[CABINET] Showing off my project for GameEx Cabinet

[Crippius]

Hello all

This is my first post here

I am actually (well for 2 months already) brainstorming my future arcade cabinet. Since I want it to be a jukebox and radio as well, I decided to go with GameEx.

Here's the SketchUp of the project:

The shape is largely inspired from Retro Space. Since the cabinet will be placed in the living room, I needed something small and modern to accommodate with the wife's repulsive nature against that kind of things I felt in love with RetroSpace design and decided to slightly reproduce it's shape.

Normally the cabinet should have a rotating screen (not sure yet how I will accomplish that but I really want it).

The big innovation will be the marquee. I will make a LED panel that will display various info dinamycally following user choices, and pulse with the music when its in Jukebox/Radio mode. I say it's an innovation because I have never seen this after having spent years lurking on arcade controls and other huge Mame boards.

So, back to business.

I have a concern regarding the 1 & 2 player buttons layout on the control panel. This is my very first cabinet and I am still unsure of how I can configure GameEx, Mame and console emulators to fit my needs.

I have read hundred of pages regarding this and I still can't find an answer to my questions.

Basically, I WANT both Capcom fighting and NeoGeo layout for each player.

Capcom:

123

456

Neogeo:

234

1

So the simple way to achieve this IMHO would be having a layout like this:

1234

5678

for capcom games, use :

123 or 234

567 678

for Neogeo, use :

*234

5***

And other classic arcade games using 1, 2, 3 or 4 buttons, go with:

1234

Is this a good idea?

The main concern being, won't it be a nightmare to configure ? I really don't want to have to adapt my control config file MANUALLY for each game... For console that's easy as the controllers stays the same, but with arcade that's a different story.

So basically, is there something in MAME or GameEx that makes possible to "dynamically" adapt the controls cfg for each game based on the editor, the Game DB or whatever else ?

Any suggestions or hints are welcome

Cheers

[tthurman]

Welcome to the GameEx forums.

FYI, Your concept sketch isn't showing.

[Crippius]

Not showing? Sure?

I see it on my mobile and desktop...

[tthurman]

Sorry, I don't see it.

Generally you should see a thumbnail, that enlarges when clicked. I see text, and can click it, but nothing ever loads.

As far as the buttons go, I don't see a problem with your layout, but as you certainly know, aside from dedicated control panels, nothing will ever be all things to all games. What interface to you plan to use, IPAC2?

I'm hesitant to comment too much, as I could easily give you some misleading information. HeadKaze has something I think you my find interesting , and it's my understanding that some form of this CPWizard, will be in EVO, at least at some point if not at launch. Could be some ohers too that. I'm not familar with, as there ware a lot of talented people here contributing all sorts of helpful items. Check the user projects section

Although it isn't exactly what you are describing, I would recommend you check out helpman's thread on his Green Gold cab, as it may serve as a catalyst to his already creative marquee.

[RIP-Felix]

Have you considered staining it? That gives it furniture-like class and helps to break up the frat-boy man-cave feel. It went a long way in convincing my household. I'd go with cherry (doesn't feel like it belongs in a bar), but that is up to you. See below

[tthurman]

Hey, I see it now! Perhaps it was something being blocked at work.

I've looked at that site before, the units are very modern and sleek looking.

[Crippius]

As far as the buttons go, I don't see a problem with your layout, but as you certainly know, aside from dedicated control panels, nothing will ever be all things to all games. What interface to you plan to use, IPAC2?

I'm hesitant to comment too much, as I could easily give you some misleading information. HeadKaze has something I think you my find interesting , and it's my understanding that some form of this CPWizard, will be in EVO, at least at some point if not at launch. Could be some ohers too that. I'm not familar with, as there ware a lot of talented people here contributing all sorts of helpful items. Check the user projects section

Although it isn't exactly what you are describing, I would recommend you check out helpman's thread on his Green Gold cab, as it may serve as a catalyst to his already creative marquee.

Yes I'll probably go with IPAC2

This CPwizard looks fantastic, thanks for advertising this.

Looking on the button layout at that page, I notice that most of the layout there are:

_123

_456

7

Which are meant to do what I am trying to achieve (capcom and neogeo). Its a popular layout that I had considered and seeing this I will probably go that route as the CPwizard looks like to handle it properly.

So your answer definitely helped.

