Project: 'Troy's Arcade' - Scratch Build MAME Mod

[ARTbyTROY]

Having been practically raised on arcade and console video games I've wanted to build a MAME system for a really long time. When I was a kid I would collect bottles and cans along the roadside for deposits and then ride my bike ten miles round trip to hit the local video arcade and play the awesome games from the eighties... yep, Galaga.

I would have preferred building a full sized stand up arcade machine, but I'm severely space limited and there's no room for one in my home. Small and cheap is so far the loose plan for creating a self contained dedicated MAME system and pinball emulator. I've ordered all of the necessary computer hardware for the build and plan to pull the whole thing off for around $500.

http://casemodgod.com/00mame.jpg

I've owned almost every home video game system since the Atari2600 (including the TurboGraphix16 and 3DO), the biggest difference between playing on an actual arcade machine versus any home console arcade port is that arcade controls have a tactile feel and response that can't be recreated by any home gaming systems handheld controller.

Building a computer that can run MAME is no big deal, the hardware required doesn't need to be high end, the controls however are another story entirely. I plan to build a seriously small - authentic feeling arcade emulator PC... that said, I found this deal on two joysticks and a bag of 20 buttons for $42USD shipped, it smelled like a bargain.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7092.jpg

I had researched building my own arcade controls and then debated over just buying a ready made solution instead of hacking my own. Seeing how much cheaper it is to just do it myself I figured I'd give that a shot first. I found some really small game pads, ten button w/retractable USB cable, I bought the last two Wal-mart had on clearance for $9.00USD apiece, these things are seriously freakin' tiny.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7087.jpg

This next bit is taken directly from the ebay listing of the mini-ITX HTPC system I bought for $99USD with free shipping...

CPU : Intel Pentium M 1.80-GHz
Memory Total : 1GB PC2100 DDR SDRAM
HD : 2GB CompactFlash Installed.
Optical Drive : None
Network : Onboard integrated One (1) 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet and One (1) 10/100Base-TX Fast Ethernet NIC
Floppy : None
Power Supply : Included 100V - 240V
Video : Onboard integrated video controller
Ports : Four (4) USB, Four (4) Serial, One (1) PCMCIA and Two (2) PS/2
Form Factor : Mini-ITX
Memory Config. : 1x1GB
Audio : Onboard integrated sound (Line-In and Mic)
Dimensions : 13" x 11" x 3" inches
Model Number : i3368G-LF
Condition : Used, tested, working, and sold with warranty, Power Adapter Included

I almost considered using it in the project as is, but I'm trying to use every bit of space I'll have wisely, the HTPC case is far bulkier than this project requires.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7043.jpg

Before I could move on I had to be sure the computer works, and it does...

http://casemodgod.com/100_7052.jpg

Everything gets unplugged and the fun part begins, time to dig in and see exactly what my $99 scored. Clockwise from the top left there is a 2GB 120X compact flash card, 1GB Samsung DDR PC3200 (listed as PC2100), two different PCI riser cards, a PCI PCMCIA adapter card and a mini-ITX motherboard with a P4 1.8GHz processor. It's actually a pretty nice board with features a modder might find useful... like dual LVDS connectors, that's just crazy.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7071.jpg

But wait, there's more... like a seven foot power cord and power brick, a small 80W power supply and a neat little HTPC case. I could have ripped out the front mounted CF reader, power button, blue LED's and 60mm fan from the case, but didn't because I'll be using it in a future project. I checked and the PCI risers alone are worth $20... the PC is a great deal at $99.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7062.jpg

Below is what I plan to use instead of a hard drive, a poor mans SSD. 16GB should be plenty of space for WinXP, pinMAME, MAME32 and a few gigabytes of ROMs. The adapter was $14 and the CF card was $31, so far the project total is $206... not too bad.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7078.jpg

I knew this next part would be pricey, but I decided early on that this project deserved a touch screen. I found an ebay for an 18" commercial LCD touch screen with power cable for $175USD, it was too good a deal to pass up - here are the specs:

