Building another arcade cabinet

ThereIs0nly0ne

ThereIs0nly0ne

ThereIs0nly0ne

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Not sure where to put this tbh but I figured some of you may be interested.

This will have swap-able control panels for various configurations and will be used for both Retro and more modern games using LaunchBox / BigBox as a front-end. I'm aiming for a more modern looking cabinet and this will be finished in an (almost) flat black paint. I have a 27inch G Synch monitor fitted at the moment and it's using a Creative Soundbar with a sub for the audio.

Current state of affairs:

pv897vY.jpg

Design for the marquee:

G71PGSP.jpg

One other point to note is that it's modular - it splits into sections (base, mid section for the monitor and audio, the marquee and detachable control panels).

I've just finished the artwork and sent that off to be printed and the acrylic should be here soon.

If anyone's remotely interested in this, I'll post some more pictures as things progress.
 
Please do, had a crack at building a cab about 10 years ago. Never got it beyond the proof of concept stage but still got a box of buttons and a joystick somewhere. One day I'll have another go.

Though thinking about it, I could probably put something a lot more compact together using an rPi and 3d printing a case. Hmmm, might have to think about that.

Good luck anyway, can't wait to see the progress.
 
MrWhippy said:
Please do, had a crack at building a cab about 10 years ago. Never got it beyond the proof of concept stage but still got a box of buttons and a joystick somewhere. One day I'll have another go.

Though thinking about it, I could probably put something a lot more compact together using an rPi and 3d printing a case. Hmmm, might have to think about that.

Good luck anyway, can't wait to see the progress.
Click to expand...

I thought about doing a cab then decided just to hook up a raspberry pi to a TV and use 2 arcade sticks.

That means you don't need to take up any additional floorspace than what you already have at home. It costs 1/10th of the price and you can play from the comfort of your couch/bed.

A dedicated cabinet would be great I bought one for the family home last Christmas but prefer a much tidier set up at my own place.
 
I had a cab built for me by an amusement machine manufacturer some years ago. It's based on the classic Jamma cabinet design. I don't really have the construction skills to make a good job of it myself, though I did eventually remove the built in board and replaced it with a PC.

I've never regretted getting it, in fact when we had our dining room and kitchen combined I made them design around the Arcade cab location, 'cause it wasn't moving! The only thing I don't like is the control panel is pretty small. It's a two player machine with 6 buttons for each player, so no room for other controls without making it cluttered and awkward to play. Though I've got around that by buying separate trackballs and spinners that I can temporarily place on top of the panel, though it does prevent usage of one of the player's controls.
 
Thanks for the responses! Seems like there's some interest.

As mentioned, the cabinet is designed to have multiple control panels so it will give me some flexibility. I got the idea to build another cabinet when I started playing some twin stick shooters recently - always loved Robotron back in the day.

This was the prototype for that - I wanted to make sure I could make something with twin analog stick set-up that was recognisable in Steam. I used vJoy and Joystick gremlin for that to create a virtual joystick device.

eVRqzdF.jpg

Panel artwork which I sent off to be printed:

M5MaE5B.png

All buttons will be white.
 
I completed the shroud to cover the space in between the CP and the main cabinet (I had to redo this a couple of times as it was too large). I also managed to get the side pieces cut for the CP. Still waiting for my artwork to arrive unfortunately.

QM4pKEV.jpg
 
So now comes the laborious part - trimming, filling, painting, sanding etc. I've managed to get the first undercoat on which helps to identify all the inconsistencies. At this point, I'm really happy with how everything is lined up and flush which is half the battle. One noticeable thing is the 9mm MDF (used on the front part of the marquee) is significantly more fibrous - again, shouldn't be a problem, will just require a little more prep.

XnGkpFg.jpg
 
So this is taking a while as expected. I estimate each of the sections will take about 10 days to complete, largely due to all the prep work required. Current state of the marquee section - I have a couple more layers to do but the filling is done.

WDyZZc0.jpg

The top of this is still drying so currently the finish looks to be a little inconsistent.
 
The marquee section is now finished.

ZAWgOkP.jpg

I spent a good amount of time cutting some pieces for the back sections of the cabinet. I've attached a couple of those to the mid section. I also spent a few hours filling and sanding everything.

5r8vAx9.jpg

Also managed to get a couple of layers of undercoat on. I may find time to sand this back and get the first thin layer of black on later.

vM8lUAZ.jpg
 
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