Building an Arcade Machine

Last year I built this:

I have very little experience in electronics or carpentry, and only moderate knowledge about computers, but I managed to put this together without too many hiccups.

I put together this blog to show others how it can be done. Of course there are many other ways than what I show here, (most of them are probably better!) but hopefully anyone looking to build their own machine can get an idea of the processes and pitfalls here.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section below.

Background

Sometime a couple of few years ago I started collecting old video game consoles. I think it started out innocently enough with the find on TradeMe (NZ equivalent of eBay) of a working Commodore 64 computer and dot matrix printer – both in original packaging.

Since then I’ve slowly collected more consoles, from a very early ‘pong’ type game, some more recent ‘Hanimex’ sports game machines, the oh so modern Sega series of Master Systems and Mega Drives, and even a couple Playstations which look very futuristic compared to the rest.

But after all of that, I was still missing the big one – an actual arcade machine. After looking again on TradeMe I realised that not only were they frikken expensive, but they were also invariably in need of expensive and complicated repair, with no guarantee that even if you could get one part working that another part wouldn’t then crap out. So I got the idea of building one from scratch. If I built one out of a modern computer and sourced my own controls, not only would I know exactly how it worked, but I could fix or upgrade it as I wanted, plus the major bonus – the thing wouldn’t be limited to just one game! A great feature for someone like me who has the attention span of a… a… hey whats that over there??

As it turns out my local library had a great book on the subject!

Who would have thought.

So after reading this thing cover to cover, I had an idea of what I would build, a full scale MAME based two player arcade machine, it was time to get started on the plans…

Planning

I decided to base the design around the one shown in the ‘Project Arcade’ book. The design in the book was great, but it had two flaws for me: all the units were in inches (NZ is all metric), and the screen I wanted to use wouldn’t fit properly. So I sketched up my own design to measurements that would suit, with the one major constraint that it had to be small enough to fit through the doors in my house.

It’s probably fair to mention now that I have a good job: not just because the pay is great, but even better, I don’t ever work long hours. I mention this because where most people would have just drawn up one set of plans and then built the thing, I had time to go two steps further.

The next step was to do a 3D design of this thing on the computer to see how the finished design would actually look. I have no experience in this field, but I downloaded Google Sketchup and found it pretty easy to use for my basic needs.

It’s also worth mentioning that while this design was based on that in the book mentioned earlier, the artwork and theme was based on the Mario Bros arcade machine from around 1983, see picture below.

In fact even the one pictured here is home built, but pictures on the original machines seem to be hard to come by! The blog on how this one was made is also useful, check it out here.

Even after doing the 3D model I wasn’t convinced that the dimensions would be great ergonomically, and the biggest failure would be to build the machine then realise the controls were too low or high to play comfortably.

I told you I have a lot of time on my hands. As it turned out though, my original design needed only minor adjustments in height. The cardboard model was a great tool not only for checking height, but also to make sure two people could play comfortably side by side, and that the monitor and other equipment I was planning to put inside had enough room.

So with a final set of measurements, it was off to the hardware store for supplies…

Building the cabinet

Most of this was a learning curve for me, having never used a circular saw before, although I did have vague memories of learning about woodwork in school.

The first step here was to mark out and cut the two sides of the machine. Note in this photo that I’m cutting two panels of wood at the same time, this ensures that the two sides of the cabinet are identical. Click pics for bigger views.

After that I measured the dimensions of the adjoining pieces (the back, top and front) from my freshly cut and sanded side pieces. Even though I had worked out these measurements on paper, they did end up being just a few millimetres different due to the fact that I am not a robot and can’t cut wood down to an exact tolerance. Cutting the wood to size for the entire cabinet took the best part of a day, but once I had all the major pieces I started assembling them in the house.

Constructing the cabinet out of 18mm thick MDF made it very stable, but also very heavy. The castors on the base are essential to be able to move it around on your own.

I joined the wood with screws, then ran a line of PVA glue down the joins to make double sure they were secure.

