Day 4 - 1st April

The focus of the fourth day was to get the buttons and joysticks wired up and tested. This was a preliminary test as once the artwork arrived all control would need to be removed so that the artwork could be applied. However, I couldn't wait to test the controls, especially as I knew nothing more could be done on the cabinet for two weeks as the following weekend I would be travelling up to Edinburgh for a family visit.

I had attached all of the buttons and joysticks the previous day but the micro-switches needed to be attached to each of the buttons. The first picture shows the buttons without the micro-switches attached. The second picture shows with all switches attached (note the micro-switches were included with the cost of the button)

Once the microswitches were attached it was time to mount the iPAC32 board. Again this had been purchased from Gremlin Solutions and is a sophisticated keyboard emulator and allows a computer to read input from the buttons and joysticks as if they were key presses without additional drivers being required. For more information on the iPAC click here

With the board and controls mounted the next step was to run a ground wire between all components ground (COM) connections to and from the ground connections on the iPAC board. The idea here being to create an earth loop for all components.

With the earth connections in place all that was left was to connect each of the terminals on the iPAC board with the corresponding controls NO (Normally Open) terminal.

With all components connected and loose wires taped down it was time to hook it up to the PC and test. The good news was that all components worked, the bad news was the joystick movements were reversed. A quick reconnect and all was confirmed as working as expected, four days into the project and this is the first time it feels like I have an arcade cabinet on the way. Next up the artwork...

Day 3 - 31st March

Drilling the control panel

The second weekend of the project I devoted entirely to the control panel. I had got some button layout ideas and templates from slagcoin.com. I had decided on a 2 Player Street Fighter theme for the cabinet early on though despite traditionally Street Fighter using a 6 button layout I decided to go for an 8 button layout instead. This would allow me (through control mappings within the emulators) to use different arrangements for different games and still keep the shape each game was intended to have at the Arcade i.e. SNK games four buttons in a row, Street fighter 3x2 etc.

Control panel drilled

I cut the control panel shape and routed as I had with the other panels. After testing for fit against the other panels I taped the template to the board and began on cutting the holes for the buttons and joysticks. I ordered all joysticks and buttons from gremlin solutions, an online UK based company specializing in arcade cabinet parts. I went for Happ Competition joysticks and buttons as these were the buttons I remembered from my youth - they were a little more expensive but worth every penny. Once the first holes were cut I tested for fit which luckily were perfect first time. All buttons and joysticks were test fitted ready for wiring and testing the following day.

Control panel buttons and joysticks installed

I began at this stage to also begin designing the artwork for the control panel. Originally the cabinet was going to be predominantly black with red and blue accents though I was not happy with my initial artwork as it seemed too modern and also a bit too menacing with a little one in the house. Instead I decided to use the character artwork Capcom had produced for Street Fighter 3 online and Street Fighter 2 HD Remix. This gave me the majority of the characters from the street fighter universe to play with an in high resolution. I sent the artwork off for printing to JLSImaging - an eBay store specializing in Vinyl printing. 

Day 2 - 25th March

Base Assembly

The second day was primarily a day of assembling the base from the panels cut the previous day. The T-Molding has been installed in the lower picture to check for fit and also to give a better idea of what it will look like when complete.

Base Assembly with T-Molding installed

Day 1 - 24th March

The first base side panel is cut

The first step once I had the materials was to cut the pieces for the lower half of the cabinet. Like the plan from MameRoom I was going to stick to a two part design (seperate top and bottom) rather than have the sides made from one solid piece of MDF. This had two advantages for me 1. It should make it easier to transport should I need to in the future and 2. I could get all the materials in my car (just!).


The base of the unit is pretty rectangular with a slope up to the control panel at the front of the cabinet. You can see three grips holding the wood in this picture and I have to say if you are contemplating building one of these yourself get some - they will save you a lot of time in mistakes due to wobbling materials and should help in keeping your hands away from the business end of the tools - hopefully meaning you will still have sufficient fingers remaining at the end of the project to enjoy the cabinet once it is built.


Once the two sides were cut I then needed to cut the slots for the T-Molding in each piece using the Router.

Router fitted with WhiteSide 1/16" Slotting Cutter

Luckily I had saved myself the cost of the router as was able to borrow one from my dad (Exhibit A on the left). However, as mentioned previously the slot cutting bit was harder to find and can cost anywhere up to £30! I found the cheapest option to be to import both the cutter and T-molding from the US and was able to get the lot for under £60. 


It is worth mentioning at this stage that if you are intending on using T-Molding on your project you need to ensure you use 3/4" (18mm) thick MDF as the width of the MDF must match the width of the T-Molding for it to look right.


I set the router to the center line of the cut panels and began cutting the slot for the molding. This was the first time I had ever used a router and due to horror stories involving missing fingers was particularly careful whilst using it. However, the tool itself went through the wood like butter with little effort and was a breeze to use. The only real warning to add here is make sure you are wearing a dust mask and goggles when doing this even if you are outside. MDF dust is nasty stuff at the best of times but the dust generated by the router had me covered head to foot by the end of the two panels and I was thankful for the mask by the end of it.

Slots cut in base side panels for T-Molding

Once the slots were cut the pilot holes were drilled for screwing to the front and bottom panles that would form the base of the cabinet.

