MAME Arcade Cabinet
 

I think this is going to be my next bored engineer project. We are looking at a house that has a ginormous basement which will become my manroom/moto garage. I will have plenty of room for my toys and plenty of room to add new toys. I have always wanted a classic arcade game, but I could never really decide which one I wanted most. I like pac-man, donkey kong, and all the classics; but I just see that taking up space after I get bored with the one classic game. It would also be cool to get one of those awesome 4 player games from my childhood like Gauntlet or TMNT.

Then I started thinking about it and decided I want to build a MAME cabinet from scratch, because it would be awesome and I could play any game. I could also customize the shit out of it.

Been looking at plans online, I think I want the classic display setup vs the gallery display.

Gallery:
http://www.dreamauthentics.com/images/elaebay.jpg

Classic:
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Custom-MAME-t...6DzUUQ~~_3.JPG

Classic just looks better, but I bet gallery is a little easier to play without fatigue. Think most of the bigger monitor plans are with the gallery too.

Definitely going to do 4 Happ 8-ways for the 4 player controls with at least 6 buttons for each player. Street fighter bitches! Then want a dedicated Happ 4-way in the middle for classics like Pac-Man. Debating making all the buttons clear with LED lighting, would look pretty sweet. May go ahead and do a track ball, never really played track ball games, but might as well wire one up.

I got a few months of planning before we settle into a house and I can start building, but this would be a fun project.

Talked to another sign guy and I want to design the artwork and mylar and have him print it out for me. Completely custom epicness.

The ultimate nerd cave?

I say get a walk out basement and turn it into a moto project garage extension.

This is something I've considered doing a number of times in the past... IMHO, I wouldn't use a PC... Get an old Xbox and softmod it. The emulators for whatever reason always seemed to work better on there...

Also, I don't understand why anyone would just do a MAME only cabinet... I have a modded Xbox with everything from MAME to Atari to N64 and literally tens of thousands of games on it... 300GB HD - easy peasy... Oh, and there's like 50 Xbox games and a good bit of music on it as well.

Oh... and, one of my ideas was to make the cabinet a sit down job like the racing games... I wanted to do a rotating control station in which you could flip between a racing wheel setup and a regular controller layout...

That's a seperate room and already a given, probably going to ask for a lift for my birthday for it.

Think of the house I use to have and then the entire footprint besides the garage will be a walkout basement. This thing is divided up into 2 very big rooms, it will probably be turned into 2 big rooms and two regular bedrooms with a bathroom. The garage room will still be epic huge. Probably like two 1 car garages connected length wise. The other big room will probably be slightly bigger than the mancave I had in the other house.

If you're going to do it, go all out. Get a surround sound system for the fucking thing too... I'd stick to something sub-600 watts cause you're going to be right in the fucking middle of the thing...

Fuck... now I'm jonesing for this project myself...

It won't be solely MAME, it will definitely run a variety of systems. The power plant doesn't strictly have to be one system or computer either. I can get a monitor that allows me to switch between an xbox/computer/whatever. Still planning that part. I just called it MAME, because that's just a standard thing to call these cabinets.

I like the bench idea, but I will probably go standup. I think I like a classic look over functionality like the gallery setup.

Yeah, I do want to do this, one dude I saw made his a jukebox as well, it was pretty neat. It would be pretty cool to tie it in with my itunes airplay setup I currently have and be able to control it from my android phone/Mac/iPad.

Awesome man... do it up.

ahem

http://www.roguesynapse.com/games/last_starfighter.php

Yeah, I figured... there are a lot of people out there who only run the arcade shit and I think that's a waste.

My preference would be to keep it simple by having as much under one system as possible... really simplifies the wiring...

Yeah, I wasn't planning on going conventional at all... going for pure functionality.

I want to get some bar stools made up for it. My wife has all kinds of connections with custom business furniture makers. They have done some sweet shit for the university of Tennessee football stadium suite furniture.

that's friggin awesome to add that in.

Looks like a great project Trip.

Man, there is a lot to learn about this and a lot of choices I need to make. I think I am definitely going to go for a computer setup first over a modded xbox. Probably will run Hyperspin. Just cause it provides for a lot more customization you can't do with xbox. Thinking about doing an LCD monitor over trying to find a classic CRT. OSP, the problem you are running into with emulators for arcade games is going to be mostly monitor and choice of emulators. You need a good arcade monitor/controller setup for arcade games to look right if you do a comp setup.

Want to go compie, because I am going to run LEDwiz for my buttons. I am going to use RGB buttons that will light up the color I want. So the buttons you are using for each game will light up the buttons you use and will light up the color I want them to light up. That will be pretty bad ass.

Still can't find a cabinet I want. I really like the 37" LCD cabinets on ebay, but I can't find a plan for them. I sent them asking if they would sell me the plan or maybe even a kit. I don't think I am capable of the woodworking part, but I have a friend who can if need be...

Got the most important part of this out of the way, I have a place to put the cabinet now.

I wouldn't even consider a CRT, fuck that... LCD monitor all the way...