Starting to take shape. Note that I while used screws all over this thing to hold it together, there are more subtle ways of joining without the ‘messy’ look of external screws, but I’m far too lazy to bother with that. I did make sure that the screws were sunk into the wood though, and later plastered over them before painting.

The above photo (taken after the project was finished) shows that the display is just a standard CRT tv which sits on an internal shelf. The shelf is held in by screws, glue, and metal brackets underneath as the tv is very heavy, and if that shelf collapsed it would probably take out the computer below, plus potentially collapse the whole cabinet!

About this point my girlfriend came home and had somewhat of a panic about this ugly thing taking up half the lounge, but hey, it’s too big and heavy to be moved out now!

The front access door is opens to get access to the computer that runs this thing, but more on that next…

On the inside

One of the more time consuming aspects of this was finding a system that would play the games I was after. The software used to run the games is widely available, see the Mame wiki for more info. I initially bought an old Dell PC on TradeMe for about $40, but I ran into a few problems; mainly that I’ve always used Macs, and although there is more MAME software for Windows systems, I had trouble figuring out how to customize the setup in the way I wanted. So I sold that PC on TradeMe again (and made a sweet profit on it!), and managed to find a school that was selling off its old G3 imacs as they were upgrading.

The model I got was a 400Mhz iMac G3 DV, which meant it had a VGA output on the back. I found this to be another stumbling block in the process: how do you get a VGA image onto the TV I was using as the monitor? I could have just bought a VGA monitor, but the TV set had two benefits. One was that the resolution on a VGA monitor is pretty clear, but on the TV you can see the pixels, which gives the games a nice arcade feel. Reason two is that on (you guessed it) TradeMe I was able to pickup a working 29 inch TV for $1. Try finding a PC monitor that big for that price! The solution I ended up with was to buy this product, which converts VGA into a composite signal which can easily plug into the TV. If I was doing this project again, I might just try and find a computer with a built in TV out connection, as this was an expensive part of the project.

In case you’re wondering, the image above shows how to find the VGA port on the old iMacs.

The blurry photo above shows the iMac sitting in the cabinet, I put it on a shelf to allow storage underneath. There is also access to a keyboard and mouse in here, although as you’ll see later the normal functions of the machine are run solely from the joystick and buttons. Also in here is the power supply which is hooked up to the lights behind the controls. More on them next…

On The Outside

The speakers are installed in the top of this machine, I managed to find some nice black speaker grills to cover them (from an electronics supply shop) and painted around this area with a semi-gloss black paint.

Above, the speakers from the outside, below the speakers inside the cabinet.

This internal image, taken from the back, shows the top level in the cabinet. The round white things are the speakers which I removed from the iMac, and extended them up here with extra wire. The fairy lights provide back lighting for the front ‘Mario Bros’ banner, without producing the excess heat a normal 60W lightbulb would do.

Seeing as how this design is based on the 1983 Mario Bros Cabinet, I chose to get as close to the colour of that original as I could, which was a colour called Picton Blue from Resene paints. I used the same black semi-gloss to paint down the sides of the screen.

The above photo also shows the internal shelf and bracket that hold up the tv.

After the paint dried, the computer and tv went back into the cabinet, and I patiently waited for the controls to arrive…

Controls

After a bit of research I decided on using an iPac controller, as it provided an easy way to control all the buttons, with an easy USB interface to the computer.

I sourced my controls from a company in Australia called OzStick, and after a few weeks of waiting (curse myself for ordering at Christmas time), they finally showed up.

At this point I went “Oh no what do I do with all this stuff”, so  to take my mind off that I went outside and had another play with my power tools.

A hole-saw attachment on my drill was an easy but time consuming way to drill the holes for the buttons. The thing would heat up to the point of burning the wood so after each one I had to give it a rest, but I suspect that’s a combination of buying a cheap hole-saw, and having a cheap and therefore weak drill.

The iPac controller and joysticks were screwed onto the wood, the buttons easily slip through the drilled holes and are held in place with a plastic screw-on bit in the back.

