Author Topic: Project Arcade has commenced!!! (Read 5586 times)

mdcoblentz · « **on:** November 21, 2009, 18:33:48 »

well with jd posting about his arcade and having an arcade seminar.... I've been inspired and am determined to build my own arcade. Here is what I've gotten done. I'll probably continue to post in this forum as my build unravels and gets more complicated. First off I made a replica of what I wanted to build in google sketchup which I had to learn myself but its not too complicated. here it is.

I figured one of the most difficult tasks to build would be the control panel. so I wanted it sloped a bit and was getting frustrated with the angles and degrees I needed to get everything to sit right and google sketchup really helped with all that. plus I already have all the lengths of everything using google sketchup. I first started with the frame of my control panel.

That was time consuming and very hard to keep square. I then made a base for the frame.

and ttached it to my frame.

I then used the belt sander so I didn't have any unwanted edges or ledges so it will look uniform when painted.

after I did that I went ahead and built the control panel top and attached it with the piano hinge.

finished product...

I hope to continue this build in the weeks ahead. I'm pretty excited about it.

jd · « **Reply #1 on:** November 22, 2009, 10:08:18 »

Looking great mdcoblentz!

Be prepared to spend the next week thinking about where you want your controls.

I stood in front of my finished but unpopulated control panel for a month trying to figure out where I wanted everything!

Can't wait to see this come along!

HUNGER · « **Reply #2 on:** November 22, 2009, 12:17:15 »

looken great

hamiltro · « **Reply #3 on:** November 26, 2009, 00:58:06 »

great job

Rayman · « **Reply #4 on:** November 26, 2009, 07:53:55 »

nice craftsmanship i can not wait to see more.

mdcoblentz · « **Reply #5 on:** December 14, 2009, 22:38:11 »

Ok. so I've been busy on this project. Hooked up with "JD" for an evening to check out his arcade and to ask some questions I've been pondering about! Thank you so much for your time Josh! You've been a super source of Info! After getting the control panel box made it was time to organize it using some paper buttons and a paper track ball that was to scale so I could start sawing out the buttons.

I got a hole saw to saw out the buttons. 1 1/8 inch thick. There was smoke flyin everywhere! That hole saw was definately get hot and makin some friction!!!

you can see the black on the sides of the holes from burning.

Anyways, finally got all the holes drilled out. I have yet to get the track ball but it is ordered. I got my buttons in the mail this past week as well as a spinner and my Ipac 4 which controls all the buttons.

I've also went and got a 25 foot cat6 cable and some regular black 18 gauge wire to do all the wiring with. I went with the cat6 because the wires are a bit bigger that cat5 but they are still color coded to make the wiring easier.

jd · « **Reply #6 on:** December 14, 2009, 22:47:45 »

I've been glad to help out Micah. Your CP is looking awesome! I think you'll be happy you picked up a spinner also, can't have to many controls!

mdcoblentz · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2009, 22:53:20 »

So tonight I got motivated to work on it and took it to my fathers shop which has every tool imaginable. The first thing I did was place the joystick harness on the board and drilled the holes to mount it on the top. Once those holes were made, I could flip over the top and tell where the joystick harness should go. I then traced around it so that I could tell where it was supposed to be mounted. I wanted my joystick handles to be a bit higher so I routered out where the joystick harness would go to give it some extra height when mounted. Here's a picture or two describing what I mean...

and here is the harness fitted into the routered section. as you can see its flush. Ended up being around a quarter of an inch so that still left a 1/2 inch for sturdiness which I thought was adequate.

Now I have ordered the graphic that I'm going to sit on top of the control panel so I knew I couldn't have any screws or anything sitting on top. I needed everything to be flush. So I got some t-nuts and drove them into the top of the control panel. I had to router a little bit around each hole so they would stay flush with the top.

after I had each hole routered around I had to pound in the t-nuts!

This takes me to where I am currently with t-nuts installed and the control panel is ready to get painted and be ready for the new artwork to be placed on top. if your curious as to what I decided to go with for the artwork I went with this !

mdcoblentz · « **Reply #8 on:** December 27, 2009, 22:22:41 »

Ok. time for an update! well, my artwork and my lexan plexiglass came in the mail. was very excited and satisfied with the artwork.

So I got started with painting my arcade control panel. 1 coat of white primer and 2 coats of all surface enamel glossy black!

As you can see I left my pencil marks uncolored because I needed to know where to place my trackball. I was still waiting for it to come in the mail.
Well it finally came in the mail and I worked on getting it installed. After looking at my artwork, I realized that to make it look right I would have to move my trackball down about an inch which wasn't any big deal. Had to cut the hole for the trackball to sit in and router out for the mounting plate so that it was flush.

mdcoblentz · « **Reply #9 on:** December 27, 2009, 22:30:37 »

So now that it was painted, and I had the mounting plate installed, I could go ahead and put on the artwork. This was somewhat difficult and took some major thinking on how to center everything up but I got it done! First to get it centered I wanted to peel the backing from the middle out! so I carefully took an exacto knife and cut the backing down the middle. Got it centered and as I pulled the backing off, I pushed down the huge sticker!

