Here's a full dump of the spreadsheet I used to keep track of pricing as well as time. I tried to track where I bought everything or where you could buy it, and what the cost was. Keep in mind these prices are from 2005. Some stuff like the PC can be had for $200 or so. Also some of this I already had. While the cost may seem daunting the truth is if you borrow tools, and work smartly you can … [Read more...]
Final Cabinet
This is the final product. I think it turned out pretty good. There's a few um.... less than skilled cuts from my learning curve but overall I think the cabinet turned out well. The smoked glass I picked up from a speciality store that did picture framing, and it fit in perfectly. I found a couple very small L-brackets and put some felt on them to sit the glass on, then a couple more went over … [Read more...]
Detailing and Artwork
The artwork is perhaps the part I stressed about the most. I wanted to make sure that thing looked sharp. I lucked out when I found a comic book cover that wrapped around the Ninja Turtles and Foot Clan. Splitting it right down the middle gave an awesome left and right side to the cabinet so it looked like each side was coming around to front. The marquee I built in Photoshop with a font I … [Read more...]
Assembling the Computer
When I originally put this together the computer was a fairly powerful CPU, with a minimal graphics card. I found that this setup was good enough to run most games and it included: AMD Sempron 3000+ 1 GB of Memory 64MB Asus Radeon A7000 ATI Video Card I've since modified this rig a bit, and am looking at a newer Intel CPU, moved to 4 GB of Memory (it's cheaper than it ever was, and why … [Read more...]
Building the Controls
Building the controls was probably the most exciting part as it means I can actually play games with that arcade feel. All the buttons went in smoothly as I usesed a drill bit to make perfect holes, and then the buttons just slid in and screwed on. The joysticks also lined up perfectly by using some paper templates to make sure the holes were drilled in the right place. The only regret I have … [Read more...]
Painting the Cabinet
I chose a green paint for the cabinet, to build upon the Turtles theme. The paint is a melamine paint, and from what I read on-line it is designed to harden well. Because MDF is not like normal wood I also made sure to prime the entire cabinet. Not just to make painting easier but to protect it better as well. The only area I didn't apply paint to the outside cabinet was where the artwork … [Read more...]
Assembling the cabinet
Once everything was cut out assembling was pretty straight forward. All the pieces fit perfectly, partly because of the stencils and time taken to measure everything before getting to this stage. One problem I did run into was finding the router bit to cut a groove for the T-Molding. I went to three different stores before finding it. I also made some adjustments because I thought the TV was … [Read more...]
Cutting and Stencils
When building my cabinet to try and save on time I created stencils of everything first by tracing or drawing it out on Bristol board. I then traced that stencil onto the MDF. The one good thing is that because there are 2 sides to the cabinet most parts I only had to create once, and once it was done each side was almost identical to the other. The other thing is that when you work with MDF make … [Read more...]
Materials For My Arcade Cabinet
Getting materials for the cabinet was pretty straight forward. A cabinet it's self is not all that complex. It is pretty much MDF, Paint, Screws and Glue. I'm positive anyone who wants to do this can with a little help and some determination. Truth be told if I was in wood shop I'd have probably opted to build one of these instead of the chess board I did build in grade 8. At this point I should … [Read more...]
Getting Started
The first thing I did to build my cabinet was research. I checked out the BYOAC community site, and I came across the Heavy Metal Arcade Cabinet that was the cabinet I wanted to model mine around. I loved the kick plate, the cartoon artwork, and it just looked bad ass in general. Except I wanted mine to be 4 players, just like the TMNT arcade game. I also went out and got Saint's book Project … [Read more...]