Delivery

Two weekends ago, we had a luverly delivery in the office…

I took the cabinet in and we set it up!

I just fits in the patrol:

 

Connecting up with Han and Boba looking on:

  

And finally, the very first game. (In the office.) Which was 1943!

  

The End.

Complete!

That’s it. It is done. Just moved it to my place and tried it connected up to a TV for the first time. Looks and sounds awesome. Here are a couple of pic of the last things I had to complete, the drawer slide, and the handles:

 

And here, for the final time in the workshop, is the finished cabinet, complete with control deck:

Mic helped me bring it over. We had a quick session of 1943, Raiden, Galaga, Mortal Combat and Double Dragon.

 

I have to fiddle with the control mappings a little tonight and then it will be in the office at 1300 hours tomorrow.

Cable Porn

Hard-core wiring action, you can see its cable ties!

 

All done bar the handles.

Worked on hardware installation yesterday.

Completed the doors, drawer and latches:

  

Attached the deck to the top frame:

One day this week I will pop over and put one last coat on the outside. Another evening will be given over to wiring in the spinner and the trackball. Then next Sunday is MAME inauguration day – I’ll put the handles on the doors and the drawer in the morning, then drive the thing over to the office for a bit of a Sunday arvo MAME Party!

Woohoo!

Last weekend…

Just a pictorial update of the work I did last weekend. (Got a chance to take a photo just now)

Oh yeah. It’s black!

The doors and drawer front are just balancing in their positions… That is pretty much all that needs to happen this weekend: hinges, drawer slides and base, handles, attach the deck to the top frame.

Last night I completed the control wiring for the sticks and buttons, spinner and trackball to go – will need to break out the soldering iron for those. I also had a bit of an issue with the I-PAC controller but after a super fast response from Andy at Ultimarc it looks like it is a case of pebkac and rtfm. Will fix that after the weekend and should be able to deliver to the office the following weekend. The TV might even be on the wall by then… perhaps

Wiring harness

Got started on the wiring harness last night, did a little more tonight. I have the common ground for all the microswitches in and the active wires in for the player one controls:

 

I took a couple more close-ups of the top side of the control deck. The player one controls, the spinner and the trackball, and the coin button!

 

With the player one all wired in I can now try the deck out. I am just tidying up the machine that will be running the emulator, getting the rubbish off it, and getting MAME and the controller configuration programs on.

Buttons

What better to do while watching television? Buttons!

Putty, Paint and Perspiration

First thing this afternoon was a couple of small jobs that I didn’t get time for when I was working on that part of the build. That is, the door and drawer front trim pieces, and the routed bit to get the joysticks a bit higher out of the deck surface:

 

Then, after a bit of putty work and a lot of sanding… Paint! I have grey primer on the whole of the outside and the edges:

 

I got a good thick coat on because I want to give it a really light sand so the black coat rolls on nice and smooth. The edges certainly take a lot of paint.

The last thing that I did just after I got home was to finish cutting out the holes in the vinyl for the buttons and other controls:

Awesome. It feels almost complete. I have the computer at work now. This week I can put in the buttons and get to wiring them up and configuring the controllers.

Not long now!