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The Cooling Conundrum

Posted on June 8, 2016 by fantahpants — 2 Comments

So… after all the hardware mounting work I decided to boot up the arcade and make sure its all in working order. The fans whirred up. Good. Bios boot screen. Check. Windows loaded. Nice. Everything looks to be in wor-…

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Posted in Arcade, DIY, Gaming, MAME, Retro, Technology, Uncategorized

“The neck’s broken. The brain is useless. We must find another brain.”

Posted on June 5, 2016 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

After the death of my iMac and accepting the Raspberry Pi didn’t quite cut it for heavier emulation, I embarked on a quest to salvage my old gaming PC and resurrect it into the body of my now hollow brained arcade cabinet. I…

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Mr T. Mold and the All-Mighty Arcade Assembles!

Posted on February 13, 2016 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

The trick with knocking in the T-Mold is taking your time with a steady constant pace moving along as the mold locks in place. Also make sure to put plenty of cloth material between the hammer and the mold. I…

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Condensation desperation -The final coat of paint

Posted on February 10, 2016 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

I took the day off specifically to finish the final coat of paint on the arcade and I’m greeted with this pissy-ass-on-and-off-rain-all-day crap? What do we say to rain? Not today!   BOOM! See this? This is pure ingenuity. You…

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Routering 101 (not routering 404)

Posted on February 7, 2016 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

Score! After speaking with some mates at work I managed to persuade Mr Young to make use of his prized power tool. Sun. Hot! Sun. Bad! Unfortunately timing was not on my side. I had picked the hottest day in…

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“No colors anymore, I want them to turn black”

Posted on February 1, 2016 by fantahpants — 1 Comment

  For those of you just tuning in (reading in?) I have decided on painting my arcade black. Sounds like it was a simple decision right? Wrong. If you are curious on the alternate ideas I’ve had (with their pro’s…

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Posted in Arcade, DIY, Gaming, iMac, Retro, Uncategorized

Trial and Paint: Varnish, Vinyl or black finish?

Posted on November 25, 2015 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

  Originally I had my heart set on a classic vinyl-like 80s finish to my arcade, but once I saw it all together with its grains still showing I had doubts about covering it up. A test was in order!…

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Dismantle Day: Sanding, sanding and more sanding

Posted on November 24, 2015 by fantahpants — 2 Comments

Dismantle day was a sad day but after many weeks of tests I had felt confident that the layout of buttons and feel of the arcade was right. After saying my farewells to my newly built friend I took hold…

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Drilling Holes Kicking Goals

Posted on June 21, 2015 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

I know you are all still mesmerized by our last carpentry conquest (of course I speak of the majestic drawer mechanism) but I have more progress to announce! Let’s start by taking it from the drawing board. With the house…

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Posted in Arcade, Gaming, iMac, Retro

Operation “Like a glove”

Posted on December 9, 2014 by fantahpants — Leave a comment

In my excitement to use a newer model iMac I forgot about 1 very important thing in woodwork, measurements. As you can see above there is a gap about 10mm each side when trying to fit the 21.5 inch screen…

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Posted in Arcade, DIY, Gaming, iMac, Retro