Building my first arcade cabinet: Part II

I'm pleased to say I'm making progress, as these photos hopefully demonstrate.  Cutting the monitor bezel was tough, and I wasn't entirely sure of my measurements, but it all seemed to work out ok.  The control panel board and large board at the front of the cabinet are not yet fixed in place, but even like this it gives a pretty good idea of how the cabinet will look when finished.  Of course the control panel will be covered with an overlay and the edges will be hidden by some kind of molding to help prevent chipping. Lots of work still to do, but it seems to be going OK so far! :)

Building my first arcade cabinet: Part I

I'm building an arcade cabinet!  I'm not sure what tipped me over the edge on this one- it was a steady progression I think. One minute I'm playing a few old games in MAME, the next I'm reading blogs and websites detailing people's hand-build arcade cabinets.  Before I knew what was happening I was making plans and pricing up my own DIY cabinet :) 

Over the past few weeks I've bought a 2nd hand PC and 21" CRT monitor, as well as a cheap 2nd hand cabinet from an ex-govt. furniture shop.  I've been visiting a lot of sites on the Internet (some good ones here, here, here, and here) and bought some plans from a helpful guy named Bob. I used the plans as a guide and designed my own template, taking in to account my monitor dimensions etc. After making a strong base to support the heavy monitor, I picked up a jigsaw (for the first time in my life!) and attacked the particle board. After a bit of hand sanding I bolted the panels to the cabinet.  Here are the results of my efforts...

Progress to-date

Monitor mount/support

Side panel

Cardboard template

Lots still left to do, but I'm happy with my progress so far. While I can't wait to have it finished, I'm thoroughly enjoying the process of building my first arcade cabinet!

Mass Effect: An RPG for the Masses?

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for over six months, you've probably heard of a little game called Mass Effect. The game has recently been released for the PC after an XBox360 exclusive period much like their previous titles Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, which had a XBox release for quite a while before their PC counterparts were released. While the release of Mass Effect has been comparatively quicker than those two titles, the game itself has had more than its fair share of controversy. The initial attacks on the game due to its "adult content" included a ridiculous report by Fox News that was so far skewed against the game that it couldn't be classed as anything but an abject failure of "journalism." More recently, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) features of the PC version has suffered a large amount of bad press due to the measures and limitations it places upon the installation of the game in order to attempt to prevent piracy. And attempt is the correct word, for even despite these efforts, unfortunately pirated versions of the game do exist. I won't buy into the DRM argument here, for that would be an entire article in itself.

I have to confess upfront that I'm a BioWare fan-boy, having loved pretty much everything that they've produced, but even taking that self-admitted bias out of the equation, Mass Effect is an excellent game, and worth just about every accolade that is thrown its way. The story, characterisation and universe created have a great depth, which is likely due to the fact that they spent an entire year just with writers creating all those aspects as the initial phase of creating the game. This is the sort of thing that can quite easily go unnoticed by many gamers when it's there, but if this aspect is lacking in an RPG, it'll often stick out like a car in the background of a fantasy/medieval movie. There's nothing that ruins the immersion of an RPG like a proverbial hit over the head with a plot inconsistency or non-sequitur. Mass Effect is a polished and well-rounded piece of work, and even though there are a few failings in terms of glitches, they typically don't cause too much aggravation such that it makes you want to blow away one of your own teammates.


But I didn't intend this post to turn into gratuitous praise for Mass Effect, because I'd like to consider what effect it might have on the gaming industry in terms of the development of future RPGs. Why do I think this one game could have such a profound effect? Because Mass Effect has the potential to garner a wider audience than most RPGs that have come before, and prove that the increased development time of RPG titles over the comparatively rapid production of a first person shooter is worth the effort.

Firstly, Mass Effect is that it's not a standard RPG. Why do I say that? It's not set in a medieval/fantasy environment. By and large, that is the realm of RPGs, and many people simply cannot stomach that, disliking the whole swords, magic, dragons, and everything that comes with the Dungeons and Dragons or its related ilk. Yes, I can some of you screaming that it's not the first such work, and will point to titles like Fallout or Knights of the Old Republic, but the only thing that is potentially considered more geeky than Dungeons and Dragons is a unbounded love for Star Wars. Yes, Mass Effect is still sci-fi, so there is still a certain element of geek, but seeing as it doesn't belong to any of pre-established sci-fi franchises, it gets off a little more lightly. The fact that the eye candy is nice doesn't hurt at all either.


The combat of the game is also more like an action game or a first person shooter. This is a big win because of the way that many RPGs feature dice-roll based combat that is very much in your face, resulting in your clicking on your target once, and then waiting until the dice roll in your favour and your character manages to hit and kill your opponent. Yes, there are some elements of control you have to modify your character's attacks, but the frustration of gamers screaming at their computer "Stop rolling ones dammit!!!" as a fight turns from a pushover to a defeat due to sheer misfortune is an undeniable failing of the mechanic. Sure, your shots still can go wide in Mass Effect, but there's an element of direct control that is absent in most other RPGs.


The game is also completely voiced. Any interaction between the player's character (Commander Shepard) and anyone he or she meets along the way is heard, and not read, as it usual for most RPGs. This is a big thing for gaining a new audience for RPGs. Another big turn off for non-RPG players is reading through reams of lengthy dialogue simply to get a quest to kill more monsters. It's not necessary to know someone's entire life story before they say "Go kill some orcs for me please", though failings of that ilk are not unheard of. The dialogue is snappy by necessity, and keeps the game pushing along, and even the dialogue choices that the player gets to choose are a few words that are merely a representation of the words Shepard will say.


