gryhnd

Carver, MA Not too far from Plymouth Rock

The screen is sealed with silicone, yes. Controls: short story - No. Long story - been pondering it. I have nothing special under the controls. The buttons actually seal pretty tightly to the Spar finish which wasn't 10% cured when they were applied. So I'm not too worried. The joysticks are an entry point, yes. I don't have anything for that yet that wouldn't inhibit movement if placed in the hole for their shafts. I have given some thought (but haven't gotten to any execution yet) of affixing some sort of cup from underneath, that would surround the joys sticks and prevent any spills from traveling further. I may also just put a drip sheet (for lack of a better term) angled over the PC components (like a lean to) which are under P1. If anything comes through from up above, I would channel it down into the lower cabinet space and/or a catch cup. On the P2 side there's nothing underneath to worry about. So far everyone keeps their food stuffs away from the controls because they get in the way of game play, but it's a definite concern.

We had a few friends over Saturday night. The first "party" since the new cab. I'll tell you something...the women were all over this machine. The kids barely got a chance to play on it! It's interesting to me, because the girls generally don't give too much attention to the uprights. Something about the cocktail style really appealed to them. Pacman and Centipede got a real workout. And it served its primary purpose quite well (OK...secondary in my mind): a place for drinks and snacks. It was definitely the core for this gathering.

Thanks HK, I'll check it out. My MAME is somewhat dated, b/c it works well and I don't feel like updating all the ROMs (<--lazy). However if newer versions solve some of my problems I may have to go that route. At least there aren't as many ROMs in this machine as my upright. It might be a while though, before I can sit down and hack away at this again..sudden schedule change. This machine isn't networked yet, so I can't VNC into it and work on it from...well work

...crickets... I believe I've figured out how to call specific configs from the command line for Xpadder, but still need to figure out if there's a way to fire them for specific games. Still not finding a way to deactivate a certain mouse though. Windows sees two mice, but the both come up looking identical and both in the same "location", whatever that means.

My second GameEx cabinet, cocktail style...sort of:

Final notes: using Xpadder, I can change the system volume by holding in the "plunger" button (programmed as Enter) on the side of the cabinet and simultaneously pressing P1 (volume down) or P2 (volume up). Similarly, hold in the plunger button and tapping player 1 "credit" brings up MAME's game config screen. I can nav around the cfg screen with the P1 joystick, select options using the plunger (enter), and back out using the red "Exit" (esc) button. Working quite well to tweak games during play to set, for example, the cabinet option to "cocktail" without the need to hook up a keyboard.

Now that my build is done, I've also finished most of the tweaking I need for the controls, with two exceptions. 1) I'm coming up to speed on Xpadder, and wondering if there is a Gameex way to launch a specific Xpadder configuration for certain games. More specifically, my joys are 8 way and so is my Xpadder configs. However games like Pacman benefit from an Xpadder config with the joys set specifically to 4 way, so the corner inputs are ignored. What's the best way to handle that? Right now I drop out of GX, reset Xpadder, and then play. Hardly seamless. 2) The TurboTwist2 spinner and the X-Arcade trackball are both seen as mice, of course, and they work well. An occasional problem arise however, when playing games like Centipede. If I stray too far afield of the trackball I sometimes whack the spinner. This causes MAME to launch the player horizontally across the playfield, usually leading to my rapid death Is there a MAME or GX way to ignore the spinner when playing certain games, or more specifically use only one selected mouse input? Both are USB, fwiw. Thanks.

please....the build is done!Well, is it ever? Really? But let's call it at 99 44/100% ok? Thanks for putting up guys, and Tom especially, with posting what probably would be more appropriate over at BYOAC...but I only lurk there. Maybe I'll intro myself with this one, I dunno. Big thanks to Tom first and foremost for the best front end, evar. GroovyGameGear for the encoder and kick ass TurboTwist2, as well as joys and various buttons. X-Arcade for the trackball. My wife for putting up with my various projects, and my son for being the tester.Anyway, here's the final result. I probably should have used the time and energy to wrap up the HT/Game room itself first, but I needed a break from that project and this was a pleasant diversion and allowed me to learn some new things along the way (never thought I'd get into inlaying, for example):

Not sure I'm following the question, but I'll take a guess. This is for vertical games only (I already have 2 horizontal cabs) and primarily for games that have cocktail modes , hence the screen flips when it's P2's turn. For some 2 player games, like 1941 etc, I simply reverse the U/D/L/R joy assignments for P2 in the game config so movements are in the correct direction. List? GameEx's list? In this setup P1 is the one who selects the games not P2. Besides, the entire screen would be upside down for P2. Edit: P1 is the end with the spinner and trackball.

Greetings everyone. This will be the last report for about a week (possibly more) due to travel schedules. The end is in site! If you look from the top down, it appears to be all done . I installed the table top supports to the cab, then the monitor to the top, and muscled it into position. After a few false starts due to tight tolerances knocking loose a wire here and a wire there as I squeezed everything in, it's now operational. I've popped the monitor glass into place but it still needs to be properly cleaned and siliconed down. The permanent electrical is not yet done, nor is the front plate for the top space above the doors or the toe kick trim. Of course there is a lot of software tweaking to do (xpadder, MAME itself, and so on). Nevertheless, I'm giving you a sneak peek tonight. When it's all together I'll do up a video walk around or something so you can get a better idea of the entire package: (edit: that's GameEx up there!)

Got it! When I was upside down peering through the monitor hole and adjusting a few things, I accidentally wired the left mouse button switch to NC rather than NO Dummkopf.

