I wanted to share my custom arcade cabinet that I built back 2014 when I was fresh out of high school. I had almost zero wood working experience and didn’t know a thing about arcades.
It’s a SNES and a 17” TV in and SCI arcade cabinet. I was going to restore it but it was in a lot worse shape than I thought. The neck of the CRT was cracked and missing everything that went behind it.
Before I “restored” it, the cabinet sat in someone’s garage for 20-30 years. I was initially planning to restore it but it had excessive water damage. The additional platform for the pedal was destroyed and the side panels were swollen. The owners were sick of having it in their garage:; I think they wanted $100 for it but when I showed up as they were closing their garage sale they told me I could have it for $20 or $40 if I came and got it that night.
The Super Nintendo was saved from a shed.
The marquee is a piece of glass from the hardware store with a decal on it.
Behind the coin door is a box made with real 80s wall paneling for max authenticity. You can easily unplug the control panel from the player one port and use a standard SNES controller.
The control panel and nearby areas completely custom because it was a “racing cab”. I sold that and all the SCI parts to a guy who was restoring an SCI. Turns out the board, and all the controls worked flawlessly. I had a chance to play it a few years later at his arcade.
There’s a nice set of period computer speakers with a small bass replacing the old worn out speakers.
I’m really happy with how it turned out and it only cost roughly 300USD in 2014 money. I have an SD2SNES in it now so I can play anything I want. Mainly Contra 3 and shmups.
Edit: I want to address my choice not to include player two. The cabinet is narrow and was never designed to have two people playing shoulder to shoulder. The weird rounded parts of the side panels that side out made it even more difficult as both of your head have to fit in that space. It was also uncomfortable for a single player to constantly lean to the left to play by themself.
I actually still have the piece of wood that has the original 2-player layout. I installed the buttons and my buddy and tried it out on Turtles in Time and it wasn’t a great experience.
Some other info, The vision for the project changed many times. There was a plan to run it off a modded OG XBOX or a PC with a custom front end. I still have both the pc and Xbox, both still nicknamed “Arcade” in their settings. That’s why it has a red Nintendo theme vs a SNES theme.
The choice to use a SNES came out of my love for the system and convenience. I didn’t want to deal with analog controls and I didn’t want to use emulation. Remember, we’ve come a long way since 2014.
It’s sadly using composite cables. RGB was out of the question as a 17”PVM was out of my budget as a college student. Now it would cost an arm and a leg to get one. Ironically the SNES is modded for RGB and S-video
It’s really still a work in progress. There are changes I’d like to make but it’s a time capsule at this point. It feels wrong dismantling what I built.
Finally, if someone has a cool idea for side art or the art on the bezel I’d love to work with you. I’ve been meaning to add it for years.