Mac's Arcade - my new "MONOLITH" multi-emulator cabinet

[MacDLSA]

It's a long time I don't post anything here...

I have to aplogize to all of you and especially to Bruno !
Our italian site/forum ( R.H. ) uses to take my VERY LITTLE spare time... but in these "vacation" days (spent at home with my little family) I "produced" something that could be interesting, and so I decided to let you know !


It's with great pleasure that I present the


The project goes back to a sleepless night, spent watchin' two entire movies, which the second one was the great (also as a "brick" hard to swallow ...) 2001: A Space Odyssey .
After the very first appearance in the film of the fateful monolith I immediately put my hands on the table with paper, pencil brackets etc, with the intent to design a modern, "slim" and esthetically satisfying MULTI-EMULATOR CABINET traced with the simple geometric shape of that mysterious black "cuboid".

Well, I think and I hope I succeeded !

As you can see the cab is still in a "beta" condition, because it lacks of a marquee artwork and the trackball (that will be placed where there is that big hole in the center of the CP).

Side view (wip)


Rear view (wip)


The very first "Mono-clip"  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkANlX56U7M&feature=player_embedded

... also women love to play with it !!!
A friend's wife on WonderBoy ...

...while he was playin' with one of my *rare* AtariVCS games...


A little clip where the BombJack italian champion plays on his fav...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIlssrCm70

Well... that's all, folks !
Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[polaris]

very neat, i like that cab, and i will resist the obvious joke of asking for more shots like picture number 4 but from other angles 

[DarthNuno]

At first sight, I thought it was an iteration of the famous Marijn's Retro Space :



...but finally no, yours is more 'Monolith' like, I mean no angle... and you perfectly chose the name of it... I LOVE IT (as I love the two movies too)
I would have painted all in black personally, and used black buttons in order to respect the Monolith idea to the end but it's already great like that  
Can wait to see the 'product' finished, with a marquee (I presume you'll use the first picture as a marquee?).
Thanks for sharing this nice project here and ..welcome back MacDLSA  

[DarthNuno]

A little clip where the BombJack italian champion plays on his fav...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIlssrCm70

I have just looked at the video... wow... Impressive "Bomb Jack" demonstration 
Very instructive too... I use to catch the bomb following the right 'spark' order, but as I can see on that video, it's not the key for doing an high score (or at least, not until a certain level?) ... very impressive!  Bomb Jack is one on my favorite game from the 'Jamma Era' 

[MacDLSA]

Thanks, Bruno (also for the welcome back...) !

- Hehe, yes : mine has ALL squares angle only ! ( Argh ! It "fixes" Monolith's modern-style but they could be dangerous, too ! ) .
The monolithic part of the cab is all black, but the cp is made by silver-laminated woodpieces : this way I certainly reach my "goal", 'cause it looks like a large jaw that litterally "bites" the Monolith ! Both cp and the base have different "origin" than the same monolith... as if to signify that the symbol of the birth of intelligence had been "captured" by an alien hard-videogames-lover, and then stopped its "teaching the meaning of life and the history of the World" in a specified point... of course in the arcade games era ... philosophical, isn't it ? !!!
Ok, there are also another part that is in black: the front covering of the CP, splitted in two parts: one is fixed to the CP and the lower could be pulled to extract the keyboard drawer... Well, they're "out-of-the-Monolith", so they could be re-painted in the same silver of the two "jaws", but I left them in this way, because I like it "reprises" the front development of the main shape of the cab   !
- For the buttons I took almost all that I still have in my "arcade parts stock", but yes: my original project shows they should have been all black ! BTW: the reds are for the "insert coin" and the yellows are for "pause" (the left one) and Mame's "throttle" function (the right one) .
- The marquee art ? YES, it's that picture ! It's signed to the low-left with my nick and to the low-right with the name of our wonderful italian site/forum   ! I'll show it up, when it would be delivered to me ( ... "vacation" period... ) !
- BombJack: yeah, in the advanced rounds it could be kinda' impossible to complete the bombcatching with a perfect ! It's basically due to the incredible speed that some enemies are capable of... so, if you want to stay alive or save more remaining lives that you can, you HAVE TO complete those rounds in the fastest way, while watching the score counter for the coming of the "B", "P" or "E" bonus letters ! BTW: at the end of that clip you can see my friend leaves me to complete the the 100th round... WITH A PERFECT !

