Namco 5-in-1 holders (lots of photos) - UPDATED!

[ubikuberalles]

Not long after CGE2K4 I went to my local Gamestop and bought two of the Namco games I saw at CGE:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/namco_games.jpg

These systems are set up so that you could only hit the trigger button with your thumb while holding the game. It wasn't long before my thumb was very sore and so I tried placing the game on the floor and using my index finger for the trigger. That worked but the game system kept rocking when I used the joystick. My index finger was not as sore as my thumb but the constant rocking distracted me and I got lower scores as a result.

Then inspiration hit me and I came up with the idea of a holder that would keep the system in place and allow me to play without distraction. So I built two holders: one for each system. The holders are each built of two pieces of wood. The top piece has a hole cut in it to allow the system to fit in. The second piece of wood is mounted below the first piece with carriage bolts to keep the system in place.

Here's a photo of the first holder soon after I cut and assembled the wood. The wood is laminated particle board I had left over from a another project and it's excellant material for holders.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder01.jpg

Below is a picture of the holder with the system in place. Cutting the inital hole was easy. The hard part was getting the Namco system to fit in tightly. The original hole was smaller than the system and so I spent some time with a wood file in order to get the system to fit in the hole.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder02.jpg

Here's a side shot of the holder. I used the plastic caps from some orange drink bottles as spacers. As you can see I had to use the wood file quite a bit here to make sure I had acces to the reset button.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder03.jpg

A plain white holder looked boring and the exposed wood on the side was unattractive. So, I spruced things up a bit with some paint and stickers.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder04.jpg

The stickers I printed myself. I captured the images from the MAME version of the games.

I had some stickers left over and so I applied them to the side of the holder.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder05.jpg

Here's a shot of the holder without the game in place:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder06.jpg

I was able to complete the second holder in much quicker time than the first. The distance between the boards on the second holder was greater than what the bottle caps could provide and so I just used 3/8" plastic pipe for the second holder.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder02.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder04.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder03.jpg

The systems still rock a little bit in the holders but I solved the problem by jamming some folded paper between each system and their holder.

I play with the holder either sitting on the floor or in my lap. Either way it works well for me. The gameplay has improved but I haven't broken any scoring records. The big difference is the reduction in fatigue: I can play much longer now without the pain I endured before building the holders.

(See my post at the end of this page for a look at modifications I made to the holders)

[joshnickerson]

Hey, that's pretty cool! I suppose if one were motivated enough, he could build an entire arcade cabinent around it!

Oh, love your avatar BTW. LOL

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Cool!

[Cauterize]

very nice :) wish i had that much free time

[Flack]

Don't tell too many people, or we'll be seeing these on eBay soon!

Nice job, I'll bet playing those games is a lot closer to the original experience now. It's amazing what can be made with a little bit of wood, tools, and some ingenuity! Nice job!

[Retsudo]

Hey man that's cool.

I think I will give that a try once I get a 5 in 1.

[Ed Oscuro]

I call it an economical PS2 Space Invaders joystick, with a better game selection LOL

[rbudrick]

Sweet!

Build a little monitor into it and you've got a mini arcade!!

-Rob

[davidleeroth]

That's a nice idea and hack, good to see something original instead of blue LEDs. :)

[Videogamerdaryll]

Wow!!...That's pretty damn cool.... :rocker:

[Neil Koch]

Nice job... actually, why the Space Inavders TV joystick is my favorite is because it's bigger than the other ones which leads to less thumb cramping. I should try something like that for the Namco ones, but I'd just probably end up slicing off a finger or something.

[Jibbajaba]

Sweet!

Build a little monitor into it and you've got a mini arcade!!

-Rob

Thats actually a really good idea. Get a little 13 inch or less TV and make a little mini tabletop arcade cab.

Chris

[Pantechnicon]

Great jaerb, Altairboy. I especially like the graphics on the Pac/Galaga one. :hail:

[tholly]

pretty awesome idea

id love to see a mini cabinet with a tv built in

[NESaholic]

Yeah Tholly that would be great.
Good job AltairBoy, looks mega nice!

[kainemaxwell]

Looks great!!

[ubikuberalles]

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I really appreciate it.

I like the idea of incorporating a monitor with the holders. That would be really cool and I would like to build it. Instead of a 13" monitor I would use a 9" monitor (I have a 9" TV/VCR combo I could use for the job). Also, instead of using my customized holders, I would build a "universal" holder that could hold all sorts of different game systems. This new holder would use some kind of rubberlined clamp that would adjust to the different sizes of the systems. I haven't figured out the details yet and so a trip to my local hardware store is needed for inspiration.

I had a lot of fun making the holders especially when it came to the detail work. All sorts of ideas came into my head about what colors and images to use and I ended up using only half of those ideas.

I'm not quite done with the holders I just made. It occurred to me that I should cut and mount plexiglass on top to protect the artwork. I'll post pictures once I'm done.

