Shaping Up

It is hard to believe that a month has gone by since my last post. I've certainly been immersed in the project since then, managing two or three evenings a week out in the garage. Ann had to give me my Christmas present early - a propane heater, so I could continue working in comfort during the cold temps that have been upon us.

Since my last post, the next thing I worked on was putting the TV in the cabinet for a test fit. It was now time to see if all of my careful planning an measurements paid off. I could not have planned any better. A perfect fit all around:
I then began working on the keyboard drawer and bottom cabinet door. It was the door that caused the greatest problem. I was going to mount it as a traditional swing-out cabinet door. Several hinge styles later, I was still having problems with the door sagging. The hinges were not strong enough for such a wide, heavy door. I finally went with a piano hinge at the bottom so the door swings open "oven door" style. It is far sturdier and I encountered no problems mounting it. The mounting did however go against some of my original plans and caused a gap I did not plan on, but I figured the space would act as a cold air inlet for the circulating fan that will be placed in the top of the cabinet.

The keyboard drawer is a simple low profile construction that is more of a tray than a drawer. It required some minor tweaking, but ended up going in okay. I also cut and did a test fit for the board that will serve as the bezel. Here is a picture:

All that was left was to cut the opening for the screen and install the last board above it. After some time out in the garage today, here is what I consider to be the finished cabinet:


A different angle:

That's right.....the cabinet construction is finished as far as I'm concerned. Sure, there are minor things that still need attention, but I'll address those when I disassemble and laminate it. In the meanwhile, I feel my next step will be the control panel. I figure that should take a little bit of time with the layout and all. I'll probably order a couple sheets of laminate so that I can work on the laminating in between. I might have a little down time during the the control panel construction and ordering some parts.

Finally taking shape

I can finally say the project is taking shape. After a very discouraging start on the hardware side, things have really started to click into place.

Since my last post nearly a month ago, I spent two of those weeks working on the computer. With a little help from my Dad, I was able to get my new 500gb hard drive configured as the master drive on my system with a fresh copy of XP loaded up. It was more work, but I'm glad I went that route and ditched the old 40gig drive. We then installed the new video card and were able to get the TV up and running with a nice picture. Dad says he didn't do much, but I sure did enjoy his moral support, and having his camaraderie was even better. I then spent the next several evenings loading up the games. All 18 dvd's worth. (A big thanks goes out to Brett). Once I was satisfied that the Mame program was running smoothly, I downloaded and installed my front end program. This was an easy choice as I had done extensive research back in September as to which program I wanted to use. I ended up using GameEx. I can't say enough good things about this program. Very easy to use, and highly customizable. It really presents a slick interface for the user. In addition, it has a built in digital jukebox program, picture viewer, and many other cool add ons. Here is a typical menu shot for choosing a game:

It provides a nice little screenshot to preview the game, and when you select one, such as one of my old favorites "Golden Axe", it tells the brief history, game summary, control layout, and orginal cabinet and marquee artwork Pretty cool.

GameEx proved so easy to use, that I set up two other emulators under a separate menu. I now have the entire Atari 2600 and Nintendo game catalog loaded up. Counting Mame games, I think I'm up to about 5000 games. Will I ever play all the games you ask? Absolutely not! Who has that kind of time??! It's just kinda cool to say you have them at your fingertips in case anyone ever comes over and says, 'I remember this game from when I was a kid....do you have it?'

With the computer side of things under control, I felt I could log a few hours out in the garage on the cabinet construction. Here is what I was able to accomplish yesterday:

First I finished the base and attached a side to check for fit:


I then added the other side and the back panel:


A front view, with the monitor shelf installed:


It's starting to take on some size, but still fits nicely in front of the car in the garage. I'm also pleased with the sturdiness of it. Considering I designed the placement of the braces and framework, it appears more than strong enough. Under test, the monitor shelf even held my entire body weight! I'd rather it fail now, than later when I'm putting the TV on for the first time.

Over the next few weeks I'm hoping for more progress. After finishing up a few more of the cabinet panels, I will set the TV in for size and placement, start building a keyboard drawer of some kind, and figure out what to do for a sound system/speaker placement.

A big project....

