I started relatively early Saturday getting some done on the MAME Cabinet. With good parts wasted because of lack of prep… or forgetting stuff until late, and having to run around Saturday to get it. It all started Friday Night.
Friday I had my dad come over and using a pair of heat guns we formed a sheet of ¼” Lexan into a Console for the MAME Cabinet. Note: we used makeshift forms and actually did decent… BUT, don’t let a heat gun sit in one place too long…. you get bubbles, even from Lexan. Also once it’s bent into one shape… reshaping or fixing is a bear. But with alot of work and more then a little patience, we had one formed sheet of lexan for thge console. Why Lexan you ask? Well I thought it would be cool to either see the mech inside… or… frost the inside, and then throw a neon tube (like one used in case mods) inside it to make it all glow.
Well Saturday turned out to be all about the prep. We stripped out he monitor of it’s casing, and Chris got going on the diagram for cutting. I put together the computer for the MAME cabinet (using my last freaking license for XP Pro… grrrrr). And we started trying to figure out all the things I missed. We got the monitor mounted to ¾” Ply and fit nicely into the cabinet (only a minor little slit that is going to be cover had to be cut into the back door). And the Console’s hinge attached. I finished the day with getting everything straightened up, and getting MAME up and running on another PC, ready to copy over to “Willy the MAME PC.”
Sunday after Church it was finishing the latching system for the console, mounting the speakers, and getting the PC in the cabinet. Once that was done and cleaned up I got to copying MAME over to the cabinet, setting up the roms and then the fighting to get the menu system to my liking. Plus downloading all the artwork and associated graphic for it. (NOTE: Those will end up in my gallery for your viewing pleasure.)
So with all that what is there still to do? I’ve been playing in Illustrator trying to work out a usable template for the console. once I do, I’ll need to do a test drill in a sheet of plywood I set up Sunday… and play with it some. If it feels it works I’ll use the plywood as a template for the Lexan. Once the Lexan is drilled I can go through… remove all hardware, remove what is left of the protective film and clean it up some. Then I’ll probably spray a layer of opaque on the inside. Once that’s dry I’ll start putting all the hardware back in there, and start wiring. Provided I get the last couple minor things I need and I can bribe my friend Chris into coming back out, it should be a couple hours work. Otherwise… I feel there may be a bit more then a couple hours… lol The Minor stuff that I’ll have done before that point are; getting the rolling casters on it, finish the masking and get the black bezel up (until I buy one), put in the glass (1/8″ Plexi) and have the Marquee up (the base one I’m going to run with Chris’ idea and have my son color up a “pretty” one and use that for the time being).
All the pictures are available here. Next time I’ll try and remember a set photographer to get more picts.
Tags: DIY, Gaming, Interesting, Photographs, Wood Working