Have you considered staining it? That gives it furniture-like class and helps to break up the frat-boy man-cave feel. It went a long way in convincing my household. I'd go with cherry (doesn't feel like it belongs in a bar), but that is up to you. See below

No offense but I hate this stained wood looking it just remind me the furniture at my >85yo grand-parents!

For the color/paint, my plan is clear: SOBER. No stickers/art.Just black. Highly sanded and polished car sprayed paint to get a mirror effect.

The dynamic LED panel marquee will be in charge of giving a colorfull touch to the whole thing.

Also the CP will be made of a high quality metal (probably alu), with indications engraved in it. I have a friend working in metallic construction that has access to the most modern machinery to craft it

My main concern now is the rotating monitor. None of those based on a polulu 12v motor that I plan to use will fit my needs as with my design, the room behind the monitor is very limited. I must say that my mecanical skills are pretty low and this is THE bottleneck actually. I already spent 2 evening just sit down thinking to it while looking at my screen beside a mdf template of a side of the cabinet. Thats a nightmare as I cant really start the building without having a solution for that

[Crippius]

Wood work started. I decided to stop thinking about the rotating screen for the moment

I begun to cut a first side and to test its stability when pressing on the edge of the CP. It's surprisingly good, I was a bit afraid. And when all the heavy stuff will be inside that will be even better.

If my daughter decide to hangs on from the edge I am not sure that it will still be OK but anyway I plan to fix it on the wall too so there shouldn't be any problem

Let's go for the second side, using the first one to trace the lines

And here we are, perfect symmetry

[Crippius]

Lest assemble this now

First I fix solid rafters

Then I fix corners iron to them

Then I fix with only one screw the perpendicular rafters

And after that I can assemble the 2 parts and screw everything

I can almost play pac-man now

Note : sorry for my english, I am a french-speaking native and when it comes to technical building terms I am not really confident to use the correct words.

[tthurman]

Man, you aren't messing around! It is taking shape nicely and looking very good. Those corner brackets make very strong connections, I've used them many times myself.

If I could speak French as well as you do English, I'd be thrilled

[Crippius]

Got some work done yesterday... Wood structure almost done.

I have taken the decision to shorten the CP. I found it too big for the living room.
So I'll probably let down the 4 ways stick as I dont have enough room anymore.

I know its bad but I ran out of medium screws late evening



I am gonna order the CP electronics very soon I think. And for the rotating monitor I am still searching

[Gumshoe]

Cool.

I too have too small cp for dedicated 4-way sticks but I find http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html

4way/8way to be more than good.

They really behave like a 4way when you transform them.

Not to put you of, but the "innovation" ledmarquee has been made before. I have one myself. Although expensive you can have a ultrawide LCD panel made for your cabs dimensions or just boy some already made displays.

It's really cool.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DTg7XHteBTE

If you really pimp it out, you can use an iPad/tablett hooked up (or even engraved in cp) to display controls or "moves" for the current name game running.

[Crippius]

Wow great work on your led panel !

What do you use to synchronise its display with the current game?

I am a programmer so I initially thought to develop my own gameex pluggin for that, but if something already exists I might reconsider

[Gumshoe]

Wow great work on your led panel !

What do you use to synchronise its display with the current game?

I am a programmer so I initially thought to develop my own gameex pluggin for that, but if something already exists I might reconsider

There are different options available.

You can use GameEx Extender (i.e. a webbserver from gameex) and start GameExExtender Viewer (I think its called) on your second monitor. GameEx Extender can display image from one folder (for ex. "mame/marquee") or circle trough several including "statistics", witch I personally dont like. With GE extender you can also watch/sync marquee on another computer/tablet by a webbrowser to your local gameex ipaddress.

There is a program called Marquee Magician that can "make" pages of picture/folders when launching mame. Only for "second screen" on same computer but worth checking out.

You can even use "CpWizard" from headkazy to show marquee but its ofcourse more aimed at showing current games control panel.

CpWizard is supposed to be built in somehow in GameEx Evolution.

At the moment I use GameEx Extender but I dont like the restraint of it. Hopefully Tom will change how it work for GameEx Evolution. It has a lot of potiential.

[nullPointer]

Adultery's Game Info Plugin is another fantastic option for displaying game information on a second screen.

[Adultery]

Indeed, I use this daily and it is quite versatile. If you need other options added I'd be happy to do what I can.

[Crippius]

Ok thanks for all these usefull info !