Another project I'd like to try would be to take apart a Namco system and reassemble it in a custom built wooden or plastic box. This would make the system look more like an arcade system. Since I might wreck the system, I'd want to get a used system or find one on sale.

[rbudrick]

Those would make awesome Xmas gifts Altair Boy. I've been good. check Santa's list.

www.santaslist.com

-ROb

[Sylentwulf]

Pretty nice! You DID solder an AC Adapter onto those damn things too right? :)

[ubikuberalles]

UPDATE:

Not long after I built the holders I realized that the paint and detail work on the holders would get dirty and ruined after only a little bit of use. The solution was to cover the holder with some plexiglass. So I went to the local plastic store and ordered some plexiglass cut to my specifications. I completed the modifications some months ago but I finally took some pictures. Here are the results:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder05.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder07.jpg

The hard part was tracing the pattern of holes to cut out of the plexiglass. I figured it out by placing some cardboard over the holder and cutting the holes out of the cardboard. I then placed the cardboard over the plexiglass and traced the pattern. The smaller holes were cut with a drill press but the bigger hole were cut out with a coping saw. That was the easy part as I had to use a hand file to make the hole in the plastic match the hole in the holder.

After that I had to figure out how to mount the plastic on the holder. I had a couple ideas but they weren't working out. I then discovered some brass photo mounting corners and discovered that they did the trick nicely:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder06.jpg

I was a little too agressive with the coping saw on the plexiglass for the Ms Pac-Man holder and I cracked the plastic in several places. I cut up some brass plating and mounted them over the cracks to prevent the cover from slipping:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder08.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder09.jpg

(Needless to say, I was more careful cutting the hole for the second holder and the results were much better.)

I still have a slight problem with the holders. Take a look at the bottom:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder07.jpg
I didn't sand the corners to make them round and so, whenever I play with the holder in my lap, it digs into my skin. I solved the immediate problem by putting a small pillow or pad underneath the holder. If I ever build another holder I will either sand the corners round or mount some cloth on the bottom (or both).

Despite some of the cosmetic flaws I am quite pleased with the new plastic covers. These holders are the first arcade-like construction I've built and I'm quite proud of the results.

[Emily]

I too went out and bought 2 of these after seeing them at GCE;the Namco 5-in-1 and the one with space invaders and Pheonix.

Thats such an awsome idea! Now I have to go make a couple of these.

[Julio III]

They look awesome! Good job there. They make those little games look so much more appealing. I love the sticker work!

[Neil Koch]

Hey, that's pretty cool! I suppose if one were motivated enough, he could build an entire arcade cabinent around it!


They did that on Pimp My Ride -- they used the Namco plug and play and made a faux Ms. Pac-Man cocktail table, and then put it in someone's van.

[kainemaxwell]

Very nice job on them!

[Tron 2.0]

UPDATE:

Not long after I built the holders I realized that the paint and detail work on the holders would get dirty and ruined after only a little bit of use. The solution was to cover the holder with some plexiglass. So I went to the local plastic store and ordered some plexiglass cut to my specifications. I completed the modifications some months ago but I finally took some pictures. Here are the results:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder05.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder07.jpg

The hard part was tracing the pattern of holes to cut out of the plexiglass. I figured it out by placing some cardboard over the holder and cutting the holes out of the cardboard. I then placed the cardboard over the plexiglass and traced the pattern. The smaller holes were cut with a drill press but the bigger hole were cut out with a coping saw. That was the easy part as I had to use a hand file to make the hole in the plastic match the hole in the holder.

After that I had to figure out how to mount the plastic on the holder. I had a couple ideas but they weren't working out. I then discovered some brass photo mounting corners and discovered that they did the trick nicely:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder06.jpg

I was a little too agressive with the coping saw on the plexiglass for the Ms Pac-Man holder and I cracked the plastic in several places. I cut up some brass plating and mounted them over the cracks to prevent the cover from slipping:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder08.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/msPac-Man_holder09.jpg

(Needless to say, I was more careful cutting the hole for the second holder and the results were much better.)

I still have a slight problem with the holders. Take a look at the bottom:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v453/ubikuberalles/photos%20for%20dp%20site/Pac-Man_holder07.jpg
I didn't sand the corners to make them round and so, whenever I play with the holder in my lap, it digs into my skin. I solved the immediate problem by putting a small pillow or pad underneath the holder. If I ever build another holder I will either sand the corners round or mount some cloth on the bottom (or both).

Despite some of the cosmetic flaws I am quite pleased with the new plastic covers. These holders are the first arcade-like construction I've built and I'm quite proud of the results.
Pretty cool not a bad idea at all 8-)

It helps keep the (Plug'n Play) in place while your playing.

Thumbs up!

[drummy]

Wow, that is really cool. Nice thinking!