MAME Cabinet Aladdin’s Castle – Construction Day 7

9/21/2005

Priming and painting.

I’m not very patient when it comes to painting.  But fortunately my choice of high quality plywood provides me with a very nice, smooth surface to accept the paint.  Even so, I applied 1 coat of primer (not pictured) over the entire cabinet.

Then I sanded the sides and [...]

MAME Cabinet Aladdin’s Castle – Computer Arrives

9/7/2005

Computer arrives from Newegg.com.  Damn I love Newegg.  I have ordered components for 4 computers from them over the years and they never disappoint.  Amazing company.  One of the gems of the Internet.

Here are my computer specs:

SAPPHIRE ATLANTIS RADEON 9600 Radeon 9600 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card – Retail Item [...]

MAME Cabinet Aladdin’s Castle – Construction Day 2

8/31/2005

Continuing construction pics.  Day 2.

Here is the finished Project Arcade kit.

Laying out all of the base pieces with the casters… for fitting purposes:

The pieces of the base need to be positioned according to the casters that you purchase, not strictly by the book.

Testing the fit of [...]

MAME Cabinet Aladdin’s Castle – Construction Day 5

9/13/2005

Another big construction day!  Further cabinet assembly, speaker panel refinement and installation, monitor panel installation, television monitor fitting!

Continuing with cabinet assembly.  These clamps are the best friggin’ invention.

I decided to miter the front of the speaker panel in order to give the marquee a perfectly flat surface for mounting.  [...]

MAME Cabinet Aladdin’s Castle – Construction Day 3

9/1/2005

Constructing the base.

Notice recessed machine screws for caster installation.  In my opinion this is better than the exposed bolts as depicted in the Project Aracade book.

The completed base!  Yes, I rode around on it for a little bit.

MAME Cabinet Aladdin’s Castle – Early Construction Pics

8/29/2005

Here are some early construction pics.  I made a few, slight modifications to the Project Arcade plans as I went along.

Transferring the plans to the wood and making the rounded marquee overhang:

I found that a 1 gallong paint can is the perfect “stencil” for drawing in the necessary curve.

[...]

Arcade: Wood Selection

So I decided to build the cabinet that is presented in the Project Arcade book by John St. Clair.  This design is known as a modified Lusid cabinet.  The design calls for the use of a type of wood-product called MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard?).  Well I hate that stuff so I decided to spend [...]

Arcade: Beginning and Theme

I actually started building my MAME cabinet about 2 weeks ago, but I’m just getting around to posting about it now.  I really wanted to have a theme for the cabinet before I went off posting about it, but I just can’t seem to settle on anything in particular.

I started out thinking about [...]

Arcade: Some Inspiration

Here is some inspiration before building my MAME Arcade Cabinet.  Maybe this will get you in the mood.  These pictures were taken on a recent trip to Hampton Beach, NH…  a highschool and college hangout of mine.

Who could forget Karate Champ?  The grandfather of all fighting games.

Ahhh Time Pilot and [...]