THE PLAN
 

Everyone knows that planning is the most important part of an project so I ended up taking two full months to research and just plain think about what I wanted to create. I decided that it had to be a cocktail style cabinet since they fit best into small spaces and as the name implies can also be used as a table where I can set a cocktail (or beer or mountain dew or whatever) I chose the Midway style table because it reminds me most of playing games like Pac Man and Rally X at the local Pizza Hut. I decided it must have an authentic feel but still be able to play many more games than an exact replica would allow. So for the authentic side of things here is my list of necessities:

  Must have the same size and shape of either a Pac Man or a Ms Pac Man/Galaga table
  Sides must be some type of wood grain
  Must have authentic Pac Man graphics under the glass top
  Control Panels must have same shape as original and be made of metal
  Must have milky white plexi windows that light up behind control panels
  Speaker/Vent grilles must be authentic
  Must have working coin door
  Player one and two control panels must have 4-way joystick with red ball topped handles
  Monitor must be 19 inches and preferably have an authentic feel
 

Now for a list of essentials that I would want in order to play the maximum number of games possible:

  Player one and two panels must have a set of buttons
  Need a third long control panel on the front of the machine with two 8-way joysticks with six buttons each and a trackball
   

Fortunately the list of authentic items outnumbered the non-authentic so when I play it I still get that nostalgia that takes me back to the 80's

With a general plan in mind it was a matter of tracking down all the parts necessary to build what I initially thought would be impossible.