Part Number: EFL-1801X
LCD Panel: 18.1" Active Matrix (TFT)
Native Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz / 75 Hz
Display Area: 360.4 mm X 288.9 mm
Pixel Pitch: .264 mm X .264 mm
Display Color: 16.7M
Contrast Ratio: 500:1
Brightness: 250 cd/m2 typ.
Viewing Angle: -80 ~ 80 (H), -80 ~ 80 (V)
Signal Input: Analog VGA (DB15)
Power Input: 12V DC, 3.8A
Touchscreen: 3M Cleartek 19.18" (13-5361-01MA)
Touchscreen Connector: Standard 9-Pin Serial (RS232) Cable
Touchscreen Controller: 3M Capacitive Serial EXII (5406120)
Dimensions(mm): 423.9(W) X 335.0(H) X 61.9(D)

I didn't have a DB9 serial cable so I haven't tested out the touch screen part of it, but the monitor itself works great, I ordered the serial cable off ebay for $6.99 with free shipping from Hong Kong... the project is at $388 so far.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7111.jpg

Other than speakers, all of the parts are here. Time to do some measuring, this time I'm going to skip the usual pencil sketches and jump right into Google SketchUp. Here's a side measurements view...

http://casemodgod.com/MAMEsketch01s.jpg

3/4 side view showing parts placement...

http://casemodgod.com/MAMEsketch02s.jpg

Front view showing joystick and button placement...

http://casemodgod.com/MAMEsketch03s.jpg

And lastly the back view...

http://casemodgod.com/MAMEsketch04s.jpg

I still have to order speakers and the materials for the construction of the case, as soon as it all gets here this mods on like Donkey Kong.

[nevermind1534]

Nice. It looks like you found some good deals. I will be watching to see how this turns out.

[The boy 4rm oz]

MAME boxes are awesome. This guy over at Bit-Tech made one a while back. It had PC, Xbox, nintendos, playstations, SEGAs, you name it it had it.

Good luck.

[nevermind1534]

MAME boxes are awesome. This guy over at Bit-Tech made one a while back. It had PC, Xbox, nintendos, playstations, SEGAs, you name it it had it.

Good luck.

I have lots of all of those (but real ones) around 30-40 NESes, 5 xboxes, 4 PSXs, 3 PS2s (and 1 PS/2 FTW!), 5 SEGA Genesises, etc. I don't even need emulators. Except I like playing N64 on the computer for the unmatched HD graphics.

I still like playing with the emulators on my computer.

[ARTbyTROY]

Thanks nevermind1534 and The boy 4rm oz.

The small Logitech 2.0 speakers are ordered and on their way, but I still have to order the materials for the construction of the case. When the acrylic arrives I'm most likely going to have it all laser cut, below shows the sticks and buttons configuration I plan to use, it's a slightly condensed version of the 'Street Fighter' layout. The rectangle up top is where I plan to place a Matrix Orbital 2x16 character display... not really as anything useful, more just to look cool.

http://www.casemodgod.com/MAMEsketch05s.jpg

[Twigsoffury]

You have any questions about Keyboard controllers and that sort of stuff you can ask me. although its pretty straight forward.


should check out the arcade i made.

[ARTbyTROY]

should check out the arcade i made.

I'd like to, where is it?

[The_Crippler]

I'm interested to see how this turns out. I love MAME projects.

[DonT-FeaR]

not another one!!!! lol jokes.... looking 4wrd to it :P good luck

[ARTbyTROY]

I've decided not to use the touch screen monitor for this project, I was entirely wrong in thinking that MAME would or could in any way benefit from it. In all honesty I had hoped to score Megatouch software either by purchase or download, or a reasonable touch screen MAME type alternative. Sadly I have found nothing, and the touch screen would be totally wasted on this system... thankfully I have other plans and it will fit nicely into my next build.

Below is the Matrix Orbital display I plan to use, a pair of small speakers, a USB sound port adapter, a serial cable and VGA cable... not counting the Matrix Orbital (since I already had it) the total for the below shown parts is $32.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7121.jpg

Big thanks to XGaming.com for sponsoring one of their cool BYO Arcade Kits (shown below) for this project. The nice thing about the BYO Arcade kit is that it only occupies a single USB port and it's geared to control two joystick/button layouts, whereas the game pads net a single layout and require a USB port each. I still plan on building arcade style controllers out of the two small USB game pads, but they will be built later as an add on to this project to enable four player games.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7145.jpg

Overkill? Well, maybe. I bought a 24" vinyl cutter/plotter and 120 yards of adhesive backed vinyl. I figured it'd come in handy for making the yet to be designed project panel graphics. I've wanted to buy a vinyl cutter for a while, it actually cost less than the very first inkjet printer I bought... and that's exactly how I rationalized getting one. Ok, time to start putting this thing together - on to the build.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7148.jpg

