It started almost exactly 3 years ago, I got a wild hair and decided I wanted to build a MAME cabinet. A wanted ad on Craigslist got me a completely gutted DK cab for $60 delivered to my house.
It was pretty rough, but I was confident I could make it presentable again. It needed a little bit of wood work, it had a couple major chips on the front, and I just piled on the wood filler (years later, I would finally admit how bad I did, and fix it)
In what seemed like an endless search for the perfect monitor, I started with the laziest option ever. I found a cheap CRT TV at the thrift, and literally just set it in the cab...
Since I was using a PC in the beginning, video output options to a CRT TV were limited, but the video card on the PC I was using had s-video out, which I used for a good while. It looked pretty bad, but no one else ever seemed to notice...
Being that I enjoy fighting games, I knew the control panel had to have a 6 button layout, and I set off designing one. I ended up in the end pad hacking playstation controllers and using converters for the electronics.
My Paper Tempalte
I was not sure what do do about the actual control panel surface, apparently 3 years ago I had not heard of control panel artwork, because for some reason I thought it was the best idea in the world to make the surface out of a piece of wood laminate (this is the most embarrassing part of this cab, im surprised I didnt end up on crap mame with this...)
I am proud of the actual construction of the control panel, as I am terrible with wood working, and the fact that it worked, and fit well was amazing to me! The panel still is in use, though covered in some actual artwork now.
Looking at the pics, it would seem I was on to my 2nd "monitor" that was a better quality CRT TV, still hooked up with s-video ::). I did the classic matte black poster board bezel (looked terrible in person) The marquee was non lighted, because I was actually storing the keyboard and mouse behind it for easy access. Look at that marquee, it doesnt even fit right, it looks like it was bowing out in the middle!
This is the pic that I proudly showed one of my other forums, "showing off" my "complete" project :laugh2:
It stayed this way for a while, everyone that used it thought it was so cool (I dont know anyone else with an arcade cab) and I guess i thought it was pretty cool too. The only thing that bothered me was the monitor size/quality (I cant believe this was the "only thing") So I wanted the end all of monitors put in, but finding a CRT monitor over 19" was difficult, and I really didnt want to go with an LCD (pretty sure I had one in there at some point)
At some point around here I ended up with my 2nd cab, a Neo Geo 4 slot Big Red, which I did a full restore on in my garage. Once i got it in my house, and set it next to the MAME, it was painfully obvious how bad it really was:
After having the cabs next to each other, I had to get the final monitor in place. I ended up finding a Sony Wega 24" CRT on Craigslist for $20 bucks, took a chance on it fitting and managed it get it in there!
This screen looked great, and I would soon remedy the whole PC connected to a TV issue...
I cant believe I passed this thing off as complete! it was terrible, and the sweet Neo Geo made it all to obvious all the corners I cut. It was around this time that Wreck it Ralph had come out, my wife and I loved the movie, and had the awesome idea to "convert" the cab to a fix it felix clone. ( I swear this was when it was still a pretty original idea!)
Back in the garage the cab went to get the wood work redone, and a better paint job. I did a much cleaner job with the wood filler, going as far as to make templates from the good sides to make sure I got the angles right:
It needed some side art, while it looks good now, there was almost a disaster applying it that would have caused me to repaint the entire side! :banghead:
Speakers mounted in the original location:
I needed to make some legit control panel artwork, so I used some existing assets online to create a template to match my existing control panel. I planed on covering it with an acrylic sheet, but learned quickly that it does not like to be drilled, let alone have 30mm holes cut. After cracking it to hell, and throwing things across the garage, I bought a Lexan sheet, and all was well:
At this point I was pretty happy with it, I had a new marquee made up which was just a PVC sheet with a full color print. I was still using the PC so I needed to still store the keyboard and mouse behind it.
Still rocking the plain black bezel...
My next hang up was using the PC for the emulation, I hated dealing with the front end, I hated setting things up, and most of all I hated the image quality.
I had always considered the original Xbox as an emulation box, but had been talked out of it early on in my build. After checking out both Coinops and Visionary, I was sold on ditching the PC and going full Xbox, and that was one of the best decisions I made with this cab. Once I got the Xbox up and running with Visionary 3 it was heaven, great interface, all the games I cared to play, no need for keyboard or mouse. Just turn it on and play.
The cab stayed that way for a while after that, wasnt really worried about anything else (I still didnt have a coin door though :dunno) Then just a couple weeks ago, the bug to work on it hit me again... I was in Reno, NV for work, and the Hotel I was staying at just installed 20+ classic cabs! They had a DK cab, and after looking it over, I realized what my cab was in dire need of, a Bezel with artwork, and light up marquee!
I designed a Bezel that would work with my larger monitor, and got a marquee printed on backlit film. I still need to order the proper brackets, but my Home Depot DIY holds it all in place at the moment. I also finally have a coin door after 3 years, it needs a bit of work, but I only paid shipping cost on it so I cant complain.
Camera could not pick up the marquee lit up very well:
So there it is, this poor cab's journey to become something I can be proud to say I made. I skipped over a bunch of stuff, but if you have any questions about what I did, feel free to ask!
Try this for that missing door, I did this with my Zaxxon Arcade Stick Mod.