Cabinet Types
There are three main types of cabinets:
Upright
The traditional iconic arcade cabinet, where the player stands in front of the machine to play.
Sit Down
Typical cabinet for racing type games, where the player is seated in front of the machine to play. May or may not be covered overhead.
Cocktail
A cabinet that looks like a cocktail table, thus the name. Two players sit across from each other, and the screen rotates 180 degrees to switch between the players.
Additionally, all three can have vertical or horizonal mounted monitors. The difference between the two monitor mountings being whether the screen it longer top-to-bottom or left-to-right. For upright and sit down cabinets, attempting to to mount a monitor in the wrong orientation may not work. For cocktail tables, it will place the players on the side of the screen, rather than the bottom of the screen during play. MAME can take care of the orientation differences between games for you, so you can play a vertical game on a horizonal monitor and vice-versa. However, you'll want to look for a cabinet with a monitor orientation that matches your favorite games, since games in the opposing orientation will take up less screen space (unless you don't mind them being stretched to fit the new orientation.)
Phase One
The sides of an old computer desk hutch were used to to form the sides of the Phase one cabinet. The original hutch has two shelf areas, side by side, below a cabinet area. The cabinet doors, shelf, and top were discarded, as well as the middle support wall for the lower shelf areas. The shelves from the lower shelf area were then screwed into the place where the old cabinet top and shelf were. The result was two shelfs in a space half the width of the original hutch. The top shelf forming the control panel for the joysticks and buttons. The middle shelf being used to support the structure and prevent it from shaking.
However, the structure wasn't stable enough. So, the original cabinet shelf for the hutch was then used to form a base, and attached with metal bracers. This imporved stablity, but was still not strong enough. One of the original computer desks side walls was then attached the to back of the Phase One Cabinet. This, finally, strengthened the structure enough to prevent it from shaking from left to right. The structure could still use some support, as it will tilt foward. Adding weight to the bottom may solve this problem. Alternatively, the original computer desk's desk top could be added to the bottom. However, this would make the footprint of the unit undesirably large.
Phase Two
An old Centipede cabinet was acquired from S & B Amusements, a local pinball and arcade repair shop in Austin, Texas. This cabinet meets the most critical requirement: a vertical monitor setup. The majority of the games played on ElLa Project (like Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, etc.) use a vertical monitor. Xmame will rotate and resize vertical games to play on a horizonal monitor, however the game is shrunk to fit the new height and large areas on both sides of the screen are left blank for these games. So, a cabinet with a vertical monitor mount was required.
S & B also sells a 39 in 1 Classic Arcade Game, and uses most of their spare vertical monitor cabinets to make these. So, selection was limited, and the control panel doesn't have the desired controls for most of the games. However, neither of these are real factors. Classic cabinet selection is always, especially for the non-dealer/collector, limited. However, the selection of horizonally monitor cabinets was a bit larger. Other leads on cabinets turned up more horizonal cabinets, so anecdotal evidence says that vertical cabinets are harder to come by. Also, a custom control panel was made anyway, so the original panel was not used.
The interior of the cabinet was emptied and cleaned. The computer monitor was then mounted with custom mounting brackets, made from the same material for mounting garage door openers. Mounting the monitor should be done with two people, one holding the monitor in place while the other attaches the mounting brackets. Also, the original cardboard bezel around the old arcade monitor did not fit the new monitor, and a new one had to be constructed using blue construction paper.
The computer was then placed into the cabinet, with the case's plastic feet removed. Then, the case was screwed to the bottom of the cabinet, to prevent it from moving around. The power supply was moved from the computer case to the cabinet floor as well. This was done to maximize the length of the power cord extending outside the cabinet and to improve airflow for the computer.
The cabinet has a single speaker in the overhang above the monitor. A spare powered computer speaker set was cannibalized for the amplifier and volume control for the cabinet's speaker. The main speaker of the computer speaker set was removed and the additional speaker housing was discarded. The left and right speaker output from the amplifier was rewired to the cabinet's speaker. The housing for the main computer speaker, with only the amplifier board inside, was then attached to the computer case with double sided tape.
The control panel for Phase One was re-used for this phase. A large hole was cut in the original cabinet's control panel. The hole left just a metal frame on the top side of the original control panel. The wooden custom control panel was then attached to the metal frame with screws. The control panel is held in place with the clamps from the original control panel. The player 1 and player 2 positions were switched from a standard arcade layout, per Elizabeth's request. Although it seems weird, it actually works well for "hot seat" games (where players alternate turns.) For simultaneous two player games, the controls are configured back to the player-1-on-the-left layout within MAME (which saves control configurations for each game.)
The coin door that came with the cabinet had coin mechanisms that were calibrated for U.S. quarters. If any coin other than a quarter is placed into the slot, it is sent to the coin return. If it is a quarter, then it is sent to the coin box in the bottom of the cabinet, tripping a switch along the way. This only works if power is supplied to the coin mechanism, otherwise all coins go to the coin return. Fortunately, the coin mechanisms and the light bulbs for the coin slots all work off +5V, which the leads from the computer power supply have. The mechanisms and lights were wired to the red (positive) and neighboring black (ground) wires off one of the hard drive power connectors from the power supply. Then, the switches that the coins trip were wired to the I-Pac.
The cabinet is now basically complete. There is nothing left to be done that needs to be done. There are a few things that would be nice to do. Like redoing the monitor bezel, rounding off the side of the wooden part of the control panel facing the player, adding a light in the marque above the player, painting and/or covering the wooden part of the control panel with an arcade themed decal, adding additional controls (like a spinner), maybe tweeking the control layout, or upgrading to a faster computer/video card. However, it is now in a state where it looks and functions great.