Author: Wobbles

I’ve placed my order with Happ Controls for two 4/8 way joysticks, 12 coloured buttons, a 1 Player button and a 2 Player button, a coin door and T-Molding. Oooh, can’t wait until it all turns up.

I’ve also ordered my I-Pac keyboard encoder from Ultimarc. I already have a motherboard, CPU (1GHz Athlon), 256MB RAM and a 6.5Gb Hardisk with Windows 95 to run MAME on but I still need some other computer parts, namely: a case, a soundcard and a graphics card with TV-Out. I’d originally planned to use the card in my current computer system as it’s about ready for upgrading anyway. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have TV-Out but you can pick up an old Radeon 7000 with TV-Out pretty cheaply on Dabs. Here’s what’s in my basket – not ordered yet!

ATX Midi Tower 300W – £30.00 inc VAT
Radeon 7000 64MB – £28.00 inc VAT
Soundblaster 4.1 – £12.50 inc VAT

Not too painful! I’m keeping a spreadsheet to log what I’m spending on this project. The current total which includes the unordered computer parts is £256.90. I’m not even finished yet and I haven’t included costs of tools I’ve bought; so be prepared to spend money if you wanna do this!

Moving on, I installed the top back section and the top itself. The angled back section was going to require cutting the edges at a 45 degree angle. Since I hadn’t figure out how I was going to do that yet I installed the speaker panel first.

After many trials and head scratching I manage to cut some 45 degree angles of the edges of the angled back section by positioning it at a 45 degree angle using a couple of supports and then using the circular saw to trim the edge. Probably not the best or safest way but it was all I could think of! Worked out pretty well and I secured it in place. Here’s a couple of pictures of this stage.

(Edit: Pictures no longer available)

It’s really starting to look like an arcade cabinet now and I have to say, I’m rather impressed with it myself! Can’t wait to play on it.

Once you’ve cut all the parts you can start screwing it all together. I started by putting the base together. Having previously built the model helped here as from the pictures provided it isn’t totally obvious what you are supposed to do. Anyway, you get the base section and attach the two lower supports lengthwise down the middle and then attach the front and back plates parallel to these at each end.

When this is done you can attach the two side pieces. I should say at this point that I used batons to hold the cabinet together. I believe that some people just screwed the sections together – those that did generally ran into a problem later in that there wasn’t room to install the T-Molding. So, if you screw your parts together directly, make sure you inset certain sections by about 1/2″ to allow for T-Molding. Personally, I’d recommend using batons as I believe this will give a firmer standing cabinet anyway. Here’s a picture of the cabinet with the two sides attached.

(Edit: Pictures no longer available)

Yep, that’s snow outside the garage. The conditions people work in pursuing their hobbies (obsessions?)!. I live in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and I started working on this between Christmas and New Year when we had about 3 inches of snow. Looked wonderful outside mind you, and I was too busy working to notice the cold!

For the next step I install the lower back section. This seemed a natural progression and I thought it would add some stability to the cabinet so I could move it around if necessary.

Finally, I got around to starting work on the actual cabinet. Once you get going on this it is very hard to stop! However, it is important to take a step back and look at how you are progressing.

First stage is to cut up that nasty square wood into lovely arcade cabinet shapes. This can take quite a while and you should take measurements often. This is where a circular saw proves invaluable and I’m not sure I could have managed without it. Any wrong cuts would mean another trip to B&Q (60 mile round trip for me!). However, I managed to cut all the sections without disaster. Here’s a couple of pictures of all the pieces.

(Edit: Pictures no longer available)

Before I started working on real full size sheets of MDF, I thought I’d cut all the parts out using cardboard first. I cut 3 8×4 sections from an old cardboard box and proceeded to cut out all the sections detailed in the plans. Then I started to cello tape them together. I am really glad I did this part as it gave me a clear idea of how the sections were supposed to go together. It can be trickier than you think! I recommend you do this stage. Here’s a picture of my finished model

(Edit 2021: Image no longer available).

I actually made this before I even bought the MDF so I wouldn’t be tempted.

I did quite a lot of research into what other people did before embarking on my own project. In the end, I chose to follow the plans provided by LuSid as the design appealed to me and the plans seemed fairly straightforward. You can get lots of information on building/repairing cabinets over at Arcade Controls.

So, first by the wood and any necessary tools! Off to B&Q Warehouse. Here’s a list of what I bought:

• 3 Sheets of 8×4 (18mm thickness) MDF
• 3 Lengths of 2mx40mmx20mm rough cut wood
• 1 Circular Saw
• 1 Router
• 1 Pair of Safety Glasses
• 1 Workmate
• 2 Packs of wood screws
• 1 Countersink bit
• 1 Pack of 3 Clamps

Already owned…

• 1 Jigsaw
• 1 Face Mask
• Various screwdrivers

Quite a shopping list! And this still doesn’t cover all the hardware you need. I’ll add stuff as I come to it.

MDF (at B&Q anyway) comes in various thicknesses all in mm. When choosing my MDF thickness I was thinking in terms of fitting T-Molding to it. The T-Molding I’m looking at buying from Happ Controls comes in either 1/2″ or 3/4″ widths. Whilst 18mm is very close to 3/4″, 12mm (the next size down) is quite a bit off 1/2″. Hence, I went for 18mm MDF. Just something to consider! I should also add that whilst Happ Controls are based in the US they do have an office in Kent, UK. So if you order from within the UK they send it from there.

I bought the Router to cut the groove for the T-Molding. If you don’t want a finished edge you won’t need to worry about either of these things! I wanted mine to look like the real thing.

I’ve been playing with M.A.M.E. arcade emulator for quite a few years now. It’s an amazing piece of software that lets you play all the arcade games you used to play as a kid (assuming you’re a thirty-something like me that is!). It basically lets you ‘plug in’ the original ROMs from the arcade machine and the software emulates the actual hardware that was used. The result – you can play all the old arcade games in the way they were intended! Well, almost….that’s where this page comes in.

Whilst it’s fun playing you’re old favourites on you computer, there is still something missing…the part where you are standing in front of a large cabinet thrashing buttons and joystick to death. Recently I discovered that lots of people were either converting old cabinets they had picked up cheap or were building their own cabinets from scratch and installing a dedicated M.A.M.E. computer inside it! Bingo! Over a thousand arcade games in one full size cabinet. Bliss!!

I couldn’t resist trying this myself. I opted to build my own for various reasons: didn’t want to spend time searching out an old one out then having to find a way to lug it home; I also wanted the satisfaction of building my own (I’m funny that way). So….here it is.