So, it's been almost three years since I completed the build of my first arcade machine. How is the machine holding up? Have there been any updates? Does it get any real use? I thought that since I hadn't posted anything on this blog in quite some time, I'd give a quick update regarding the cabinet today.
First off, the cabinet and components have held up better than ever expected. I've not had to replace a single part, nor have I had to do any real maintenance other than an occasional cleaning. This is partially a testament to spending the extra money on commercial grade controls (Ultimarc) as opposed to cheap knockoffs. The cabinet has undergone hundreds of hours of use... including many by "intense" teenagers without a single failure.
As far as usage... I'll admit that it doesn't get as much usage as the first year or so. But I still fire it up at least a couple of times a month for some Centipede, Pac-Man or Galaga. And despite all the other attractions in the "man cave" (pool table, dart board, slot machine, VR headsets, etc.), the first thing nearly every visitor between the ages of 10-60 gravitate towards first is the arcade. Sometimes they will spend an hour or more playing (generally this is the boomers/millennials who grew up in the arcade era).
I've not done any updates to the original install. With over 3,200 installed games, there are still games I haven't really explored or played. And although I tried to extensively document my build via this blog and other notes, I've already forgotten a lot of what I learned during the build and would have to spend some time 'relearning' if I were to do it over again.
The most popular post on this blog, by far, has been the posting regarding RGBCommander and Custom Animations. It is still pretty active today, and recently a reader that goes by the handle of Helmutcode created a web interface to assist in creating custom animation files. You can view the post for more details if interested.
So, while I've moved on and changed my focus to creating a YouTube channel and separate blog around implementation of smart home automation and technology, the arcade build will always hold a very special place in my heart. It was a true labor of love... and I thank those of you that read and commented on my journey.
Do you have your cabinet plans available? This is just the right size and design. I have been kicking around the idea of building one of these for years.
ReplyDeleteSorry, not really. I have a whole bunch of hand-drawn diagrams but not anything that I can really share other than the information that is posted throughout these various articles. The closest thing is the overall diagram found in: https://retroarcadebuild.blogspot.com/p/planning-arcade-cabinet-when-gecko.html
DeleteBut if you read the paragraph following the dimension diagram, I changed this after the build began. So, even anything that I do have drawn out isn't necessarily what I built. But the various articles about planning and building pretty much cover the design.