If you have just joined up I suggest you read the first part of this in depth tutorial on building your own arcade machine. You can read the first part here: Arcade Control Panel

Planning (cont…)

Last article we spoke about planning your arcade machine project ensuring you have all your parts, plans and everything is ready to go. The next thing you will need to think about is your arcade machines design. You can stick to a tradition Galaga replica or design a hybrid machine encorporating the best parts of your favourite machines. In our tutorial I have gone for a hybrid design based on free hand sketching and general arcade knowledge on measurements and scales.

Firstly we need to map out all the required pieces of MDF and other materials we will need for general construction. This is best done the old fashioned way with a pencil and some paper. I won’t give you the full measurements of the arcade we built because we winged it during construction, however the basis of our design was the 1980 arcade classic, Centipede.

Plans: http://jakobud.com/plan.php?id=5

After we had the measurements we needed to move onto figuring out how much MDF we needed. Just add up section which will then give you the final wood required. Contact your local provider to see what sheet sizes they can provide for you and simply map out the sections of the cabinet to ensure there is enough to play with. Think smart too, you don’t want to end up with half a sheet which cannot be used for anything.

Measuring & Cutting

After you have purchased your MDF simply map out the required section, you only have to do one side of the arcade, we will simply use the first one as a template for the second one.

As you can see on the right there was some slight modifications to the original centipede design instead working towards some round features on the cabinet. Under the control panel and on the top and bottom of the monitor. This rockets the arcade into the future, but still retaining the key features of the arcade.

If you choose to have a rounded look on your arcade machine you will need to router the sections to ensure you get a perfect semi circle. You can do this using a jig or if you don’t have one you can make one, this video will help you: http://www.ehow.com/video_4426187_make-circle-router.html

After you part has been completely cut out, you should end up with one side of your arcade. Stand it up and see how it is! Once you have had a little play, jumped around a bit and your excitement has worn down a bit, you can now move on to cutting out the other side. This is done by simply using the first side as a template.

You’ll need a very worthwhile router bit called a Down-Shear multi trimmer router bit, you can see it here: http://www.toolstoday.com/p-5888-down-shear-multi-trimmer-router-bit.aspx. You can do this without that bit, however I highly recommend using it as it will minimise imperfections by making the two side exactly the same.

Conclusion

Simply cut out of the remaining pieces of the arcade using a saw and have them ready for assembly. I normally work and cut as we go to ensure we get perfect measurements and no wasted materials.

Next part we will look over joining the arcade together using some cleaver joining methods, this will ensure your arcade is looking very professional and can handle being moved.

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave your comments below.

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1. Building an Upright Arcade Machine: Planning Is Key Remember the days when heading down to your local arcade...
2. Making an Awesome Control Panel: Part 1 Making a control panel is a very important stage of...
3. Building a Bar top Arcade: Planning For years I have been playing with the idea of...

Replica vs. Unique

In my opinion this is a very difficult decision, most enthusiast will want to re-create their child hood by re-building the famous Defender or Space Invaders at their local arcade. Some people prefer to create something unique and different with a more modern appeal to it. Either option is still a good one, as long as you put in 100% and create high quality work. My Advice is not to cut corners, take the time, effort and extra energy to create something which will last the hardcore playing.

Look into the Future!

“Sell your arcade machine?! Are you crazy?!” Well lets just say in 20 years time you got over arcade machines and wanted to sell it. An replica 1980’s arcade machine will definitely have more buying power compared to a modern, unique machine. Food for thought.

What Should It Look Like?

Upright, Cocktail or Bar top? These are also questions you need to ask yourself. Do you have space for an upright arcade machine? Do you have the time, the money? Maybe a cocktail arcade is better suited for you, somewhere to rest the beers? Or maybe you just want to start small? A Bar top arcade is an excellent choice for beginners and also very cost effective.

How much am I looking at ($$$)?

Here is some prices (please use these as guides and are no way the final cost of projects).

