The Rage

The Rage goes home!!

2007-07-09T10:04:00.000-06:00

Moving day is here! This is a picture of The Rage loaded onto the Mighty Dodge!
We wrapped the arcade in old sheets, to prevent scratches, then we strapped a two wheeled dolly to the arcade, loaded it on the truck, then wrapped it all in plastic, just in case it rains..

We fastened the machine to the truck with 2X4's bolted to the bed rail, and ratchet straps.
We didnt have room for the plywood ramp, so we bolted it across the bed directly behind the arcade. Some well placed cloth strapping and the all powerful duct tape, and we are ready to hit the road.

125 miles later we got The Rage unloaded, unwrapped, and placed in my son, Kenny's living room.

Notice the look of astonishment on Kenny's face!

Here is Kenny and his friend Kyle trying it out.

And here is The Rage, placed in the corner blocking the front door. (Who needs a stinkin' front door anyway??)
And yep, that's me, Dear Ole Dad, testing it. (Somebody pass me the Tylenol for my back.. this machine is HEAVY!!)

And Kenny, happy as a cat in a bird house...

And that my friends, is what makes all this hard work worthwhile!
If you decide to build an arcade machine, good luck, and have fun!!

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Some more pictures

2007-06-16T23:04:00.000-06:00

Just a few more pictures of The Rage.

Looking through coin door, back of computer with keyboard and a memory stick plugged into USB ports.
Green plug: Trackball
White plug: Keywiz keyboard encoder.
Black plug: Keyboard plugged into usb port.
Blue plug: monitor VGA plug.
Black illuminated memory stick plugged into usb port.
Light green plug: speakers.

Front end (Glaunch)

Control panel underneath.
Power strips. Notice L Bracket at bottom front of computer, I installed 4 of these to hold computer in place during transporting.

The fan (120 VAC)

Back door open, notice bottom space used for storage of keyboard. Coindoor keys are stored on back door. (Tie wrapped to hold while transporting arcade.)
Back door opens to allow access to CD drive and floppy drive.

Back of marquee, looking through vent opening.
I used rubber weather stripping around marquee to block light from getting through small space around marquee.

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It is finished!

2007-06-08T18:09:00.000-06:00

If this is your first visit here, I highly suggest you use the menu at the right to start from the beginning and go through all the steps. This post is the last one. "Alpha" is the first.

Well, the project is finally finished. The Rage was my third machine, and it was fun.
I also learned a few new tricks.
Using the sawboard is a definite have-to-do from now on out.
Cutting out pieces of MDF to use for the frame works out better than using 2X4s.
Creating the marquee was fun too.

This machine was built for my son's 24th birthday (which means this is about 3 months late).
My son lives about 100 miles from me, so as soon as our schedules allow, we are going to load up The Rage and take it to it's home. (Looks like a job for The Mighty Dodge!)
Maybe we will get more pictures of that adventure.

But for now, here are pictures of the finished product:
Side View

The Marquee

Back View

Front view

Control Panel

Computer

Coin door opens to gain access to back of computer, to plug in keyboard, etc.

Thanks to my brother for helping me on this project, and for letting me use
The Busted Knuckle Garage.
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Coin Door LEDs

2007-06-08T17:47:00.001-06:00

Ok, I switched out the two power hungry incandescent lamps on the coin door with two bright LEDs. The LEDs are 5mm Yellow 720 mcd, available at Radio Shack (#276-350).
The LEDs are rated for 20-30 ma, so I needed a resistor. I figured it for 20 ma.
The forward voltage on the LED is 2.1, so I subtracted that from my power supply of 12 volts.
Using OHMs law:
R=E/I
R=resistance in ohms (This is what I need to know)
E= voltage (12-2.1= 9.9)
I= current (0.020)

E/I= 9.9/0.020= 495
R= 495

The closest resistor I had was 470, that figured out to be 0.021 amp (21 ma) which is just fine.

I soldered the resistor to one lead, and covered the connection with heat shrink. I then trimmed a small red wire and slid the insulation over the other lead.
I then soldered the LEDs to the coin doors lamp holder leads.
Here is a picture:
The picture is a little blurred, but the LED leads bend around to either side of the lamp holder, then soldered to the leads at the back of the holder.
The LED is positioned center of the lamp holder, where the bulb would usually be.
I then slid the holder back onto the mount.

Here is a picture with both LEDs in place. (Why cant every picture be this clear?)The LEDs can be easily removed by cutting the leads to them, then placing the regular incandescent lamps back in the holders. But if that happens, a bigger wall wart will have to be used.
With the LEDs in place, the total load (Marquee and trackball included) is 0.500 amp, the wall wart is running cool now.
The picture at the top of this post is with the LEDs turned on.
The LEDs are not as bright as the incandescent lamps, but they still have a warm glow to them. I think they will be just fine.

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Software structure

2007-06-07T08:00:00.001-06:00

Ok, thought I would take a minute to detail the software being used on The Rage.
The OS (Operating System) is Windows XP.
On bootup, after Windows loads, a program called "KeyWiz Uploader2" starts.
This uploads the key map to the KeyWiz keyboard encoder. This is only necessary because I am changing one of the default keys to F7 for the Load and Save buttons.
Once the keywiz is programmed (about 10 seconds), the Uploader2 starts The Launcher.
The Launcher then starts GLaunch.
From GLaunch, Mame games can be run.
Also from GLaunch, MenuMaker, WinCab Jukebox, RomMan, and GLaunchMan can be run.
When the blue button is pressed while in GLaunch, GLaunch exits and The Launcher gives you the chance to go into Windows to do housekeeping, or it will shutdown the machine.

Here is a description of each program listed above:

Windows XP: Operating system that came with the computer.

KeyWiz Uploader2: Programming utility for KeyWiz keyboard encoder.

The Launcher: a utility program written by me.

