Horrorshow Arcade
Working out the plans and blueprints
First I started to think of what I wanted in my cabinet. I decided that I won't be putting in an original arcade monitor at this point, but stick with an LCD monitor instead. I know this is not a very popular choice, but I had to cut corners somewhere, because this was going to be an expensive project. I am still going to make it as real as possible some day, but not quite yet, so I'm leaving in a possibility to put in a bigger monitor later.
I found these blueprints for a cabinet somewhere in the internet but I can't remember where anymore (if the appropriate source wants credits, please e-mail me). I changed them slightly, and made it more fitting for my personal needs. Feel free to use these, but note this. Do not make the same rookie mistake I made and calculate the pieces with paper thin board. The board has a thickness that has to be calculated, I forgot that and had to do some retooling of the pieces later.
I work in a computer store, so building a bit older computer was easy and free. Also I got my monitor for a bargain. All I had to do was put the computer together and install Windows in it. I had already built all the software components on another PC, so all I needed to do was copy them over.
For the control panel I wanted to do two player controls without a trackball. I thought I might put in some spinners, but seeing how overpriced they are, I quickly gave up on that idea. Some might say that my control panel is too big for just two players, but I like to have room to rest my arms on the panel when I play.