Bartop Arcade Machine

[johnrm]

A pole.......?

[Bubbles]

[ronnieb]

Very nice artwork on the bartop.

I have a Neo-Geo MVS currently rigged up to the TV using a homemade Supergun which I hope to house sometime in the future in a bartop. 

[Acott]

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

Hey Marzen,

I had originally started off with the same idea of using the PI, however I soon realised the limits and did some digging on forums. A lot of people were using the mini ITX boards, they were able to provide more juice in comparison to the PI and were neat enough that they didn't take up too much room in your cab.

The one I have is a Gigabyte E350 AMD, I picked this up new on ebay for €55, it doesn't come with RAM, power or a HDD but it does have a Dual Core AMD processor, far better than the PI, you can always upgrade this for a better processor too. I got my RAM from ebay for €30, the HDD is an 80GB sata drive I had lying around and the power is from and old PC - in all it cost me €85. If you didn't have power or a sata drive, you could round this up to about €110...check adverts regularly, you can get some great deals on computer parts. 

The setup I have runs Windows XP flawlessly and the Maximus Arcade front end is much more appealing for the end user in comparison to the PI. PS1 runs like a dream, my girlfriend loves Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, so once she could play those I got the go ahead for the cabinet   

If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!

Link to the Board
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4461&kw=GA-E350N%20WIN81.0#ov

[lordstilton]

Raspberry pi will run Street fighter no problems

[marzen scorsese]

Thanks for the link Scott that looks perfect. Having XP would definitely suit better as I could have kodi as my media centre and YouTube for tutorials for whatever project I'm doing at the time. I'm thinking of getting a projector some time in the future and could easily use the arcade machine for this too. For the time being I'll use the pi as the other board will fit in easily enough later and I have plenty to do in the meantime

[Pheeel]

Not wanting to hijack the thread but...

While I was still in the States I built this puppy. Found a shell of a Pengo arcade for $10(!!). Had a busted screen but the wood was in good shape and even better it came with a full coin slot. Repaired the whole thing, bit of spray paint and it looked a lot better. Found a real Golden Axe marquee on ebay and bought the stickers etc via some specialized online arcade stores. Got a cheap PC in there. Which reminds me I blew it when I plugged it in (forgot to change the voltage switch), need to sort that out...

BTW bartop looks cool!

[Acott]

Not wanting to hijack the thread but...

While I was still in the States I built this puppy. Found a shell of a Pengo arcade for $10(!!). Had a busted screen but the wood was in good shape and even better it came with a full coin slot. Repaired the whole thing, bit of spray paint and it looked a lot better. Found a real Golden Axe marquee on ebay and bought the stickers etc via some specialized online arcade stores. Got a cheap PC in there. Which reminds me I blew it when I plugged it in (forgot to change the voltage switch), need to sort that out...

BTW bartop looks cool!

Nice, is that a full size job? can't beat $10!!

I got some deliveries today, nothing major but part of it all the same.



Marquee light, this will connect to the PC power source. I probably should of got something a little larger but
hopefully it will do the trick. I don't need it to be absolutely blinding!



2 Joypads for PS1 games - Needed these as there's not enough buttons on the current control panel.
This also opens up the option to have PS2 games, but I'll need a larger HDD. I've ordered 2 USB connectors which will sit in the front of the cabinet, next to the player and coin buttons. I'll build a mount to hold the controllers inside the cab, so they can be taken out when needed.

Excited to get this built! 

[Pheeel]

Yep full size job

For the marquee I got a plug in light from Woodies. Much easier than plugging it into the computer

[Will_D]

TOG are into this sort of thing!

[Acott]

TOG are into this sort of thing!

Never heard of TOG, just checked out their site and they do some really interesting things! Will definitely have to pop along to one of their evenings

[Will_D]

There is also a thread about TOG having to find new premisses and our man Shinny has negotiated a NHC reduced "Brewer Membership"

Linky Here: http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,8708.0.html

[Acott]

It was a busy Saturday as I finally got down to putting this thing together! 

Got the sides and front panel on!



I'm using a set of Creative USB speakers, when I took them apart they were the perfect fit for the speaker bar.



Speaker bar, lights and top of the cabinet



Had to drill two more holes in the front panel for coin buttons, I miscalculated the first cut and it ended up quite close to the 1 player button, so everything wasn't off I had to replicate it on the other side, annoyed with how close the buttons are 



Got the monitor mounted ( After playing with the cabinet yesterday I think it needs to come up an inch or so and have the angle adjusted )




Backdoor is fitted with hinges and two roller clasps for easy access.



Control panel in, this also has hinges and roller clasps for access to the wiring and the monitor buttons.



Powering up, got the buttons linked up for testing, I'm really happy with the lights for the marquee. They give off great light without taking up too much space. You can see here what I mean about the monitor, it could come up a bit ( The monitor and the buttons look crooked, that's just the angle of the photo )




So that was my weekend, spent the whole day Saturday getting it to this stage and all of Sunday trying to get MAME working, luckily I did and now theres 4000 + games on it. Perspex was ordered yesterday and I've been promised it by Tuesday, order for artwork is going in today...it's almost complete!

I forgot how addictive bubble bobble is! 

[Acott]

Perspex arrived and I got the art yesterday, decided to stick everything last night....and I had some serious problems.
On the advice of others I purchased the art printed on Car and Motorcycle adhesive, I didn't know this stuff was so thin and stretchy.



The trouble is, this stuff is incredibly sticky, if you put it down and make a mistake lifting it to replace is next to impossible. This left me with some bubbles that couldn't be pushed out and some creases that are breaking my heart.

I know the prime objective of the cabinet is to play arcade games and not to be an art piece but it's the graphic designer in me that is looking for perfection.

I messed up the monitor bezel and the control panel, so they aren't on yet, so in total its 90% finished. I'm going to get in contact with a local car wrap company to see if they can print and stick some new art.



You cant notice any defects here, I'm happy with the design and how it looks overall!

[johnrm]

I think it looks great.
v2 will be perfection.
I'll give you eur100 for the the dodgy one