Weekend Projects??

[Tigz79]

Hey folks, just thought ad share my weekend achievments with you all, been bored lately, money tight, jobs doin ma head in and thought a need to keep amused some how and started coming up with random ideas for a project in ma spare time, always wanted one of those arcade machines i used to pump endless money into as a kid and thought al make my own, couldnt decide what i was gunna do or where to begin but did some googling and came across loads of sites where people have come up with some good ideas for arcade cabinets, some just buy a used run down cab and convert it but im building mine from scratch, im handy with wood so thought what the hell im doin it lol, so bought material at local B&Q friday and heres how its coming along, got a pc and all the main components so it was just fittings and mdf i needed to get started, decided to make the unit in 2 halves for space saving and ease of construction and its coming together really well heres some pics of the bottom and top halfs that av managed to get done over the wkend, im of work on holiday for a wk now so it should come together pretty fast as long as nothing major comes up in the build process

Base Unit

Top/Bottom Unit

Frame & Monitor

The slots you see around the edges are for the plastic mouldings you can use to give the edges that finished look like an authentic games machine, probably goin for the black plastic as im intending to have the unit painted in a high gloss finish, just been using basic tools part from the slots as i had to get a router with a saw blade to cut the grooves, bit tricky but turned out quite well a think al keep the pics updated through the wk so you can see my progress, anybody else had any moments of inspiration over there wkd they want to share lol

 

[Tigz79]

Not that I'm a fan of arcade machines but, looks awesome

I'm guessing you're going to use a PC, what are you going to use as a Pad/stick interface?


I haven't really made anything, been slowly buying bits to start some scale modelling soon though.

Yeah thats right im goin to be using my current set up as it allows me to run retro and current games quite easily al be using the MAME emulation software as its really good at reproducing the old classics that i remember from the arcades, pacman, space invaders plus current and not so old games like MK and street fighter which used to take up my life when i was 15/16yrs old

 

[Tigz79]

Nice craftmanship skills there Should be nice when it is done.

I wired up some ceiling speakers to my new nuvo essentia e6g this weekend. The two boxes top left of the pic are this from this weekend

Richie.

HA rather you than me m8, wouldnt know where to start with all that wiring around, al just stick to wood working, prob end up in casualty with electric burns lol, good work tho

 

[Tigz79]

Looking good

Always wanted to give this a bash at some point.

Did you get the plans from a website or did you do it yourself ?

Just used my imagination m8, looked around on the net for ideas but since its a muti purpose machine for my needs its going to be built around my set-up so customs the way to go looked at the X-arcade joystick looks good mite look into this for the control panel at some point, going to get started on the concealed keyboard shelf tomoz and see how it pans out, got ma wk planned out so should be interesting lol

 

[Tigz79]

Yeah the unit is pretty light to be honest, its mostly 18mm mdf so not to bad, once the pc and everything else that goes with it goes in it should still be lighter than the pre built models you can buy for crazy money on the net, al measure up the unit when its complete for people who fancy having a go themselves not in it for money just a project am interested in really and its fun putting the ideas into practice. al keep the thread updated when new things start coming together tho thanks for the good comments, makes the project more rewarding knowing its inspiring others!

 

[Tigz79]

lol one project at a time, altho it could turn out to be a profitable business if all works out well haha as for R-Type thats a classic a forgot bout, gunna have to get back on that, gotta love the old school side scrollers m8, as for artwork MAME have some pretty cool side art graphics, gunna get this for the marquee sign tho,

should look good lit up by a fluresent tube but not put much thought into the final touches just yet, any sites people can recommend for graphics would be much appreciated tho.........

 

[Tigz79]

Ok so first update been working on the unit today and been geting on really well, got the door cut out and mounted, took the centre section out of the door so i can put a perspex sheet behind it so as to show the LED's and the workings of the pc, should have a nice glow effect to it, just made up a template and routered the door to the size of the pc case.