• DIY Upright Arcade Machine:  $300 – $800 USD
• DIY Cocktail Arcade Machine: $150 – $500 USD
• DIY Bar top Arcade Machine: $100 – $300 USD

These prices are just a guide, it can depend on where you get your parts, computers and more.

There are some great images on the internet about arcade machines. Here are some places I recommend you visit before making a decision.

1. www.jakobud.com – Popular Authentic Arcade Plans & Images!
2. www.webbpickersgill.com – Plans & Images.
3. www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade_cabinet_plans.shtml – Plans & Custom Cabinets
4. www.klov.com – The Killer List!
5. www.xgaming.com – Cut Corners & Buy a Cabinet!

Related posts:

1. Building an Upright Arcade Machine: Planning Is Key Remember the days when heading down to your local arcade...
2. Building an Upright Arcade Machine: Time to Construct! Sorry it has been some time since I have updated...
3. Building a Bar top Arcade: Planning For years I have been playing with the idea of...

Well to kick off this series I will be taking you through a detailed step by step instruction manual on how to construct your very own, professional upright arcade machine. I will be working on this project with my old man, who has 25 years experience as a joiner and carpenter. Special thanks to him for his help with this.

So before we begin I must warn you that this is a lengthily and delicate project which can take up to 6 months or longer to complete. This project is still currently in development at the time of writing this but has so far taken 3 months to get to stage 5 (Painting & Artwork).

Planning Is Key

The most overlooked part of this scale of project is planning. Deciding to build an arcade machine can be a very difficult task and without proper preparation can be a costly project. You will need to weigh up the option of purchasing an existing built arcade or constructing your own. Without planning you could overlook important factors which must be taken in to consideration.

Budget

First thing is first, what is your budget? How much do you want to spend on your arcade and how much can you source through spare parts or scraps? These are the things you need to ask yourself before starting your project. A typical project can cost between $200 – $400 US.

The Style

So after considering your budget you will want to start thinking about what type of machine you want. Do you want to replicate an original machine from back in your childhood, or maybe create something unique and special to you? A great place to have a look at different styles of arcades is Jakobud.com, you can also find exact plans for original arcades and best of all its 100% free. Thanks Jakobud!

Materials

So after you have finally sorted your arcade plans out and the style you want to create you will need to sort your materials for construction. It is extremely important to have your materials prior to embarking on your “arcade journey” this will help you complete the project more efficiently and save you time and money.

Here is a typical list of materials for an arcade machine.

1. MDF
2. Laminated Glass
3. Screws
4. Bolts
5. Castors (Wheels)
6. Hinges
7. Locks
8. Perspex
9. Old PC (or Jamma Board)
10. Speakers
11. Arcade Controls (Joystick(s), Buttons, Trackball)
12. Coin Mechanism
13. Keyboard Encoder (or Keyboard Hack)
14. Florescent Light
15. Power Strip (Power Board)
16. MDF Sealer

Here is a typical list of tools you may need when constructing your arcade.

1. Router
2. Clamps
3. Cordless Screw Driver
4. Electric Saw
5. Right Angle Ruler
6. Measuring Tape
7. Chisels
8. Builders Bog/Putty
9. Router Bits
10. Hole Saw Bits

Electronics

So after having everything sorted you will need to think about what is really going to power your arcade machine. Most people go for an old PC dedicated to running MAME (you can read about it here). This is the easiest way and the best for a personal set up for your home. If you prefer a more authentic set-up you can run a Jamma Board inside your machine. Personally if this is your first arcade machine I would opt for a MAME set up, simply because this is low cost and easy to do.

Most people will have an old PC sitting around the house this is the best thing to use to get started. You will need something with a little grunt but nothing extreme. This is what I recommend;

• Pentium 3/AMD or higher with 1.5Ghz +
• 1 GB Ram or more
• 64mb graphics card or better
• Onboard sound card
• Windows XP

You can read more about the software in another article by me. Mame Installation & Configuration

You can experiment with these and find something that is good but not overly good. Remember you are playing mostly games from 1980 – 1996.

