ArcadeCab

9/22/2013

R.J. P's Michael Jackson Arcade Cabinet
R.J. constructed his three-player Michael Jackson Moonwalker cabinet using a modified second set of plans.  He is running it off an old Compaq laptop, with emulators for MAME, Nintendo, SNS and Sega Genesis.  He even constructed a bartop cabinet from the spare parts from this build.  Very cool.

He created a Tumbler page with plenty of details.  I found a couple interesting construction ideas in the page, including his discussion of the stenciling found on the cabinet.  Great job.

William M's "brocade"
William sent me a youtube link to his barcade, the "brocade".  Watch it to see how it was named.  He built this primarily from my barcade plans.  It is a enjoyable little video.  He also has a video of the arcade midway in its construction process that I also found informative as well as taking me back about nine years during the construction of my own barcade.  Give these two links a view.





 

7/7/2013

Chris M's arcade
Chris used the second set of plans, adjusting the cabinet's width to 26" to accommodate a larger monitor.  He also added a couple 2x4s to the interior (as in the first set of plans) to make it a bit more sturdy.

5/26/2013

Chris P's arcade
Chris sent me a picture of his cabinet.  He based his artwork on Scott's "Blue Meanie" cabinet, with slight alterations to fit the cabinet's design.  Nicely done.

5/4/2013

David D's "Project X"
David Dahlstrom completed Project X last summer and created a great series of blog posts about the project.  They are a good read and bring up many topics which every builder needs to consider before embarking on an arcade cabinet build.  I especially enjoyed the section on monitor selection.  David also did my breakdown technique one better by using bolts and threaded inserts.  Very nice! 

There are more pictures on the Visitor Page. 

Wes B's "The Mame Gold Mine"
Wes built his cabinet around the TankStick using the second set of plans.  He widened the cabinet to accommodate a 24" LCD monitor as well as chopped 10" off the depth to better fit in his living room. The name "The Mame Gold Mine" was based on the Gold Mine arcade (below) where he worked as an attendant 20 years ago. The project went quickly, taking only four weekends.

I like how well the cabinet fits into the space.

There are more pictures on the Visitor Page. 

3/30/2013

Wade P's "Super Arcade"
Wade finished his project after "13 months of hard work."  He built the "Super Arcade" to better utilize the TankStick he already owned.  He added two light guns, which is something I have always thought would be cool.

From Wade (excerpted):

"Toughest parts? Hard to say. Figuring out details with about everything I suppose. I'm a perfectionist and not an experienced woodworker. That makes for a slow project cycle. Tough items were the bezel, front plexiglass configuration, finding a proper lightgun holster, finalizing my cabinet side template...it goes on and on.

Like most projects it always takes longer than you thought right? Lots of smaller details that I didn't realize on the onset that I would have to deal with. The impetus for the whole project was A) I'm an arcade fanatic, B) I had a older, larger CRT monitor that I didn't have use for otherwise that made MAME game look about as good as an arcade monitor and C) I'd been using this huge X-Arcade Dual Tankstick to play games and it was getting unwieldy . I had to do something with it. I wanted to combine all these things into a cohesive whole.

Truly, it has been a journey to get to the point I'm at. At times frustrating, but mostly fun. My wife will tell you that I've been obsessed."

He posted a project thread on ArcadeControls.com that details the construction, as well as a software blog post.  Update 5/26: Wade completed the second blog post about the cabinet's construction, as well as a YouTube video.

There are more pictures on the Visitor Page. 

3/17/2013

Chris M's arcade
Chris sent me the result of his work that he produced during his final year at University studying Robotics in the UK.  From his email:

" I had the opportunity to build something on my placement
year, I ambitiously asked to build a MAME cabinet, which I was
surprisingly received the reply "If you supply the plans than OK".

As I was also paying for accommodation and student fees with my earnings, I had to create the cab on a very tight budget. It was at the company also that I managed to gain possession of most of the materials from industrial size off cuts, the speakers and the monitor for free as the company was about to throw them out. As well as the paint as the cab is painted in company colours. The finished cab totaled for £300 (about $450) and took about two weeks to build.

Extra features if the cab include if you look closely at the photos you notice a line halfway down the cabinet, that is because although the cab moves on castors, for ease of transport the cab can be separated in two. Both halves are then fixed together by two panels that each half are screwed on to. The panels also hold the control panel to the cab by friction (no screws or glue required).
The light for the marquee is a bathroom strip light that is activated with the monitor via a smart power adapted controlled by activation of the PC where the switch is on a shelf right behind the coin door. On that shelf I also keep the keyboard and spare mouse that came free with the PC."

Very nice work.  There are more pictures on the Visitor Page. 

1/28/2013

"Blue Meanie" as Arcade Machine sculpture
Phil Nolan created a nice 3D rendition of Scott's "Blue Meanie" cabinet, and added it to the Shapeways site where you can order a physical copy in sandstone.  It is 2.133 w x 6.194 d x 3.928 h.  It looks very cool so I thought I would share.