Fair warning, I'm not sure I agree with the writing style here, but this is pretty well original and I didn't think that I should wait to have you all read it. Otherwise, well, you may never. =)
Took me long enough... On with the post.
Have you ever wanted to play the old 80's arcade games? Are you crazy enough to want one in your home? Have you ever thought it was possible?
A lot of people have worked hard at allowing you to do so, at least on a computer.
Someone immediately found a way to build their own arcade machines with a computer in it.
Of course there's always the real deal, and that's not a bad idea either. (Though to derail a bit, you're better off looking on ebay and craigslist to get a better deal on these, and especially around your local arcades. You'd be surprised what people are willing to sell for cheap if you look around.)
But what if you could play hundreds of games, on the same machine? That's where a home built arcade machine truly shines -- you don't have to be stuck with just one game you can have an amazing selection, and all housed in one arcade cabinet.
I started down that road over 3 years ago. I'd like to share a little of the journey with you.
It began with an old web friend, slashdot. Specifically, this story, if I'm digging up my links correctly. I decided to try my hand at making my own as well because hey, I thought, if I don't do it now, when will I ever?
So. First I needed to find out what I wanted to build. This took a good 6+ months of dreaming and scheming. Take a look here to see just some of the pictures I saved in my research phase of the project. I didn't add all of them because I'm lazy, but it should give you some idea of what I was looking for. This included what kind of cabinet I wanted, what controls were involved, deciding to use a coin door or not, using a TV or a real arcade monitor, and may many more decisions. (Check out the "guts and how to do it" link for a good example of what's inside a MAME cabinet, sort of a sneak preview for the people like me -- impatient.)
And after all that, I never really built what I originally planned. I wanted a machine that looked very nice, similar to this as far as construction.
And a control panel that looked something like this...
...so I could play ALL of the old games. Well, with the exception of driving games, though you could use the spinner for a steering wheel for those. I'm not a huge fan of driving games other than pole position and maybe super off road anyhow.
So, I settled on a design. Dream big, as they say -- I took the design from Lusid, who had freely available plans and would be a good first project for a novice woodworker.
So I got a friend with a truck and headed off to home depot to buy some birch/maple plywood to build my own cabinet. $30 each. I bought four 4x8 foot sheets. I even bought a circular saw to cut them with, which has been very nice to have around.
The following Thursday my wife was looking at a thrifty nickel (print version, not online) and saw some pinball machines in a town near ours, about 45 minute drive away.
I still wish I'd have listened to her that day.
The ad had 3 pinball machines, $400 each. From memory, I believe these were the 3: Creature from the black lagoon, The Getaway, Terminator 2.
I'm still kicking myself. At the time I had no idea how much pinball machines ran and was pretty poor besides. If I had known I could have bought all 3 and then sold 1 for most of the money I'd have done it.
Anyhow, enough of the self pity. =)
There was also an ad of some guy here locally who bought/sold arcade machines. I gave him a call and arranged to go by his place and take a look saturday morning. I borrowed a truck and went down there. I'll get into that story another time, but I returned home $100 poorer with an empty defender cabinet.
Or rather, a Yie-Ar Kung Fu cabinet that was originally a defender cabinet. I went to work on the side art and ended up that evening with the yie-ar sticker removed and.... some of the defender side art showing.
So, the inspiration happened. I was going to make this game look like a defender machine. I just needed a few parts and it would be finished. I already had a computer I was going to put into it. No problem right?
Next time.... The Restoration.
5 comments:
OMG! $400 for The Getaway?! I think my dad paid $1350 for his! Great game. CFTBL is a hot game too, but I've never played it myself. I used to play T2 a lot. Not a bad game.
I once had an arcade machine. It was a Golden Axe conversion in a Defender cabinet. I stripped that out and rewired it to the JAMMA spec and made it into a Rim Rockin' Basketball / SmashTV. Had both JAMMA boards mounted in it and could switch games by swapping the connector. I was originally going to convert it to MAME, but never got around to it. I kick myself now for trashing a control panel that had 4 Happ controls joysticks on it that had about 2 hours of playtime on them.
There is an arcade game restorer that lives a couple blocks from me. He does a fabulous job on them, but his prices are high. Pretty similar to the site you linked to. He sells most of them on ebay.
Great post!
Oh, and I'll make you a heck of a deal on a Williams FLASH. Kind of a long drive to come get it though.
Yikes... I fear the next post. The one entitled
"Wherein My Wife Makes a Promise She Cannot Keep."
Good stuff. Wasn't this phase like 3 years ago? Can you beleive its been that long?
Bon, I think YOUR next post should be about that. That's your deal, not mine. heh.
Yeah, I was pretty bummed about losing out on those pins. And pretty pissed that the arcade dealer told me they weren't worth that then he himself went and picked them up that day.
Yes, it's been a while. I'm pretty surprised it's been that long actually.
Time flies, and the older I get the faster it goes by. It was 5 years ago that I bought that arcade game, but it feels like just yesterday.
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