How to Build a Sit Down Driving Arcade Cabinet

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Introduction: How to Build a Sit Down Driving Arcade Cabinet

For show and tell today I brought an instructable that will demonstrate how to build an arcade style sit down driving game cabinet. Play all of the old school favorites like Out Run or fill your "Need for Speed" playing the latest xbox driving games.

Step 1: Why and How Did I Build This. Well I'm Glad You Asked

I love to make things and after building and enjoying my MAME cabinet I realized that while it worked great for Pac-Man, the classic arcade controls left a lot to be desired when I wanted to sit down to Spy Hunter and other driving games. For one thing, I couldn't sit down. And Spy Hunter is so much more fun with a steering wheel than a joystick. So I decided to build my own. I chose to use an xbox instead of a PC with MAME because as fun as Out Run is, you just can't beat the graphics on today's consoles, and you can still play the old school games with an xbox emulator. I used Sketchup to create my cabinet design and scrounged or bought most of the materials from Lowes. This project takes a few days to complete and you will need some basic wood working and painting skills. If you had to buy everything I would say it would cost about $400.

Step 2: Tools and Materials

Tools
-Table and/or circular saw
-Miter saw or hand saw
-Electric drill
-Countersinking drill bit (a must have for smooth finish. See picture)
-Saw horses (2)
-Router with rounding bit
-Sander (electric and hand)
-Paint brushes (small roller, 2" foam, detailing brush)
-Misc. shop tools(tape measure, t-square,pencil,safety glasses, drill bits etc)

Materials

- 2 4x8 sheets of 3/4" MDF
- 1 4x8 sheet of 1/2" MDF
- 1 4x8 sheet of 1/8 bead board
- 3 8 foot 2x4's
- Screws - 2" and 3/4"
- Bolts - 2 5" bolts with 4 washers and 2 nuts
- 2 3" long x 2" wide PVC pipe pieces.
- Small finishing nails
- Wood putty
- Black Paint - 1 pint
- Green Paint - 1 pint from Lowes matched to steering wheel color
- Plexiglass - 1/8 inch 2x4 piece from Lowes
- Xbox - with the games of your choice
- Tv - 27inch (try to find one that turns on when it gets power)
- Steering wheel - Fanatec Speedster 3 w/ force feedback .
- Seat - Pulled from a Mazda RX7 at the junkyard.
- Brake lights - Salvaged boat trailer brake lights
- Custom Marquee - Made by my brother and printed at Kinko's
- Velcro stips - Lowes
- Hook - Lowes
- Powerstrip - Lowes
- Light - 2 foot Fluorescent from Lowes
- Car mats - Free from old car

Step 3: Building

Print these plans and if you have Sketchup download the file to get better views.

Base
Begin by measuring and cutting the base frame pieces out of the 2x4s per the Base.pdf. These measurements are a combination of real arcade cabinets and (perhaps even more importantly) what I needed to use to be able to get this thing into my basement. Feel free to adjust the size as needed. Once the pieces are cut, lay them out to make sure everything is squared up and screw it together. I recommend pre-drilling all of your holes. Don't forget your safety glasses.

Panels
Put your 3/4 inch 4x8 sheet of mdf on some saw horses. Draw and cut out the large sides, TV base, steering wheel base and floor panels. Measure and cut the top, seat back, lower side pieces and console shelf from 1/2 inch mdf. Screw everything to the frame as shown in the plans. To install the xbox shelf inside the cabinet, notch around the 2x4 support and screw on three sides.

Top
For the marquee box you will need to decide how deep to make it based on the width of plexiglass you use. Cut out the marquee box pieces and nail them together. Using a router and a rounding bit, half router the front top and bottom edges to your liking. Finally, measure and cut the plexiglass. *Note about plexiglass. If you cut it with a jigsaw or a similar tool, use a very small tooth blade or expect a lot of cracks. I recommend using a sharp utility knife and scoring the plexiglass multiple times. Here are some more plexiglass tips

Back
I used 1/8 inch for the back panels just to cut down on the overall weight of the cabinet. Measure and cut the back panels to fit. Use finishing nails to attach them to the side panels.

Steering Wheel base
Cut and attach the bottom steering wheel reinforcement plate to the under side of the television base. Using a jigsaw, cut the steering wheel base out and round it to your liking. An optional extra step at this point is to router cup holders on the steering wheel base. There's room for it, and I like to have a tall cold one with me when I am driving my Porsche 911 through Coconut Beach.