All of these things feed into the overall cinematic feel of the game, which is the big winner for Mass Effect. After going through the process of customising their character's appearance, there's a nice introduction sequence which sets the tone for the entire game, even if the title and brief textual blurb is a little cheesy. The first hour of the game is interspersed with a health grab-bag of cut-scenes, such that the player can almost feel like they are playing a movie. The tempo and the stakes are high, the gameplay and controls are easy to pick up and understand. This cinematic feel is probably the most likely place that gamers will be converted to the genre, for the feeling of control in a movie-like experience is an appeal that is broad across a very large percentage of the gaming community. This was evidenced through the unprecedented acclaim for the single player experience of a first person shooter in the form of Call of Duty 4.

I must note that Mass Effect is by no means a perfect game, and while I've sung it praises, it does suffer from a few negatives. The AI has shortcomings at times, the main quest does suffer from being a little on the short side for an RPG, and the decryption mini-game can become a moderate annoyance, just to name a couple.

However, my aim with this article was to point out the areas in which Mass Effect has more wide ranging appeal than many other RPGs, rather than to provide a full and critical analysis of the game. (As there's already hundreds of other reviews on the web that do just that!) As an avid RPG fan, I can only hope that Mass Effect gains a comparative level of fame, and that it results in an increased RPG fan base which will raise the willingness of game companies to engage in the challenging development process that is required to produce quality games of this genre.

(Images courtesy of dignews.com)

DIY: building an (inexpensive) GTI mount for TomTom One satnav, plus hardwiring to the fuse box

I thought I'd write a quick guide describing the way I created a mount and hardwired my Tomtom One satnav to the fusebox. It's pretty basic stuff really, and no doubt there are much more elegant ways to do this. Having said that, it all cost me next to nothing, and so far the mount has been very stable and the Tomtom charges and works perfectly. I figure it beats spending a lot of money on a proclip...

All I used/bought was:

• A cigarette lighter adaptor: female cigarette lighter socket on one end, two wires/alligator clips on the other end (from Jaycar)
• A 3 Amp fuse (small size)
• Some black cable ties (various sizes)
• An old stubbie holder (black!)
• A small rubber ball, flattened on one side (not shown!)
• Little plastic bracket thingys (x 2) - as shown in photo!
• Some velcro
• Some black electrical tape

The mount:
I took the Tomtom windscreen mount apart, and placed the small rubber ball into the hole where the windscreen mount normally connects (with the flat side of the rubber ball facing out). I cut up the plastic bracket thingys to make them smaller, and attached them to the Tomtom's mount using the screws provided. I then cut up the stubbie holder, and wrapped a piece around the GTI's console (I figured it would protect the plastic from getting scratched). I then threaded cable ties through the holes in the plastic bracket thingys and wrapped them around the stubbie-holder-protected console. The cable ties work really well, fastening the mount solidly to the console. I then took another piece of stubbie holder and wrapped it (horizontally?) under the mount to hide the main cable ties, although of course I used some more cable ties to fasten the additional bit of stubbie holder! But overall it looked much neater this way. Of course, as I went along I trimmed the plastic ties once I had fastened them. Now you might think it all looks a bit dodgy (especially in one of the photos), but everything is hidden nicely behind the Tomtom mount... that is unless you want to get down in the footwell with a torch :)



The hard-wiring:
The female cigarette lighter attachment I bought from Jaycar had two wires attached ending in alligator clips. I removed the alligator clips and stripped some insulation from the wires. I then connected the earth wire to a screw (as shown), and I wound the power wire around the leg of a 3 Amp fuse and pushed it into an empty spot in the fusebox. You can see in one of the photos- it's the pink fuse in the top row. I had previously tested this empty fuse spot with a test light to make sure it was only powered when the ignition was turned on. Of course, make sure that you plug the fuse the right way around, otherwise you will end up powering the Tomtom bypassing the fuse entirely :)
Next I plugged the Tomtom's car charger into the female cigarette adapter I had just wired in. I ran the cable from the fusebox up behind the dash and behind the interior plastic trim until it emerged between the driver's seat and centre console. I fastened the cable in place at various points along the way using some electrical tape. Oh, and I decided to use some velcro to hold the cigarette lighter adaptor firmly in place in the fusebox, so that it wouldn't add yet another vibration/rattle to the GTI's dash :)

Changing the Tomtom's welcome screen:
I couldn't resist creating a custom VW welcome/splash screen for the Tomtom. It's really simple- just follow these instructions.

I think the most expensive item was the female cigarette lighter adapter- I can't remember its exact price, but definitely < $20. Everything can be removed if necessary, and I haven't damaged the original Tomtom mount or power cable (or my GTI!) in the process. Mounting the Tomtom down low works well for me... it doesn't get in the way of anything, and I can still clearly see it when driving (for the most part I just follow the voice instructions). I think the mount is less obvious down low, which is better for security. And if I'm parked in a dodgy area I can easily throw something over the mount to cover it up :)

I hope that this guide can assist those not-so-technical people like me out there :) Oh, and of course, you follow these instructions at your own risk... I am not responsible if you break your Tomtom, fusebox or GTI :)