The Mini Arcade Cabinet is FOR SALE

Ladies and Gents, it with much sadness that I must sell the mini arcade.  It has given me much enjoyment both building it and playing on it.

I'm selling it on Ebay, the link is here:  http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=151278688275

A couple more shots of the completed arcade with some inspiration next to it.  If you haven't got a Retrogamer subscription I highly recommend it!

Gauntlet Artwork Applied

Here we are then.  The minicade, in the mini man cave, next to the mini-minicade.

Artwork has arrived

The artwork has arrived from Basement Arcade Grafix.  I'm very impressed with it, and will apply it later today, watch this space :)

Control Panel

I've put together my own control panel.  It's a colour laser print on to thick paper with a 0.5mm layer of Lexan over the top.  It seems to do the job quite nicely and looks good.  It should be durable, and is easily replacable if it gets scratched.  I'll see how it goes.  If it looks poor when the rest of the artwork arrives then I'll rebuild the control panel with 6mm MDF and a thick perspex control panel.

Artwork ordered

I've now ordered the artwork from  http://basementarcadegrafx.com/

I expect it to take a couple of weeks to arrive and will post pictures when it does.  The service so far has been excellent so lets hope the final product is too.

Total cost, £37 including shipping!  Bargain.

Artwork (again)



I've spent some time working on the artwork again, and am finally happy with it despite all of my earlier revisions.  I've opted to cut the top off of my design and keep the side art close to the original shape.  Mainly for authenticity, but also because the paint job went well and it would be a shame to cover the whole side in vinyl when it's looking so good.

I'm going to print the control panel myself and wedge it between 2 sheets of lexan.  If it looks terrible I'll see what other options I can find.

The artwork above the coin door has been modified to read "1p start, 1p credit, 2p credit, 2p start)" with each arrow pointing to the relevent button on the cabinet.

Waiting now for quotes to come back.

A new home for the mini arcade

I've cleared out the basement and made a man cave.  The perfect setting for the mini arcade.  On another note I've given up on finding a control panel printer at a reasonable price in the UK.  I've ordered some 0.5mm lexan.  I'll print out my own CP and overlay it with this. 

Still looking for a side art printer.

Plexi glass fitted

I've cut and installed some lightly smoked plexiglass over the monitor.  The smoked plexi looks good (once fingerprints are cleaned off of it!) and gives great contrast to the picture.  The only problem is it reflects the back of the control panel which I didn't paint black!  Time to get the paint out again and cover this up.

A video of the unfinished cabinet in action.

Not sure why the video freezes up at the end, but you get the idea.

A few better quality pics

Stickers and plexiglass for the monitor to come. There is a bit of scuffing on the marquee but this will be covered by vinyl.  On the whole I'm pleased with the result.

Just the stickers to go!

And maybe a little touching up from putting it back together again.  All pictures taken on my phone, I'll bust out the digital camera tomorrow for some better shots.

Shown running Lion King on Sega Genesis.

 Running Gauntlet here (of course!)

 The rear (including finger prints).  Red button is power.  This is the only fan present, there is no fan on the cpu heatsink.  It's quite and cool inside.

Shown here with the hinged bottom half removed, and the screwed top half removed.   Speaker is at the top, then monitor, halfway down on the left is the LED controller and on the right is the mini pac, then the PC itself is on a removable tray which isn't painted.  Hard disk is underneath and all is mounted with rubber washers and sound proofing on the HD so it doesn't vibrate through the case.

 A close up of the speaker.  It clips on to the wood with a spring loaded clip that would normally attach the speaker to your laptop screen.  I've added a couple of cable ties for good measure.

 Looking in the back of the cabinet with the PC removed.  Just the control panel in here.

Finally a couple of me putting it together.

Painting finished!

Finally finished painting!  Very glossy, but a lot of the cabinet will be covered by vinyl stickers so I think the combination of gloss paint and matt vinyl will look good.

More Painting...

Fill all the screw holes and sand
 

Apply wood hardner to the cut edges of the MDF, then sand lightly to round the edges a little

2 coats of solvent(oil) based primer - 3 Coats applied

4 Coats of black gloss with progressively lighter grain sanding between each coat  Only 2 coats required, 1 coat applied.

The painting continues.  3 coats of primer were required.  The first coat of black went on today and will need 16-24 hours to dry.  School boy error, the paint tray for the black has been sitting face up all week.  It wasn't until I put the black on that I realised I had put a layer of dust into the paint!! 

So tomorrow will start with sanding out the grains of dust and then applying the final black coat.

Painting!

1st layer of undercoat on, more waiting.

Thursday.  Painting is a patient mans game.  I'm not a patient man.

Progress so far:

Cut the speaker hole in the marquee!

Fill all the screw holes and sand

Apply wood hardner to the cut edges of the MDF, then sand lightly to round the edges a little

2 coats of solvent(oil) based primer

4 Coats of black gloss with progressively lighter grain sanding between each coat

All coats applied using a small mohair roller

2-3 coats of clear satin gloss on the edges where you would find T-Moulding on a standard size cabinet.

Now it's dry I can highly recommend using wood hardener (or wood glue mixed with water) on all your MDF edges.  The cut edges are now rock hard and far less likely to fray.

Painting the MDF arcade cabinet

I've decided to paint the cabinet myself instead of sending it off with my friend as it's not convinient for him.  So I've decided on my method:

• Fill all the screw holes and sand
• Apply wood hardner to the cut edges of the MDF, then sand lightly to round the edges a little
• 2 coats of solvent(oil) based primer
• 4 Coats of black gloss with progressively lighter grain sanding between each coat
• All coats applied using a small mohair roller
• 2-3 coats of clear satin gloss on the edges where you would find T-Moulding on a standard size cabinet.

I'll finalise the cabinet tonight with regards to cable access and final adjustments and then crack on with the painting.  11 days off work now, so no excuses!

Intensive play testing period

This play tester is putting my cabinet through its paces.

A working prototype!

I finally got around to buying a 28mm drillbit and drilled the control panel, everything fits (just) in the limited space, and I've got a good working 6 button control panel.  I'll add the 1 and 2p start buttons to the front of the cabinet soon.

It's not without problems however.  I need to come up with some serious cable management ideas to make room for the rear fan, and the pico-psu isn't working.  It worked just fine on my old test Zotak motherboard, perhaps this one is drawing more than the 160w available.  The prototype therefore has a massive ATX PSU hanging out the back of it until I can resolve this.

Control Panel Draft 3

Third and possibly final draft: