Fighter Barcade [Updated 11/17/04 Almost Done!]

[Iori]

Well I was going to call this project the Barcade originally, but did a search for the word and saw that there is already at least one project using this name.    So... I have decided to go with the offical name of the "Fatty Barcade".  This project is inspired by the Happy Hour project and originally was going to keep the cp simple like the Happy Hour, but I just kept adding things that I wanted on the cp till my plan included a full 2 player cp.   This is why I am calling it the Fatty Barcade now, it is going to be sort of a Barcade, but much bigger than other bar style cabs.  

I just cut the cp for this project this weekend so I am just getting started on it and this is my first project so please make suggestions if you have any, I am sure that you will as I am a bit green.  Attached are some pics are some pics of my cp as of now.  With just buttons in it.  I have blue ones now, but will have green buttons and joys with the exception of a few white and red buttons in the final product.  Should be getting those this week in the mail.  From the top down pic of my cp you can see that I have drawn out a space for a third joystick.  This would be for a 4 way joy that would be wired up to the player 1 controls for 4 way games.  I set it to the left of the center of the cp to try and keep player 2 from "accidentally" hitting it in the middle of play, but am not sure if that is where I want it or if I want it or not.  Would love to hear opinions on this.

The rest of the bartop cab will be similar to that of the Happy Hour I think, I haven't decided for sure yet, but will of course be wider and will also be a bit taller too.  make some room for a mini marquee.

Probably won't get any work on this done during the week, but plan on doing some more cutting next weekend.  Can't wait.

[Iori]

Here is another pic of the CP so far.  I really don't like the way the 4-joy will look, but I really want a 4-way joy on there.  Could use a switchable, but I also want to use the competition 8-way for fighting games... Guess I am going to have to decide to add it or not and where if I do...

[snowdogg187]

Very nice man, makes me want to build a new panel.

[Iori]

Thanks Snowdog, might as well go for it and do that cp then!    Got a bit more work done on this tonight, well sort of that is.  I went ahead and wired up player 1 to give the Happ Competition joy a try for Pacman and it wasn't too bad, I would call it acceptable and I really didn't want to add the 3rd joystick because it just seems that it is too much for this cp to me.  So instead I am going to mount a single button front and center for an easily accessible pause key.  I was originally going to use the front button on the player one side as my pause key, but that will now be the "shazam" key and the back key on the side will be the Esc key.  Did up a custom controller set of files for mame that will automatically get the buttons correct for NeoGeo (wasn't half as hard as I thought it would be) and made a design for a  cp overlay that I hope to have printed soon.  Need to figure out the whole t-molding and painting thing now.

Anyhow here is a pic of the CP with player one installed.

[Iori]

And here is a pic of the wiring, I would hate to think what this wiring would look like if I hadn't seen so many great looking wiring jobs on this site to guide me.    Still need to figure out where to mount my KeyWiz in there.  Had some fun playing some games for the first time with the cp too...

[Iori]

Decided to change the name of the project to the Fighter Barcade...  due to the fact that it is so much bigger than most barcades and  that it has a 2 player, 7 buttons per player setup.  

Got a good bit of work on it done this weekend!  Hope to have some pictures that actually show the cab in the next week or so!  Boo-ya-sha-ka!

[Iori]

Alright!  I feel like am really getting somewhere now!    My next step is to get my hands on a router and a  bit that can cut for t-molding.  Then get to painting, getting some plexi for the front and putting down a custom laminate on the cp...  Damn this is fun!    Anyhow here are a few pics hat will really show you where this is all going.  For perspective the cab is 24" wide.  Check it.  Any suggestions, ideas or input gladly accepted...  

[Iori]

Notice in the pic above that I have replaced the housing for the cp that I was using before.  It is now integrated into the cab...  Maybe I'll use the box and buttons I was using before for a ps2 controller, that would be sweet for capcom vs. snk 2 and FOF 2000/2001.  Also notice that I have replaced the blue buttons and joys with the Green that were originally intended for this machine.  Here is a front view pic.

[dmsuchy]

Looks cool, now just put a stool swivel underneath it and mount it to your bar. No marque?

[hulkster]

just looking at your joystick placement.  i made a cp with the joysticks too close to the edge, so when i placed everything on top of the cp box underneath, the wires on the left side of the joystick hit the inside.  know what im saying?  im just wondering if you had any problem with the clearance issue?

[Iori]

Hadn't thought of mounting a stool swivel... might do that, could be very cool!  Would want it to be very slow to move though.  Yup no marquee, though now that I have gotten this far I sort of wish I had made room for one...  That can be for the next project.  

Hulkster, yea the quick disconnect for the player one joy is butted right up against the side pretty much.  Just barely enough room for it to fit in there, but it fits  (got lucky there).  I think what I am going to do to make it harder to hit is glue in some pieces of wood so that the panel will slide exactly into its holder and then maybe bend he quick disconnect slightly to aim it away from the side of the cab.  Just to be careful...