Controls

So the most asked question in the arcade community is how to build your controls. You have a few options when it comes to this, and simple it comes down to time and money.
You can opt for purchasing an X-Arcade TankStick which is costly but everything is there for you and they do offer a lifetime warranty or you can purchase parts and construct a control board yourself.
The TankStick is a much quicker and easier way to have a fully functional arcade controls, but if you want to learn more you can build your own. I highly recommend purchasing your parts from XGaming and constructing your own panel. They offer warranty on all their parts.

You can purchase all your parts from a few places online. Here are just a few;

• X-Gaming (The All in one solution) – We highly recommend them!
• Ebay
• Ultimarc (Keyboard Encoders)
• HappControls

Encoders

After sorting your controls you will need an encoder to connect them to your PC, thanks to bob he has also explained this for us.

Next you need to decide how you are going to hook your controls up to your computer. The easiest way is to get a keyboard encoder. Basically you hook the micro switches from the buttons or joysticks to your encoder and when the micro switch is pressed it sends a keystroke like a keyboard. Most encoders hook up with to your computer through ps-2 or usb. X-Arcade offers a great encoder that is used in their Tankstick Controller which is known for its reliability and ease of use. The only downfall is that it only has 28 inputs on it. Enough for 20 buttons and two joysticks. Another great keyboard encoder is the i-Pac from Ultimarc. They offer several different models to suit any arcade you think about building. After taking a look at the encoders at Ultimarc, I decided to use their i-Pac2. It is built for running MAME specifically and out of the box is programmed with the keys by default in MAME. All you have to do is hook the buttons up the appropriate connection on the board and your up and running. It has 32 inputs. Which only 28 are needed for the control panel I plan on running. But leaves 4 extra down the road for either 4 buttons or 1 joystick, like a true 4-way for games that were originally played that way.

You can purchase the TankStick from X-Arcade and that will have everything you need to get started (joysticks, buttons and encoder).

Screen

So another thing to consider is your screen, how you view your video games is everything. As Bob explains in another article (Building a Bartop Arcade: Planning) he discusses the pros and cons of screens.

Conclusion

So have you got everything planned? As Bob explains in his other article it is extremely important to carefully plan your project before starting it. You must have your parts ready prior to construction this can help you finish with flying colors. Before you know it you will have your arcade machine up and running.

Stay tuned for next week’s article on simple construction and design.

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We are going to start off by listing all the parts you will need before you can start the actual cabinet construction. Planning is the most crucial part of building your own arcade cabinet. Hopefully this guide will help you cut down on common mistake that you can make when taking on a project such as this. I’m also going to point out ways you can save money by using old parts and building your own components. So lets get started listing out the parts you need. As I’m pointing out parts keep your project in mind. Decide whats best for you pocketbook and your skill level.

LCD or CRT?

First and foremost, the part that you are going to be looking at the most. The Screen. Being that its a bartop you need to consider whats best for the size of your project. CRT monitors are easy to come by and they are pretty cheap nowadays. If you plan on using a light gun then this is definitely your best choice. Although it is possible to use a light gun on a LCD many of the reviews on the guns say that they are hard to calibrate and setup. So if you plan on using an LCD then you have to take that into account. Another thing you need to consider is the size of where you would like to keep your bartop. If you end up using a CRT its going to affect the design of your cabinet. Making it bigger and heavier. After weighing out the pros and cons I decided to go with an LCD. The size in depth was the biggest factor. My personal preference was to have something that was “like” a two player stand-up, but without the bottom part below the control panel.

