I'm Gonna Build An Arcade!

A while back on my spring break, I completed plans to make my own arcade cabinet.  I did a lot of research online and came up with a design that I wanted to make.  It had to be able to play classic arcade games and play next gen games as well.  I also designed it around the idea of having a 27" monitor.

I was hoping that over my spring break my father and I could make it and I could haul it back to California with me, but needless to say we ran out of time to make it happen.  A little discouraged that we couldn't make it happen right away, I found out that my friend Ben, who owns his own computer company, use to make real cabinets for homes.  So now we are going to make it happen!

I've been slowly saving my money for the parts and electronics.  It's still going to be a little while before it's actually complete, but we should be able to start building the cabinet, or at least order the electronics for it, this October.  I thought you'd enjoy seeing my designs though for it and some of the concept art I did for the speaker panel and the controls.  As soon as I'm finished with my thesis, this is a project that will be going into full swing.  *fingers crossed*

I'm super excited to have a real arcade in my apartment.  I'm mostly excited around the idea of having an all in one game system.  You'll basically be able to play any game from any system that you can think of on it and new games for PC.  I will also be able to hook up old consoles to it if I choose to do so.  It will have software to be a digital jukebox too!  I can't wait to get this project started!

Paper cut-out model

Control Panel (Tron Inspired)

Speaker Panel (Tron Inspired)

By the way, my friend Jeff Bell designed the sweet Tron font. Check it out and tell him he's awesome.