Dave Santoro's "Arcade Replay" Game Cabinet

The cabinet is 90% finished.  As soon as I get my new high-lip trackball I can wire up the control panel and move my focus to the software configuration, artwork, and LED-lit bling.

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Finally I spent some time fashioning the control panel and lexan overlay.

It was a gorgeous day out so I made did some more work finally.  First up, the speaker grill.  I made it out of 1/2″ MDF that is held on with really powerful rare earth magnets.

First I screwed in some temporary router guides and cut the speaker holes, then I rounded it over and spray painted it black.  I held the frame in position and drilled four small pilot holes to be guides for drilling the retainer magnet holes.  The magnets were epoxied into holes that were already a snug fit.  I stretched the grille cloth over and secured with staples and hobby glue.   Everything came out great:

I am still working out the details of my control panel layout, but I know that I am going to use these – genuine Atari ‘volcano’ start buttons.  I ordered them from RAM Controls.  The switch is NOS (”New Old Stock” – 25 years old but never used) and the cones are high-quality reproductions.  I think these will complement the stainless token top spinner knob very nicely.

I got a kick out of the old hand-typed label too.

Here’s the Token Top spinner knob.  Of course it has one of my own nickel BYOAC tokens in it.  These are made by RandyT over at Groovygamegear.com.

I uesd my tablesaw to dado out an angled groove in a block of wood to support the tinted safety glass in front of the monitor.  I then used glue and pocket hole screws to fasten the block to the inside of the control panel.  This block will not be visible as the control panel will be angled and close over it flush against the glass.

I have redone the speaker panel and monitor mount, I am much happier with them now.  I ordered a piece of smoked tempered glass today, and will be spray-painting a ‘bezel’ on the back of it.   I also hope to cut the marquee plexi this weekend.

Temporary router guides to cut the monitor opening:

The new speaker panel:

The back of the monitor bracket prior to drilling:

I added this hunk of wood to make it easier to move around with a dolly.

The ’secondary speakers’ to be used with the Ambiance App.

I found a nice matching pull.

Made some more progress yesterday.  I decided to stay with a square CP box but will make a curved front edge on the panel itself.   I did wind up using laminate on the CP sides.  If you look really close it’s not perfect, but it looks very nice.

Next Step: laminateing the drawer fronts and finishing them with T-molding.

55 degrees was perfect to get some more work done.   First, the way I had the rear vinyl stapled to hold it down looked terrible so I used some hardwood to fix it up,

Then I whipped up a template to use in routing out an opening for the DVD-ROM.  I used my Kreg Pocket Hole Jig.. worked great.  .  Worked nicely IMHO.

I needed to beef up the MDF Shelves so that I could glue and screw the front panels to it.  I did this by gluing and screwing oak boards onto the shelves.

You will note above I used a few angled pieces on the Keyboard Drawer to form a ‘drawer pull.’

Ad the end of the day, this is where I am:

To do next:

1) Stiffen up the roll-out box.  It is wobbly right now.
2) After cutting the hole for the coin door I will be laminating the drawer faces.  I will probably put t-molding on the edges of both, we will see.
3) create a monitor mounting system
4) create a system for mounting the tinted safety glass

I am saving building the Control Panel for last.  I want to give it a LOT of thought.