Weeders Mame bartop Project.

weeder

inspired by ciders bartop thread and an interest ive had in the subject for a while now ive finally decided to go ahead and throw together a small cab for home use.

Ive been scouring the net for a few days now and based on hardware I have here and the fact I have never built anything out of wood Ive decided to base it on the happy hour crt bartop

http://web.archive.org/web/20051108063625/www.skum.org/bartop/finish.htm

and since the plans on the project are basically unreadable and the autocad file is gone im going to design my own plans based on it but using some dimensions from this bartop here
http://bartoparcade.katorlegaz.com/

Im using a 17 inch crt as opposed to the 14 in the happy hour so that gives me a bit more width for a nicer control panel, What ive got in mind is either a 2 player 6 button fighting setup (which might be cramped with 2 people) or a 1 player 6 button fighting setup with a second stick incorporated into it somewhere(i sure do love smash tv)

No marquee you ask? well i have basically spent the past 2 days arguing with myself over wether or not to put one in and its come down to: Ive done very little woodworking in my life so i want to keep it simple. When im building my second cab(and im sure i will eventually if this goes my way) ill stick on a marquee but for now its not needed and will only add trouble for a n00b like myself

so thats where I am with this now, comments and criticism welcome:D

Optimus Prime

Nicework, bunch of threads springing up here today about people building cabs! Im still working on my first, standard upright cab and ive already started my second, the ikea cocktail thanks to cidermans thread!

weeder

in the hour since posting this I decided to load up sketchup, this is what ive come back with.



want to make a few changes like having the panels sunk into the unit a bit but thats the general beginnings of the cab design

EDIT:
A Couple of hours later im sitting with a design i can pull off easily enough and happy enough with

changes:
Flattened the control panel and left the panel blank as the cad wasnt having any of it with me trying to put a larger cp on
incorporated a 3/4 inch offset all around
tilted screen area.



opinions welcomed

weeder

time for an update.
realised that 30 1/4 inches deep was ****ing huge so ive been scouring the local sell and buy pages on facebook for the last day and ive come up with a 15 inch lcd instead, even easier is that I now have some premade plans to work off of. going to build a "weecade"

http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/otherweecades.htm
having the timber cut for me on wednesday and I just might order my CP bits and bobs tonight.

so to sum up an utterly frustrating day where i had planned to do make a start on the woodwork at last some progress is being made

Ronan|Raven

Looks great - I would love to build something similar as I have 0 space for anything larger

You have inspired me to waste the few euros I have left!

Jack burton

AH ****!

I can actully fit this in my room. Time to get planning

jimi_t2

Anyone know anywhere in Dublin I could cut the CAD plans for a bartop out on MDF or cheap wood? (Or, more to the point, what it would cost?)

Elbow

jimi_t2 wrote: »

Anyone know anywhere in Dublin I could cut the CAD plans for a bartop out on MDF or cheap wood? (Or, more to the point, what it would cost?)

I'm a good spin from dublin but if your stuck i can do them for ya

Jack burton

jimi_t2 wrote: »

Anyone know anywhere in Dublin I could cut the CAD plans for a bartop out on MDF or cheap wood? (Or, more to the point, what it would cost?)

http://bartoparcade.katorlegaz.com/

get your tri square and ruler out :pac:

jimi_t2

Jack burton wrote: »

http://bartoparcade.katorlegaz.com/

get your tri square and ruler out :pac:

I've only a sabre saw suitable for rough cutting unfortunately.

I'm a good spin from dublin but if your stuck i can do them for ya

Ah you're very good but I'm sure I can get them done a bit closer to home! B&Q apparently do it but I'm currently searching for a CNC machine that I can use in college

weeder

im having a friend cut them out with a jigsaw. today infact pc is mroe a less ready to go, monitor is modified for wallmounting,just need to build the yoke and buy buttons now

jimi_t2

weeder wrote: »

im having a friend cut them out with a jigsaw. today infact pc is mroe a less ready to go, monitor is modified for wallmounting,just need to build the yoke and buy buttons now

You might be so good as to put up the total price + shipping and where you got it from. What are you going for, 12 buttons + 2 sticks?

weeder

check out www.arcademachines.ie spoke to the guy on the phone, he seemed very sound. going to order 10 buttons and 2 sticks when the time comes, looking at 2 sticks,10 buttons and an ipac2 basically my setup will be good for twin stick shooters and fighting games, single player only.

jimi_t2

Right so

x1 iPac 2,
x12 Coloured Push Buttons,
x2 Player 1/2 buttons,
x2 American Style Joysticks
+12.50 shipping
===========
90 euro off http://www.arcademachines.ie/

Might just get a secondhand 2player X-Arcade stick tbh. More or less the same price

weeder

x arcade website
2 Joysticks, 20 Buttons for 40 dollars, includes player 1 and 2



cheapest ipac option is 39 dollars with free airmail.

jimi_t2

weeder wrote: »

x arcade website
2 Joysticks, 20 Buttons for 40 dollars, includes player 1 and 2



cheapest ipac option is 39 dollars with free airmail.