The thing about comps and all that... the Xbox just worked right out of the box for me... and worked damn well with all games, emulators, etc. I've fucked around with controllers and emulators in the past with PC, but it was never quite as seemless as with the Xbox.

Also, you can hack Xbox controllers to work with those arcade buttons... not sure it would work with the light-up scheme you're considering, but I never thought of that... I was just going for an easy build...

I used to want my own arcade system, but now I just want an enormous HDTV and a good surround sound system.

If nothing else, it does seem like it would be fun to put together though. Make your own plans for a cabinet if you have to.

A quick google search came up with this though http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_cabinet_plans.shtml . The first link had diagrams all drawn out.. fucking costs 2 grand.

I have the HDTV.

Check out this place for parts. I'd just go with a good jamma board with a switcher so you can use your xbox or other system.
http://www.jammaboards.com/

Keep in mind whether you want mostly vertical or horizontal games as that will determine which way you mount your monitor and which game board you get. Mine is a vertical 48 game multicade with a 27" monitor.
They are very, very heavy so, make sure you put heavy-duty wheels with brakes under it so you can move it around easier!

Yeah, I am not doing jamma boards. I am going with a computer running hyperspin, then I can have as many games as I want. Not concerned with a switcher, those are easy.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/inde...topic=116374.0

This one is really making me want to learn woodworking and building my own tribute cab. I am thinking I am going to do a TMNT or TMNT Turtles in Time tribute cab.

Like Donkey Kong and Pac Man were the ideal for the older generation. I remember my local Pizza Inn having TMNT and me, my uncle, and cousin beating it one day when my uncle took us to Pizza Inn. It was awesome. I just can't remember if it was the original Turtles or Turtles in Time. I had the Turtles in Time for SNES and played it a fuck ton, but I don't really remember the original. Plus, they were 4 player cabs and the viewing angle on these are better for a 4 player cab setup.

I want a Super Street Fighter 4 arcade machine, be it real or home made.

Found a local arcade repair shop that is going to refurb an old NBA Jam/NFL Blitz Cab. They are pulling off the control panel, cause I don't want that, refurbing the monitor, redoing paint/artwork/marquee/t-molding, and basically cleaning the fuck out of it. I think I want them to use TMNT artwork for the sides and marquee. Then for the control panel, I am going to order one of the quad panels from Mameroom.com. So this project is underway.

Purchased a bunch of parts. Shits getting real. Started the process of getting the cab refurbished.

Got some GGG Electric Ice 2 LED RGB concave buttons.

http://www.groovygamegear.com/Store_...SSX_SPLASH.jpg

Got 5 Sanwa JLFs, which are considered one of the ultimate fight sticks. Also got hollow shafts and translucent ball tops along with LED RGBs for cool ass illumination

http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/12...t-joystick.jpg

The trackball I want is currently not in stock and I haven't figured out which spinner I want yet.

MAME awesomeness is developing.

Are those joysticks 4/8 way switchable? I ended up switching mine back to the 4-way side so that games like pacman and make trax were easier to play. It takes less than a minute to switch if I want to go back.
What I would really love is a good rotary dial for super-breakout but, I'm not sure my board is set up for it.
Those are some damn nice items you've got there! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Yes they are switchable, but there are actually going to be 4 8-way sticks and 1 4-way stick on my control panel at all times.

I am getting one a spinner as well, just haven't decided how big I want to go with it. They work great for driving games too and you can get tops for them to look like mini steering wheels.

I like the arcade games. I had an Aliens vs Predator one that worked flawlessly. I'm gonna have to bust out my box of hold HDD's and find them.

Why?

I would think the square shape and the round screen of the CRT would look much more "arcade-ish" than a flat screened 16:9 set up.

In the video you posted, that looks to be a CRT screen and fits the theme perfectly. :idk:

I am going CRT now, it's cheaper and already designed to fit my cab. Going 16:9 really fucks up a lot of screen space when all the classics are 4:3.

Shit is starting to get real now. Got my cabinet on order. Talking with someone about helping me build my control panel layout and getting the artwork for it.

Made final decisions on every part I am getting for the the machine. Most of it has been purchased.

5 Sanwa JLF (4 way/8 way) joysticks with Electric Ice balltops, going to do the RGB LED setup myself for these.

A mess of GGG Electric Ice 2 RGB pushbuttons

Ultimarc Ultratrak flushmount track ball

Ultimarc Spintrak spinner and topper

Ultimarc ipac4 controller

2 Ultimarc PacLED64 controllers to control the blinky flashy

ArcadeVGA video card for my CRT Arcade monitor.



Got my pushbuttons and joysticks in already

So, is there a groove on the joystick shaft for the wires to light the balls? Somehow that sounded very dirty....

It's a hollow shaft

http://wolfsoft.de/wordpress/?cat=4

That's what I originally imagined but, in the first pic, there's no opening I can see and the shaft lying on its' side appeared to have a groove. I like the toppers in the link that have the bubbles inside! They look great with the LED's lit up!

The hollow shaft is not installed in the first pic. I had to buy those seperately from the joystick.

I thought about those, but I wanted to go super matchy matchy throughout the control panel. The buttons I wanted (that would of worked well with the bubble tops) are not made anymore (see below) and getting any really nice concave RGB buttons is hard. The ones I got sold out fast when I got mine.

