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Below is a collection of
pictures from my Mame Cabinet
build. It was purchased
from a thrift store for $50 in
January 2015, and I just
finished it up at the end of
April. It was functional
except for a broken CRT.
It was originally a game called
Guardians of the 'Hood, however
inside the cabinet was a
PitFigther information card, so
it must have been converted at
some point.
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This is the arcade cabinet on
the day that I brought it home.
I didn't get a good picture of
the back, but the back of the
CRT was broken. The neck
board was snapped off with
broken and bent pins left
behind. Firing it up
I could hear all of the game
sounds, but of course couldn't
see a picture.
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Due to the fact that I bought
the cabinet in January I
couldn't do much with it in the
garage as the winter months are
too cold where I live. I started
by custom making a PC with parts
I had laying around in the
basement, my only purchase for
it was a 120GB SSD Drive.
I also decided to use my old 19"
Dell 4:3 LCD monitor for the
cabinet, you can see where I
measured it out in one of the
pics below.
The vinyl was damaged and
peeling on both sides. I
ended up removing it and
painting it rather than
re-purchasing brand new adhesive
vinyl, which I discovered is
very expensive. It looks
like particle board, but the
wood is as smooth as glass and
it looks good as a painted
surface. The old TV was
removed, along with the metal
frame that held it, and
recycled.
The control panel attaches to a
drawer, which allows for easy
access to the internal
components. Four wing nuts
attach the control panel to the
drawer. It's very easy to
remove. It's really
a very nice design, I probably
wouldn't have made a custom
cabinet this nice.
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Working
on the Control Panel |
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Here's a collection of detailed
pictures on the construction of
the control panel. Since I
was re-using an original
cabinet, this was by far the
most time consuming piece of the
project. The old control
panel worked fine and I wound up
re-using many parts from it.
I bought a new set of Happ
joysticks (you'll see them in
one off the pics with the red
handles), but ended up using the
originals because they had a
much better feel to them.
I also re-used much of the
wiring from the original and
about 1/3 of the buttons.
I
used MDF for the top panel and
re used the box underneath from
the original cabinet. I
matched the dimensions of the
original but changed the
joystick and button layout.
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l made a detailed
to-scale template for
the control panel.
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The very first cut.
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Here's a pic of the
newly cut panel compared
to the original.
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After cutting it out I
routered out the holes
for the trackball and
joysticks on the bottom
of the panel.
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The bottom of the panel
after I was finsihed
routing it. |
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Test fitting the new
control panel attached
to the cabinet. At
this point I obviously
had removed the vinyl
from the sides.
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Another view of the test
fit for the control
panel.
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The first primer coat
for the control panel. |
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I taped a small amount
of adhesive vinyl to a
piece of wood to cut out
the holes for the
joysticks and buttons.
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The control panel had
been painted at this
point (but not
clearcoated yet), so I
started installing the
blue vinyl surrounds for
the joysticks and
buttons. |
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l didn't notice until
later that I had
misaligned the one on
the left, the left side
was dropped down a
little too far. In
this pic I was working
on making the silver
stripe around the blue
vinyl with automotive
pinstriping. |
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l finished up the right
side in this pic.
I ended up changing the
silver stickers later to
compensate for the
tilted vinyl on the
left, it hides it. |
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This is the control
panel after two coats of
clear coat polyurethane.
It turned out much
shinier than I expected,
it's almost a mirror
like finish. |
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Painting is now
complete. |
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l bought an iPAC and
Happ buttons from from
Ultimarc
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I started installing the
buttons, trackball and
joysticks in this pic. |
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A pic of the wiring,
it's almost complete in
this picture. |
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A pic of the control
panel after I'd switched
out the new joysticks
for the older originals. |
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A picture of the
comleted control panel.
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Notice the date in the
lower left corner. This
is the metal CRT
mounting hardware that I
later removed.
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I removed the original
flourescent light
fixture and single cone
speaker, then strapped
in some new PC speakers
and a more modern &
smaller light fixture. |
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This is a rear view of
the monitor shelf I
added in.
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l tilted the cabinet
back to remove the bent
casters from the bottom,
as well as do some touch
up work with the paint.
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Tilting it back into the
sunlight helped me see
some imperfections in
the paint.
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Here you can see the
Dell monitor sitting on
the new shelf. The
original stand
telescopes very high up,
it's perfect for this
cabinet. |
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Here's a picture of the
very heavy and thick
black posterboard that I
used for the monitor
bezel. I also cut
the bottom off of the
original Guardians of
the 'Hood bezel to give
it an original flair.
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Here's the monitor bezel
after cutting out the
hole for the monitor. |
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Here's the control panel
attached and pulled out.
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Another picture of the
control panel and
drawer. |
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l ended up replacing the
T-Molding on the
kickplate, it was badly
damaged. |
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Here's a picture of the
finished product.
I wasn't really able to
capture any good
pictures due to the
reflections in the
glass.
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A full picture of the
finished project.
You'll notice the
difference in the silver
stickers surrounding the
joysticks and buttons in
this one. |
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l took this one with the
garage door down to show
what it looks like lit
up. Commando is
running in the
background. |
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l used GameEx as my
front end. I
really like it. |
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