My Crappy... uh cabinet

[aarondr]

I decided to build a cabinet, but I had very little budget for tools and parts. So I took my jig saw, and some spare parts from a desk hutch. Old 17" monitor, cheap ebay controls/encoder (buttons are branded happ, but joysticks are 'happ competition style'), Pentium G3220 + ASRock mobo + 4GB of RAM, old HD, USB powered amplifier (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C4N410G/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) powering drivers recycled from $1 garage sale HK computer speakers, Vesa mount (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003O1UYHG/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), and had to buy a melamine shelf as the base.

Someday I might do a nice cabinet, but I wanted to actually play something first. This is space conscience and was fun to recycle parts to a desk hutch that was just going to be thrown out. I don't get a lot of 'shop' hours so this was put together in a very short amount of time. I may fill in some of the shelf holes.

The control panel is made from the integrated whiteboard which is metal backed by fiber board. The legs/center piece are hollowed fiberboard, so the entire cabinet is about 50lbs.

https://plus.google.com/photos/114555912323326795972/albums/6015958575856443281

I did this first, and had a buddy with a real wood shop do the cuts so it turned out much nicer:

https://plus.google.com/photos/114555912323326795972/albums/5998064004391455249?hl=en_US

Purists please be gentle - it was a fun project with leftovers :-)

[craiganderson]

if you had fun making it

and you have fun playing it

.....sounds like a winner to me

(im pretty sure .... nobody on their death bed is thinking about their "cab")

[craiganderson]

edit

double post

my bad

[Agrajag]

Good job! I keep thinking I should knock up something quick and dirty just to get me playing the games a bit more, and worry about building something proper when I have enough time to do a decent job of it. Must have a rummage for scrap wood in the garage...

[HazzardActual]

lol at least youve got something that could possibly be recognized as an arcade. Mine is basically a shoebox with buttons and an Ipac hooked up to my living room tv. Like craig said, if you had fun building it, who cares. personally i kind of like the cheap aspect of it

[aarondr]

lol at least youve got something that could possibly be recognized as an arcade. Mine is basically a shoebox with buttons and an Ipac hooked up to my living room tv. Like craig said, if you had fun building it, who cares. personally i kind of like the cheap aspect of it

Thanks for the comments!! I had a great time building it. It was fun to envision something out of the scrap that my wife moved into the garage. I knew a full size cabinet wouldn't fly with the wife, but this space saver has only garnered a few arguments :-)

[Silverback]

Nothing wrong with that at all. Nice neat build.

[lovemaker72]

I love the button layout for p1. I have always been fascinated with button layout since I saw my first candy cab. How does yours play vs the standard? IE it seems skewed, but I don't know how the controller is rotated...

[njgsx96]

Very cool. Nothing to question or explain away, that is awesome! no matter the budget or the time, if it does the job and you enjoying planning and building it as well as using it, that is what it is all about!

[purcho]

I quite like it.As long as it does its job and you enjoy it,that's all that matters. Beats the hell out of playing with a keyboard.

[soup4you2]

It's not a bad cabinet, don't be hard on yourself..

Goals:

Does it play?

Are you having fun making / configuring it?

Are you having fun playing it?

[boohiss]

Honestly that's about the most space-saving 2 player standup MAME cabinet I've ever seen. Good work!

[aarondr]

I love the button layout for p1. I have always been fascinated with button layout since I saw my first candy cab. How does yours play vs the standard? IE it seems skewed, but I don't know how the controller is rotated...

It's pretty good. I like the curved layout. The joystick itself is rotated at a slight angle (I think 15 degrees) - so as to have 2 players inside a 24" box and not have both people shoulder fighting while playing.

[miamisurf]

What it's all about mate.

And nice Post too..

Good luck

& remember that ur friends will be envious

[darkskwirl]

Looks great for a first build. I am jealous, I have to just suck it up and build something soon. You can always look back if you get around to more and see where you started. Really nice work! Good use of recycling as well!!!

[craiganderson]

double post

my bad

deleted

sorry

[craiganderson]

What it's all about mate.

And nice Post too..

Good luck

& remember that ur friends will be envious

....im envious

[zerojay]

It's pretty bad to be honest, but as you said, you just wanted something to play quick. You can use the knowledge you learned here - without having spent a lot of money on this first build - to apply to a second full cab attempt. That experience helps a lot, so give it another shot sometime and I'm sure you'll have something nice.

[aarondr]

Thanks for all the compliments!

Ha! I found a image of the desk! I built this from the hutch portion, using the top part angled from the bottom, and the legs the support pieces. The box was made from the back wall pieces and other connector pieces. You can just barely see the whiteboard on the far right side which makes up the control panel.

I've updated the album with a few more shots: https://plus.google.com/photos/114555912323326795972/albums/6015958575856443281?hl=en_US

Also... Anyone have any ideas how I can add something to give players the hint that the joysticks are angled? I could use a white erase marker, but it'd wear off pertty fast :-)

[monkeychunkuk]

Great build, wanting to play games rather than build a flawless cab first makes you a winner to me

[craiganderson]

I think it looks pretty cool in and of itself.....just like it is.

Maybe dress it up a little as u go.....if u want....don't have to

I would prefer a slightly larger monitor screen.....but that's just me.....

And remember this advice is from someone who has built zero cabs in his life........

Sent from my Droid Mini.

[aarondr]

I think it looks pretty cool in and of itself.....just like it is.

Maybe dress it up a little as u go.....if u want....don't have to

I would prefer a slightly larger monitor screen.....but that's just me.....

And remember this advice is from someone who has built zero cabs in his life........

Sent from my Droid Mini.

Yeah I'd like to find a 19" or larger 4:3/5:4 LCD someday. I have a 23" 16:10 LCD that I might mount up there. I need to get longer screws for the mount though. I have a 2x4 behind the particle board that I screwed the VESA mount into (painted black) but the stud mount screws that the mount came with only made it a tiny amount into the 2x4 (since the particle board piece is about 3x thicker than drywall). I'd feel better about a 12lb monitor on there if I had a bit more bite into the wood.

[xman72]

It looks great. Nice job. And like craiganderson says, perhaps dress it up a bit as you. Just a little bit of side art would make it look killer!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk