Author Topic: I finally started - dedicated vertical cab (Read 4967 times)

Jbar1967 · « **on:** October 16, 2009, 10:24:44 pm »

About 6 years ago I found out about MAME, relived my childhood trips to the arcade, and quickly bought joysticks and buttons for a small control panel. That was cool for a few months, and then everything kind of got packed away. Fast forward to a month ago and I started playing some old games on my living room TV and my step kids LOVED them! I was thrilled that they weren't jaded by PS3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately they won't let me enjoy my big screen any more because they always want to play Ms. Pac-Man. This turned out to be just the excuse I needed to spend last week (had a week off from school) building my very first, from scratch, no plans machine to play vertical games. I've lurked here a while getting some good ideas, and I'm trying some of my own.

Cut the sides from 3/4" sand-ply with circular saw and jig saw.

I used 5/8" ply for the bottom, back, and top. No wheels, will used felt pads because we have hardwood floors.

Hinged control panel will have a 4/8way stick, spinner, and buttons.

I'm using some Klipsch coputer speakers.

This was the first week's work. Next post will be this week's progress.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2009, 10:35:12 pm »

First thing this week was to find a monitor. This is going to be on a low budget so I decided to go with a computer monitor for ease of hook up. I found a $25 21" Sony E540 on craigslist which was just the ticket.

When I got it uncased I found out it came with a whole lot of free dog hair.

I cut holes for the speakers...

...and painted and installed speaker grills.

Here is the marquee lit up. Just clear lexan for now. I will be painting it myself when we decide on a name.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 16, 2009, 10:44:56 pm »

Tonight I mounted the monitor. I cut the hole 1" too tall.

Nothing that couldn't be fixed with some 1" angle iron. It probably made for a more sturdy mount anyway, this monitor weighs 67 pounds!

Mounted the subwoofer and powerstrip.

This is the back of the control panel with latches to keep it closed when the games get hectic.

Monitor mounted with the angle iron for reinforcement.

And it works! Not a bad deal for $25.

Syd is already playing. Monitor looks good, very nice size. Now that the family has seen it this far they are pushing me to get it together this weekend

not sure that's possible though.

romshark · « **Reply #3 on:** October 16, 2009, 11:12:09 pm »

Looks great! Also glad to see you've gotten the new generation into classic gaming as well.

opt2not · « **Reply #4 on:** October 16, 2009, 11:18:02 pm »

Looking good so far! I like your cabinet shape, and that you used plywood instead of MDF, it'll make the overall weight a lot more manageable, but I HIGHLY recommend putting a couple wheels on the back of that thing. Especially if you have that heavy of a monitor inside, not to mention the computer, speakers, etc... it'll make your life a lot easier to move around. My cabinet has 2 wheels in the back and casters in the front, and I too have hardwood floors. You can get non-marking wheels without a problem, and still use your felt pads.

Also, are you going to prime your cabinet before painting? or are you going for that painted wood look?

Keep up the good work!

smalltownguy · « **Reply #5 on:** October 16, 2009, 11:31:09 pm »

Quote from: Jbar1967 link=topic=97283.msg1026000#msg1026000

Now that the family has seen it this far they are pushing me to get it together this weekend not sure that's possible though.

Not even with all the King's horses and all the king's men. Please, please, PLEASE finish the cabinet first before making it playable. You will never get it done otherwise

Franco B · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2009, 01:50:24 am »

Quote from: smalltownguy on October 16, 2009, 11:31:09 pm

Quote from: Jbar1967 link=topic=97283.msg1026000#msg1026000
Now that the family has seen it this far they are pushing me to get it together this weekend not sure that's possible though.

Not even with all the King's horses and all the king's men. Please, please, PLEASE finish the cabinet first before making it playable. You will never get it done otherwise

+1

It is looking nice though. Love the profile

emphatic · « **Reply #7 on:** October 17, 2009, 08:01:21 am »

Very nice work! You will paint the marquee yourself?

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #8 on:** October 17, 2009, 10:53:55 am »

Thanks for the kind words.

Quote from: smalltownguy on October 16, 2009, 11:31:09 pm

Not even with all the King's horses and all the king's men. Please, please, PLEASE finish the cabinet first before making it playable. You will never get it done otherwise

I think that's the best idea. The computer isn't installed yet, just used the laptop to check out how the monitor looked. They already asked this morning if I could hook it up again.

