Progress So Far
30/01/05
Got some more memory off ebay quite cheap. 1 stick of
256mb SDRAM will do the job nicely. That puts my cab at over ½ a gig of ram.
Was planning on spending my day off tomorrow finishing
off the work on the cab but had a problem with windows on the box so have had
to format and re-install :(
Oh well. Will probably be a lot better with a fresh install
anyway. Will give me chance to install the second drive I got for it.
24/01/05
After the failed attempt yesterday, I re-printed my
control panel guide sheet and started again L
This time I routed out the panel first, and then cut
out the button holes.
This time it worked out fine though and I immediately
set about painting it black with the last of the paint from the cabinet.
2 coats of quick dry. Low odour paint later and it was
ready to have the joystick and buttons installed in to the panel.
As you can see from the pictures, it all looks lovely
and shiny and new.
I threw everything back together to get a few pictures
sorted but its only temporary. I’ve got a few panels to screw down but that’s
about it.
23/01/05
I have been working away at the cabinet since
Christmas but not really making any head way due to my car being dead
I started painting it black a couple of weeks ago and
managed to get 2 coats of Black Matt Silk on it.
Looks good but I realised I would need to either cover
the control panel with plastic or re-make the panel.
The plastic option seemed a bit too much of a pain,
after testing out the cutting on a piece of left over Plexiglas.
The result was not right so I set about starting again
with the control panel. This time however I was going to mount the joysticks
from the bottom of the cabinet instead of on the top. This would make for a
much better finish when I painted the CP.
To do this I had to take my original template and flip
it horizontally. I attached it to the bottom of the board I had cut for the
panel and cut out the button holes.
I then started routing out the slots for the joystick
to rest in.
Unfortunately it didn’t quite go as planned as the
router slipped and gouged a hole right out of the middle of the panel. That’s
another piece of wood for the scrap pile.
29/12/04
Not done an update in a while but I’ve got those
pictures as promised.
Went to B&Q and got some plexi glass the other
day. I used a steel rule and a very sharp
Cathy wanted some stuff from the new hobby craft store
that’s opened up so I went along to see if there was anything useful. I spotted
some thick black card that came in 1000mm x 500mm that would do great for the
monitor bezel. Got a few craft knives and stuff to make cutting out the middle
a bit easier too.
Once in place with the plexi glass over the top, it
looked the part. I used some screws to keep the glass on place for now till I
can get something a bit more substantial. I did the same with the plexi glass
for the marquee but I sandwiched a make shift marquee in between the 2 sheets
till I get the marquee retainers from Happs.
Time for some pictures I think
12/12/04
Not much I could do with the Cabinet today as I am
rather hung over.
I did manage to go on to www.mame.net and found out that they are now
on Mame 0.89. That puts me 3 versions out of date.
I promptly downloaded it and transferred it to my
cabinet. Works fine but I am trying to sort out a copy of Outrun Turbo which is
one of the games they have got working since the update.
Once again I will make some promises about pictures
and stuff but no guarantee J
11/12/04
Done a bit more over the weekend and finished off the
cabinet shape.
It has now got back and front panels including a door
at the front to gain access to the PC.
I’ve also put in the panels to go above the TV and
drilled out some speaker holes in it. I decided to move the Sub from within the
cabinet and attach it to the cabinet itself, so that the base can actually be
felt through the control panel whilst playing.
There is now a definite shape with only a couple of
pieces of particle board to go in place and the plexi glass marquee and screen.
A Bezel is also on my list of things needed but I’ll
worry about that later.
For now I need to source a control panel overlay or
make my own. My other option is to cover the control panel in some coloured
plastic that has had the buttons and a hole for the joystick drilled out and
use that instead. It should save me a bit of time trying to get the control
panel overlay straight and will save me trying to print one out.
I Got a Playatation2 controller adaptor for my PC that
connects in to the USB port.
I can hook up 2 controllers at once of any type
(except light guns….. Gutted). It works great with the PS2 pads and will allow
4 player games to work.
