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.