Here's a thought...

We went to the arcade tonight (Yes, one still exists). During happy hour from 9 till midnight, games were half-price. That means centipede cost 12 and a half cents. So if we spend 700 dollars doing this, that's ONLY 5600 centipede games! This is gonna pay for itself in no time!

Cliff's notes: I suck at centipede.

That's exactly what I thought it was going to be too. Then I watched the video and wanted to gouge out my eyeballs and plunge icepicks in my eardrums.

I'm not gonna lie guys. Designing controls and wiring them up and this IPac stuff looks like a ton of work, but I'll look into it.

it's really not as bad as it seems. building the board to put the buttons/joysticks into is probably the hardest part. Wiring the buttons is fairly simple, as each one only requires one wire + a common ground.

FWIW I don't have much soldering/wiring experience, but I work with people that do this and it does not seem difficult. You just need to be able to read diagrams.

I have zero soldering experience, and I wired some ceiling fans up last year without electrocuting myself. How many times out of 10 do you think I'd Eff it up?

Actually if you look at the iPac you can see it has screw in terminals and arcade buttons are compatible with quick disconnects (things you can crimp on the end of wires so you can just push them on to the ends of the terminals) so you actually won't have to solder anything.

If you use American buttons (Happs) you're going to need .187 quick discs if you use Japanese (Sanwa / Semitsu) you'll need .110. Joysticks pretty universally use .187s.

it would be difficult to screw up, imo. worst case you'd have buttons miswired, and you'd have to fix it by changing where the wire was plugged in.

as stated in another post, it's screw-down terminals on one side, and quick disconnects on the other (which involves stripping a wire and squeezing/crimping a connector onto it). The rest is plug & play.

Designing & building the board layout is really the only challenging part of it. the electronics aspect is almost nothing.

wasn't trying to trick you into admitting you are stealing games or anything... just curious, sorry

No worries, I just took it as you being genuinely curious.

And today before work I took a key measurement. This thing is not going to get through that sliding glass door you see in the first picture, so when all is said and done, we're gonna have to wheel this baby back around to the front of the house and come in through the front door. Yeesh.

Very cool project. Take it from someone who has managed a vintage arcade: X-Arcade stuff sucks. It's good for replacement parts (buttons and so forth), but it's a far cry from arcade-quality stuff. If you want to do it right, spend just a bit more.

UPS tracking says the computer pieces I ordered should arrive today, so hopefully I can get that up and running soon.

greatest thing i've read today

Disaster

Ugh, why does everything have to be three times harder than it should?

Computer parts arrived from newegg. Too bad they couldn't have been so kind as to send working ones. The motherboard was DOA, and as if that wasn't enough, the power switch on the case was non-functional as well. Both RMAed back today. Day's worth of work completely down the pooper.

And if that wasn't enough, the power supply on my gaming computer crapped out last night as well. *grumble grumble*

I had planned to get some pics/video up of the new computer system running MAME. However, it looks like the time table on that has been pushed back.

Yesterday I checked a couple pawn shops looking for a suitable TV to use as a monitor. Couldn't find anything worth even mentioning.

Hopefully, I'll have some good stuff to post soon as this is on the verge of being too much bloggy blah blah blah and not enough Arcade building. Targeted for next Quadweekend (Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday) is stripping down the cabinet of artwork/T-molding/etc.

so cool sir

Don't know if you've seen this MAME dedicated video card or not, but it's on my list of things to buy when I get around to building one of these. http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html

it's really only relevant if you have a cab that isn't gutted and has a working arcade monitor.

Although I still haven't found a suitable TV/Monitor, I did make small progress today.

My neighborhood is still under construction. That means a lot of scrap wood laying around in front of dumpsters by homes being built. So I helped myself to a few pieces. Gotta build that TV shelf out of something.

Finally an update!

I've been searching pawn shops and Craigslist for 2 weeks and I finally found a suitable TV to use as a monitor. It was not easy. Craigslist was finally the answer. Only a 100 mile round trip drive. (Worth it. This was a bitch to find.) It's a Zenith and is exactly the right size. About 25". I've tested the S-Video input with my current computer and it looks like it will do nicely. If I've measured correctly, it should fit in the case like a glove. Now I can get down to the business of building the shelving for it.



Rear with the all-important S-Video input.


The dog approves.



Also the replacement parts from Newegg arrived today so I can finally build the computer to power this baby.

Are you leaving the screen in it's case?

Yes, it's a tight fit on the sides, but should have sufficient air circulation to the vents in back. I'm considering modifying the back of the cabinet, or even removing part of it. I'm not crazy about the idea of de-casing the TV.

I took a little stroll down to the houses being built down the street this evening and scored some more excellent wood out of the construction dumpster. I should be all set to build the shelving for the TV.

definitely don't take the TV out of the case then. just mask the glass when you are done to cover the TV bezel.

putting a fan in the back of the cab & a vent in teh front is probably a good idea.

it also supports native arcade resolutions on a PC monitor, or you can purchase a monitor seperately

I'm not sure how good it will look on a TV, but running MAME on a PC monitor generally looks like ass in my experience

My X-arcade Tankstick came in the mail today and I've been playing around with it. I like it. I'm gonna use it for the build. And man, I forgot how much fun Marble Madness is with a trackball. Crystal Castles too.