[CABINET] BootHammer

[BootHammer]

Arcades were at one time always crowded and filled with gamers. It was a fun experience to shoot for the top score or go head to head in the latest arcade brawler. Things have changed though since the explosion of home consoles and gaming PC’s. Their emergence have all but slowly extinguished arcades from malls and outlets. While gaming consoles and PC’s offer incredible performance for the price, there is something missing. Part of the exciting arcade experience is lost when you throw a standard controller in the mix and game from the comfort of the couch.

While I love modern gaming I still heavily enjoy the retro titles from the past. To recapture this lost era and overall experience I began researching in great detail about arcade cabinets. This included the different types and styles available and their varying price range and overall offerings. Multiple vendors offer prebuilt units but usually this meant they only played one certain game from a particular genre. While those machines are still nostalgic and enjoyable in their own right I still wanted more. It was at this point that I realized that a custom build would be ideal. This would cut cost and open the door for endless options in regards to the cabinet’s design and its configuration. Luckily, I am good friends with an excellent carpenter that was even more excited than myself to get started on the project. Once the design, features and specs were mapped out we set off to buy and order the needed supplies. After all the parts and materials were in place the actual build took roughly 5 full days.

If you wish to have your own personal arcade cabinet, contact Chris at [email protected]. He will be happy to discuss the different plans available, prices and options. Each unit can be completely customized to your liking making it truly one of a kind.

Below is a video of the finished work, materials, tools and a short preview of playable games.

Materials/parts:

• Viewsonic VA2703 27″ 1920×1080 3ms DVI LCD Monitor
  
• X-Arcade Tankstick + Trackball
  
• Arcade Coin Door With Coin Mech
  
• Custom Built Gaming PC with GameEx Front-end
  
• Altec Lansing 5.1 Surround Speaker System
  
• 3- 3/4 4×8 sheets of hardwood plywood
  
• 4- 1x2x8
  
• 5lbs box of wood screws 1 5/8 long
  
• Wood glue
  
• 1/4 x 2 x 8 pine
  
• Gallon of gloss black paint
  
• Wood filler
  
• 2x6x8
  
• 12 volt fan for cooling
  
• 12″ light
  
• Plexiglass 1/4 thick
  
• 25 foot roll of 14/2 wire
  
• 2 electrical boxes
  
• 1 light switch
  
• 1 outlet and a GFCI outlet adapter to 6 plugs
  
• Appliance cord
  
• Wire nuts
  
• 120 to 12 volt converter
  
• 8 – 12 volt red LED lights
  
• Reflective tape
  
• Furniture gliders for bottom
  

Tools:

• Cordless drill
  
• Countersink bit
  
• Table saw
  
• Compound miter saw
  
• Palm sander
  
• Hole saw
  
• Jig saw
  
• Air nailer
  

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Please visit my site BootHammer.com for the full article and many more pictures of the build!

http://boothammer.co...arcade-cabinet/

[nullPointer]

Nice up Boothammer! Good on ya mate! (yeah I know ... I'm not Austrailian ... I'll just shut up now)

[BootHammer]

Thanks for the kind words nullPointer, glad you liked it! I've always wanted one to play all the terrific old-school games on. It came out pretty fantastic IMO. I was lucky enough to have a friend who really know's his way around carpentry work =) We would like to build a racing based arcade cab next for Gran Turismo and Forza It was a lot of fun planning and designing it. Wish I had only started on it sooner ;b

[Draco1962]

Great cab and write-up Boothammer! I really like it when an enthusiast provides a list of materials, costs, etc. as this helps to inform and inspire the next cab builder.

[BootHammer]

Great cab and write-up Boothammer! I really like it when an enthusiast provides a list of materials, costs, etc. as this helps to inform and inspire the next cab builder.

Thanks Draco! It was a really fun process from imagining the design and features to finally seeing the completed product in working form. Blasting through all the classics from a custom arcade cab is hard to beat =)