Arcade Cabinets

[vhfforever]

So, thanks to a few strokes of good luck, I've found myself in the black by quite a bit and it's time to start thinking about my yearly Christmas present to myself. The finished basement is slowly making its walk toward official Man Cave and I've been wanting an arcade cabinet of my own for a long while...so, it seems like the stars are beginning to line up.

The issue is, I've never owned one, never tinkered with one more than necessary to plug it in and clear a quarter jam (I worked in an Aladdin's Castle Arcade back in my teens), and am not that experienced with electronics.

Does anyone out there have any advice for a potential first time buyer, things like...ease of switching boards to have a different game on the cabinet, pitfalls or traps to look out for, or general advice on the whole issue? There are a few sellers locally, so I won't have to freight it in to the house (which is a plus), but I wanted to do a little research before I start to leap in with both feet.

[JediSoth]

Well, it's not vintage, but it does come with free delivery: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2D211V7384&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleMKP&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleMKP-_-pla-_-Retro+Video+Game+Console-_-9SIA2D211V7384&ef_id=URPCDQAAASoi1j5Q:201404041802 26:s

Looks like it includes just about every major arcade game worth having. Plus, it's 79% off. At that price, you can't afford NOT to get it.

I still don't have it. Can't convince anyone to get it for me for Christmas. :p

[vhfforever]

I didn't even think to look at NewEgg. That price is a little outside what I want to open the door with, but amazingly tempting.

[wumpus]

That seems to be the best off-the-shelf cabinet available in the USA, and has been for some time (although I think the 400+ games seems to be new). Does anybody make an upright? I seem to have put something like 100-1 quarters in upright cabinets vs. cocktail ones.

[vhfforever]

I've decided to go ahead and make my own cocktail cabinet. I'm going to start easy, with a Raspberry Pi-based processor for the functionality, and head to Home Depot and pick up the actual wood to cut and shape the cabinet likely today or tomorrow. If anyone's interested in the process, I'll take pictures and chronicle the entire escapade from beginning to end.

I plan on doing this for the experience...a joystick and two button cocktail cabinet, and then if that goes well make up plans for a full upright after depending on the cost and labor it ends up requiring.

[OracleofWuffing]

I did my own arcade stick, that's kinda like an arcade cabinet, only, uh, less computer and screens in there. :smalltongue:

It has been a while since I was in the area, I remember Happ (http://na.suzohapp.com/gaming_products/pushbuttons/) being considered the best quality for joysticks and buttons back in the day, I don't know if they've held up or if someone else has come up on that. I used a build-your-own kit from X-Arcade (http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-parts-and-accessories/product/x-arcade-byo-arcade-usb-ps2/) to get the button inputs over to USB, if you're not too hot on laying out your own controls, they also sell a single-player already-built arcade joystick for $70 with 12 buttons. If you ARE interested in laying out your own controls and want to take it to the point of silliness (light-up buttons and such), you'll probably want something from the I-PAC (http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html) area.

I don't have access to a lot of wood working tools that it seems everyone else in the Build Your Own Cabinet/Joystick area has, so I used Ponoko (http://www.ponoko.com/) to laser cut their cherry wood material at 5.7mm, then I had them cut a clear Acrylic at 2mm for protection and looks.

I remember reading that people couldn't use CRT screens with a cocktail design, as the reorientation messed up the flux capacitor of the screen or something. Then again, it's probably kinda hard to find CRTs any more, so that's probably a non-issue right now. A handful of arcade games (Pac-Man and Galaga come to mind, but there are many others) were designed to use a screen that is taller than it is wide, so keep in mind what titles you want to look the best when you are orienting your monitor.

[vhfforever]

For my first go I went ahead and ordered a USB controller that I plan on dismantling to use for the joystick setup. I currently have most of the cabinet set up, and I'm just waiting on deliveries of the final few items (tv for a monitor, USB hub, arcade stick) to put it all together. The SD card is loaded with games and I just need one final Home Depot run because like an idiot I miscounted the number of brackets I would need. All in all, it's coming along pretty fine.