re: CADs new obsession - buying & modding 1up cabinets to support full MAME library

All you need is this:

LINK

Since I'm going to hit up a local computer graveyard dealer and get the 20"s for practically nothing, the $25 is worth it because I suck at cutting and drilling things.

I think the difference is huge and totally worth the little bit of extra cost.

quick side by side video showing what a difference the 20"makes

So I’ve struck out trying to find cheap cabs in my area. In the last day, the search website that CAD posted on the first page turned up a Space Invaders for $75, but it’s an hour + away from me. From reading through this and frequenting the Arcade1up sub, it sounds like for a 1st gen cabinet, I’d want to replace everything in it, the monitor, a RPi, speakers, marquee, even sticks/buttons. I’d even want it higher than a riser would take it. Really not worth it to me for a 2+ hour commute when I’m fairly comfortable with woodworking.

The main question that I have, though, is what kind of material should I use? Can anyone tell me what the Arcade1up cabs are made with? Plywood? MDF? Thanks all and thanks to CAD because this has been a fantastic thread.

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Can anyone tell me what the Arcade1up cabs are made with? Plywood? MDF?

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I don't know about the arcade1up cabs specifically, but the custom builds I've seen use MDF with melamine.

Do you guys think there's a market for assembly-required custom cab kits?

Choose your style/size/color/graphics, controls, display, etc., the parts are cut, packed, and shipped to you.

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Do you guys think there's a market for assembly-required custom cab kits? 

Choose your style/size/color/graphics, controls, display, etc., the parts are cut, packed, and shipped to you.

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from what I've learned over the past few months, absolutely.

Nice, I might start looking into some of the details of getting something like that going. Seems like a nice middle ground between the very pricey fully assembled custom systems and a complete DIY job. Kind of a DIY kickstart kit for those who like building things but might not want to do the wood work. Like IKEA furniture.

I could outsource the signage/decals/marquee and the actual cnc wood work, and all I would have to do is pack it up with the assembly hardware and electronics and ship.


And of course write the software that makes a CAD file from customer specs. No biggie, right?

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Do you guys think there's a market for assembly-required custom cab kits?

Choose your style/size/color/graphics, controls, display, etc., the parts are cut, packed, and shipped to you.

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Before building mine from scratch I ran across a number of folks doing just this very thing, selling direct and through eBay and such. Pricey even for MDF, it was cheaper for me to use oak by over 1/2.

Other option was to covert a glass top coffee table to mount the screen behind and the controls built into drawers on each side. Never found the table I liked and didn't have time to build one.

Join a bunch of the A1up facebook groups and like a bunch of the vendor pages that sell similar things. You'll learn real quick what people are buying.

Also, Tulsa arcade page just posted this "Starting some time next week we are going to limit the amount of orders per week.

We have BLOWN up and need to be able to catch up with orders"

Go for it Kork!

So it begins....


first retropie build for raspberry pi 4 is out...

I would only mode maybe the track ball. Golden Tee needs to stand alone.

Its hard finding a golden tee that works since you need several files for it to run on the pie/cpu. Just my opinion. GREAT find. I would buy that just to keep.