Building My Arcade Machine log

ondafly

heres a diagram of the 30mm

kevin2me

Hey Keith,

Great thread going on here,
i must put my 2 cabs on separate threads next week and start few threads.

Thanks I bought those chrome leds buttons off Keith
I used have a Button Kit with same buttons in Cocktail Cab below:
but only used 6 of 17 buttons, so have full set again now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK0hzOA17WA

They lit up buttons to use per game, and when not in a game,
they do a show for u, diff sequences during boot up and in frontend.
Got an LED Board of gremlin solutions to do this.
So definitely do similar on upright cab.
Its 2 player with xarcade trackball in middle withs its own 3 buttons.
So ill maybe have it yellow red blue 2 times per player
and white LEDs across top of CP.

Best of luck below,
looking fwd to updates Mate,
Kev

PS I used flat drill bit 28mm for holes,
xarcade buttons fitting just right, but chrome ones didnt synch perfect bar top 2mm on them has counter sunk part thats wider tahn top,
but once tighten up underneath, its doesnt budge one bit, so thats handy out.
Also xarcade werent long enough for my 18mm MDF CP, where as had no such problems with chrome ones,
save me them getting a router

Optimus Prime

Thanks to Steve_SI I have all the themes and preview videos for Hyperspin setup now.

And with EnterNows help got a couple of those roms i couldnt get going working.

Tomorrow i start priming and painting the wood.

I created a menu theme for Hyperspin using the graphic im going to use for my control panel and marquee. You can have a look here if your interested.

MAME Theme

Also i created a Jukebox menu theme for hyperspin too. this one will use a video if you name if jukebox.flv and place it in the main menu\videos folder. Im trying to find a compilation video of music but cant seem to get one anywhere. you can download that here if you want it.

Jukebox Theme

Optimus Prime

Ive primed all the bits except the sides and control panel now, going to do them the weekend and let them dry out for a week, then next week light sand them and paint them black.

I also bought 12 Blue Happ buttons and 2 white one\two player ones off Gremlin solutions which have arrived to replace the light up ones i sold off. Of course they are a slightly different coloured Blue not to the Ball top on my joysticks which is annoying! But ill deal with that down the road.

Im going to rebuild the pc with windows 7 this week too, nearly there now, rolling on near 8 Months since i started this!

ondafly

keithgeo wrote: »

Im going to rebuild the pc with windows 7 this week too, nearly there now, rolling on near 8 Months since i started this!

it will be worth it in the end !

Optimus Prime

Ive a different pc setup now because the lag in Hyperspin on loading themes was really starting to annoy me!

I know have a dual core 3.0ghz pc with 8Gigs of ram and a 1gig graphics card running Windows7 64bit on it and its working great, no delay in the intro video or themes loading. (Thanks to Steve and Enternow for the help on this issue)

FYI if you are setting up hyperspin and have just rebuilt your pc, the keyboard buttons dont work right for some reason in Hyperspin until you install your sound card drivers. pressing esc to exit seemed to be just pausing the game until i realised it was in fact just not displaying the "yes, no" exit confirmation. when i installed the sound card drivers it worked fine. also to note when enabling game saves, when you edit the hyperlaunch.afk file dont forget to compile it aftwards or else you will spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the games are not saving!

So i think thats the pc side of things finally setup. It is possible to bootskin Windows7 easily enough, for now i just removed the default Windows7 bootscreen by editing the boot up options in msconfig. Its just a black screen at the minute, and i changed the logon screen to black too. It still says "welcome" and "Windows7" on the bottom when logging in and i dont think you can rid of that but at this stage ill leave it for now and look into it more later. I just hid the taskbar and desktop icons and have Hyperspin in the Startup folder.

I was going to remove the windows shell from loading in the registry and change it to hyperspin.exe but that creates another issue for me. My mini wireless keyboard that im going to use for the jukebox has volume controls on it, but if you dont load the windows shell then it doesnt allow you to change the volume as its loaded with windows. Doh, so hiding windows instead of stopping it completly seems to be the only way to go.

