Arcade Talk 24/7/365

MrVestek

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Build a second one for vertical only stuff

This one was enough of a pain in the arse ;-) Although... I wonder if the driver screen flip would help with such a scenario.

CiDeRmAn

Afaik you can set up games, individually, with screen rotate options, via the cfg of Mame.

MrVestek

I know that but I was wondering if the built in Windows screen flip that's in some drivers would allow it to look more authentic. I dunno...

CiDeRmAn

Achilles wrote: »

I know that but I was wondering if the built in Windows screen flip that's in some drivers would allow it to look more authentic. I dunno...

Ah, you are determined to break it...
Why take the easy path when you can banjax the whole thing instead!
Lesson learned by pc tinkerers no where.

MrVestek

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Ah, you are determined to break it...
Why take the easy path when you can banjax the whole thing instead!
Lesson learned by pc tinkerers no where.

Ahh I don't care I don't even like shmups anyway!

o1s1n

So I got a big ass pile of PCBs from Mitch (cheers man!). Some working, some not.

There's a CPS1 King of Dragons board in there with glitchy sprites. I swapped the game board with another CPS1 mainboard but it had the same glitches. So the issue is with the game board itself.

Had a look at it and noticed something - a battery!

I remember hearing that there were a handful of CPS 1.5 boards with suicide batteries. Looked this up and it's on the list! Hurrah! So should be able to phoenix that one

MrVestek

More work done last night. Had no glue gun to hand but did manage to get my hands on some sticks of hot glue... Using it with a lighter seems to have done the job anyway!

Sticking the power button into place:



Gluing the 'front' panel I salvaged from my old PC case to it's relevant holes. To my surprise this is actually holding very well:


The back panel as it looks now:


The bezel is now light proof after it's eighth coat of spray paint (if I was doing this again I'd probably just save myself the hassle and use black board instead):


Tried it with the painted surface facing out which was a better fit but didn't seem very authentic to me:


Flipped it around so that the reflective part of the plexi is facing outwards. It's not as good a fit for the visible parts of the plexi but it looks more 'arcade like' to me:


It's starting to really look the part now. I may remove the bezel later tonight and apply some black electrical tape around the visible parts of the monitor to make it look a little bit more flush.

Also whatever I was doing I managed to scratch some of the plexi as I was spraying it so it doesn't look perfect :-(

Still not bad. I have a spare cut of plexi if I decide to do it over anyway.

CiDeRmAn

How much has this project cost you so far?
Both in terms of € and hours of labour?

MrVestek

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

How much has this project cost you so far?
Both in terms of € and hours of labour?

I'd rather not think about it! I totted it up the other day and materials cost about €300 or so. Stuff like the screen, PSU and front panel were all salvaged from bits I had lying around. The MDF and getting someone else's designs was about €60, the motherboard, CPU and graphics card all came to about €50.

Plexi was €30 (I have loads of this left over btw if anybody wants to buy some off me) arcade controls etc were €50. Cold cathodes for the marquee lighting were €10, random bits and pieces like PCB feet, screws and hinges (which I ended up not using) and metal brackets etc probably all came to at least €20.

The reason that ended up costing so much was because I either bought the wrong length of screw or bought stuff that I had intended to use that I ended up not doing. Forstner drill bits were a further €10.

It's hard to calculate to be honest with you as I didn't inventory it at the time and just bought the parts as and when I needed them over the course of about three months or so.

I'd say all in all it cost between €250 and €300. I don't want to think about the labour involved, it has been a very fun project though.

All that's left now is the artwork and I'm pretty much done.

CiDeRmAn

You know my AWSD cost me €450.... just sayin.....
Oh, and I sold by BAS for €200....

MrVestek

I know that I could have just bought a cab, infact this project came about because I decided not to purchase a cab originally.

See the thing is I know that I will get much more enjoyment out of it knowing that I built it myself, I can feel proud having it on display and being able to tell people that I built it up myself from scratch.

More than that though... it has actually been fun doing this project and it has given me something to do over the past few months. I knew when I started that I'd end up spending the same amount on this as just purchasing a cab but I wanted to do it this way.

If I was doing it again I'd rather build a full sized cab than just simply purchasing my own, it seems kinda lazy in comparison.

Besides I've really increased my knowledge of electrical wiring and DIY by doing so, so that's always a plus!

Man hours were only about 12 hours or so, I spent about two hours a night on it here and there for the past month or so.

The Last Bandit

450 ? Damn didn't realise you could get them that cheap !!

Although Achillies can probably move his one around without too much difficulty

MrVestek

It is a little heavy but when on that old computer desk with castors on the bottom it's a breeze to move around.

Again though I have to say that this project has been really fun to build... and there's a certain kind of pride in knowing that you made it yourself.

