Progress at Last!!!

I was finally able to finish the exterior of my cab. I used a Minwax water-based stain (blue, obviously) and a Minwax Polyacrylic finish. I applied 2 coats of the stain to get the color I wanted and 4 coats of the finish to seal it up. I applied the stain with a rag and rubbed it in (OK, it was 1/2 of a white t-shirt) and I applied the sealant with a foam brush. In between each coat of sealant I sanded the entire thing down by hand with a sanding block (a rubber thing with sandpaper on the bottom) and then wiped it clean with a damp rag (the other 1/2 of the white t-shirt). The reason for sanding in between each coat of sealant is so the next coat will have a rough surface to adhere to. The final coat does not get sanded.


There is a very smooth glass-like surface over the wood now. When this thing is (finally) in operation and I am in a heated game of Tetris, Puzzle Bobble 4 or some Mortal Kombat 2 and I spill my beer everywhere it should wipe up very easily. One thing I did notice as I was staining the cabinet is that if I could do it over I think I would finish the pieces individually prior to assembly. I think gravity combined with not being able to get into the corners as well as I wanted to with the brush made the thing come out a little uneven. I stress a little though because I do think it looks quite nice. You can't really tell from these pictures but the stain shows off the wood grain very nicely even though it looks like I painted the thing blue. Notice the Atari 5200 box in the background of the picture to the left. I'm soooo old school!

This shot is a close-up of the Player 2 side of the thing. You can see the t-molding on the edges - this will eventually cover all of the exposed edges of the plywood. It wasn't easy to cut the t-molding to the proper length because of the curved surface I had to apply it to. Also, getting a 90 degree cut on the edge of the t-molding is pretty difficult even though it sounds easy. I used a straight razor knife and eyeballed it. I think it came out OK but I'm sure there is a more precise way to make the cuts. I also sliced my thumb in the process and got a little blood on there (not pictured). Thank god for the smooth finish - it wiped right up!

To the right is a shot of the cabinet with the top on (not attached) and the coin door closed. If you look closely you can see the groove routed out around the top piece - this is for the 1" t-molding that will eventually go around the outside. I am waiting to get the piece of glass made and the artwork applied before I install it though. That will be one of the last pieces of construction. You can also see the difference t-molding makes by comparing the unfinished sides of the control panel to the finished ones in the picture above. I sure do talk about t-molding a lot, eh? Well, it does look nice... This is basically how it will look when it is finished minus the artwork and the controls. The hole in the middle is for the wiring of the buttons, joysticks and trackball and will not be visible once everything is installed.

In this picture you can see the inside of the coin door. I've never wired anything up before but I don't think it is too hard to figure out (I'll probably be saying something different when I actually start though). The coin door will be set to accept quarters and tokens. The coins trip a microswitch (I'll explain that later when I start talking about wiring more in-depth) that sends a signal to the computer and the MAME program will know that a coin has been inserted and will allow you to press start and play whatever game you have loaded. It is a true arcade experience - you've got to put a quarter in to be able to play! I am also planning including a "coin" button on the face of each control panel and wiring them all to the same place so that you won't actually have to insert a coin every time you want to play but you can if you want to make it more authentic. There are also 2 lights for the "coin return" buttons that need power from the computer to light up. I'm not sure how these things work yet because I haven't come across a "coin return" button in MAME but I'm sure it's in there somewhere.

This final picture of my arcade cabinet for today is just a shot of what will eventually be the top. As mentioned previously, there will be a piece of tempered smoked glass that will go on top and be held down by some clips. The glass will go over the monitor cut out as well as the cutouts on the left and right so it will basically be rectangular in shape (with rounded corners). The most important part of this project (other than the games actually working) is the artwork which will cover the top entirely. Click on the Ms. Pac-man example I posted below to see exactly what I mean. If the artist I've asked agrees to draw me some custom Star Wars art for the top like I described in my last post, this thing will totally kick ass.

Click for an example of a cocktail overlay graphic.

Stay tuned - I hope to post more pictures soon!!

I am going to be posting more pictures soon showing off the t-molding and staining of the cabinet. It is coming along nicely. One bit of news is that I've finally decided on a name for my creation:

Knights of the Arcade Table

The idea I have pictured in my head is a Star Wars theme. I would like a drawing of several Jedis (Knights, get it?) for the top of the cabinet around the monitor with their lightsabers drawn. I'm a huge geek but I don't think naming the thing and giving it a Star Wars theme makes me any more of a geek than building my own arcade machine does in the first place. It's like I've maxed out my geekiness or something. I'm reaching out to a very talented artist (who shall remain nameless until he agrees to do it) to draw the artwork. Hopefully he will accept the job!!

