Home made bartop

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So i have finally bit the bullet and decided to build me a dedicated arcade system.
I have order the joysticks, buttons and controller and a few other small things.

It will be all made from 2 foot by 3 foot 12mm MDF.
I have a few LCD screens that i can use which are 15,17,19 inch screens

My reasoning for this are the following factors.

LCD are smaller in depth and lighter.
Bartop is more portalable.
Bartop can be put away when not in use.

I will be using MAME and still undecided on the front end.
At the moment im playing around with MALA.
After i decide ona frontend i will worry about having it as the only starting process on the PC.
I will windows xp as that is smaller and lighter than windows 7.

Cant do the control panel till the Arcade buttons arrives
i have the sides marked out ready in the mdf to be cut.

Need to figure out where to get two 6 inch speakers close to free or cheap.

It has been MANY a year since i was in an arcade so buttons needed will need to be figures out.

I will go with 6 buttons to each joy stick.
a player one and player 2 button.
and a add credit Button.

My controller will only allow 16 buttons not sure if this includes points for the 2 Sticks.

Is there are more buttons i should be thinking of?

Any advice or information i maybe foregtting feel free to that at me

Chachi

6 buttons per player, player 1 and 2 start buttons and 1 or 2 credit buttons.

You can also add an exit button, but with MAME it's really easy to configure it so that two buttons pressed together = escape, or pause etc.

The less cluttered the control panel the better!!

o1s1n

Make sure to go with good sticks and buttons, they'll make a huge difference.

Japanese brands are the ones to go for. So either Sanwa sticks and buttons or Seimitsu sticks and buttons.

Sanwa are better for fighting games, Seimitsu for shooters.

(Sanwa sticks have a longer throw which is great for pulling off moves in fighters, Seimitsu has a shorter throw which works better for navigating through bullets)

If you're using an LCD, do make sure to either activate scanlines in MAME or else get an SLG3000 (I use an SLG3000 in my IKEA cocktail cab with a Dreamcast and it looks brilliant) - you should be able to get a similar enough result in MAME though.

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I never once thought of using a 2 button combo to activate an option.
So having a exit button/combo will help with exiting a game back to the game select screen.

Thanks for that.

To be honest im not sure what brand the buttons are.
It was an ebay set with a usb controller i ordered.

The Last Bandit

Don't mind the button snobs Nothing wrong with a set of Happ buttons with decent microswitches.

o1s1n

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Don't mind the button snobs Nothing wrong with a set of Happ buttons with decent microswitches.

Lies! They're dirt!

Chachi

I second getting some good joysticks. I got some generic X-gaming joysticks when I first did my MAME cab, but recently went and changed them for Sanwa sticks, and the difference is huge!

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Justa quick update.
His is were im at now.


Ran out of materials so had to stop for now.

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So i spent a bit of time marking out the locations of were the buttons and joy sticks will go.
going 1.5 inch from center of each button to center of next button .
going with what i believe is the street fighter lay out.
still undecided if the joystick will line up with the lower left button or line up with the center of all buttons.

Hardware came in the post today.
2 joysticks 16 button controller and 16 buttons including player 1 and player 2 buttons.

Wont get time today to drill and install due to a darts match tonight. so hopefully il get that done tomorrow.

Ronan|Raven

What plans did you use for the layout and size of the cab?

Best of luck with this project and in the darts!

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I looked around a lot a different bartops to see the general shape and couldnt get any plans.
So i just winged it to be honest. figured out it would be handiest to use 3x2 sheets and work on that.
so the width and depth is 2 foot ie 610mm the default size of the sheets i got in woodies. then i just measured the monitor height and added a few inched for a border.
i will be using 6 inch speakers so will make the speaker panel to fit them.
and used about the the same for the marquee.

I'm not very good with a saw or jigsaw so they are not exact measurements to so called plan/vision. some went a little over or under depending on my cuts lol
that's why i used the default width of the wood for the depth so i KNEW i had a level and straight base.

Still winging it as slight variations are being made with each step.
there are one 2 parts that are perfectly straight.
The back and bottom were i didn't need to cut lol.

***
Any one know were i can cheap matt black paint/spray?
***

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The Last Bandit

That MDF soaks paint like a sponge, if you paint it first it with varnish (any cheap crap) first that'll seal the surface nicely so you don't need gallons on paint to get a nice finish.

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Now that is information that i would not have known.
thanks very much for that tidbit.

kaiserjim

You can get cheap spray paint in those Dealz shops. e1.50 a can(there in the car sections). Doubt there any good but you could try one on a piece of scrap wood first.

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At 1.50 a can it will let me visualize it easier if its a bit black even if the MDF soaks it up.

Here are few pictures of how im doing so far.

My button collection afer being delivered



Quick test for size after drilling holes
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And a quick mockup to make sure everything fits and looks ok.

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An update of were im at now.


checking space for motherboard



a look at how it is now



another angle



i didnt leave enough room to have a light up marqee so will use a vinyl sticker over it.

Myrddin

Chevron 7...locked!

Merger

Its why he chose his name :P

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So the latest update is that all the wood work is done. Apart from the back door and speaker holes.s
perspex has been ordered.
Filling holes and covering screws heads at the moment and trying to prep the MDF to take spray paint without soaking it all up.

I heard that PVA wood glue watered down slightly and painted over the MDF would seal it ready for paint.

Have any of you guys come across this ?

The cut ends are a total pain,
there's a special sealer you can buy for it.
are you going to rattle can it?If you are take your time!you can get great results if you go slow and do a load of really light coats.
One drip will wreck your head!
What color you going for?
have you thought about how your going to hold the perspex on?I use mirror fixings like this and looks well!

http://www.brasshinges.co.ke/images/mirror_screws.jpg

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Yea im going rattle can it. matt black on the top and sides and the control panel im thinking black carbon fiber vinyl.
As for the perspex being held in i was thinking of putting a stick on draft exluder around the edges to for it to lean on and on the side for the perspex to be held in place by that.

cheers for the slow and light tip.
will defiantly do that as i know a drip line will kill me lol

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A quick style check with some buttons and speaker covers.
Sides are not finished they are inbetween coats of paint right now

The control panel will be covered in Carbon fiber vinyl when it arrives in a day or 3

kaiserjim

How many coats have you done to get there ? Did ya get the paint in deals??

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In dealz all they had was grey primer which is what i used first.
1 grey primer and 1 black on the sides and on front is 1 grey primer and 3 black.
ended up paying 12 euro for black spray paint.
i nee dto find cheaper some were to finish it off.

and used spare white primer i had on the control panel even though its not needed.

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Not 100 percent what i wanted but i will settle for this.


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Ronan|Raven

Nice project. I need to get off my ass and build one!

Myrddin

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Nice project. I need to get off my ass and build one!

Apparently if you build it, they will come

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electronics are 90 percent done and are being tested by the roughest peopple



I forgot how rough kids can be playing games lol

Andrew76

Yeah I've found they're great testers for control panels alright. :pac:

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Well here we are, 90% complete mostly unseen work left to do and maybe some side art.