My MAME Arcade Cabinet

[McClain]

I'm almost finished. This is my newest masterpiece... Since I've almost completed this, I decided to build a mimi-mame system in a 4' tall cabinet. ROCK!

http://www.flampoo.com/images/mame01.jpg

[Mockery]

I don't know what to envy more, the Mame cabinet or the Garbage Pail Kids punching bag. :o!

Ok, the Mame cabinet.

[timrpgland]

Very cool.

That's the X-Arcade joystick? Any good?

I need to make a MVS cabinet. So much cheaper than the AES carts.

[Cap'n Crunch]

Haha, did anyone see at the top it says, "MCCLAIN'S ARCADE MACHINE EMULATOR." That's so awesome.

[McClain]

Yeah, the X-Arcade is really nice. I give it a thumbs up for use outside of a cabinet. I kinda' wish I would have built my own, but at the time I didn't know shit about controls.

And yeah, I'm gonna' drum up some sideart in photoshop - make the whole cabinet look nice.

P.S. - You all have an open invitation to come over and play. Provided you bring a fistful of quarters.

[Rongi]

Holy crap man that is awesome.

Where did you get the cabinet and the quarters thingy?

[McClain]

I got it from a local guy who sells cabinets. The coin mechs came w/ the cabinet but weren't hooked up. I had to take care of that part. All I have to do now is figure out how to wire their power supply.

[Rongi]

I have a friend who makes cabinets and arcade games...haven't spoken to him in about 5 years though. He slept in his office and did heroin :/

[soundtest]

daaamn you're living the dream! my roommate got the x-arcade for xmas and it's great. we've been wanting to get something similar set up for it here...

[whoreable]

that is pretty damn cool. I really wanted to do one of those, but I think i might just try to build some joysticks or get some xarcades to play on my xbox on my 65" tv :)

So did u use a tv or a normal computer monitor? You should also wire up the coins to actually work with mame. that would be rad.

[McClain]

I was going to use an actual 19" CRT arcade monitor, but the wiring would be a bitch since I would be using a computer as well. So now I have a 19" computer monitor and it works great - it's just heavy as fuck.
Once I figure out how to wire the power supply for the coin mechs, I plan on hooking them up to the X-Arcade. It will be radical. And I think I'm going to redo the control panel. I haven't decided but I think I might gut the X-Arcade joystick and use it's parts for a custom panel.

[SMN]

y'know, you could just wire the coin mechs to the "5" Key on the keyboard.which would be a hell of alot easier. I'm gonna make one, and i'm putting on an "Escape" button on the control panel, and making slide-in removable marquees to give the machine a good "Arcade" feel..

[Comrade Rocket]

Hey man, can I come over?

I don't have any quarters, but i can pay you in other ways :blowme

[Emu]

You don't need to pay, necessarily. Usually there's a switch or button on the coin operator that lets you play as if you put a coin in.

[liquidstatik]

When yer done with the project, you should submit some photos and such to Tech TV, McClain. Most of time with projects like yers, they'll do a little segment on you in one of their shows. :o

[McClain]

That might be true, but there are so many people building MAME machines now that it's almost, dare I say, pop culture. And because of that, I decided to build something few have ever built:

THE MINIATURE MAME MACHINE

http://www.flampoo.com/images/mcmame/minimame.jpg

I decided to take on somewhat of a side project by building a miniature MAME cabinet. It currently stands 4' tall and is 25" wide. This one is gonna' be kickass folks. And you're going to see its transformation! I'll be sure to share the finished product. I don't know what kinda' PC I'm gonna' use inside, but I know I'll be using a 15" CRT monitor.

[McClain]

y'know, you could just wire the coin mechs to the "5" Key on the keyboard.which would be a hell of alot easier. I'm gonna make one, and i'm putting on an "Escape" button on the control panel, and making slide-in removable marquees to give the machine a good "Arcade" feel..

Keyboard hacking is a pain the ass. I'll be purchasing an IPAC (Interface for PC to Arcade Controls). And why would you ugly-up an arcade control panel with an escape button? Why not just wire it to a pushbutton? And just a quick FYI, most arcade marquees are removable.

[whoreable]

dont you think a 15" is a bit too small? I kinda do...

Yea really want to build some joysticks for my xbox and pc, but I dont know if i can justify the costs when there are some pretty reasonably priced premade ones that seem fairly decent.

but yea the mini one looks pretty good thus far. I would love to see the process you are going through as well as the finished product.

[McClain]

dont you think a 15" is a bit too small? I kinda do...

For what I'm doing, no. 15" is perfect. The cabinet is uncharacteristically wide for it's dimensions. It's hard to determine correct proportions for something that doesn't have a benchmark. That being said, it's too unstable for a whopper of a monitor. I could load it up with a bunch of reinforcements to keep it from wobbling , but between all the extra lumber and a huge monitor the thing would end up weighing 100+ lbs. I don't want that.

"Why did you make it so wide?" you ask. Because I wanted to have enough room to make a 2p control panel.

[Anonymous]

That is pretty great. I wish I had the wherewithall to do crap like that.

Though it would have been neat to put mame in the startup folder, and wire three buttons to down, up, and enter for the emulator so you could remove the keyboard and mouse. It'd be like a Playchoice 9 or whatever those NES machines were called.

Hey, next you can build a DDR pad! :>

[McClain]

When I decided to start this project, I had next to nothing. No technical knowledge and few of the needed tools. It's not that difficult, though. I spent $100 on tools and got everything I really needed. Jigsaw. Sander. Drill. Dremel. Sawhorses. That's it!

With MAME 32 you can use the joysticks to choose games. Most frontends allow that, too. The only time I need the keyboard is for initial startup and shutdown.