...Done?

Well, it's pretty much complete now. Got most of the software kinks worked out, moved it into the living room (this was no small task), played a few rounds of Smash TV.

Thanks goes out to the people at the BYOAC forums and the GameEx forums - really nice to see how helpful and inviting the arcade building community is. Also to my friend Kelsey for lending his wood router. And to my roommates for putting up with a lot of noise (and a very messy garage).

If you're interested in costs, here's an approximation (I stopped counting halfway through):
27" CRT TV - $130
Buttons, lights, joysticks, wiring, LED controller - $525
T molding + tools $50
Wood $100
Computer - $340
Speakers - $50
Lexan (screen and marquee) - $80
Misc hardware - $150
Artwork - $100
Software - $25
Total - $1600
There's some rounding error in there but it sounds about right. To tell the truth it's a decent amount more than I expected but I'm not too sure where I could have cut costs (without missing out on features I wanted, like a trackball or lighting).

I'm a little disappointed with the numerous flaws visible to me - a poor paintjob, numerous gaps where wood was measured or cut incorrectly, scratches on the screen cover, and overall lack of polish that I was aiming for. That said... it is pretty freakin' cool to have it sitting in my living room. It does work, and it is glorious, and maybe it'll help me get laid. No?

Hardware complete

The cables are all cleaned up. The buttons light up. The TV+speakers turn off when you power off the computer (or put it to sleep). Artwork is applied. Everything is hooked up.
There's a lot of software work to do, but it's mostly usable at this point. FYI, here's my software setup:
WinXP Pro
GameEx (largely with default settings)
Mame 0.123 (compiled with hiscore support)
Sega Genesis, NES, SNES (MESS emulator)
Dreamcast (nullDC)

Nearly complete!

Wow, the last bits and pieces flew together and the cabinet is nearly complete. Hardware wise, at least. Finished wiring up the control panel:I was grateful for the input connector on the joysticks, it made everything a lot simpler. Everything just barely fits inside the cabinet itself, once I connect the two large USB cables (uncomfortably tight really...)

Anyway, you can see the standing cabinet here:


To do: Clean up random bits of dust, apply artwork, clean up cables, get TV working, and then from there it's all software, I think. Yaaay!

Progress is made

Today I finished off the painting, touched up a few parts, and attached the t-molding. Everything went relatively smoothly here, which was a nice change. My paint job still seems patchy to me and I'm unfortunately not too sure what to do about it - no big deal I suppose, hopefully it won't be as noticeable with the cabinet out of the sunlight. Decals will go on soon. You might be able to see that I attached the speakers and marquee light.


I also stuck all the control panel parts together, and started wiring. There are a bunch of wires this time, with each button requiring four wires, and I'm trying to keep it all organised but it's a little difficult. In this picture I only have the lighting cables connected, though not the ground.

Priming and painting

Over the weekend I finally got around to priming (well, finishing priming) and painting the cabinet.

There's not too much to say here, other than the fact that I used a roller for the primer and spraypainted the, uh, paint. Spraypaint is a little tricky because if you are not careful you get drips, and it's a little time consuming, but I think it worked out well.

Unfortunately, I did not want to place the cabinet on its side for painting, and due to my inexperience with spraypainting I do have some drips that you can see in the next image. I may sand them down and re-do them I think.


Note that the paint is still drying (and patchy!) in these images; in a few hours it'll be much more smooth.

Lastly, after a bit of deliberation about artwork and wondering about the complexity of various images, this is what will end up on the sides:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/6425/

Control panel construction continues

After finally managing to get my hands on a working hole bit for the drill (damn bits didn't match up) progress is once more being made on the control panel. Some of the holes are a little off, and the buttons don't always line up with their nice background bits, but... oh well, it'll do the job. Next up is attaching the joysticks, then... wiring! That'll be interesting...

(PS: This work was done several weeks ago, in mid December, before I left on holiday. Hence the lack of updates.)

Slow progress...

We've hit a slight snag. Initially it was on the control panel - cut out a 11.5"x30" piece of lexan (ugh, another expense), and realised we had no way to easily cut a hole for the trackball. So I got out the jigsaw and sandpaper... long story short we ended up with an ugly hole that ended up having the other holes aligned incorrectly.

So we shelled out for a 2 7/8" hole saw... except it turns out that the bit for this is too large for the drill. So we have to figure out what to do here...

Anyway, here's a picture of the mounting method for the trackball. It's screwed into the sides of the wood, so we won't have an ugly trackball mounting dealie on the top.