Help Request: Building a Time Crisis 1 Arcade style Cabinet

Hi everyone

Today I could do with your help. I have finally found a stable career with a decent salary and I am looking to do something fun with my evenings. I have always loved Time Crisis 1, it was all me and my brother played on our PlayStation with the official Konami light gun. I would love to have that nostalgia back and thought I would do it in the best way possible, by owning the arcade cabinet! Much to my dismay, they are like 2 grand here in the UK and finding a Time Crisis 1 machine seems pretty hard.

So I decided I will make one myself as a fun project! I have done 0 woodwork since I was 14, and could really use your help guys! I will pretty much be making a playstation arcade cabinet, as it will just be a big ol CRT in a home made arcade case with a playstation inside it. I still have my original PS1 and Time Crisis + gun, but I might buy another gun or 2 if they are cheap as mine is probably on its last legs.

So this is where I need help please!

• I know 0 about CRT's, what is good, what is bad, what size should I be making this thing, will it work with the lightgun, I guess it needs to be 4:3 etc. Any help here would be massively appreciated.
• Designing the cabinet itself once a suitable screen has been found. Should I do it on graph paper, should I find some free basic software, or should I find someone online willing to draw up some plans.
• What wood would I need to use, what tools would I need etc.
• Budget. Can I realistically do this for around 200 pounds?

Thanks for any help guys. If I get the project off the ground I will do a recurring blog post to let you know how many fingers I have lost.

Matt

Progress:

Lightgun - So thanks to some info from Phanto I have found a few decent lightguns with pedals on ebay. I am not decided on which to get as they all look a bit lame. I own the namco branded grey gun and love it, the ones with pedals all seem a bit cheap looking.

TV- I have found a 51inch CRT on ebay for 50 quid that I can collect from near(ish) me. I am waiting to hear back from the seller on the refresh rate of the TV as I have read that rear projection CRTs only work with 50Hz, not 100Hz.

Materials - Thanks to diz I have some idea of the material provided, I have not looked into the cost of materials yet as this will likely be the stumbling block that will at least slow down production!

Any help is always appreciated. Thanks guys

Budget? Nah. You probably need to spend a bit more.

At the least if you want the arcade experience, find a PS1/PS2 Guncon-like peripheral that includes a pedal.

This might help you..

How to build an arcade cabinet

I had more or less the same idea, I'm just waiting to get stable first. My idea was to put actual USB controllers instead of the buttons out of the side of a cocktail cabinet (like you see at a best buy or something). Then, I would forget the arcade games and just have my new gaming cabinet play SNES, Genesis, GBA, and NES games.

I know 0 about CRT's, what is good, what is bad, what size should I be making this thing, will it work with the lightgun, I guess it needs to be 4:3 etc. Any help here would be massively appreciated.

Since you'll be making a custom cabinet, you should determine the size you want for your own needs and the availability of the screens, if you're definitely after a CRT. Personally, I'd think about why you'd want to have a CRT. (The Time Crisis cabinet I knew from my arcade had a large rear projection screens I think. although some smaller ones did have CRTs.) When re-housing CRT screens, you will be faced with huge "killer" voltages from the screen's HT circuit so will need to be very careful in mounting one in a custom cabinet. LCD would be a better (more reliable, lighter, less dangerous, less bulky) idea in my opinion.

Designing the cabinet itself once a suitable screen has been found. Should I do it on graph paper, should I find some free basic software, or should I find someone online willing to draw up some plans.

I would use some drawing software to design the shapes you want and do the rest by measuring and marking your boards as you cut them.

What wood would I need to use, what tools would I need etc.

MDF sheet or ply sheets would do. 15 and 18 mm would be adequate. You can use 22mm square wooden battens along the edges to strengthen the joints. The sheets come in 8 by 4 and 6 by 3 feet metric equivalents, so you may need a sheet per side. The best tool to use for cutting prefect edges (and you will see a lot of edges in such a design) is a router. A common manual wood saw or a skill saw (circular saw) for straight cuts and a jigsaw for curved cuts may also suffice. (I must warn you that routers and circular saws can be very dangerous tools in the wrong hands.) You will need to think about how you finish the cabinet. You will require an electric drill/screwdriver.

Budget. Can I realistically do this for around 200 pounds

No - unless you can get the materials and tools for free. In addition to the TV and wood, you will need mounting brackets, several types of fixings (don't skimp - get quality screws) , metal or plastic control plates, connectors, filler, sand paper, paints or other finish covering, and a host of other materials that depend on your time budget and preferred finishing requirements.

