DIY ROM Arcade Blog Build Your Own Arcade Machine

DIY MAME Arcade Machine Construction Images – Part 5

Building Your Own Arcade System at Home

Hey guys! If you have been following my “Build Your Own Arcade Machine” project, you will see that we are progressing nicely. I think in some ways this has become more of a fun thing to do on Friday nights than a rush to complete a Home Built Arcade Machine. For future projects I will be building on more of a consistent timeline, but for now I am using this as an opportunity to learn a lot from my friend about wood working, and carpentry.

This past Friday we got a lot done on the system. We started out by working on the Arcade Controls. A week or so ago we cut out our controller piece and fit it into the system, but this week we added the Arcade Joystick and Buttons to dry fit the pieces and establish the layout.

We also did some cosmetic work to the Arcade Cabinet like filling tack holes, using Bondo on some gaps, & sanding and smoothing some surfaces to get it ready for Priming.

I took apart the Trackball Mouse and Logitech Controller to get a look inside of them so we could get an idea for how we are going to wire them up, and how they will fit in the layout of our Arcade Controls.

Once that was done I installed Kubuntu Linux on the system. The Arcade Machine is now dual boot between Windows XP Home and Kubuntu Linux KDE 4. Working with Linux is mainly for my own personal learning experience on this project.

The next day we removed all the PC Hardware from the system and started filling, sanding and priming the Arcade Machine to get it ready for when we can finally paint it. We also installed the Trackball Mouse into the Arcade Controls.

I hope you enjoy the latest pictures. I will try to include a detailed summary of what is happening in each one along with any "Building Tips" I learned during the process. As always you can see the complete series of photos along with additional descriptions on my Flickr account here.

DIY ROM Arcade on Flickr

Home Built Arcade Machine DIY Pictures

The first thing we decided to work on this week was the Arcade Controls for the system. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to work on the layout and to dry-fit the Arcade Joystick and Buttons onto the panel. As mentioned in previous posts I am using a Arcade Joystick and Button layout from SlagCoin.com.

Here is a closer shot of the Arcade Button layout. Because we are working with limited space on the Arcade Controls I am using the “Sega layout for player 2” from SlagCoin’s “Panel Layout” page.  I will be removing the last set of buttons on the right for a total of 6 buttons on my small profile Arcade Machine.

We had to mount cleats and standoffs to the bottom of the Arcade Control panel so we could mount it into the system. We have designed the Controls so they can be removed from the Arcade Cabinet for upgrades or repairs down the road. The standoffs slide into our Controller area on the Arcade Machine and can then be screwed into place by two screws that go in through the sides of the Arcade System.

I started filling in the tack holes and doing some surface filling on the Arcade Machine to get it ready for painting and priming. We are going to be using a method someone mentioned on the Arcade Controls Forums for using an auto-body primer / filler and Bondo to get a very smooth surface prior to painting.

We checked out the layout for our Arcade Joystick and Buttons so we could get the placement and spacing perfect. We need to save space for the trackball mouse that will be mounted into the system. Here we have come up with an ideal placement for the controller and buttons that will still leave space for the mouse.

I took apart the Trackball Mouse so we could see what we are working with inside it. Because we will be mounting the mouse through the bottom of the Arcade Control panel we needed to create as much clearance over the top as possible. We will also be wiring in two buttons to the mouse so we wanted to make sure we had access to everything.

I also took apart the USB Gamepad we will be using to wire up the Arcade Controls. This one is slightly different than the original one I was doing tests with. The contacts are much closer together so it looks like we may need to solder directly onto the traces that are running off each of the button areas on the circuit board.

We dry fit the Arcade Joystick and Buttons into the Arcade Controls and I also laid the Trackball Mouse onto top of the controls to get an idea for layout and placement. When the mouse is actually installed it will be underneath the controller and you will barely see it except for the ball.

Here is a shot of the Arcade Machine with the Control Panel mounted into place. We are just fitting parts and doing layout so it will get removed later. In the background you can see Kubuntu Linux KDE 4 running. I installed Linux on the Arcade Machine to dual boot with Windows XP Home. This way I can learn a little about working with Emulators and ROMs on Linux. 

We also applied Bondo to fill a large gap below the Arcade Controls. We had extra Bondo mixed up so we applied it to the front panel of the Arcade Machine to test using it as surface filler. It worked really well!

The next step was removing all the PC Hardware from inside the Arcade Machine. As you can see we were working on it during the day on Saturday so we could do some painting and priming outside, without it being so cold. You need temperatures above 45 degrees (ideally) for paints and primers to work good. Also when working with paints, primers and fillers like Bondo it is crucial that you have plenty of ventilation and do not work in a closed garage or workshop.

Here we have removed the Arcade Joystick and Buttons from the Arcade Controls. You can see where we have traced the spot where we will be mounting the Trackball Mouse to the Arcade Controls. We pretty much figured out how we were going to do it on the fly so it took a little bit of brainstorming.

We added wood standoffs to the existing screw holes on the mouse so that we could screw it into the bottom on the Arcade Control panel. We also used a drill to router out some of the wood on the bottom of the Control Panel so we could get the mouse as far up through the controls as possible. This was important because a trackball does not rise up that much and we were working with ½ inch MDF.

In this picture we have mounted the Trackball Mouse into the Arcade Controls. The ball is perfectly accessible and sticks up just enough so that it is easy to access for game play. I am using the Kensington Orbit Optical Trackball Mouse in the Arcade Machine.

We also created a top plate for the Roller Ball out of some of the extra plexi glass we had from the display and marquee. It was cut out, the edges were sanded to give them a beveled look and feel, and then we taped off the front and spray painted the back of the plexiglass black.

This gave the top plate a really nice shiny black look. I am really happy with the way it came out, it looks great!

Next we had to get the Arcade Cabinet ready for Priming and Painting. The first thing we did was sand down all the wood filler we used to fill holes from the tacks. Once that was done we sanded down the sides entirely with an electric sander to get them as smooth as possible prior to filling, priming, and painting.

Before we started applying primer we used a dry cloth to wipe away any residue (and sawdust) from sanding down the existing primer. This is important because you don’t want anything that will keep the Paint and Primer from adhering to the surface of your Arcade Machine. 

Here is a shot of the Arcade Machine with a light coat of Krylon Primer applied to the side. After doing some test runs with Primer and Filler on some of the scrap MDF we had lying around we decided to try a few of the different methods we had come up with. 

For the first side we are just applying Krylon Primer to the side we used wood filler on and then sanded down.

Then we tested the Krylon Primer on the front panel where we had applied Bondo the night before.

We sanded down the area where we applied the Bondo and then applied the Krylon Primer in thicker coats than on the first side of the Arcade Machine. We wanted to see what the result would be when we applied the Primer in thicker coats.

(The gap underneath the controls was filled with Bondo to level it out. Here it stills needs a little more applied to totally smooth it out. We did this but you can't see it in this picture.)