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Project: Slim Arcade machine

N

nintari

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2001
Messages
1,792
I have started the log for this project wanted to pass this along to any who were interested. I have always wanted my own arcade machine and finally began construction on one. The only thing though is that my arcade machine is a slim one using a 17" flat panel and can be taken apart in to sections incase it needs to be moved or brought anywhere for fun or demonstrations.

Currently I am about 2/3 of the way done and have lots of little details that need to be taken care of. I currently have the Marquee cut and made but have to put it together, paint it and mount it.

I know it isn't exactly a case mod but a fun project none the less :)

here is the link to the wlog
http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13730

side1.JPG


side2.JPG


wheel.JPG


this is the custom marquee I pasted together in photshop
marquee.jpg
 
Dang..... like the poster over at your wlog said- sign me up, I'll buy the plans!

Nice work!
 
not including the controller monitor or pc I have spent less than $90 so far for all materials and paint. this includes the Marquee box and floresent light for it but not the artwork which is $20+ shipping on average.
 
Nice job man I was thinking about making a arcade machine but i don't have the room for a huge 80's style one so i might have to borrow ur idea in the future. Great work.
 
at the moment it is a 1800+ socket 7 cpu, 512mb ddr, Radeon 9800XT, 80gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm, 16x DVD, 10/100 NIC, NVTV Single Tuner.


I am most likely going to change the speakers around or something. Right now I have seperate volume controls for the subwoofer (from an old fps1000 system) and the main speakers. I will try to control the sub volume form the main speakers but may just opt for another set. I likethe idea of the volume control and option for headphones though.....


I have the top Marquee cut and am sanding now. I need to get some wood filler though as I had someone else cut the wood and it didnt come out quite to spec, not a big deal though I will make it work :) I didnt have a table saw to make the cuts myself which would have required a mitre saw (correct me if I am wrong here....) as the box has some angles to it.
 
nintari said:
I have the top Marquee cut and am sanding now. I need to get some wood filler though as I had someone else cut the wood and it didnt come out quite to spec, not a big deal though I will make it work :) I didnt have a table saw to make the cuts myself which would have required a mitre saw (correct me if I am wrong here....) as the box has some angles to it.
Click to expand...

Table saw and a router can do just as good... I'm just saying i know you don't have one.
 
nice marquee and "cabinet". you should get a big LED scrolling thing to go above it to show which game you are playing at the time.
 
I am currently building the Marquee and was looking in to how to print it out and decided to have someone else do it to have it look a little better. I found one place out there (I am sure there are more) that has pre-made marquees or you can send in custom size and picture and they will print it for you at about $20

http://www.mamemarquees.com/!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!7

I will let everyone know how this process goes and how it comes out, as well as the usual pics. I read around and apparently they seem to do a pretty good job so we will see how it goes.

I just wish I had known I could order the side art from them too I would have done that instead of hand painting to have it look cleaner. Oh well atleast no one else will have a cabinet like mine, and it doesnt look too bad :D My own fault for not researching it I guess ;)
 
Very nice looking. Enjoy it!

I'm putting finishing touches on my MAME project.

cabinet_complete.jpg


Work log can be found at LAN DFW and the cabinet will be playable at Quakecon 2005. The Marquee, Control Panel and Side cabinet artwork is being made custom for me and will be printed on large format adhesive vynil.

Enjoy every minute of your project because it's very very rewarding in the long run!
 
I wish I had the room for a large cabinet like that. I amy later on do another cabinet that is still slim but wider and have custom control panel. I never really thought this one would turn out as well as it is so far :D especially since I hadnt ever really built anythign like this before

My biggest problem so far seems to be the painting and have it look nice and solid. I tried doing a few light coats then sanding lightly then paint and sand but no luck. In bright light it looks a little streaky, in most normal light it looks fine. That may be me being too critical though.
 
