Mac-Man Arcade: 2. Getting Started

How I started:

Read the steps from rolfebox from "http://www.instructables.com/id/2-Player-Bartop-Arcade-Machine-Powered-by-Pi/?ALLSTEPS".

Bought my ingredients: (spent approximately $320)

• Raspberry Pi B+ Model - MicroCenter.com - I got it for $25
• I think you can get it cheaper since Raspberry Pi 2 is out now. 
• SD Card - 8GB $10, Raspberry Pi Case: $6
• 2 Player Mame Arcade USB kit with 2 Joysticks 4/8 way,16 HAPP Push buttons, 60 in 1. Ebay Seller: 4partyfun. - I got it for $59.95 (free shipping).
• You can ask for the color of joystick, they are nice enough to switch it to Red as requested. 
• Table or Bartop Arcade Cabinet - Ebay Seller: jcc-paul. - I got it for $75.00 (free shipping).
• It is quite heavy, the button holes didn't really fit and I had to enlarge the holes with a hole saw (it was quite a pain), the seller made a button hole on each side of the cabinet. I like the side hole idea where I can add push buttons for additional feature like volume control. Unfortunately, it doesn't have enough space to fit along with the control panel. I wish he could have made the hole 2 inches toward the rear, then it would be perfect. So, since the holes were unusable, I had to buy 2 metal hole plugs to seal them. It still looks cool and looks like the metal belongs there. By the way...be prepared to do a lot of sanding if you get this cabinet.
• If you are more of a handy man, you can make this yourself at a much lower cost. The website above from rolfebox actually gives you the measurements of the Arcade Cabinet that he made. Unfortunately, I live in an Condo and don't have enough space to work on this, it would be fun to make this your self.
• 19" Element TV from Craiglist - $50
• This TV fits perfectly into the Arcade cabinet that I bought. The viewing angles aren't great. The last time I checked, Fry's was selling a refurb for $69.
• Marquee - Backlit poster printing from "http://www.printmoz.com/backlit-posters/backlit-film" for $23 
• Shane designed the Marquee artwork with Photoshop Illustrator. 18w x 11h
• Quality was pretty good. Need to be aware of their printing measurements. We didn't take into account the crop marks in the artwork we sent them. So it looked like they scaled it slightly in the horizontal. It was shorter than the original design, but is still looks pretty good.
• Cabinet light, 13" from the hardware store - $14
• 2 pieces of custom cut plastic to sandwich the Marquee Artwork from local store - $12
• L shape aluminium Angle to hold the Marquee from Orchard Supply Hardware - $4.50
• Others (mostly from Dale Hardware)
• Paint - Water based Primer & Semi gloss Paint (Black Horizon from Benjamin Moore) - $20
• Veneer Edging - to seal the cabinet edge - $5
• Sand paper, Plastic Pads for the bottom of cabinet, Double sided tape, wood screws, Velcro tape. - $10

I did not buy all these at the same time, I did it through a few phases.

1. I started with getting the push button and joysticks. I got it working on my prototype cabinet.
2. Once I was satisfied with the prototype I started to look at the Arcade cabinet to decide if I wanted to make everything from scratch or get something with 80% ready made kit and I do my own detail work. I took the second route obviously.
3. Design the Marquee.
4. Put everything together.

Related Blog for 2 Player Bartop Arcade Machine:

Inspiration
Getting Started
Prototype
My Arcade Cabinet
Mac-Man / Machinko (Marquee Artwork)
03/14/2015 - The Pi Day