FlyingGiants - View Single Post - Coming soon: The worlds first F.G. arcade machine build!!

~SnApRoLl · 12-10-2008, 09:17 PM

Hey guys,
I'd like to welcome everyone to my build of the worlds first Flying Giants themed Arcade machine!!

I was fortunate enough to be introduced at a very young age to the great world of model airplanes and it has been one of my favorite hobbies to this day! But, I have always enjoyed another childhood past time and now new hobby, classic arcade games like Dragon's Lair, Pacman, Moon Patrol, Galaga, and Space Invaders just to name a few.
A really good friend in my home state of Maryland called me one day and said he was collecting arcade machines,
I thought it was pretty cool! Then the Summer before last my oldest son started going to Maryland to stay with my mom and dad for the Summers. So my Wife and I decided to make those trips to drop my son off into vacations.
On the last Vacation trip to Maryland, my good friend invited my oldest son and I over to play some arcade games
and after playing some of my childhood favorites I got hooked!! I decided to give the hobby of building an arcade machine a try, and here I am posting my first arcade machine build!!

About a month ago, I was lucky enough to acquire a free gutted out Sega World Series 99 Baseball arcade cabinet from a local arcade machine vendor that was perfect for the build!

The reason I chose to base the theme of the arcade machine on Flying Giants is because I wanted to combine 2 great hobbies into one that can be enjoyed for many years to come and it would be totaly cool!!! And what better theme could there be than Flying Giants?

It will be powered by a pc with a Pentium 4 2.0ghz cpu, 1gb of DDR memory, 256mb GeForce graphics card and 2 160gb IDE hard drives. The platform for the games is a free command line software with a G.U.I. called M.A.M.E. which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator which in turn uses ROM images of the games to trick the pc into thinking it is an actual arcade machine and the games were controlled using the keyboard. I had used that software back in the mid 90's and I was lucky enough to collect several cd's containing 100's of classic quarter arcade games that most of us grew up playing. Although it was cool to be able to play those old games again, it just didn't have that authentic feel! The machine that I am building will use a Control Panel with authentic arcade style joysticks and buttons as well as a 3" trackball that will be used to play games like Missle Command and Golden Tee Golf. I am also going to be incorporating a homemade optical spinner that I built using parts from an old hard drive to play games such as Tron, and Tempest and a homemade optical steering wheel for driving games like Pole Position as well.

As I go along in this build I will show you how I built my own spinner controls as well as show you how I used printed circuit boards of average USB ball mice to interface those optical controls and of course I will document and post lots of pictures of every step as I acquire all of the pieces along the way and try to document a little history behind some of the games that will be included in the Wolds First Flying Giants arcade machine!!

So sit back and relax and follow along with me as I bring back some cool childhood memories and show
every step of taking the cabinet from what it is now to a finished and playable machine!

Shawn

12-10-2008, 09:17 PM	#4
~SnApRoLl TEAM FEARLESS MARYLAND Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Southern Maryland Age: 39 Posts: 790	Re: Coming soon: The worlds first F.G. arcade machine build!! Hey guys, I'd like to welcome everyone to my build of the worlds first Flying Giants themed Arcade machine!! I was fortunate enough to be introduced at a very young age to the great world of model airplanes and it has been one of my favorite hobbies to this day! But, I have always enjoyed another childhood past time and now new hobby, classic arcade games like Dragon's Lair, Pacman, Moon Patrol, Galaga, and Space Invaders just to name a few. A really good friend in my home state of Maryland called me one day and said he was collecting arcade machines, I thought it was pretty cool! Then the Summer before last my oldest son started going to Maryland to stay with my mom and dad for the Summers. So my Wife and I decided to make those trips to drop my son off into vacations. On the last Vacation trip to Maryland, my good friend invited my oldest son and I over to play some arcade games and after playing some of my childhood favorites I got hooked!! I decided to give the hobby of building an arcade machine a try, and here I am posting my first arcade machine build!! About a month ago, I was lucky enough to acquire a free gutted out Sega World Series 99 Baseball arcade cabinet from a local arcade machine vendor that was perfect for the build! The reason I chose to base the theme of the arcade machine on Flying Giants is because I wanted to combine 2 great hobbies into one that can be enjoyed for many years to come and it would be totaly cool!!! And what better theme could there be than Flying Giants? It will be powered by a pc with a Pentium 4 2.0ghz cpu, 1gb of DDR memory, 256mb GeForce graphics card and 2 160gb IDE hard drives. The platform for the games is a free command line software with a G.U.I. called M.A.M.E. which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator which in turn uses ROM images of the games to trick the pc into thinking it is an actual arcade machine and the games were controlled using the keyboard. I had used that software back in the mid 90's and I was lucky enough to collect several cd's containing 100's of classic quarter arcade games that most of us grew up playing. Although it was cool to be able to play those old games again, it just didn't have that authentic feel! The machine that I am building will use a Control Panel with authentic arcade style joysticks and buttons as well as a 3" trackball that will be used to play games like Missle Command and Golden Tee Golf. I am also going to be incorporating a homemade optical spinner that I built using parts from an old hard drive to play games such as Tron, and Tempest and a homemade optical steering wheel for driving games like Pole Position as well. As I go along in this build I will show you how I built my own spinner controls as well as show you how I used printed circuit boards of average USB ball mice to interface those optical controls and of course I will document and post lots of pictures of every step as I acquire all of the pieces along the way and try to document a little history behind some of the games that will be included in the Wolds First Flying Giants arcade machine!! So sit back and relax and follow along with me as I bring back some cool childhood memories and show every step of taking the cabinet from what it is now to a finished and playable machine! Shawn __________________ 20.3lb Comp-Arf 2.3m Extra 330l with a DA-85 H9 Tango .40 with an O.S. 55AX Park Zone Typhoon 2 3D E-Flite Blade MCX for wife and kid chasing http://www.freewebs.com/team_fearless/index.htm Team Fearless Official Site http://www.teamfearlessrc.com/ Last edited by ~SnApRoLl; 12-13-2008 at 08:33 PM.