The next step was to make the hidaway keyboard shelf, got the runners fitted to the unit and all works fine at the moment, the front of the drawer is just held together just now as i will have to put small cabinet hinges to it so the front panel folds down for easy access to the mouse and keyboard.

Quite a good days work with no distractions thankfully, next step is to mount the speakers to the roof of the unit, thats tommorrows plan tho lol time to relax with a beer now and plan what to do with the controler setup

 

[Tigz79]

Cheers m8, its quite easy making up ideas its the practical bit thats testing lol, i used to do things like this a lot years ago but due to work and family situations it kind of drifted away but doin this brings back the inspiration to think up new projects ha, its been a while since i dusted of the old wood tools but getting rite into this build now am seein progress

 

[Tigz79]

So update number 2 been pretty busy over the last 2 days and im quite happy with how the projects goin, so far so good haha completed the speaker shelf, table top for the controller and the perspex housing for the marquee which is now on order had a look at the X-Arcade duel stick controller and it will fit in with my setup nicely, recieved the joystics today so went about modding the table top to house the controller, went pretty smoothly using the old hand router, the hide away keyboard shelf is also complete now with the cabinet hinges allowing easy access to the sliding drawer, heres some updated pics for you...........

The speakers will be held in place by bracing to make them stable and unable to move, ill add these later when everythings in place

Two pics to show the hidden keyboard shelf closed/open and the perspex housing for the marquee

Finally the speaker housing and new shelf which has been routered out to accept the X-Arcade

Its been fun so far just dodging away and its taking shape quite fast with very little hic-ups touch wood lol, next step is probably going to be the painting and constructing the monitor bezel and sizing up for some smoked glass, got a few ideas bout that so al keep you all posted just gotta wait on my T-molding coming now but that wont be on the unit till after in happy with the paint work..... Time for a beer a think, been a long day

 

[Tigz79]

Hi folks thanks for the words of encuragement been a bit of a slow day today, just been concentrating on getting the first coat of paint done, gunna give it 3 coats as mdf just sucks it up even with a good undercoat, starting to look like an arcade machine now, with a few custom extras changed the control panel top today for a thicker more chunkier look and added a black high gloss laminate to the mdf, looks really good with the controller sunk into it, also cut out the monitor bezel today and went up to my local glazers who cut and polished the glass for me, the bezel looks really shiney held behind the glass as i used the same gloss laminate that was used for the controller top. As for why are there cut outs beside the monitor that was a redundent plan that a had for putting back lighting behind the bezel and glass but changed my mind as it mite be to distracting when playing games also quite like the dark surrounds as its more authentic, just my opinion tho not got any pics today as i use my phone to take them but the battery died so al just take some when the paintings done tomoz so you can all see the difference of before and after, am really happy with the progress so far, getting itchy fingers tho as a cant wait to get stuck into some old school gaming haha itl be worth the wait tho! Theres not been any word as of when al recieve the marquee yet, fingers crossed itl be mid next week but no worrys as it gives me time to mount the fluresent light and get the wiring in check, theres plenty of it lol. Hope this project is getting you guys in the creative mood caus you should give it a go, once you get started its addictive, you always find yourself saying al just cut this or sand this last bit and you just keep goin ha ha al keep you updated with more pics tomoz or saturday, should be complete for sunday bar the marquee as its still being printed a guess

 

[Tigz79]

Hey guys so its nearly done now, bout 90% not much else for me to do now because am just waiting on getting my marquee for the cabinet the main works complete so heres the semi finished job, what you guys think? the last 2 days have went really well the paint turned out great, the glass and screen bezel fitted perfectly which is unusual haha the touch screen speakers are all sorted and give out plenty of sound, the control panel sits quite well with the gloss top and the front end for the emulations runs without a hitch (Maximus Arcade) so all in all very pleased with the outcome! The only things i want to do now is get the marquee fitted and then start working on some artwork for the screen bezel plus maybe some nice sideart, altho the cabinet is nice plain think it needs something to break the black up, al wait and see how i feel tho. Heres the pics

Heres 2 pics with the fluresent on, wont be as bright once the marquee is between 2 sheets of plexi glass

Al update the thread when the marquee is in place, hopefully should be this wk sometime anyways been a good wk of work, back to reality tomoz tho but least a can relax and enjoy the machine now

 

[Tigz79]

Looks fantastic, well done

What's the final cost going to be?

