Top 25 Arcade Machines – Arcade System Designs
Planning Out The Arcade System Design
Ok, so the first thing we will want to do when planning out our Build It Yourself Arcade Machine is study actual vintage Arcade cabinets to get a feel for how we want to design ours.
I think that this is an important step because I want my Arcade Machine to have a very authentic look and feel to it. I check around online for some good examples of Arcade Cabinets and found some great links on a website called Killer List of Video Games (http://www.klov.com/)
The site has a ton of pictures of Arcade Machine cabinets, Marquees, Screenshots and Artwork. For the purpose of this post we are going to be looking at the shape and dimensions more than artwork.
I have compiled a list of my top 25 favorite arcade machines from when I was growing up and I will be using these as examples for the study.
Top 25 Best Arcade Machines:
01. Asteroids
02. Bubble Bobble
03. Centipede
04. Contra
05. Defender
06. Donkey Kong
07. Final Fight
08. Frogger
09. Galaga
10. Ghost n Goblins
11. Lunar Lander
12. Marble Madness
13. Metal Slug
14. Missle Command
15. Moon Patrol
16. Pac Man
17. Paper Boy
18. Q*bert
19. Raiden
20. Rampage
21. Space Invaders
22. Star Wars
24. Tempest
25. Tron
(This list is basically arcade machines off the top of my head. If you have some better ones you think deserve to be in the list, or have a better example of a good looking cabinet please leave a comment and I consider adding it to the list!)
Observations of Arcade Machine Designs
From studying the similarities in most of these systems we can gain several insights into how to design an authentic feeling Arcade Machine.
The first thing we notice in all the designs in that while the controls and marquee layouts can vary, the display is almost always in the same spot, and same position. Some arcade machines make use of the display in two ways. On some it is horizontal like your standard 4:3 TV displays but on others it is turned on its side to give it a tall, narrow feel which would be good for games like Centipede and Galaga.
For my design I will be utilizing a 4:3 standard display setup as this applies to the majority of games out there. Considering that I am planning to do a miniature arcade machine this means my system will need to be at least 15” wide to accommodate a standard 17” (LCD) monitor.
I will be going with an LCD monitor for this project and will go into more detail on it when we discuss the PC hardware selection in a later post.
The next thing I notice with most of the arcade cabinets is that if you remove the marquee, the lower half and upper half of the cabinet is roughly the same height. For the miniature system I will be making the lower half of the unit about 1/3 the height of the system with the top half being roughly 2/3's of the total size.
I will be doing this to make the unit more compact so it is more convenient to play on a table or desk. This will also help create a smaller unit that is easy to store as it will not take up as much space as a full size arcade machine.
Because I will be making the bottom of the unit smaller I am going to ad a slight slope to the front of the system to create a little wider base on the cabinet for stability.
Another common feature we notice on a lot of these units is that the marquee is usually pushed back farther than the controls. I am guessing this is so people do not bump their head if they are leaning into the system. I will be designing my system with this in mind since on a miniature system this may get in the way of someone’s view if they are sitting over the unit.
A lot of the units we see here also have some sort of shroud around the display which helps block out light from glaring on the screen. I think this is a great idea and will be incorporating it into my design also.
The last major feature we notice on a lot of these units is how the controllers come out from the system at an almost horizontal angle. I would like to copy these designs and make it so my display and controls are at roughly a 120 degree angle from one another, similar to if you have a laptop open with the display tilted back.
Overall this gives us a great idea of where to start with our design.
I now have a good idea of common traits and design features from various Arcade cabinets and can begin to work up some sketches based on what we see here.
A few other things to keep in mind while I work on the design are the following:
- I would like a marquee on the system that actually lights up so I will need to plan for a light kit in the top portion of the system.
- The controls need to be comfortable to use so I will need to utilize the entire width of the system and possibly design them a little wider depending on how the initial mock up feels.
- I want the ability to use a third party controller with the system so I can play it like a console if the mood strikes me. I also plan on designing it so I can hook the system up to my television and play it like a true couch potato, so the ability to use a USB controller with it is a "needed" feature for me.
- Because I want to be able to hook up the system to the TV I will need some sort of “convenient” video out feature on the system so I can connect it to the video in connection on my television.
- I do not plan on using CD/DVD drives with the system so I will be transferring data via a network connection and a USB memory stick. Because of this I will need an accessible network port and USB port somewhere on the system.
- I would like to have a keyboard that is hidden from “normal” use but can quickly and easily fold out if I am doing admin stuff with the system.
- The addition of a track ball mouse on the controller would give the system a more authentic feel for games like pong, breakout, and more. This will need to be worked into the design of the controller.
So overall this covers most of the considerations I need to keep in mind when drawing up sketches for possible design ideas.
In my next post I plan to follow-up with some of the potential designs I have had floating around in my head and try to plan out some concrete designs to work from. Thanks for checking out the site and look forward to my next post on creating our arcade machine design plans.
