No matter how well you plan something, it will never go quite as planned, or after its done you’ll find a better or easier way of doing it. In my case, there are a number of ‘time wasters’ and things I’ld change. In the order of importance to me (either lots of time wasted, money I could have saved, or something I could have done for a better result).

1. Don’t bother with Windows or DOS. I liked glaunch as a front end but had numerous problems with sound card compatibility due to the allegro library it uses. I ended up using AdvanceCD on a hard drive – it works a treat!

2. Move the damn hand holds on the back panel down about 5 inches. I was rushing when I cut the vents and hence they allow light into the screen area. The idea of them was so they could be used as grips for moving it and as vents to let hot air out – they look good, but just should have been a little lower.

3. Don’t try to put glass around the joysticks/buttons. Each of the buttons clamps the glass and the joysticks put numerous stresses on it, not to mention already being weakened from all the holes. In the end, I believe the black perspex looked better than the glass.

4. Dented chrome is hard to panelbeat. I brought my cabinet with a bad dent in a piece of chromed steel. It needs replacing, but I’m having trouble finding a replacement. I gave it a bit of a panelbeat and it went from looking about 2/10 to 7.5/10.

5. Take your time