So just the practical things left now of Priming, Painting, assembling and wiring it all up. Maybe in another 3 months ill be finished! I have to order that artwork too.

Andrew76

I can't remember if you already posted the answer but did you find the exact cause of the lag? 8GB of RAM and a 1GB gfx card seems crazy just to run Hyperspin and Mame. Is the card just needed for Hyperspin and loading themes/vids?
I'm wondering how the Ultimarc PCI-e card with its 512mb will work with it.

Optimus Prime

Mame and everything else ran fine, just the video launching Hyperspin was jumpy and the theme loading too. I think it was down to the graphics card in the other pc to be honest, it wasnt great only a 256 or something. This one also has a bit of video memory too which could have helped. Also i noticed on Hyperspin, when you first install it no problems with the themes, BUT if you remove some of the emulators from the main wheel, ie your just left with two say MAME and a Jukebox, then it becomes very laggy. I think its because it repeats just those two, like you have on the wheel, mame, jukebox, mame, jukebox etc. for some reason it seems to cause an issue.

In Fairness, if i had issues with this pc with its 8gig of ram etc i would have smashed it off a wall haha.

Optimus Prime

Just a quick update on this.. finished the control panel, heres a couple of images..





Just have to order the art, finish the priming\painting, put it together, get a marquee light, and wire it up!!

Hygro

are you ordering the x-arcade artwork?

Optimus Prime

Managed to get a bit done on this today, I sanded down all the bits ive already primed, then sanded and primed the two side panels. Sanding between each coat really makes a difference, you can feel its much smoother after a light sanding.

Hygro

hand sander or some sort of electrical sander?

nacimroc

Was just out in the garage all evening doing the exact same thing! I'm on coat no. 6 and there is nothing more I hate in the world than sanding! You are 100% about the sanding between coats! It makes all the difference. A nice wax at the end brings it up perfect.

You do get an enormous sense of satisfaction when you see a lovely 'piano black' finish though!

Optimus Prime

Hygro wrote: »

hand sander or some sort of electrical sander?

Hand sanding, going old skool, like Our Lord. :pac:

Quandary

Very Impressive so far OP.

Hope it all comes together for ya!

Optimus Prime

Right, quick update, although theres not much to tell!

Im still sanding and painting the thing whenever i get a chance, its taking an age to do all of it!

Ive cut two circular holes in panel that holds the speakers, I measured them up with the speaker grills i bought of ebay then just cut them out. The speaker covers are nice and simple, a circle that you screw into the board and then the grill mesh thing clips on top and covers the whole thing so its perfect.

I just bought 2 lenghts of Marquee retainer off ebay too, i was trying to figure out for ages how the hell you hold a marquee in place neatly then i discovered these retainers on the happ site originally. they are a must have for installing your marquee.

The only things left i need to buy now is the artwork, which i will be getting final measurements for and sending off next week to be printed. And a bunch of screws and stuff to put the thing together and then a light to go inside to light up the marquee which i will prob just get in b&Q, oh and as im typing this i just remembered i need to get a bunch of plexi glass and some black sheet to make a bezel out of... i guess there is still more to get than i thought!

ondafly

keithgeo wrote: »

a light to go inside to light up the marquee which i will prob just get in b&Q, oh and as im typing this i just remembered i need to get a bunch of plexi glass and some black sheet to make a bezel out of... i guess there is still more to get than i thought!

LED strip light is what you want for the marquee - I picked one up on some irish site for cheap enough. Plus side of using LED is not just the power, its the potential heat thats generated by a normal light, that could cause melty time :pac:

Plexi glass is readily available in BandQ

Black card A0 size can be bought in Easons

Optimus Prime

Cheers, i was wondering if easons would have that black card stuff, thanks for that!

Dont suppose you can remember where you got that led from?

ondafly

sure thing - i bought it from this crowd

http://loweledlighting.ie/

I can't seem to find the actual light I bought from them, it was quite small, probably 15 cm long. Maybe send them an email ?