After deciding on going with an LCD, I looked at my options. The one thing I noticed is that if you want to go with an LCD that the larger you go the more likely it is going to be a wide screen aspect ratio. Which plays a factor in a lot of the games you play. If the game was played on monitor that was mounted vertically then its going to show up with a lot of black space on the sides. If your not okay with that then try to keep to a lower sized 4:3 aspect ratio monitor. You can usually find on in a 17″ or 19″ at a decent price. I personally decided that I wanted to have a bartop that was wide enough for two people with a trackball that a monitor that was smaller than 20″ would of been too small in my design. Being that the number of games that are played on a vertical monitor were outnumbered it didn’t matter that the monitor was a wide screen format. I found a cheap off brand AOC 20″ Monitor that has a maximum resolution of 1600×1050 for $130 shipped. My budget was $150 on a monitor. This was under that price and had decent reviews. This monitor is pretty basic, and that being said only had a power and VGA outputs. Which for my project was acceptable. (We’ll get to why in the next section.) Just keep the connections in mind while planning your cabinet. Those are the big things you need to consider when deciding on a monitor. If you have the budget, go with something that has a HDMI or component hook-ups. With those as options you could hook up a console, such as an XBOX 360 or PS3, to the monitor and have a second monitor just in case. Also, you can interface the controls to work depending on which keyboard encoder you use. More on that in a bit.

The Brain

The next component you want to consider is the PC you’re going to use for your cabinet. Keep in mind the space and your budget. The specs on the computer should be enough to run MAME, and any other emulators or games you plan on using. This is going to change depending on what your trying to achieve on your cabinet. The size is the biggest concern. One of your best options if you have the budget is to go with a new mini-atx motherboard with a built-in graphics card and power supply mounted inside. While your dishing that dough out pick up a motherboard that can run a solid state drive so your system boots a little faster and makes it safer to move the cabinet around. I went another route though. I didn’t feel so lucky when my old laptop decided that the cable that went to the monitor wanted to screw up and only display half the screen. So I put up in the closet til I found something to do with it. So when I decided to build my own cabinet I felt pretty lucky to have this thing to donate to the cause. It a powerhouse for this project. It sports a 1.9ghz Dual Core Athlon Processor, with 2 gig of RAM. Also has a built in ATI video card to boot. Definitely enough for this project.

If you plan on using a laptop for your project like I did then keep these things in mind. First being size. I knew the laptop wasn’t wider than that monitor so I knew I could work its space into the design. It would be less work to install it being it has everything like power supply and fans already contained. When you output to a monitor some laptops require you to boot up and press an function and monitor output key for the screen to display. My laptop automatically output if the VGA is hooked up when turned on so it wasn’t a problem. The power button is the only thing I ran into. To turn the computer on you have to crack the lid and press the button for it to turn on. To defeat doing this every time I just put the laptop in a hibernate which also puts the monitor into power-save mode. I plan on replacing the laptop with the motherboard/power supply combo later on as mentioned above, but this setup will suffice for the time being. Or if you  plan on using an laptop you can take it apart wire a button up to the switch.

Controls

After you get your monitor and computer figured out, its time to think about what kind of controls your going to have on your cabinet. For the size of a bartop your only going to be able to fit two people comfortably.  The monitor I ordered was 19″ wide with the bezel on the screen. So I knew thats the least amount of space I had to work with. I knew going in that I wanted to have at least a “Fighting Style” layout. 8-way joystick with 6 buttons for each person. Also wanted each person to have a start button, a coin button, and two buttons on each of the sides for Pinball. Thats a total of 20 buttons. I knew I wanted to add a trackball to have to option to play games compatible with it. When planning out your cabinet, its best to get all the control you plan on using from the get go. Decide what games your going to play the most and what will help you acheive the controls the easiest. Theres not a lot of games that require more than 6 buttons so I knew my layout would be okay for my cabinet.

I ended up ordering my parts from X-Arcade. They offer a lifetime warranty and had exactly what I was looking for. I bought their arcade parts package, that included two 8-way joysticks with microswithes, and 20  black arcade buttons, two of which were white player 1 & 2 buttons with microswithes. While I was there I grabbed their authentic feeling 3″ trackball to go with my system. After measuring and laying out the control panel, I found that 24″ was about how wide I needed to fit the joystick, 2 rows of 3 buttons and and a trackball in the middle of the layouts comfortably. The other 8 buttons weren’t going to be an issue as long as I planned for them in the design. More on this later.

