Ian said ‘we need a coffee table’. He didn’t immediately mention that it would involve asteroids, galaxians, galaga and space invaders!
If you know Ian, you will know he’s the creative one. He has the ability to see what something can be, and has the skills to make it happen (most of the time). He’s never afraid to have a go and will read, research, think lots then come up with a plan. I have learnt to trust him when he says ‘let’s do this’ and haven’t been disappointed yet! However, I think he may have excelled himself this time.
It started with a jiggle around of the furniture in the lounge. The sofa was really in the wrong place, but the chaise longue bit was on the wrong end of the sofa to put it where we wanted. No problem, we can take it apart and rejig it… Ikea, we have so much to thank you for. Almost 10 yrs old and it looks as good as new, and now fits this home too. Leaving us with space for the coffee table we really needed.
When Ian said we could make it as an arcade games console I really couldn’t see how that would work. How do you do that? Well, this is how…
You start with some 18mm MDF sheet, a pencil, a square and the track saw.
You cut out the shapes and biscuit joint it together (I love that machine) into a box, then do some cutting of strange angles, and ta da, you have a table and a place the buttons and joysticks can be inserted into. Do those bits have a name? I’m not really a gamer, so I have no idea!
Then you cut a top using a tin of peas to get your rounded corners, cut a french cleat joint and attach the joystick buttony bits on. Pop the screen in to make sure it fits and it begins to look like a very strange object.
Once the top and base are cut for the buttons and joysticks to attach to, and a shelf inserted to hold the electronics, you fill the gaps and sand. Those joints need to be as good as possible, the surface as flat as possible. Thank goodness for electric sanders!
A few coats of paint later, a change of mind to cover it with wood look sticky back vinyl, and it’s time to add buttons. If you are going to play a game, you will need buttons!
At this point, I thought we must be almost done, but oh no how wrong could I be? It looks like a games console, but until you wire it up, and add the brain, it is just a table with buttons.
This is where the technical bit begins. Each button needs a wire, in fact each button needs 2 wires, there are 32 buttons and 4 joysticks, each with a further 8 connectors - so quite a bit of electronics….. With an additional 2 buttons on the back to turn it on and off, and to turn the sound on and off (in case it all gets a bit too noisy!)
The ‘brain’ is a Jamma board (Japanese amusement machine and marketing association standard) with around 3500 arcade games on it from the 80’s/90’s… some horizontal, some vertical in format. The first test was good. It works! We add struts and a hinge for easy access inside the unit.
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