Optimus Prime

Thanks a lot, ill check it out

safetyboy

Gonna start transforming my arcade into a mame arcade machine, so just bookmarking this thread

Optimus Prime

Must update it actually, been doind a LOT of sanding and priming the cab.

safetyboy

How much was the ArcadeVGA card and where did you get it from?

Optimus Prime

Got it from Ultimarc.com you will get the price on there, cant remember how much it was to be honest it was months ago when i bought it.

Optimus Prime

Finally put the last coat of primer on today! woot! Black paint next week, im going to pick up the pace on this as ive been dragging my feet on it lately. im not buying anymore retro games now until this is done!

Im going to order the artwork next week.

CathalDublin

Those Sanwa ball tops are brilliant sticks
I use them with octagonal resrtictors and extended shafts:D

Optimus Prime

haha, i have the long shafts myself. :pac:

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

haha, i have the long shafts myself. :pac:

Ehh Ehh

.

Myrddin

Between all the talk of woodies, long shafts, & the shmup porn thread title...I've to minimise boards every time someone walks past me!

Optimus Prime

haha its impossible to mention shaft or woody without drawing a comment around these parts! .. and rightly so in fairness..!

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Between all the talk of woodies, long shafts, & the shmup porn thread title...I've to minimise boards every time someone walks past me!

I was showing my girlfriend some website on my computer the other night when I got an email update from the boards forum, as you do.

The little preview window popped up in the corner of the screen as it does on outlook and I paid no attention to it. A few seconds later she asks "Whats shmup porn Steve?"

Took a few mins to explain it

.

Optimus Prime

I just ordered 60foot of Light Blue T-moulding. I have black already but decided to get the blue instead to match the buttons and ball top and it should fit in nicely with the colour of the artwork too.

Does anyone out there have any experience of trimming tmoulding if its a bit wider than the mdf? ive seen online using a stanley blade to do it, but i dont want to mess it up, how difficult is it to trim?

nacimroc

It can be done with a stanley knife and it turns out ok if you take your time and are very careful. But 1 slip and you slice too deep it will annoy you every time you see it especially around the screen (like I did).

I got the pack of stanley blades out of pound city. There are 2 in the pack that have really long blades about 6 inches. These are great as you can align it along the mdf and it slices flush with your wood and gives less of a chance of cutting deep if you know what i mean.

Optimus Prime

yep i can picture what you are saying alright, might wrap something around the blade so it doesnt scrape the mdf as im sliding it along. thanks for that, the picture in my head was trying to hold a stanley blade in my hand and keep it steady while moving along it!

Optimus Prime

Ordered my Marquee and Control panel art on Monday off Gameongraphix ! Im getting this finished in the next month or so, its taking too long!

Pyongyang

Steve SI wrote: »

I was showing my girlfriend some website on my computer the other night when I got an email update from the boards forum, as you do.

The little preview window popped up in the corner of the screen as it does on outlook and I paid no attention to it. A few seconds later she asks "Whats shmup porn Steve?"

Took a few mins to explain it

.

Nothing wrong with some good old fashioned SHMUP ACTION! :pac:

Optimus Prime

I just got a ups email saying gameongraphix have shipped my arcade art, happy days right? Not so fast there chief. I read the shipping address and here is the last two lines.

ATHY, CO KILDARE KILDARE
ISRAEL

Great.

If spent the last two hours trying to contact them, but they have no phone number on the site. you can only log a "ticket".

I checked my account on the site, and the confirmation email i got when i ordered and ALL of them have shipping and billing address as Ireland so its a mistake on their end.

James Howlett

keithgeo wrote: »

I just got a ups email saying gameongraphix have shipped my arcade art, happy days right? Not so fast there chief. I read the shipping address and here is the last two lines.

ATHY, CO KILDARE KILDARE
ISRAEL

F**k. That.
Fingers crossed it gets sorted promptly man.

Optimus Prime

I sent them loads of emails to any address i could find on the site, also logged a "ticket" witht them. if it doesnt arrive ill be looking for them to print it again, if not ill be getting my money back through paypal. i dont really want go that route though because i dont think there are many other sites out there that print arcade artwork?