I have not made an arcade cabinet but have made many similar things. In my experience, it is not a cheap option to make something yourself, since there will always be plenty of unexpected and incidental costs involved. But is hugely rewarding to create something unique and functional, so good luck with your build!

@diz: Thanks for the replies everyone! I have a few questions for Diz.

The reason I say CRT is that I dont think the lightgun for the playstation works with an LED tv as I cannot get it to work on any TV in my house. I understand that voltages are a danger, but I was going to leave the screen as a full TV unit and not mess around with it, just leave it as a TV and build the cabinet around it.

@thephantomnaut : I would love to get the peddles and that, but I dont think they would work with a standard PS1 would they?

I have some off branded PS1 Guncon with the pedal. They are usually stuff from China but you can probably do a Google or eBay search and get a similar controller.

@thephantomnaut: Looks like the guncon was an american peripheral, the only link I found was amazon.com so that sucks.

@thephantomnaut: oh I found this on ebay. The gun is ugly but it might work! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Predator-2-Light-gun-with-Guncon-Reload-Pedal-for-PS1-Playstation-or-Sega-Saturn-/321447320338?pt=UK_Controllers_Attachments&hash=item4ad7c0db12

Actually there are a fair few guns that come with pedals, one with recoil. I am definitely on the right track!

@mattjam3000: Yup, you are right. Older console light-guns pick up on the scan lines of a CRT, so unless you want to run a PS3 version (for example, or emulated version) on an LCD screen you'll be stuck with this issue.

I'm not sure about the idea of leaving a CRT in its original case and building a cabinet around it. CRTs are quite deep by their nature and the screen is long way back in a traditional arcade cabinet. I know it depends on the type of TV, but CRT screens typically have a speaker and controls on the front too that might make them unnecessarily wide for your intended use.

Even if you do leave the TV in its original box, you may need to remove the speaker and fix that to your cabinet, so might need to do some fiddling inside your TV. You might also need to relocate the volume and channel controls (and IR receiver) to a more accessible place too.

As someone who used to dabble with TVs, let me suggest that a CRT - even when unplugged and turned off - can have enough residual capacitance in it's HT circuit to kill a person.

Consider creating adequate ventilation in your cabinet, especially if you do leave a CRT in its case inside the unit. Also think about creating an easy access point (door or removable rear panel) and how you would synchronize the cabinet powering up and running the game with minimal input from yourself.

Like with all potential projects, the more you think about it, the less inclined you might feel to execute and the more problems you might find to put you off. The real delight is in overcoming adversity and constructing elegant solutions to difficult problems, so get started and stick to your vision. Let me know if I can be of any assistance!

I remember having such fun with a game called "Point Blank" on my PS1. Although I liked Time Crisis in the Arcade it didn't feel as good on the PS1 for me. I guess I was spoiled by a local "Sega Centre" arcade opening up at around that time with those huge Time Crisis screens!

@diz: Thanks for the nice detailed reply. You are right, thinking all this through is a little daunting! Finding the right tv is my main priority right now. I am going to start calling charity shops and local dumps to see if they have anything. The reason I would want to leave the tv as is, is like you say they can kill you if you touch the wrong part. As much as I want to do this project, I dont think im willing to mess around with an open crt and end up killing myself. Hopefully I can find a TV with not too much bezzle. As with the Ir sensor and speakers, because im designing the "shell" myself, i can make a hole for the Ir sensor at the least, not sure about speakers that depends on location on tv. I am definitely keen to get started but until I find a decent TV I cant really make any plans for the case itself

@diz: What size do you think the CRT should be, screen size not including bezzle. I am guessing it needs to be 4:3. I was looking at 51inch but I think that's too big and I have a feeling its 100hz. Was trying to find the original spec for the screen but couldn't find that info

@mattjam3000: 51" seems gigantic for a CRT - I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those. Such a size must have been awfully deep to allow the electron gun to scan at the rear of the tube! There is a limit to how large a vacuum tube can be manufactured and I reckon 51 inches is on the very cusp of that limit. I think the original "large screen" time crisis cabinets were rear projection also. Since you'll be fairly close to the screen and viewing the cruddy game resolution, (as dictated by the scan lines it is going to be 625 lines I think for PAL UK), a suitable maximum size would be in the 30" range, or less. I'd guess the original arcade cabinets were around 27 or 29 inches and 4:3 aspect ratio.

