My Arcade Project



My progress since Feb. 2003

This page covers all the trials, errors, and miss steps that have taken place since I took delivery of the cocktail cabinet kit. It will be updated on a regular basis until the cabinet is finished.

When I did a dry fit of the cabinet, I made measurements of the inside dimensions. I found that the cabinet, looking from the top down, was 25 1/2 inches deep by 21 1/4 inches wide and 17 1/2 inches long.
I searched around Tucson for several weeks looking for an old ATX desktop computer case with a minimum of 400 watt power supply. When I was unsuccessful in my quest I started looking for a new case. I found only one with a 400 watt power supply and bought it. It's measurements, looking from the front, were 6 1/2 inches high 17 inches wide and 16 1/2 deep.
I was planning to use the coin door to gain access to the front of the computer, but had to scrap that idea when I found that there was no room behind the computer to plug in the monitor and power cables.
I weighed my options: Cutting the case would be a real pain and not gain me much of a savings in height.
Rotating the computer would require cutting more holes in the cabinet.
Originally I had planned to cut holes in the bottom for cooling, and had even purchased some surplus blower fans.
I decided to cut holes in each side of the cabinet for ventilation and to gain access to the computer.
I carefully measured the front of the computer and discovered that access to the floppy and CD drives would require cutting a large off-center hole at the very bottom of the cabinet.
I fabricated a bracket for the floppy and CD drives and while I was at it installed a new reset and power switch. I mounted the bracket on top of the computer.
New measurements showed me that the hole could now be only 9 3/4 and 6 1/2 high, and be covered by a standard vent cover.
Mounting the drives on the computer brought it's height to 8 inches. That left me with only 17 1/2 inches for the monitor. I found a new 19 inch monitor on sale for $110 and bought it rather quickly, that bargain wasn't going to get away.
The monitor is 17 1/2 wide, 15 1/2 wide and 18 inches deep. I had a problem, I wanted to separate the computer space from the monitor space for cooling purposes.
I thought about removing the monitor from it's case, but that would void the warranty and create a new set of problems in mounting it.
As it stood the monitor would stick up above the cabinet 1 inch if I used a 1/2 inch piece of plywood as a separator. It was then that I remembered that the top of the cabinet was 1 inch thick! I could cut the top to fit around the monitor, but the glass top for the cabinet would touch the face of the monitor.
I needed to drop the monitor just 1/8 inch. I solved that problem by using 2 pieces of 1/4 plywood glued together with a cutout in one piece to clear the floppy and CD drives. I now had the 1/8 inch for the monitor and 1/8 clearance above the drives.

Finally I was ready to cut the cabinet, I had all the parts and could forge ahead.
I installed brackets in the cabinet bottom to hold the computer in place.
I cut holes in each side for the speakers and the vent covers, in the front for the coin door and in the back for the power cable.
I then glued the cabinet together.
I did a test fit and found that I had made an error in the cutout for the CD drive. The drive tray when opened would hit the cabinet. I solved the problem with a 3/8 inch notch that wouldn't show when the vent cover is in place.


During the past few months I have gone through many design changes to the control panels and have settled on a four-way joystick, 3 control buttons, player start button, and coin button on the player 1 and 2 panels.
The master control panel is still being sorted out. It will be easy to remove and have a keyboard drawer. If I don't have a spinner by the time it is assembled, provisions will be in place for future installation.
The trackball is now a translucent blue and illuminated.
The stereo speakers will be driven by an old Radio Shack stereo amplifier.
The power strip has been modified by adding a relay to control the power to the monitor, fans, and audio amplifier. The relay is controlled by the computer.


After much thought and test fitting I solved the cooling problem for the computer and monitor. Since the computer and monitor had seperate chambers I needed at least 2 fans. I hit upon mounting the fans under the monitor support. One blower fan under a large hole to pull air from the monitor chamber and the other blower fan directly above the computer to cool the processor and computer.

Next I tackled the fitting of the monitor. I placed the monitor on the support, and made measurements, cut the cabinet top, and added a filler bezel. I then cut the Ms Pacman underlay and did a trial fit.
I'm not sure how I am going to blacken the monitor and filler bezel yet. I don't want to void the monitor warranty. I think I will just use black tape.