-polaris: hehe, no, there's no other pictures made in different angles of sight !

[MacDLSA]

Ah, I forgot one thing... That friend you could see in the last picture I posted before asked me about the current money value of that VCS cart...
I answered him that if I'd sell it ( buit it's ABSOLUTELY NOT my intention ! ) I think I could make enough money to buy material for the building of a dozen of those Monoliths !!! 

[Blanka]

At first sight, I thought it was an iteration of the famous Marijn's Retro Space :

I'll post a pic of the "Lamborghini 660" grey version here. It looks even closer than the yellow one .

[Muerto]

Very nice clean cab!
And nice intro/endtro sound!!!!

A little clip where the BombJack italian champion plays on his fav...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgIlssrCm70

I have just looked at the video... wow... Impressive "Bomb Jack" demonstration  
Very instructive too... I use to catch the bomb following the right 'spark' order, but as I can see on that video, it's not the key for doing an high score (or at least, not until a certain level?) ... very impressive!   Bomb Jack is one on my favorite game from the 'Jamma Era'  

Wow! you're right! that video is totally impressive!.... i think ill go build a cab for my Bomb Jack pcb! wow!
And Nuno, Bomb Jack isn't jamma...   (yes, from the jamma era, but def. not jamma!)

     Solder Side          Parts Side           __________
                                                /          \
   ----------------------------------------  /_/          ____ ________ ____
        2P RIGHT     | 1|     2P LEFT        \            |  |_||||||||_|  |
   ------------------|--|------------------               |                |
        2P UP        | 2|     2P DOWN                     |         --- ---|
   ------------------|--|------------------               |          8   8 |
        2P JUMP      | 3|                                 | (o)     SW2 SW1|
   ------------------|--|------------------               |          1   1 |
                     | 4|                                 |  |      --- ---|
   ------------------|--|------------------               | SOUND  /      /|
        1P RIGHT     | 5|     1P LEFT                     |  VR   ON   OFF |
   ------------------|--|------------------               |                |
        1P UP        | 6|     1P DOWN                     |                |
   ------------------|--|------------------               |                |
        1P JUMP      | 7|                                 |___             |
   ------------------|--|------------------               ||||_###__###____|
                     | 8|                                ___/  ###  ###
   ------------------|--|------------------             /  ____###__###____
        COIN SW1     | 9|     COIN SW2                 /  |    ###  ###    |
   ------------------|--|------------------           /   |                |
        1P START     |10|     2P START               /    |                |
   ------------------|--|------------------         /     |                |
        GND          |11|     GND                  |      |                |
   ------------------|--|------------------       \|/     |                |
        GND          |12|     GND                         |                |
   ------------------|--|------------------  -----------  |                |
        GND          |13|     GND             1 | BLUE    |                |
   ------------------|--|------------------  -----------  |                |
        SPEAKER (+)  |14|     SPEAKER (-)     2 | GREEN   |                |
   ------------------|--|------------------  -----------  |                |
        +12V         |15|     +12V            3 | RED     |________________|
   ------------------|--|------------------  -----------
                     |16|                     4 | GND
   ------------------|--|------------------  -----------
        +5V          |17|     +5V             5 | SYNC
   ------------------|--|------------------  ----------- CONNECTOR
        +5V          |18|     +5V             6 | GND    S6P-SHF-1
   ------------------|--|------------------  ----------- 2.5mm PITCH
   CONNECTOR KEL-1150-036-009 4.00 mm PITCH

[MacDLSA]

Hehe, I know that layout . I had a BJ PCBoard but I sold it LONG AGO, before I converted my previous cab from Jamma to Mame.
Of course I had an adaptor for use it with the cab's Jamma interface, as for many other games .

[inuyaksa]

Great work Mac!
A very nice new-style cab!