Galaga Arcade Cabinet

Building a Galaga arcade cab fram scratch

Some new considerations

Posted by Andrew Burch on February 12, 2011
Posted in: Galaga Arcade Cabinet. Tagged: , , . Leave a Comment

As I draw closer to cutting up some wood to begin the actual cab itself, I have been reconsidering a few of the original decisions I had made regarding the cab shape, size and placement of the internals. One of the original inspirations I had was a cab by Homepin. It’s a lowboy multiboard, and I loved the internal design. Here is a link. (Note: For those of you looking for good write up on building a cab, this link should prove useful! There is a good parts list and price break down, clear photos of the build process and some cool ideas for the internals).

What I loved most about this cab was how everything was built into the door. Open the front door and everything is right there. Great for construction and maintenance. My original goal was to do a similar thing, but with the Centipede cabinet. But lately I have been leaning more towards a Galaga cabinet. The reason being is I grew up playing Galaga. It’s one of the driving forces behind building this cab. I think I would love and appreciate the final result more if the cab closer resembled an actual Galaga cab.

A link I came across a few days back was a Galaga cab restoration. I was very impressed by how clean the internals were and the final result of the cab. I remember saying “I’d love to sit down and play on that!”. And that’s what I want with my cab. So it’s got me rethinking a few things 🙂

So this changes a few things – but mostly, I cannot have a front door with everything right there. It will have to be a rear door, like the actual Galaga cab. I still plan on having a secondary game button, and MIGHT try and find room for a trackball on the control panel so I can play the trackball games on the multiboard (if a choose). The coin door on the front I think will be modified for my cab. It will exist, although in a cut down version. I would like to hook up the test/services switches just inside this door for easy access (instead of having to go via the back). But otherwise it should remain about the same.

The multi board is quite small, so will required much less space than the original Galaga PCB. What I am thinking is attaching everything to a removable board at the base, and allow for a vertical board on the side, should I choose to install an original PCB in the future. The front panel will contain the coin mech, coin counter and test switches.

I still have about 2 weeks before I get the wood and being cutting, so there is still time to clear my thoughts. But the more I think about the final result, the more I lean towards a Galaga Cab…

Screen

Posted by Andrew Burch on February 11, 2011
Posted in: Galaga Arcade Cabinet. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

Deciding on what to do with the screen took some time. There were basically 4 clear options i could choose from.

1) LCD PC Monitor. The Multiboard has a standard 15 pin monitor connection on the board, so hooking up an LCD screen would be no problem. The pros here are they are easy to get, not too expensive, thin and light. The downside here is the cab would lose some authenticity. I would expect to pay around $120 – $160 depending on size and brand.

2) VGA PC Monitor (CRT). As mentioned for the LCD, I could use the 15 pin monitor cable. The positives here are its more authentic, even cheaper and pretty easy to come by (thanks to eBay and hard rubbish collections). Image quality will be fine although not the best

3) CRT Arcade monitor. The most expensive option, but one that would delivery the best, most authentic results. But yes, expensive. In the range of $500+ entry level.

4) TV + Chassis. Image quality here would beat the entry level arcade monitors, and the chassis would set me back around $250. A bloke on the aussie arcade forums does them up and provides all support required. I would need to do some wiring here, so there is more work involved. On the up side I have a 68cm TV sitting around doing nothing I could use.

Ordered by price (approx):
1) CRT ($10)
2) LCD ($130)
3) TV + Chassis ($250)
4) Arcade CRT ($300+)

Ordered by quality:
1) Arcade CRT
2) TV + Chassis
3) CRT
4) LCD

I decided to do some hunting around on ebay to see what sort of price I could snag a 19″ or 21″ CRT monitor. Given their size, it would be pick up only, and have to be close by. I managed to come by one – a 21″ for just 99 cents. So I grabbed it. My real decision in the end was between the TV + Chassis and CRT. CRT won out in the end because of the price difference. For what I want, with the old school games on the JAMMA board – the CRT should be fine image quality wise. And for under a $1 – hard to beat price wise 🙂

Not the best picture – but a quick snap after bringing it home. I will remove the stand before using it as I doubt I will need it.

Monitor

Centipede cab plans

Posted by Andrew Burch on February 7, 2011
Posted in: Galaga Arcade Cabinet. Tagged: , . Leave a Comment

I came across some more detailed plans for the Centipede cab I want to build. Not sure what lead me here as I wasn’t searching for plans, but I found this very interesting, and it should help me when it comes time to build.

pos. cm inch pos. cm inch
A 85,09 33.5 M 67,31 26.5
B 92,075 36.25 N 81,28 32
C 100,965 39.75 O 68,58 27
D 104,775 41.25 P 180,975 71.25
E 137,795 54.25 Q 64,135 25.25
F 158,75 62.5 R 7,62 3
G 175,895 69.25 S 76,2 30
H 68,58 27 T 73,66 29
I 142,24 56 U 13,97 5.5
J 70,485 27.75 V 31,75 12.5
K 61,595 24.25 W 60,325 23.75
L 80,01 31.5
Marquee glass 60,5cm (60,325cm?) x 16,5cm  (23,75″ x 6,5″)

There was more useful information on other cab plans, and control panel building which can be found here.

Power Supply

Posted by Andrew Burch on February 7, 2011
Posted in: Galaga Arcade Cabinet. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

When I had settled on using the 60 in 1 JAMMA board, I found I had multiple options for my power supply. There are the standard switching power supplies used in arcade cabs, and there was also support for the older style PC (AT) power supplies. There is a connector right there on the board for 12V straight from the power supply. Most people had told me it was cheaper to just use an old PC power supply. I had a hunt around, but was unable to come up with one. I did find a few, but most were priced similar (slightly cheaper) than the switching power supplies. So because of that, I decided to use a standard switching power supply. Another thing of note too is I believe you can use the newer style ATX power supplies, but you need to short out a couple of the wires. If you are looking to lower costs on your build, getting a cheap power supply is a way to cut $20 – $30 off your final build cost.

Power supply

These are all screw connectors – which is great since I’m using a JAMMA harness. The harness wires for the power are all fork connectors, which will connect up with this easily. This one set me back $35, which included postage. It was an eBay purchase, although many online stores like OzStick and GameDude have them. Also if you are planning to have gun games, I believe you need a 3v connection – which is only available on some power supplies. So it’s worth making sure the power supply you get will power everything in your cab.

More pieces for the stock pile

Posted by Andrew Burch on February 7, 2011
Posted in: Galaga Arcade Cabinet. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

A few more bits arrived today (recent eBay purchases).

First up is the speaker and grill. It’s 10cm x 10cm in size (4″) and about 28mm in height, 5W 8 OHM. I may decided to put a larger speaker in to the final build of the cab, but I think this should be fine to start with. The Grill is made of a high impact plastic and roughly 12.5cm in size. This set me back around $9 (which included postage). The only issue I have is the connectors are slightly bigger than those running off the JAMMA harness. So i’m going to have to modify the connector on the harness to get it hooked up.
Speaker and grill

Secondly is a lock for the cab door. This will go on the front. I will be building something of a custom coin door. The plan is to have most of the cab built into the door, so using a proper coin door is out of the question (I’ve probably mentioned that already). This should do nicely. There are a variety of sizes available – this one is 23mm. It set me back around $5.
Coin door lock