My DIY Home Arcade

Post by **andymol21** » Tue May 06, 2008 6:01 pm

Ever since I got my new laptop my old tower desktop has been sitting under my desk begging for a new home. After doing research to find a front-end for all the emulators I have on the laptop (Maximus Arcade, can't rate it highly enough), I stumbled across an idea that hundreds of people had thought of before me. An arcade cabinet for the home using desktop computer parts! The perfect use for my old computer!

This was about 2 months ago, now, with the summer holidays and my first week at university fast approaching, it's the perfect time to get started on the project, which I will begin to build after my exams are done. (NOT before, I'm so tempted to start now but NOT before...Must revise

) It'll be the perfect ice breaker when I get into halls at uni. (Or label me as a retro geek as soon as I arrive

)

I've discussed this at length with one of my friends who's a really talented artist and graphic designer and we've agreed on a layout. A bartop arcade system with one joystick, 6 fire button and 3 function buttons. These will be housed on a flap that will have a shelf underneath it with a N64, Playstation, Snes and Saturn controller laying inside connected to the computer via USB. The screen will be an old 17inch LCD that I have lying around and the computer will be my old desktop, gutted, with the following specs (from the top of my head so they may be wrong):

ASUSRock Motherboard (unknown type)
AMD Athalon 3200 (2.2Ghz)
ATI Radeon FX5700 (256mb)
250GB Seagate Hard Disk
Creative Audigy 2 Soundcard
Generic DVD-RW

The design of the cabinet itself will be similar to this http://www.zone76.com/Arcade_Projects/C ... Arcade.htm , a very simple classic arcade look and feel, cut down so it can fit on a desktop. The speakers should be mounted in the same place as this design, but I won't be using the pinball flipper controls on the side as I'm not much of a Pinball Wizard... My friend is drawing up some initial sketches as I type, so I hope to get some pictures up soon.

I'm hoping on calling this project Maximum Arcadium, a tribute to both the excellent front-end software that sparked off this project, and to the latest release of the best band in the world, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Infact, I hope to copy their design of the Stadium Arcadium cover and use it as a marquee with Maximum rather that Stadium. A fitting tribute.

No pictures so far

as it is really still a concept, but I have every intention of making it, and I hope to post the details and any pictures I take on this forum, to help anyone else who thinks they might want to have a go.

Final Request: Have any of you made a similar device? If so, I would love to hear about how you did it, and any major sticking points you had...

Post by **lordofduct** » Tue May 06, 2008 7:52 pm

My boss wants me to build one for the office as well... they were talking about getting a Street Fighter 2 arcade machine, and others started naming off other games that would rather have. So I chimed in and said "MAME... there's your answer."

Low and behold after explaining all of it, my boss is gonna get a cabinet and give me one of the older PCs to build one. YEY...

How about if he hit any walls we could help each other out seeing as we're doing it about the same time.

Post by **cloudrat7** » Tue May 06, 2008 7:52 pm

i wish you the best man, i'm looking into doing one myself but i know i would never find time..lol, i work too much. i know i have enough comp parts to make it happen, but who knows, please keep us updated on your work, maybe you'll inspire me to do mine.

Post by **SpaceBooger** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:25 pm

I just built one this past month, I posted my progress and pictures here in these forums: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5708

Post by **GSZX1337** » Tue May 06, 2008 8:49 pm

The Machine in the pics looks pretty cool. I like that logo on the top. Hope your machine turns out well. Remember to take a lot of pics.

Post by **fastbilly1** » Tue May 06, 2008 10:51 pm

Ah a bartop, Ive built a few of those in the past, fun builds. Atleast nowadays you dont have to hack a damn keyboard like when I tried to build my first. These are great gifts if you happen to have spare parts.

If you ever get stuck, or just need more ideas, Build Your Own Arcade Controls is by far the best source. You can gain so much by just glancing at the forums. And if you need parts, my friend Ponyboy can take care of you at some of the best prices around. Sadly he does not carry Seimitsu parts - he mostly deals in Sanwa and Happs equipment.

From my experience, Happs makes the best bat sticks, while it is a toss up on the balltop, but I use Sanwa because that is what I can get easier. I try to always use Happs horizontal competition buttons, unless I can some how get Wico leaf switch ones. Granted I have not had the pleasure of using some of the more highend components, so my opinion is not as well informed as it could be. There is one thing that Japanese components have over the Happs ones though, they can be tiny. Look at Byrdo's custom arcade sticks if you do not understand what I mean.

Now we wait for Majors to trounce on me...

Honestly, as soon as my cousin is out of the hospital I will finish the metal work on my cab. Oh yes, the Vs Tentop is becoming a Gauntlet machine

Post by **andymol21** » Wed May 07, 2008 11:36 am

lordofduct wrote:How about if he hit any walls we could help each other out seeing as we're doing it about the same time.

Wellllll.... I just did a time managements sort of thing and I'm gonna start building it on the 20th of June, the day after my final exam (Physics Synoptic) So there may be a bit of a delay!