I’ve moved the project info down to my latest response, with updated information, photos, progress, and the trials and tribulations of sharing this project outside of the TWOTA forums.
Scroll down to see. Thanks!
Well, other than slicing a bit of skin off the top of my knuckle with a hack-saw (remember kids saw AWAY from your hands) … tonights progress was great.
It should be fully operational by tomorrow evening, and I’ll have a YouTube video up then or something.
now it’s time to go watch some MONK on demand and go to (well deserved) sleep.
…
keep going
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keep going
Wow… much respect! I’d always wanted to do that, but could never justify the cost. Impressive!
Extremely impressive. You’re doing a fantastic job! If you haven’t lost a finger, then I’d say that the costs were worth it. 
UPDATED 10/03/2007
PROJECT BEGINNINGS
Some of you might recall that I modified one of those “Konami Big Arcade Machines” last year.
(okay, probably none of you do.)
I added a CPU loaded with MAME, about 300 titles, the DAPHNE Laser-Disc Arcade emulator, and a switch to switch the monitor between the MAME CPU and the original “Big Arcade” hardware.
It was fun, but since I have very little experience / skills with electrical engineering I couldn’t wire the existing joysticks to control the games - I needed to use XBOX 360 USB controllers.
AN OPPORTUNITY PRESENTS ITSELF
I’ve owned an original Dig-Dug cabinet for about 10 years, and this month it crapped out. It would crash all the time mid-game, and it rarely passed it’s start up ram test … so I got multiple estimates on repairs, and it turns out that it would cost more to repair than I paid for it. (I paid around $200 for the unit, and the shipping / repair costs quoted to me were very close and in some cases higher than that.)
As upsetting as the dying Dig-Dug was, I saw this as a wonderful opportunity to migrate the MAME hardware from the Konami Machine, and set it up with functional controls.
I started by buying an X-Arcade 2-player units (the basic one, without the trackball) …
and then I gutted the Dig Dug machine of all it’s electronic hardware and monitor framework (I’ve got an IDENTICAL sized 21 inch computer monitor that was just lying around, what luck!).
I made a new Marquee for the top of the machine and cut some plexiglass to put in front of it.
I gave the entire unit a fresh coat of paint (black and white)…
…installed the X-Arcade (which fit as nicely as I could have hoped with no further modifications to the cabinet sides.)
moved it to my living room, and set up the CPU, monitor, keyboard and additional brace hardware (to keep the joystick from moving without having to drill into it. And since MAME often requires tweaking I wanted full time access to a keyboard.) …
I added a door to the EX-coin door area, which now provides access to the CPU and power supply…
And, finally, today I added to the “retro” look of the cabinet with some nice dark woodgrain contact paper…
SO, NOW THEN…
I’m just about finished, it’s probably about 99% finished both hardware wise and aesthetically.
And as awesome as you guys have been, I learned a HARSH lesson … and I’ll take this time to share some advice with you all from that lesson.
If you’re going to do something like this … modify a game cabinet to run MAME, more importantly a “CLASSIC” pre-1990’s cabinet.
DO NOT SHARE THIS INFO with the ACTUAL “classic arcade” community on any of their message boards. To them, even though the Dig-Dug cabinet is MY property, what I did was equivalent to cutting the Mona Lisa out of her frame to replace it with one of those LCD slide-show photo frames.
Not only was I HARSHLY abused in the thread (very similar to this one) that I posted over at Digital Press, but there were threads on other classic game restoration/preservation sites describing what I had done.
(Amazing stuff really. I’ve never had people talk about me on boards where I’m not a member!)
And while, at the end of the day, I’m not really concerned about “preserving” classic arcade cabinets…
I DO respect classic gaming to the utmost … but I’d rather allow my friends access to HUNDREDS of classics in ONE cabinet than JUST Dig-Dug. Because, to me classic GAMING is about GAMES.
So, a word to the wise, if you’re going to gut a Pac-Man machine, don’t share that info with the “for real” classic gaming crowd … they’ll only attack you for it.
CLOSING THOUGHT
As genuinely SAD as I was to see the Dig-Dug machine go, I feel that I’ve made lemonade out of lemons, and the invitation is out there, if any of you are in the Lyndhurst NJ area, stop on by and play some Donkey Kong, Dragon’s Lair, Super Pac-Man, Double Dragon, Bionic Commando, or any of the other 300+ roms I’ve got in there.
Oh that’s such bull that they did that to you! I would understand them getting upset if, perhaps, you were trying to mass produce the thing and sell it commercially. However, putting a ton of work into a personal project for the enjoyment of YOU and your buds is an entirely different matter. It’s for YOU, and thus they really don’t have a right to attack you for treating yourself to something that makes you happy. Besides, you owned the things to begin with. What you do with your property is your decision. But hey, I guess that would be downright rational, and very few forums are comprised of a single soul possessing a trait such as rationality.
I’m sorry you had to put up with all that. But in the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter. You did something for your enjoyment, and it looks like it’s going to be something you can enjoy for a looong time. It looks amazing.
[quote=“Alucard von Elru”]Oh that’s such bull that they did that to you! I would understand them getting upset if, perhaps, you were trying to mass produce the thing and sell it commercially. However, putting a ton of work into a personal project for the enjoyment of YOU and your buds is an entirely different matter. It’s for YOU, and thus they really don’t have a right to attack you for treating yourself to something that makes you happy. Besides, you owned the things to begin with. What you do with your property is your decision. But hey, I guess that would be downright rational, and very few forums are comprised of a single soul possessing a trait such as rationality.
I’m sorry you had to put up with all that. But in the end, I suppose it doesn’t matter. You did something for your enjoyment, and it looks like it’s going to be something you can enjoy for a looong time. It looks amazing.[/quote]
Thanks man, the response here has been so great that it doesn’t really matter what any of those douche-bags said.
Even criticism about using the X-Arcade stick vs. wiring my own buttons was done in a rational, constructive fashion. (the sad truth is … I’m a proficient artist, a decent crafts-person, and a hardcore gamer, but I’m all thumbs when it comes to electrical work, so the pre-fab controller was the only way I could go if I wanted to do this myself with minimal headaches).
So. If I do anything else to the cabinet, I’ll update this, but for now it’s looking pretty done.
wow good work man
i think its cool you did all of that! Good work!! you must be happy
Besides, you said the arcade machine crapped out on you so you might as well have made use of the case
unless maybe you could have sold it for a ridiculous amount to one of those complaining people on the forum and picked upa cheaper case but i dunno…
end of the day its your cabnet you do what you like with it!
peace
Update - The big honkin’ monster 21 inch CRT monitor in my cabinet died last week.
R.I.P. giant old monitor. 
That’s what I get for using “free” parts. There’s always something wrong with stuff people don’t want to use anymore.
At the current time I could only afford a 17 inch flat screen. So, I had to cut a monitor bezel to fit around it. In the future, I’m totally going to pick up a much larger monitor. I just couldn’t let all the hard work I’ve done on this thing go to waste. Need to be able to play Dragon’s Lair and Burgertime in the standing position on a regular basis.
Here’s the current look with the new monitor. Still understated in it’s elegance I think.
Marquee light on!!!
Lights out!!!
So, yeah. Sorry if I blew up your 56K connection with all those pictures.