I bought a pair of 24 LED strips for $5.99 shipped off ebay, they measure 9 inches long each. I wired them up then fired them up, they are plenty bright and will be used to back light the front marquee.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7153.jpg

I transferred my side panel measurements onto a sheet of 3/8" thick clear acrylic in preparation for cutting.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7176.jpg

I used a jigsaw with a plastic cutting blade and a drill with a specialized plastic cutting bit and carefully cut out both side panels.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7181.jpg

I set both side panels up, measured it out and then sloppily clamped them together just to get an idea of size and also to help me better visualize things.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7185.jpg

I cut a few lengths of Aluminum Angle to size and roughly arranged them on the side panels, when attached they will be the framework upon which everything else will be built.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7200.jpg

[Luke122]

Awesome! +subscribe +rep +drool

[jdbnsn]

Great design Troy, and tons of cool gear!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Got some really nice gear, really starting to take shape. Can't wait for more.

[ARTbyTROY]

Thanks guys. Minor update...

I am starting with the bottom and working my way up, the following picture shows the Alum-Angle lower framework all laid out, measured up and ready for drilling.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7202.jpg

I used my Dremel Workstation and an 1/8" drill bit, the pieces of Aluminum Angle are (for now) held together with screws, they will be riveted together later on.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7213.jpg

Below is the finished bottom section, I added the center support Alum-Angle piece to help sturdy things up and as a possible attachment point for hardware.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7217.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice sturdy base.

[Drum Thumper]

And here I thought this was abandoned. Looks great!

[DonT-FeaR]

very nice start gw mate

[OvRiDe]

I love arcade cabinets! I picked up some arcade controls a little while back, but I haven't figured out what to do with them yet.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/ovride/images/misc/arcade_controls.jpg
I'm sure this project will give me some inspiration!

[The boy 4rm oz]

I love arcade cabinets! I picked up some arcade controls a little while back, but I haven't figured out what to do with them yet.
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/ovride/images/misc/arcade_controls.jpg
I'm sure this project will give me some inspiration!

Giant oversized T.V remote??? LOL

[OvRiDe]

Now that is one thing I didn't think of!!! :D

[DonT-FeaR]

/\ do it!!!that b cool as

[ARTbyTROY]

I was going to use an 18" touch screen monitor in this project, but that would have been a total waste - so I instead sacrificed one of my 19" Samsung 915N monitors. Not having dual 19" LCD monitors sitting side by side on my desk made little baby Jesus cry, I wasn't real happy about it either.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7245.jpg

Fast forward three days and my two 19" LCD's that worked so great together have been replaced by two brand new wide screen full 1080P Samsung 21.5" monitors... shiny and awesome, the little monitor in front is my Cintiq 12WX tablet.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7261.jpg

The Alum-Angle bottom framework is just that, framework... it's not a proper base for my arcade machine. Below is a piece of plywood I had in the shed, it fit almost perfectly as was. I marked it in preparation for cutting it using an 80mm hole saw and jigsaw.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7274.jpg

The finished product is shown below, I have the Alum-Angle framing set on top to test for fitment.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7285.jpg

I painted all the outer edges of the base with black acrylic paint and then cut two strips of plastic mesh to cover the side edge vents.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7302.jpg

Back to the side panels... I traced all of the pieces of Alum-Angle onto the inside of one panel and then marked each aluminum piece for drilling.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7267.jpg

The next picture shows all of the aluminum pieces drilled and lined up on the side panel, it also shows what twenty-six dollars worth of nuts, bolts, washers and screws looks like... crazy.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7280.jpg

I lined up and taped both side panels together and then lined up all of the pieces of Alum-Angle and taped them down in preparation for drilling the acrylic.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7287.jpg

Since the holes needed to be perfectly straight I bust out the drill press with a 13/16" TAP Plasdrill bit, the aluminum angle acted as a guide template and the bit cut through both acrylic panels like butter.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7291.jpg

Below shows both sides of my side panels with their aluminum parts bolted on.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7299.jpg

Well, now it's starting to look like something. I set my side panels onto the plywood base and then set the monitor inside to make sure it's all going to line up, so far so good.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7307.jpg

[jdbnsn]

Dude, I am terribly envious of that workstation you have. That tablet is awesome!!!

[The boy 4rm oz]

I love your monitors lol. I am going to get a 24" Samsung soon.