GLaunch: A Front End menu program to list all your games.

MAME: Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. This program runs the arcade games.

MenuMaker: This is a program I wrote to allow me to create Favorite Games lists for GLaunch.

WinCab Jukebox: A pretty neat little program that will play your MP3 music like a jukebox.

RomMan: This is a program I wrote that allows me to test a rom before adding it to my collection. I haven't got this program ready for downloading yet, so it's not available to the public, YET.

GLaunchMan: This is another program I wrote to allow me to manage GLaunch game lists.
It allows me to test the rom in question, remove it from the list if it is bad, change the roms description displayed by GLaunch, or add new roms to the GLaunch list.
It is not ready for download yet.

Roms: You might ask what are Roms? Roms are the actual game files. Mame runs a game by opening the games rom. The rom contains all the files needed to emulate and run the game.
The rom is in zipped form. Example: Pacman.zip.
The roms are stored in a folder called ROMS, located in the MAME folder.
Although all the programs I have listed above (except WinXP), are free downloads, most of the Mame Roms are not. Someone most likely owns the copyright to the game rom.
I think the rule is that if you own the actual circuit board to a game, then it is ok to have the rom of that game.
That being said, I will not post any places where you can get the roms, and please don't ask me to. But you can probably find sites that offer free downloads on the internet, I just wont be able to help you find them.

Note: The above links are to websites that are not managed by me. I cannot be held responsible for any mis-information or content on the sites, or if the sites are updated or maintained.
The MenuMaker and The Launcher sites are maintained by me, so any questions about those sites should be addressed to me.

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Almost finished!

2007-06-07T07:41:00.000-06:00

I have everything installed, and have touched up some scratches in the paint job.
Everything is looking good, except for one small problem.
I am using a 12 VDC 1 amp power supply for the marquee, trackball light, and coin door lights.
The power supply (a plug in type commonly called a "wall wart"), is getting very hot.
A temp probe I have on my multimeter measures it at 110 degrees F.
I'm afraid it wont be long until the wall wart burns out, plus it is like a little heater, adding heat to the inside of the cabinet.
I cut one of the wires on the wall wart and put my amp meter in line with it.
The total current draw is .974 amp (974 milliamp). This is too close to the 1 amp rating of the power supply. I removed the coin door lamps and the current dropped to around .450 amp.
The wall wart cooled down quickly.
So, I have decided to replace the incandescent coin door lamps with LEDs.
The LEDs will draw about .020 amp each, so this should be OK. Plus they will outlast the incandescent lamps by several years.
But I am worried about how they will look.
I will post more on this later, plus some pictures of the finished cabinet.

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Power strip hack

2007-06-03T08:49:00.001-06:00

Ok, Its been awhile since I posted. The job that pays me to be there required that I be there.
(Why cant they just mail me my check?)
I promised earlier that I would post how I hacked a cheap Power Strip to get my Switched Power Strip.
I picked up a cheap power switch from Walmart. This power strip is cheap because it is not surge protected. This strip has a breaker switch mounted to it. This is really not necessary, but I left it on this strip. On the strip I hacked for The Rage, I removed the breaker and mounted the relay in the hole where the breaker was mounted.
This strip had plenty of room behind the breaker, so I decided to leave it.
The relay has a 12VDC coil, and it's one normally open contact is rated for 10 amps and 250 VAC.
I found it on the Internet, bought 5 of them. The way it is shaped makes it perfect for this project.

I removed the six screws in the back of the power strip and gained easy access to it's insides.
See the black wire is soldered to the breaker switch, this is the wire I will cut and solder to the relay.

I then pulled the cable back and flipped the strip back over. Using the relay as a guide, I marked each corner.
Then using a straight edge, I "connected the dots" to give me a cutting pattern the same size as the relay.
I then used my soldering gun, with a cutting tip, to cut out the hole.

And here is the hole cut out. The soldering gun left a rough cut, but that's OK.

Next I inserted the relay into the hole. I put the connection tabs in first.
The hole was a little bit too big, you can see a space in front of the relay, but that's OK, I will fill in the gap with silicone caulking.
I then cut the black wire and trimmed both ends. The relay contact tabs had a small hole in each. I drilled these holes bigger so I could stick the black wires into the tabs. I then bent the wires around the tabs, and soldered them.
You will need a hot soldering iron to do this, these connections need good solder joints.
I then soldered two wires to the relay's coil contact tabs.
I used speaker wire on The Rage, but I was out so I used some single conductor wire I had laying around. I twisted the wires together and put small sections of heat shrink tubing to keep them together. I put heat shrink over the coil tabs to insulate them.
I then pushed the coil wires through the gap in front of the relay. I positioned the green wire in the center of the relay, the white wire to the top side of it, made sure all the outlet buss bars were properly placed, then I put the cover back on the strip.
I then soldered the coil wires to a plug I will be using to plug this switched strip into my computer.
I then filled in the gap around the relay with silicone caulking, put a plastic wire tie around the body of the relay to hold the coil wires in place.I tested the strip by plugging it into a wall outlet (None of my house circuit breakers tripped, so thats a good sign.)
I then connected the coil plug to a 12 volt power supply. (The relay clicked, another good sign.)
I then plugged my waffle iron into the power strip. I applied 12 volts, the waffle iron came on, I removed the 12 volts, waffle iron went off. The waffle iron is rated at 650 watts, so I figured it was an excellent test load for this strip. I don't think the total load will be that high on this strip when it is in the arcade.
And this my friends, is how I hacked a poor defenseless cheap Walmart power strip to do a lifetime of servitude as a arcade machine part.

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New Pictures!!

2007-05-22T20:39:00.000-06:00

I know I promised to post how I hacked a power strip, but I did quite a bit of work on the machine today, so I thought I would post a few pictures of the progress. I will get around to
posting the power strip hack soon, I promise.