Might I make a suggestion... I have an X-Arcade as well that I've had for a while. The control quality really isn't all that great and not as accurate as they should be. I replaced my X-Arcade controls with Happ Competition Joysticks. They are much more responsive and hit diagonals more accurately then the retail X-Arcade Joysticks do.
 
nintari said:
I am currently building the Marquee and was looking in to how to print it out and decided to have someone else do it to have it look a little better. I found one place out there (I am sure there are more) that has pre-made marquees or you can send in custom size and picture and they will print it for you at about $20

http://www.mamemarquees.com/!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!7

I will let everyone know how this process goes and how it comes out, as well as the usual pics. I read around and apparently they seem to do a pretty good job so we will see how it goes.

I just wish I had known I could order the side art from them too I would have done that instead of hand painting to have it look cleaner. Oh well atleast no one else will have a cabinet like mine, and it doesnt look too bad :D My own fault for not researching it I guess ;)
Click to expand...

almost any (decent) sign shop can print on to something called Duratrans and it is meant for backlit displays (movie posters and what-not). it's relatively cheap.
 
nintari said:
I am most likely going to change the speakers around or something. Right now I have seperate volume controls for the subwoofer (from an old fps1000 system) and the main speakers. I will try to control the sub volume form the main speakers but may just opt for another set. I likethe idea of the volume control and option for headphones though.....


I didnt have a table saw to make the cuts myself which would have required a mitre saw (correct me if I am wrong here....) as the box has some angles to it.
Click to expand...
I really like your work on this project. It looks good, and takes up way less space than those regular arcade machines. With those speakers, and even the monitor, you could make a single panel that comes up from the base section and put some acrylic sheet in front of it all. It would blend together and you could integrate your marquee into it too. Just a thought!
Hey BTW, mitre saws can be quite affordable. Sears has some for under $70 that are really nice for occasional work, and you could change out the blade for working with aluminum too. If all else fails, a jig saw with a straight edge and some clamps will work :)
 
nintari said:
do those fit in place of the current x-arcade stick?
Click to expand...
Yes, you would just open the base of the X-Arcade and you'll see the wires. You'll need to remove the female quick disconnects and unscrew the joystick. Then remove it and replace it with the better joysticks and screw them back in. I personally think that they were well worth the $15 for them...

You can also replace the buttons as well if you wanted to.
 
nintari said:
BTW what kind of paint did you use on your cabinet?
Click to expand...
I used Bher Premium Pure Black. 100% Acrylic Latex. I can't tell if the can says interior or exterior... Whatever it is it's very durable. I think it was something like $22 USD at Home depot.
 
Very nice. Personally, I think I would find the pedals to be a little hard to use, but that doesn't diminish my opinion of this case.
 
yeah standup racing games are always a pain in the but it is nice to know I have the option, I didnt even think about the wheel until I put Pole Position on
 
Does that flat panel rotate for the vertically screened games?

All in all that's great. I got drunk one night and found a dead arcade machine at the local student's union bar. I was going to pay the bouncer £50 to take it away. In the morning I realised I didn't actually have the room to put it anywhere at home!!!

I have considered putting together a single player "desktop" arcade cabinet. Stick a flat panel screen on to the side of a midi tower PC case, mount a couple of sticks at the base of said screen. But this looks much better.

Dazz - that is just amazing. Beautiful. Checking worklog now.
 
no it is stationery.


I didnt have much of a chance to do anythign lately as my 9 year wedding anniversary was yesterday. And as all us married men know there are just some days it's just not a good idea to go out to the garage and work :D

I am putting the finishing touches on the Marquee paint job so hopefully I will be able to get pics of that soon. I am waiting on my order for the custom marquee, but thats ok as I have not gone to lowes yet to get plexi to mount it in yet.

pic will be posted soon hopefully
 
Ok everyone long delay between updates but I finally got the Marquee assembled and put on after some problems. I had designed the Marquee one way and the person who was helping me cut it differently and really threw things off by quite a bit.

But since it was free help and it is more than I could have done with my lack of tools I moved on and made it work. I unfortunately had to cut the marquee a little because of this.

The whole process of buying from http://www.mamemarquees.com was pretty painless and the staff was very helpfull on making suggestions and helping with corrections to my design. My biggest problem was I made everything at 72dpi on accident and instead of just printing it and sending it to me like that he suggested that I increase the picture to 300dpi so his printing process would look better. In addition I previously had made the X in the middle from scratch and that took quite some time for a non-photoshop savvy person like me. Since I made it in 72dpi I would have had to completely remake it :eek: but they happened to have one already and were happy to assist me in putting it in for me.