Keyboard Encoder

Next you need to decide how you are going to hook your controls up to your computer. The easiest way is to get a keyboard encoder. Basically you hook the micro switches from the buttons or joysticks to your encoder and when the micro switch is pressed it sends a keystroke like a keyboard. Most encoders hook up with to your computer through ps-2 or usb. X-Arcade offers a great encoder that is used in their Tankstick Controller which is known for its reliability and ease of use. The only downfall is that it only has 28 inputs on it. Enough for 20 buttons and two joysticks. Another great keyboard encoder is the i-Pac from Ultimarc. They offer several different models to suit any arcade you think about building. After taking a look at the encoders at Ultimarc, I decided to use their i-Pac2. It is built for running MAME specifically and out of the box is programmed with the keys by default in MAME. All you have to do is hook the buttons up the appropriate connection on the board and your up and running. It has 32 inputs. Which only 28 are needed for the control panel I plan on running. But leaves 4 extra down the road for either 4 buttons or 1 joystick, like a true 4-way for games that were originally played that way.

Final Touches

Now there’s only a few more things you need to think about before you can get into designing your cabinet. Sound is one of them. You need to plan for what kind of speakers your going to be using. The easiest way is to get a pair that are USB powered. So you don’t have to worry about hooking them up to a plug for power. If you got a set of speakers from an old computer laying around don’t be afraid to take them apart and see if you can’t fit them into your cabinet somehow. I got lucky and had a friend donate a pair of old harmon kardon speakers that I took apart and got the guts from. With a little bit of soldering I was able to use these speakers in my cabinet.

If you are going to use a marquee, then you need to plan for the size of it, and decide if you are going to light it up or not. If you plan to light it up make sure you include enough space in your design to place lights. Depending how you are powering you cabinet, you will need to decide if you can use a USB powered light, or if you will need a plug for it.

Are you going to have a keyboard and mouse? A keyboard and mouse isn’t required but is helpful to have. Having a nice wireless mouse and keyboard combo will help you retain the value of the computer and monitor you are using. When your not spending your time putting up new high scores you can use the arcade as a computer still.

Since we haven’t really touched on power, now is a good time. As I mentioned before, you may need a power strip to power your computer, monitor, speakers, lights, or anything else that you can’t power by USB. If you are going to run a power strip then I suggest using the Smart Strip by SmartHomeUSA.

“The Smart Strip Power Strip features advanced circuitry that not only offers excellent power surge protection and line noise filtering, but is actually able to ’sense’ the flow of electrical current through the strip’s control outlet. Because of this unique ability, the Smart Strip can turn off selected equipment when its not in use — creating benefit that no other power strip on the market today can offer.”

This unique ability lets you plug your computer up to the main spot, and when you turn it on, it will automatically turn anything else associated with it on, like your monitor, lights, and speakers without having to hit their power buttons.

The last thing you need is protection for your screen. Most people use either a plexi-glass or lexan material to protect their screen. Its cheap and gives your arcade an authentic look. The best tip I can offer you is to go take a look at your local hardware store or place you plan on buying it from and see what sizes they offer it in as you want to try and cut it as least as possible. When I took a look around I saw that 24″ wide was a standard size at my local Home Depot. Which if you remember was what I said was how wide I needed for my control panel. So this worked out perfectly as I would only need to cut it once to the height if needed to.

Conclusion

As far as parts goes, this is all you need to start planning out you cabinet. These parts will get you playing all your favorite classic games. I cannot stress how much easier it will make your build go if you have all your parts your using first. Don’t start any type of construction until you have everything your going to need for it. Be sure to check out my next write up where I take you through the design and construction process of my personal cabinet.

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2. Building an Upright Arcade Machine: Time to Construct! Sorry it has been some time since I have updated...
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