Did you have to redo our cp when you did this or did you find another workaround?  could always rout out a bit of the side of the cp box to make a little room too, but I would rather not do that...

[AlanS17]

I'm not to sure a swivel would be a great idea... With 2 people playing a furious fighting game, that thing is gonna be swinging all over the place.

On another note, do you have plans for that control panel? it seems to be about the proper dimensions for one i need to build for my brother...

[hulkster]

Hadn't thought of mounting a stool swivel... might do that, could be very cool!  Would want it to be very slow to move though.  Yup no marquee, though now that I have gotten this far I sort of wish I had made room for one...  That can be for the next project.  

Hulkster, yea the quick disconnect for the player one joy is butted right up against the side pretty much.  Just barely enough room for it to fit in there, but it fits  (got lucky there).  I think what I am going to do to make it harder to hit is glue in some pieces of wood so that the panel will slide exactly into its holder and then maybe bend he quick disconnect slightly to aim it away from the side of the cab.  Just to be careful...

Did you have to redo our cp when you did this or did you find another workaround?  could always rout out a bit of the side of the cp box to make a little room too, but I would rather not do that...

well it is messing up the control a little.  like, sometime the "right" direction doesnt respond.  but anyway, when i first made my cp and wired it all up, i started to put it down on my box and found that it was indeed not going to fit.  and i dont have a router, so what i did was i took my power drill and just kinda whittled away at the side and made a little shot for it to fit in.  yeah its ghetto, but it worked.  however, im kinda paying for it now.  oh well, thats why im building another one!

[Iori]

I'm not to sure a swivel would be a great idea... With 2 people playing a furious fighting game, that thing is gonna be swinging all over the place.

On another note, do you have plans for that control panel? it seems to be about the proper dimensions for one i need to build for my brother...

Good point!    It would be nice to have, but would really suck, especially when playing against someone that likes to throw tons of fireballs repeatedly!  Hehehe...

Sorry, I stupidly didn't make plans for the cp, I just measured and penciled in the places that I wanted them and drilled them...    I will want to use a very similar layout when I get around to doing a standup though.  Where you looking more for the button layout I used or the box?  (or both)  I might be able to whip some measurements for you if that will suffice for you.

[Iori]

well it is messing up the control a little.  like, sometime the "right" direction doesnt respond.  but anyway, when i first made my cp and wired it all up, i started to put it down on my box and found that it was indeed not going to fit.  and i dont have a router, so what i did was i took my power drill and just kinda whittled away at the side and made a little shot for it to fit in.  yeah its ghetto, but it worked.  however, im kinda paying for it now.  oh well, thats why im building another one!

Damn that stinks.  Nothing ghetto about cutting out the side, shouldn't be a big deal since it isn't visible and not carrying much weight I wouldn't think.  Did the right direction give you trouble from the beginning?  Or did it take a while to start crapping out?  You might be able to get away with just rewiring that control...  and maybe bending the quick disconnect a bit to point it away from the side.

[hulkster]

no it just starting messing up eventually.  didnt give me trouble at the beginning.  what really sucks is that i have a guy thats interested in buying my cab, but hes my friend and im an honest guy anyway, so the messed up cp takes away from some of the value of my cab.  so im thinking about just not selling it and taking the parts from this cab and putting them in my new one.  i can use the ipac and joysticks and stuff...as well as the computer!  probably the most expensive part.

[Iori]

Checked out your site... Looks like your joys are a bit closer to the edge than mine...  but yea mine are really close.  I imagine at some point in time mine will have some sort of problem, should be an easy fix if they do.  Just have to keep from opening and closing the cp too much!   Nice looking machine of yours there.

[hulkster]

thanks dude.  yeah my joysticks are way too close to the edge. im making sure that its taken care of on my new cab.

[Iori]

Quick update... I FINALLY got some more work done this weekend!  Cut the slots for the T-molding, and screwed a few more pieces down I was waiting on.  Nothing big, but next step is going to the hardware store tomorrow after work and picking up some paint.  Got my CP overlay in the mail this weekend too.  Here comes the Fighters Barcade!  Will hopefully be posting some pics of a painted, t-molded, cp overlay version in the next week or so...

[Stingray]

Can't wait to see how it looks painted. It will seem like a different cab once it's got some color on it.

-S

[Iori]

Can't wait to see how it looks painted. It will seem like a different cab once it's got some color on it.

-S

It is coming along...  I primed it up today!  Will probably get the first 1-2 coats done tomorrow if all goes as planned.

[Stingray]

Have you got any artwork planned for it? Just wondering what you've got going to go along with the green themed CP.

