I've finally began to construct my cabinet! Bought two sheets of 3/4 MDF and drew out one side of the cabinet. I used a modified plan from LuSid's Arcade Flashback site. Check out his site - you can download the plans in .pdf form. My wood working experience thus far consists, mostly, of putting together Sauder funiture. We ain't talking Bob Vila here.

This is still a work in progress. I will add more pictures as the project progresses (which will be very slowly, I'm sure).

7.04.04

FINISHED!!

...well, almost ;-)

I mounted the front door.

For the speakers I decided to break apart a pair of older Altec Lansing stereo speakers and mounted them behind a scrap piece of MDF. The speakers had a built in amp and Vol, Base, and Balance knobs on a circuit board that I mounted behind the MDF. I cut out the speaker holes as well as the holes for the control knobs and the power light. You can see the tan knobs and the red LED just below the marque.

Next, I will make a better marquee and mount the X-Arcade controls to the cabinet so they won't slide around. I am also going to build a Star Wars Yoke from plans I found here.

The bezel is a cut sheet of plexi that I pained on the inside. This gave it a nice mirrored look to it.

To mask the viewable part of the monitor I mounted the plexi and used painter's tape to outline the outside edges of the screen. Then I flipped the plexi over and masked the inside of that outline and spray painted it with four coats to make sure there was no light coming thru.

Ready to play! I had a blast finally playing a game on the almost finished cabinet.

I still have to:

1. -Mount the speakers and come up with a way to hang the surround speakers behind the player
2. -Install Plexiglas and front door
3. -Hook up exhaust fan in top of cabinet
4. -Stabilize control panel (it slides backwards)
5. -Design a permanent marquee

This picture doesn't show it very well, but this is after the third coat. Here I have begun installing the T-molding.

One of the most frustrating parts of this project was cutting the slots for the T-molding. Not having a router I used my Dremel tool - I don't recommend this as I went thru two 'blades' to finish this project.

Yet another weekend later...

Ready to paint...here is the first coat of primer.

This will be the front access door. I took the side panel of the MAME PC's case and sanded it down and drilled holes for the hinge. After I cut an opening in a piece of MDF board I aligned the hinges and screwed them in.

This should give me plenty of access inside my completed cabinet.

03.2004

A couple of weekends later...

I enclosed the cabinet and added the control panel shelf and back board, keyboard tray, and framed the marquee. I also installed the supports for the front panel and door.

It stands!

But will it roll?...

Here my father is standing on the base to keep it from moving and holding up each side while I screw them to the base. You can't see me in this picture - 'cause I'm taking it ;)

My father was a huge help. He gave me several tips, without which my cabinet would've looked like three pieces of uncut MDF nailed together. He also got in there and got his hands dirty (or work slacks in one case) to help me out when I needed another pair of hands.

Another weekend and another side cut!

It may be slow, but it's progress.

01.28.04

The first side is cut!

01.28.04

My first cut of the project! (it was almost straight, too!)

01.28.04

Okay, it's finally time to get started! Bought the wood and set up in the garage. You'll notice the car still in the garage...this was the ONLY time I left a car in the garage while cutting wood. The dust covered the entire car ...couldn't see out the windows.

04.09.03

I got an e-mail from X-Arcade about a new track ball they are going to launch. I want to have a track ball in my finished cabinet, so I have to decide if I want to wait for the X-Arcade version or try to incorporate one now with a mouse hack. Not sure yet. I moved the wireless keyboard I got cheap over to my server and bought a Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop KB & optical mouse setup. I like having the use of a mouse instead of a pointer stick for game play. I've been playing Splinter Cell lately and the boys still love playing House of the Dead II with the light gun.

3/14/03

My monitor came by FedEx today!! This thing is huge. It is a NEC Multisync FP1350x 22" (20" viewable) perfectly flat display. I had to move my pc and everything else off of the dresser I was using just to hold the monitor (see a full size pic). After tweaking some settings I watched a movie on it. Picture is as big as the 20" TV I have plus this has surround sound. Very cool! I also downloaded a front end for MAME that I am going to try out. It's called ArcadeFX and looks pretty cool. Next step is to settle on a cabinet design and get to building!!

3/7/03

I just won an ebay auction for a 22" flat CRT monitor! I've been looking for the perfect combination of features and low price...settling for low price :)

Last night I installed a wireless NIC in the pc and a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 sound card, along with Logitech Z640 speakers. I also installed a cool little wireless keyboard. The speakers are only going to be used temporarily. The final plan is to use Creative Labs Inspire 4.1 speakers. I like the look of them and think I can incorporate the square speakers nicely into my final cabinet. As soon as my display arrives I can start to work on a cabinet. I have just about everything I need.