I’ve got a steering wheel controller that I’ve never
used much on my PS2 that works a treat with Out Run and Chase HQ. Problem is
that I now need to make a new control panel that will slot on top of the
controls that are already there, but will incorporate the steering wheel.
29/11/04
Got up early this morning and cut a shelf for the
cabinet. It feels a lot sturdier than before which is a relief.
Put the TV on to the shelf so I could check the fit
and its fine. I need to have it tilted backwards slightly to get the angle
right but nothing too bad. Hooked up the controls and tested those out too. No
worries on that front either.
Finally got some pic’s taken of the cabinet.
I really should sit down and write a site properly
rather than these crappy links but….. I can’t be bothered. :-P
28/11/04
Here’s the control panel layout I promised. (Right click
and save as) You’ll need Visio to look at it. Sorry.
I’ve been really busy this weekend. People from United
utilities came round on Saturday to clean up the yard at last.
As soon as they had gone I messed it up again with saw
dust as I had decided to get the control panel drilled out and wired up. It aint pretty and it aint tested yet either :-S
I also got the wood for the side panels on Sunday and
cut them straight away. I remembered to clamp the 2 pieces together so that the
cuts where identical on both sides.
I needed to make some adjustments to the original
framework I had made to accommodate the control panel but nothing major. Once
done I attached the side panels to the frame, Taking care to keep them level.
I could do with getting a shelf in place for the TV
now so I can double check the clearance at the back and positioning for a fan
to keep it cool. I’ve also got the job of stripping down the speakers so I can
mount them in to the cabinet too.
Oh well, at least I’m getting somewhere at last.
23/11/04
Found a really good website that has a collection of
pictures of control panels from arcade machines.
They are all setup to be used with mame and the image
files are setup with the same file name as the game rom, except for the file
extension of course.
I will be looking to incorporate as many images as I
can in to my mame cabinet so that when you’re looking up the games on the list,
you will be able to see what the original cabinet looked like, how the control
panel was laid out, the marquee and a screen shot of the game.
I was considering doing some controller picture files
based on the control panel I will be using so I wouldn’t need to label the
buttons. There’s one hell of a lot of games for me to do that with so I might
just set this up for the more complicated control setups.
I’ve decided on the layout for my Control Panel now
and have created a full size Visio stencil to cover the board with. A bit of
glue and some careful positioning and it is now attached to the board for my
control panel, ready for me to cut and drill out.
I’ll post these up here later
I think I’d better post up some pictures too as it’s
looking a bit thin on the ground
14/11/04
Not much of an update for you at the moment. Still not
managed to get the last panels home to do the sides of the cabinet. I’ve come
to the realisation that my car just aint big enough, no mater how I get it cut
in store.
I will probably have to get my Dad to help me as his
car is way bigger than mine.
Oh…. United Utilities still aint sorted out that shit
in my back yard. They will be round on Saturday 27th to clear it up
after nearly 3 months of me complaining at them and receiving 2 separate
cheques for compensation. It did get cleaned up the first time round but the
next time there was a heavy rain it all came back :-S
20/09/04
Thanks to United Utilities, I am still waiting for
someone to clear up that shit. I have now had to raise a complaint with them to
get them to sort it out. I have been on the phone to them way too many times.
Anyway, enough crap for now.
Since my last update I was fortunate enough to track
down a Power Leap PL/IP3T processor upgrade on E-Bay. It was sold as untested /
Faulty. It was currently stood at £20.
I bit the bullet and bought the thing in the hope that
the person selling it had not bothered reading the instructions properly. Cost
me a little over £25 including postage in the end.
I got the parcel a couple of days ago (10 minutes
before I set off to work for a 12-8 shift) and had a play about with it when I
got in.
When I first put it in my machine and booted it up I
thought it was bust as it took ages to boot up.
Checked the computer description and it was described
as a P3 400 or something. Not good as the chip in the power leap converter was
an Intel Celeron 1.2. So, out of the PC it came and on to the Power Leap
website I went.
