How a Damn Rookie Builds a MAME Cabinet

This is another post that doesn't really belong here, but I'm not sure where else to put it. I'll stick to mostly posting the pictures and keeping the text short.

First pic, 2001.05.12 @0159

This is after I removed all of the buttons it came with. Later I wiped them down and checked all the microswitches. One needed replacement and another I broke while moving things around. As of yesterday (2011.07.12) the move-right microswitch on P1 is starting to act up too and may need replacement as well. The rest all came with it.


The loose wires and microswitches. All Cherry D-somethings and nice, so I'll need to find a source for them since the generic $2 ones from Fry's are stiff and not good for SMHUP games. Also note the chunk of damage on the right side.







Masking tape, paper towel, denatured alcohol. Trying to find out what's behind it.



At the time I had no idea what this was, though a few images down you'll be able to tell.




It's an old Dig Dug cabinet. But the decals are damaged and there's water damage here and there, so as you can see I already gave up saving it and started scraping off two layers of crappy plastic enamel/acrylic (not sure which actually), a black on top and a blue underneath.


Nearly done stripping off the paint and damaged decal. You might not be able to tell, but the particle board didn't take to scraping well and some chunks and gougesjust came out of it as I removed everything. While I blame the weak, old, and water damaged particle board, it's just as likely a rookie mistake.


Spackle and watercolor so it wouldn't have white marks underneath the black paint. While this wasn't a bad idea, I relied too much on spackle and am paying for it now. Later on in Something Awful thread on MAME/arcade cabs I learned that I should have used Bondo. So more rookie mistakes are ahead.



Damaged this part moving it around. Spackle and marine grade epoxy from Tap Plastic. When picking up the cabinet from a guy in Napa, both were suggested soaking the damaged parts in epoxy, using the loose wood fibers in the stead of fiberglass or the like that would normally be used. This worked really well as far as I'm aware to far. Only thing keeping the spackle I used from blowing away in the wind... *sigh*


The original major damage before I banged it up moving it around and further damaged weak parts that didn't look as weak as they actually were.

Last production pic, 2011.05.27 @1726

More spackle, and on top of dry paint?! Yea... the pock marks were just bloody awful and showed up several times worse with a coat of "satin" black polyurethane on top. Next time I do this (yes, there will be a next time) I'll be coating that one with absurd amounts of thickly coated primer before I paint, and after I spackle any gouges/dents.


Today, over a month later.

That's just old watercolor paper underneath the sheet of acrylic. It rested a bit cockeyed too, so there's some sticking out of front of the plate, but only by like 1/16".


Cable management, though you can't see the plastic tubes and tie wraps, and my I-Pac2 VE keyboard encoder over pegs and screwed into the cab. A microswitch wired to the power button pins on the motherboard and a power strip aren't visible from here, and I didn't want to rotate the cab around to take pics.


The actual computer:
Intel E8500
2GB PC6400
1TB SATA HD
Radeon HD 5770
Biostar G31D-M7 (motherboard)
Apex TX-381-C (case)
XPx32 SP2/Vistax64 SP1
500W PSU (Antec I think...)

Bit much for a MAME cab? Yea, well, I knocked a glass of water on most of these components and later found out I only fried the motherboard after replacing everything. My main computer isn't on the floor near my desk anymore I'll have you know! Lesson learned in $400 or so of idiot tax.


The speakers are in the marquee area now, though the glass does dampen the audio more than the speaker grill in the top center of the screen area alone can compensate for. I need to ask around for where to get a replacement sheet of metal or even fabric speaker grill to both hide the speakers and let more sound through.


I just added this 1"x2" wood piece tonight; it's simply pinched in place by pressure, no glue, nails, or anything. While the pics don't show it at all, the arms are pinched inward and the control panel is made of metal and just thrashes and scratches at the paint on the sides. In fact, on double-triple inspect, I figured out that before the sides of the cab were stapled together (if screwed, I'd have fully dismantled it, but it wasn't) it was wall papered. I thought it was paint at first, but it scraped off wrong and the wood behind it had a shiny hardened glue which at this point I figure to be wallpaper glue and black wallpaper--more rookie mistakes. Lesson to anyone else: that stuff Atari used is damn strong and way more resilient than any paint. When I do another one I'll be sure looking into that as an option if it's financially feasible.


You might not be able to see any pock marks, but some are still there. Room is dark and it's late, so I had to crank the ISO on my camera and the grain might be hiding the detail I wanted shown.