The more research that I do on this project, the more I realize what a sizable project it is - if you want the finished product to look decent anyway. I've seen far too many examples of what NOT to do, so hopefully that will steer me in the right direction.

In the last 3 weeks since my last post, I have been switching my time between the computer side, and workshop side of things. As far as the computer goes, it has been slow going only because of the lead time to get anything shipped here. Seems like 99% of suppliers are on the coasts. Anyway, I added a 500gb slave hard drive to increase my storage space. I did not realize that IDE connectors were replaced by SATA some years back, So, add another week to get the small adapter to hook it up. The used graphics card that I ordered on EBAY ended up being DOA. Guess that is a chance I took, and 15 bucks down the drain. I also upgraded the power supply to a 480watt to replace the old 250watt one. Turns out most graphics cards, even modest ones require 300watts. Another week to get that in and installed. As of now I just ordered a brand new graphics card from Amazon. Should be here in 3 or 4 days. Maybe I'll actually get this S-video out working someday after all. Never thought it would be that big of a deal. In the meanwhile, I'll start loading up the Mame ROMS that my buddy Brett loaned me, and download a copy of Mame to see if I can at least get the games up and running. If all goes well there, I'll start messing with a front end program. A front end is basically the program that will serve as the user menu to navigate the arcade.



On the workshop side:

Two weeks ago I went to Home Depot and hauled home my new arcade cabinet:






















Well, as you can see it is a picture of the pieces of my future cabinet in the back of my trailer, just waiting for assembly. I certainly miss the flexibility of my truck, but there has not been much that I have not been able to haul home in the 4 x 8 trailer behind the Civic.

I next carefully sketched up some rough plans for the cabinet sides from browsing many, many different pictures of other peoples cabinets on the Internet. One thing I was sure of was that I wanted it to be as small as possible, but still proportioned. While I do have space in the basement, I don't want some hulking monstrosity in my rec. room either. As ridiculous as it sounds, it took 3 tries and several hours to sketch this design:





The problem is that so much depends on correctly laying out the sides, especially regarding the depth of the monitor, height of the controls, and so on. Once I felt fairly satisfied and measured every line at least 5 times, I started cutting and came out with this:




After the first was done, I rough cut the 2nd one, clamped it down to the first and used the flush-cut router bit to match it up. Everything seemed to turn out okay. I guess I'll find out later. In case you are thinking the bottom looks a little short from the floor to the control panel angle, it's because it is. I'm making a base that it will sit on and raise it up 3 more inches. It will kind of look like a recessed kick panel of sort. Saw a picture on the net and really liked it.




Today I made the base. After I was done, I sized it up and checked things out for fit and proportion. Everything seems good. It took way longer than it should for such a simple project, but without a table saw, each cut I have to carefully clamp a straight edge down for the best possible cut. It takes time, but the results have been better than many of my past construction attempts. The base was only 1/16 off square. I think I'll let it ride.




Here is a picture of the base:



I really toyed with the idea of adding casters, but it seemed like it would really add to the instability of the cabinet. Instead of having the weight equally distributed on the perimeter of the base, (on carpet) the casters seemed like it would cause it to be wobbly. I figure if I need to move it, I'll just gently tip the sides up one at a time and insert some of those low profile furniture sliders underneath for the move. Besides, I plan on having front access only, so there should not be much of a need to get to the backside.

Well, that's it for this post. I sure didn't think it would be this much. I'll have to start being more succinct in the future. Next up, construct and install the back panel and monitor shelf.

The project has begun

So what is this all about anyway? Well, we can place blame on a longtime friend of mine, Brett for casually mentioning to me a few weeks ago "Paul, I've got a project for you." I suppose further credit for this crazy idea goes to the person who initially conceptualized doing it: my brother Dave. Apparently a few years ago, he mentioned to Brett that they ought to each build a MAME cabinet. (More on what "MAME" means later) To make a long story short, Brett was the only one who was serious enough to actually DO it. I'm still working on my brother to join me on this. He says he wants to but....

This is the first winter in awhile that I actually have some time to call my own. The last several years my wife and I were pursuing a graduate degree that consumed much of our time. Now that we are done, I've actually got some time this winter to mess around with something (before we start another program next fall). Actually, I need something to work on, something to provide me with my "fix". It's almost like therapy for me to work on, or build something. Something to help unwind from the day, and immerse myself in. I thought this would be just the thing. Now I must admit that I have no idea what I am doing here. Everything about this project is self taught, with each detail carefully researched. I've kinda "schooled" myself on the topic, and since my day job is actually teaching, hence the blog title "home schooled arcade".

