So, my current plan is to build a small PC case. I did a full case mod once before. It was kind of involved; lots of painting, cutting, Bondo-ing...I had fun with it. It could have looked better in the end, but for a first effort, I thought it was pretty good. I'll throw up some pics one of these days if I can find them.
The project I'm starting now is inspired by those "shuttle" PC cases. I've wanted one for a long time, something I could keep in the basement as a media server, but move to an upstairs desk to do some work or gaming if I wanted to. Now that I have a nice HDTV I could hook it up to for gaming, I'm even more interested.
My sudden kick-start came from a Geeks.com e-mail a few days ago showing off this little guy. I thought it was a good deal, and the case is sweet. The FM receiver is a nice touch, and the mini-PCI slot is an ingenious idea for a mini PC. But after looking at the specs more closely, and looking around the site more, I found that I could put together a much better system for less money. It would be able to transcode video and play the games I want, just as I've been thinking about for the last year or two (no, I don't get too hyped about the latest and greatest for PC; if it's enough to run Fallout 3, I'm perfectly happy).
So, long story short, I found a couple of components around the house that would suffice, and I'm ordering the rest for under $150. I decided it would be more fun to build a case than to buy one, so that's what I'm getting started on. I'm completely disassembling an existing case to cut down, give a sexy paint job, and reassemble. Pics so far and system specs will be coming soon. I also need to come up with a name; that will probably happen as the project takes shape.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
First arcade build
My first post here is a copy of the last post from my first arcade build thread at BYOAC.
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Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this thing. I actually "finished" the cab a long time ago. I kind of lost ambition to put final touches on it when...well...
I decided I don't really like the cocktail configuration after all. :(
Here are some pics that I took, for the sake of posterity.
The first one shows my power button on the back right of the unit (pretty proud of that; it's wired inline with the existing power switch, completely non-destructive), and also gives an idea of the paint texture. Roughly what I was going for, but not quite there. Also shows some scratches (from cutting with a razorblade; that was dumb), but they're on the underside, so I wasn't too concerned.
The last one shows the Wahcade (for Linux) frontend, which I'm quite pleased with. The only thing that bugs me is that when I test-drove this thing on that old laptop (also running Ubuntu), I had everything working perfectly. All the key mappings worked, everything loaded at boot, 100% cool. Now that I have a dedicated machine in place, I can't get the button mappings to load automatically, the Wahcade shortcuts aren't working, and I can't properly exit a game (it starts right back up for some reason, like there's a button held down somewhere). I haven't had the ambition to figure out all the details.
I'm relatively happy with the way the build turned out, especially for what was really kind of a dry run that involved very little planning ahead (apart from overall measurements). I really could/should have done better on the paint job, but it looks all right for the most part. If I kept it, I'd definitely do something about the bezel, and probably paint the legs black (I bought some prefab, screw-on ones at the hardware store). But honestly, I either did something very wrong, or I remembered playing a cocktail cab wrong. I know I only played a PacMan cocktail once in my life, but I don't remember it feeling so unnatural. Maybe the distance from the monitor to the glass shouldn't be so much? Maybe my design is all wrong? Not sure, but I decided for certain yesterday (when I had to start seeing the chiropractor again, due to my job in front of a computer all day) that my neck couldn't handle playing a cocktail even if I wanted to fix it up right.
So I'm going to disassemble and completely rework the thing at some point. I think much of the material can be re-used in my next build attempt, so that's what's going to happen. I figure if I want a sit-down cab, the candy-cab/Vewlix style is more up my alley. I have a few ideas for a Vewlix-like design. One of them is sketched out on graph paper. I'm going to force myself to get better with Sketchup (or similar) and plan it out right this time. Still cooking up themes, and trying to go for a unique design. People here like Ond, DrVenture, and many others have inspired me to really do my own thing and go nuts, and that's exactly my plan.
In any case, that build will probably start in a month or so, before it gets too cold to cut/sand MDF outside. I don't mind doing some of it inside, but I made a big mess last year, and I hope to avoid that this time. My hope is to be ready to paint it by next spring, assuming I don't go with laminate this time around. Currently, I'm beginning work on a PC case modeled after the shuttle-style ones (just ordered a board/cpu and such today). I'll be posting updates to that on a blog outside here (I'll add a link to my sig when I get it started), since it doesn't particularly relate to arcade machines. It's going to be primarily a media server / renderer / secondary gaming machine.
It was fun to build, and I'll be just a little sad to take it apart. But, there's just no room in my life (or house) for a cabinet that I won't play. So, back to the drawing board!
----------------
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this thing. I actually "finished" the cab a long time ago. I kind of lost ambition to put final touches on it when...well...
I decided I don't really like the cocktail configuration after all. :(
Here are some pics that I took, for the sake of posterity.
The first one shows my power button on the back right of the unit (pretty proud of that; it's wired inline with the existing power switch, completely non-destructive), and also gives an idea of the paint texture. Roughly what I was going for, but not quite there. Also shows some scratches (from cutting with a razorblade; that was dumb), but they're on the underside, so I wasn't too concerned.
The last one shows the Wahcade (for Linux) frontend, which I'm quite pleased with. The only thing that bugs me is that when I test-drove this thing on that old laptop (also running Ubuntu), I had everything working perfectly. All the key mappings worked, everything loaded at boot, 100% cool. Now that I have a dedicated machine in place, I can't get the button mappings to load automatically, the Wahcade shortcuts aren't working, and I can't properly exit a game (it starts right back up for some reason, like there's a button held down somewhere). I haven't had the ambition to figure out all the details.
I'm relatively happy with the way the build turned out, especially for what was really kind of a dry run that involved very little planning ahead (apart from overall measurements). I really could/should have done better on the paint job, but it looks all right for the most part. If I kept it, I'd definitely do something about the bezel, and probably paint the legs black (I bought some prefab, screw-on ones at the hardware store). But honestly, I either did something very wrong, or I remembered playing a cocktail cab wrong. I know I only played a PacMan cocktail once in my life, but I don't remember it feeling so unnatural. Maybe the distance from the monitor to the glass shouldn't be so much? Maybe my design is all wrong? Not sure, but I decided for certain yesterday (when I had to start seeing the chiropractor again, due to my job in front of a computer all day) that my neck couldn't handle playing a cocktail even if I wanted to fix it up right.
So I'm going to disassemble and completely rework the thing at some point. I think much of the material can be re-used in my next build attempt, so that's what's going to happen. I figure if I want a sit-down cab, the candy-cab/Vewlix style is more up my alley. I have a few ideas for a Vewlix-like design. One of them is sketched out on graph paper. I'm going to force myself to get better with Sketchup (or similar) and plan it out right this time. Still cooking up themes, and trying to go for a unique design. People here like Ond, DrVenture, and many others have inspired me to really do my own thing and go nuts, and that's exactly my plan.
In any case, that build will probably start in a month or so, before it gets too cold to cut/sand MDF outside. I don't mind doing some of it inside, but I made a big mess last year, and I hope to avoid that this time. My hope is to be ready to paint it by next spring, assuming I don't go with laminate this time around. Currently, I'm beginning work on a PC case modeled after the shuttle-style ones (just ordered a board/cpu and such today). I'll be posting updates to that on a blog outside here (I'll add a link to my sig when I get it started), since it doesn't particularly relate to arcade machines. It's going to be primarily a media server / renderer / secondary gaming machine.
It was fun to build, and I'll be just a little sad to take it apart. But, there's just no room in my life (or house) for a cabinet that I won't play. So, back to the drawing board!
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