Seat
Depending on the seat you get there will be different ways to attach it to the frame. I drilled 4 holes and used the existing seat hardware. What ever you do make sure it's secure!

Step 4: Sand and Paint

As my 8th grade wood shop teacher would always say, right after you told him your project was done: "When are you going to start sanding?"

Sand all of the corners and wood putty all screw holes.

Drill a hole large enough to fit the power cords and AV cables through the back middle of the tv base. Also drill a hole where the left marquee spacer touches the top panel and marquee box. (see pictures) This will be used for the back lighting power cord. Lastly, drill a hole through the far left side of the steering wheel base to fit the controller cords.

Using a small roller give it two coats of black paint.

After that dries, use a detail brush to hand-paint the flames on the sides and under the seat. I would recommend making a cardboard template of your design so that it can be easily recreated on all sides. Then free-hand a personalized license plate on the back.

Attach the marquee box using long bolts, washers and screws, threading the power cord through the hole you drilled earlier and securing tightly.

Step 5: Final Touches

Here is a list of the last few things to do.
- Get a marquee printed up. Use mine or try one of these examples
- Mount the power strip inside and underneath.
- Nail down the car mats with at least 10 roofing nails.
- Stick two velcro strips down the center of the mats with matching location on the bottom of the gas/brake. Make sure the strips are long enough so the pedals can be adjusted for you to play and for your niece--the seat will only adjust so far, and we want everyone to enjoy this gaming experience.
- Install a hook for the second controller to sit on while not in use.
- Twist tie up extra cabling inside.
- Hook up a network cable for online gaming.
- Sit down and play.

Step 6: After Thoughts

If I could go back in time and think about it more or see an awesome instructable like this one. I would have made the steering wheel base adjustable and built a switch for the brake pedal that would activate the brake lights.

I hope you enjoyed my first instructable, and get inspired to build your own driving game cabinet.

Thanks.

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Video games from the mid-s have entered a sweet spot on our timeline. They look old enough to make a great whiff of nostalgia and they have the depth to still be genuinely engaging, even 20-odd years after their release. This is the main, but definitely not the only, reason I decided to build a retro arcade-style driving game setup instead of a modern sim racing rig.

This project involves sourcing PlayStation 2 (PS2) hardware and software, including a period-correct CRT monitor and steering wheel, to use to play driving games. But the best part is the environment I’m building. The console and screen will be installed and integrated into a gaming station that utilizes a car seat and ultimately creates a luxury arcade experience.

The primary project constraint is to keep the budget lean, but I’m also hoping to keep the footprint on my floor as tight as it can be without sacrificing how much fun the setup is to use.

I’ve just completed the first operational prototype of this idea, and I’d like to share the journey. I’ll walk you through the concept for your entertainment, or in case you’re inspired to do something similar. And if you’ve got any tips for improvements, the comment section’s open.

Why an Arcade Setup

I already mentioned that I personally enjoy PS2-era gaming. But besides that, using decades-old tech is much more family friendly and a hell of a lot cheaper than building a realistic driving simulator with the latest programs and hardware.

My fellow millennials and elder Gen Zs might appreciate the throwback vibes of PlayStation 2 more than others, but anybody could hop into Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 from and be like, “Yeah, this looks old-school but it’s still fun.”

When I game, I just want to crash into cop cars and do skids. By the same token, if I’ve got a gaming rig taking up a non-trivial amount of square footage, I want my friends and I to be able to hop onto this thing for some casual fun without exercising the patience and skill required for true sim racing.

And for that, games like Need For Speed, Test Drive, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, and other mainstream titles are very user-friendly. Not for nothing, those are the games I grew up playing. To me, they feel fuzzy and familiar the way your go-to books or an episode of your favorite sitcom do over and over again.

Why PlayStation 2

In addition to all the reasons mentioned above, the PS2 was so immensely popular in its prime that fully operational units, and breadth of accessories, are still easy to find in . Plus, a huge list of great game titles (driving and otherwise) was released on this platform.

But the biggest reason I’m building my rig around a PS2 once again lies in practicality and resourcefulness: I already had one hibernating in my parents’ basement.