Here is the computer, test fitted to the shelf. The plan is to have a brace across the top of the computer, to hold it still when moving the arcade.

Here is the front of the cabinet with the control panel in place.
Here is the cabinet from the back. The marquee is wired in, notice the lamps.

And here is a picture with the monitor bezel and monitor plexi glass installed.
Sorry I didnt take any pictures of how we cut out the bezel and plexi glass for the monitor.
We used a black foam poster board for the bezel. It is about a 1/4" thick, and we got it at Hobby Lobby. We cut the poster board out to size, then we cut a hole to line up with the visible part of the monitor screen.
We test fitted it to make sure it fit.
We then sandwiched the bezel on a piece of wood, laid the plexi glass on top, then placed the saw board on top.
We lined up the corner of the plexi glass with the corner of the bezel, then clamped the sawboard to the bottom wood with C clamps. We lined up the edge of the sawboard with the edge of the bezel. Then using the skill saw, we cut the plexi glass. We had to do two cuts to get the plexi the same size as the bezel.
We then used another piece of scrap wood clamped to the wood, bezel, and plexi glass. We drilled 3 holes in each side to mount the bezel and plexi glass to the monitor panel.
It turned out much better than it looks in the picture. The flash from the camera made the plexi glass look cloudy.
Now we need to install the back panels.
We need to install the door hinges and latch, and the fan.
Also a brace to hold the computer still will be installed.
And I still need to wire in the coin door lights.
But first, it's off to Walmart to buy a surge protected power strip to plug the computer into. I just hope I can find one with a long cord on it.

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I hacked my computer!

2007-05-21T17:39:00.000-06:00

The only thing I had left to do on the control panel was to hook up the remote switch (the green power on switch).
This switch is normally open, and connects to the power switch on the computer.
You can just leave out one of the blank PCI slot covers in the back of the computer, and run the wires from the switch through it.
But I wanted to be able to unplug everything so the computer can be easily removed.
So I bought a 1/4" phono plug and jack. This plug is greatly over sized for what I need, but I wanted something that was different from all the other jacks and plugs on the computer, so that it couldnt be accidentally plugged into the wrong jack.
I also needed a plug and jack to attach the switched power strip.
This needed to be different from everything else too.
I bought a plug and jack similar to what is on power adapters.
I mounted the two jacks in a blank PCI slot cover.
Here is a pic:

I then used a power Y adapter. This has a male and a female computer power plug, and a small plug for floppy drives.
I cut the floppy drive plug off, I dont need it.
I then cut one of the black wires and the red wire off short. I capped both with heat shrink.
The red and black are +5vdc and ground. My switched power strip has a 12 volt relay, so I dont need the 5 volt leads. I connected the yellow wire to the center terminal of the small jack, and the black wire to the outside terminal. I also soldered a diode across these wires. This is to quench the surge from the relay when it turns off. When current stops flowing through a coil, the collapsing magnetism in the coil generates a reverse current, called Back EMF. This back current can be hundreds of volts. It only lasts for a few milliseconds, but it can damage electronic semi-conductors. I doubt if the computer's power supply would be harmed, but I figure why take the chance? The diode across the leads to the relay will "short out" the back emf, thus protecting the computer. I used one of the 1 amp diodes I bought earlier. (see the load/save entry). The cathode (band) of the diode goes on the yellow wire. (Important.)

I then soldered two wires to the 1/4" jack. This will be for the remote on switch.
I then removed one of the blank PCI slot covers and replaced it with the one I had modified.
I had a spare power plug that I used for the power jack, but if I didnt have one I could have un-plugged the hard drive power plug, plugged it into my Y adapter, then plugged the other plug on the Y adapter back into the hard drive.I then cut two wires going to the computer's power switch. I connected my switch jack into the wires, soldered them, and insulated with heat shrink. This computer, a IBM Netvista, had 4 wires on the power switch. This is the first computer I have seen with more than 2 wires on the switch. There were two yellow and two blacks. I found on the internet that you can splice into either of the yellow and black wires for a remote switch.
So I picked a yellow and black, cut and trimmed them. Then I plugged up the computer and touched the two wires together for a test. The computer came on, so I then turned off the computer, unplugged it from the wall, and soldered my remote switch wires into the circuit.
I soldered the power on switch back in too, so the computer can still be turned on from the front of the computer.

I then replaced the computer's cover.
I now have two extra jacks on the back of the computer. My switched power strip and the "machine on" button on the control panel now have a place to plug into.

On my next entry, I will show how I hacked a cheap power strip to a 12 volt relay.
Note: if you try the above procedures, please make sure your computer is turned off and unplugged. A slip of the hand could short something and cause you a terrible headache.

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Coin switch wiring diagram

2007-05-20T10:45:00.001-06:00

Here is a schematic of how I wired the coin switches, coin cheat switches, and the cheat disable switch. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Use your browsers "Back" button to return here.

Notice how the micro switches on the coin chutes are orientated differently from the player pushbutton switches? On the coin micros the normally open and normally closed connections are opposite what they are on the pushbutton micros.
Just be sure you wire the switches you have correctly. The switches should have a marking as to which connection is what. Remember that I only use normally open switches on everything on The Rage.

A few new cabinet pictures

2007-05-19T21:47:00.001-06:00

Got the T-Molding installed. Here is a pic of the top part of the monitor and the marquee..
(Marquee is not powered up.)

Here is a blurred picture of the monitor. You can see the speakers in this picture. I used regular computer speakers, hacked from a cheap set. The covers are car speaker covers. They add a good look to it, I think.
I have yet to install the black bezel and plexi glass over the monitor.

Here is a picture of the speakers. Can you see the volume knob between the speakers?
The speakers are mounted in the holes I showed you earlier, held in place by 4 screws each. The covers have snap out grills. The frame of the cover is held with 4 screws. When you snap the covers on, you cant see the screws.