So thats $79 plus 21.5% VAT (as you'll almost certainly be caught at customs). More or less the same price with a longer wait. If I can nab a second hand stick for 80-90 I'd say I'll go for it.

weeder

fair enough, not for me though

Elbow

jimi_t2 wrote: »

I've only a sabre saw suitable for rough cutting unfortunately.
Ah you're very good but I'm sure I can get them done a bit closer to home! B&Q apparently do it but I'm currently searching for a CNC machine that I can use in college

No bother

On a lighter note though if anyone around cork (or willing to travel to cork) is looking to get some parts cut & CNC'd get in touch. (Will work for beer )

weeder

right the panels are cut, this thing is actually shaping up, pics tomorrow.


one of the reasons i got someone else to do it was that big curve. i know how to mark em out now so its not too bad, its actually pretty easy to mark everything so if anyone gets stuck gimmie a shout on here and ill explain it for you

on a lighter note, the monitor i was using lacked any sort of vesa holes so i mounted it in a ciderman style via the holes in the back of the monitor

Jack burton

Well I'm after digging out and old pc, dual core and 1gb of ram, which should do just grand, have a really basic graphics card aswell that shoud be fine.

I have an 17" lcd to go into it aswell so i should be starting one next week

might need some help though with the arcade sticks and buttons etc



Might go with the Weecade design but just go for single player 6 button, would 2 player 6 button be too cramped?

weeder

Jack burton wrote: »

Well I'm after digging out and old pc, dual core and 1gb of ram, which should do just grand, have a really basic graphics card aswell that shoud be fine.

I have an 17" lcd to go into it aswell so i should be starting one next week

might need some help though with the arcade sticks and buttons etc



Might go with the Weecade design but just go for single player 6 button, would 2 player 6 button be too cramped?

if you goto the other projects link on his main page there is one or 2. looks a bit too cramped to me, theres a guy on the BYOAC building a 7 button 1 stick weecade.for fighters. personally im going to go for the single player fighting setup, but with a second stick on the right hand of the buttons to allow me to play twin stick shooters aswell, smash tv ftw



on a related note: the cooling duct on the dell looks really annoying to transplant into the cab without me making a mess of the back panel, going to use the AMD instead, at least with it i can take the chassis for the motherboard out of the case and mount that to the cab without mounting the mobo direct to the timber.
going to study the dell again and make my mind up.

Just need an Os recommended to me now, xp SHOULD run fine on 128Mb of ram until i upgrade it to 512Mb or a gig

Jack burton

Yeha I think I might go for a very comfy 1 player option instead of a awkard 2 player setup.

Optimus Prime

jimi_t2 wrote: »

So thats $79 plus 21.5% VAT (as you'll almost certainly be caught at customs). More or less the same price with a longer wait. If I can nab a second hand stick for 80-90 I'd say I'll go for it.

Ive ordered about 350 dollars of stuff since xmas including ipac, arcadevga buttons and jstiqs and not once got caught by customs, then again i may have been lucky!

weeder

well the cab is half assembled, nothing much else to report today as im quiet sick and aidan has my photos, was offered a free laptop and desktop earlier so buying the monitor needent have been done now. oh well

jimi_t2

weeder wrote: »

well the cab is half assembled, nothing much else to report today as im quiet sick and aidan has my photos, was offered a free laptop and desktop earlier so buying the monitor needent have been done now. oh well

Pics or STFU

Found a Centrino HP laptop of mid 2000 vintage there down the side of a cabinet there yday - no one seems to know where it came from but it seems me aul lad spilled a cup of tea and b0rked the keyboard on it and just forgot about it... New donor!

weeder

woodwork finished

pics uploading.



assembly from the other night

"ciderman" type mountings

todays work

as it is now.



So whats left, cut out the vents and cable holes on the back panel, lots of sanding, get some glass for the bezel, paint and or vinyl the unit.


then its time for hardware fun

Jack burton

Looks nice, what size monitor is that? 17?

weeder

15.4 widescreen, all i had at hand, nice monitor too,

Optimus Prime

You not putting TMolding around the edges? You would been to do that before you go any further with it to avoid issues.

CiDeRmAn

I have to say, it looks superb so far, can't wait to see the finished article.
Onward with homemade arcade cabs!

Are you going to limit your number of available roms?
Create a series of custom rom lists to flick through perhaps, so you have the right ones to hand when you are in the mood for the classics, or shooters and so on?

