ArcadeCab

12/28/06

Cabinet is being primed
Scott sent me word that he, despite the entire family being under the weather for the last week, has been able to start painting the cabinet pieces.  He spent some number of hours over the weekend sanding and generally spending some "quality time" with his soon-to-be-assembled cabinet.  He has finished applying a coat of primer to all of the sides  and plans to apply the first coat of gloss black to the interior sides later tonight.   Another last minute item, the marquee light, found its way into the pile of parts. 

 

Alan's Cabinet
Alan Cudmor sent me a picture (and link to his site) of his just completed cabinet.  Allan and I have communicated several times in the last two months as he began to plan for his cabinet build and the eventual completion.  He has done himself proud.  He did a great job!  I love the side art, which he informed me was purchased at EBgames. The cabinet's design is based on my newest set of plans, with some construction bits from the first set.  He has created a fantastic slideshow of the construction process on his site.  Despite having built more than my share of cabinets, I still sat glued to my monitor as the show progressed, waiting to see how he did various bits.  Very cool!   Sit through the show and check out his evolving toy room.  I've added additional pictures to the Visitor's Page.

 

12/23/06

Child's Play 2006 Charity
Here is a charity that was begun by gamers, funded by gamers.  From their site:

"Since 2003, gamers have banded together through registered Seattle-based charity, Child's Play. Over a million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children's hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

We collect no administrative fees or other charges, 100% of all gifts and donations go directly to our partner hospitals, to help make life a little brighter for a sick child.

This year, we have continued expanding across the country and the globe. With over 25 partner hospitals and more arriving every month, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child's Play hospitals everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon or DStore will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own.

When gamers give back, it makes a difference!"

12/22/06

Cabinet Plans Update
I spent some time the other day creating place holders for each of the remaining cabinet plan pages.  As a result, all the pages appear to be there now but from Painting on, they are mostly blank.  In the next few weeks, I hope to rectify this situation and complete the pages.  Keep the comments coming.

12/19/06

Andrew's Update
It seems that Andrew P decided he had more time on his hands this week. After demonstrating he could build a very nice cabinet in just three days, he goes and sends me a follow-up yesterday. In seems the custom control panel he had hoped to build "down the road" to replace the X-arcade shifted to the top of his list and he knocked it out in a two-day period. He "ripped all the controls out of the X-arcade unit, then added a translucent blue Imperial trackball from DreamArcades. (He) rigged up a green led found in some old pc parts to light the ball." Great work Andrew! The panel looks great, making the cabinet look perfect. There's just nothing like having a trackball on your cabinet.

12/16/06

Cabinet Update
The door and speaker grills were cut out yesterday.  Scott will be stopping by tomorrow to pick up the pieces and begin painting.  Expect an update to the plan pages soon.

Very cool new product
Whammoed, a BYOAC contributor, has released a great new product.  It is named the Powermite DD Power Management Solution.  From his sales page:

"Powermite DD is a power management module for tapping into your PC's power supply. In its most basic form its a great way to route 5v and 12v lines to peripherals. It has 2 terminal block positions for 5v, 2 terminal block positions for 12v and 4 terminal block positions for ground. More advanced users can use its transistor/relay combo to switch on and off things like a monitor, marquee light, or Q-Bert knocker. Can be set to take HI 5v sources for switching like a jumper from the 5v terminal block or an output from the parallel port. Can also be configured for LO sources like an LED driver board or certain keyboard encoders. LED indicators light up when relays are activated. Check out the video where the unit is configured to turn on a lava lamp when the computer turns on. You can easily turn any old power strip into a "smart" power strip. Can be mounted to wood or even in a pc case using pcb mounting feet."

What does this mean exactly?  For Scott and I, it means we can attach one of these to the PC's power supply and drive the coin door lights as well as the trackball LEDs, simply and elegantly.  There is far more possible with this unit than this but that will work for us right now.  Give it a look.

12/14/06

Another Cabinet Added
Andrew Pierce sent me a very nice email and pictures of his recently completed cabinet. He completed the cabinet in just three days, which is incredible!  From his email: 

"I've never been accused of being much of a craftsman though. Didn't let that stop me. All in all I think my cab turned out fairly nice for my lack of woodworking skill. Only thing I goofed on was the design around the keyboard drawer, didn't make the "arms" tall enough for the whole drawer so it ended up being on the curve. ...
The whole project seemed to go really fast once I had all the parts in on hand; about 2 weeks of parts
collecting/ordering. Three days from start to completion and, yes, that even includes stain and varnishing steps....
Again thank you SOO much for the plans and wonderful site! If I hadn't happened upon this site I'd never have dreamed of trying this type of project...... Now I'm contemplating a custom control layout
next. I've already ordered the imperial trackball ps2 unit and I'm planning on ripping the sticks/buttons from my x-arcade for the rest. :)"

Nice work! The varnish shows off the oak to great effect. I still cannot get over the speed of this project.  Maybe he can give me some pointers.  He attached a list of materials used, which I have included with his pictures on the Visitor Page as well as to the right.

 

12/13/06

Cabinet Update
I hope to have the door cut out Friday, along with the coindoor hole. The current plan is for Scott to stop by later this weekend with a van to pick up the cabinet pieces and take to his home. He'll be commandeering his garage to paint the cabinet pieces, then we'll be assembling the cabinet. It'll get moved to its final resting place where it will await the control panel and the finishing touches. Scott ordered his marquee which looks very cool to me. The Christmas completion date won't be met but we'd rather have it done right than rush to meet this arbitrary due date.
He and his family were over last weekend and his little boy played on my cabinet for several hours; to say he is eager for his own cabinet is an understatement.

 

Cabinet Update 2
Scott showed up tonight with speaker covers.  I guess he hit multiple stores, to no avail.  Seems plain old speaker grills are no longer cool these days.  Last stop was the local Circuit City, where Doug hooked him up with exactly what we needed.  Seems the phrase Mame Cabinet is a magic phrase.  Thanks Doug and hope you enjoy the site.    

12/10/06

Stephen P's Cabinet added to the site
Stephen P sent me some pictures of his completed cabinet.  We communicated some in the early stages of his project and I was glad to see the completed work.  His cabinet, according to Stephen,  "has a VS the Goonies theme with custom sideart, and a custom gameex frontend theme.  The controller has street fighter artwork that I designed myself, and it was constructed by BYOAC member Timoe, who was great (to work with)."  I like the uniqgue theme of the cabinet as I loved the film.  Great work!  He has additional pictures here as well as on the Visitor's Page.

 

12/3/06

Another shop day down
Despite having an ice storm and no power for twenty-four hours, Scott and I were able to get together and spend a nice day in the shop working on his cabinet.  It was 20 degrees outside but the power tools kept us plenty warm in the garage.  We were able to accomplish a lot, despite a few setbacks near the end of the day.  And no injuries this time!  I am working hard on the web page additions so expect to see them very soon.  We still have to build the door and the control panel.  Scott hopes to come by and load up the cabinet pieces in the next week so he can get everything painted at his house.  Then we'll assemble and locate it into its final resting place.  He is still making revisions to the artwork, which I cannot wait to see on the cabinet.

Cabinet Update
I've had time today to get the new update out there.  I will be polishing it up as I find errors- but not today.  Feel free to check out the new pages.

12/2/06

Ultra-Trackball Controller prices reduced for Christmas
In the spirit of the season, the Ultra-Trackball Control Panel has been drastically reduced for the month of December. Normally sold for $135.95, while supplies last, it will be let go for $99.95 (+S/H); a huge  savings! Quantities are quite limited so get your order in soon. They make great Christmas gifts. Check them out in the Store.