Adventures in MAME land

[gannon]

Alas, I must say no. I live in the frigid north of Michigan
I have however dressed up as a pirate in a parade (it had nothing to do with pirates so it was probably inappropriate, but most loved it )

[gannon]

Today I went over everything with a sander and cut/mounted the front plate for under the controller (almost forgot about it )
Just got down laying on a coat of primer (took an hour or so for everything). Had to find a heater so I could paint with the garage temperature though
Ended up using textured rollers for putting the primer on, gives it a nice effect.


The primer says it can be painted over after 1 hour, so I'm either going to paint it tomorrow or later tonight, haven't seen any spots that'll need much if any sanding.

Edit:
First coat done. This coat almost did a good enough job, but lots of spot showing white through. Did it in flat black, but thinking of doing the next coat in semi-gloss.

[gannon]

Just finished the 2nd coat. Had to go out a buy more paint for this, the store ended up only having oil based instead of latex, so now I'm a bit messy and smelly


On a good note, the other parts (minus the marquee), should arrive here tomorrow...if only I knew about the $30 shipping charge they'd toss on the order *before* I bought the stuff....

[gannon]

Almost done at last! The CPU fan is a bit loud, so not sure what I'll do there (might be able to do throttling in the bios or something). The only thing in the base of the unit right now is the subwoofer, but if I can't get the PC any quieter I'll put it down there as well I suppose.
Just assembling everything after painting...


Masking off the bezel glass for painting (ran out of spray paint, have to pick some up tomorrow I guess)


And all assembled and ready to go! (Well, minus the marquee, bezel, and t molding...but probably won't get to that last one until summer, still hopes of the marquee showing up before I head back to college)

[Skyone]

Nice job, you pulled it together quick.

[jeroen]

Just finished the 2nd coat. Had to go out a buy more paint for this, the store ended up only having oil based instead of latex, so now I'm a bit messy and smelly

Mmmmmmmmmmm interesting Nice cabinet btw

[gannon]

Unfortunately, my marquee didn't get in before I had to head up to college, so I probably won't be able to install it until next week.
Took a bit of organizing to make up for moving the shelf where the cabinet is now

[Lucretius]

Gotta say, that went really well! I figured you cop out FAR earlier in. Way to not quite disappoint and in turn manage to disappoint.

Seriously, good stuff.

[dudex77]

Gotta say, that went really well! I figured you cop out FAR earlier in. Way to not quite disappoint and in turn manage to disappoint.

Seriously, good stuff.

Where the hell did you come from?

Nice cabinet! I'm not a fan of the all black x-arcade stick but that's just me.

[bacteria]

Nice work.

I notice you took 2 pics of yourself on this posting; are you vain?

[gannon]

No, I'm vain because I hug my mirror
Anyways, waiting impatiently for the marquee, noticing some damage that occurred during transportation that I'll have to fix (mostly just touchup painting). Even though it isn't complete, it's getting tons of people stopping by when the door is open

[bacteria]

How about a pic of the front of the system?

Are you intending to remove the controls from the x-arcade panel to locate them in exacting positions on the cabinet (custom)? (complete with ashtray / beer holding circle)...

How about a coin slot? I have seen some which you insert coins and it activates a button, which can be mapped into MAME to match the "coin insert"? (makes it more like a real arcade cabinet then).

How about marquees on the sides of the cabinet with funky arcade game motifs (as well as the top, where your light is)? (I have seen MAME arcade makers on their websites with pics of this, looks nice and authentic).

How about a mini fridge for the cabinet bottom, there might be enough space for your computer base unit and a mini fridge there (for your beer and snacks)? If not, how about making a secure area so you can store your security items (ie a safe) - if anyone burgled your place I am sure they would leave your arcade cabinet, especially as it will be extremely heavy (I know, I have made various items with 18mm MDF before!), thus be more likely to be left alone (so a safe store space)...

How about using electrical tape to give a closer finish between the two halves of the cabinet? (interim measure).

[gannon]

It's in use currently, but I suppose I can get one up later
For the moment I'm sticking with the x-arcade panel. I can build a larger custom one later, but not sure if I will. Tried to order can holders for the sides, but they were out of stock.

I'm not entirely sure if I'll go for a coin slot, they're a bit bulky, expensive, and take away from storage space inside the cabinet.

I have a friend who wants to paint side art on it, we just need to sit down one weekend and work out some designs. I got the generic marquee back home today, so I'll probably have it attached by the weekend.

Right now I'm storing some club materials in the bottom of the cabinet, but my mini-fridge would fit fine there. It's current location in the room is better though I think.
Also, the only thing related to the setup stored in the base currently is the subwoofer, everything else is in the top portion.

As far as using tape for hiding the seem, it isn't a bad idea, but if I were to try to cover it I'd probably use some excess T molding (which I haven't even installed yet).

[bacteria]

There are some pics of some nice MAME frontends on Long Link

eg:



www.mameworld.net has various interesting stuff.

Personally I like this look to an arcade cabinet, looks nice and not tacky:

[moonmoon]

good pics.