After it was on, I took a razor blade and trimmed the excess off the edges.

Finally got it all trimmed off, and it looked pretty good.

so I took the exacto knife and cut out the hole for the trackball and it looks great in my opinion!

Thats how far I've gotten so far. more updates to come

lazylivin · « **Reply #10 on:** December 27, 2009, 22:37:25 »

I love the way you positioned the trackball center of the lighting streaks. Looks like it is coming along nicely.

stickboy_107 · « **Reply #11 on:** December 27, 2009, 22:47:09 »

SWEEEET!

jd · « **Reply #12 on:** December 27, 2009, 22:53:08 »

You never fail to impress Micah! I can't wait to spend a few hours drinking beer and playing your machine.

ghurlag · « **Reply #13 on:** December 31, 2009, 18:30:36 »

This has awesome written all over it. Nice work! Makes my genuine vintage Tetris arcade look silly

jd · « **Reply #14 on:** December 31, 2009, 18:43:16 »

Quote from: ghurlag on December 31, 2009, 18:30:36

This has awesome written all over it. Nice work! Makes my genuine vintage Tetris arcade look silly

I (and I'm sure Micah) demand pictures!

aquatic mouse · « **Reply #15 on:** January 03, 2010, 21:29:01 »

That is so awesome!

HUNGER · « **Reply #16 on:** January 03, 2010, 21:45:40 »

Rayman · « **Reply #17 on:** January 03, 2010, 22:28:25 »

looking good and nice graphics on the control panel, how much is the cost for a diy arcade of this magnitude, and how many games will it play.

jeblin · « **Reply #18 on:** January 04, 2010, 05:43:39 »

I have a MAME system myself (no where near this quality) and I can say that it can play every "classic" (read OLD) arcade game there is. The problem is with the newer games. Some of the arcade games are programmed for specific hardware (i.e. specific graphic chipsets) and you will never be able to emulate that perfectly. MAME systems are basically a standard computer hooked up inside an arcade machine cabinet with arcade style controls (and most people leave a keyboard attached as well).

I bought an old Wrestling King (some name like that) arcade cabinet for $50. Gutted a PC I already had and put a TV out card in it. For the display, I bought an old 19" tv that fit the same brackets the cabinet had. Hooked up the PC to the tv using the tv out card and voila...mame system. All told, I probably have less then $300 in it and that includes the older PC I gutted.

HUNGER · « **Reply #19 on:** January 04, 2010, 08:28:52 »

nice thats perrty cheap

Rayman · « **Reply #20 on:** January 04, 2010, 16:14:55 »

thanks for the info, so it is a lot like salt water tanks, you have to have more than one lol.

mdcoblentz · « **Reply #21 on:** January 05, 2010, 10:10:32 »

Well, I figured I was only going to make this thing once so I got all the bells and whistles for this thing. I'm to the wiring part of my control panel and it literally looks like a porcupine of wires on the underside. I'm getting it all figured out with the help of JD and work on it about an hour each day. I'm ready to mount all the circuit boards on the bottom and start getting all the wires into place. I have everything grounded right now with about a 15 foot dixie chain. I'll get pictures up shortly. The computer I'm putting in this thing is from my college days that mostly doesn't get used anymore. And the tv I'm using for the monitor doesn't get used hardly either so I kind of feel like I'm recycling! hehe If I wouldn't had went with led's for each button, the cost would have went way down.

jd · « **Reply #22 on:** January 05, 2010, 12:48:40 »

The LEDs are going to be sweet, Micah! I can't wait to see them. Have you gotten one hooked up and tested yet?

<hijack>

I have some arcade buttons for sale is anyone is interested...

</hijack>

mdcoblentz · « **Reply #23 on:** January 07, 2010, 19:03:02 »

ok. time for an update and its gonna be big cuz I haven't for awhile. Last pic had me just starting to cut out holes in my artwork. so here goes.
Here is all the holes cut out.

after that I wanted to get the lexan on. I had to make a perfect circular hole for the trackball in the middle. we did this using this tool my father had which worked great!!!!

Once we had the hole cut out we clamped it into place and took a router on the outside edges of my control panel to make it a perfect fit!

I then used the same hole saw I used for the buttons to cut out the button holes in the lexan.

After we got that done we were able to bolt it down into place and we got out the router to make the groove for the T-molding to go around the outside. Which really set it off. I tried to make the edge of the T-molding the same height as the lexan so that it looked factory.

and here was the final result!

slandis3 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 07, 2010, 19:05:51 »

Looking good. The lexan was a real nice touch.

2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

Author Topic: Project Arcade has commenced!!! (Read 5586 times)

slandis3