Could I build/buy a Bartop for €200?

L1m1tless

I have no experience with this but I would love to own one!

I would like 2 player and have capabilities of playing nes snes megadrive N64 and a few arcade games like willow.

I have an oldish PC and monitor so they might do. My dad is a carpenter so have all the tools here.

What else would I need on my shopping list?

MrVestek

I built mine with MDF and corner blocks. You'd need applicable wood screws too.

Order some perspex to fit your measurments... perhaps a few cold cathode tubes hooked up to spare PSU molexs for marquee backlighting...

It all depends on what you're looking for really. I built mind with feck all DIY experience so anything I can assist with I will.

Here's a quick rundown of my build here, sorry about all the fluff in the video. I hadn't really recorded it with anything in mind at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZJ8eeALWH4

L1m1tless

Thanks that's exactly the type I would like!
I would like a Willow marquee and artwork I think (unless its gonna cost a fortune)
Will have to make a shopping list and see how much its gonna cost. If I could get the basics done I could pimp it out over time I guess!

You'd be pushing it trying to build a bartop for €200 but if you've got access to wood and carpentry tools it will definitely help. Your main outlay will be the internals, the keyboard interface, sticks and buttons, any cooling equipment you want to use, and any upgrades you might need to make to your machine like ram or a better graphics card.

Do a lot of research and get ideas and look for cabinet plans before you make your first cut.

Think about what frontend you might want to use and what kind of spec PC you'll need to run it. I use Hyperspin on my bartop, but for a first build i'd encourage you not to bother with it, it's a right pain to set up if you're new to it, and will actually detract from the experience. Also, it's resource heavy, which means spending money on PC upgrades. You want something that'll run comfortably on a small machine that you can strip down and sit inside the cabinet. Think about something like maximus arcade. That's easy to set up and use, and not too resource heavy.

Use the best buttons and sticks you can afford. You'll be glad you did later. Stay away from the cheap-end ready made arcade builders kits with buttons and cheap sticks all in one pack, they'll annoy you once you get more profficient with a joystick, they're innacurate and feel cheap. Sanwa or semitsu are good brands of stick, and sanwa or happ buttons are the gold standard.

Gremlin solutions in the UK are very good for ordering parts. Andy there is good for help and advice if you're new to it. Google their website, it has lots of products and info.

Get an ultimarc keyboard encoder to register your button presses as keyboard inputs. Their ipac or ipac mini is ideal for bartops, and not too hard to set up. Ultimarc stuff is kind of the de facto standard option interface for arcade builders now, because they're so good for the money.

Here's a link to my last bartop build thread. Good luck with it, it's a cool hobby and you'll learn loads, but approach it with patience. Rome wasn't built in a day!!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77505386#post77505386

I've no idea where the main pic of the cab went from that thread, there used to be one, but here's a link to a hosted file:

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/5252/img0772uy.jpg

.

Calhoun

Achilles wrote: »

I built mine with MDF and corner blocks. You'd need applicable wood screws too.

Order some perspex to fit your measurments... perhaps a few cold cathode tubes hooked up to spare PSU molexs for marquee backlighting...

It all depends on what you're looking for really. I built mind with feck all DIY experience so anything I can assist with I will.

Here's a quick rundown of my build here, sorry about all the fluff in the video. I hadn't really recorded it with anything in mind at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZJ8eeALWH4

You mind if i ask how much it cost ya to build that and how long did it take? this is exactly what id like to build for my first try.

MrVestek

Calhoun wrote: »

You mind if i ask how much it cost ya to build that and how long did it take? this is exactly what id like to build for my first try.

I didn't really inventory how much it cost to put it together as I was buying stuff in dribs and drabs over the course of a few months.

I picked up most of the PC hardware for it second hand either from work (obsolete components like the screen) or from adverts.ie (got a decent graphics card, motherboard and ram for about 40).

All in all with mdf, painting it (I haven't really done any artwork as of yet) custom perspex order, various diy tools etc it probably cost the guts of €300 - 400.

Was definately an experience though. The most time consuming part of it so far (that I'm still not even finished) was setting up Hyperspin to run everything as I see fit.

I'll also be adding more to it after Christmas like getting a mate of mine in the UK to print up artwork for it in exchange for making a website for him, and I'll be adding a holster to the side to hold the EMS Topgun III that I bought for it to play the likes of Time Crisis.

If you don't mind getting second hand PC hardware to drive the thing you can do it cheaply enough. You could always just put a jamma harness in there and get a 60 in 1 board and be done with it.

Arrow.

That's awesome Achilles.

Would love to get one of these in the future as a present for someone...and maybe one for myself!