What I'm wanting to build is a MAME cabinet. I dabbled with MAME software nearly 10 years ago but was not terribly impressed. MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. It is basically is a computer program that runs all of the old arcade style games that I played as a kid. You name it, you can play it right on your home computer. Classics from "Pac-Man", all the way up to early 90's games. Back when I first messed with it, much of the authenticity was lost with having to use a keyboard to control games that were meant to be played with joysticks. Since then guys realized with a little work and creativity, they could build an arcade style cabinet complete with controls to enhance the experience. This is what I am aiming to do. I've always wanted a real arcade machine since I was a kid, but I was not fond of the idea of committing that much space in my basement for just one game. Now that I can literally program several thousand games into one machine, as well as make it double as a digital jukebox/media player, the idea sounds pretty cool.

The purpose of the whole concept also goes back to nostalgia. It's a piece of history, as well as my childhood. I certainly did not frequent the arcade much, but I was no stranger to it either. There was nothing better than my parents taking my brother and I out to the mall on a Friday night for dinner. After a choice dinner at York Steakhouse, my Dad would reach into his pocket and give each of us a quarter, maybe two if we were lucky, and let my brother and I run upstairs to "Tilt", the local arcade. It was this little room in the mall with about 40 games stuffed inside it. The sights, and sounds still stick with me. I would choose my game carefully, and savor the gaming experience while it lasted.....probably about two minutes if I was lucky. Later, my parents would stop in to pick us up after they did a little shopping or walking around the mall.

Even in my teens and through high school Tilt was a happening place. It was the place to stop in on a Friday night with crowds of teens hanging out. The games were far superior to anything one could play at home, and that is why the phenomena of the arcade existed. Fast forward just five years later, and Tilt was nearly empty, all except for a few pathetic "claw" stuffed animal grabs, and a air hockey table. With the technological advances in home gaming consoles, kids could now play just as good of games at home, without have to travel to the mall with a pocket full of quarters. This was simply the trend here in my hometown. Things could have been different in larger cities as there are still high tech, advanced games out there. Just go to your nearest "Dave and Busters" to see a few. This however is a far cry from the true arcade experience of the 80's that I grew up knowing.

So here I am doing a little research, trying to get some ideas together as to what I want to build. One thing I do know is that every site I read says that the first decision is what monitor to go with. Since all the old games were low resolution, a common t.v. will suffice. Also, not much computing power is required to run these games, so a 5 or 6 year old computer will more than suffice. In comes Craigs list. I plan on doing this project on the cheap, so I went looking for used stuff this past week. I picked up a couple year old 27" t.v. for the monitor, and a several year old Dell desktop to run the show. Here is my first picture to post:
It's not much, but I have to start somewhere. The cordless keyboard and mouse are compliments of my brother in law. The t.v. was $30, and the computer $70. The cat is simply in the way. Next step is to decide on a design, purchase some lumber, and start construction of the cabinet itself.

I have no idea how long this will take. I'd like to guess anywhere from 6-9 months. I could be way off. We'll see. What I don't want is for this to seem like work. I want to enjoy working on it and not get in a hurry. Let's face it, this is going to be a pretty big focal point in my basement, so I don't want it to look like my local home center regurgitated some heap of junk in the middle of my rec room. Plus, the longer I take the more I can spread the cost out. I read where guys have built their cabinets for under $500 or as much as $2500. I'd prefer to as close a possible to the first number.

Hopefully my next post will be in a couple of weeks when I've got a few boards bought. Until then....

PS. And by the way, this blog would not be complete without giving acknowledgement to my beautiful, loving wife for supporting and backing this project. She says she can't wait to play on it. First up for her: some classic Nintendo "Tetris", "Excitebike" and of course "Super Mario Bros", the only three games I have ever heard her talk fondly of playing as a kid.

In case you were wondering, the cabinet will not only play old arcade games, but emulate a number of home systems as well, such as Atari, Sega, Nintendo, etc.