Noob - with completed first cabinet project

[marzman]

Hey all...

I wish i'd found this site a few months ago... OMG!!!

I built my first ever arcade machine from scratch this summer.  I've never had any experience with arcade's before, or DIY on this scale.  I've always been a gamer, primarily a snes and n64 fanboy.

For this machine... i had no plans, or any designs to copy - i just made it completely from scratch in my head.  My original planned budget was supposed to be under £100, but it ended up costing me £300.  I had planned to build my own custom sticks, which i did build but they were terrible... so i ended up buying a used x-arcade stick and re-designing the front of the cab.

Lastly, i had real trouble getting a good paint finish, so i decided not to go for a plexi bezel and mounted the monitor direct to the wood, and covered in black felt.  It looks good, but i think eventually i will revisit and cover with plexi.

Its running a PC with maximus arcade and just nes, snes, n46, master system, and mega drive... and i've got an actual dreamcast in there too, with the x-arcade hooked up to it too, although i have to manually plug the cable into it.  I have a vga switch box between the PC and the DC.

Labour time was around 7 or 8 full days... but i could do it in 3 next time...

Anyway, here's the pics...































And the finished article... for now

[severdhed]

cool...congrats on your first cabinet, looks like you did a good job, especially for having no plans.

i like the chrome tmolding, it really looks nice.   you will probably catch some flak for using an x-arcade, but thats ok, you can always change that later. i used an xarcade on my cabinet for a long time, then i made my own panel and transplanted the components from the x-arcade into it.  that made it blend in with my cabinet alot better and allowed me to move some of the buttons around, all without spending much money at all.   i ran a dreamcast in my cabinet for a while also, i used a 9pin serial port switch box so i could leave it connected to the PC and dreamcast both at the same time, i just had to turn a knob to switch between the two.

http://www.pchcables.com/db9ab2wayswb.html

i got that and two 9pin serial cables and that worked really well for the dreamcast.

good job, congratulations.

[Funnel]

That looks awesome congratulations! I'm a newbie too and I haven't finished my cab...But I'll get to that later congrats dude!

[marzman]

Thanks for the comments guys.

severdhed - i spent ages on eBay looking for a serial switch but couldnt find one, and came to the conclusion they didnt exist - so thanks for that 

Funnel - get it finished mate, its so satisfying when its done...  and i've been playing Bust-a-move, bomberman and micro machines with my girlfriend every night this week.

[diazsinger]

Looks great man! Love the Guile marquee.