Just before Christmas I finally persuaded my wife to let me build an Arcade Cabinet. This has been something I have wanted to do since I was about 15. I love games, I love history, and having just had a beautiful daughter, I want her to learn about these things as she grows up. Plus I want to play!! 😉

If it wasn’t for the Build Your Own Arcade Machine Forums then I’m not sure this would be happening – my design is based upon the OND designed ‘Metropolis’ cab, although tweaked from that to accommodate a larger monitor and some other changes that will become apparent as I move through the project.

The ‘goal’ and my inspiration is the Street Fighter cab build of the same designs, built by edge929 – I’m not necessarily going for a Street Fighter theme (I might), but I love the look of this cab!

There are two very distinct sides to this build – the hardware and the software. Both require different skills and parts of the brain, so I’m seeing this as a nice challenge!!

Hardware
The main construction is out of MDF – I have 3 sheets of 2440 x 1220 mm MDF sitting in my dining room currently, awaiting marking up from the plans!

Software
I have re-purposed my old  desktop PC for this (and replaced with something lower power). I will be running Hyperspin, which links into RocketLauncher and then various Emulators, like MAME
I may post my hardware spec’s later, but they aren’t spectacular.

I’m excited to get on with this build – it’s probably going to be a slow process – it’s winter here in the UK, I have no workshop or garage – all work will be carried out outside, so if it rains, play is stopped!! Nevertheless, my aim is to have it finished by Christmas, so it’s a nice project to cover the next 12 months!

I will try and keep updates on this project regular, and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!!