Why an Old TV

Without getting into AV science, the practical fact of the matter is that a PS2 is optimized for the televisions that existed in its heyday. Back then, “flatscreen” TVs had evolved beyond a curved face but they were still behemoth appliances with cathode-ray tubes to make pictures.

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You can run a PS2 on many modern TVs; I’ve used a USB-powered HDMI adapter with decent results. Although I’ve been able to make the image large and legible, it still feels kind of … off.

If you want to learn more about CRT TVs and CRT gaming specifically, there’s an amazing subreddit dedicated to it you should check out. In fact u/segamistress18 just posted an incredibly comprehensive guide to these TVs, which you can find here. From that guide, it looks like the free Toshiba I found was in fact a good score.

Again, I don’t really understand TV science as well as experts. But to me, the fuzzier picture of an old CRT TV seems more forgiving to a PS2’s pixel limit. So the most period-correct PS2 experience might, objectively, also be the best.

Even so, I was wary about putting a gigantic old-school TV in my house, but one popped up on my local Craigslist Free section I couldn’t pass up: a Toshiba (toward the end of CRT tech’s reign), with S-Video and Component inputs (generally PS2’s best native connection type… we’ll come back to that later), and a 20-inch diagonal screen. That’s perfect for sitting close and getting the old look I wanted without gobbling too much square footage or requiring two people to move.

Setting Up the Cockpit

All that really separates a “driving arcade” from any old TV with PS2 hooked up is the cockpit experience. For that, you need a steering wheel controller with pedals and a driving seat.

After a bit of research, the Logitec Driving Force EX wheel was my choice as the centerpiece of the human-machine interface here. Based on some ancient reviews I dug up, this unit offered good control and I liked the three-spoke look a lot. Unfortunately, the paddle shifters are just buttons on the backsides of the spokes, and they kind of suck. But this unit was among the better and prettier options on eBay for the price (about $60 shipped) so this is what I’m starting with.

As you can see, the setup I’ve made here isn’t particularly elegant or aesthetically interesting. I mostly wanted to make sure the TV and steering wheel I’d sourced actually worked before committing to building a better seat set. But I also wanted to play with it a little, you know, to make sure it’s enough fun to justify building a fancier iteration.

The Corbeau seat has been in my garage for over a year—a gift from a friend of a friend who scuttled a project he was going to put them in and couldn’t be bothered to sell ’em. Lucky me, I was in the right place at the right time to take them off his hands!

After a few hours of testing, I can confirm that it is fun and will be a whole lot more so with the steering wheel better secured so I don’t go lifting the dashboard every time I make a big turn.

A little block of wood put the pedal set on an angle that felt a lot more comfortable than simply resting it on the ground; I’ll be experimenting with different-shaped blocks here to optimize the foot positioning.

Component Rundown

Here’s all the gear I’ve integrated so far:

• PlayStation 2 (the old and fat one, not the later “slim” model)
• Sony component cables
• 20-inch Toshiba CRT TV
• Logitec Driving Force EX steering wheel and pedal set
• Corbeau Baja Low-Back seat
• Two three-ton jack stands and a wooden plank forming the “dashboard.”

Games

Beyond that stash I tweeted a few weeks ago, I’ve collected OutRun (which is amazing). Next I’m trying to cop Juiced, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3, and maybe Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition if they pop up at my new favorite retro game store—that’s “Joe Gamer” in Lagrangeville, New York in case anyone reading this hangs out in the Hudson Valley and is into old games.

The Next Phase

Now that I’ve confirmed all the old PS2 crap I rounded up actually works and that I still want to build a dedicated gaming station, my next move is to make a more secure platform where I can  mount the steering wheel  and get a higher-quality connection from the console to the television.

I’ve already ordered a Sony-branded component cable to replace the original composite—that should improve picture quality considerably. Meanwhile, I’ll dig around the raw materials I’ve got behind the house and see if I can make a real steering wheel stand out of scrap wood.

From there, I’ll be building out the cockpit to give it a more polished and car-like look. I’ve got a pair of sporty seats from a second-gen Mazda RX-7 I want to use with this setup (since they’re blue and match my wheel and controller), so I might hold off on a finalized version of the dashboard until I can bring those in and get proper measurements. Also—I need a cup holder.

But I think this project is off to a great start. If you’ve got any insight, advice, or questions, let’s chat it up in the comments. Meanwhile, look for an update soon to learn how my driving arcade evolves and how you might be able to replicate this in your own house.

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