-S

[Iori]

Yea, I have the cp overlay already printed.  It is a little different in that it is mostly white!    (I know it will get dirty)  It has a green strip below the start, coin and pause buttons that label the buttons and Atari logos in each of the two upper corners.  In the middle between the joysticks it has a "MAME Barcade" logo I did...  all done in light to dark greens.  The t-molding is black and I plan to paint the sides of the cab white and the rest of it black.  For side art I was going to just do the MAME Barcade logo I did for the cp, but I am leaning away from that now.  A Centipede logo would be cool or I might come up with some sort of custom job too.  I will more than likely come up with some sort of custom bezel to print out with some basic instructions and a design that fits in with whatever I do for the side art and have already done for the cp...  suggestions on the side art and bezel are welcome.  I want do something that fits in with the cp and is fairly simple.  

[Iori]

Woo Hoo!  Did alot of work on this puppy this weekend.  The painting is done, The cp is done, the t-molding is done and I installed some cabinet latches to hold down the cp.  All went pretty sell with the exception of a small notch I took out of my right index finger (no big deal) and the huge mess in my basement that is a result of using my laminate router to trim away laminate for my cp.  Damn is that a mess!  

Things to do now: get plexi for the cab, design bezel for the cab, decide on a piece of side art for the cab (would love some feedback or ideas on this part).  Once I get these done I will then start thinking about  replacing my computer and mounting on inside of the cab without a traditional case.  For now I will just be putting my computer and monitor in there, but not attached...  Might end up with another monitor or tv in there eventually too.  

So anyhow, I don't have very good pics yet, my basement is a bit dark, but here are the three I just shot for an update on the project, first off is a 3/4 shot of the cab, this is the best shot:

[Iori]

Here is a head on shot...  I now these are dark, will post better when I have them.  

[Iori]

And finally a close up of the cp, the joysticks are coming soon:

[PedroSilva]

Very nice CP ...

Congrats ...

[Witchboard]

I like it.  Good color scheme on that one.  Looks very crisp and clean.  Are you going to put down some plexi over the CP?  Is there a particular reason why you went with Atari vs. Capcom or Neo-Geo on your fighter barcade?  It doesn't matter since it looks good, I was just curious.  Maybe you should put your favorite fighter attacking a lime for the side art.   Maybe not.

[Iori]

Thanks for the feed back...  

I don't plan on putting down a plexi cover over the cp, I really like the feel of the bare textured cp overlay.  The Atari logos are used well... just because they look good.    I had a similar design that had Capcom on one side and SNK on the other but it just didn't look quite right.  I wanted something that was a logo and not a word I guess for the cp.

Having fighters on the sides in green scale would be cool.  Maybe do something like Iori on Player 1 side and Ryu on Player 2 side...  Not sure though, it doesn't really fit with the Atari logos on the cp.  That is a bit of a problem...  but I could maybe deal with it.    Another thing that I have thought of would be if I could figure out  a way to do the effect that SNK uses for the green stuff in the KOF 2004, I could probably think of something nice with that.    Any other ideas welcome.  

[hulkster]

looks really nice.....kinda...um....tropical looking.

[mozzer]

Love the colors!! So different but so easy.

[Iori]

Thanks...  I wanted to keep it really simple, when it comes to colors my favorite designs usually stick with a few colors rather than many.  As for tropical, I hadn't though of that!  After I finished working on it and was looking at it I thought that it sort of looked like an "Xbox Arcade" because of the colors though.  Not a big fan of the Xbox, but I do like the black white and green color scheme...  My next project is going to focus on blues and black... but first I have to finish this one.  

[Iori]

Here are some better pics.  Only difference in the cab is that I mounted the keywiz in the cp, re-wired it up and put rubber feet on the bottom of it.    Nothing that you can see, but the pics aren't all dark like the others so you can see the thing alot better...

[Iori]

The red key is the Shazam key... I think I am going to order a black button.  That will go better with the design of my cab...

[Iori]

Fire up MAMEWAH and test this puppy...

[paigeoliver]

Looking nice, I should build a couple of these puppies, but I would need to come up with a stackable design so I could store them easily when not in use. Would love to make a vertical spinner one, a vertical trackball one, an Asteroids one, and perhaps an analog stick one. I imagine these (single player ones at least) could be done mega cheap, since there is very little wood cost, and you can use $10 used 14" PC monitors, and do cheap hacks to interface the controls (which are fine for single player machines).

[menace]

Looks great!  You should send a note to oscar to showing him (in case he hasn't already seen it) I think he likes to see the variations on his design.  My next mini-cade will be a two player as well--I was curious how yours was going to turn out before i started

[Stingray]

I think the white and green looks really nice! Good work.

With all of that green and white it's just begging for some kind of Centepede side art!

-S

[flampoo]

That's dope as hell!

[Iori]

Thanks for the comments...    Yea, it was pretty cheap on wood...  Just one piece of 3/4" MDF so about $20 as far as that goes.  I have spent plenty on other things for the project though...

Centipede side art would work well... It would match the green and the atari theme.  I wonder if I could get ahold of the hi res image used to print it out and modify it...  would love to edit it to be all greens!  

I'll have to drop oscar a pm...