Portable Arcade Control Panel

For some time, I've wanted to build my own arcade controls to relive some of my favorite games from when I was a kid.  Due to space, time, and budget constraints, I decided to forego building an entire arcade cabinet and instead opted for a portable box to house just the controls and wiring.  This allows me to take my arcade experience anywhere!

Materials Used:
 - 3/4" MDF
 - High impact acrylic plexiglass
 - 30" Piano hinge
 - Diamond plate vinyl decal
 - Chrome t-molding
 - Wood screws
 - Machine screws
 - T nuts
 - Wood glue
 - 2-player arcade control set (purchased from xgaming.com )
 - 2 1/4" Trackball assembly
 - Tackball mounting plate
 - Decorative 8 ball
 - Ultimarc Mini-PAC with wiring harness
 - Wire
 - Crimp-on quick connectors
 - 6 pin male and female wiring harness
 - Black spray paint

Tools Required:
 - Power drill
 - Jigsaw
 - Router
 - Hole saw
 - 3/4" forstner bit
 - 1/16" slot cutter router bit
 - Hammer
 - T square
 - Measuring Tape
 - Bar clamps
 - Pencil
 - Utility knife
 - Sweat
 - Braun

Coming up with the design and layout was a bit more intensive than I thought it would be.  After a lot of research on several arcade forums, I came up with a layout and spacing that seemed right to me.  If you're still at all unsure of how you'd like your layout, you can always install your controls on some sort of cardboard box to test out the feel of them.  Many people suggested a shoebox for testing the joystick/button layout.  I followed my plans, and the controls feel very comfortable to me.

Plans for the box enclosure are pretty straight forward.  I definitely made the box a bit taller than it needed to be, in order for it to sit at the right height at home.  Play around with different dimensions until you find what's right for your application.  Again, cardboard is a quick and cheap way to mock everything up and get a good feel for how it will look.

Carefully mark where everything will go using a pencil.  Measure twice and cut once.  Luckily, I had extra MDF leftover from building a couple closet systems, so I didn't have to purchase any.  Once the layout is transferred, carefully cut out the top piece , and then you're ready for the most intensive part of construction.

Using the hole saw, drill out all holes for buttons and joysticks.  At this point, I also used the forstner bit to recess the t-nuts used to mount the joysticks.  Using the jigsaw, cut out the hole for your trackball.  This took me a bit of trial and error to get a good fit.  Just go slow, cut the basic shape, and make adjustments where necessary until the trackball and mounting plate sits flush and looks superbad.

At this point, you can also cut the slot for the t-molding.  The instructions that came with the t-molding said to use a 3/32" slot cutter, but my experience has been such that this seems a bit big and doesn't provide the tightest fit.  I used a 1/16" slott cutter bit, and was very happy with the results.  Be sure to get it centered very well, or your t-molding might end up off center and not reach its awesomeness potential.

I didn't take any pictures of the body construction and won't go into much detail about it, as it's pretty straight forward.  After all parts were constructed, I put several coats of cheap black spray paint on everything.

Once your top panel has dried, use it as a guide to cut out the plexiglass top.  I used scrap MDF as a bottom layer and sandwiched the plexi in the middle, using bar clamps to secure everything.  This was my first experience with the high impact plexi, and I'm absolutely sold on it.  It's a few bucks more than regular plexiglass, but WAY stonger and much more forgiving.  Lexan would be the next step up, but at over 3 times the price of regular plexiglass, I just couldn't justify it.  I found using the hole saw in reverse to be the way to cut out the holes in the plexi.  It literally just melts right through it, leaving a perfect hole and edge.  Do this for any smaller mounting holes as well using the proper size drill bit in reverse.  The trackball hole is a bit more tricky.  Get a large starting hole going in the middle of it, and S L O W L Y cut out the shape with a jigsaw.  If you have a dremel tool, it works wonders to adjust any cuts or holes.

Apply your decoration over the top panel, and use a utility knife to carefully cut out all the mounting holes.  I used diamond plate vinyl for that good old-fashioned industrial look.  Notice how the sunken t-nuts got covered up.  You can now apply the plexiglass top to keep the decoration looking pristine.  Next, apply the t-molding to the sides using either a mallet or hammer and scrap wood.  using the utility knife, I cut chunks out of the insert part to make the rounded corners, and this seemed to work very well.  After the t-molding is installed, turn the top panel over and mount the piano hinge.  The whole top can then be mounted to the base, and component installation can begin!

I didn't take any pictures of the component installation and wiring.  Mounting the buttons, joysticks, and trackball was very simple and straight forward.  If you purchased the Mini-PAC and wiring harness from Ultimarc, wiring everything is very easy as well.  Here's a link to the wiring diagram for the Mini-PAC.  It would be very advisable to purchase a few extension harness packs as well.  The one snag I did have was getting the trackball wired up, as the harnesses weren't even close to being the same.  This ended up being a simple fix with a DIY 6 pin harness from Radio Shack (see parts list for hyperlinks). 

Once everything is wired up, it's time to test out your new creation!  I recommend a good 8 hour marathon session.  You know, just to be sure everything's working...  :)

For those of you interested in MAME, check out their website for more information.

Arcadecontrols.com is also a great resource for different arcade project ideas.

Best of luck on your own projects, and happy gaming!