Arcade Machine: MAME Day

I have designed my control panel and it will feature my broken SNES controller in bedded into the panel.  Today we are going to work on the PC that will host the MAME emulator and test it out.  I’m thinking of just simply using my extra 17″ PC monitor to be the screen.  It’s size is an issue because most arcade games run on at least a 20″ screen, but this is a cheap alternative.

Aracade Machine: Case update 2

So it’s been a slow and arduous process and things over that This Podcast! camp are getting frustrating. We both are busy people and it’s very hard to co-ordinate this build. We both have been at each other’s throats about this build, but I think we’ve come up with a good solution.

First off, the original problem was that I was designing a cabinet for a Ryan, but dimensions are really hard to come by without physical representation to see how big something should be. It’s hard to get a feel of how big should a control panel (CP) be or how much room should the whole arcade machine take up? Therefore, we’ve decided to do a modified double build.Our modified double build will basically be that I will design my cabinet, but both games and emulations will be complete during or before the first cabinet build. Once mine is complete Ryan will have a better feel as to how big is too big. If you’re at all curios as to what mine looks like, just stay tuned and I’ll try to post my blueprints online. I would normally use a CAD program such as SolidWorks, but I don’t have a copy and the closest available one to me is at CU. So right now I’ve drawing things the old fashion way with pen and paper.

Finally, we’re going to have 2 completely different cabinet. One will be using a MAME emulator and the other will be a JAMMA cabinet so we get the best of both worlds. The walkthrough at the end of this build will hopefully cover these two bases well.

Thanks and stay tuned!

Arcade Machine: New design

So, we wanted to make this arcade machine a two player machine instead of a one player. The thing is that the Defender Machine (the one that the design is based off of) is only one player and the control panel only measures 6″X2.5′. So I have made some modifications to the side panel of the machine itself in order for the control panel to be inset from the edge of the sides and not flush.  The new control panel will measure 18″x2.5′, basically it will stick out more while maintaining the original width of the arcade machine.

Additionally I have included a back panel door that will not be on hinges or rollers or a slider even. This door will rest on the back from some corner brackets. I have put slots in the particle board so that these slots can rest in the corner brackets. The only thing is that this back door panel needs to be made with 1″ particle board instead of 5/8″ which the rest of the machine is made of. I might switch to some plywood if thats the case, but I’m not quite sure how well notches in the plywood will hold up.

I have included the new blueprints for our arcade machine. If you use them please credit where credit is due! Thanks!

Arcade Machine: Initial BOM

Yea, I’m really getting excited about this build and can’t wait to start actually cutting stuff up and stuff like that. The arcade machine is going to be my biggest, and first, build of any kind I’ve ever tried so there is going to be a lot of mistakes to be had and new things to read up. Put together, Ryan and I have pretty much no experience with building or electronics in general. Personally, I think we are both capable of doing something like this.Here are some of our “talents” that each of us have:
Ryan:

• Coding experience
• Built Own Desktop
• Good Research Motive

Me:

• Built Own Desktop
• Some Woodworking
• Soldering Experience

The key aspects that I think anyone needs to have for this build is probably the good research motive and some woodworking. The rest is taken care by those two, mainly the good research motive. This will probably and definaltly change as we start the actual build process, but so far it doesn’t seem to intense.Ryan can probably attest to this, but the hardest part so far is figuring out what games you want in the machine and how you want to implement them. Basically there are two options; you could use a emulator such as MAME or use actual JAMMA cards which is actually used in real arcade machines. For our build we decided to use the cards instead of an emulator for various reasons. In the final writeup I’ll list some pros and cons for both setups.As for the actual hardware of the arcade machines, we’ve been using a few sites that have outlined some basic steps to get started:

Russ Prince’s Blog

Kevin Umbach’s Blog

These two sites are really great for seeing step-by-step build, but they are geared to more of an experienced audience. I’m going to try to make a complete beginner’s guide to a build like this. Hopefully with those two sites and this one you will gain enough experience to take on even more difficult builds.Phew… now for the stuff you need:So far I have no idea as to amount of what or how much is this, but I do have a general idea of materials that are needed for this build.

• 5/8″ particle board (for the sides, back, and control panel)
• 1/4″ Maple board (for the front door where the coin slot will be)
• Long piece of 1×2 (support for the control panel and bevel for the monitor glass)
• Acryllic see through plastic (for the monitor glass)
• monitor or tv (haven’t decided what we’re going to use yet)
• our game chip thing (forgot what it’s officially called)
• buttons and joysticks
• Paint
• other electronics (Ryan has all those details covered and I will list those more specifically when we order them)

So far it looks like the machine will run about $600-800 total which is a whole lot better than buying a pre-built one at $2500.

Thats it for now. Leave a comment for suggestions and stuff. If you want shoot me an email at jayjoe.edge (at) gmail (dot) com.