Quote from: opt2not on October 16, 2009, 11:18:02 pm

Looking good so far! I like your cabinet shape, and that you used plywood instead of MDF, it'll make the overall weight a lot more manageable, but I HIGHLY recommend putting a couple wheels on the back of that thing. Especially if you have that heavy of a monitor inside, not to mention the computer, speakers, etc... it'll make your life a lot easier to move around. My cabinet has 2 wheels in the back and casters in the front, and I too have hardwood floors. You can get non-marking wheels without a problem, and still use your felt pads.

Also, are you going to prime your cabinet before painting? or are you going for that painted wood look?

Keep up the good work!

I will consider wheels. I hadn't thought about moving it anywhere but into the house when I am done. When we leave this house moving it will be a chore if I don't have wheels. I am going to prime and paint black before handpainting side art.

Quote from: emphatic on October 17, 2009, 08:01:21 am

Very nice work! You will paint the marquee yourself?

Sure will. Painting lexan on the backside is something we do commonly in R/C car racing. The car bodies are lexan so I have a bunch of colors here already. It will just be a matter of masking off whichever design we decide to use and getting out the airbrush.

emphatic · « **Reply #9 on:** October 17, 2009, 12:14:57 pm »

Quote from: Jbar1967 on October 17, 2009, 10:53:55 am

Sure will. Painting lexan on the backside is something we do commonly in R/C car racing. The car bodies are lexan so I have a bunch of colors here already. It will just be a matter of masking off whichever design we decide to use and getting out the airbrush.

And those colors will let light through nicely as well? It would be cool for example if you had same shade colors, but with different transparency. This way, the marquee would be perhaps a solid color until you turn the cab on and then you'd see the name of the cabinet.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 17, 2009, 07:56:29 pm »

Quote from: emphatic on October 17, 2009, 12:14:57 pm

And those colors will let light through nicely as well? It would be cool for example if you had same shade colors, but with different transparency. This way, the marquee would be perhaps a solid color until you turn the cab on and then you'd see the name of the cabinet.

It's quite nice actually, all medium to light colors are almost translucent when sprayed and need to be backed with white paint. Less white paint equals more light. The dark colors still let some light through but not if you use enough coats. The effect you describe could easily be attained. I don't even have a name yet, so the design is still up in the air.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #11 on:** October 18, 2009, 08:10:56 am »

Saturday update, finished the back and spent most of the afternoon working on the control panel.

Cutting some slots in the back for ventilation.

What a mess! And this is a relatively simple control panel compared to some I've seen.

Much better.

CP mounted.

emphatic · « **Reply #12 on:** October 18, 2009, 11:43:15 am »

You went pretty far to the left side of that panel. Do you plan on implementing a second player control set later on? Looks very nice though. I'm not a fan of putting spinner, trackball etc on the panel besides the joystick and buttons.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #13 on:** October 18, 2009, 05:53:13 pm »

Quote from: emphatic on October 18, 2009, 11:43:15 am

You went pretty far to the left side of that panel. Do you plan on implementing a second player control set later on? Looks very nice though. I'm not a fan of putting spinner, trackball etc on the panel besides the joystick and buttons.

I'm planning on adding a spinner on the right side. I am a huge Tempest fan. Most of the vertical games that we play use only one stick for two player so I didn't see the need for a two stick setup.

drventure · « **Reply #14 on:** October 18, 2009, 08:09:16 pm »

I want to know what you're gonna do with that dog hair

Seriously though. Nice build. And yeah, don't hook it up till it's finished

I'm having a hard time taking mine back down long enough to do anything to it.

opt2not · « **Reply #15 on:** October 18, 2009, 10:25:14 pm »

It's refreshing to see a dedicated vertical-game cabinet for the classics. I too am a big tempest fan, and can't wait to get my cocktail cabinet finished w/ spinner games. Tempest is definitely going to be a favourite on there.

Great progress thus far, at this rate you could be finished in a week, week and a half!

G'luck!

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #16 on:** October 21, 2009, 10:12:47 am »

Ran into a little problem...My Ipac2 is ancient. I bought it around 2002-2003 or so and it is different than the latest model. I want to remap some of player 2's buttons to be used as MAME admin keys, ESC, TAB, ENTER, etc. Problem is I can't seem to get Winipac to recognize that my Ipac2 is connected. I am awaiting email from Ultimarc to remedy the situation.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #17 on:** October 25, 2009, 10:25:53 am »

Another weekend, another chance to work on the cab. Andy at Ultimarc helped me get my IPac problem squared away and I was able to get the electronics completed.

IPAC mounted and wired.

Motherboard installed. Yes its old, but it is plenty fast for the games I'll be running. Plus it was lying around collecting dust, one more free part!

I decided to keep the admin controls off the main CP and place them on an aluminum strip between the CP and the bezel. Along with ESC, TAB, and ENTER, it will have all of the audio controls, volume, and a headphone jack.

