Introducing the TV-Cade!

[menace]

I wanted a small project in between projects and I wanted something small enough to fit upstairs but could be tucked away when not in use.  I had some parts laying around that were otherwise going to waste and decided that a console type mame box was the way to go.  My only cost was 14.00$ for the wood to make the control boxes.  the Pc is a P3-550 AT with 224MB ram.  The case and CPU were kindly donated (i.e. stolen)  from civic83  .  Players 1 and 2 are interchangeable and will also accomodate an atari style stick plugged in through a dongle (picture later) The case is an ATX case cut in half lengthwise cause who needs all that space anyways.  Anyways, here it is:

[menace]

And the left side:

(the power button is pacman's power pellet, in case you are wondering)

[menace]

And the screen that arcade games were meant to be played on  

[menace]

And if you are in the mood to just play some bubble bobble (the true motivator behind building this) you can simply plug in any atari 1 or 2 button joystick.  The remote admin board handles the necessary functions.

[mozzer]

Very Nice!

Arcade style play from the comfort of your Lazy Boy!

[Floyd10]

hot shi'ite. I would have never thought of that. cool beanies

[Ed ONeill]

Menace,

I thought about doing an all in one. Basically a 2 player  contol panel with the computer inside .

I know your only cost was the $14  for the wood ,this makes it a great cheap project.

Therefore this makes you a cheap guy ...I mean really couldn't you have at least spent some money on a decent sized tv/monitor.... ....... just busting your chops

Nice Job ! Very COOL   !

Signed
Ed

[menace]

I thought about doing that as well but space upstairs (outside my domain) is not taken lightly and if I thought i could leave it upstairs I may have gone that route--this way--everyone's happy.  It's really awesome playing all the old favs on the widescreen--adds a new dimension toit I think  

[RetroJames]

I thought about doing that as well but space upstairs (outside my domain) is not taken lightly and if I thought i could leave it upstairs I may have gone that route--this way--everyone's happy.  It's really awesome playing all the old favs on the widescreen--adds a new dimension toit I think  

mmmm....Defender.....guuuuuurgle

[Floyd10]

only 14 bucks, eh?

sell it for 2,000!

[Matt, GoC]

And the screen that arcade games were meant to be played on  

HDTV?  can that take (S/X)VGA signals or is it converted to some stupid lesser quality crap?  I REALLY wanna know.  There's CRT HDTV's now and they're not too expensive an option for a cab .

[jcoleman]

Is that a 57H81?  It looks very similar to my set...

[walls83]

You know about a year ago or so I so someone with a set up like this but they had the control panel come out of the coffee table.   So when you lift the lid on the Coffee Table the Controls came up.  It was really sweet how they did it.  I know someone on these board has the website or was the one who did it.  Maybe you can ask around.  The Lid would lift forward and the controls would rise out of the coffee table.  I think it just looks cleaner instead of having to go get the controllers and Pc you could just open a lid and be ready to rock and roll.

[AlanS17]

Oooohhhh.... maybe my next project should be a flip-top coffee table with built-in arcade control panel and PC hardware...

[walls83]

Heres the link to the coffee table mame



http://www.eamontales.com/coffeetable/

[menace]

That is VERY cool--and if I was living aone (or wanted to shortly ) I would build that.  The Tv is a toshiba 57" widescreen (it might be a 57H81--not sure right off hand) thats HDTV ready but not currently set up for HDTV--why anyone would want to play 8-bit games in HDTV is beyond me, so the S-video out looks just fine.

I bookmarked that coffee table project (had never seen that before) so after i finish my 50 other projects I can work on having that included in the house--thanks!

[menace]

sunday necro-thread revival continues....I'm sure I could improve on this--funny enough I actually DID go on to build a rotating coffee table machine which sits in my basement to this day--