ProtoMAME #3 (iBox II)
Macintosh-based MAME machine number three.
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I did another one.
I was never completely happy with #2. It just looked sort of amateurish and lacked what I would recognize as "design elements". I stared at it though and it became obvious to me that with a "hood" or "sides" it might look better and resemble more closely an actual arcade machine. Following that idea, I extended it and went with a large "marquee" area on the top (for the speakers and a lighted sign) and a large control console in front. I also tried to keep the sides of the machine narrow - using the width of the LCD display to dictate that dimension. Without a bandsaw I was somewhat limited in my design but I ended up with the profile you see here. As with all my MAME projects, I began with cardboard and the dimensions of things like the display, motherboard etc. I built a cabinet prototype out of cardboard first - often changing angles and chopping several inches out of the middle here and there. When the dimensions looked right, I transfered the design to wood. Also, as with my other MAME machines, I went with a rather nice 1/2 inch birch plywood for most of it. Although the edges aren't beautiful, it is a firm and sturdy material to work with. |
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This time around there are a lot of hinged compartments. In fact there are three doors all told.
The top compartment (I mentioned earlier) contains the speakers, audio amp and fluorescent lighting for the marquee. The whole "lid" of the machines opens up to access this (see photo further down). Next, around back, a door swings out allowing access to the rear of the LCD display, the power adapters/supplies, and a couple of button control backsides. Around front, the whole control console is also hinged and swings out. Beneath it is the motherboard at the bottom and of course the joysticks and buttons set into the console. Lastly, there is a cut-away in the rear allowing easier access to the USB and Firewire ports in the iBook motherboard. You can see in this top-down view of the console that it is unadorned (no artwork) but that it is finished with a black formica surface. The control layout is minimal although I think I will replace this console with a new one - I am unhappy with the control layout. Although the slanted angle with respect to the button layout is comfortable for a single player, it is not practical for two player games. Further, speaking of two player games, another single button below the left joystick would go a long way to facilitating a few more two player games. In Metal Slug for example, without a "third" button, one player cannot throw grenades..... |
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And so here is the top compartment I talked about. The large speaker magnets can be seen occupying
a large portion of the space. Between them is the audio amp board (it has a large aluminum heat
sink). Wires running up to the lid carry power to the fluorescent driver (small circuit board
beneath the fluorescent tube). This kicks up the 12 volts to several hundred volts in order to
power the fluorescent tube.
There is a second fluorescent tube occupying space in front of the speakers. A piece of plastic spray painted white (from a notebook binder) acts as a reflector. The marguee sign was printed on acetate on a dye-sub printer. It is lit from behind and is backed with several layers of a diffusing plastic. The fluorescents themselves came from a Fry's store - perhaps they are replacement tubes for an LCD backlit display - they're roughly the right size. The driver circuits were bought there too.
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The lower compartment is also hinged. In this case, secured with hasps/latches. For this machine, I
tried to mount the motherboard horizontally. The hard drive is not secured and would have been a
problem if I had mounted the motherboard vertically (as I did with #2 - in fact, this was a
problem with #2 that I had to solve using hot glue).
The bottoms of the joysticks and buttons are clearly visible here. I neatly run the wires together and gather them into a large bundle (wrapped with black plastic cable wrap). The cable bundle heads off to the I-PAC board around back. I may insert a DB-15 connector so that I can easily pull off and add on another console.
Holes in the bottom are for ventilation. The iBooks don't run very hot. A tiny fan running at a low
RPM (quieter) is adequate to cool the CPU.
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And finally the back - the part I like the least.
I had two power supplies/adapters to place and I wrestled with where and how to place them for some time. Eventually I placed them as you see. Basically, hot-glued to the back door of the machine. I'm not proud of it - it's ugly - but it does seem to get the job done. The white box is the power supply for the iBook. The black wall-wart is for the audio amp. A cheap brown extension cord is wedged between them. Farthest away on the back panel you can see the cable bundle and part of the I-PAC USB controller. I've used this board on all my machines and I can't say enough about it. No way I would hack a keyboard. (Done that before, what a mess.) Finally, there is the back of the LCD display. |
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