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My build, parts, cost, etc. maybe helpful for newcomers


DannyShane

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I figured this might add to helping newcomers. 

Here's the parts i purchased to build a 4 player arcade cabinet:

Wood - I bought Three  8'X4' MDF panels. $90 i think. and i might enough left to build a bartop arcade.

Controls - I bought all mine from ultimarc. I spent $381 to get the following:   37 happ buttons; crimp connectors 4.8mm  (because they didnt sell that size at my home depot); IPAC 4; Four J Stik Controllers; U Trak Trackball and optional trim bezel... 

Monitor - I bought a 32" Insignia flat screen at Best Buy for $89 on Black Friday.  (Insignia™ - 32" Class - LED - 720p - HDTV  Model:NS-32D220NA18  SKU:5747454)

Speakers - I bought a speaker setup from Bestbuy for $20 during black friday.  - Logitech - z213 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System (3-Piece).  The speaker wires were too short though so i had to cut them and use wire i had in the house to extend them. (they wouldn't reach the sub since the speakers go on the top of the cabinet)

Fans - I wanted to make sure nothing overheated so i went big on this.  too big. i think you can just use the single fan (two of them), I  paid $80 ($40 each) for dual fans... Search Amazon for: AC Infinity AIRPLATE S7, Quiet Cooling Fan System 12" with Speed Control, for Home Theater AV Cabinets

LED's - $22 on Amazon. Search: SUPERNIGHT 16.4Ft 5050 Waterproof 300leds Light Strip,RGB Color Changing Kit Adhesive Tape with 44 Key Remote Control and 12V DC 5A Power Supply

Computer - I already had a Dell XPS 8300 windows 7 i5 with AMD Radeon 6700 series graphics card. it was sitting in the garage for 3 years.

Hard Drive - I bought a $90 2 TB internal drive

Software - Big Box!!!!!  You have to get this! 

Games - Mame 0.204 complete set with SL set and media files. among others... For newcomers, because this was VERY confusing...  Put all the bios files inside the mame rom folder.  then put all the mame SL bios files inside the mame SL rom folder... Then set mame rompath to see both of those folders....  by editing mame.ini.   and mine didnt have a mame.ini, so i found somewhere on LB forums how to go into command prompt to force creation of a mame.ini.. Use a semi colon to seperate the two paths .. basically your rompath within the mame.ini file will look like this:       F:\Emulation\Roms\MameRoms;F:\Emulation\Roms\MameRomsSL

EmuMovies - $20 You need to sign up with them to get access to lots of media, and seriously they deserve it.

Graphics - I only made a control panel graphic so far. It cost about $85 from gameongrafix.  it was very nice in my opinion.  I made the graphics from downloading tons of images and setting it up on photoshop so that my buttons would not cover any characters face etc.  

Paint - I already had Blue paint because i was painting my basement (NY GIANTS! man cave lol). But i think the paint was like $25. 

Wire and receptacles - I already had proper wire and receptacles and a light switch because i had previously done work in my basement. 

Drywall Screws - I used coarse drywall screws 1" 5/8    $10

Screws - Half Inch Sheet metal screws for screwing in the joycticks and hinges. $5 (i think)

You need a predrill bit with a preset/sink or whatever it's called so you can drill into the mdf and it clear out a little sink space so the screw wont protrude. 

Other than that, you need tools like a jig saw, circular saw, drill, wire crimpers. I had those already.

Keyboard and mouse - I had them already but i ended up buying wireless ones for convenience. $27 for my mouse, and $15 for my keyboard at bestbuy. 

Wheels $20+

Cabinet Hinges - $10

Cabinet Hinge Router - $5  - pretty cool little bit. makes life easy.

Drawer Slides - $20 I bought really nice ones for my drawer where i keep the keyboard and mouse

--- So see it gets expensive, but 100% worth it. I'm no carpenter and i still did it. i made mistakes.. but i think im the only one who sees them. 

I'll post the pics below  

I found this joystick layout on a website so i drew it to scale on a piece of paper,

 

 

buttons.thumb.PNG.dd135b91be727fbd46e231b4be1d70d7.PNG

then traced the outside of the paper onto my control panel board. i measured to make sure t was even with all angles etc.  