And here is a shot from behind the marquee. You can see the speakers, the speaker amp, and the volume control pot, which is held in place by the block of wood. I removed the pot from the amplifier board, and soldered extension wires between it and the board.
You can also see the 12 volt incandescent marquee lamps.
We decided to remove the coin door and paint it. I think it looks a lot better now.
Locks are installed now too.

And here are the coin mechs, switches are not yet wired.
And here are the coin switches wired in.
We installed a small L shaped bracket across the two coin mechs. We mounted a toggle switch to it.
This switch can be used to enable or disable the coin cheat switches.
The switch will be behind the coin door, only accessible if door is opened, requiring a key to open. The yellow cable is a 4 conductor 22 AWG cable.
The coin slot lamps are not yet wired. They will be wired to the 12 volt power supply.

Here is the cable going to the bottom of the control panel cavity. It is attached to a terminal strip and wired into the coin cheat switches. I decided to use terminal strips so that the control panel can be completely removed, if ever need to. I used staples to fasten the cable up out of the way.
Here is a shot of the coin cheat buttons, wired into the terminal strip. (Terminal strip is on the left, hard to see in this pic.) The other terminal strip is for the trackball light. it will have 12 volts wired to it. (Sooner or later.)

Next is a shot of one of the monitor braces. We put a small block on each side of the monitor, to keep it from moving sideways.
The front of the monitor sticks through a hole cut in the monitor panel. It fits snug.
The shelf the monitor is sitting on has a brace beneath it, to keep the shelf from bowing under the weight of the monitor. I removed the tilt and swivel thing that the monitor ordinarily sits on. We didnt need it on this project. It was easily removed.

Next is the top brace. It goes across the top of the monitor, and wedges against the flared out part of it. This keeps the monitor from sliding back away from the monitor panel.
There are also two L brackets on the very top of the monitor. I attached them to the monitor using screws in existing air vent holes. I made sure nothing was inside that the screws could touch.
The L brackets keep the monitor from sliding towards the front of the arcade.
I wont touch a lot on how I mounted the monitor. Each monitor is different. it may be shaped different, or be a different size. Just think about how you are going to mount your monitor, and make sure it is held securely in place. And remember, most monitors are heavy, so support the shelving so that it will hold the weight for a long time. Remember also that the monitor needs to "breathe" so allow air space around it and try not to cover too many air vent holes.

Here is the front bottom part of the monitor. I cut out the monitor panel to allow access to the controls. These will be covered up with the monitor bezel, but if the monitor should ever need adjusting, it shouldnt be a big deal to remove the bezel to get to these controls.
The bottom part of the monitor had a recessed area under the controls, this worked out good, it keeps the monitor from sliding forward on the bottom.
The power button was in this recessed area, so i bored a hole to allow me to insert a pen to turn it on, if I need to. (I will have to plug the monitor up and make sure it is turned on before installing the bezel.) The monitor switch we be on all the time.

There will be a space between the upper-back panel and the back-top panel. This is to allow heat to exit the cabinet.
We used nylon screen wire to keep dust and bugs out. When we first installed it, it sagged in the middle, so we had to install two braces for it to staple to.
When both panels are installed, there will be about a 2 inch wide opening across the width of the machine. This screen will be behind the panels and across the opening.
This opening should be sufficient to allow the hot air to escape. (The fan at the bottom of the cabinet will help a lot too.)
Now, I need to cut out the monitor bezel and monitor plexi glass.
The control panel is ready to mount, but since the edge of it will be in front of the monitor's plexi glass, that plexi glass will have to be installed first.
I am working on the computer, installing necessary software. It is just about ready.
I have also been working on the switched power strip. (More on that later).
So everything is really starting to come together now.

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Game load and save

2007-05-17T20:39:00.001-06:00

Mame has an option that allows you to load and save games.
From the keyboard, pressing SHIFT and F7 allows you to save a game to a location.
The location can be just about any key on the keyboard, except player one controls.
Pressing just F7 by itself allows you to load the game back in from the location it was saved to earlier.

This is a pretty nice option, but it does have a few drawbacks.
First, it doesnt work with all games, but it does work with most.
Second, you have to remember which button you saved the game to. A way around this is for each player to pick a certain button (such as player 1 start) to keep his (hers) game at, and keep this selection.
Also, if someone saves the same game to the location (button) you picked, your saved game will be over written. But different games can be saved to the same location.
But it is neat to be able to save games. I have thought this since the early 90's, when I saved my progress with Doom and Duke Nukem. (Ahh, the classics..)

So I decided that The Rage would have a save and a load button.
This is my first machine to have this option.
The problem I had to solve was how to do this.

The keywiz keyboard encoder has an input for the left shift key.
This is also the player 1, action button 4.
But the encoder's default mapping does not include the F7 key.
I got around this by downloading a program called "The Keywiz Uploader".
This program is a free download and is available from the groovy game gear website.

The Uploader allows you to change the key map of the encoder.
I re-mapped the "H" terminal from the default "L" to "F7".
I then connected the "H" wire from the encoder to the "Game Load" button on the control panel.
So to activate the load function, all you have to do is press the "Game Load" button.
But how to use the save game function?
Well, I accomplished that by wiring the "Save Game" button to both the player 1 action 4 button (shift) and the "Game Load" button (F7).
I used diodes to block the signals so that pressing player 1 action 4 button doesnt open the save or load functions.
A diode blocks current flow in one direction, but allows it to flow in the other direction. Think of it as a one way check valve.

Here is a diagram of how I hooked it all up:

Pressing P1 Action4 button connects terminal 4 of the encoder (left shift) to the ground, activating the left shift input. Diode 1 blocks the current flow from the other switches.
Pressing Game Save Button allows current to flow from ground, through Diode 1 to the Left shift input. The current also flows through Diode 2 to activate the F7 input. This has the same affect as pressing the left shift key and the F7 key. (This activates the save game option).