No doubt I can help too to improve the existing tools

But I am not there yet

2 weeks ago I sent several requests for estimate to local companies for the led panel crafting, and no one replied yet... I have the feeling that they ignore me because the panel is too small. Now I am wondering if I shouldnt built it myself out of led stripes and an arduino controler

so much things to do

[Crippius]

I have to update this

Already 2 months since my last message !

The reason is that I was really out of money. I decided to wait a few weeks for a big payment to arrive, and to move on other development projects in the meantime. Which was good as I had plenty of time to think about my cabinet and not do things in a hurry. So, 3 weeks ago, right after my bank account replenishment I made various online orders to get all the cabinet hardware, and I received the last delivery today. All that was lot of little packages full of wonderful things!

I ordered at those sites:

• Joysticks and PCB @ http://www.arcadeshop.de/
• Buttons @ http://www.starcab.net/
• Motor and it's controller @ http://www.pololu.com/
• IT Hardware @ http://www.materiel.net/

Rotating Monitor

I am more than ever decided to go the auto-rotating monitor way. I found a lot of inspiration in this project based on a Pololu motor and it's PCB, and I'll reproduce it the best I could. I know it will be the hardest part, everything else looks peanuts compared to that. I've got mostly everything I need to proceed, in fact only this piece is missing, which is annoying as I can't really move forward with the rotation mechanism without it. No local store sell this, and online I only found US and chinese sites and the shipping costs are astronomical compared to the piece cost. One of my friend is currently looking for one at it's work place and he looks confident that he will find something.

Arcade Controls

Joysticks: 2x Ultimarc T-Stick as the way I will build the CP (we'll see that in details later), it will be extremely easy to change from 8 to 4 way from below the CP, and it was a really nice feature to have

Buttons : Most of them are chromed and illuminated . After long analysis I finally decided to drop to 6 buttons per player only. I don't want overstuffed CP. They will be blue for the 2 players. Than I've got 4 other illuminated for 1P 2P Pause in white (CP vertical front) , and the Exit button on top of the CP in red. So it is 16 illuminated buttons. The 2 coin buttons will be a bit smaller and entirely chromed and the flipper buttons on the side are standard red and black.

I haven't found a trackball that fit my needs. I want a 2" with 2/3 buttons, and all EU webshops selling these were out of stock Very annoying. If I don't find it for now I am thinking to make the hole in the CP anyway and transform it in a "beer bottle holder" for a couple of months

And finally I've got a Pacdrive for the 16 illuminated buttons and an I-PAC 2

IT Hardware

• CPU Intel Dualcore 3.1Ghz + MotherBoard MSI H81M-P33 + 4Go RAM
• PSU Corsair CX430 Bronze - 430W
• SSD Kingston SSDNow V300 - 240 Go
• CPU FAN Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
• Other fans Antec TwoCool 120 (for the back of the cabinet)

So I've built this setup because it was cheap and largely good for what it's supposed to do: emulate old arcade games. I took a micro-atx motherboard so it doesn't eat too much space. I wanted fast response and SILENCE so I went the SDD-only path. I know Intel default CPU fans are not really quiet so I've changed it for this big freezer. I hesitated for PSU, wasnt sure that 450Watts was enough with all the Leds and other fancy things I plan to add later. We'll see.

Everything temporary set up for install :

I forgot something important when ordering... since I have no case, I have no Power/Reset buttons So I had to take this old PC and connects it's buttons to the MB in order to power it up. I am currently looking for a motherboard front panel that could also include USB entries and Mic/Audio, and I will put this on top of the CP. Not sure if that exists, if you know, please link.

I am very happy with the test perf results, I really thought the Graphic test would be bad and planned to order a better CG accordingly...but I won't finally, asd this Intel HD chip is surprisingly good. The goal is not to play Battlefield 4 after all. Also it is as super ultra quiet as I would, I almost don't hear anything, and I it will be nothing for sure in the cabinet. Last but not least, boot to windows desktop in 10 seconds without login prompt.

That's for today... pretty much all the hardware is covered but the audio. While not totally decided yet, I am pretty sure that it will be based on a car audio system.

Ah yeah last point : Zero answer for the LED panel. I let that down for now. So for the time being I'll set up a classical Neon/sticker panel, and I 'll probably build the LED panel myself, but after everything else is finished (after summer...)

[Crippius]

Little update:

my friend, which is industrial designer in a metal factory, has taken the measurements of the control panel. he will reproduce that in Autocad, then :

1. print it at 1/1 scale so i can use that as a drilling template
2. use that plan to craft the aluminium piece using a high-tech machine.