More to come....

Here are some more pictures of my work in progress. It's nothing new, really - just a couple of different angles.

The first picture here is a straight on view of the third control panel. Eventually there will be two joysticks, a 2-1/4" trackball and 12 action buttons (6 per player) here for controlling the horizontal games. You can also see the coin door cutout below the long control panel.

The second picture is a shot of the player one control panel. There is going to be one joystick, 3 action buttons and a spinner here (for games like Arkanoid). Underneath the player one control panel I am going to have to drill two large holes - one for a computer fan and the other for a speaker. I have black grills that will cover the holes and match the rest of the cabinet. The fans are an absolute necessity due to the electrical components (computer and monitor, especially) being so compact in there.

In the close-up shown in the third picture, if you look closely you can see the groove on the end pieces where the t-molding is going to go. The t-molding gives the piece a nice neat finished look instead of the rough edges left by the saw.

The final shot is a close-up of the interior of the cabinet where the computer, all the wiring and the monitor will be placed once I get around to it. It will probably be a rat's nest of wires since I've never done something like this before and I really don't know what I'm doing. The back panel of the cabinet is missing because this is where you gain access to all of the internal components. There is a piano hinge that connects the missing panel to the bottom front panel in the last picture. The top of the table (not pictured anywhere) connects to the missing panel and holds the monitor. The top, the monitor and the missing panel all swivel on the piano hinge when I need to get inside for maintenance (hopefully never!).

Well, as you can see I've got a picture to share with more to come in a few days. This is the 80% assembled, unfinished cabinet. Since this picture was taken, I've stained the entire thing a dark shade of blue and added the plastic trim (called t-molding) and installed the coin door. That's right - this sucker is going to be able to accept real quarters or tokens when it is all finished - just like a real arcade machine does. Of course I'll have it set to free play but the option is there.

I've also started the assembly of the control panels which will house all of the the joysticks and buttons. This project has three separate control panels - 2 on the short sides for vertical games (like Pac-man) and one 2-player long one for playing horizontal games (like Street Fighter II). The difference between a horizontal game and a vertical game is the way it is oriented on the screen. Your normal picture tube television displays everything in 4:3 mode or horizontally. If you were to turn the TV on its side it would now be positioned to display games in vertical mode. There are many different games out there that come in both varieties.

Overall it's not looking too bad so far but once I get some new pictures posted here you will really be able to see something neat. I'm aiming to post new pictures by Monday. Stay tuned!

Hello all. I've never used a blog before and up until a few weeks ago I didn't even know what one was so I apologize in advance if this one sucks. This is going to be a place for me to post pictures and detail the progress of building my own arcade machine. I might use it for something else down the road though - you never know.

Anyway, about a 18 months ago I was wasting time surfing the web and I came across www.arcadecontrols.com which is a great website dedicated to arcade enthusiasts who have actually taken the time to design and build their own arcade machines. As soon as I saw what people had been doing I knew I had to build one myself. I spent countless hours in arcades growing up in the 80s and it would be so cool to be able to play all those old games again in my own house.

Over the next few months, I learned all about how these things worked. You could build you own, buy an old one and restore it or have someone build you one (there are tons of companies I never knew about who cater to arcade machines and the like). There are a million different joysticks, spinners, trackballs, pushbuttons, steering wheels etc. and a million ways to lay it all out. You also have to decide what you want to play the games on - a monitor or TV? It can be overwhelming at first. I think the best approach is to figure out which games you want to be able to play and design it to accommodate that. Inside the cabinet, most people use a computer and a program called MAME, which is used to play the games. That's the (very) basics I guess. What I like most about this hobby (aside from the finished product) is that it is completely up to the builder to decide how it looks - there are a lot of unique cabinets out there!

After doing a TON of research and basically reading everything I could I decided on building a cocktail cabinet. I thought about building an upright but there's just no room in my house for one - maybe when I get a bigger house I'll have a dedicated game room with all sorts of fun stuff in there but for now the cocktail will have to do.

I'll post more details along with some construction photos later on...