Day 187

One thing I'd realized, is that with the power strip in the back the rocker switch that controls the main power is unreachable. This meant that while I could shut down the mini tower, the speakers, the monitor and the marquee light were still lit. I looked at the extension cords that were used for Christmas lights that had the foot switch, but those were two-prong outlets and all the equipment were three pronged.  So I found an extension cord at Fry's with a rocker switch near the outlets and I mounted it in one of the gun hardware holes in the front panel. It looks nasty now, but that will change when I pretty up the cabinet.

Now to the audio switch. Opening up the switch box, I found that there really wasn't a way to attach it to the left-hand side with the way it was configured.

So I thought, maybe the upper speaker grill would be large enough to reach through.

Came to find out that the rocker switch that controlled the speaker and headphone audio was the same size as the grill slots. So I opened up the marquee and attached the audio switch enough so it wouldn't slide around. Now I can reach up with my finger into the grill and press the switch.




Here's a small demonstration of the cabinet startup:

Day 176

Today I finally got the second side background done. I think I'll make a mental note to *NOT* ever mess around with contact paper again. I'd also started working on the Space Invader sprites and put a few of them up to get me started.

I also got my audio switch in the mail the other day. Now I can mount this somewhere and I can switch from the cabinet speakers to headphones. The problem is, where. I don't want to drill any new holes and I want the switch to be reachable without any bending or stretching. The only logical place would be one of the two holes in the front panel where the gun hardware used to be mounted. I'm also looking into the possibility of putting in a USB hub in the other panel hole so I can plug a flash drive in (or perhaps a 2nd-player joystick). But considering the PC is located where the coin box used to be, that may be a moot point. Oh well, I'll blow up that bridge when I come to it.

I'm still working on the marquee art and I'm not quite happy with the font I used, so I went to 1001freefonts.com to get something a little more appropriate. The next step is to get the acrylic sheeting from Home Depot and get that prepped and mounted so the cabinet doesn't look so ghetto.

The hard part is getting the arcade controls. My wife isn't too thrilled with the idea of spending a lot of bucks on that, so I'm going to keep my eyes out for a pre-made panel with a USB connector for a price that won't make her give me stink-eye about buying it.

One other thing I need is power control. I have a power strip which provides power to everything inside the cabinet, but it's difficult to reach. I need to see if there's a power strip with a separate rocker switch that I can mount in the recessed part of the top of the cabinet where the old switch now resides. Kind of like those extension cords for Christmas trees with the foot button. I know I could wire the current rocker switch up to the power strip but I don't know how and finding tutorials on that are proving difficult.

Day 159

Found a good Jukebox program called DWJukebox. Since I'm running low on hard drive space, I copied our music from the server onto a DVD and left it in the drive. The program has an unattended radio feature and I haven't explored that yet, but I do like the interface.

Yesterday was a test in patience as I started to work on the side art. I got two rolls of black contact paper and I worked on the side that would normally faced the wall, in case I really borked it up. But it was quite forgiving and didn't look too bad once I finished it. I'll post pictures once I've gotten both sides done. I decided to do the artwork based on this idea I found at the arcadecontrols website (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=102621.0).

I also decided on a name for the cabinet. Whilest Googling for information on what other people did for side art, I kept seeing that same phrase: "I want my quarters back". So I decided to call it, Quartersback Arcade. At least it'll do until I come up with something a little more catchy.

Day 114

 Today's been a good day. My niece Amanda has been helping me with removing the rest of the old side art and I've gotten two of the laser games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace running with the emulator Daphne working within Hyperspin. The transition was a lot easier than I thought. I just have Dragon's Lair 2 to add.

I covered the edges of the monitor in black electrical tape to better disguise it when I put in the bezel. I'm planning on getting a sheet of acrylic from Home Depot, which I will cut for the bezel and the upper marquee.  I found the two wires which light the coin return and I just need to figure out how much power to supply it in order for the coin slots to light up.

Day 112

Well, I spent a good part of last night and this morning going through each and every entry in Hyperspin under the MAME section removing bad game entries and prettying-up the ones that worked. A lot of my favorites need to be replaced and that shouldn't be any problem.  I'll post a video on YouTube when I get a chance.

Amanda was my Beta-tester. So far, everything is working, but the controller is frustrating to use under these circumstances.  Oh well. Eventually, I can get to the point where I'll have proper controls and can hide the keyboard and mouse.

I need to find a better jukebox. It's simple to use, but some features just aren't there. I may just have a program running in the background that can be controlled by the joystick and buttons. The old Winamp program might do nicely. I'll have to see if the screensaver can kick in on its own. Anyway, I digress.

Now I've got to replace the games that went bad and start adding the other emulators. I think I'll work on the Super Nintendo next. The ones that worry me are the laser games like Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Those can be huge and I'll have to see if I have enough hard drive space left. 30 Gigabytes don't go as far as they used to.

Day 109

 Part 2

I found that I could not insert the monitor while the riser was in place, so I attempted to wrestle the 50 pound monitor into the cabinet whilst placing the riser underneath. The effect of which is like trying to add a floor on a house underneath the first floor. So I asked my mother to place the riser while I held the monitor up. Almost didn't make that either, but with a bit of coaxing and swearing we managed to get them in place.


After that, I got the brackets in place to keep it from swaying about.

The result wasn't too bad after I got it where it needed to be.

From here, I put in the mini-tower and the rest of the guts.  I removed the marquee and uninstalled the speakers and put the two satellite speakers in their place.

The results weren't to shabby. I've got some work to do so I can use remote control. This way I can get rid of the keyboard and mouse altogether. After that, I'll order the arcade parts and wire them up to the mini-tower.

That should get it to an operational state. After that I'll start the process of prettying-up the cabinet with new side art, a marquee and the bezel to hide the monitor and the interior.

Day 108

After much searching and and thinking, I found a way to build a riser for my monitor to hoist it high enough in the cabinet. And I only spent $12 in wood screws (I was fresh out).


Now I just need to add the monitor and get the thing settled into place and bolted.  I'll have to wait till tomorrow at least. Too much to do this evening.