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We started with the control panel, and you can see the PC on the ground. We were just messing around working out the best height for the controls.
The monitor was purchased second-hand - it's a 21" Hitachi monitor. All the controls were initially purchased from OzStick although many of them have now been replaced with controls direct from Ultimarc. |
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The cabinet. Naked. The basic design was just worked out on bits of paper. It is just wide enough to hold the 21" monitor. It just sort of evolved.
We made room for a keyboard drawer. The control panel has been designed to be removable - it's just held on with three wing nuts. |
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Six cans of spray paint... and it still needs more. Being black, it doesn't show the imperfections too much.. which is good..
The machine stayed at this stage for a few months. The marquee is not finished in this picture. |
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Things I didn't like:
- The Joysticks
were switchable between 4 way and 8 way, but you had to open the control panel to do it. It was a pain in the ass to do when drunk.
- The Trackball worked.. but it was a little small and it didn't spin very freely. People not used to it would end up hitting their hands on the screen. The machine has taken blood more than once from enthusiastic track balling..
Time for some improvements....
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A couple of months of work and we now have:
- Control panel enlarged slightly to give more trackballing room
- Bigger 3" trackball added that rolls freely and is illuminated
- Buttons added for playing Virtual pinball
- Both Joysticks replaced with 4/8 way joystick switchable without opening the control panel. Light microswitches added to both joysticks
- Coin unit added. I've set it up so inserting a token gives credits to player 1 AND player 2 at the same time.
- New marquee designed and back-lit with a flouro light.
- Lots of strengthening to the cabinet.. the original design could 'twist' a little when you got enthusiastic.. It's very heavy now... but doesn't budge no matter how violent you get..
- Feet with adjustable height
added to level it out on unlevel surfaces |
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The inside of the control panel. I use an IPAC-2 keyboard encoder from Ultimarc.
There's lots of wires.. 12V power is taken from the PC power supply for the illuminated buttons and the light for the new trackball. |
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We have power. The trackball is very cool. |
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I'm still not 100% happy with the marquee. It's just printed it out on two A4 sheets of paper and joined together. It doesn't photograph very well either :)
A rough jpg of the marquee is below.
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So the cabinet is pretty much complete. Maybe a little more work on the marquee. |
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| Parts List: (current as of November 2004) |
Useful arcade links and comments: |
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BYOAC web site and forums
MAMEWorld.net : MAME news and links
Retroroms : MAME ROMs and forum
Things to avoid:
NEVER buy arcade stuff from
www-kidsplaythings-cc on ebay. Why? Because
he/she/they have the slowest delivery (2 months for me!!), don't answer email, are rude and only seem to give feedback when it suits them. And if they do give feedback, it's often negative.
STAY CLEAR OF EBAY USER
www-kidsplaythings-cc !!
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