[DonT-FeaR]

wow.. this is gunna be really cool

[ARTbyTROY]

I marked a sheet of .220" 18x24 Optix acrylic for cutting, it will become the top most panel and control panel. I also marked the side panel scrap piece that will be jigsaw cut to become a center brace for the control panel.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7308.jpg

Below shows my front porch/work area. The chair closest to the corner has the top acrylic piece with a length of Alum-Angle double side taped and clamped onto it with my Mouse sander sitting next to it. Clamped down Alum angle and the sander work great for straightening screwy jigsaw cuts.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7324.jpg

The following picture shows the top piece and control panel test fit... it let me know that I need to make some minor adjustments to a few pieces of Alum-Angle to make things fit together correctly.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7330.jpg

I installed the center brace beneath the control panel and positioned paper templates for the buttons and joysticks layout, I also marked out the Matrix Orbital display location.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7351.jpg

The hole saw kit is a $6.99 Harbor Freight special, it had the two sizes I needed and they cut holes in acrylic pretty good, well worth seven bucks anyway. Below shows the nearly finished control panel, it still needs a bit more filing before I can prep it for paint and final assembly.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7360.jpg

[ARTbyTROY]

I determined placement of the X-Arcade BYO Arcade controller board, filed down all the hole edges and dropped in both joysticks and sixteen buttons just to get an idea of where I'm at. I'm excited, it looks (exactly like my SketchUp design) and feels like an actual arcade machine.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7372.jpg

[THRASHER2]

I was just at a Harbor Freight on Sat. picking up some tools :banana:

I love this project :up:

GAME ON!

[Drum Thumper]

Is the plex going to stay clear?

[ARTbyTROY]

@ THRASHER2 - Thanks man, and Harbor Freight is an awesome store for tools on the cheap.

@ DrumThumper - No, I am going to vinyl dye the acrylic black.

I cut all the pieces of acrylic needed to finish the outer casing and put it all together for a test fit... I still have to cut the speaker holes, but after that it'll be ready for masking and painting.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7385.jpg

[jdbnsn]

Looking great Troy!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Looking really sweet mate, reminds me a lot of the Commodore 64's lol.

[OvRiDe]

Coming together nicely! I can't wait to see it painted.

Great job!

[ARTbyTROY]

In the following picture you can see that I cut the legs off the speakers and marked their position onto the acrylic, now it's time to cut some speaker holes... to do this I will once again be using my handy $7 Harbor Freight hole saw kit.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7392.jpg

Ok, speaker holes are cut and filed, below is a test fit. After I vinyl dye the acrylic sheet I plan to use some Weld-On 16 to permanently attach both speakers onto it.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7409.jpg

I had to figure out a way to keep the monitor from shifting around inside the cabinet, I considered cheesing out and just running wood screws through the base, but I really didn't want to have to modify the monitor... below is what I came up with.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7407.jpg

The monitor is held firmly in place by the three pieces of alum-angle and the front of the monitor base presses tightly against the control panel support brace I made. Doing it this way makes it easy to remove or replace the monitor if needed.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7402.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Speaker and monitor mounts, they look really good.

[DonT-FeaR]

another sweet mod mate... good work

[ARTbyTROY]

I used aluminum binding posts and plastic spacers to mount the motherboard and power supply to the back Alum-Angle, the IDE CF card was similarly mounted onto the plywood base using wood screws.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7419.jpg

I decided to make the back panel out of pressboard because it's cheaper than acrylic and nobody will see it anyway. Below shows where I plan to install a 120mm fan that will be temperature controlled by the Matrix Orbital.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7422.jpg

I cut my holes, assembled it all and then gave the back a couple coats of black spray paint, below shows the test fit.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7429.jpg

I cut lengths of adhesive Velcro and placed them on the back framework and back panel, I figured Velcro was simpler and more forgiving than screws and it works great.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7432.jpg

I drilled holes for both the power connector and the power button and also cut a couple USB ports into the bottom Alum-Angle, below shows everything installed.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7444.jpg

I masked and prepped all of my acrylic pieces... too bad the sun went down before I could coat them with black vinyl color.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7447.jpg

I spray painted a bunch of washers with black enamel and then transferred them to a paper plate to dry.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7462.jpg

The next picture shows all of my acrylic vinyl colored black and ready for assembly.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7456.jpg

All of the nuts and bolts are just finger tight right now, but I put it all together for a post paint test fit and to get an idea of how cool it's going to look when I'm finished.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7466.jpg

[Drum Thumper]

Looking top notch Troy!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Looking really amazing, I can't wait for final shots.