The material cost for mdf, laminate gloss and painting was only bout £45, the glass, bezel, and t-molding came to £50ish, the dearest part was the controller at £117 inc delivery so pretty hapy there, the marquee and plexi came in at £40. not to bad really considering pre-built machines run into £1000's and thats crazy money final price for this build is roughly £260 m8, you fancy building 1 now......

 

[Tigz79]

WOW thats awsome! What stuff can you play on it?

Currently running MAME with over 7000 games, all sega mega drive roms (bout 900) plus over 800 SNES games, theres more than plenty to keep you going for years lol

 

[Tigz79]

I kind of wish you hadn't made it so fast now, must be exciting building it

Yeah it was good fun thinking up the idea then seeing it built m8, the thing is it probably wont ever be finished as theres always gunna be more things al want to add or change lol, still got the art work to do plus other odds and ends al keep the thread updated when things change, so you bringing the beer while a set up some R-TYPE LOL

 

[Tigz79]

Thanks for the comments lads, even tho this projects coming to an end its been really good fun, you should give it a try and come up with some of your own designs, you wont regret taking the time to make it your own custom setup, as for the street fighter series there amazing, gotta love the 100 hand slap

 

[Tigz79]

Nice job there looks really good! I like the minimalist look of it in just glossy black too! Hopefully that look wont be spoiled too much with loads of artwork? Out of interest what Mame front end do you use/intend on using?

The front end im using is called Maximus Arcade, its a simple user interface that allows you to edit and re-arrange icons and allows you to add screen shots of the games, its a front end for multiple emulators not just MAME heres the link hope this helps http://www.maximusarcade.com/

As for the artwork im thinking something simple that goes well with the design, anybody got any links to good quality Game art?

 

[Tigz79]

A fiver is very tempting but sorry not for sale lol, why dont you try out some ideas for your own m8, or a could build you one for a price

 

[Tigz79]

Looks like a handy program that, will look into it further cheers!
Gl with the rest of your project!

Np m8 its a really good program and easy to use. cheers for the encouragement, al keep updating when the builds progressing.....

 

[Tigz79]

Could have a browse here -

http://www.localarcade.com/arcade_art/

Cheers for the link m8, plenty of inspiration there, gunna have a good look through that later

Probably one of the top 10 things I've seen on this forum during my time here.

Thanks for the praise, going by your post count you've seen some threads m8 glad you found my project interesting

you should do this commerically! I'd buy one from you.

Thanks for the confidence m8, would be a good buisiness opportunity and a really enjoyed the woodworking but would be quite hard to keep it goin as a bussiness, would need a few orders for it to be worth it as shipping cost and material would mount up, worth a think tho, so how many will i book you in for lol

 

[Tigz79]

Looks awesome, some nice craftmanship in there. I'd love to own something like that (but more specifically, a pinball table which would be less easy to craft )

However - is that a widescreen monitor? Surely most games released in the 90s were standard TV aspect ratio back then.

Yeah thats right its a 20" samsung lcd monitor, the emulators support custom resolutions aswell as standard ratios, i just run the emulators in standard form but set the front end on a Widescreen resolution, the old mame games like pacman, asteroids dont look very good in WS format.......

Hi check out this for a front end, looks really good, and if you get the video will look great, http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/index.php?pageid=previews

I tryed this frontend for a short time but prefere the Maximus Arcade setup due to its simple setup and customization, its just my own opinion but think that the hyperspin frontend looks a little to cluttered, its a good program tho.........