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Building An MP3 Jukebox From An Arcade Machine
Bigbird504 writes: "This one geek's frustration turned into this huge project of building an MP3 Jukebox out of an arcade machine. Why? He said, 'The problem was, my non-computer friends always had trouble selecting songs, creating songlists, deleting songlists, etc.' So he got to work building such a machine, providing the steps in case you would like to as well. Pictures are included as well. Pretty spiffy if you have a game room!"
I collect arcade games. Arcade games and pinball machines. Like many people that do this, I also have a dedicated game room. For quite a while, I had a computer in the gameroom that was
filled with MP3's. The problem was, my non computer friends always had trouble selecting songs, creating songlists, deleting songlists, etc. I don't know how many times I had to clear songlists before a party, or how many hours I have spent at a party just showing people how to use the thing. Basically, I got tired of doing this.
While working on a MAME cabinet (which isn't yet finished, and I'll post here when it is),
inspiration struck. I could build an MP3 jukebox for my gameroom. Something that was as easy to control as an arcade game, and had all of the features I needed to simply play music.
I started out with the intention of writing my own MP3 player. I got so far as to have an actual player written, and only needed to work on the interface and songlist abilities. While surfing the net for inspiration on my interface, I
stumbled onto a program that was written specifically for a MAME machine by Mark Schwartz.
In fact, the program was even named Arcade Jukebox . Mark apparently went through the same frustration I went through, and wrote a program himself. It was exactly what I was working on, so my development stopped after I tested his software out and found it to be exactly what I needed. His program gives the look and feel of an old-time jukebox while providing only the necessary features for such an application. Simple, and perfect. Step one completed!
The next step was to find an arcade cabinet that I could dedicate to a jukebox. I wasn't interested in sharing it with my MAME cabinet, as it was to be my main source of music for my gameroom, and therefore would be constantly accessed throughout any given night.
I was originally going to use a full sized, regular arcade game cabinet. I had a couple in the garage that weren't doing anything. Unfortunately, when you collect arcade games and
pinball machines, you find space to be your largest restriction. I could easily fit
another regular sized arcade machine in my gameroom, but I didn't want to waste so much
space for a simple jukebox. So, I decided I would use a mini-cabinet. Unfortunately,
my search for a mini-cabinet was difficult. I couldn't find one in my area to save my life! Then, one day, a fellow collector alerted me to an ad in the paper. There was a guy nearby that had 4 mini-cabinets for sale, $25 each! I visited him and found that his cabinets weren't quite the standard mini-cabinet size. His cabinets were, in fact, a medium size. They took up the same footprint as a mini-cabinet, but were much taller. I bought two of them. (I later bought a larger machine from him and got the other two for free!) Step two completed.
I already had a computer to use for this project. The one that noone could figure out how to use. Before putting it into place, however, I upgraded it a little. It is an Athlon 1.2Ghz machine, 128 Megs ram, and a 20 gig harddrive. Step three completed!
Time to start working on the thing. I removed the coindoor, and contemplated reusing it later, but decided against it as the hole it created was perfect for internal speakers.
I filled all the holes that I could find on the cabinet with wood filler, and sanded those repairs down. I didn't like the dark woodgrain of the cabinet and explored various ways to replace it. I settled on contac paper. Yes, the stuff you line shelves and kitchen drawers with. I found a couple rolls of a nice pine grain at the local hardware store, and painstakingly cut sheets to fit the cabinet. Wherever sheets
would overlap each other, I didn't want lines to be visible. My solution was to cut the paper along the 'grain' whenever it overlapped. This masks the overlaps much better than I ever expected. I have to point out the overlaps in most places. Step four completed!
I removed the existing monitor from the cabinet as computers don't like arcade monitor refresh rates. I could have made it work, but didn't want to go through the special wiring I would have to construct, and finding just the right video card that would output the correct refresh rates. So, instead, I bought an Eygo 19"
VGA arcade monitor. I bought this from eBay, and haven't seen any more available anywhere else in that size. What this monitor meant was that I could slip it right into the jukebox without any modification, and attach my computer to it. I was limited to 640x480, but that was ok as I was only running the jukebox program. Step five completed!
Along the edges of the cabinet is something called t-molding. This stuff is purely
decorative, and isn't necessary. I could have papered over it, or wood filled and painted
it, but I chose to simply replace the t-molding with new t-molding. One problem with this. t-molding has teeth that grip the wood, and keep it from slipping out of place. When I removed the t-molding, the slot that it inserted into became wider as it pulled some of the old wood out with it. The new t-molding I got wouldn't fit right.
Luckily, I had heard of this problem before and knew exactly what to do. I broke out my
trusty hot glue gun and started gluing the t-molding into place. This worked really well,
although, I may never be able to remove the t-molding again! Step six completed!
I needed a marquee for the top of the machine, to tell people what it was. This was going to be difficult, i suspected, but it really wasn't.
I was tempted to print up my own marquee on transparencies, but figured that when I printed
black, light would shine through too much and look washed out. Screen printing wasn't
an option as it was quite costly. I found a place called Photo Arts nearby which used a very large HP plotter to print with specialized UV resistant ink. The black was solid. That was important. They could also print it in one piece, which was another plus. On top of all that, I was able to supply my own artwork to them, so I didn't have to pay any design charges! The total cost for this was $28 for two of them. I bought a piece of plexiglass at my local hardware store and had them cut it to the correct size. I mounted the marquee behind the plexi, and put it into place. The light was already in the cabinet, and worked, so didn't
need to be replaced. Worked like a charm. Step seven completed!
