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BackgroundHaving grown up during the golden age of the arcade in the early 80's, I felt more than a little nostalgia when I discovered MAME. But experiencing classic games again by toggling on a PC keyboard was not enough. I needed to make the illusion complete and build a full-blown cabinet.I chose to build something like a Golden Tee 2000 arcade cabinet because it is reminiscent of the classic cabinet style, yet it adds more conventional elements like an exaggerated control panel and a contrasting top section that swoops away from the base. The design also makes it relatively easy to disassemble the cabinet for transportation or fitting through doorways.
DesignI used 4x8-foot sheets of 3/4-inch double-sided Melamine, which is a Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) with thin laminate sheets on both sides. The laminate makes a nice finish, and using double-sided sheets makes it easy to do a quarter-inch setback on the panels for visual appeal. Melamine has good dimensional stability and density, but chipping can be a problem if you don't know how to deal with it. I used 2 sheets of double-sided black and 1 sheet of double-sided white Melamine.
PrototypeTo get a feeling for the dimensions and playability, I assembled a full-size prototype out of a lightweight plywood called Lauan. I used 1/4 inch Lauan, which a Jigsaw cuts like butter. It saved me a lot of time by finding mistakes early and improved my design by making it obvious which dimensions needed changed.
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