Pre-Demolition

Arcade Control Panel Design: Part 1

The control panel was probably the most fun part of the design process. I had decided on a four player layout so before even starting the drawing I looked up the parts available (buttons, joysticks). Once I figured out what parts I wanted to use I created scale models and started moving them around in my design.

Prototype: My Original design included a trackball for games like golf, bowling, etc and it would also double as a mouse. I decided on six buttons for first and second players for games like Street Fighter... during my research I never found any four player games that used more than four buttons. MAME uses special buttons for navigating through menus and pausing that needed to be incorporated.

Final: I got rid of the trackball because I decided on keeping the whole project under $1000 and it was over $100 by itself. I've never played any games with a trackball so I figured I could do without... plus it's easy to add later. I printed out the 1-player section to scale to see how it felt in terms of button distance and decided not only could the buttons be closer but staggering them like I did made them feel much more ergonomic and comfortable. The menu buttons were moved to the center and I took a look through MAME and my front-end (more on this later) to figure out what buttons/functions would be convenient to have on the control panel without being cluttered.

There were several iterations in between these two designs (about 30) but these two showed the most progression.

Arcade Cabinet Design: Part 1

I went through several different cabinet designs but ultimately decided to go with a more functional, less authentic design. Most upright cabinets have the monitor build into the cabinet and stand roughly 6-8 feet. Because of the monitor I chose (Widescreen 30" HD LCD TV) I originally played with a way to have the monitor build into the cabinet but decided that mounting the TV to the wall and and having the cabinet portable would be awesome. Doing this allows me to leave it against the wall under the TV so it looks like it should but also lets me take the cabinet into my living room and connect it to my 50" TV.

There are other reasons I went with this design and when I get into the parts and construction articles everything will hopefully become much clearer.

Arcade Machine Parts List

Required:
Building material for cabinet/control panel - I used 1/2" MDF... a lot of people use 3/4" but I already had a couple sheets of 1/2" so...

Controls:
Buttons - I used different colors to differentiate between players. I bought an extra button in each color in case one went bad/broke. The buttons I used were from HAPP and used horizontal micro switches.

Joysticks - Also from HAPP. I chose 8 -way joysticks for the 4 players which allows for diagonals. The other joystick is a dedicated 4-way stick for games like Pacman and Donkey Kong which will not register the switches if a diagonal is pressed.

Computer - I had a PC I wasnt using for anything so this saved me a ton of money. The specs are a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. It does not take much to run these games but my front-end is a little more intensive.

Software - MAME, other emulators for playing NES, SNES, Genesis, Dreamcast, and N64. My front-end (graphical interface that ties all these emulators together allowing for easy launching of games) is Hyperspin. Hyperspin is amazing... both in looks and in function, its also really easy to set up and time is money.

Encoder - To interface all these buttons/joysticks to the computer I used a keyboard encoder that connects to USB. Once wired it registers each button press as a key on the keyboard. I got mine from Ultimarc.

Misc - 22 gauge wire for wiring the buttons to the encoder. Paint... black of course. I had most of the tools i needed but they include several basic hand tools and saws (circular, jig, hand).

Arcade Machine Project Info

I decided a few months ago to build an arcade machine for my home. After months of research and design I finalized my construction plans and began ordering the parts. I decided to document my plans and steps in this blog to show others what it entails and what to expect if you decide to take on this project.

Project: Build an arcade machine
Personal Requirements: 4-Players and must be able to play all the classics
Reason for project: Do you really need a reason to build an arcade machine?!?! I used to play in an arcade when i was real young and always had fond memories of games like Gauntlet, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, etc and the more I thought of this project and the possibilities I realized I had to do it.

I actually started planning this project in January 2009 after coming across an article about M.A.M.E (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) and thinking to myself that it would be cool to build a replica machine. After looking on Google to see if anybody else had the same idea I found hundreds of pages and forums devoted to this project.

On this blog I will walk through all the steps I took and show pictures in various stages. This project is being written retro-actively as I am actually already to the construction stage.