Myrddin

Achilles wrote: »

If I was doing it again I'd rather build a full sized cab than just simply purchasing my own, it seems kinda lazy in comparison.

Nothing to do with laziness, it's authenticity you're paying for when buying a cab. Keith here who has built his own full size cab even says there's no comparison between the two, & that's not taking away from your own build. But I'll take an actual arcade cab over a diy box every time

The Last Bandit

Achilles wrote: »

Again though I have to say that this project has been really fun to build... and there's a certain kind of pride in knowing that you made it yourself.

As long as it doesn't appear on a shame mame cab build thread

MrVestek

EnterNow wrote: »

Nothing to do with laziness, it's authenticity you're paying for when buying a cab. Keith here who has built his own full size cab even says there's no comparison between the two, & that's not taking away from your own build. But I'll take an actual arcade cab over a diy box every time

So would I if I had the time or the space or the kind of funds.

I realise this unit probably cost as much if not more than some cabs I could have purchased but the saving grace for me was that I could get the parts in bits and pieces over the course of a few months so that I didn't have to take such a hit money wise.

That said though I'd much prefer an Atomiswave or something similar in the apartment.

Besides the girlfriend is happy to have the thing I built on display as a talking piece... she has already told me that if it was just some big cabinet that I bought to have there that she'd hate it.

Had to do something that would fit my situation though! I'm happy enough with it anyway!

Myrddin

Achilles wrote: »

So would I if I had the time or the space or the kind of funds.

Well time isn't an issue when buying a real cab, nor is the money as you've spent what Cidey spent on his AWSD. Space is the big one though, that's true. And you're right in that you will have gained a lot of info from wiring, to front end configs while building your bartop, which will always stand to you too.

Actually why was your AWSD so cheap Cidey? I thought they fetch a bit more than that?

CiDeRmAn

Ah, I wasn't criticising your work.
It's pretty great and a damn sight better than the Ikea cab I built, now living with Atavan, which produced great results with minimal effort.
A cab is fantastic but they do take a lot of room and are expensive.
My cab was pure luck, and it still needed a control panel, sticks and buttons and other stuff that would have driven the price up to closer to €600/700, closer to the typical price of a cheap AWSD.

Well done again on a lovely job.
Having a decently proportioned screen with the bezel hidden, a modest control panel and authentic buttons makes all the difference.

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Ah, I wasn't criticising your work

Nor was I btw, looks pretty complete now with the bezel & chrome tmoulding

MrVestek

I didn't think you were man! Didn't mean to say that having your own cab was lazy but rather that I enjoyed the challenge of putting this together.

The only thing I'd ever done before this was put up a few shelves and even at that they're not put up very well! :P

MrVestek

The Last Bandit wrote: »

As long as it doesn't appear on a shame mame cab build thread

Hah, ahhh it probably will but who cares right? :P

Andrew76

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

You know my AWSD cost me €450.... just sayin.....
Oh, and I sold by BAS for €200....

I guess that's karma for all the money you lose by buying games, not playing them, trading them at a loss only to buy them back again. :P

The Last Bandit wrote: »

450 ? Damn didn't realise you could get them that cheap !!

As Cidey mentioned, you don't get them that cheap unless something is wrong/missing.

@Achilles: Fair play for the effort you've put in. As long as you're happy with it, that's all that matters.

o1s1n

There ain't nothing lazy about hauling a cab off the back of a truck and into your house :pac:

I tend to not really like MAME builds, but I do like these little tabletops. The end results tend to look nicer than full sized builds.

Myrddin

Who was it here that bought the old Apple Mac thingy, & was gonna convert it to a mame setup? That'd be pretty cool, crt & all

o1s1n

I think that was Atavan? Would be a really great use for one alright

The Last Bandit

EnterNow wrote: »

Who was it here that bought the old Apple Mac thingy, & was gonna convert it to a mame setup? That'd be pretty cool, crt & all

Steve SI was building that I think.

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

Who was it here that bought the old Apple Mac thingy, & was gonna convert it to a mame setup? That'd be pretty cool, crt & all

Twas me
Not got around to it just yet.

MrVestek

My build isn't just mame though, the machine is powerful enough to emulate Dreamcast and Gamecube stuff aswell as running the PC versions of Sonic Generations, Super Street Fighter IV and the likes.

KeRbDoG

Steve SI wrote: »

Twas me
Not got around to it just yet.

Which Apple Mac thingy what that? An 'old skool' iMac?

Myrddin

Achilles wrote: »

My build isn't just mame though, the machine is powerful enough to emulate Dreamcast and Gamecube stuff aswell as running the PC versions of Sonic Generations, Super Street Fighter IV and the likes.

Bah, get rid of the pc version of SSFIV & grab the Taito Type X2 version, the real version. Practically identical, but that 'Insert Coin' makes all the difference