Next step was to get the controls. I used a 4-way joystick and 4 buttons from Happ Controls . I already had these items in my inventory (I collect and fix these games, so I have a lot of this stuff laying around.) I installed the joystick and 4 buttons into the control panel. Step eight completed!
Ok, everything is ready. All I need now is a way to tie it all together. That is where
a device called the i-Pac came in. This is a very well designed device that allows me to hook up arcade joysticks and buttons, and program them to work as regular keypresses. It connects to the standard keyboard port, and allows me to connect a keyboard as it has a passthrough port, but a keyboard isn't needed once it is programmed. Programming the thing is a very easy process with the programming
software included with the device. The device itself is printed with wiring instructions,
and connecting it all together is VERY simple. Don't be intimidated by the wiring. You don't even have to do any soldering! Just crimp on some connectors to slip onto the joystick/buttons, and at the other end, they just screw right into the i-Pac using a screwdown type wiring block. It really couldn't be much easier. And since I don't need a mouse, this solution works perfectly. If I did, however, need a mouse, I could use an arcade trackball and an optipacdevice from the same company. Step nine done!
I used a 5 piece set of Altec Lansing speakers as my speaker system. There are two satellite speakers, two surround speakers and a subwoofer. Believe it or not, they sound GREAT. The subwoofer sits on the floor of the cabinet. The two satellites are run up the cabinet and are visible hanging above the monitor area. The volume control is on the right speaker. The two surround speakers are in front of that big hole that the coin door created, sitting on top of the computer case. All of the speakers are held into place using double sided tape, and thus far, no movement has occurred, except for the internal speakers as I have reached in many times playing and tweaking the unit. I didn't want that big hole there, so I bought a large picture frame and covered it with speaker grille fabric I found at Radio Shack. I screwed the frame into place from behind so no screws are visible from the outside. Step ten done!
I also wanted to be able to connect this to my home network to easily add songs, and
use it as a music server if I ever chose to. So, I made a cat 5 cable with an RJ45 connector on one end, and a port on the other. I mounted a 4 slotted plate to the back of the cabinet, and put the port into place. This extended the network port to the outside of the cabinet, and allows me to connect it to my network. I also wanted to be able to connect it to an external stereo system, so I used a 'Y' adapter for the speakers. The speakers connect to one side of the 'Y', while the other side goes right into one of the four slots. This allows me to connect the cabinet to an external stereo if I choose to at a later date. Or, I can transmit the sound, wirelessly, to my stereo in the house.
I also ran the MIC jack to the outside, too. Not sure why yet, though I could use it as an input at some point for another audio device if I needed to. Step 11 completed!
I also purchased a really cool power strip (sorry, I don't have the URL) that when it senses power on one plug, it powers the other plugs.
This was good because I plug everything into the other plugs, and the computer into the power sensing plug. I then ran a pair of wires from the POWER pins on my motherboard to a momentary switch mounted on the top of the cabinet. One press and everything comes on.
All that was needed now was to set up the software, which was as simple as editing
an ini file, and put the thing in the startup group. I am using Windows 98 for this
machine as I don't need anything more than that. After that, I used a different contac paper to define the control panel, and printed up an instruction sheet.
To control the player, you move the joystick up/down/left/right. This will highlight the next song in the list, or move to the right side
(as the list is displayed in two columns.) Button one queues a song, button 2 removes the currently playing song, button 3 removes
all songs from the queue, and button 4 has a dual purpose. Pressing it alone will go down the list to the next letter in alphabetical order, and pressing it up while holding the joystick UP will move up the next letter in the list alphabetically. People have been able to use this thing rather easily with very little instruction from me. This has allowed me to drink more beer at my parties. Now you understand the need.
Overall, this was an easier project than I expected it to be, and I recommend it to anyone that wants to try it out. It isn't terribly expensive, except for the computer. You can easily use a regular computer monitor if you wanted to.. I just wanted it to be more authentic.
Feel free to post any questions and I'll be happy to help out!
Below are a few pictures. Before and after shots of the cabinet, and a shot of the inside
looking down from the front. It's pretty packed in there. The whole front lifts up to allow easy access to the inside, as well as the back comes off of the cabinet.
I do not read or respond to AC's. If you want a discussion, log in. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
If you take the time to carefully read the article you'll see that he actually replaced the speakers.
aus.music.scrapbook
I mamed a japanese Jamma cabinet, it was only time-consuming, not difficult. At the time I first did it, I used a dos/windows-based setup, but since then I've experimented with making a linux mame cabinet using the linux advance mame. Works really well. The only holes I have left in my setup are getting a 640x480x15.75khz framebuffer console, and the same mode for an Xserver. Adding the ability to play mp3s is pretty simple once you have the whole OS in, I was worried about stuff like "What if someone cracks into it over the 802.11b link and changes my dip switch settings while I'm playing a marathon PacMan session" :)
info on the software he used: http://home.att.net/~mark.schwartz/.