Arcade cabinet projects

I'm going to begin planning my Arcade cabinet rebuild soon, and will probably be starting work on building it at the start of the new year. Once I begin I'm going to document it and post a work in progress as I go.

Basic plan is as follows.

Parts:

• SlikStik classic controller
• large LCD monitor/or smallish LCD TV (depends on what is available at the time)
• coin slot mechanism (will light up and coin return buttons will be wired for use as insert coin buttons)
• emulation PC
• plywood/mdf cabinet
• marquee graphics
• blue lighting behind cabinet

Obviously the main job is building the cabinet itself which will take some planning before I begin, and I need the display before I can design it as I will need to work out the width based on the slikstik controller and display sizes.

I want the depth to be relatively shallow so it doesn't take up too much space in the room, which is the main reason for wanting to use an LCD screen. The big problem with my original cabinet was the 21" monitor which had a 2 foot deep tube so took up a lot of space and was heavy. This new cabinet should be quite light and easy to move. I may even design it to be modular so it comes apart in two halves for easy moving.

Depending on what is available at the time I may either go with a large LCD monitor of around 22-24" or a small LCD TV with a monitor input. I will have to have a look around when the time comes. The alternative is to replace one of my existing 17" LCDs with a new 24" one and then just use a 17" screen in the cabinet, but ideally I want a big display in there as it will look better.

For the cabinet design I will be building a keyboard draw under the main control board that will use a push to release mechanism to pop it out so it is invisible when closed. But I won't need a mouse as I can use the rollerball mechanism on the controller for that. And have a coin mechanism on the front of the cabinet that lights up with the coin return buttons wired for use as insert coin buttons, just to add a nice arcade touch to the cabinet.

The only other main thing to consider is the cabinet graphics and finding a decent printer to print the side graphics for it. I may just spray the whole thing black with a shiny lacquered finish to begin with and just have a back lit marquee, and then add cabinet graphics later. I will also add some blue lighting behind the cabinet so that when the lights are low it will give a nice blue glow around the cabinet.

Finally the insides. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave the PC inside its own case or remount it into the actual cabinet. Doing that would give it much better airflow. I may even begin from scratch by the time I build it and build a whole new PC for the project with custom mounting inside the cabinet. And as HDs continue to drop in price I can mount a row of SATA drives for a couple of TB of storage. And I will be including a WiFi card so the cabinet is connected to the network for updating the rom sets easily and for access to them from the rest of the network.

Cool,
keep us informed, as soon as you start take same photos of the work!

Man that sounds amazing. If you need some design advice on ergonomics etc give me a shout. As for the graphics - do you have anything in mind?

My old cabinet just had a MAME marquee and some related graphics. Not sure yet for the new one. An idea I've had and something that would look really cool, but might not be affordable or easy to do would be an LCD marquee so it changed with each game being played. Now that would be cool.

The only advice I do need if anyone can help is working with wood and creating strong joints and a good finish. I know I need to use clamps and glue everything for a good construction, but I don't have much experience of making things out of wood.

I may build a test mini cabinet to experiment so I can get the construction right before I go ahead with the real one. I could then also use the test build for paint tests too.

Has Eggman's project giving you a little motivation boost :)

Definitely. Got me thinking about finally rebuilding mine again. Will be great when I finally do get around to making it. :)