Pincade Classics

Introduction

Pincade Classics is a home-made arcade machine.  It is a hybrid of a bartop machine and a full-size.  In some ways it is like the top half of a full-size machine with a slightly smaller marquee and slightly narrower control panel.  Or, to be closer to how it naturally evolved, it's a bartop machine on steroids.  The name "Pincade Classics" came from the many "Arcade Classics" machines and marquees with the added twist of a genuine chrome pinball lockbar on the front of the control panel.

The vision for this machine initially began as a bartop machine using an old laptop computer.  But, quickly it changed when I decided two things--first, that I wanted to have a 2-player machine without compromises (i.e. I wanted a trackball and even a spinner), and second, that I wanted to see if I could incorporate an actual pinball lockbar into the front of the control panel for an authentic feel while playing virtual pinball.  These two desires led the machine to become larger.  Soon after, after reading many accounts (and seeing very cool video clips) of rotating monitors, I thought that this would be so cool to try (although for me, it felt like a big stretch).  The rest is a lot of planning, and then a good amount of building.