Obviously, the larger the screen the bigger the arcade cabinet must be, but this feature is entirely up to you and depends only on your preference and the availability of suitable CRT screens.

Fiddling inside a TV is not necessarily dangerous as long as you know where to look for the HT circuitry. There is a large thick wire that plugs into the side of the tube and leads to a usually large ceramic part on the pcb. This area of the board (especially on the solder side) should be avoided. There are usually some notices around the dangerous area of a TV PCB. A tip passed on to me was to always try and keep one hand in my pocket and never fiddle inside a TV set with both hands at once. Wearing rubber soled shoes also helps. Then if you are shocked, the path taken by the current should avoid your heart.

I have a feeling that charity shops are unable (under UK law) to pass on electrical appliances. A local dump might be an idea, although I wonder if any sets will work from there. It might be worth reconsidering a more modern emulated LCD setup instead - it would certainly be easier to build. Also you could try Gumtree and eBay for unwanted TVs or even put a wanted as in the local paper (or Gumtree) if you get desperate. (I've not used Gumtree but a acquaintance of mine swears by it for all the free stuff that's available.

@diz: Hi Diz, thanks again for the fantastic reply. Ok I will pass on the huge screen for sure! The LCD emulation is not something I have looked into, how exactly would the lightguns work with a setup like that?

@mattjam3000: I know that you can get Time Crisis emulator for Mame and there are light-guns that work with PCs.

I thought that Time Crisis 1 was available for the PS3 and there are also PS3 light-guns that work with the typical modern LCD screens. I think the Move controller can also be used for this. I was mistaken in thinking Time Crisis was remade for the PS3 though - sorry if I raised any hopes there. It is a later version that was released for PS3, called Time Crisis: Rasing Storm. Apologies for my mistake.

There are CRTs for sale on Gumtree though. This one might do. Since you already have the PS1 and Guncon, CRT does seem like the most original route to take.

@diz: Yeah I think I will stick with CRT and PS1, like you say I have the gun and I know it works, I can also buy a few different guns with pedals to find one I like. Is 26 big enough for a shooter arcade game? I really have nor reference for this as I only remember playing it on the huge 2 player ones in arcades, and cannot remember the size of the screen we had at home!

@mattjam3000: The size is something you can potentially determine to your desires, but after looking at images of time crisis arcade machines, I think the diagonal of 26 inches for a CRT arcade cabinet is about right, especially in the 4:3 dimension. Time Crisis machines came in various forms it seems. The image on the left shows the edges of the screen have a border around them, making the screen in this cabinet look larger than it is. The pictured gun handle can't be more than 6 inches long, so you can estimate the dimension of the screen from that.

There is also the consideration of standing right in front of an arcade machine, as opposed to sitting on a sofa playing a PS1 through a conventional TV set some distance away.

Screen sizes have increased dramatically in recent years. My first PC monitor was 14 inches, while 17 inches was considered a luxury for only graphic designers and show-offs. 32 inch CRT TV's were considered generous in the 1990's and larger screens were usually rear projection only. The living room has changed and I remember in my childhood that the TV set was hidden in a corner and many people had their TVs hidden behind cabinet doors, as watching TV had much more of a stigma associated with it then than it does today where the largest possible TV screen dominates most living rooms.

The only experience I have with arcade cabinets is when I worked in 2nd hand shop after I left school. The shop had an original Space Invaders arcade machine with a small black and white screen and coloured bands overlaying it. The machine kept going wrong (screen blanking out) and I repeatedly fiddled with the boards and connectors to get the thing working again - which it did for a while before going wrong again. I learned much about fixing things that turned up through the shop (a bit like the mice in Bagpuss). I remember the Arcade cabinet weighed a ton since I had to move it away from the wall every time it needed a "service". Sorry, I'm rambling...

@diz: Wow thanks again Diz. Honestly I never played on a Time Crisis one machine that looked like that so building one is going to be a fun, interesting experience! I will do my best not to buy too big a TV! I dont think the one I will make will have anywhere near as fancy a front end to it as the one in the picture. I am still struggling to suss the dimensions out. How much space do you think there is between standing position of the operator and the screen itself, how recessed into the machine is it. Also is that a separate piece of glass at the front of the machine? Would that not mess with the Gun calibration?