At last! The electronics are working correctly. Now I have to build the main control panel. It is a real pain to use a keyboard and mouse with them laying on the floor.
The main control panel will have a pull-out drawer for the keyboard and the trackball will also serve as a mouse.

The computer system: 9/05/03
The main control panel is coming along nicely: Things left to do on main panel: Painted and installed vent covers.
Added the following pictures: side view, side view 2, plywood sub panel removed, keyboard drawer extended, control panel removed to show mounting clips.

10/21/03 I took delivery of the top glass for my cocktail cabinet.
For months I have been agonizing over what I was going to use for the top glass. I thought about using lexan, but decided that even though it was very strong it would scratch easily. I called various arcade and amusement machine companies and was unable to locate even a used piece of glass. I had already decided not to have a glass top made locally as it would be too expensive.
I did a search on Ebay and found that I had just missed a buy-it-now $60.00 plus S/H for a tempered glass top for a cocktail cabinet.
I was not happy, I missed the auction by 2 hours. I decided to try to contact the company directly.
Because of Ebay rules, companies are not allowed to link to their web pages, I had to do a Google search on their email address to find their company: AMDG Amusements Inc.
I called and asked them if they were planning to sell any more top glass on Ebay and was told that the glass was going to be listed very soon. I asked if I had to wait for the auction to get the $60.00 price or could I place a order right then.
They took my order right then (18 Oct) and it arrived today (21 Oct) in perfect condition! The total cost was $75.00 USD, $60.00 for the glass, $5.00 for packaging and handling, and $10.00 for shipping.
They really know how to pack their products. I had some misgivings about ordering top glass from out-of-state, but was reassured by them that there would be no problems and not to worry. I was not disappointed and highly recommend them.
To find AMDG's auction on Ebay check in ARCADE title search only for cocktail glass. If no listing, try every few days, because they list on a regular basis.
I am still working on the main control panel and should be able to post an update about it soon.

11/02/03 I finally got a spinner. It was cheap and repairable. Image 1, and image 2.
I'll repair it, convert it to USB, and install it in the main control panel.

11/06/03 Repaired and modified spinner to work with a USB mouse. Added a work-in-progress picture of the main control panel.
I still need to install spinner in control panel, tighten everything down and install joysticks, push button switches, and wiring harness.

01/10/04 Now that the holidays are over, I've started work on the cabinet.
I finished the wiring in the cabinet for the main control panel.
I discovered that all the modifications to the USB devices put too much drain on the motherboard resources. So I added a self powered USB Hub and modified it to work off the PC power supply.
I tested the cabinet with the main control panel and keyboard installed.
See pictures: -1- and -2-

I still have a lot to do:
06/25/04 The above items still haven't been done, but I am already working on another control panel.
This control panel will feature an original Starwars flight yoke and a shift lever for the driving games. I got an old Road Blasters yoke and control panel on Ebay. The yoke is in bad shape, but I got it real cheap and I can salvage the control panel and a lot of parts from the yoke.
I then got an original Starwars flight yoke that is complete and in good shape. I have purchased new wiring,and two new 5K potentiometers to restore the yoke.
The yoke will interface to my cocktail cabinet through the USB port.
I found a great site:1 up Arcade That has a tutorial on modifying a Microsoft Dual Strike gamepad to connect to an Atari flight yoke.
I will be changing their design to take advantage of all the extra buttons.
I still haven't decided how I want to lay out the control panel and what additional buttons and controls it will have.
I had originally planned to have it contain a keyboard drawer and install in the place of the two player control panel as needed, but I am now going to have it attach to the opposite side of the cocktail cabinet and use MAME to rotate the monitor image to face it.
I am still undecided on whether to have a throttle pedal or lever for the racing games.
If I use a pedal I will have to find some way to securely attach it to the cabinet in a way that it can be removed and not leave a unsightly mounting clip

As if I don't have enough to do I now have two more arcade games, which I intend to restore.
The first is a Pacman cabinet, that I plan to rebuild as a Ms Pacman (I am still looking for images of the front and side art to make stencils.)
The second is a Stargate that I now have all the parts for, but need to repaint the cabinet and stencil on new artwork.
I will post pictures when I have time.

 Questions? Contact me Ernest Kemp