Pressing "Game Load" button connects the ground to the F7 input.
Diode 2 blocks the current flow from the left shift input. So this has the same affect as pressing only the F7 key. (This activates the game load option).

Just about any general purpose diode should work. I used 1-amp rectifier diodes from Radio Shack.
I bought a pack of 25 assorted 1-amp diodes, Radio Shack # 276-1653.

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Wiring up the control panel

2007-05-17T18:13:00.001-06:00

I first marked, on the wiring side, all the buttons, to keep me from getting confused. I also marked U, D, L, & R on the micro switches of each joystick. You have to be careful here, because the joystick orientation is backwards from the front side of the control panel.
I then mounted the keywiz eco2 keyboard encoder. The keywiz is very small, which is good when the control panel is as crowded as this one.
I positioned the encoder so that the IDE cable will plug in to easily run left and right of the control panel.
I also had to leave room for the PS/2 cable to plug into the encoder.
I mounted the encoder to the wood using small screws. I used rubber grommets as spacers, to raise the encoder off the wood. This may not be necessary, but I didnt feel good about having the electronic circuit board resting on the primed wood.

I then ran ground wires to each switch (except the mouse clicks). I used #20 AWG stranded copper wire.
I used two ground circuits. One for each side of the board.
I could have used just one circuit for all the switches, but the keywiz has 3 ground connectors, so I thought it might keep the wiring a little neater to use two ground circuits.
Notice how the ground wire just "daisy chains" to each switch.
Also, on the bottom left side, you see a wire going off the board. This will pick up the coin credit switches.

I then connected the IDE cable to the encoder and separated the wires as I needed them.
I soldered the ground wires first. I marked each wire as I singled it out from the group.
I used the same markings that the encoder has stamped on it.
I used peel and stick marker tape (Available at electrical supply house.)

I connected the IDE cable wires to the COMMON connector on each switch.
I am an electrician, so I automatically think that the common wire (the black ground wire in this project), should connect to the terminal marked "Common" on the switch.
But on these switches, the common is on top, and since the switch doesnt care which way it is wired, I attached the ground wire to the Normally Open contact on the switch.
This left the Common contact easier to get to when I soldered the small IDE wire to it.

After I connected all the switches, I soldered the wires from the mouse board to the mouse click buttons.
Here is the finished result:
What a bird's nest! (I did straighten up the appearance a little later.)
I still need to solder two wires to the "power on" switch (green button).
These wires will go back to the computer to turn it on.

Some notes about the IDE cable:
Use the older type 40 wire cable. Even though an 80 wire cable will probably work, the wires for this type cable are very small, and will be harder to work with.
You will need a fairly long one. I happened to have a 2 foot one in my junk box, which worked out pretty good.
If the one you have is not long enough to reach all the switches, you can splice wires to them to make them long enough. But having the wires to reach all the switches without splicing, cuts down on the work. I will need to splice two wires for the coin switches, but I can live with that.

If you look close at the bottom picture, you will notice a white wire in the bunch.
Also two diodes on the top left button switches.
I used this for the game save/load circuit.
More on that later.

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Interfacing the trackball

2007-05-17T17:11:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned earlier, I needed to use a PS/2 mouse to interface the trackball to the computer.
I bought a cheap mouse off the net at Geeks.com
Here is a picture of the mouse, with the top removed.

I then removed the circuit board. (The rest I threw in the garbage.)

I then removed the led emitters, the receivers, and the micro switches that the mouse buttons activate. This mouse has a plug on the cord that plugs into the circuit board, I unplugged it to make the operation a little easier. I used a soldering gun and solder wick to un-solder the components. The solder wick is pictured above the mouse components.
This mouse didnt have a scroll wheel, so there are only two led emitters and two receivers.
These parts are below the solder wick, also the two micro switches.
I then soldered two wires into the holes in the board where the receiver's outside leads soldered to, for a total of 4 wires that will attach to the trackball.
I then found the 5VDC points on the board and soldered two wires to those.
I then soldered 2 wires in the holes that the mouse button switches were in, for a total of 4 wires which will attach to the mouse click buttons on the control panel.
I wound up with 10 wires coming from the mouse board.
I then attached the receiver wires to the green, blue, yellow, and purple wires of the trackball.
Then I attached the 5VDC wires to the red and black wires of the trackball. This supplies the trackball with the power it needs to work.

I then re-connected the mouse cable to the board, plugged it into the PC and tested it.
The mouse arrow (on the computer screen) has to move up and down and left and right when you move the trackball.
It it doesnt move in sync with the trackball movements, you will have to swap the 4 receiver wires around until it does move right.
After it tested OK, I soldered all connections and insulated with heat shrink tubing.
I then attached the board to the trackball by clamping the mouse wires with a plastic clamp.
I also used a plastic wire tie to hold the mouse board to the trackball LED board.
Here is a pic.

I know this is very sketchy. I may go more in depth with the mouse hack later.
If you want to hack a mouse, search for how to do it on the web.
I also suggest that you read up on how a mouse works, so that you will understand what is going on.
I have also found that not all mice are suitable for hacking to a trackball.
The receivers have 3 leads. For the mouse to work, each outside lead of the receiver must go back to a pin on the integrated circuit (chip) on the mouse board.
I have found some mouse boards where the center lead goes back to the chip, and the outside leads go to power + and -. These chips will not work.
If you turn the circuit board upside down and follow the traces you can tell how the receivers connect. I think that a chip with the number 361125-0000 (made by Logitech) will not work. I cant find any datasheets on this chip, but it looks like to me that the recievers have only one lead going back to the chip.

Before you hack the mouse, I highly suggest that you study the way the receivers wire up.
You can get the number off the chip and search for a datasheet on the web.
A datasheet should tell you how the chip connects to the receivers.

