Arcadia - 90% finished

[davcom1]

My original attempt at producing a Mame cabinet from scratch was ok but I used 12mm MDF and missed out important features such as keyboard/mouse storage, art work etc.

So here's a few pics of my completely rebuilt Mame cabinet in 18mm MDF, built in the evenings last week.

Running the most excellent GameEx (registered) on XP Home.

PC Details

PC Chips M-848A Mobo

AMD Sempron 2300 CPU

2 x 256Mb DDR Ram

Radeon 7000 GFX

Maxtor 150Gb IDE HDD

Creative Labs 5.1 speakers

Mounted on old case motherboard tray and then onto wood

Controls

Mag-Stick Plus x 2

Trackball

Six buttons x 2

Player 1 and Player 2 buttons

Side 'Pinball' buttons

P1 & P2 coin buttons

PC Power button

I-Pac and Opti-Pac (All from Ultimarc.com)

Display

22 inch PC monitor behind bronze smoked glass

Marquee and finishing

Custom design via Photoshop featuring Sophitia and Ivy from Soul Calibre

Printed on 170gsm paper

Plexiglass sandwich

Side art 'port holes' include 12" neon speaker rings

Chrome T-moulding

Waiting for etched perspex "coin door"

I have the cabinet running in our office at work as a jukebox and for staff lunchtime gaming!

Photos are a bit poor due to the position of the cabinet (near a window)

[Michael]

all i can say is WOW........ wish i had half the skill you had lol

[Rustynutts]

Very nice cab, well done it looks so cool!!!

Very pro finish to the overall look of the cabinet koodos to ya ;0

[davcom1]

Thanks for the kind words. I'll post new pics when finally finished.

I think the only difference between this cab and my original was that I was prepared to throw more money at it this time! Estimate spending £350 this time which doesn't include the PC bits which were already with me. Original cab cost approx. £120

Next up will be a cocktail for home - can anyone point me to some nice plans for cocktails?

David

[shbon]

Thanks for the kind words. I'll post new pics when finally finished.

I think the only difference between this cab and my original was that I was prepared to throw more money at it this time! Estimate spending £350 this time which doesn't include the PC bits which were already with me. Original cab cost approx. £120

Next up will be a cocktail for home - can anyone point me to some nice plans for cocktails?

David

Kyle Lindstrom's plans are very well documented and include CAD plans. They can be found here or on BYOAC...

I used them as a starting point for my cocktail cab, also 90-something % done. We seem to have similar tastes aswell!!

Nice upright cab BTW...

Shaun

[davcom1]

Kyle Lindstrom's plans are very well documented and include CAD plans. They can be found here or on BYOAC...

I used them as a starting point for my cocktail cab, also 90-something % done. We seem to have similar tastes aswell!!

Nice upright cab BTW...

Shaun

Thanks Shaun - very useful.

That cocktail cab of yours looks sweet - the T-moulding sets it off really well!

David

[Will]

Yeah, beautiful cabinet. I wish I had the time to do the extras on mine. I have a question though. Mine is finished except for the marquee. Could you give me a description of how yours is secured? I am not quite sure how to do it.

[oxbow]

Now this cab is pimped!

I love the neons on the sidepanels..

[davcom1]

Yeah, beautiful cabinet. I wish I had the time to do the extras on mine. I have a question though. Mine is finished except for the marquee. Could you give me a description of how yours is secured? I am not quite sure how to do it.

Hi Will,

The marquee is sandwiched between 2 pieces of plexiglass (perspex). I cut these using a jigsaw - you need to sandwich these between some mdf or similar when cutting to avoid splits.

Then I used some 90 degree black plastic profile (B&Q have it in the UK) to hold the perspex sandwich against the top and the speaker pieces.

Hope that makes sense!

David

[oxbow]

Those neons, can they change colors? Would be cool in jukebox mode

[davcom1]

Those neons, can they change colors? Would be cool in jukebox mode

The neons are single colour - did originally order the 7-colour versions but they were discontinued.

The blues can be set to sound activate though and so pulse with the music or game.

I've got more lighting to add too including LEDs stripped from a damaged PC case and a pair of 12" straight neons that will light up (hopefully) the etched perspex coin door graphics when its done...

Finally, I want to add a vinyl design to the screen glass to make the bezel area more interesting.

[davcom1]

To anyone who is interested..

The portholes in the side of my cab was something I wanted to do in my original design plans and searching around the 'net I found someone who had done this already...

I was going to attempt to light up some etched perspex but changed my mind after seeing this guy's work which looks awesome.

Here's a link to his site Knievel Kustoms

I did my graphic from scratch in Photoshop and then sandwiched it between a piece of Perspex in front and 6mm MDF behind - the whole thing is actually square but masked by the circular cutout.

So thanks Kneivel for the inspiration!

[Rustynutts]

you can print any of your arcade art work on to white sticky back plastic

and then apply straight to the perspex its mutch easier it worked a treat

on my markee.

here is a pick of the markee stuck on to the perspex