pacman cocktail ..nearly finished !!

[richyrich888]

Here are some pics of something i've been working on for .. a little while !!


18mm mdf with oak venear doweled, glued and clamped


one of the joints before glueing.


after a bit more measuring and cutting ..



Trying the glass for size..  I had the glass cut to my spec and toughened. the glass is 6mm grey tint with polished edges.  Thought i'd go with the tint as it gives a more "classy look "  least it should when all is finished !



Now for the control panel surround..



and what it will look like after a bit more doweling,glueing and screwing !








I'm starting to think i may be on my way to a game or two of pacman at this point ! (notice the edges on the top are not very smothly rounded ..this was a piece of plywood that i had cut as the top, later replaced with mdf as this is much easyer to shape with a jigsaw. )

add some spaghetti...




a coin door, for effect ..



and now for that game of pacman !



..after some, ahem..  "testing"  (notice the control panel is ever so slightly worn now !)




also showing the pacman artwork  print i had done on some "plastic" like paper for the underlay

about time for an upgrade for the control panel..  powdercoated black (and have moved that hole along on the front ..this was an oversight on the first panel i had made as the one button on the front conflicted with th first button on the top of the panel ...



..had some glas clips made and put in the powder coating machine at the same time ! ..did try to buy some but  they were all made for thicker table tops.



Table with printed glass top and powder coated control panel...



The table runs Gameex frontend and has mame32, zinc, daphnee, Model2, mess AAE  project64 and o2em ! (love AAE cant wait for next update with anolog joystick input for playing starwars ! )

 oh  ..and DWjukebox is on there as well . ..going to have to get another/bigger hard drive for all the music that will go on it !

Here is a pic of a friend of mine trying to beat my high score on space invaders ...and failing misserably  notice the look of determination, lol !



once i have fitted the speakers just below the control panel -to the left and right , they will be covered by a pair of metal midway covers . have set them there so that when you play games like outrun , you get the stereo effect -

you Hear the cars where they should be.    ...to your left and right , as they are on the screen !



Best speakers i have ever heard, for that price ..and better than some way more expensive ones as well. ..i did think about using seperate amp, car speakers ,seperate power supply etc.. but am glad i stuck with these. absolutly astounding sound especially with the Creative Sound Blaster X Fi Xtreme card i added ..well worth the purchase !



The side opposite the coin door will have an extraction fan about 7 inches down from the top. i brought a fan and then realised that the "ugly side " will have to face out if it is to extract air insted of sucking it in !

tryed taking it apart to change things round ...BAD IDEA

designed a cover for the fan and had it laser cut from 3mm stainless steel



heres what it looks like mounted on a test off cut of wood with a mesh behind it



..with out mesh...



let there be light !!



So there it is , my project so far.  Work is on hold for a while as i have just moved house, so i thought i may as well put it up here for you guys to see, since i have gained so much in the way of knowledge , tips and tricks from this forum. many thanks to you all.  perhaps it will inspire those newbies and to get started ! ,,,and me to finally finish this project ! ...sometime soon !!!

specs:

3ghz ibm thinkcentre
2g ram
ati radeon x700 agp
Sound Blaster X Fi Xtreme
19" dell/sony trinitron
ultrastick 360
Happ buttons
cherry micro switches
windows xp sp3
Gameex
Mame32 (recompiled ..no loading screens etc)  thanks to headcaze's app
Zinc Model2 Daphnee AAE project64 mess o2em DWjukebox

and lots of batch files to help everything run "Just so "  !

[javeryh]

Real nice.  What kind of monitor are you running in there?  Do you plan on staining it or adding any art to the top?

[richyrich888]

Hi, and Thanks,  i'm  am planning on a clear satin varnish for the finish have thought about a light stain but will have to try a few test samples first.. am uploading some more pics right now ..you will see i tried a under lay for the top but wasn't satisfied with it so i had a specialist printers print the artwork directly to the underside of the glass ...expensive but totaly worth it. ..see pics  in a mo.

[richyrich888]

ps the monitor is a 19" dell/sony  trinitron "flat" crt  it sits on a shelf under which will live the pc and sub.

[retrofuture]

Looks great!

Where did you get the laser cutting done?

[Ond]

I love the use of the veneered timber in this project and dowel joints too!  All up a great finish.

[pinballwizard79]

flippin sweet

[richyrich888]

Hi all, thanks for your positive comments,
..lots of work has gone into this and its nice to get some feed back.

to retrofuture
 - the laser cutting was done at a sheet metal works near where i lived in leyland, lancashire (England) . it was expensive to get  done as you have to pay for guy to set up the design, but what the hell, i think its finishing touches like this that make all the difference. ..after all the effort i put in,  setting up the emulators and frontend , it deserves a nice box !

pinballwizard79  - thanks, you have just reminded me, the table  has visual pinball and pinmame aswell ..only got the one table on there at the mo - attack from mars, ..i  had lots of trouble trying to get the table to fit the screen as they do in ultrapin . version 6.2 allows you to do it but its not easy!
i have tryed to do the same with later versions  , but not cracked it yet ...where theres a will there's a way !

[richyrich888]

a quick vid of project64 on the cab playing ridge racer ..rotated through 90 Degrees

...achieved using irotate and powerstrip 3.8 - to create the custom resolution.

"http://www.youtube.com/v/p768TJ1ZCZ8&hl=en&fs=1&"

[Spyridon]

Very nice build. 

The button layout looks a bit awkward.  Is it comfortable at that angle?

[richyrich888]

Very nice build. 

The button layout looks a bit awkward.  Is it comfortable at that angle?

Thanks, found this layout allowing for 4 main play buttons + room on the panel to rest the base of your hand, to be the most effective and comfortable ..neogeo style .
Had considered a 6 button layout - the panel does allow room for this, but then you would have no where to rest your palm and given the number of games using 6 buttons this seemed to be a better option.
As for the slope , perfect ! ..but these things are 100 % personal preferance.