When I received the marquee by priority mail I didn't know what to expect honestly. Upon opening the box and spreading it out my first though was, this is just thick paper and a laser printer. But after looking at things closer and even holding it up to the light little details started emerging that made me take back what I had just said. The overall print quality was very even and smooth and even the small details had shown no flaws like some color laser prints I have seen before (where it looks like lots of little dots instead of smooth). The paper it's self upon closer inspection seemed to be quite a bit more than heavy paper and really did let the light through nicely.

Overall I am extremely happy with the job Mame Marquees did and since it is about $20 plus shipping to have one printed out I would highly suggest this route instead of the I'll print it off on my own paper and piece it together method. I tried that and it looked horrible :D even from a big HP color laser printer.

Anyway I didn't mean to get so long winded about the marquee but I like to give credit where credit is due and in this instance that is http://www.mamemarquees.com

On to the pics:

m1.JPG


m2.JPG


m3.JPG
 
I tried but all of them came out blurry. For some reason my camera hates dark shots.

The marquee is using one small florecent lamp and while is not extremely bright is just bright enough to not be distracting. I can try to take a closer pic with the flash if you like...
 
nintari said:
I tried but all of them came out blurry. For some reason my camera hates dark shots.

The marquee is using one small florecent lamp and while is not extremely bright is just bright enough to not be distracting. I can try to take a closer pic with the flash if you like...
Click to expand...

it's blurry because you are shaking slightly. no big deal though.
 
still lots of little work to be done to it though

I need to:

get a smart power strip as someone reccomended

Wire subwoofer volume control to speaker volume control

hide cords

put on kick plate

add small support feet to extend toward the back
 
Yes, the Smart Strip is a dream come true for power... I have one and my power button is hidden on my cabinet. Just hit that which is hooked up to the power switch on the motherboard. Once the Smart Strip registers the power up from the computer it powers up everything else... My only problem is the tv that I used still requires that I push the power button to turn it on. I need to figure out a way around that.

The small things to do and add on these seem to go on forever... Also, this is probably a bit late... But you didn't have to re-create the X on the Marquee. X-Gaming probably had the artwork freely available in 300+dpi already. ;) I'm working on getting them to sponsor a Classic Gaming highscore competition on my arcade cabinet at Quakecon.
 
Dude, that's awesome and exactly what I've been looking to do. I have most fo the stuff for a Mame rig esxcept the space! This has given me all sorts of ideas.
 
Oh there are soo many ideas you can get once you get in to building this :)

I made mine with the main idea of being able to take it apart easily incase I wanted to bring it somewhere or needed to work on it. Or even if I wanted to use the X-Arcade on another system.

If your cabinet doesnt need to be moved around a lot you can always make a slim cabinet and have it all as one piece. I am tempted to do this much much later on. Even make my own control panel for it as well. I would rather move on to my next project though which is goign to be my own Subwoofer and speaker set then on to a Lumen Lab projector.
 
Some more Pictures for fun, these atleast came out better to see the Marquee better.

Pub signs Hung
far.JPG

Signs:
Tipsy Toad Pub
Dirty Dick Pub
"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."
Drunken Duck Pub
Jack the Ripper Pub

Marquee with flash on
mflash.JPG


Close up left side
mflashleft.jpg


Close up right side
mflashright.jpg


Lights on no Flash
mflofflton.jpg


Lights off no flash
mltnflshoff.jpg


The Room :)
room2.jpg
 
Technically since I now live in Kentucky I guess I should have a Moonshine distillery in my garage or something :)
 
nintari said:
Technically since I now live in Kentucky I guess I should have a Moonshine distillery in my garage or something :)
Click to expand...


/me hops in car and drives over.
 
Did those pics work better for you? I know you wanted better ones of the marquee. I had to take a pool stick and rest the camera on it to hold it steady enough with no flash :)
 
nintari said:
Did those pics work better for you? I know you wanted better ones of the marquee. I had to take a pool stick and rest the camera on it to hold it steady enough with no flash :)
Click to expand...


yeah, they look great!
 
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