Yet Another Bartop Arcade Cabinet

lilbud

@caver01 said in Yet Another Bartop Arcade Cabinet:

Cool landscape art. Is that a custom theme to match?

It looks like the Art Book theme

caver01

@lilbud Ok, thanks. I have not loaded that one.

goyney

Yes, I removed the plastic casing of the monitor and snugly fit in the internals into the wood bezel. It is a 24" 16:9 monitor. I'm utilizing RetroArch's ability for overlays to make electronic bezels for all the games/systems running at 4:3, 3:4, 3:2, and 10:9. I've made custom art for every arcade game I've choose to include and generic ones for all the consoles systems (for now).

Yes, those are speaker holes in the bottom of marquee. A small pair of USB power speakers are mounted in the marquee. The marquee looking evenly lit is likely a result of the awesome quality I got from the printer on the artwork. It's on a plastic-type paper that is made to diffuse light.

I ended up using these for the controllers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WDQWK5M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1. They hook up via USB so it was super easy to work with. The side buttons are pretty much dormant for everything as of right now. I do have them mapped properly for use in the NES game "Pinball." Start and select (coin) are in the front. I guess they cannot be seen in the one picture I posted, but there is a link to the entire build gallery below the picture.

The theme is a modified version of the Art Book theme to match my controller setup and cabinet theme.

caver01

@goyney I have always wanted to build a bartop and I think you nailed it. Mine would be 4:3, but with all of the great overlay bezels available now I am starting to rethink that. Nice work!

AndersHP

Wow, your build is awesome. Good job!

I love the way the marquee, sideart, theme and bezels match the button colors.
It's also hard to decide on a way to make a generic themed arcade work, but you totally did it.

DorkVonWaterfall

Nice build....but those boltheads sticking out of the CP.....

Domogram Rovers

Looks great! I take my hat off to the guys who build completely from scratch. I bought a kit with all the wood cut to size, button holes predrilled, t-moulding slot cut, etc. I just don't have the skills or equipment to do it all.

goyney

@dorkvonwaterfall Yeah, I know. It hurt me a little bit too. I had screws underneath holding them up, but just in the small playtest, I was able to strip the holes a little bit just from pushing down on the control stick. I didn't want to risk it popping out because, they way I built it, it is very hard to remove that panel to fix it. I found nice, coated black screws so it doesn't look as terrible and stays uniform.

GreenHawk84

Very good for a ground-up build. I have done similar artwork with the button information displayed. I would like to know how you went about scraping with video preview. I cannot understand it. Did you make your own videos?

AndersHP

@greenhawk84 video previews can be scraped with Universal XML Scraper. After you set it up, goto options -> visual -> video -> yes.

nanotone

Wow, what a nice cabinet. Congrats!

glennlake

You say this is you first wood working project? I must say it looks as good as any I've seen. Great Job!!

Newellj79

I'm in the early stages of my first build. Was going to go 4:3, but I'm seriously considering 16:9 now.

glennlake

I've never tried it but maybe you could use overlays to fill in the sides when you run the narrower games?

goyney

@newellj79 Do it. The custom bezels add so much more charm to the build. I'm still going through and tweaking the ones I created. Like, here's my latest Donkey Kong.

goyney

Updated the first post to include a small video of the build in action!

SgtJimmyRustles

I like the intro video and theme, and how it all ties in together. And also the overlays make everything look nicer. Very well done here.

caver01

@goyney I really love your build, which is why I hope you can also hear some constructive criticism about the overlays. Perhaps you are aware of this and you are OK with it (which is fine—to each their own) but the Donkey Kong overlay example is the wrong aspect ratio. It is a vertical game (like Pac-Man, Dig Dug and a bunch of other classics). Consequently, it should be 3:4 not 4:3.

May people are OK with that, so if that’s you, no biggie, but since you are already using bezel overlays, I figured you might want to explore the proper look for this and other vertical games.

goyney

@caver01 Good catch. I actually have bezels made in the 3:4 ratio, I just messed up with Donkey Kong. Thanks for the find!

lilbud

Could you upload the background image you use in the theme/loading screen?