Managed to get the instructions for the processor from
their website and sure enough the jumper settings for the Front Side Bus speeds
where wrong as where the voltage. A bit of a tweak later and it was back in the
machine.
It booted up a lot quicker this time and I was feeling
hopeful.
A quick check on the computer description, Intel
Celeron 1.2GHz processor. Woo hoo.
I was well chuffed with my find on E-Bay and decided
to get some extra memory from there too. Managed to get myself a stick of 128mb
SDRAM. As it was unbranded I got it for the bargain basement price of £6.
Now that’s better.
The cab is now capable of running just about every
game I’ve tried, including Mortal Kombat. Bit disappointed that Tekken won’t
work but hey, I’ve got a PS2 for that.
11/08/04
As my cabinet is going to be on my home network I
decided I had better put some AV software on it and get windows updates done.
OMG……. How do people go online for so long without
antivirus?? It was online for less than 10 minutes getting windows updates and
it got Sasser!!!!
Bloody thing was causing my box to reboot once every 2
minutes.
Found out that a way to stop it rebooting is to enter
“shutdown –a” at a command prompt.
Anyhoooo, got the windows updates done. Then ran the
removal tool. Updated AV, installed firewall etc. etc. Whilst it was doing all
of that I got a chance to check out some arcade jukeboxes that I had read about
at BYOA.
There are some real nice ones out there but not sure
if they will have the functionality that I want.
I downloaded about 8 different ones to test out over
the weekend.
I also did some checking round for upgrade
possibilities for my CPU as some of the newer games where a bit jerky and the
sounds were well dodgy too. All where fine on my 2.4 desktop PC though.
I spotted a socket 370 to slot one converter that
would take up to a Pentium 1.4 GHz.
They are a bit pricey and weigh in at a little over £80 each including VAT but it means that
install would take less than 5 minutes. I’ve found them to be a lot cheaper in
the US
so might have to check out importing a couple
In the meantime I’ve got this shit
to clean up after last night’s rain and the rain earlier today.
Thanks to Work for giving me the time off tomorrow to
sort that out.
10/08/04
Woohoo. I was right; someone from work saved me
(Thanks to Finch for that). A lovely 20 gig drive is now in the PC with win XP
installed and Mame32.
08/08/04
Tested the TV. Sorted :) I needed to tweak the
MAME video settings a bit but nothing major.
Found another problem though! The Hard drive is FUBAR!
I re-installed it twice before I gave up on it as a bad job. Checked E-bay and
a 20 gig drive is going for about £10 - £20. I think I will wait till I’ve been
in work and scavenged a bit first. There must be a spare drive somewhere in an
office of techies.
Oh and the B&Q saw is still out of order so no
more build work this weekend.
02/08/04
Managed to do some of the build work over the weekend
and also managed to get hold of a TV for the cabinet. I have not tested the TV
fully yet as my mate forgot to give me the remote control (DOH!).
We didn’t get all of the cabinet done as the Circular
saw at the local B&Q was FUBAR and would be off until further notice. As I
don’t own a van, nor know anyone with a van, that saw was my only hope for
getting the side panels home. As the first 4 cuts are free, I’m sure I could
have gotten the basic shape sorted too. Looks like the side panels will have to
wait until that saw is fixed. In the meantime though we collected together the
timber for the frame work and got some screws and brackets together.
We made the frame for the inside of the cabinet and
strengthened it using steel brackets. This was mainly to hold it all steady but
also to add a bit of strength to the monitor shelf. The frame itself only goes
as high as the monitor shelf as we wanted to try and minimize the amount of
weight up top to keep it steady on its feet.
We also decided that the frame work would be the same
width as the particle board we had bought for the front and back panels so we
would have an overlap when we put the side panels on to the frame.
Unfortunately, lack of light and a respect for the
neighbours sleeping habits prevented us from continuing in to the night so it
was off for a few beers and a game of poker.