Street Fighter II *Bartop Arcade* With HyperSpin

2 Player Street Fighter II Bartop Arcade with Hyperspin

Intro

Born in the 80’s I was obsessed with button bashing arcade beat’ em ups like Streets of Rage, TMNT, Golden Axe etc…And fighting games like Street fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken etc...

So when I finally bought my own house 3 years ago I looked into owning one of these bad boys…. Only problem is they cost £2k. For just 1 game!!! I had played around with SNES & NES emulators on the PC for a while but using a mouse to launch these killed the authenticity of the arcade system so I forgot about it for a few years.

(Fast forward to present) It was time to buy a new PC and discard my old Quad core, 4GB RAM Windows 7 bundle of Joy for an I5. What did I do with the Quad core PC?…..Turned it into an EpiC arcade system J…. I found a few people online doing this using software called “Hyperspin”. Hyperspin is a free bit of software that launches multiple console emulators all within 1 program. We will come onto that later.

Things Needed

PC: Pentium 4 or Better. (Can be done with a Raspberry Pie)

TFT Monitor 4:3 with VGA Cable (Refurbished ones are £25 on ebay)

18mmX28mmX180cm timber (Wickes £2 for securing the sides together like brackets)

34mm x34mm timber (Wickes £4 for securing the sides together like brackets)

18mm MDF Sheet (Wickes £18)

6mm MDF Sheet (Wickes £6)

2mm Acrylic sheet (Wickes or Homebase £14)

2x Cheap door Hinges (Wickes £5)

Mini 2 Ch 12V, 2X 20W Hi-Fi Amplifier (Ebay £6)

2x 20W speakers (Ebay/Maplins £7)

Speaker cable (wickes/maplins/ebay £5)

4 Way Extension Cable (£3.. Anywhere)

USB LED light Strip (for under lighting £5 on ebay)

USB On/Off switch for the LEDs (£2 Ebay)

Marquee Fluorescent Tube Light (Screwfix £12) (you could use USB LED light strip instead)

On/Off Rocker Switch 240V (for Marquee light ebay/maplins £3)

3X Kettle leads aka IEC cables (£10 for PC power supply, monitor & main arcade system)

PC power button (£15 This is optional..Looks Badass from kustompcs.co.uk..Lighted Switch (Momentary)

Blue LED PC Fan (Maplins/Ebay £6)

USB Hub (Ebay/ Maplins £4)

10A Fused Snap In IEC Chassis Plug with Switch(£3Maplins/ Ebay)

Artwork- £40? Will vary. (Vinyl with sticky is expensive get posters printed on card and use Spray Mount)

Black Paint Tester (£3 I used the external paint)

Spray Mount Adhesive (£5 ebay/wickes)

5m-Toy Blue T-Moulding (www.arcadeworlduk.com £14)

Last but not least….. Mini-PAC Arcade Cabinet Builders Kit ( FROM www.arcadeworlduk.com £76)Includes 2 concave buttons & 2 Bat style Joysticks There are cheaper versions for arcade kits but this comes with pre crimped wire, all colour coded and easy to use Winipac software. Really simple …saved me hours.

The Guys at www.arcadeworlduk.com were really helpful. And the products were absolute quality.

Total (not including the PC) = Just under £250

Tools

Power Drill & Bits

Wood Glue

Wood Hand Saw

Coping Saw

Sandpaper

Wood Screws (I used Torx because you don’t have to drill pilot holes with these)

Scissors/ Scalpel for artwork

28mm spade or hole saw drill for arcade button holes

Junior Hacksaw

Mini/Normal Circular Saw with Guide (needed for the T-Moulding & Marquee lines)

Wire Cutters & Krimpers

Small paint brush

Step 1: Research & Planning

Google & download loads of images of Bartop arcade systems you like so you have an idea of the layout. You will find different button layouts and different Arcade shapes. I used as a reference this beautiful TMNT I found online..(sorry unknown source).

Just for fun I designed the system in 3D (could have been drawn)… Just so I could visualise my Bartop better. I calculated the minimum dimensions of the screen and joysticks/buttons and went from there… This is my rough dimensions.

Step 2: Take Apart Old Pc Computer

Okay so hopefully you know a little something about computers if not don’t worry they are easy. Dismantle the pc box, by removing the side without the motherboard on. Then the top and then the back. You will be left with 1 side that is screwed to the motherboard. Some people will want to remove the motherboard from the metal casing…DON’T… that side is designed to hold the motherboard 1cm from the bottom (with built-in separators). The best thing to do is unscrew the other parts holding that metal sheet. (Mine had rivets… I just drilled through them).

Take several pictures of everything connected so you can look back if you need to…. (Even to a trained PC guy it’s easy to forget how to connect a 10 wired ATX cable). Now disconnect everything and discard things you will never use again like…front speaker connectors or dvd drive or front usb drive.. Might need a bit of dusting..Use hoover and/or compressed air to clean.

Step 3: Building the Frame

Cut 9 pieces of wood for the frame using 18mm MDF

Bottom Piece

Left piece

Right piece

Very Top piece(to hold marquee)

Second to Top Piece (to hold marquee)

Back Piece

Top control panel piece

Front Control Panel piece

TV Backing Piece

And 2 pieces from the 6mm MDF

Screen boarder piece

Top Control panel piece

And 5 pieces from the 2mm Clear Acrylic

2x identical Marquee sheets

Top control panel piece

Front control panel piece

Monitor screen piece

Cut-out 2 holes for the speakers to sit in the Second to Top Piece.

Using a circular saw cut a line down (dead centre) around side of the left & right pieces.. This indent will be for our T-moulding to sit in.

