Welcome!

This is the new home for Elder Caribou's Arcade Cabinet blog. Enjoy your visit!

Pics moved to Picasa Web Album

I am moving the site to a new server, and offloading the images to my Picasa Web Albums to save space and because it's easier to manage... what this means is that all of the inline links to the pics are gone until I can get around to re-linking them...

Project Specifications

System Components

Processor / OS

• DOS7 (Win98SE Lite)
• Wells Gardner D9200 27" Digital Arcade Monitor
• Diamond V770 Riva TNT2 32Mb AGP
• ASUS P5A/B Socket-7 Motherboard
• AMD K6-II 500 MHz Processor
• 468Mb PC100 RAM
• 3GB Quantum Hard Drive

Emulator Software

• AdvanceMame emulator
• AdvanceMenu frontend

Controls / Materials

• Ultimarc
• I-PAC control interface
• Opti-PAC trackball/spinner interface
• (2) J-Stik Ball Top 4/8-way joysticks
• 2 1/4" trackball
• pushbuttons
• led harness

• Happ Controls
• 1/2 Player Buttons
• Pushbuttons
• PCB Mounting Bracket
• Coin Door (via Ebay)
• Marquee Retainer

• Oscar Controls
• Vortex Spinner + Tempest knob

• T-Molding.com
• 3/4" black T-molding

Important Links

Project Links

MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) - the emulator that started it all! 

Advance Projects - home of AdvanceMAME and the AdvanceMenu FrontEnd 

Build Your Own Arcade Controls (BYOAC) - excellent resource for cabinet plans, FAQ's, wiring tips, etc. 

Easy MAMECab - lots of info on setting up AdvanceMAME, plus learn how your CRT works! 

The Purple MAME Page - essential config for AdvanceMAME / ArcadeOS 

LuSID's Arcade Flashback - LuSID's cabinet was the base design for my cabinet, like so many others out there :) 

Arcade Vector Graphics - Eric Devaud's vector art library 

Interactive Control Panel Designer- excellent tool to brainstorm and validate control panel layouts

Manufacturer Links

Ultimarc - Home of the I-PAC, Opti-PAC, and ArcadeVGA interfaces 

Oscar Controls - spinners for Tempest, etc. 

Happ Controls - Joysticks, buttons, monitors, coin mechs and more! 

Wells Gardner - Best source for arcade monitors - right from the manufacturer! 

T-Molding.com - Best price on t-molding for your cabinet.

Construction Completed!

Well, it's official - the cabinet construction is complete! I have moved it from the garage into the front bedroom that is our library. The only thing left to do is troubleshoot the spinner (loose wire most likely), cull the rom directory for games I don't want/need, and finish the OS configuration. I plan to try to build a ramdisk and copy the program files and roms into it at system boot to speed up execution and get rid of hard drive noise when games load. I think that all the video modes are working well - I love the D9200! I have loaded some pics of the cabinet with different games running, and I have taken some other pictures with Paula's Minolta, and when they have been developed I will scan and post them.

Now comes the task of putting all of my notes together and trying to massage them into some sort of order. I hope to have that done by the end of the week as well. I have learned much during the last 5 weeks, and I want to share what I have learned with the community. Much of it is in the logs below, but there is more that I haven't had time to put down. This has been fun, and draining at the same time; it will be a while before I try to build another cabinet :) Now I can reap the rewards of my labor, and enjoy the experience of the arcade again!

Pics uploaded, ready for software configuration

Just uploaded a few pics - descriptions will follow, but as you can see from the pic above, it is just about done! The only thing left to do is install the monitor bezel and glass tonight after the last coat of polyurethane dries... then on to the software configuration phase ( and playtesting :) )

control panel assembly, first coat of polyurethane, front glass installed

Wow - the project is really coming to a head! I got the controls from Andy at Ultimarc on Thursday - a day earlier than I expected them! This good fortune allowed me to start work on the control panel a couple of days early - a good thing, as it turned out. After some consideration, I decided to use T-nuts to mount the joysticks and the spinner, which meant that I would have no bolt heads showing above the panel. This led to a much more professional look. I counter-sunk the T-nuts just enough so they would pull flush with the wood, and used 1/2" bolts + washers to attach the controls. Then I unmounted the controls, sanded the top of the panel and sprayed it with 3M #77 Spray Adhesive - this stuff rocks! The overlay went on perfectly, and I cut the holes for the controls with the trusty X-Acto knife. Then, using much care, I drilled the holes in the Lucite overlay with the 1 1/8' spade bit ...here's something I learned while doing the drilling: you *have* to let the drill and bit do the spinning, and let the Lucite kind of "pull" the bit through; *don't push*!! This will certainly shatter the piece! Just let gravity and the drill and the Lucite do their thing, and you'll have no problems. Definetly practice on some scrap first, if you can. I ruined the first piece of Lucite by rushing it and pushing the drill...

After I got the lucite and the overlay in place, I installed the controls, and started wiring. First I did the trackball and spinner, connecting them to the Opti-PAC interface. Then, I used spade terminals and built the ground network first, daisy chaining the grounds on each side of the board separately. Finally, I wired all the buttons, then the joysticks. Once it was all wired, I installed the control panel and wired the coin door / free play buttons. Of course, I *had* to fire up AdvanceMAME to test the setup :) but before I could do that, the monitor was mounted in the cabinet. The monitor mounts fit like they were made for it (hmmmm....) and I only had to drill out three holes to get the bolts to fit - that monitor is not going anywhere! I also had to add some spacers for the VGA connector bracket in the back - the cable stuck out too far and wouldn't allow the door to close.

Once I had played a few games, the only problems I encountered were:

1. X2 / X2 were reversed for the spinner
2. X and Y were reversed for the trackball

Both were easy enough to fix, but the trackball problem was probably caused by my mounting it 90 degrees out. Oh, well, it works now :) The rest of the controls worked perfectly out of the box - I am really satisfied with the I-PAC and OptiPac interfaces from Ultimarc! This would have been much more difficult without them. Unfortunately, I was so intent on getting the panel done that I took very few pictures, and none of the control panel overlay installation procedure. Sorry, but I hope my descriptions are detailed enough - if anyone has questions, just email me. I also got the side art mounted, using the spray adhesive to mount them. I'll cover them with polyurethane for protection.

Today, it was less humid so I was able to put the first coat of polyurethane on the cabinet, and do some touchup for the scuffs I made while working on the monitor bezel and front glass. The bezel is made from foam board I got from the school supply section at WalMart, and the front glass is actually smoked 0.8" Lucite. It really makes a difference - contrast is improved and it helps the bezel do its job of hiding the ugly bits.