The wiring ended up being fairly straight forward, it looks complicated here but each button just has one grounding wire, and one wire attached to the appropriately labelled connection in the iPac controller. Of course, some of the buttons also have internal LED lights which require another two wires, so even though the wiring is simple you end up with a bunch of cables everywhere. I tried to use seperate colours for different groups of buttons as much as possible.

The black box in the corner is a power supply, this is wired into the buttons with LED lights inside. The actual game controls don’t use any power source except the USB (or serial) connection from the iPac to the computer.

The LED lights are in the blue menu buttons, and front Coin buttons (Red).

Next post, the finishing touches to the outside…

Artwork

The external artwork was taken from the original machine via high res images I found online. For the Marquee (artwork around the screen) I had it printed onto glossy colour card, and glued this around the edges of a clear piece of clear arcrylic (eg plexiglass, perspex). I secured this in front of the monitor.

I’d forgotten to mention this in the last post, but before putting the controls in place, I stuck down two layers of black contact coating on the control panel. This stuff can be found in any hardware store, it’s usually used to line kitchen drawers and is similar to ‘Duraseal’ Book covering, just a bit thicker. Also in the above photo you can (just) see two screws on the side of the cabinet which hold the control panel in place. All other screws I covered and painted over, these two I left uncovered as it allows the control panel to be removed if you need to get to the back of it and change a LED or repair loose wiring.

The top Banner was printed on colour paper and sandwiched between two arcrylic sheets before being stuck into the top of the cabinet. The lights shown in a previous post provide back lighting for it, so having it printed on paper instead of card lets more light through.

So with all of this in place it would appear to be finished! The software running on this is called MacMame, almost any arcade game ever made can be downloaded and played through this software. Of course there are legal issues regarding downloading ‘ROMs’ (game files), but that’s a topic for another blog. After I got to this stage I got lazy, stopped working on the machine and just started enjoying it. Eventually we moved house and I decided to finish one more little thing off; the edging.

I managed to order 10 metres of black T-moulding through TradeMe. I used a router to cut a groove in the edges of the front, and hammered the moulding into place. It gives the cabinet a much more professional look. Where previously there were painted edges that still showed the shoddiness of my sanding job, now there are smooth, glossy black edges. There is one final job to do also, the arcrylic that covers the top banner wasn’t big enough; if you have sharp eyes you can see a line down the banner towards one end. I keep meaning to just buy a bigger piece of the stuff to replace it, but I keep spending my weekend time playing sweet sweet arcade games…

Other details

A few bits and pieces I haven’t yet mentioned…

The system switched in by turning it on at the wall (to turn on the internal lights and electronics) then opening the front door and pressing the iMac power button. After the system loads you get the MacMame menu, shown above, which gives you access to all of the games on your computer, and can be controlled using the joysticks and buttons. Games can be quit and started with those controls also, so after the unit is powered on there’s no need to fiddle with the keyboard and mouse.

The big question most people have is “how much did it cost?!”

From above you can see it’s almost up to $900NZ, although I suspect I forgot to include a couple of things in this list, and have since bought other things such as the t-moulding and will eventually fix some of the arcrylic in it. So safe to say, if you end up making one of these, it could get up to $1000.

Of course, many things could have been done on the cheap. The buttons and joysticks I bought are pretty good, from a reliable manufacturer, but much cheaper versions are available. The VGA converter was probably an expense I could have worked around, and I also spent a lot on making sure I had good quality paint and rollers, brushes etc. Anyone with a colour laser printer at home could also save on the huge amount commercial printers will charge you for doing the banner and marquee.

As for my next project, I’m looking at building a coffee table with arcade controls hidden inside but that can be folded out when required. It will be at a height that can be comfortably played while siting on the couch, and will plug into and run via the HTPC (computer) under my TV. Of course, I don’t need two arcade machines so I’ll eventually try and sell off this one. Anyone interested feel free to contact me via the comments section!