A crazy idea...

[Brad]

Find me an example please!

[Nick]

Ooooooo! Like this:
http://www.knightridershop.com/New%20Finished%20Dash%20001.jpg

But probably more like this:
http://pic.phyrefile.com/c/cr/crazyrussian540/2010/02/06/digidash_toyotacorolla.jpg

[zourtney]

Brilliant! I've always been a fan of those huge wrap-around consoles (in giant semi-trucks, at least). Yep.

[Brad]

OK! I think this is what I'm going with.... it's not retro at all, but it is kinda cool looking (I think). It isn't my design, but I modified it to be large enough for my control panel...

I think all of those companies are represented on my arcade machine...

[zourtney]

I officially give it the Sweetness Seal of Approval!

[Nick]

That is very nice. It lacks the glaring busyness that the brightly colored collage of names. And that, in my opinion, is a good thing to lack.

Subtle and professional looking. It has my vote.

[Brad]

So as you may have figured out, I have an arcade cabinet in my living room. However, there was an issue with the control panel so I need to get another one cut, this time out of 3/4" plywood rather than the melamine.

Without a control panel to wire I was still able to test the other components. The sound system that I tore apart, ripped the PCB out of, cut wires off of, glued the face plate to, and then screwed to the back of the cab actually does work. As does the monitor and computer. I played a couple of games tonight using a regular PC keyboard. Not quite the same experience though...

I still have the ocassional seemingly random focus issue. Sometimes when exiting out of an arcade game and returning to the front end the front end does not get focus back. This means you must press alt-tab or click the mouse to restore focus. Not exactly easy to do on a control panel without a mouse or a tab key...

[zourtney]

What was wrong with your control panel? I'm sure it's not the same with a keyboard and mouse...yeah. Anyway, sound fun and it looks good!

[Brad]

The control panel plus the plexiglass was too thick to properly use the joystick. Also, the melamine cracked and started breaking in a weak spot. We cut a new control panel out of some oak plywood stuff.

After the control panel was fixed and installed, I started on wiring. It took me quite a while but I am FINISHED. My hand hurts from all the crimping...

Anyway, the arcade machine is currently playable, with a temporary sound system setup and the on-off button on the cabinet not being wired up yet. No marquee either. Also the two-player's button 5 and 6 are mapped wrong in most of the fighting games. You should come over and play anyway!

Will post more pictures in the gallery later.

[zourtney]

Yeah, that'd be fun. I'm curious to see how a 2 player game works out. I'm usually home by 6 or so.

[Brad]

I succeeded in wiring the PC power on/off to a pushbutton on the back of the cabinet. It was easier than I thought.

Still need to wire in the fan as well as the sound system and marquee.

I took a bunch of pictures of the wiring and stuff but haven't got around to uploading them yet.

[zourtney]

Upload, upload!


I also have pictures of things I've been meaning to upload, but haven't. If the uploader were a little less painful, I might get to it 2% faster. 

[Brad]

I uploaded more pictures to the gallery, some with wiring and whatnot. At least one is a good example why it is a bad idea to take flash pictures in a room filled with sawdust.

[Nick]

It's full of stars! Cool.
That is considerably more awesome then anything I have done in a while.

[Brad]

The newest addition for my arcade machine just arrived today... an actual working coin door. This coin door has two slots (required for certain games like Guantlet) and accepts quarters. It uses the exact same type of switch as an arcade button or joystick so it should be easy to wire into my arcade system.

This will replace the existing yellow buttons on the control panel which currently serve as an emulated coin insert. These buttons will be used for showing additional information on the game select screen and as the SELECT button on console game systems.

I am thinking of taking pictures and writing up a blog entry on the reasoning behind using actual coin entry rather than a coin button. Maybe I'll post it to the new test blog.