My Pinball Arcade Cabinet (iPinCade)

[Codeena]

Yeah.... I am gonne make it playable first, and later on add bells and whistles.

Ok, then i go for the core, is cheaper. Thanks.


Edit

Got my wood, tomorrow i hope to borrow someones electric saw to make the cabinet. I think i will make the playfield even steeper then yours. Or maybe that i can alter the angle, not sure.

I have heavy laminated planks. For backbox i will use teak wood i think, but lets first saw the cabinet.

Hey Dutch, I love teak wood! Actually, most of our furniture is Danish teak wood (including the photos of my iPinCade from the 1st post). I'd agree that the Core is the way to go since it's cheaper and you're not going to use the shell anyway. And yes, making it steeper than mine will make it easier to view being a desktop-style cab. Good luck!

 

[sotie]

I started working on my iPinCade today. I'm using the same dimensions as Codeena. I got most of the main cabinet assembled. I still need to cut the wood for the back box and assemble it. All the little nicks in the wood (around the screw holes and some edges) will be sanded and painted black so they won't show when it's completed. The unfinished edges on the back will be painted too. Also, you can see that the front panel is a little off on the top edge but it won't matter because the lockdown bar will cover it and the aluminum rails will cover the exposed edges on the side panels. Next, I'll probably start putting the rails in that will support the board which holds up the iPad. I'll be redoing the flip-down access panel in the back of the unit because one of my cuts wasn't straight. I just wanted to put it on now to see how well the cabinet magnet I purchased works. The hardest part is going to be cutting down the lockdown bar. It's funny because I purchased the exact same one as Codeena without even knowing which brand his was. Mine is brand new so if it doesn't get scratched up during the cutting process then I'll probably just leave it shiny instead of polishing down like Codeena did. I haven't made a final decision yet but I might construct the backbox so I can slide my bluetooth Jambox speaker into it. Also, I haven't decided yet if I'm going to install a small cabinet knob on the back access panel or just cut a small hole so you can pull the door open with a finger. The knob might be nicer but you wouldn't be able to play with the unit flat against a wall.

In addition to what Codeena did I'll probably install a power button near the back of the left panel and a led power light flush mounted right next to it.

I think if I was going to make another one of these I'd just use regular wood instead of trying to deal with the black laminated wood. It chips too easily while cutting. I'd probably either stain it black or spray on black paint after sanding.

Anybody else start one yet?

Anything in the pictures that isn't black will either be covered or painted black when it's complete.

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

Haha, i have the same planks, only i cant find some one with a good electric saw....

Nice start sotie, good luck.

 

[HOW]

Fantastic project and result - Bravo

 

[Codeena]

Hey Sotie, looking good and I like that wood grain look. I was also thinking of adding a really small pull knob for the back but preferred it flush.

Perhaps one of those toys in the background would make a nice backbox topper, especially one of those Barbie-like dolls.

Have fun!

 

[sotie]

Hey Sotie, looking good and I like that wood grain look. I was also thinking of adding a really small pull knob for the back but preferred it flush.

Perhaps one of those toys in the background would make a nice backbox topper, especially one of those Barbie-like dolls.

Have fun!

Nope, no toys on it! I decided that I'm going to ditch the grain and spray the entire cabinet with a metallic black paint. I did a test piece today and I prefer it to the laminated wood finish. It gives it a pseudo metallic look.

 

[sotie]

I completed my cabinet build a couple of days ago. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Especially since I didn't take woodshop class in school! Everyone that's seen it thinks that it's really cool.

I really want to thank Codeena for sharing his with us, putting up with all my questions and sharing the dimensions with me. He really was an inspiration!

I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow and post them here.

 

[Chris Dunman]

Along with other guys here, I reckon there's a market here for this clearly excellent cab. There's another thread for farsight to consider having the iPhone working in concert as a DMD.

Any thoughts or plans maybe to tweak your cab to support that idea?

Excellent work by the way

 

[Codeena]

Along with other guys here, I reckon there's a market here for this clearly excellent cab. There's another thread for farsight to consider having the iPhone working in concert as a DMD.

Any thoughts or plans maybe to tweak your cab to support that idea?

Excellent work by the way

Thanks so much Chris.

Yes, having an iPhone as a DMD would be an awesome addition to my iPinCade and if Farsight would add support for it, I would definitely tweak my cab to add it. The plexiglass with the backglass and translite artwork easily comes out so it wouldn't be a problem. I would use the same black plastic material as the iPad cover to cut out a speaker panel/dmd bezel. With the size of the iPhone, it would take up a good amount of space in the back box and look different than a real pinball backbox, but I think it'd be worth the upgrade. I would also consider making the back box taller to accommodate the iPhone. If they did add DMD support, hopefully you could resize the DMD to whatever size you'd like, and hopefully any iPhone would work well. Lastly, if you could have the option to output the sound through the iPhone, that would be very nice.

 

[Nightwing]

Impressive work.

 

[sotie]

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my mini-cab (iPinCade) today.

The only thing I haven't done yet is apply the Pinball Arcade adhesive stickers to the sides. I've already printed them on nice glossy adhesive paper but I don't have the right knife to cut them out yet.

I was able to locate a brand new lockdown bar for a reasonable price so I decided to leave the finish shiny instead of polishing it down since there weren't any scratches on it. Also, instead of joining the cut lockdown bar pieces at the seams I overlapped the endcaps. I queried four people and they all preferred that look better. I'm still not sure if I like it better this way or not but I can easily remove it and cut off a bit more from the center piece to join at the seams if I decide to. I used the same aluminum rails as Codeena but I decided to paint them with the metallic black paint I used for the cabinet. If you look closely you can see speckles of the original aluminum coming through; I like the effect. The rear of the backbox is fitted my Jawbone Jambox Bluetooth speaker inside. It's facing forward and TPA sounds at least 10x better with it! There's also a notch in the rear to easily turn the speaker on/off. At my local plastic shop I got three pieces cut: the small ABS plastic for the rectangular red mini-buttons on the front panel; the bezel covering the iPad (the iPad is white but you'd never know it!); the clear plastic in front of the backglass image.

On the sides the buttons are Flipper, Nudge and Special. The round buttons on the front are Start and Ball Launch. The four mini-buttons are Pause, Joystick Up, and Joystick Left/Right (not currently implemented in TPA).

Thanks again to Codeena for sharing with me! This wouldn't have came out so great without you!!!

Here's a 1 minute gameplay video (sorry about the screen glare!):

 

[sotie]

 

[sotie]

A view of the inside looking down from the top:

A view of the inside looking in from the rear door:

 

[Codeena]

Thanks again to Codeena for sharing with me! This wouldn't have came out so great without you!!!

You're welcome Sotie. Looks very nice and my cab has a new brother. Enjoy!

 

[Fungi]

Pretty nifty. So, what happened to the icade core? Does it still exist or did it give its' life for this?

 

[smbhax]

These are awesome : ooo

 

[sotie]

Pretty nifty. So, what happened to the icade core? Does it still exist or did it give its' life for this?

I really wanted to gut it for this project but my daughter insisted that she still wanted the Core so she can play other iPad games with it. So I had to buy a new one to cut open. At least the price is only $30 for them. I doubt that I'll be using the Core anymore for TPA since I have this now.

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

It looks fantastic mate!

 

[neilpinbot]

Very smart, Don't think I have it in me to build one myself, I'm sure some one could be on a nice little earner building them.

 

[vfpcoder]

Wow!!
That’s one sweet 'cab!! I bet that Bluetooth speaker enhances the "fun quotient" by at least a factor of two!!!