Arcade Project - Making it look good

I had some time this weekend to work on the innards of the arcade machine.  Because this machine needs to be "industrial-quality," it needs to be built like a tank.  Were it to be sold to someone, chances are they aren't going to like breaking open the case, soldering iron in hand, to start working away at a fix.  Therefore the machine needs to be built as securely as possible.

I've intentionally left the controller board open until the very end.  Because it has the most things that can go wrong, it needs to be kept in perfect condition.  I'll be closing it up shortly as soon as some of my stress tests are complete.

The other side of this week's work was software.  I've installed GameEx on the arcade machine to give it a much more arcade-like feel. GameEx is a free program that allows users to launch not only arcade games, but a myriad of other entertainment programs from a single interface.  Similar to the Xbox or Playstation GUI, it allows users to customize the appearance to work for them.

The GameEx interface for this machine will allow the user to run multiple MAME games, play Youtube videos, check the weather, access music and movies from the machine, and launch Netflix.  GameEx will start the instant the computer finishes booting, so the user never has to deal with the Windows interface.  This will lead to the ultimate arcade feel: being able to turn it on and immediately select the game they want to play.

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