Weeelll. My resistors are 150ohm. Putting one on there dropped all the buttons to a nice level EXCEPT the blue (pause) button which wouldn't light at all. So I wired two of them in parallel (=75ohm) and that allowed the blue to light, but it was too dim. So...added a third (no, I didn't have any other resistors around!) for an equivalent of 50ohm and that took the edge off the red buttons, and the blue looked nice. Now I'm trying to figure out some weird problem with the XArcade trackball. The ball part works just dandy, but the left-click mouse button is acting really odd. I need to do some more R&D on it before I post for help. I did fire up the cab with the monitor off to the side, and the first thing I played was Tempest with the spinner. WOW! So cool!

Got a lot done between last night and tonight, picking away here and there throughout the day when work was slow. I wired both CPs up in their entirety using Cat5e cable since they are already nicely wrapped Checked all my connections with the multimeter first, then plugged the trackball, spinner and encoder into my other cab: all worked flawlessly: Mounted a small control board from the Dell onto the HD case (for power on/off, plus two USBs). After figuring out its pin configuration, I hacked up a spare ribbon cable to fit the board with the on/off trigger wires running to an arcade pushbutton. Here's a view from inside the cab, with the EL IDE cable in view: And then I hooked up all the button LEDs. These are wired into a harness (see the white clip near the fan) which I can detach from the power when/if the table top needs to be removed: The button LEDs are really sharp. Even the SWMBO uttered some oohs and aahs along with my kid. However we think they are probably too bright. I have a couple of resistors left over from the other cab project. I'll try throwing one or two on there to take the edge off, and see how it looks. Next up is to install the permanent electrical, then the table top supports, and finally the monitor and glass. All tomorrow? Eeer...probably not

They came out in the second half of 2002 (based on review dates), so fwiw it couldn't have been that old 6 years ago The Optiplex line itself though has been around for quite a while.

Thanks! Ya, the PSU part is a tad worrisome, which is one reason why I am driving all the fans and LED buttons off separate power...I want to especially minimize any stress on the main PSU. The PC is no barn burner, that's for sure, but it runs the cocktail games I want to play with ease.

Yes. It's the style designed to sit under a monitor. You can stand it on end (I did while prepping it over the last months) but the CD-ROM isn't a slot loader, so you can't use it

Decasing the PC was a total breeze. It's a Dell Optiplex GX260 I scored of eBay for a whopping $49 a several months ago (P4 2.4, 512MB RAM, 40Gb HD, and I installed an AGP 6200 nVidia low profile video card). Turns out this puppy is extremely modular and designed (I gather) for office IT departments to be able to replace components with a minimum of effort. All of the following essentially slid right out after a tug or push on the appropriate retainer tab: PSU, HD, and CD. The entire motherboard slid out on a metal tray. I basically had the entire thing emptied in...oh...5 minutes tops. The PSU and MB tray had key holes on their backsides, so mounting them in the cabinet was simple: For the HD, I gutted an old, dead, external ZIP drive and used the case for protection (clear blue case, lower left). I drilled out the view window and installed a small fan on the top of it for cooling, then ran the IDE and power cable through the slot the ZIP drive cartridge normal sticks in to. The CD-Rom I mounted to the underside in the large cabinet space where it will be easily accessible. This is attached with a 36" lighted (EL) cable to the MB in the upper section. Not yet installed, but to the right of this will be a spare arcade push button that will turn the PC on:

I heard from Randy at GGG over the weekend and my stuff is on its way. Hopefully by tomorrow it will arrive. Picked up my glass order first thing this morning and it's a perfect fit. Also stopped at the hardware store and purchased some black foam gasketing so the monitor will be tight (and dust free) against the back of the table top. Clear silicone will seal the glass down as one of the eventual final steps. Yesterday I installed all the switches for the buttons, the board for the TurboTwist2, fixed the trackball (a bearing had fallen off a roller when I had taken it apart earlier), and then installed the GP-Wiz40 board. Shop time was dedicated to cutting 1.5"x1.5" angle aluminum to make supports/attachment for the table top, running along the two sides and across the back of the cabinet. It's all nicely mitered, pre-drilled, and has 3 coats of the same metallic-graphite paint used on the speaker grills. Next order of business will be to start running wires, and to see if I can decase the PC and squeeze it in next to either side of the monitor in the top shelf area, behind the fans.

I've wired up the fans to their 12V wall wart so I could see them "all purty like": Unlike my upright cab where all the LEDs and fans are hooked into a second PSU, this cab is using spare transformers from long dead electronics. Reduce, reuse! (and free) And that's the end of my dabbling until Sunday at the earliest. I did get a call from the glass company that my order is already complete! But alas, I won't be able to pick it up until Monday.

You mean where you see the speakers "peaking" out from? If so I built a face for that which is attached with super strong magnets. Jump back to post #3.

Well, I've know many women with a great front end (and rear end as well) who offered similar services

With the cutting of holes for the cooling fans, speaker grills, and vents out of the way, most of the wood working is now done, so I moved the top and the base into the HT/game room this morning. Installed the two 120MM LED fans, 2 speakers for each user, and then all the buttons, joys, trackball and spinner. I ordered the monitor glass this afternoon too. I'm at a bit of a standstill now, while I await my connectors and 2 more buttons from Groovygamegear. Kinda wondering what happened over there. I ordered 5 days ago and I'm still in the "processing" phase for what usually take 1-2 days. An email to Randy 2 days back has so far gone unanswered too. Ah well, I'll wait a bit more before I send out the hounds. There's a few things I can pick away at, but I really need (want!) to get all the button wiring done Here's where it's at: Cooling fans to the left (the rear of the table). You can see a glimpse of a speaker to the right and left peaking out from under the table top. These are attached directly behind... The speaker grills. The grills are actually 3" aluminum vents used in houses, primed and painted a metallic graphite color. The button will be the "plunger" for Future Pinball games.

Here's Pacman and the table after 5 coats (or was it 6...I lost track) of gloss Helmsman Spar: