Friday, April 27, 2007

Update

Got the T-Molding and the keywiz encoder today. Super fast shipping.
Groovy Game Gear rocks!

Did more work on the marquee today.
I tried a super bright jumbo led behind the character picture. It didnt look good. The Led casts a bright dot of light in the center of the picture.
I decided to use 12 volt bulbs, like the ones in a coin door.
I think it looks pretty good.
Here is a picture, but the marquee looks better in real life..

I have since mounted another bulb on the right side. I will post more pics later.

Also got a little work done on the joystick mounting.
Here is a kinda blurred picture of the joystick. There is a clip at the bottom of the handle shaft. I remove this with a pair of needle nose pliers. This allows the handle to pull out of the body.


Here is another blurry picture. This one shows the handle pulled apart from the body.
I then took the body of the joystick and temporarily bolted it to the bottom of the control panel.
I then marked around the mounting flange of the joystick.

I then removed the joystick body. This gives me a line which I will use as a guide to route 1/4" out of the control panel. This will allow the joystick handle to protrude through the control panel and plexi glass enough to operate correctly. I repeated the process for the other player's joystick.
-------------------

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Lightin' up The Rage!

I got the EL Wire laid into the groove on the marquee.
Here are some preliminary pics:

The first pic has the plexi glass laid on top of the el wire. The protective plastic is still on the plexi, it will look a lot better after I peel that off.

This next pic is with the plexi glass removed..

The picture below is the back of the marquee.
Notice the little black box? This is the driver. It steps up the 12 volt DC and changes it to a high frequency AC. The high frequency AC is what makes the wire glow. I tried connecting a piece of the wire directly to 120 VAC house current. It glows, but not as bright as it does when connected to the driver.
Although I could have just connected the el wire to a 120 volt plug, I would rather spend the extra 6 bucks for the driver, that way I can keep everything low voltage, which should be safer.
Notice the loop in the wire? This is where it leaves the "E" and enters the "R" on the front of the marquee.
I measured the current draw. At 12 .5 VDC it draws 28.6 milliamps. (0.0286 amp).
So a very simple "wall wart" 12 VDC adapter should work great to power this baby.
I bought the wire at http://www.coolneon.com
You will need to know how to solder if you plan on using this wire. It comes with pretty easy instructions, and I think you can buy the wire with a plug already soldered on. Might be the best way to go. You can see the plug between the driver and the end of the EL wire.
In any case, check out the website, or google search el wire.


The marquee has been turned on now for over an hour, and I dont feel any heat at all coming off of it. I think I may be on to something here..
-------------------------

Coin cheat buttons

I was sitting here watching the rain pour down.
Cant do much of anything to the machine, so I thought I would talk a little about the coin cheat buttons.
Mame requires inputs for credits, just like the original arcade machines had.
You get these inputs from the coin door.
When someone deposits a coin, it goes through the coin mech. The coin mech checks the coin for size and thickness. If it fails the check, the coin is routed to the coin return on the front of the coin door. If the coin passes the check, it is routed to a chute which leads to the coin bucket.
As the coin falls through the chute, it pushes a small wire. The wire is attached to a micro switch.
When the wire moves, it activates the switch, which in turn completes an electrical path to the keyboard encoder. The computer receives a keyboard key "5" for player 1 and a "6" for player 2 coins.
This tells Mame that the proper credit has been deposited, and the game can be played.

Most home arcade machines have "cheat" buttons to bypass the need to insert coins to play.
These buttons are wired in parallel with the coin door switches, so when the cheat button is pressed, the computer thinks a coin was deposited.
Of course, if your arcade machine does not have a coin door, then it is imperative that you install the buttons to take the place of the coin door switches.

My past two machines had coin doors and cheat buttons.
The Rage will also have coin cheat buttons.

I like to hide the cheat buttons so the "arcade feel" remains true.

On The Rage, the buttons will be in the panel beneath the control panel.
Here is a picture showing the holes:
As you can see, each player will have a button on his(her) side. The player will reach under the control panel and "feel" for the button. The button will be counter sunk below the surface of the panel, so it wont be easy to see.

Here is a diagram I drew with Paint that should give you an idea of what I am doing:
The switches I used were some I had laying around. The type of switch doesnt matter, you will just have to drill the hole and the counter sink hole to fit the switch.
Just make sure the diameter of the counter sink hole is big enough to allow the tip of an adult's finger to enter comfortably.
Here is a drawing of how you could use a arcade button type switch:I think you get the idea, just keep the switch hid from view as much as possible.
You could even buy a cheap pushbutton from Radio Shack. Just remember you will need a Normally Open (N.O.), momentary push button. The normally open means that the contacts are open when the button is not pressed. Pressing the button closes the contacts.
Some buttons may have both normally open and normally closed (N.C.) contacts. In this case you will only use the normally open contacts.
The momentary description means that the contacts change when the button is pressed, then change back when the button is released.
Think of it as turning on a switch when you press the button, then turning off the switch when you release the button.

A quick thought:
The coin cheat buttons can be disabled with another switch, hidden somewhere else. You can make it where the player must use coins to play.
This will drive your buddies crazy! (And your piggy bank fat!)
More on this later.
--------------------------

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Cutting out the control panel

Today we put another coat of paint on the cabinet.
We also got the control panel cut out.

First, I sandwiched a piece of plexiglass between the control panel and another piece of scrap.
Then using a jig saw, I careful cut the plexi glass out around the edge of the control panel.
I used a metal cutting blade in the jig saw (fine teeth). Had to take it slow, and occasionally stop and clean the teeth of the saw blade. The plastic gets hot and melts, filling the blade's teeth.
After the plastic was cut out, I placed it on top of the control panel and test fitted it into the cabinet. I had to sand a little off the edges of the plastic. It fit too tight. The plastic will expand when the ambient temperature goes up, so a tight fit will make the plastic buckle in the summer time, so it needs to fit a little loose.

I then laid the control panel, right side up, on a table made of scrap pieces of MDF.
I then laid out the cutting templates.
After I had the templates laid out like I wanted, I taped the corners with duct tape to hold the stencils in place.

I then drilled a 1/8" hole through the drilling points in the stencils and through the control panel.
This gave me the drill pattern I would need.

I got the template for the joysticks and buttons on the internet, but I cant recall where right now. I will find out later and post the link.

The trackball I will be using is a Happ 3" translucent. Translucent means the ball can be lit (pretty cool).
More on that later.

I also got the template for the trackball off the 'net.
I drilled four holes for the trackball plate's mounting bolts. then I had to cut out a square for the trackball itself. I drilled 2 holes in each corner of the square. This will allow the jigsaw blade to be inserted, to cut out the square.
I also drilled two more holes for small buttons that will be used for mouse right and left click, so the trackball can be used as a mouse, if the need arises.


Now that I had all the pilot holes drilled, it was time to cut them to the right sizes.
But first, I tore off all the templates, and the tape. I lightly ran a sander over the whole surface, to make sure it was nice and flat. I then removed as much dust as possible, using a damp rag.
Next, I flipped the control panel upside down. I then sandwiched the plexi glass I cut earlier, under the control panel.

I clamped the control panel and the plexi glass to the makeshift table.
I secured them as best as possible. Its very important that the control panel, the plexi glass, or the table not move.

Using a straight edge, I marked the square to be cut out for the trackball.
I just connected the holes I had already drilled, to form a square.

I drilled a couple holes with the 1/8" bit, through the control panel and the plexi glass, and installed screws into the table. This will help hold everything together. The screws will have to be removed later, to allow the same hole to be cut bigger.

All the 1/8" holes I drilled earlier will go through the plexi glass except 8.
Each joystick has 4 mounting holes. These holes will not go through the plexi glass.
There will be 1 hole per joystick that will go through the plexi glass, and that is in the center, for the handle.

Using a 1-1/8" paddle bit, I drilled all the holes for the buttons, except the two with screws in them.

I had to take it slow when I got to the plexi glass, you dont want to crack the glass.
I used a shop vac to remove debris and dust. I stopped drilling as soon as the bit went through the plexi glass. The wood below the plexi glass does get marked, so thats why you want to use scrap.

Next I had to cut out for the trackball. this is not easy and very time consuming.
I first drilled the four mounting holes through the plexi glass. I used a bigger bit, I think it was a
3/16" twist bit. Again, take it slow when reaching the plastic (plexi glass).
I then re-drilled the corners for the square to the bigger bit.
I had to wobble the bit back and forth to get a slot wide enough for the jig saw blade to fit.
Then, using the jigsaw, I cut out the square as best I could.
The jigsaw is slow go. The blade isn't long enough to cut all the way through the bottom scrap, so you have to take it very slow, or the jigsaw will try to jump up on you.

After that, I removed the two screws and drilled those holes with the 1-1/8" paddle bit.
I drilled the mouse click buttons with a 1/2" paddle bit.
Here is a picture with the first 1-1/8" hole cut.
Notice the mounting holes for the joysticks are plainly marked? This is to remind me that these holes are not to be touched during this stage.


After all was done, I separated the control panel from the table, removed the plexi glass and checked for cracks. All looked good! I washed the dust off under a hydrant.
At this point, the protective plastic is still on the plexi glass. I will leave it on until I am ready to mount it. This protects the plexi glass from scratches.

I test fitted the trackball into the hole I cut, and the hole is too small. The trackball will not fully go into the hole. So I will have to clamp the control panel and the plexi glass back to the scrap table and take some more off the sides of the square hole. Shouldn't be too big a deal.

Below is a diagram I drew to better show what I plan to do with the joystick mounting bolts.
This is a side-view of the joystick mounted to the control panel.
I will have to take out about a 1/4" of wood for the joystick body to counter sink into the wood. This is to allow for the thickness of the plexi-glass, plus a little. This will be done with a router.

Notice how the mounting bolt heads will be below the plexi glass.
I will drill counter sunk holes for the bolt heads. I will then drill counter sunk holes on the other side for the nuts to hold the bolts in place. I will then fill the hole above the bolt heads with wood putty. After the wood putty dries, I will sand it down, prime the control panel and paint it.
The plexi glass will be put in place, then all the buttons will be installed. The buttons will hold the plexi glass to the control panel.
The 4 mounting bolts per joystick will be hidden from the top of the control panel.
Four nuts will hold the joystick securely in place.

Maybe I will get some real pictures of this process later.



---------------------------

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

New parts order

Just ordered 37 feet of alien green T-Molding and a Keywiz Eco2 keyboard encoder.

Click here to check out the T-Molding.

Click here to check out the keyboard encoder.

Touching base

Today we did quite a lot of work.
The Rage is painted.
It will need at least one more coat of paint though. We used white enamel primer. It seems to bleed through the black latex paint easily.
We had to put three coats on Benny B's Arcade.
Also got the marquee painted today. Had to run the router around the lettering one more time. Took it a little deeper too, to make sure the EL Wire doesnt push out on the plexi-glass that will be installed over it. We used a 1/8" straight router bit to cut the grooves.
I didnt take any pictures today, but here are a few from yesterday:


This pic shows one of the holes cut in the marquee for the pacman character. You can also see the hole saw that we used. The holesaw had to be taken slow. The MDF gummed up the teeth, I had to remove the saw several times and clean the teeth. I found that if you press on the drill, then pull up to allow the dust to clear from the saw teeth, it did a lot better.


Here is the marquee with both holes cut, and the first coat of primer applied.


Here is the cabinet laid on its side, first coat of black paint applied. Notice the cardboard strips in the T-Molding slots? That is to keep paint out of the slots. I found out today that it is important to remove the cardboard as soon as you are finished applying the coat of paint. I had a couple pieces stuck. Had to use a razor knife to separate the cardboard so I could remove them.


Here is a shot of the cabinet showing the speaker panel. Notice the holes? This is where the speakers will mount. Used a 2" holesaw to cut them. If you look close, you can see a small hole between the two speaker holes. This will be for the volume control.

Well, thats all for now. Planning on applying another coat of paint tomorrow, hopefully that will be enough. Also will try to cut out the plexi-glass that will cover the control panel, then I can drill the holes for the joysticks and buttons. Sounds like fun? You bet!
I will try to take more pictures tomorrow.
-------------------------------

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The Marquee

The marquee on an arcade machine says a lot about the arcade. It advertises the game and attracts attention to the machine.
On a home arcade, it puts a personal touch on the machine.
My first two machines have marquees that are computer printouts laid out side by side and sandwiched between two pieces of plexi-glass.
I created my first marquees using Paint, which comes with Windows.
I got a lot of pictures off the net and pasted them onto the marquee, then I trimmed around them with black, and filled in the background with black.
When I printed out the marquee, it printed on 4 sheets of paper.
I had to trim the paper right up to the edge of the pictures, then lay them side by side.
A 2 foot fluorescent light illuminates the marquee from behind.
I wasnt too crazy with the result. You could see light through the edges of the sheets.
I am planning on finding a print shop that will print the marquee for me on a continuous banner.
But there are no such shops in my area of the world.

Here is the marquee I threw together for Benny B's Arcade:

This marquee measures 24.12" by 6.25"

And this is the one I created for Adam's Arcade:

Adam's Arcade measures 26.75" by 6.75. It is basically the same as Benny B's, just rearanged the pics a little and re-worded it.

I asked my son to design a marquee for his machine, The Rage.
Here is what he designed:

I like this design, simple and sweet. I still need to ask him how he made the neon font.
When I first saw the Paint picture, I thought about using EL Glow Wire for the lettering.
In case you dont know what El Glow Wire is: Electroluminescent Wire is a special wire that glows like a neon tube when current is passed through it.
So I had a bright idea to use El wire on this marquee so that will look like a neon sign.
I have searched the internet and cant find where anyone has tried this before.
It would be an added bonus if I am the first to use El Wire on an arcade marquee.
So I am going to give it a shot.
I have already routed out the lettering on a piece of MDF board.
I printed the marquee without the pacman pics and in black and white, to save on ink.
I then taped the printout to the MDF board and routed the letters through the paper and into the wood.
I plan on using the wire to lay in the groove that I cut into the wood.
At this time, I only have the lettering routed into the wood that will be used as the marquee.

Here is a picture of what I had after the router was finished:

I need to touch up the rough lettering a bit with wood putty.
I also plan to use a 3-1/4" hole saw to cut two holes on either side of the lettering.
I plan to lay the El wire in the routed slot, put the pictures of Pacman and Donkey Kong over the holes, then cover the whole thing with plexi-glass.
We couldnt find a good clear picture of Ms Pacman, so we decided to use Donkey Kong instead.
Two 12 volt bulbs behind the marquee will light up the pictures, or maybe I will use super bright LED's.
LED's will create almost no heat, and they should outlast the bulbs by many years.
I will post any progress on this marquee as the work continues.

----------

Some primer pics

Here are a few pictures I took while applying primer to the cabinet.


The cabinet on it's side. Notice the bottom. I havent talked about how I made it yet, but it is simply a square cut out of the MDF, with a 1-1/2" strip of MDF around the edge. The cabinet sides and front forms a double strip for strength. The brace near the back is for added strength, and to support the cabinet if moved with a two-wheeled dolly (refrigerator mover.)
Notice the casters (one covered with paper to keep the primer off it.) I think the casters are necessary to allow you to move the cabinet easier, and to allow you to pull it out from the wall, to allow access to the back of it.
I bought the casters at Lowes, they are rated for 80 pounds each.
Notice the cardboard strips in the T-Molding slots, this helps to keep primer and paint out of the slots. If the slots get jammed with paint, the T-Molding will be very hard to install, so every precaution is taken to keep primer and paint out of the slots.


Another shot of the top of the cabinet.



The inside of the cabinet, primed. Notice the bracing inside. this will be for the monitor.


Cabinet front. The control panel is not primed yet. Got to drill the holes for the controls first.

---------

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Cutting the side panel

Ok, I am back. Been working 12 hour shifts all this week. Hopefully that is past me for a while.
The trouble with building an arcade and documenting it is that you are so busy you really dont have time to take a lot of pictures. I did manage to get in a few though.
Here is one of the sides, already cut out from the sheet of MDF.


We laid two pieces of MDF board one on top of the other. We clamped them with C-Clamps and a couple of ratchet clamps to hold each securely together.
Then, using the plans I posted earlier, we drew out the side panel on the top MDF board.
Using a T-Square, a carpenter's square, and a 3 foot level for a straight edge, we laid out a cutting pattern.

We then cut out the pattern with a skill saw. But on the area around the monitor, we used a jig saw. I dont like using a jig saw. You have to be very careful with it because the blade can bend, giving you a beveled cut. Luckily, a good sander can straighten up a small mess.
On the sections we cut with the skill saw, we clamped another piece of MDF board, to use to guide the skill saw. This works great, but you have to measure away from the line to cut, to allow the saw blade to cut on the line. This can be a pain to get right on every cut.
I found a site on the web, that shows how to build a cutting guide (sawboard). This was well worth the extra time. It made the future cuts a lot easier.
Check out this site:
http://members.aol.com/woodmiser1/sawbd.htm

On my first two projects, I used a pine 2X4 as a cutting guide. This is not good, because if you have ever built anything with 2X4's you know how hard it is to get a perfectly straight one, especially an 8 foot one. If your cutting guide is bowed, your cut will be bowed, or the saw will try to hang up on you, because a skill saw cannot cut much of a curve.

This next picture is showing how we laid out the frame.
The frame supports the other panels, such as coin door, monitor, and control panel.


We cut the frame pieces from MDF board, using the sawboard. We cut several pieces, about 1-1/2 inches wide.
We then glued the pieces with carpenters glue, then put screws in as well. You have to be careful with the screws, you dont want them to go all the way through the side panel. I think I bought 1-1/4" screws, that should have penetrated about 1/2" into the side panel. Just have to be careful not to let the screws counter sink much. I drilled a pilot hole first, to keep the braces from splitting. I set the drill bit in the chuck so that the chuck would touch the wood before the drill bit could go all the way through the wood. This gave me a drill depth guide. While I was driving the screw with the drill driver, I kept my other hand on the oposite side, so I could feel if the screw was going to deep. Take the screw in slowly. (The wood bulges up before the screw pops through. If I felt a bulge I knew the screw was about to go too far, but dont do this when drilling.)
Tip: use two drills, one to drill and one to set the screw. This will make life a lot easier.

Notice the slot cut around the edge of the side panel. This is for the T-Molding.
We cut these slots with a router and a special cutter blade. (Click to see slot cutter).
On my last two projects, I cut these slots after the cabinet was put together. Had to lay the cabinet on it's side. I found that it is better to cut the slot right after you finish cutting out the sides. So that will be my standard procedure from now on out.
Just be careful, and go slow, if you tilt the router, it will get your slot off center, causing you a headache later on down the road. Observe all safety precautions with the router. It can get out of control very quickly. Also, if you think cutting the MDF board was dusty, the router tops the saw with amount of dust that is created. I found it is best to make a few practice cuts on a scrap piece of MDF. This will give you a feel of how it works, plus it will let you make sure you are centered of the board.

Also on my first two projects, I used ripped 2X4's as the frame. Not good because this goes back to the 2X4's not being straight. The MDF makes better frame pieces, I think

As I said before, I didnt take a lot of time to make pictures, I wish I had for the benefit of documentation, maybe next time I will.
Here is a picture of the cabinet assembled, ready for priming.

Notice the coin door panel has the hole cut for the coin door.
The monitor panel does not have the hole cut out for the monitor yet, and the control panel top has no holes drilled in it yet, so these two pieces will not be primed just yet.
Not too shabby, I think.
The panels you see through the coin door cut-out are the top and back panels. The cabinet makes a neat storage area at this stage.

--Later--

Monday, April 16, 2007

What the cabinet parts are called

Ok, Im thinking that if you are new to this arcade building stuff, it might help if you know what Im talking about when I say something like "coin door panel".
Here is a very general layout of "Adam's Arcade."


You can click on the image to enlarge it. Hit your Back button to get back here.
I am using "Adam's Arcade" as an example.
Other cabinet designs may vary from this designs part placement, but they all should pretty much have these parts.

Cabinet Top: The panel on the top. It covers the top of the machine. On this design, it is removable to gain access to the marquee light and the speakers.

Marquee: The marquee is the lighted sign that attracts people to the machine. It's an advertisement of what the game is. Most marquees have a light behind them, to allow the marquee to glow. This machine uses a 2 foot fluorescent light. A marquee is not really necessary. It does not help the operation of the machine at all, but in my opinion, it either makes or breaks the "arcade feel". On this design, the marquee is printed on computer paper and sandwiched between two pieces of plexi-glass. It is removable so the marquee can be changed.

Speaker panel: The speaker panel is below the top, and forms the bottom of the marquee.
It also has two speakers attached to it. You gotta have speakers on an arcade machine. And this is about the best place to put them on this design, i think. I mean, they are right at the players' heads, giving the best sound without having to be turned real loud.

Monitor bezel: This is the part that covers the monitor and any mounting methods you use.
It has a hole cut in the center the same size as the viewable area of the monitor.
You can buy these ready made, but they are a little pricey I think, plus you may have to modify it to fit your cabinet. I went with black foam poster board and a thin sheet of plexi-glass over that. (Plexi-glass covers the monitor too. It looks pretty neat.)

Monitor: the screen that shows the game.

Control panel: The panel that all the player controls attach to. This panel is removable to allow servicing the controls, if ever needed. The top section is covered with plexi-glass. This adds a remarkable touch to it, and protects the wood from scratches.

Player 2 controls: Joystick and 6 action buttons. (Other designs may have more or less action buttons.)

Control panel front: On this design, it has the machine controls attached to it. It is not removable and does not have plexi-glass over it.

Trackball: This is nice for some games.

Machine controls: The buttons that perform functions for the machine, such as machine on, machine shut down, player 1 start, player 2 start, and game escape.

Coin door panel: This panel is part of the structure of the cabinet. It supports a lot of the cabinets weight, so it is not removable. It has a hole cut out that allows the coin door to be mounted.

Coin door: The coin door allows the players to insert coins to play the game. This is strictly optional. You can mount two pushbuttons that simulate coins being inserted, but I think a coin door is like the marquee, it makes or breaks the arcade feel. The coin door is removable.

T-Molding: T-molding is a plastic strip that covers the edge of the wood panels. MDF board has a rough edge to it, so this is pretty much a necessity, I think. You can get the T-molding in a wide variety of colors. Most common is black. The MDF board has to have a slot cut in it that allows the T-Molding to be inserted. The slot is cut with a router.

Cabinet side panel: This panel makes up most of the cabinet. It supports the weight of the stuff inside. It will most likely be the first thing people see. There are of course two sides.

Not shown in this picture:
Back: This design has three backs, a upper, the door panel, and lower. All are removable to gain access to the computer and the monitor.
The door panel has a door opening cut in it, the door is hinged, to allow one to gain easy access to the computer, to insert floppy disks or cd's.
The lower back has a fan in it, to allow cool air to circulate through the cabinet when the arcade is turned on. I think this is very important, because computers and monitors put off a lot of heat.
The upper back has a hole cut in it to allow the hot air to escape. A speaker grill covers the hole to keep dust and insects out. The fan has a removable filter on it, to catch dust.

What I didnt put on this design, but would be pretty neat: Cup holders.



-Thats all for now-

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Some links

Ok, I only got a few minutes, but I thought I would post a few links to websites I have found very useful.
It might help you if yo are just started building your arcade, or if you are still in the planning stage.

Mame: Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. This is the program you will need to run the arcade games on your PC.

GLaunch. A front end is a menu type program. It allows you to choose which game to play. There are several front ends out there, most are free. I like Glaunch the best, among the ones I have tried. I like its simplicity, but it is a little hard to set up.

Build Your Own Arcade Controls forum. This is a very helpful site. Tons of information and ideas. (Be sure to check out the message board in the left menu.)

Dream Arcades. This web store is where I buy my arcade controls (Joysticks and buttons).

Happ Controls. Happ is supposed to have the best parts. But they are very pricey.

The MMP How-To Articles. This is where I found the cabinet plans for Benny B's Arcade and Adam's Arcade. More useful info is also on the site.

Groovy Game Gear. This is where I got my keyboard encoders, and the T-Molding for the cabinet.