A False Start

I had initially started the project in the first week of March and was working with the Ultimate Arcade Cabinet II design documents from MameRoom.com. However, having built the base it quickly became apparent that a cabinet of that size would be too large for our living room. Due to this rather than continue further I made the decision to start again - this time adapting the existing design into my own custom design and at the same time taking inspiration from other cabinet projects (restores and custom builds) on the Internet.

Due to the design being adapted to fit a smaller space I would have to use an LCD monitor rather than traditional CRT. However, with scan lines and other features now available in most of the emulators I would be using I felt I should be able to get something like the image from a CRT without the additional footprint a Tube TV would add.

Having designed the cabinet in Google Sketchup I was ready to start the build process. Unfortunately this was not to be a quick trip to the shops as here in the UK many of the items required cannot simply be purchased off the shelf. Far and away the hardest part to source for the project was the slot cutter for the Router that would allow the installation of the T-Molding, not to mention the T-Molding itself. In the end I wound up purchasing both from www.t-molding.com as even with the shipping from the US it was far cheaper than attempting to purchase the parts in the UK and also came with an assurance that the cutter would be the right size for the molding ordered.

All other parts I was able to purchase from UK stores and often locally - I will detail where things were purchased as I go along. I purchased the wood from B&Q and made good use of their free timber cutting service to get some large 2440mm x 1220mm boards cut down into rough panel sizes that I could then shape back at home.

The parts from the US arrived within a week and I was able to begin the project 3 weeks later than planned on the 24th March.

So why build an Arcade Cabinet?

Video games. For as long as I can remember they have been a part of my life and many of my best childhood memories revolve around them. From  early memories of anticipation, waiting for a game to load with my brother on the Spectrum and rarely ever playing a game (either because we got bored waiting or because after 1 hour of waiting the game would crash at the menu screen) to my teenage years of playing FIFA and WWF (the proper name for Wrestling kids!) on the megadrive and "borrowing" Amiga games from friends. Several hard fought battles were won and lost around an old CRT TV with a packet of Walkers and a can of Mountain Dew and plenty of laughter and tears along the way.


In between all of this however, was one constant, the epitome of gaming Nirvana that only came on the rare occassion that it was a nice day (not very often in the UK) and my parents didnt need to look at carpet samples, do some decorating or go to B&Q to look at wheel barrows (unfortunately these are all activities I can now as a father empathize with) and had instead decided a jaunt to the coast was required. On these occassions I'm sure they had images of building sandcastles, resting on the beach with a good book whilst watching my brother and I playing on the beach. However, our image of these days out were entirely different and involved us collecting all pocket money and loose change from around the house ready to hit every amusement arcade along the seafront, stopping only for waffles, candy floss or tokens along the way. 


You see, unlike now, the technology in the arcades far surpassed what we could play in the comfort of our own home. These were machines dedicated to playing one game and one game only. Hardware that had come off a production line where every component was designed to provide the best experience for that game. We would go machine to machine, looking out for the favourites (Final Fight, Turtles, Street Fighter 2) whilst also on the lookout for any new machines that may have been added to the arcade which we had not yet seen. These days out were bliss but for one thing - we would return home and for a couple of days be all to aware how lacking the power of home consoles and computers were in comparison to what we had just played. Many times I would say to my brother - "When I'm older I'm going to have my own amusement arcade in my house so I can play the best games whenever I want!"


Obviously times have changed and things have moved on. The arcades no longer the pinnacle of gaming technology, in fact technology far more powerful can now be held on mobile devices. Most amusement arcades are long since gone relics of a yesteryear and I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't a few of you who are reading this who have never witnessed the sticky carpeted, trance music saturated dark corners of an amusement arcade to really know what I am talking about. Games now have become big productions, rivalled only by the film industry. A title like Call of Duty will make millions in pre-orders alone and will be instantly available in nearly every home. The graphics and sound now, immerse you in the experience, no longer do you control a character, you are the character and part of the experience. You see the game world through your eyes and the world is yours to play in and do what you want...


However, it was recently that I realised something and it was this that led me to start building my own Arcade Cabinet. For the past 5 years I have been playing the same game! This was a daunting realization as I had not absent mindedly gone to my machine and decided to play the same game day after day. In fact I have an array of games installed but when I came to think about they were all trying to achieve the same thing - full immersive gameplay, a deep game world, photo realistic graphics. The mission statement is simple, make the player believe they can do whatever they want so long as it involves (typically) a first person perspective, 3d graphics  and shooting things. Nowhere in the mission statement is one simple three letter word ... fun.


Now don't misunderstand me at this point, I love shooting things as much as the next guy especially on a multiplayer server with friends. However, it is not the only thing I like to do. Back in the day developers were willing to try new things in the name of fun and experiment with the formula rather than regurgitate the same game year on year with minor improvements. It was in one of these moods that I ventured into Emulation - I had looked at MAME previously but things had moved on since I last had looked. Now even the most modest PC's can play nearly all of the arcade games from the 80's and 90's add on top of this the ability to also play old classics from the Amiga and Megadrive on a single box and suddenly the dream of owning an amusement arcade didnt seem so unlikely. 


So I set to work on a MAME setup and quickly realised, that something wasnt quite right. To capture the experience from my childhood correctly something was missing, and that was the cabinet itself. Having done some research it seemed many people had already had the same idea and with much success. There was a wealth of information available online and even plans to download of some examples. 


Armed with this information it was time to start the project, so a few mock-ups in Google Sketchup later and it was time to venture to B&Q and thankfully not to look at wheel barrows. Things were about to get a bit more interesting than that...