[DonT-FeaR]

drum thumper said it all!

[Indybird]

Man this is lookin great! I can't wait to see it done.

-Indybird

[OvRiDe]

Looking good! Cant wait to see it all together!

[nevermind1534]

nice work, looking great

[ARTbyTROY]

Since everything was out of it I decided to cut a couple more holes in the base so that the bottoms of both joysticks were accessible. I then reinstalled the motherboard, power supply and CF card IDE adapter card.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7470.jpg

Next up, I installed the arcade control panel support brace, X-Gaming BYO Arcade controller board and the monitor into the cabinet.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7483.jpg

I used Weld-On 16 to mount both speakers onto the acrylic panel and then clamped them down... Weld-On 16 dries clear and is some seriously wonderful industrial stuff.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7484.jpg

The speaker panel and the monitor overlay acrylic panel are installed. I cut some of the bottom right monitor acrylic panel out so that the monitor controls can be accessed when the arcade controls panel is removed.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7498.jpg

Below is my nearly completed arcade controls panel, for now it is just loose fit onto the cabinet, but both joysticks, all sixteen buttons and the Matrix Orbital display are installed.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7516.jpg

Here's another look at the arcade controls panel from a top down perspective...

http://casemodgod.com/100_7510.jpg

And a look at the back side - twenty four micro switches still need to be wired up to the BYO controller board, but not far now.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7519.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

dude that seriously is amazing stuff. It is looking really good, I may have to make my own one day lol.

[DonT-FeaR]

yeah man looks sweet love these mame mods

[ARTbyTROY]

I decided to change up the monitor overlay acrylic panel a bit, the clear center section had to go. My reasoning - first it eliminates the reflection/glare it caused, second it fixes and prevents any existing or future scratches, and third if the screen itself ever needs to be cleaned the whole thing won't have to be torn apart now to do it.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7540.jpg

[DonT-FeaR]

nice change looks good

[ARTbyTROY]

Changing things up seems to be a trend as this project gets closer to completion - with that said I have decided not to use the X-Gaming BYO arcade controller kit. It was really nice of X-Gaming to send me one to check out, but the convoluted connection method combined with the confusing mess of tabbed wiring and cryptic instruction set started me thinking that a pre-wired controller might be less than optimal for my needs.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7544.jpg

The picture below however shows the single biggest reason why I am not going to use it, the wiring is just too short to work. Sure, I could modify the wiring by adding length to it, but the BYO arcade controller kit is supposed to be ready to go solution right out of the box and simply stated it kind of sucks.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7526.jpg

Below shows the new plan - I bought an I-PAC2 arcade control interface, a wire stripper and a hundred pack of terminal connectors and I will wire it myself. I like that the I-PAC2 has a simpler single cable method of connecting to the PC over the X-Gaming controllers cables, but the best part is that the button and joystick wiring will be a lot cleaner.

http://casemodgod.com/100_7549.jpg

[OvRiDe]

Sweet update! I have been looking at those I-PAC2 controllers as well, can't wait to see how it goes together for you!

[THRASHER2]

Wire MADNESS :up:

MOD ON!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Is that one of those Butane soldering irons next to that yellow wire spool? What do you think of them, I have been looking at buying one for just some basic tinkering. I can get em for around $30AUD.

[crazybillybob]

That looks like a precision screw driver.


CBB

[DonT-FeaR]

/\ yeah.. think ur eyes are going jase :P

[The boy 4rm oz]

Possibly, I am getting old after all haha. Seriously, the butane soldering irons I saw look exactly like that lol.

[ARTbyTROY]

Well, it's full on Winter now and I had to put away my distraction (http://www.casemodgod.com/100_5983new.jpg) - time to bring this project back from the dead...