Directron. This store has good prices on new and used computers and equipment.

All Electronics. This store has some hard to find electrical parts you might need.

Arcade Art. The name says it all.

Mame Cabinet Control Panel
. This site is one I came across while researching my first project. It shows a control panel in the process of being designed. Also, it shows how to "hack" a mouse to use as a trackball interface. (I am on my second mouse hack right now. Benny B's Arcade didnt have a trackball, but I plan to add one this summer. A trackball is very nice, especially if you like sport games such as bowling and golf.)

Well, Im running out of time, so this should be enough to keep you busy for a while.
I may add other links later. So stay tuned.
You can also do a Google search for arcade to find tons of info.
Disclaimer: I do not maintain any of the websites that I have given links to. I cannot be held responsible for the content on the websites, nor can I be held responsible for any mis-information contained on the sites.
Have a good day!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Bringing in the parts

I think the first part I got for The Rage was the coin door.
It is amazing what you can find on ebay. I bought a coin door for about 30 bucks.
The coin door makes or breaks an arcade machine.
In my honest opinion, a home arcade is just not an arcade machine without it.
Even if you dont plan on using it, you still need one on the front of your machine, just for looks if nothing else.
The coin door for The Rage will be fully operational, just as it was for my last two machines.
The coin door arrived in pretty good shape. It only had one coin mechanism though, so I went back to ebay and picked up a couple of quarter coin mechs pretty cheap. So I got one coin mech put back as a spare.
The coin door is a newer type, with two doors. The upper door has the slots for the quarters, the coin return slots, and the slots are lighted, and you push them to return a jammed coin.
The lower door gives access to the coin bucket.
The coin bucket is a plastic bucket that catches the coins.
The coin door did not come with locks, so I will need to get a couple before the project is finished.
If you are looking for a coin door for your project, you will need the following things for it:
Coin mechs (quarters if in the USA) (two if it is a two-slot coin door).
Sockets for the lighted coin slots. (you can get the bulbs at Advance Auto).
Coin bucket.
Micro switches that the coins activate.
Locks.
So make sure the door you are looking at has all these parts, or be sure you can get hold of them.
Also, the style door I am using has a frame which bolts to the cabinet panel. Make sure you are getting the frame with it, and there are mounting tabs that hold it in place.
You can buy a brand new coin door that looks good and comes with all the parts you need, but it is very expensive. You can usually find good used ones on ebay, just make sure you know what you are or are not getting with it.
I currently dont have a picture of my coin door, maybe I will post one later.

I think the second item I got for this project was the keyboard encoder.
A keyboard encoder allows you to attach the switches on the arcade machine to the computer.
If you google keyboard encoder you will find a lot of info on this.
Some folks have websites set up that tells how to "hack" a keyboard.
This can be done, I did it on my first machine, but it is not a good idea.
It is a lot of hard work, and the keyboard does not like having a bunch of keys pressed at once.
It can cause "ghosting" whereas pressing a combination of keys can send a false character to the computer.
On my first machine I abandoned the keyboard hack and broke down and bought a keyboard encoder. Best move I ever made.
There are several keyboard encoders on the market. Prices range for 20 to over a hundred bucks.
I went with The Keywiz Eco2 keyboard encoder.
It was very simple to hook up (Using the solderless version and an old IDE cable).
It works great for me, but if you are planning on building a machine that has more than two players, the keywiz eco2 is probably not the way to go.

The next item was the computer.
I searched the internet and found a bargain on a refurbished pentium 4, 2.4 gig with 512 megs of DDR ram and 40 gig hard drive.
I think it was around 160 bucks.

