MAME I SEZ MAAAAAME!
Friday, August 15th, 2008 - 7:35pm
So has anyone attempted to build a cabinet? I'm looking at starting one up, I've priced everything but the housing so far. I'm running about 190.00 for buttons/joysticks maybe another 100 for a monitor and few bucks for speakers. I guestimate that this project will set me back about 800 bucks.
"We are at war, and the enemies are...the publishers. No, they're not. It's not that easy. The enemies are mediocrity, laziness, and fear, and they exist in all of us." - Tim Schafer
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Never built one myself but would definitely love to have one as a permanent fixture in my house. I always liked the the bar table concept.
Ah to have the time and resources for a project like this. I wish you the best of luck.
Please do upload photos once you are done.
As an aside I would rename the thread to something about Arcade cabinets instead of Mame as emulators many not the best topic for these forums.
Thought about this, but space, time, and money forbid. A bar table is nice, I rarely saw these in arcades. The best one I saw, somebody cobbled a Tron machine into a bar table, complete with lights but no trigger stick. The most interesting cobble I've seen in arcades was a modified Atari Star Wars machine mounted on hydraulics, I guess like some Afterburner cabinets. It followed the motion of the trigger mount, since the game was on rails. Let me tell you, it was the sweetest arcade machine I'd ever seen..
Definitly good luck and have fun with it, and do post pictures. Also, I second the suggestion of re-naming the thread! I love emulation, but it may be a goodjer taboo.
MaxShrek .. Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doing it.
Horror Vacui
Quick update, I'm still in the planning phases of this project and have started breaking down the pricing of parts.
So far I'm currently at about 220 bucks for the Joystick,buttons, and IPAC4(this translates the button presses into something more mame friendly via a PS2 port)
About 300 for the MDF board aka the frame
Got the assistance of two people one with tools(this could be the most important step) and one with a book with clear diagrams
Now I'm split on the monitor, some say go for TV's since they are cheap. Others say use a computer monitor as they offer better resolutions and the third is an arcade monitor, I'm kinda going for option 3. Which leads into a different host of problems with signal output one being that most video cards pump out about 31Khz and monitors(arcade ones not PC) only handle 15Khz. Arcade monitors are not cheap and technically dangerous since it's innards are quite accessible.
Today I found a monitor on Happcontrols that support 31Khz and still retains the visuals of the good old days. I'm leaning toward this one for 250 bucks before shipping.
770 bucks so far yikes! I haven't included the cost of the PC to run all of this but I can grab a cheap barebones pc for 70-100 dollars so that's not too bad.
Frankly I'm excited as all hell to get this project off the ground as I've always wanted an Arcade cabinet . To those that say they don't have the space a cocktail table could be a very viable solution as it's much smaller and provides a surface, You could also have it work as a screen saver or a picture slide show when your are not using it to play games.
As for the title of the thread I can understand the concern but as of right now it's legal software.
As taken from Wikipedia.
Now if the topic header was titled ROMS I SEZ ROOOOOMMMSSS! I would totally expect the thread to be locked and tossed in a basement.
"We are at war, and the enemies are...the publishers. No, they're not. It's not that easy. The enemies are mediocrity, laziness, and fear, and they exist in all of us." - Tim Schafer
XBL- Devmani
PSN - Devmani
Steam - Devmani
WoW - Devmani/Calthais
I used to be a big retro collector and am a huge emulation nut now (got a 250GB hard disk full of ROMs.) I tried to build a MAME cabinet out of an old JAMMA cabinet a few years back and we ended up giving up because it was getting exceedingly complicated. When I can afford it, I plan to buy one of the many available cabinets you order and assemble yourself. They come with everything, including a tube monitor if you want. If you really want to do your own, best of luck to you. I think our biggest problems were that we underestimated what was involved and that I'm just not as good with woodworking and electronics as I thought.
It's definitely best to start from scratch rather than try to convert an old board-based cabinet. You seem to be on a good track with regards to monitors and the only thing I can suggest there is to avoid LCDs or make sure they handle flexible refresh rates. Otherwise, you'll get tears-a-plenty. Good luck!
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
One of those cabinets in my house would ensure I never get laid ever again.
So, not until I'm married I guess ; )
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
She'll coax the blues right out of your heart!
My ongoing D&D campaign, Gaald, Certis and Trachalio playing
The cocktail cabinet has been on my mind for a while. I think I'll purchase a prefab one with a monitor after I land my swank law firm job. Not that I'll have time / soul to play it.
Gamertag: PKSebben
Xfire: dramarent
I thought lawyers had one or the other?
"We are at war, and the enemies are...the publishers. No, they're not. It's not that easy. The enemies are mediocrity, laziness, and fear, and they exist in all of us." - Tim Schafer
XBL- Devmani
PSN - Devmani
Steam - Devmani
WoW - Devmani/Calthais
The new video pinball emulators look awesome, I think Williams has one in the works with several tables pre-loaded.
MaxShrek .. Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doing it.
Horror Vacui
Visual Pinball + VPinMAME is a compelling option too.
XBL: necrocinnabon
Tetnis wrote:
This is a good book that takes you from A-Z on building an arcade machine.
http://www.projectarcade.com/
Good luck, keep us updated on progress please.
SteamId = RevenantKel
Short update today, yesterady I went to Home Depot and checked out their MDF board I'm looking at about 30 bucks a sheet and I assume I'll need 4-5 sheets. One for each side and a third for the back, the fourth to make the random outher pieces like the bottom and shelving for the monitor. The last piece is my "oops" piece I don't plan is flubbing the measurements but one can never be too sure. So thats roughly about 150 not including paint, screws etc. If I can bring this in to about 200 bucks for the frame that shaves about 100 off the total or just allocates it into another part of the project. I haven't even looked into "T" molding for the sides but thats a minor concern compared to the whole monitor/buttons thing.
Well after taking a quick look I need less 3/4' MDF then expected. I actually only need 2 for the sides and then 1/2' MDF for the back/bottom. Something I didn't take into consideration was the keyboard for the whole thing. I simply thought about using a cheap generic keyboard for this but why do that when I can get one of those keyboards you can roll up? Using a keyboard like that permits me with a wide amount of clearanceif I decide to put in a drawer so I don't have to open up the top of the control panel every time. I'm gonna file all of this for a later debate and discussion in my mind. I think the project will move from the planning phase to the purchase/construction phase in December ( X-mas bonus is a good source of startup cash then I can part it out as I go along.)
Also I picked a front end to use for the project, I decided to go with Game EX. If anyone else has better suggestions please feel free to post them.
Also Phragged a co-worker has the book and is letting me borrow it. I have to agree that the book is a great source.
"We are at war, and the enemies are...the publishers. No, they're not. It's not that easy. The enemies are mediocrity, laziness, and fear, and they exist in all of us." - Tim Schafer
XBL- Devmani
PSN - Devmani
Steam - Devmani
WoW - Devmani/Calthais