Here is the number on the chip that I used:
(Genius) k0307057 2k337b13
I also have this chip and plan to use it on my next hack, Im pretty sure it will work:
ec3592re (probably generic, I cant find a manufacturer name).
This is the chip in the pictures above. I bought 3 cheap mice for hacking.

The mouse does not need a scroll wheel, but if it has one, just unsolder the emitter for the scroll wheel, dont unsolder the receiver or the micro switch for the scroll wheel.
I would leave the scroll wheel receiver in the board, just to prevent the chip from receiving any false noise signals. I would unsolder all the emitters, just to cut down on the total current draw, because the trackball will draw some, and Im not sure how much current the computer's PS/2 mouse connector is good for.

Like I said earlier, I may go more in depth on how to hack a mouse.
But for now this should give you an idea of what I had to do.

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

Lighting the trackball

2007-05-13T19:26:00.000-06:00

The trackball Im using for The Rage has a translucent ball, which means the ball can be lit.
The light source mounts to the bottom of the trackball. A hole in the bottom lets light through, to make the ball glow.
This is a really cool effect, and if you can afford the extra cost, get one for your arcade. (Its really not that much more expensive, and well worth it, in my opinion.)

The trackball came with a 12 volt incandescent bulb and socket, but I used that on the marquee, so I had to come up with a different light source.
I used a jumbo red LED. I used red because thats the only color Radio Shack had at the time.
The ball is orange, so the color of the ball with the LED illuminating it is a reddish orange. It doesnt look bad at all.
The LED is a Jumbo Super bright, Radio Shack number 276-086.
It is rated for 40 ma max current, so to use it with my 12 volt supply, I selected a 330 ohm 1/2 watt resistor, to limit the current flow through the LED.
Using Ohm's Law, I=E/R, or Current (I) = Voltage (E) divided by (/) Resistance (R)
The LED drops about 2.4 volts, so I subtracted that from my supply. (12 volts -2.4 volts =9.6 volts).
So, 9.6/330 = .029 amp, or 29 ma. (result rounded.)
This is well below the maximum current of the LED, so I should be ok.
The LED is very bright. It is uncomfortable to look directly at the end of it.
I mounted the LED and the resistor to a small piece of perfboard (also available at Radio Shack).
I then attached a piece of speaker cable to the LED and the resistor. The speaker cable will be the wires that will tie into the 12 volt supply.
Here is a picture of the finished board:

The board will mount to the bottom of the trackball. The LED will shine into the trackball through the hole in the bottom of the trackball.
The LED looks clear, but it glows red.
The hole at the end of the perfboard will be used to mount the perfboard to the trackball.

Here is a picture of the LED powered up.

And here is the end result, pretty neat huh? (It looks a lot better than this picture.)

I didnt get a good picture of the the perfboard mounted to the trackball, so I drew a rough sketch, which should give you an idea how it's done.

At the bottom of this sketch is the electrical schematic of how the resistor and LED hook up.
I wired the LED, the resistor, and the speaker wires by twisting their leads together and soldering. This method is called point-to-point wiring.

The circuit must be hooked to the power supply as shown. It wont hurt anything if I hook it reversed polarity (backwards), it just wont work.
So when I hook it to my power supply, if it doesnt come on, I will just reverse the wires.
(One of the speaker wires is marked with a red tracer, I'm using that one for the positive, just so I get it right the first time.)

If you have any questions, just email me. I'm no expert, but if I can help I'll be glad to.
email: kenrager@hotmail.com

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

About the switches

2007-05-11T10:09:00.000-06:00

I thought I would touch on the switches for a minute.
Each pushbutton has a "micro switch" that is removable.
Each joystick has four of these micro switches each.
The Joystick switches are not easily removable, and they have a "paddle" on them.
The paddle pushes the plunger on the micro switch, so all the switches wire the same way.
Each micro switch has a common contact, a normally open contact, and a normally closed contact.
Here is a diagram I drew to help explain the way the switch works.
Just keep in mind that even though the pushbutton switch and the joystick look a little different, they work the same way.

I will be using the Common contact and the Normally Open contact. The normally closed will not be used on any of the switches on this control panel.
The mouse click buttons look a lot different from the micro switches, but they work the same way. Except they have only a common and a normally open contact. (Just two connections).

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

Control panel is shaping up

2007-05-10T20:23:00.000-06:00

Got some work done on the control panel.
Mounted both joysticks, all the buttons, and the trackball.
I printed out several arcade characters. I also made up some labels for the buttons.

Here is a pic of the panel before mounting trackball..

And here is a close up of the right side..

Here is a close up of the mouse click buttons...
The label got a little crooked, not sure how.
I used a glue stick to attach the pictures and labels to the wood, then the plexi glass should hold them, but somehow this label got a little off. Got to decide now if it is bad enough to tear everything down to fix it.

Here are the mouse click buttons, before mounting them. I got these buttons from allelectronics.com

Here is a pic of the controls, ready to be wired.
I still have to mount the keywiz eco2 keyboard encoder, then I can wire all the buttons.
The "machine on" button (green) will not be wired into the encoder. It will wire directly to the computer to turn it on.
The mouse click buttons will not wire to the encoder either. They will attach to the mouse hack.
I stated earlier that I will hack a mouse for the trackball. Actually, I had already hacked a USB mouse for this trackball, but I found that the computer I am going to use gives an error on bootup if it doesnt see a PS/2 mouse, so I am going to hack a PS/2 mouse. I plan to document that when I do it.
I could have disabled the error in BIOS, but the computer still has to completely boot up before recognizing the trackball, so I will just re-hack it to a PS2 mouse.
I also need to attach the LED to the trackball to light it up. more on that later.

