
So it happened! We've had our first arcade-building session at
George's place.
First thing in the morning,
Adam and George went shopping and brought a full car of
materials. For the cabinet walls, we got three
MDF sheets which we had to wipe dry first because they got wet outside.
As soon as everyone came, we did some
planning, converted all sizes on the plans to millimeters (yes, we all think metric; measuring in inches for us is like measuring in TV screens), and decided what to cut and in what order. Then we went to the garage where all the actual building happened.

The most important part was to
mark up the complex side wall shape on the MDF sheet; it's less spectacular than actual sawing but more crucial. For the curved parts of the shape,
Anders and
Per Arne used a piece of string as compasses. Adam and Arjan used a
jigsaw to cut the curved parts of the profile and a
circular saw for the straight lines. The other side of the cabinet was easier because we could use the first one as a template for our mark-up.
Meanwhile, George cut several wooden strips with a
cross-cut saw and put them together to make the bottom frame for the cabinet. He
drilled some holes in it for the screws and assembled a box-like structure with a shelf for the keyboard (you'll see later where it ends up in the assembly).

After that, we cut the remaining MDF sheet to make all the other parts. We've finished the edges of the
parts with a
sander to correct the unevenness of cuts. Then we put everything together to see how it fits, and for the very first time we were looking at something that resembles an arcade!
Finally, the cabinet was disassembled and
brought into the Opera Oslo office where the game will stay. Bear with us, more reports on our construction efforts are coming!
Note: All hyperlinks in this post take you to more pictures. You can also view all the pictures from this event.