I had to figure out a way to mount the Ipac2 controller to the bottom of the arcade controls panel, below shows what I came up with. I made a board tray out of some scrap aluminum, drilled four holes and implemented the same spacers and board mounting technique that I've used on my last four projects, the whole thing will be attached with Velcro.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7641.jpg

The micro switches on the joysticks and bottom of each button have three contact points - a normally closed position, normally open position and a ground. I used the normally open contact and wired each micro switch to its corresponding location on the Ipac2 board.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7648.jpg

Next, I piggy backed the ground wire to all of the switches for each player side and wired them to the ground point on the Ipac2 controller board. While I was at it I tidied it all up and then ran the USB cables to the Ipac2 and Matrix Orbital display.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7652.jpg

I have a bad habit of never letting good enough be good enough, the hardware I had would have worked fine but I decided to beef up and change everything out. Below shows the upgrade - a Zotac mini-ITX motherboard with GeForce 7050, a Celeron 2.0 GHz dual core processor, 2GB of Crucial DDR2 667 memory, a 350W micro-ATX power supply and lastly a 320GB Western Digital hard drive.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7604.jpg

Since I am no longer using the IDE adapted 16GB compact flash in this project I had to come up with a mounting method for the larger hard drive. Good old aluminum angle and plastic spacers to the rescue, below shows what I came up with, it's a perfect fit.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7613.jpg

I also had to come up with a way to mount the larger power supply in a different location, again I used aluminum angle that was cut, filed and drilled to fit... alum-angle is awesome.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7620.jpg

Mounting the new power supply meant having to relocate the mother board, I drilled four new holes and problem solved. With all the hardware installed it's time to fire it up and install WindowsXP, drivers, updates and MAME32.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7633.jpg

After the operating system and programs were installed it was time to throw it together for a test run. Below shows my 10 year old buddy Brent tearing up some R-type, after playing around twenty or so other games I asked him what he thought and he told me "Every kid should have one of these."... true that.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7671.jpg

Now that it is fully operational I have decided to kick things into high gear and get it finished, the one thing that it really needs is a marquee. I broke out the Photoshop and started designing, it only took two attempts before I came up with something I liked.

http://www.casemodgod.com/MamePSmarquee.jpg

Once my design was set I uploaded it to MAMEMarquees.com, it cost $23.90 with shipping and a few days after placing my order a professionally printed, perfectly sized and totally sweet custom marquee was sitting in my mail box.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7673.jpg

[Couch3ater]

Distraction... Uh... It can distract me any time. Hahaha, love the idea. Hope to see this finished soon. =D

[Waynio]

Very nice portable arcade Troy I like it a lot, awesome work so far :).

[ARTbyTROY]

Hands on testing of my own revealed a major design flaw that needed to be addressed, the plexi sheet that the speakers rest on sits flat horizontally so it is hard for an adult to view the upper most parts of the screen while standing and playing. Changing the angle (see below) fixes the problem and also the speaker output is better directed forward instead of straight down.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7684x.jpg

To plug (hide) the four bolt holes that opened up when the angle of the speaker panel changed I used some black plastic auto panel fasteners that I got from my local hardware store.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7697x.jpg

I had to cut back the pointy end of the auto panel fasteners so that they would sit flush on the inside of the acrylic panel, they do a pretty nice hole plugging job.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7702x.jpg

Changing up the angle also meant the arcade needed a new marquee and it only took a couple attempts before I came up with something I liked even better than the last one. Once my design was double checked and finalized I uploaded it to GameOnGrafix.com.

http://www.casemodgod.com/TroysArcadeDesignNew.jpg

The new and improved marquee cost $19.35 shipped, it arrived in three days and it looks absolutely fantastic straight out of the tube.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7691x.jpg

Below shows the marquee LED strip lighting and the white acrylic reflector panel which is held in place by small pieces of Velcro attached to the speakers.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7715x.jpg

I cut two pieces of acrylic to size and sandwiched the printed marquee graphic between them and bolted it all down. An on/off switch was attached to the power for the marquee lighting..

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7729x.jpg

Time for a little two player hands on testing, which calls for multiple games of Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo followed by a few rounds of Capcom Vs. Marvel. The result - two out of two kids agree that my arcade machine rocks.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7722x.jpg

After looking more closely at the freshly installed marquee I decided that the shiny bolts looked rather half-assed. Changing over to auto panel fasteners required making new side attachment pieces and drilling a couple more holes in the marquee, but the end result was totally worth it.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7759x.jpg

The silver bolts sticking out all over the sides looked out of place, so I masked off the entire thing and spray painted them all flat black.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7764x.jpg

I had originally planned on putting side panel artwork onto my arcade, but I like the clean look of it without side art better... for now anyway. My MAME project is officially finished, everyone that has played it agrees that it is one of my coolest mods to date.

http://www.casemodgod.com/100_7787x.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Dude that looks awesome, fantastic work :D. +rep

[TheGreatSatan]

Nice to see you posting again. +rep