Here is a close up of the joystick mounting method I used. Thought you might like to see how it turned out. I am leaving the handles out of the joysticks until the wiring is finished. It makes it somewhat easier to lay the control panel on its front without the handles in the way..
Notice also the way I had to counter sink the nuts for the trackball..
(Right behind the joystick in this picture.)

I used 8/32" bolts and nuts to mount the joysticks. (1-1/4" long, available at Walmart.)

Now, I got to mount the keyboard encoder and get out the soldering gun!

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

Update...

2007-05-07T19:32:00.000-06:00

Got the coin door mounted today. here is a picture. (Picture is not real good.)

Here is a picture from inside the cabinet.
Notice the small brackets around the edge of the coin door? This is what holds the coin door to the panel.
The braces on the sides of the cabinet are for the computer shelf.
Im not sure if you can tell in this picture, but one of the coin mechs is missing. I have it, just havent installed it yet.
Got to get some locks too.

And here is a picture with the computer shelf installed. The computer will sit on this shelf.
Notice the cutout for the coin door mechs.
The cabinet fan will mount in the back door, below this shelf.
The space around the shelf will allow air from the cabinet fan to blow around the computer, to remove the heat generated by the computer.

Also got the control panel painted.
Here is a picture of it with the first coat of paint:

The panel got two more coats of paint. I will let the paint on the control panel dry overnight.
It is very important that the paint be dry before placing the plexi glass on it. The plexi glass will adhere to sticky paint, making it hard to remove if necessary.
(Hopefully that wont ever be necessary.)
Next I will place the plexi glass then mount joysticks, trackball, and all the buttons.
Then the fun part of wiring it all into the keyboard encoder will start.
But before I can mount the trackball, I will have to hack a mouse and connect it to the trackball.
You can buy trackballs with the computer interface already on them, but the one I got from EBay does not have the interface, so some unlucky mouse will be hacked to death, or maybe just "assimilated" into the trackball!!

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

Switching the power

2007-05-06T04:13:00.000-06:00

WARNING: working with 125 volts can be dangerous.
Please do not attempt to do this if you do not fully understand what you are doing.
I cannot be held responsible for any mishaps, fires, damage, or personal injury.
Working with electricity can either be safe, or extremely dangerous, depending on what you do with it and how you do it.

I have been asked, how do I turn everything on and off on the arcade?
I have used a fairly simple approach since my first machine, Benny B's Arcade.
Well, it's simple if you know a little bit about electricity. If you dont know anything about electricity, dont let it scare you. Its really not that complicated.
The idea is to have everything else come on when the computer is turned on, then everything turn off with the computer turns off.
Everything else means the monitor, the marquee lights, the coin door lights, the speakers, and the cabinet fan.
At this stage of the project, you have to look at the arcade machine as a computer, because really thats all it is. When you turn on your computer, the monitor has to be turned on, then the speakers.
You probably do this on your home computer by stepping through the power buttons.
But on an arcade machine, we want to be able to do all this with the press of one button. But not only do we want the monitor and speakers to come on, but also the marquee light, the fan, and the coin door lights.
In earlier times, people used a computer running only DOS operating system.
The computer used what was called an AT power supply. If you have had a computer 10 years or so ago, you might remember that you had to turn the computer off after shutting down Windows. (The message "It is safe to power off your computer" would pop up after quitting Windows). This was a computer with an AT type power supply.

On these earlier home arcade machines, you simply turned on and off a switch (usually in the back of the cabinet, out of sight). The computer, the monitor, and everything else was wired through this switch. Turn the switch on, the computer booted up and everything came on. Turn the switch off, everything turned off.
This worked great for those setups.
And this may be the way you want to go.
Here is a diagram I drew to help explain how you would do this, if you chose this route:

You can click on the picture to enlarge it, press your browsers back button to get back here.
With this setup, you use an ordinary surge protected power strip (SPS), which the computer and everything else plugs into.
You cut the cord of the power strip, tie the white wires back together, and the green wires back together. You then tie the black wires to a toggle switch, which is mounted somewhere on the cabinet.
Turning the switch on turns on the power strip, turning it off turns off the power strip. Anything plugged into the power strip will then be controlled by the toggle switch.
In this setup, the toggle switch MUST be rated for at least 125 volts AC, and it also must be rated for at least 10 amps. The power strip needs to be a surge protector type (to protect the computer against incoming power surges).
When the white and green wires are connected (spliced), they need a good tight connection. Best is twisted, soldered, and heat shrink tubing (or electrical tape) applied for insulation. Next best method is to use insulated butt splice crimps. You could also use "wire nuts", but if these are not installed correctly, they could create a problem later.
The black wires need to be attached to the switch by soldering (best) or crimp terminals.
All connections need to be tight and well insulated. A loose connection will create heat, which is a definite no-no. A poorly insulated connection may short out, causing sparks, or be a shock hazard. If you dont feel good about doing this, get someone who is experienced to give you a hand.
An alternate method would be to buy a power strip that has a switch already on it, then mount it where you can get to the switch to turn it off and on. (No splicing the wires necessary.)

The above method works great, if you are using an older type computer for your arcade.
But most computers nowadays use what is called an "ATX" power supply.
These computers shut down automatically when you quit Windows.
This is the type computer I will be using for my arcade.
Even though you could still use the above procedure to turn off your arcade, you will need to press the button on the computer to turn it on. Plus, Windows doesn't like you to shut down the computer by turning off the power.
What I wanted was two buttons on my control panel, one to turn everything on, and another to shut everything down.

So I came up with two power strips, one is a surge protected strip. The computer plugs into this one. Another power strip (a cheap one that is not surge protected) also plugs into the surge protected strip. The cheaper strip is wired with a 12 volt relay to turn it off and on.
Look at this diagram:As you can see, I am switching the black wire of the power strip (PS) with a relay.
This relay has a 12 volt dc coil, and 10 amp normally open contacts. The monitor, fan, and everything else plugs into the power strip (PS).
The surge protected power strip (SPS) only has the computer and PS plugged into it. It is powered on all the time.
The coil of the relay is powered by 12 volts from the computer. It is attached to the black and yellow wires inside the computer that plug into the hard drive, the floppy drive, or the cd rom drive. (More on how I made these connections later.)