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

I sent them loads of emails to any address i could find on the site, also logged a "ticket" witht them. if it doesnt arrive ill be looking for them to print it again, if not ill be getting my money back through paypal. i dont really want go that route though because i dont think there are many other sites out there that print arcade artwork?

Do UPS have an option to change delivery address/destination on the tracking page?
I know some couriers do (DHL anyway)and I've used it in the past. Basically the next place its scanned in they should change the address on the package if instructed to.

Worth checking out.


.

Optimus Prime

Had a look there, doesnt seem to be that option with UPS and they have recieved the package now according to the UPS site, so they didnt catch it before they shipped, they didnt see my emails. i opened a ticket on the gameongraphix site, no reply yet.

Just ordered a coin door there off arcademachines.ie too, purely for asthetic purposes. and my blue t-moulding arrived today.

not sure what to do about this wrong address, maybe ill just hold on for a while and wait for a reply, i paid with paypal so i can always put a claim in.

nacimroc

keithgeo wrote: »

I sent them loads of emails to any address i could find on the site, also logged a "ticket" witht them. if it doesnt arrive ill be looking for them to print it again, if not ill be getting my money back through paypal. i dont really want go that route though because i dont think there are many other sites out there that print arcade artwork?

I always got mine printed at my local sign shop. Its the exact same and a control panel artwork was a tenner. I get the marquee printed onto white translucent perspex and cut to size for 15 quid aswell. I could never figure out how those online companies charge so much and why so many people use them.

Optimus Prime

Dunno if i have a local sign shop, ive never seen on to be honest? is this a place like snap printers etc?

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

Had a look there, doesnt seem to be that option with UPS and they have recieved the package now according to the UPS site, so they didnt catch it before they shipped, they didnt see my emails. i opened a ticket on the gameongraphix site, no reply yet.

Just ordered a coin door there off arcademachines.ie too, purely for asthetic purposes. and my blue t-moulding arrived today.

not sure what to do about this wrong address, maybe ill just hold on for a while and wait for a reply, i paid with paypal so i can always put a claim in.

I think you need to forget about the place you got the artwork from just for the moment and focus on the delivery company, in this case UPS. If you ring them or contact them via email etc they should be able to help you out.
Even if it means sending the package to Ireland from their centre in Israel or wherever it lands first.

Try the Irish UPS contacts first and see if they can sort something out.
http://www.ups.com/content/ie/en/contact/index.html?WT.svl=Footer

They have systems in place to deal with these sorts of problems so the sooner you contact them directly the better.



.

Optimus Prime

haha i just rang that UPS crowd, and its not UPS its posted with haha its USPS! different company!

Steve X2

keithgeo wrote: »

haha i just rang that UPS crowd, and its not UPS its posted with haha its USPS! different company!

Ahh, well they do have an option to change address or forward to another.

I noticed the option the other week when I got something sent from Amazon via USPS. It was Amazon UK so I was surprised when the sent me an email saying my item is coming from the USA. Took 1 week to arrive by the way(medium size packet, iPad case).

.

Optimus Prime

ill see if i can find anything on the site, everything there though seems to relate to internal US postal service.

nacimroc

keithgeo wrote: »

Dunno if i have a local sign shop, ive never seen on to be honest? is this a place like snap printers etc?

Ya! Anywhere like that! Most towns have one. I give my local one a disc with the photoshop image on it. They can do sticky back or front and a fraction the price.

Optimus Prime

anyone able to point me to a website i can get wire off for wiring up the buttons, joysticks etc. i was reading there a recomendation on another site to get stranded 18-22 gauge. any suggestions?

Andrew76

keithgeo wrote: »

anyone able to point me to a website i can get wire off for wiring up the buttons, joysticks etc. i was reading there a recomendation on another site to get stranded 18-22 gauge. any suggestions?

Try arcadeshop.de, Ultimarc or Jammaboards. If your buttons are Sanwa or Seimitsu then you'll need those .110 female quick disconnect terminals, these chaps.