Project: Slim Arcade Machine

[Nintari]

I have started the log for this project wanted to pass this along to any who were interested. I have always wanted my own arcade machine and finally began construction on one. The only thing though is that my arcade machine is a slim one using a 17" flat panel and can be taken apart in to sections incase it needs to be moved or brought anywhere for fun or demonstrations.

Currently I am about 2/3 of the way done and have lots of little details that need to be taken care of. I currently have the Marquee cut and made but have to put it together, paint it and mount it.

I know it isn't exactly a case mod but a fun project none the less

here is the link to the wlog
http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13730


I couldnt figure out how to post pics here so here are some links to the pics.

Side angle 1
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/side1.JPG

Side angle 2
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/side2.JPG

Steering wheel attached
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/wheel.JPG

this is the custom marquee I pasted together in photshop
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/marquee.jpg

 

[loup garou]

Fixed links:

http://htpcnews.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13730


I couldnt figure out how to post pics here so here are some links to the pics.

Side angle 1
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/side1.JPG

Side angle 2
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/side2.JPG

Steering wheel attached
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/wheel.JPG

this is the custom marquee I pasted together in photshop
http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/marquee.jpg

 

[loup garou]

Nice job, BTW.

 

[dcdude]

thats badass

 

[Koing]

Looks very good dude :thumbsup:

Koing

 

[hevnsnt]

very nice & clean man.. I made a mame machine as well.. It was a fun project

 

[AnyMal]

clean

 

[Toasthead]

very sweet! good work!

 

[dcdude]

oh but the real question is


does it have Metal Slug 1 and 2???

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: werk
Nice job, BTW.

 

[Ramma2]

I'd buy plans. Git em done!

 

[Siva]

Wow, that's incredible. BTW nice username

 

[Nintari]

Uhh... it runs all PC games..yeah...PC Games....nice legal PC games....

 

[Howard]

Nice. You may want to build your own control panel for a more seamless look.

 

[new2AMD]

Did I miss the specs somewhere? What is inside?

 

[HonkeyDonk]

Originally posted by: new2AMD
Did I miss the specs somewhere? What is inside?

magic.

that and lots of wires and pcbs.

 

[Nintari]

so far it is a 1800+, 512mb mem, 9800xt, 80gb 8mb cache 7200 rpm, 16xdvd, NVTV single tuner, 10/100 NIC.


I plan to make it a Duron 3000+ later on for plenty of horsepower

 

[meltdown75]

wow. that is f'n sweet!!!

 

[Bassyhead]

nice

 

[JoeKing]

very nice :thumbsup:

blows mames crap out of the water

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
wow. that is f'n sweet!!!

 

[imported_KirbsAw]

I want one

 

[ChooChooChooseMe]

cool

 

[Nintari]

I am currently building the Marquee and was looking in to how to print it out and decided to have someone else do it to have it look a little better. I found one place out there (I am sure there are more) that has pre-made marquees or you can send in custom size and picture and they will print it for you at about $20

http://www.mamemarquees.com/!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!7

I will let everyone know how this process goes and how it comes out, as well as the usual pics. I read around and apparently they seem to do a pretty good job so we will see how it goes.

I just wish I had known I could order the side art from them too I would have done that instead of hand painting to have it look cleaner. Oh well atleast no one else will have a cabinet like mine, and it doesnt look too bad My own fault for not researching it I guess

 

[Nintari]

Ok everyone long delay between updates but I finally got the Marquee assembled and put on after some problems. I had designed the Marquee one way and the person who was helping me cut it differently and really threw things off by quite a bit.

But since it was free help and it is more than I could have done with my lack of tools I moved on and made it work. I unfortunately had to cut the marquee a little because of this.

The whole process of buying from http://www.mamemarquees.com was pretty painless and the staff was very helpfull on making suggestions and helping with corrections to my design. My biggest problem was I made everything at 72dpi on accident and instead of just printing it and sending it to me like that he suggested that I increase the picture to 300dpi so his printing process would look better. In addition I previously had made the X in the middle from scratch and that took quite some time for a non-photoshop savvy person like me. Since I made it in 72dpi I would have had to completely remake it but they happened to have one already and were happy to assist me in putting it in for me.

When I received the marquee by priority mail I didn't know what to expect honestly. Upon opening the box and spreading it out my first though was, this is just thick paper and a laser printer. But after looking at things closer and even holding it up to the light little details started emerging that made me take back what I had just said. The overall print quality was very even and smooth and even the small details had shown no flaws like some color laser prints I have seen before (where it looks like lots of little dots instead of smooth). The paper it's self upon closer inspection seemed to be quite a bit more than heavy paper and really did let the light through nicely.

Overall I am extremely happy with the job Mame Marquees did and since it is about $20 plus shipping to have one printed out I would highly suggest this route instead of the I'll print it off on my own paper and piece it together method. I tried that and it looked horrible even from a big HP color laser printer.

Anyway I didn't mean to get so long winded about the marquee but I like to give credit where credit is due and in this instance that is http://www.mamemarquees.com

On to the pics:

http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/m1.jpg

http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/m2.JPG

http://nintari.htpcnews.com/Arcade/m3.JPG