 

 

 

20181220_041247.thumb.jpg.e07f52a875ca76cdb157ca17e1ba25ba.jpg

Then fast forward.....  and i sanded it with a sander. use sandpaper if you don't have one.

control-board.thumb.jpg.0dabebd4ce20ce50962cce7d4a68d0ed.jpg

then i cut out one side with a circular saw and jig saw (for angles etc).  Once cut, i laid it on top of the leftover mdf and traced it and cut the second side out.  (you can see i initually drew my side panel too thin)

sides.thumb.jpg.f1694d8c8acb11ff7f2b165d28af7154.jpg

This part was hard to get lined up... i put wheels on the bottom. 

sides-and-base.thumb.jpg.f2623d37adc368c6f556e322d5dddf54.jpg

fast forward... (i initally spray paint the control board but the spray paint sucked.. it woudl wipe off on my hand days later) also, you shoudl proabbly put the comntrol board on last because i was just excited and impatient. lol. )      the top lifts up to access ipac 4 and all the wiring. i used cabinet hinges on the back wall of control panel. 

almost.thumb.jpg.407fa9b5e4796e5a52b9e0b57cc13d83.jpg

added two recepticals and a light switch on the out side of the cabinet. 

20181231_184407.thumb.jpg.bcfd44d6633c5e2b5df994b4f0167fe9.jpgPainted it blue.  

painted.thumb.jpg.aa534be8868bb8a8c319424fb5dd5c2d.jpg

 

Got my graphics.... artwork.thumb.jpg.50c4b267b832d30b3ac9a23667a69bc3.jpg

Mostly done.. i still need to do my marquee and the t-trim molding. but im happy.. :)big-blue.thumb.jpg.1f1ab7628358df83b6830c6179c0b867.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Hayata
image in wrong place
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  • 1 month later...
On 1/9/2019 at 3:40 PM, Hayata said:

I figured this might add to helping newcomers. 

Here's the parts i purchased to build a 4 player arcade cabinet:

Wood - I bought Three  8'X4' MDF panels. $90 i think. and i might enough left to build a bartop arcade.

Controls - I bought all mine from ultimarc. I spent $381 to get the following:   37 happ buttons; crimp connectors 4.8mm  (because they didnt sell that size at my home depot); IPAC 4; Four J Stik Controllers; U Trak Trackball and optional trim bezel... 

Monitor - I bought a 32" Insignia flat screen at Best Buy for $89 on Black Friday.  (Insignia™ - 32" Class - LED - 720p - HDTV  Model:NS-32D220NA18  SKU:5747454)

Speakers - I bought a speaker setup from Bestbuy for $20 during black friday.  - Logitech - z213 2.0 Multimedia Speaker System (3-Piece).  The speaker wires were too short though so i had to cut them and use wire i had in the house to extend them. (they wouldn't reach the sub since the speakers go on the top of the cabinet)

Fans - I wanted to make sure nothing overheated so i went big on this.  too big. i think you can just use the single fan (two of them), I  paid $80 ($40 each) for dual fans... Search Amazon for: AC Infinity AIRPLATE S7, Quiet Cooling Fan System 12" with Speed Control, for Home Theater AV Cabinets

LED's - $22 on Amazon. Search: SUPERNIGHT 16.4Ft 5050 Waterproof 300leds Light Strip,RGB Color Changing Kit Adhesive Tape with 44 Key Remote Control and 12V DC 5A Power Supply

Computer - I already had a Dell XPS 8300 windows 7 i5 with AMD Radeon 6700 series graphics card. it was sitting in the garage for 3 years.

Hard Drive - I bought a $90 2 TB internal drive

Software - Big Box!!!!!  You have to get this! 

Games - Mame 0.204 complete set with SL set and media files. among others... For newcomers, because this was VERY confusing...  Put all the bios files inside the mame rom folder.  then put all the mame SL bios files inside the mame SL rom folder... Then set mame rompath to see both of those folders....  by editing mame.ini.   and mine didnt have a mame.ini, so i found somewhere on LB forums how to go into command prompt to force creation of a mame.ini.. Use a semi colon to seperate the two paths .. basically your rompath within the mame.ini file will look like this:       F:\Emulation\Roms\MameRoms;F:\Emulation\Roms\MameRomsSL

EmuMovies - $20 You need to sign up with them to get access to lots of media, and seriously they deserve it.