To be able to turn on the computer, I wired a normally open pushbutton (PB1) that is mounted on the arcade's control panel, to the "power on" switch inside the computer. This is the button on the front of the computer you would normally press to turn on the machine. On most computers, this button only has two wires. You simply splice into these two wires. (More details later).

The way this works is extremely simple.
When you turn on the computer by pressing its power on button, the power from the computer's power supply turns on the relay, which turns on PS, which powers up everything plugged into it. Shutting down the computer turns off the relay, which turns off everything plugged into the PS power strip.

The relay must have a 12 vdc coil, and its contacts must be rated at least 125 volts ac, with at least 10 amps of current. Also, all the connections must be tight and insulated. Radio Shack sells a relay which works good. If you dont like to solder, pick up some crimp connectors for it too. (The people at Radio Shack should be able to tell you what you need.) The relay must have at least one Normally Open contact. This is the only contact on the relay you will need.
Relays are also available from many sources on the web.

I used a small relay that I attached right to the power strip (PS). I may talk more about that later, but this should give you an idea of one way to do the power switching.
An alternate method would be to use a relay with a 5 volt coil, then plug the relay into a USB port. I haven't tried this, but it should work just as well, and you wouldn't need to splice into the computer's power supply wires.

WARNING: working with 125 volts can be dangerous. Also letting the 125 volts come into contact with the 12 volts can fry your computer's power supply.
I cannot be held responsible for any mishaps, fires, damage, or personal injury.
Working with electricity can either be safe, or extremely dangerous, depending on what you do with it and how you do it.

Now, how do I shutdown the machine with a button on the control panel?
Well, if the computer you are using lets you shut down your computer by pressing the power button, you can simply press PB1.
But Windows may not like this, and not all computers are capable of doing this.
So I wired another button, (mounted on the control panel) into the keyboard encoder that sends a button press to the computer.
My computers "front end" is set up to exit if it sees a "C" pressed.
There is also a button to quit a game, this sends an "ESC" to the computer. But this only exits the game and returns to the front end.
When the front end exits (by pressing "C"), I have a program that automatically shuts down the machine.

This program, called "The Launcher" was written by me and is available as a free download.
The Launcher is set up by you to start your favorite front end when the computer boots up. It waits in the background until it senses that you have exited the front end.
It then pops up a "shutdown screen" (which can be designed by you), that tells you the arcade will shut down in so many seconds. During this time, a special key on the keyboard can be pressed to cancel the shutdown, in case you want to return to Windows and do maintenance on the computer, install new games, whatever.
If the button is not pressed before the countdown reaches zero, The Launcher will shutdown Windows, power off the computer, and the relay will turn everything else off.

Here is the link to The Launcher, feel free to use it if you want:
http://skennys_outpost.tripod.com/thelauncher/index.html

The Launcher requires Windows 98 or better, and an ATX type computer.
There are other methods to shut down your machine, but the method I have just discussed works great for me. Just google search and see what you can come up with.

Note: The above wiring diagrams are for 125 volt AC, which is common in the US.
European systems which use 220 volts, may wire differently. But the concept is the same.
Just make sure the relay contacts or the switch contacts are rated for your voltage and current.
Above all else, be safe!

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

Control panel shaping up

2007-05-03T20:45:00.000-06:00

Got quite a bit of work done in the past 2 days.
Routed out the square hole for the trackball. It fits good.
Got control panel prepared for joysticks and mouse click buttons.
I ran into a bit of bad luck when I started mounting the speakers, the screw driver slipped and punched a hole through the cone of one speaker. Now I got to find a replacement.
Got the control panel primed, when that dries I will be able to paint it.

Here is a picture of the counter sink holes for the joysticks.
You can also see counter sink holes for the joystick trim plate mounting bolts.
The bolts were not quite long enough to go through the wood, so I had to drill some holes that would allow the nuts to be installed. I drilled the holes big enough to put a wrench on the nuts.
I used a paddle bit to counter sink the bolt holes, and a router for the joystick body. My router bit is getting dull, you can see where it scorched the wood.

Here is the other side of the panel, notice the holes where the bolt heads will be recessed into the wood.

Next picture shows the holes routed out for the mouse buttons. I had to take out the wood almost all the way through, because the pushbuttons I have will are not designed to be mounted in very thick panels. I left a thin layer of wood, which will be under the plexi-glass.

Here is the control panel being test-fitted. The plexi-glass is in place, being held with two buttons. The trackball is fitting real good. If you look close, you can see the wood putty in the joystick bolt holes. After this picture, I removed the plastic and sanded the putty down smooth.

Here is a picture of the finished marquee. I am happy with the way it turned out.

Update

2007-04-27T17:05:00.000-06:00

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.

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

Lightin' up The Rage!

2007-04-26T18:54:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-26T09:51:00.000-06:00

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.

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

Cutting out the control panel

2007-04-25T21:15:00.000-06:00

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.

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

New parts order

2007-04-24T22:06:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-24T19:59:00.000-06:00

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.

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

The Marquee

2007-04-21T18:48:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-21T12:36:00.000-06:00

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.

---------

Cutting the side panel

2007-04-19T10:10:00.000-06:00

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--

What the cabinet parts are called

2007-04-16T07:43:00.000-06:00

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-

Some links

2007-04-15T08:29:00.000-06:00

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!

Bringing in the parts

2007-04-14T11:51:00.000-06:00

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...

2007-04-14T09:20:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-14T08:32:00.000-06:00

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.
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