I didn't want to paint the aluminum, but I didn't like it plain so I brushed it.

Here is the Klipsch audio control panel removed from the housing and mounted in the cab. I had to remove some of the controls from the board and wire them in to reach the new admin panel.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #18 on:** October 25, 2009, 10:30:26 am »

All of the electronics mounted and working.

Mounted admin panel looks sweet. I have to get rid of the HUGE volume knob though, need something smaller and black.

Coming together nicely! Now to work on a bezel, sand and paint, think up a name and some side art...wishing my spinner would arrive.

IG-88 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 25, 2009, 04:14:22 pm »

That aluminum panel looks sweet. How did you do that?

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 25, 2009, 07:07:44 pm »

Quote from: IG-88 on October 25, 2009, 04:14:22 pm

That aluminum panel looks sweet. How did you do that?

Thanks. It's brushed aluminum. I used a round 1 1/2"wire brush mounted in a drill and just pushed straight down in one spot. It makes a nice round pattern. Then just repeat overlapping down the panel.

IG-88 · « **Reply #21 on:** October 25, 2009, 07:36:56 pm »

Very nice. Do you have to clear coat it or anything?

leapinlew · « **Reply #22 on:** October 26, 2009, 01:14:13 pm »

I skimmed through the post and I didn't see any mention about the amount of buttons. Is there a reason your using a Street Fighter layout on a vertical cabinet?

IG-88 · « **Reply #23 on:** October 26, 2009, 06:31:30 pm »

Doesn't 1942 use a 7 button layout?

romshark · « **Reply #24 on:** October 26, 2009, 06:40:18 pm »

1942 only has two action buttons. In the control panel pic I have, there's 4 (2 on each side of the joystick), but each side is a copy of the other.

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #25 on:** October 27, 2009, 04:26:46 pm »

Quote from: leapinlew on October 26, 2009, 01:14:13 pm

I skimmed through the post and I didn't see any mention about the amount of buttons. Is there a reason your using a Street Fighter layout on a vertical cabinet?

Valid question. Answer is that seems to be the preferred layout and I have no idea how many buttons all the vertical games use. I think when I sort by vertical I still have 1200 or so games listed. I have not even begun to go through them all and would hate to find out later that I need more buttons.

hayabusa_fmw · « **Reply #26 on:** October 29, 2009, 06:16:44 pm »

nice work there sir!
totally amazing skills!

can i see detailed picture of your monitor mounting brackets???
/how the chassis of the monitor is holding in place without the casing

thanks!

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #27 on:** December 29, 2009, 04:40:46 pm »

After a few months of working an hour and a half from home I finally have some spare time to work on this again. I spent some of that time trying out all of the vertical games I had and whittling the list from 1200+ to about 50 that I might actually play. Of these none uses more than 3 buttons so I will be making a new control panel this week. It will allow me to move the joystick more toward the center which is one of the things I didn't like about the current set up. I did get my spinner delivered and installed, it is sweet! Much time was wasted playing Tempest...err TESTING, yeah testing , that's what I meant. I also painted the cabinet black, routed for and installed the T-molding, and made a bezel. Here are a few pics...more soon.

I painted the back of the bezel black around the monitor.

Red molding looks good on the black cabinet.

saurian333 · « **Reply #28 on:** December 30, 2009, 06:43:15 am »

Coming along nicely; I like the shape of your side panels. I also like the idea of painting the marquee yourself. I hadn't thought of that, actually, not that I'd have the skills for it anyway. That should look sharp when done, though.

Also -- nice wiring job on the CP. Very clean.

Gamester · « **Reply #29 on:** December 30, 2009, 11:53:24 am »

Quote from: Jbar1967 on October 25, 2009, 10:30:26 am

Cabinet is coming together great. That thing is begging for an over/under coin door though. That's an awfully big black void you have down there...

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #30 on:** January 02, 2010, 12:45:14 pm »

Yes it does need a coin door, but that will have to wait a bit. I am a student so this is a low budget project until I graduate in April.

IG-88 · « **Reply #31 on:** January 02, 2010, 04:24:51 pm »

Where you at Jbar? If it's close I may have a coin door for you...

Jbar1967 · « **Reply #32 on:** January 04, 2010, 02:36:24 pm »

I'm in cental Florida near Orlando...

IG-88 · « **Reply #33 on:** January 04, 2010, 07:36:01 pm »

Hmmm... Going to Disney around the fourth of March but I really don't want to drag a coin door along with me. Wonder what one would cost to ship too you?? From 68510 that is.


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