Arcade Machine: Introduction

So, I know it’s been a long time since my last post and a really long time since our last podcast, but give us a break. Like you we’re lazy and unmotivated people and haven’t really found any cause to try any harder. Don’t get me wrong, we are still doing the podcast but it’s probably going to be during the summer.

I’m not writing this post to bring the bad news of This Podcast! is going on a break until the summer, but instead I am please to announced that we will be building our own custom arcade machine. Yea I know what you’re saying, “why not just buy one?” and I say, “Why not just build one for just that much cheaper?”.

I will do my best, god willing, to keep you updated on our progress as the building process begins. If things go to plan you should see and update once a week (yea right) and a final overall how to guide at the end of this build. Don’t worry, I’m going to take pictures along the way and make this ending guide a duh duh for people who have never touched a saw, solder wires together, or researched anything into what an arcade machine runs on.

So sit back and relax and enjoy the upcoming series of mispalled, grade school grammar blog posts of This Podcast! Arcade Machine Series.

Episode 13-Black Friday

Wow, it’s been a long time since I did one of these. Here is a black Friday exclusive for all of you tech savvy geeks out there. In this episode we go over all the good gaming deals out there this Friday! There are some good ones like Mario Galaxy, Assassin’s Creed, and Call of Duty 4.

Thanks for sticking with us. I promise I’ll try my best to free up more time to do podcasts with Ryan! Good news though, Ryan is starting a weekly podcast where he predicts the future of products released today. Stay tuned to www.ryanvest.com for all This Podcast! and Ryan’s solo project which should be amazing!

If you are wondering where the new episodes are on mypodcast.com they’re all now on www.ryanvest.com. I quit on the original site because of software issues I’m having with uploading podcasts. So, if you have any RSS or itunes feeds stuck on this.mypodcast.com switch it to ryanvest.com please!!!! You won’t be disappointed! The forums are still there and can be linked from Ryan’s site. Basically, just go to http://www.ryanvest.com and explore. He has all the feeds up and running like itunes and rss.

Have an epic holiday season and hope to talk to you soon!

Lack of podcasts

I know it has been a while since our last podcast and that has to do with school.  School has started and things have gotten gusy in my end.  So, with that said it seems that our next podcast won’t be until fall break/Thanksgiving break.  Sorry about that everyone and I hope that you will come back during Thanksgiving and look out for the next podcast!

Episode 12-The World in Carpet

We’re pulling a late nighter for you all to get this episode out within reasonable time. Today we talk about the link between Internet gaming and social networks such as Myspace. Also, we take a look back and see how has technology advanced in the past decade or so. So enjoy and have fun!

For those of you who want links, here they are!

Skype is Down for the Count
EA Ships 4 Mac Games
Cable TV is Lacking Behind in Consumer Demand
Internet Gaming More Popular than Myspace
Bebo Beats out Myspace in Eurpoe

And of course you can download This Podcast! at MyPodcast.com or at RyanVest.com

Episode 11-Predator Justice

Episode 11 is full of news story that happened this week which includes Apple’s new iMac, EA making a deal with Hasbro, and Halo breaking 1 million pre-orders. We also broke new ground with This Podcast! by discussing something that has more meaning than just gaming news. Dateline’s “Catch a Child Predator” caught our attention this week. I hope you enjoy and keep listening for more topics that you care about!

Here are the sources we used for This Podcast!

California Game Law Stopped
Google News Allows Comments
Vista Service Pack 1
EA and Hasbro team up
Halo 3 Surpasses 1 Million Pre-orders
Apple’s New iMac
Bourne Supremacy: Best Trilogy Ever?

Of course you can download This Podcast! at MyPodcast.com

DEFCON Secret Reporter Responses

First off let me just say that I am NOT the original reviewer of this story. I read the blog post: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=653.

I am simply stating my reaction and am not trying to take any credit from anyone:

My friend, Ryan, brought this to my attention and we got into a discussion which is going to be on the next podcast, but I still wanted to write this discussion down. Basically, we are just commenting on my previous “Dateline” post and why they still do their shock-isodes.

It comes down to one thing; passive aggression with no retaliation. The only news stories worty of NBC are stories where the audience is put aside and given an issue that probably doesn’t involve them too much.

While watching the child predator special, it is easy to sit there and pass judgment on the victims while topics like the environment or the war causes the viewer to become worried enough to change the channel. I know thats why I don’t watch the local news because of how depressive it is.

Also, the predators can’t defend themselves by suing NBC for defamation or anything in that manner. They are an easy target and therefore NBC doesn’t have to worry about being sued. However, this doesn’t come with topics such as the War or even Dafur because of Government control. The press is not free and is controlled by the government. The only true news comes from blogs like these. Also, talking about Dafur and the lack of US support can easily get the FCC in arms and shut them down. The CEO’s don’t want to deal with that so they just stick to a “victimless” news program.

All in all, stay tuned to the Internet and it’s vast amounts of free speech and non-conformity! Support Net Neutrality and start writing, blogging, commenting, and reading.

Thanks Ryan for brining up this discussion.