Now use the circular saw on the top piece and Second to Top piece to cut 7mm deep, measuring 1.5cm in from 1 of the long edges. This will be where our Marquee rests. You may have to cut a couple of times to make it thick enough for the acrylic to sit in.(Approximately 2x2mm sheets of acrylic, so 4mm in total)

Now that all the pieces are cut, screw a small chunk of the baton/ timber (approx. 6cm wide) to each side of the bottom piece. This will work like a bracket block.. Then put the left & right pieces next to the bottom piece and drill together. Remembering to screw the bottom piece 3-4 cm up the left/right pieces leaving a gap underneath to allow the under light to shine through.

So in short every time you add a side you add a baton..(I won’t keep repeating that part look at the pictures for where I added the batons/timber).

Step 4: Building the Control Panel

Because my joysticks have a thick lip at the top I stuck 2 pieces of wood together to level it out. (Top control panel piece 6mm & 18mm) With the 6mm piece I cut out the entire shape of the joystick and the other 18mm part I cut out enough for the bottom of the joystick to sit in.

Position of buttons and joysticks

Draw a line horizontally through the middle of the control panel, the joysticks will sit on this line along with the 4th & 6th button. Now measure and draw a line horizontally across the top & bottom of these holes. This will be the guidelines for button 1 and 2. I used 2 hinges at the bottom so I could easily access the button. Stick a block under each side of the panel for the control panel to rest on.

Step 5: Putting Parts Together

Drill the motherboard to the bottom piece making sure the ports are at the back.

Screw in the TV Backing Piece. Attach the TV using the bolts in the back of it..

Put your marquee artwork inbetween the 2x identical Marquee sheets and slot these in the top.

Screw in the Very Top piece. Attached the marquee light as well.

Place in power supply use either small brackets or timber to keep in place.

Attach the 4 way lead extension to the back of the TV panel(screw or glue). Then cut off plug end. This will be used for the marquee light as that came with no plug.

Connect the On/Off Rocker Switch 240V in-between it.

Connect Amp to speakers.

Drill hole in Bottom piece for the led underlight.

Connect that to the USB switch.

Connect USB hub.

Plug everything else in, secure harddrive, arcade control panel…etc. Cut the shapes (switches, buttons etc) in the back piece Wire up the arcade cables to the buttons using the diagram (this is for Minipac arcade only) The black daisy chain is the ground wire (Connecting power) this connect to all the Microswitches and back to the usb arcade board.

Step 6: Colours & Artwork

I love Street Fighter II so I designed graphics around that. I called it “Blue Edition”. *TIP*80% of Bartop arcade artwork look crap…Because people try mixing themes.. I’ve seen street fighter VS mortal kombat and all sorts…..NO!!!!! Stick to a single console or single game theme, with 2 maybe 3 colours max. (just from a design point of view)…. Can’t stand the Multiple systems on the MAME artwork… It’s too much. I kept that in mind and used blue under lights, blue/black/white buttons & blue/black/white artwork.

In total I used 4X A1 sheets and spray mounted it all together.

Paint the insides black…

DOWNLOAD MY ARTWORK HERE--->>>>> https://www.sendspace.com/file/sx437w

Step 7: Hyperspin & Software

LINK TO FILES-------->>>> https://www.sendspace.com/file/oe32y8

HyperSpin

Make an account and download it here www.hyperspin-fe.com/

You will also needRocketLauncher you get from here www.rlauncher.com

Follow this tutorial with how to set it up.. https://www.instructables.com/id/HyperSpin-Complete...

Download games from www.emuparadise.me

My Custom HyperSpin Intro is here.......(Download link at top)

Boot Screen

Once HyperSpin is setup you will want to customize your Windows system. Im using windows 7. So I used “Windows 7 boot updater” to modify the boot loading screen. Found here .. http://download.cnet.com/Windows-7-Boot-Updater/3000-18487_4-76324605.html or (Download link at top)

My boot animation is attached as well.

Desktop

Go to themes and personalize it to look like XP (removes aero effects). Then make everything black except text. Hide the task-bar, delete all shortcut. (clear everything). So people don’t even know its windows. Set a wallpaper, you can use my one (Download link at top).

To have your computer boot directly into HyperSpin place a HyperSpin Shortcut in your startup folder found here C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup .

There are more complex ways of doing this called shelling but they involve messing with the windows registry files.

Buttons Configuration

As I bought a Minipac style arcade USB board I was able to use Winipac software found here http://winipac.software.informer.com/download to configure the arcade buttons. You want to Map the buttons as a keyboard, because all emulators recognise keyboard input but not joypads. I recommend using my layout as I have tried and tested these buttons. *TIP*...I found out the hard way not to use "1" "F1" "Spacebar" & "tab" because some emulators like Znes go into config mode e.g "1" was pressed.

Hotkeys

I couldn't get the "shifted" buttons to work in the "Winipac" or "U-Config" software so I downloaded a free third party program called winhotkey found here http://winhotkey.software.informer.com/0.7/ or (Download link at top)

This was VERY easy to setup. I only wanted the following hotkeys.

Left Ctrl + Enter = Launches Task Manager (point to exe path) C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe

Left Ctrl + Delete= Launches HyperSpin (point to exe path) C:\HyperSpin\HyperSpin.exe

Its very useful to have these 2 setup.. When my HyperSpin crashes I simply launch taskmanager, go down to HyperSpin.exe press (start2) delete button and its gone. The ESC button quits it. Then just relaunch HyperSpin using the other hotkey.... Jobs a good'en.

You can make a hotkey to shutdown the computer but I just setup my power button to do that in the power settings in the control panel.

I hope I've helped.....Enjoy...