Bartop Arcade Machine

[Acott]

I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in this but just incase, I thought I could show you all what I've been working on. I started building a bartop arcade machine, in truth I started it last year but got side tracked by other shiny things.

I've got some free time in the coming weeks so there's no better time to finish it.

So far the Arcade is sitting like so



Unfortunately I don't have any photos from before this point. It's covered in matt black vinyl with red t-moulding, when I started I didn't have much of a theme going, originally it was going to be Mortal Kombat. It's now changed to Street Fighter, I did a quick mock up of the side art.



The computer is a small Gigabyte ITX board with 4GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. I'm looking to upgrade the Processor and the Graphics Card once everything is put together. The monitor is either 20" or 17" I can't remember



Everything is a bit messy at the minute, I'm packing the HDD with Emulators and Roms. The list of emulators it will be running :

MAME
Playstation 1
Sega Genesis
Sega Dreamcast
Nintendo 64
Super Nintendo
Nintendo
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Commodore 64
Gameboy Colour

The front end is Maximus Arcade, but once I upgrade the Processor and GC I might upgrade to Hyperspin.

I was doing some testing last night, TEKKEN working for the PS1 (sorry about the crap photo).



I hope to have it fully constructed this Saturday, once its all together I can order the Perspex for the screen and finally get the side art on it.

Has anyone else made their own arcade cabinet? or if anyone has questions about building their own feel free to ask, I'll try my best to answer.

Now that I've posted it here, I have to finish 

[Tom]

Wow! Until you mentioned mocking up the art I assumed it was a kit! Fair play.

[Will_D]

Wow impressive project - love the artwork!

It looks like the NHC has another brilliant graphic artist/designer in its midst!

[lordstilton]

What board are you using for connecting the joystick..I used i-pac on my cabinet, highly recommend...Nice artwork...where did you pick up the T moulding?

[Acott]

Cheers Folks 

What board are you using for connecting the joystick..I used i-pac on my cabinet, highly recommend...Nice artwork...where did you pick up the T moulding?

I'm using a controller kit I got online, unfortunately it's not as good as i-pac, but it seems to be holding its own 
I got the t-molding from Arcade World UK, think I paid £20 delivered. Its a good job, although I used a dremel to cut the slot for the molding,
never again!! I'd recommend getting an actual slot cutter for a router, it would save you a lot of time!

[lordstilton]

Mine is currently in multiple parts waiting to go out to the new shed. I'm getting by with my Xarcade and TV.

[danger_zone]

That is deadly.such a cool idea.I'm pretty sure there's a section on boards.ie that has lots of other folk who build their own arcade machines

[armedcor]

Dear Jesus... Is there some kind of guide I can follow for something like this. I've built a few pcs etc but I need this in my life haha.

[Acott]

Dear Jesus... Is there some kind of guide I can follow for something like this. I've built a few pcs etc but I need this in my life haha.

Hey Armedcor, there's plenty of information online, you can also get plans here http://bartoparcade.katorlegaz.com/ here http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/  if you have any questions please feel free to ask

Mine is currently in multiple parts waiting to go out to the new shed. I'm getting by with my Xarcade and TV.

I also have the Xarcade, that's what put me on to the bartop 

[johnrm]

I like.
I was raised on 8 bit arcade games. That's where all my money went as a kid.
For anyone that is interested, there are some raspberry pi arcade projects floating about too. Well worth looking into.

[lordstilton]

Highly  recommend retropie for the raspberry pi..excellent front end with built in scrapers

[marzen scorsese]

Hey acott love the job you've done so far and the artwork is to notch. I'm building one of these at the moment too I just cut the MDF and hope to put it together the weekend.I was going to use a raspberry pi to power it because I have one lying around and was going to emulate whatever I could with it. Street fighter, mortal combat and ps1  are beyond its capabilities unfortunately. I was going to use it because it's cheap also but the board you have looks the business and is powerful enough to do pretty much everything and it's making me think  tekken is one of my favourite games ever and if you're gonna do something might as well do it right  making a man cave in my shed and I'm starting to think I'm better off with something more powerful. Where did you get the board your using? Also armdecor google 2 player bartop arcade machine instructables there is a brilliant tutorial I'm using at the moment

[johnrm]

So sheds need...
Draft beer, Dartboard, Video Games, Pool table, Fussball and a hot tub.
What else?
http://youtu.be/fQs-BcWSfng

[Bubbles]

A pole.......?

[marzen scorsese]

Ring board is fun too