Working on the WOW effect

I have finished installing Mame Plus! and Mala and also placed a few ROM images to test with.

I would like to show some of the tweaks I did for the table. These tweaks were done earlier before even starting the painting process of the table.

USB ports
The Arcade table is a computer as you all know, and I will probably want to change the games that it provides, for example remove games that we don't play and add new ones. To do this, I will need to transfer the games to the hard-drive. The USB ports are the most elegant way to transfer data, but opening the table and connecting one from the inside is not that comfortable.

I bought from eBay 5 USB ports that can be placed in a cabinet. They are connectors that have a round body with a square face and have a female USB A socket on one end and a female USB B socket on the other.

You may find this on the net by searching for the keyword NAUSB.

I placed two USB ports in the table and connected them to the mother board.

Power plug
To make the table much more comfortable and give it more WAFE, I took a power socket filter from an old network switch and used it in the table. This way I can unplug the cable, and the table won't have any noticeable sockets and cables.

Following is the bottom of the table:

On the left you can see the two USB sockets and of the right, the power filter socket.

Following is a top opened view of the table:

Notice that I connected a 25-pin female plug to the I-PAC on each side for each joystick panel. This allowed me to build the table and connect the parts easily, and also will probably come in handy when something breaks and require fixing.

I'm planning on finishing the software part this week. My wife is exited about the table, and to make her even happier I will probably install the classic PAC-MAN for her. She loves PAC-MAN. She used to be very good at it.

What I still need to complete:

1. Configure the I-PAC (or software) for the EXIT game button to function
2. Make the MALA interface look nice and pretty ;)
3. Tweak the windows to load without any noticeable messages to make the table look authentic.

Almost there!

I'm almost done! I can't believe it myself, but I finally finished the joysticks along with the wiring, placed them in the table and secured everything. I event did a minor test, and everything seems to function. Here is a picture of the 1st Player control panel:

The 1st Player control panel comes also with two side buttons for powering on the machine (located on the left side of the panel - illuminated in green) and the exit game button (located on the right side - illuminated red)

The 2nd Player control panel was colored red with a blue joystick.

This is how the joysticks were placed in the table:

To secure the Joystick control panels, I had to use something that will allow me to later disconnect the panel for repairs or if I find out in the last minute that I did a mistake.

For securing the control panels I used a window latch that I found at a hardware shop. I used two on each inside side of each panel. A picture is worth a thousand words:

When the table is closed, everything is snagged in nicely and comfortably. First I made sure that the control panels doors can be closed and that the spacing that I did was correct.

Then I placed the monitor and connected all the wires/connectors. I took a picture from the point of view of the 1st Player control panel:

I did another test before turning on the machine if everything is sitting properly and the panels can be closed and opened:

And the final test is to check if the buttons work and I didn't miss anything. I did a basic test and then my wife called back home to help her with the kids. The only thing I did test was the power on button that function correctly and all the lights in the table work just fine. I did a small test with the joystick going up and down, but not much. I'll do the thorough test later this week.

The next day I went into the workshop and just looked at the table and took a deep breath. It's amazing how I see the end of the project arriving.

I asked my wife to take a peek. She looked at it and she gave me a kiss. She was very impressed with the results, when she knew with what I started. She even asked questions later on how will two players play if the screen orientation can be adjusted to only one player. It seems that my wife is interested to see it in the house, and I think I'm raising the WAF scale here!

More to come soon, I should be receiving the glass top anytime this week.

Target: Before Christmas

I have completed the painting of the table and have the joystick panels ready and almost completely painted

A few mistakes that I made that I will have to live with. Glue must be sanded properly or the paint color won't get deep into the wood and will show on the final table. It also depends on which coloring material you use, and I chose to use the staining kind.

You can notice on the right side of the table just when the side wood is joined with the table's leg that the coloring there is poor.

I did the final gloss finishing on the table and it gave it a nice glassy like finish.

I'm happy with the result and the WAF scale did not pass the fail marker yet. My wife's comment and I quote: "It's not so bad, actually it looks ok, I guess".
I think that there is a good chance we will be enjoying this table on Christmas :).

I colored the control panels, and they didn't turn out the way I imagined, but still, I'm pleased with the results.

Coloring is messy, I'm glad I'm almost done with it. I only need to paint the other joystick panel with one more color coat and I'm done.

What's next?

1. Put on the second door lock (I did one for the first door)
2. Attach the panels to the table
3. Get a glass topping
4. Final finishing touches
5. And the last and easy part: Software :)

I hope to be able to work on it this weekend.