Machine #3

Going with the Pac-Man theme again here, 'cos I gave the last one away and thought it looked quite good, although most 80's arcade machines were awfully garish looking things, so picking a theme isn't easy. . I'm going to spend a lot of time (and money) on the artwork for this one, also going for light up buttons and some other sparkly stuff. The craftsmanship (?) is much better too as my carpentry skills improve, before I started these projects I'd never even cut a piece of wood.

Finished..

...I think, i might add some more stickers soon. I also added a button to turn off the marquee light. Power button at the side to turn on/off. Boots straight to front end, Yellow button at front for insert coin, Arcade games now have a pause button, and a cheat button. No mouse or keyboard, everything can be selected with the joysticks/buttons. I ended up with 645 games on 3 systems by carefully researching the popular ones although there are almost 8000 games on it, but it's no fun looking for a game you like through a list of 7000. It also has Commodore Amiga, Nintendo 64, with all the games, but this would require Analog pads and mouse/keyboard to get full use outta them ,which I have but I didn't want stuff sticking out of it, Also has a Mame GUI with 6000 games.

Inside

This was before I tidied it up a little...

Software

The operating system is Windows 7, J2K, which is a key to joystick mapper autostarts first, followed by Maximus Arcade frontend this is delayed by a program delayer. When an arcade game is selected Maximus Arcade then starts Mame which starts the selected game, Zsnes for super Nintendo, and Fusion64 for Sega Megadrive.

New Computer

I decided to build a new PC to run this. I didn't want to put an i7 ,GTX780ti in there or anything so I went with AMD's new AM1 platform, runs really well, plays Skyrim and Minecraft. and runs all the Arcade machines really well, which means I can add Sega Model 2, Nintendo 64 etc..And it plays Crysis 3 on maximum. Well that last one was a joke but not bad for an €80 PC.

Pause Button

Old arcade machines didn't have pause buttons for obvious reasons, one could spend hours on a game for 10p, complete with a queue of annoyed kids waiting to play behind him. However I can't do anything without being disturbed for more than 30 seconds, so after much thought, and against much of what old arcade machines are about, I put one in.

Control Panel Wiring

I really must get some different colour wires next time, any mistakes are hard to put right. All wired to USB control board with a common ground. Now i gotta tidy everything up.

Speaker Panel

Bought some Creative Labs speakers, broke them open, installed speakers and control board on rear of panel, behind two 5cm holes and installed covers on the front of the panel.

More pics

Someone left a giant magnet on top of the laptop i had for this, so i'm back to square one for a PC for this, I might just build a new one.

Cabinet #2

 

 Next cabinet...2 player horizontal screen thing, getting a little better at the woodwork, built this in a few hours. Loads to do yet though.

T-Molding

T-Molding is that edging around the wood, can't be bought locally and seems to be exclusive to video games. I got some without paying for it though, still keeping my cabinet under €100. Top panel lights up, but doesn't photograph so well on my Ipad.

Some more work done...

Arcade Machine #1

Interesting fact: Bayer, who made the perspex panels I've used here also made Zyklon B gas for the Nazis.