ArcadeCab

5/26/07

Answer to a popular question
For those persons using the X-arcade in their cabinet, the original plans are vague as to where you put the T-molding for the X-arcade area.  My plans are designed that you place T-molding on the back- and front-sides.  This allows you to firmly wedge the X-arcade into place, where it will stay quite well.  In addition, the rubber molding protects the X-arcade's covering.  I have provided a picture to the right that might make this clearer.  You can use the same method if using a TankStick.
 

TankStick Modifications
A long time ago I promised to provide details for the mods required to use a TankStick with my plans.  I contacted Ash (see 5/2's News item) for the measurements that he used and he quite graciously sent me the information.  The key measurements are shown in the diagram to the right.   Ash also expanded the width of the cabinet from the 21-1/2" (20" interior + 3/4" ply + 3/4" ply) to 25-1/2" to account for the larger controller.  This makes the TankStick's sides flush with the cabinet, as in the original design.  All the interior pieces will have to increase from 20" to 24".  Ash also discovered another small change he had to make.  From his email:

"One other thing... I had to alter the design concerning the keyboard drawer. You used a piece of wood between the bottom of the controller and the top of the drawer face but the Tankstick is larger than the Dual joystick, and that buffer piece of wood doesn't work with your measurements. I didn't realize this until I was actually building and installing the drawer, but it turns out that it's no big deal to just leave off that extra piece of wood and have the drawer top flush with the controller bottom. My drawer face is 2 1/2 inches high, with 1/4 of an inch of space between the bottom of the controller and the top of the drawer face to account for the little 'feet' on the bottom of the controller. The bottom of the keyboard drawer face up to the top of the front of the controller, just where the front face meets the bottom of 3/4 inch surface, measures 5 inches exactly. The front of the drawer, measured out horizontally to the front edge of controller slot portion of the cab sides, is 2 inches. In all other regards, I pretty much used your measurements."

I want to thank Ash for the great information he's provided.  I hope this helps.  I've also created a tweaked complete cab side diagram for use with the TankStick.

And finally...
Just to remind you, when you purchase an X-arcade product from my site, I do get a small commission.   These commissions have pretty much paid the fees to keep this site up.  So if you do plan to buy one of these products, if you use one of the links on my site, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks to everyone that has done so in the past.

5/13/07

Cronin's Arcade
Earlier this week I received a link to a site that might interest you.  I occasionally  receive emails about new websites that have been put up.  As a rule of thumb unless they have used some variation of my design, I do not post them.  But I've waived this rule in this case, as  Jason has put together a very nice cabinet building PDF document.  He provides an explanation on the steps with 3d drawings throughout, and includes a number of detailed, measured drawings at the end.  It is apparent he spent some time creating this as a way to give back to the community. 

One item to mention is that my ancient copy of Adobe Acrobat 5 couldn't handle displaying the pictures throughout, but a (free) copy of the newest Acrobat Reader made everything all better.  Give the site a look.

5/4/07

Rich's Cabinet
Rich S has completed his cabinet. He is using an X-box to drive the system, includes a 20" monitor and smoked glass in front of the monitor.  He uses a NTSC transcoder so the X-box can display the images as VGA. He included some cool touches.  Open the coin door and you can reach the X-box on/off switch, transcoder, and the in-line volume control.  Open the front door of the cabinet, and you can remove the X-box itself.  He has generously offered to provide the marquee image file to any interested parties (contact me and I'll forward the request on).

Rich is another Mamer who found this site at the start of 2005 but wasn't able to start the project until now.  Talk about patience! 

Nice job!  You can find more pictures of his build on the Visitor Page.

5/2/07

Ash's Project
Ash has nearly finished his cabinet and has sent along pictures.  Ash is one of the earliest visitors of ArcadeCab, having first found the plans way back in 2004, but had to wait until he had the money (and time) to build it right.  He has modified my original design a bit to house the X-gaming TankStick, with the intention of eventually building his own.  Being the artist  that he is, he will be hand painting custom graphics on the cabinet sides as well as the Tankstick (he has painted it black in preparation).  The graphics will be completed once he gets settled into his new home several states away.  He's using a 21" monitor and has angled it somewhat, which is a cool effect.

The in-progress marquee is looking great as well.  From his email:

"I am using a Roger Dean font for an old school look (if you are familiar with the bands Asia and Yes, you'll recognize the style of the font, Roger Dean did cover art for those bands - he and his brother Martin also designed some custom arcade cabs back in the early 80's, coincidentally). The marquee isn't finished yet, I still have to design a cool looking background. However, this is the part I have been looking forward to as art is my forte (I have a degree in computer animation) and I didn't want to use any of those pre-designed mame marquees that I see online. The name of the cab is 'Emuasylum', named after the emulation site where I am a moderator (http://www.emuasylum.com). Emulation Asylum... get it? Anyway, I thought it would be a good name for the cab.

He's graciously sent several photos that I've included here.  Great job and I'm looking forward to seeing your custom artwork.