That's the best way I found to have a highly polished aluminium piece that will fit perfectly atop the MDF

that's a nice step forward as once I have the drilling template I can start to temporary mount the controls and test.

[Crippius]

It's time for necroing my thread !!

I was busy with too much work during the winter and I let the cabinet sleep in the basements for 3 months.

Beginning of April I decided it should end and I worked on it my ass off all the month. We are almost there. Woodworking is done, and paint almost... I have nothing to do while waiting for my last coat to dry so I am taking a few time to show you the job, and I've got a lot of things to show.

First I modified the control panel area to add a crafter. This was the last thing to do prior to make CP definitive plans in order to craft the metal piece.

Then I drew this plan

ANd I went to my friend's house to reproduce it in Autocad (he is an industrial designer drawing metal structures)

Then I had to wait a few days to get the paper plans in A0 format, and 2 weeks to receive the crafted metal CP-top. Finally I chose to go with brushed inox

That let me a few time to work on the Audio. I went to a local specialist in Car AUdio and discussed with him about the project. I initially thought to purchase a car amplificator, but since I had an old Stereo Sony Ampli of good quality, he advised me to use that one instead. So I bought him 2 big 350W speakers, 2 small 250W (Alpine) and very nice grids

That's my AMpli

I dismount it to analyse whether it was possible to remove the buttons from their chassis in order to integrate them in my CP. The circuit card was way to big to do anything, and unsolder would have lead to a total failure as some buttons was like glued in the chassis. So I decided to put it like this in the cabinet and to use windows to control the volume.

And here it is remounted with the speakers

The ampli is 150W. I couldn't push the volume more than HALF without turning deaf. the powerfulness of this install is absolutely crazy, and this is what I want

In the meantime I received the printed CP plan and made some checkings

Working on speakers holes

It looks fantastic, especially with the grids which aren't on the picture

Those speakers are so heavy that I prefered to add a solid rafter to discharge their 4 screws from the miserable 12mm MDF

And ten the holes for the 2 Alpine 250W going on top

Got an evening without anything else to do so I decided to fill all the screw holes

Here comes a fun part.

During the winter I desperately tried to find some sort of 3.5" PC front panel control for, in others, powering the PC. Apparently that doesn't even exists.

I had this old PC and the power button wasn't bad

So I decided to use that.

I love my dremel. I began to cut the plastic to dismount the pieces I would

And then I polished the plastic around power button to give it a round form

Looks good enough

Some days after I decided to craft the CP main control area :

The support for 3.5" stuff and DVD

Digging holes for devices, Power button and reset button, and leds (power/hdd)

Let's work on the air flow.

There will be 2 fans with blue led on the bottom side (flowing in), and 2 other flowing out on the top back

Last week I got a phone call from my friend, the CP metal piece was waiting. I got palpitations

I placed it on the CP, on top of the paper plan in order to have the holes centers to drill:

I had a good surprise when I removed everything... This is a useless hole I drilled on the center of the trackball, just to see if it was centered with the CP like I planned it:

Just perfect

[Crippius]

Last straight line to the paint.

Flipper buttons holes

CP Holes. My illuminated and chromed buttons are diam. 24 but they have an edge on top of diam 28, so I had to make 2 different holes

Firstly 28mm

Check

Secondly 24mm

SUPER CHECK

I love it.

And the very last: screen area. I let down the rotating monitor. And this is not by despair. I could not find any 4:3 monitor higher than 19". So I thought to it all the winter and I came to the conclusion that using a "small" 4/3 on this huge area will just look silly. Added to this, I have taken a 27" and the vertical size is almost the same as if I had used a 19" 4:3 in portrait mode.

Placement and removal of the screen will be super easy thanks to this thing:

http://www.materiel.net/accessoire-pour-ecran-lcd/ergotron-kit-extracteur-express-lcd-60-589-060-74105.html

Crafters

Here we go

And finally, here's where I am right now. 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of black. I'll apply another 1 or 2.

AND NOW THAT WILL BECOME INTERESTING

[Draco1962]

Looking great! Thanks for the update!

[tthurman]

Great attention to detail all the way down to this thread!

Thanks for sharing your progress, it's looking super!!!

<edit> Is your trackball metal?

[imagamejunky]

Very cool looking cab you got there. I love the metal CP especially. Good job.

Junky

[stigzler]

Loving the steel CP.

Wiring next? Then the true fun begins....