Jack burton

I'm pickup up some MDF and a new jigsaw tomorrow

I was looking at the weecade and I'd love to do the control panel in 1.5mm steel like he did but it would be so much effort i'll have to go with wood

pdbhp

Wow that cab looks amazing, the woodworking is spot on and it actually looks like a cab that you'd see in an arcade. Really impressive:D

weeder

keithgeo wrote: »

You not putting TMolding around the edges? You would been to do that before you go any further with it to avoid issues.

seems to me that in the long run tmolding a 12mm cabinet isnt really worth it, specialy when so far my expenses are a sheet of mdf and a monitor

Optimus Prime

I disagree, tmolding around the edges completes something like this i think and its not that expensive honestly, i paid about16 quid for 40 foot of it and you only need roughly less than 20 for that. it looks great as is dont get me wrong! i just think a nice bit of tmolding around the edges would really finish it off.

Jack burton

How easy is it to install t moulding?, I thought to do it properly you'd have to use 2 halfs of the original width , like 2 layers of 6mm instead of 12mm, to get a good result with it

Optimus Prime

not sure what you mean there to be honest, i have a cab cut out with 3\4 inch mdf. so i bought 3\4inch tmodling and a 1/16 slot cutter to route the slot. the tmolding is the same width as my mdf, and the bottom part of the T will be banged down into the 1\16inch slot cut by the slot cutter. easy.

Jack burton

Oh right you used a slot cutter, I saw a picture and for some reason I thought the slot was the joint for 2 thinner pieces of mdf. My head is like scrambled egg today

weeder

keithgeo wrote: »

I disagree, tmolding around the edges completes something like this i think and its not that expensive honestly, i paid about16 quid for 40 foot of it and you only need roughly less than 20 for that. it looks great as is dont get me wrong! i just think a nice bit of tmolding around the edges would really finish it off.

I will T mould my next cabinet, the guy from arcademachines.ie actually told me if i built it in 18mm he would supply the T molding for free with my order but if i was going 12 that i might aswell just finish the edging with a bull nose router piece, im just going to finish it like the original with some different artwork, same high glossy finish though, im thinking black and orange edging, failing that im tempted to wrap some parts(like the cp) with a carbon fibre vinyl wrap but id rather stick with paint for handiness sake

Optimus Prime

Jack burton wrote: »

Oh right you used a slot cutter, I saw a picture and for some reason I thought the slot was the joint for 2 thinner pieces of mdf. My head is like scrambled egg today

ah right, no you use a "router" and buy the right size slot cutter, then bang the tmolding into it with a rubber hammer.

Jack burton

Ah right,

Well i just got a 19" lcd for a tener off, JB strikes again, now to get measuring

weeder

speaking of monitors, the one ive put in is an absolute ball of scutter. horrible viewing angle in dos, no hdd to test the system yet so it might be ok when theres actually colours on the screen but if its as bad as it is now ill be putting in another monitor, good thing ive a free lcd of unknown description coming because this one is seriously bad

weeder

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I have to say, it looks superb so far, can't wait to see the finished article.
Onward with homemade arcade cabs!

Are you going to limit your number of available roms?
Create a series of custom rom lists to flick through perhaps, so you have the right ones to hand when you are in the mood for the classics, or shooters and so on?

havent actually looked at mame yet bar running some roms without a frontend but that sounds like an idea,

CiDeRmAn

Well, I will recommend Mala, very adaptable but hard to get a start in.
But once you do you can make it do allsorts.
It will not only run Mame but most other Emus and also can be configured to run most applications too.
There are whole sites devoted to this sort of thing, thing to do is have a look at some finished projects and check out what they used and if it is to your liking, follow their plan, that way you won't have to waste time, and believe me you can waste oodles of time on this stuff.

And custom gamelists are a godsend, stopping you from flicking up and down a never ending list of thousands of games.
I mean still have the option to look at the full list by all means but have a classics list, shooters list and so on.

weeder

Right update, spent the day ripping apart some computer speakers and remounting in the cab, sound is go now this is where i hit a wall, probabaly somthing simple, on both my main pc and the cab the sound in roms has been VERY choppy, anyone any ideas?

CiDeRmAn

Sounds like a conflict perhaps?
What version of Mame are you using?
Here's a link
http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php/FAQ:Audio#Why_is_the_sound_skipping_or_being_choppy.3F_How_do_I_fix_it.3F

Remember, Google is our friend!
Share and Enjoy!

Optimus Prime

dont some games need the sound samples because the sound wasnt emulated right?

Jack burton

Hey what size did you use for the inner mouldings

1"x1"?

weeder

yup, cut down a 2x2 on the table saw

Jack burton

Lovely, I'm just going off in a minute to get some more stuff, I'll pick up a length. No table saw for me though

weeder

nice one, looking forward to yer updates.

CiDeRmAn

Some games need sample sets, depends on the version of Mame you are using, later the version the more sound hardware is emulated properly and so instead of a sample you need to add a new file or two to the rom zip.
If you go to Mame World they have links to folk with collections of great quality samples, thats how I finally got Donkey Kong and Galaga to work properly.

Use RomChecker to audit the rom files against your chosen version of Mame, it's tell you which files are missing in each rom zip and all you need to do is google the missing file and either replace the rom zip or add the missing file to the existing rom zip.