Today's most Zebesian video: The Metroid arcade cabinet
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Dec 5th 2007 at 12:01AM }
The above video demonstrates the true extent of Metroid fandom. This guy didn't just re-skin an arcade cabinet with fanart. He built the damn thing himself, and even included an illuminated Mother Brain behind a plexiglass window. That's dedication.
Unfortunately, the video's not really the best presentation of the unit, but we can't complain. Sure, it's overly dramatic, and moodily lit, and it has way too many quick cuts for us to really ogle the finer details, but this dude built a Metroid-themed arcade cabinet. What else matters?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JarMustard @ Dec 5th 2007 12:09AM
i dont think i could have that anywhere near me. i would probably throw stuff at the glass surrounding mother brain till it cracked. purely out of principle
Backslash @ Dec 5th 2007 12:46AM
IAWTC
hvnlysoldr @ Dec 5th 2007 12:12AM
At first I thought it was a real Metroid Pinball machine. I'm disappointed it's the original. Still it'd be interesting entering NAR PASSWORD and giving it a spin.
Zorink @ Dec 5th 2007 12:34AM
Are pics available? They would do it more justice.
Hashbrown_Hunter @ Dec 5th 2007 12:53AM
No, the person who made the cabinet only posted the video on YouTube. No pics :(
Singapura @ Dec 5th 2007 12:49AM
Have a look here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72801.0
Hashbrown_Hunter @ Dec 5th 2007 12:52AM
HUGE SUCCESS
Bigfoot @ Dec 5th 2007 1:05AM
I want to shake his hand.
j13 @ Dec 5th 2007 1:43AM
That is NICE. I so miss old cabinet video games in grocery stores and such. The bright artwork was always so cool.
dsub @ Dec 5th 2007 2:21AM
Making an arcade cabinet really isn't as hard as alot of people think. I've got one in progress, and the only problem I've had is that once it became playable, all construction stopped. Here's a photo of it in it's current state. I have a custom printed marquee sign to go in it, and the plexiglass/neon lights and the bezel for the monitor (which is just a 27" TV) it just needs to be installed.
http://www.imageviper.com/displayimage/103991/0/101_0177.jpg
If anyone is interested, I got a great book from amazon.com that comes with fully detailed plans and everything. I altered them a bit and changed some construction methods, but it's great for inspiration. The book is called "Project Arcade". All in all I only have about $200 wrapped up into materials. Anyone with an old gaming rig just collecting dust, or anyone with the means to build a spare PC can do this. I'm running MAME plus NES, SNES, Genesis, Sega CD emualators and the machine also has a dreamcast connected to it as well. There is a great frontend for MAME and all your emulators called GameEX.
Mine is running off an old gaming rig with an Athlon XP 2400, 1gb of RAM, an 80GB HDD and an old agp ATI X800XT. The graphics card is overkill if you just doing 2D stuff. I highly recommend doing this for anyone who's thought about it. I've already gotten my money's worth 100x out of this thing, and I'm not even done with it yet.
serotoninzero @ Dec 5th 2007 3:18AM
I'm currently building one too.. but I didn't aspire for it to look that amazing.
Lack of funds have it sitting for a while though. Stupid college.
stuka @ Dec 5th 2007 6:22AM
Did anyone else read it as "Today's most lesbian video"?
Scott Jon Siegel @ Dec 5th 2007 5:44PM
No.
timnc @ Dec 5th 2007 9:33AM
A very well made cabinet, he should submit it for a Mamey. Obviously is plays more than Metroid since it's got SFII button layout and a trackball.
Pastry Chef @ Dec 5th 2007 9:48AM
Awesome! I wish I had the skills to do something like this...