bartop. I took some of my design cues from the WeeCade. Thanks to Lokesen for that and thanks numerous other builders on this forum for giving me tips (even if they didn't know they were doing it).  The cab stands at 24 inches tall and 20.5 inches wide. I have a 17 inch flat panel as the monitor. I'm using my old laptop to run everything (with the lid/monitor removed) with the GP-Wiz40 (which I am totally happy with). For now it's set up as a one player because I wanted to start simple but I plan on expanding to a two player set up soon.

Anyway, this is where I am after two days of work and I am totally stoked! About the only thing that's left is cosmetic. Stuff like patching holes and finishing and applying my artwork.

Sorry for the parenthetic heavy post (I love those lil curvy guys)

So I'll keep you posted as I wrap this guy up and move onto my next!

[Kronos]

nice.. I started building one awhile back... I just don't have the woodworking skills.. (measure twice , cut, recut, recut, recut). Cant wait to see more of yours.

[IG-88]

Very nice clean looking cab.  I really like color choice too. What are the specs of your laptop and what games are you planning on running in it?

[JazBrown]

Yes, I was lucky enough to have a father who put power tools in my hands at a young age... Ya know... probably too young come to think of it.

You play to your strengths. I for instance am far to ashamed to post a pic of my wiring and it took me longer to figure out how to install mame and maximus and get them running than it did to make most of my cuts.

My own experience building this and from lurking around here gave me an idea for the forums. Perhaps some sort of "hook up" thread or page where people can utilize each others strengths. Where someone who is good with tools can help build a cab for someone who's good at electronics. Or someone who handles the art side well could do a side panel for someone who can build a cab in a day but cant figure out how to wrestle photoshop into submission. The distances between people may to large to make it feasible... Just an idea though.

Thanks, I like to colors as well. They are going to fit with the theme and name of the cab witch is: The Undead Arcade.... Yes, there will be zombies and you can be sure that there will be blood spatter on the cp.

The laptop is a
Lenovo 3000 n100
intel core 2
1.99GB of ram
120 GB of storage
Honestly, Im not totally sure what the graphics card is. I do know that its integrated though.

It's going to be running mame and maximus. Mostly classic arcade with a few more recent titles. Nothing newer than say 95 though.

I'm considering a Commodore 64 emmulator as 64 WAS my gaming system as a child... Hell, I didn't even get a nes until I was about 18! Anyone have experience with C64 emulators that they can pass on?

Thanks for the kind words!

[gonzo90017]

Looks great for 2 days work. How do you plan on expanding it to 2 players?

[DaOld Man]

I agree with Gonzo..
This project is looking very good.
And I think you can get plenty of advice and how-to's about wiring and software on this board.
If we could pour all the knowledge on this board into one barrel.. well it would be a very big barrel.

[JazBrown]

Thanks so much. Granted that two days was almost two days straight with minimum sleep and maximum redbull.

I plan to recut my cp anyway as I am not totally happy with it. The holes for the buttons are a bit too large and I would like them to fit a bit more snug. So when I do that I just kick over the player one and add a second control set. It will be a tight fit but I believe do able...

Yes, these boards are chock full of useful info. I would not have been able to pull of some of this with out these resources... I would have had a nice looking empty cab. Fortunately I was able to find the search button 

Here is some loose ideas for art I did today.

Tell me what you think

[Kronos]

I like it.. to bad you are not in Texas... I like doing the pc setups just cant do the woodworking.

[JazBrown]

well, next time I'm in Texas I'll be sure to look you up!

[Epyx]

I'm considering a Commodore 64 emmulator as 64 WAS my gaming system as a child... Hell, I didn't even get a nes until I was about 18! Anyone have experience with C64 emulators that they can pass on?

As with you the C64 WAS my gaming machine as well as a teen

The best C64 emulator bar none would be Winvice. It is also the emulator you will find that Maximus Arcade supports. Winvice is about as close to a real C64 as you can get..CCS64 was a good emulator but Winvice has surpassed it as of late.

Good luck!

[JazBrown]

If I had all the hours back I put into Maniac Mansion and Zak Mckraken I could build a whole damn arcade.

Thanks for the tip about C64 emulators.

I do have a question about them though...

If I were to run a C64 emulator would I have to have to have a keyboard... I mean how close is the emulation?

Do I have to do the whole "load"*",8,1" bit?

Or whatever it was 

[tevans333]

Nice looking cab. I have a spare laptop that I was thinking about making a bartop for. Only thing I am unsure of is how to make the laptop display on an external monitor without hitting the function and crt buttons. How did you get around that?

[JazBrown]

I don't know exactly how it would work on your laptop.

However, in the settings for my video card on mine there was an option to make the (external) monitor the main and shut off the built in laptop monitor.

I would just get into the video settings for your laptop and poke around a little bit and see what you can make happen.

[bishmasterb]

These are looking great. Can't wait to see them all lined up side by side.

[Epyx]

If I were to run a C64 emulator would I have to have to have a keyboard... I mean how close is the emulation?

Do I have to do the whole "load"*",8,1" bit?

Or whatever it was 

Sorry about the late response...the answer...No.  The emulation is damn near perfect and if you are using VICE (DOS or Windows) you can control all loading and disk swapping via the menus. The only exception would be games that actually require keyboard input like a lot of the early RPG games (Ultima, Bards Tale etc).

However, for most games and some RPGs (Phantasie etc) a 1 button joystick will serve you just fine!