Now it was off to Loew's to buy the wood for the cabinet.
I got 3 sheets of 3/4" MDF (Medium Density Fiber) board. (48" X 96")
This is what I used on my last two projects, and 3 sheets is pretty close to what I needed. I had some scrap left, but not a lot.
MDF board looks real good. It has no grain or knots in it. It also has a very smooth finish to it.
But some words of wisdom when using MDF:
The stuff is very heavy. Have someone help you lift and move it. It is also slick and hard to hold on to, so be careful.
If you drop MDF on it's edge, it will most likely dent the edge of it.
I use a regular skill saw to cut it.
When you cut MDF, use a breathing mask, because the stuff puts out a LOT of fine dust while cutting.
If at all possible, cut it outside. It leaves a heck of a mess. A good shop vac is a very good thing to have when cutting the MDF. Trust me, you will have a lot of dust to deal with.
Also, wear safety glasses and earplugs when dealing with any power tools.
Be careful, dont get in a hurry. Trust me, anything that can cut through MDF board can very easily slice through you. Have someone there with you, that can help out, just in case.
You will need someone anyway, to help hold the board while cutting, and to catch pieces that are cut off.
And no alcohol or drugs, this is not party time. If you must do these things, wait until you quit for the day. Let friends know right off the bat that you are not "putting on a clinic about building an arcade machine". You dont need people distracting you. One helper should be plenty.
I guess I cant say enough about safety. Use your better judgment, and think the job through before starting.

Next thing I bought was a 19" monitor. It is a CRT type, which means it is heavy.
Note about the monitor: It will make your job a lot easier if you have a monitor with a flat screen. The flat screen looks better when your arcade is finished, I think.
Also, it is best if the monitor is black. You can use a light colored one, but you might have to paint it black around the screen so it looks good. (The area right around the edge of the screen is all that shows the way I did my arcades. More about that later.)
Once again, ebay is where I found the monitor. Got a real good price on it, but shipping for such a heavy beast is high.
If you can afford it, an LCD monitor would be great. It is light, and I think it would be a lot easier to mount inside the cabinet.
But search the web for sites about using LCD monitors with MAME. Some people dont like the way it looks, but I play MAME games on my home PC, with a 17" LCD screen. I looks good to me.

Next step:
Laying out the cut pattern on the MDF board.

In the beginning...

Ok, where do I start? At the beginning, I guess.
My son, Kenny, had a hand in designing this machine.
He wanted something similar to my first machine, Benny B's Arcade, but also the slim design of the second machine, Adam's Arcade. So I combined the plans for both to get this:
I liked the design. I think Kenny did too. His next assignment was to give it a name, which he did. Hence "The Rage" was born. If only in my feeble mind.
Now that the gears had fuel, they began to turn.
But before the gears could form reality, I needed a set of plans to go by.
So I came up with these measurements:


Im not sure if you can make out all the measurements in these pics, if you really want the plans to try to build yourself one, just drop me an email, I will send the plans to you, free of any charges of course.

Now that I had a plan, it was time to gather materials.

Alpha

Hello.
I am creating this blog in an attempt to document my building of my third home arcade machine.
This third machine is being built for my son, Kenny, and it was named by him as "The Rage".
Hopefully this will be my best arcade machine yet.
But first, since I didn't document my first two machines, here is a brief report on each.
Here is my first, "Benny B's Arcade"

(That's my daughter Jess playing "Pang".)
Benny B's Arcade was finished in the summer of 2006. It uses Mame as the game emulator, and GLaunch as the front-end (game menu).
It sports a 17" monitor, 1 gig AMD computer, with 256 meg SDRam, and 20 gig hard drive.
It has a coin door and hidden cheat buttons to bypass the coin slots.
I got the plan from this website:
http://www.mameworld.net/massive/How-to/Cabinet_Plans/cabinet_plans.html
(It's the one named "Mame Machine".)
It also is a jukebox, using WinCab.
It took quite awhile to build it, and it was a lot of work. But with help from my fiance' and her son, we got it finished, and it turned out pretty good.


Here is my second, built for my brother's son, Adam, called "Adam's Arcade".

(That's me on the left and my brother 'Santa' on the right.)
Adam's Arcade was finished right before Christmas, 2006.
It sports a 19" monitor, a 2.4 gig pentium 4 computer with 256 megs of DDR Ram, and a 40 gig hard drive.
It also has Mame, GLaunch, and WinCab Jukebox.
This arcade is a modified version of "The Tempster", at the same website as the "Mame Machine". (We cut back the sides from the front to right at the monitor.)
My brother and I built this for his son, Adam.

Now, since I havent got my third creation (The Rage) completed yet, future blogs will document my progress on it.
------------------