Graphics - I only made a control panel graphic so far. It cost about $85 from gameongrafix.  it was very nice in my opinion.  I made the graphics from downloading tons of images and setting it up on photoshop so that my buttons would not cover any characters face etc.  

Paint - I already had Blue paint because i was painting my basement (NY GIANTS! man cave lol). But i think the paint was like $25. 

Wire and receptacles - I already had proper wire and receptacles and a light switch because i had previously done work in my basement. 

Drywall Screws - I used coarse drywall screws 1" 5/8    $10

Screws - Half Inch Sheet metal screws for screwing in the joycticks and hinges. $5 (i think)

You need a predrill bit with a preset/sink or whatever it's called so you can drill into the mdf and it clear out a little sink space so the screw wont protrude. 

Other than that, you need tools like a jig saw, circular saw, drill, wire crimpers. I had those already.

Keyboard and mouse - I had them already but i ended up buying wireless ones for convenience. $27 for my mouse, and $15 for my keyboard at bestbuy. 

Wheels $20+

Cabinet Hinges - $10

Cabinet Hinge Router - $5  - pretty cool little bit. makes life easy.

Drawer Slides - $20 I bought really nice ones for my drawer where i keep the keyboard and mouse

--- So see it gets expensive, but 100% worth it. I'm no carpenter and i still did it. i made mistakes.. but i think im the only one who sees them. 

I'll post the pics below  

I found this joystick layout on a website so i drew it to scale on a piece of paper,

 

 

buttons.thumb.PNG.dd135b91be727fbd46e231b4be1d70d7.PNG

then traced the outside of the paper onto my control panel board. i measured to make sure t was even with all angles etc.  

 

 

 

20181220_041247.thumb.jpg.e07f52a875ca76cdb157ca17e1ba25ba.jpg

Then fast forward.....  and i sanded it with a sander. use sandpaper if you don't have one.

control-board.thumb.jpg.0dabebd4ce20ce50962cce7d4a68d0ed.jpg

then i cut out one side with a circular saw and jig saw (for angles etc).  Once cut, i laid it on top of the leftover mdf and traced it and cut the second side out.  (you can see i initually drew my side panel too thin)

sides.thumb.jpg.f1694d8c8acb11ff7f2b165d28af7154.jpg

This part was hard to get lined up... i put wheels on the bottom. 

sides-and-base.thumb.jpg.f2623d37adc368c6f556e322d5dddf54.jpg

fast forward... (i initally spray paint the control board but the spray paint sucked.. it woudl wipe off on my hand days later) also, you shoudl proabbly put the comntrol board on last because i was just excited and impatient. lol. )      the top lifts up to access ipac 4 and all the wiring. i used cabinet hinges on the back wall of control panel. 

almost.thumb.jpg.407fa9b5e4796e5a52b9e0b57cc13d83.jpg

added two recepticals and a light switch on the out side of the cabinet. 

20181231_184407.thumb.jpg.bcfd44d6633c5e2b5df994b4f0167fe9.jpgPainted it blue.  

painted.thumb.jpg.aa534be8868bb8a8c319424fb5dd5c2d.jpg

 

Got my graphics.... artwork.thumb.jpg.50c4b267b832d30b3ac9a23667a69bc3.jpg

Mostly done.. i still need to do my marquee and the t-trim molding. but im happy.. :)big-blue.thumb.jpg.1f1ab7628358df83b6830c6179c0b867.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous work bud! well done~

 

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5 hours ago, jazzandvo said:

Gorgeous work bud! well done~

When you reply to someone there’s no need to quote the entire post when it is that huge and your comment is so simple/small as it just clutters up the page unnecessarily. I’m not trying to make a negative comment, but just offer a helpful tip, thanks.

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(replying to DANES Post)  lol that is true though :)  

Thanks for the comment though.

btw i finally got my marquee printed up, but i dont have it back lit yet because i bought white leds from china and its been 20 days and still haven't arrived. but i couldn't beat $4 or whatever it costed. 

P.S. i called it "big blue" because its a fuckin big blue box. lol. it will look ok with the marquee lit up. 

my-cabinet.jpg

Edited by Hayata
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