The trackball will be the same pearly white as well.

Got my spinner, trackball, IPAC4, and two LED controllers in today.

Got enough to build a 1 player setup on a cardboard box and play on the mac until the cabinet is ready.

Freaking awesome...

Haven't updated this in awhile. Still moving ahead.

Ordered a bunch of stuff, still need to build the control panel.

I picked up my former NFL Blitz 99 cabinet that was f'in fucked up from the guy I got to restore it. Came out pretty freakin epic. New speakers, refurbed 26" arcade CRT, working lamp for marquee.

Just going to stick my an old computer of mine in it to MAME it. Currently got that running and hooked up to a cardboard control panel for testing.

Looking good so far!

Working away at the control panel, she will be ready to play in no time.

Already got the top cut with plexi, but still trying to figure out how I plan to mount the joysticks.

Damn! That panel is going to have its' own zipcode!

yeah it's big, but its got everything, it will look very similar to this, but with a TMNT design of course and 7th buttons for 1 and 2 player.

Picked up the panel from the guy that was putting on the artwork for me during lunch today. Time to start the fun part I been looking forward to since I started this project. WIRING!!! YEY, finally I get to be a dorky electrical.

Will take some picks when I get home.

That's it, got all the pieces to complete it, may need some more wiring, but that is an easy stop at radio shack.

Can't wait to see it in action.

Here's the finished control panel not populated, got the track ball and joysticks in, but these aren't the joystick shafts I am using. I have longer ones that are hollow for my RGB joystick balls.

Just about to start putting on the buttons.

That's pretty frakkin sweet.

How far I got before giving up for the night. Still got to run power to 3 and 4 and then run the ground to everything.

Not doing RGBs yet, want to do some testing with just the controls before I go after lighting.

You're an animal!

How are you labeling the buttons? Vynal?

The MAME control buttons and coin/start buttons I am using vinyl. The player buttons will be unmarked since not all game buttons are the same. Once I get the LED lights working, the buttons/controls that are used for every game will light up and the unused buttons/controls lights will stay off. With the RGB LEDs, I can light the buttons up different colors too, so 1 player can be red, 2 player blue, 3 player green, 4 player yellow and such.

Sweet man!! Keep up the good work!

Any Golden Tee?

the older ones play ok, but the newer ones need a better computer, that's my next big purchase. NFL Blitz requires a damn quad core overclocked at 4 ghz to play great. I have to go big on the comp...

I worked my butt off tonight and got the main control panel wiring done and then installed the panel to test that wiring. EVERYTHING WORKS! Gonna take a break from wiring the panel and start working on cleaning up the cabinet wiring and make it pretty in the main cab. Will eventually have to go back through all the wiring and add the lighting portion.

Vinyl stickers GO! Also wired in the arcade speakers and dumped the little computer speakers and starting to clean up the interior of the cabinet so I can mount the computer inside completely and everything is self contained including my airport base station. Plan on making a switch on it, so I can flip between arcade sound and airport base station so I can control it jukebox style from my ipad and listen to music when I am not playing the arcade.

You are certifiable, I hope you know.

You're gonna get so much pussy!

It can be crazy on what hardware is needed on some roms. I guess that has to do more with software not really understanding what to do? The hardest roms for me to get to work and most the time they didn't was anything NEO GEO.

The easiest are of course NES, SNES, and Genesis and some kind of actual arcade software. Had 3 letters and a number in the name. Wish I could remember because it had a bad ass Aliens VS Predator game that is setup like Double Dragon/ Ninja Turtles style.


On the screen cover I would have gone with a plate of temper glass. I can't stand the scratched of plexi/lexan.

The screen cover is glass. Just bad lighting/picture. The marquee cover is also glass. Only things plexi are the control panel cover and I stuck the sticker for the marquee on plexi instead of glass, but that isn't visible.

Yeah. Until they notice the lack of sheet rock on his walls.

Try emulating radiant silvergun on the saturn

xbox live now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfakyXCo_mY

RGB LEDs installed in everything, LEDBlinky controlling everything and will light lights based on game.

TMNT running, only the buttons used in the game are lighted... FUCKING AWESOME

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9889/ledblinky.jpg

Will try once I get to the point of adding in all the emulators, probably need a better computer to run it. Mine has been barely getting by lately.

Nice work!!

Suhwheet!

Nice man.

How does it know which lights to light?

LEDBlinky Software outputs to the controller board based on a file that has all the rom information on it. It's a massive document. I have had to play with it a little to readjust the joystick intensity, because they are a lot brighter than the buttons without being turned down.

Thankfully someone wrote a file that has all the MAME roms on it. I just have to find replace what I want. This is what the TMNT part of it looks like, you can see how I had to make the joystick colors =JColor. I was able to just do a find and replace on all joystick= to joystick=J to fix the entire file for the joystick intensity.

[tmnt]
P1_COIN=Blue
P1_BUTTON1=Blue
P1_BUTTON2=Blue
P1_JOYSTICK=JBlue
P2_COIN=Orange
P2_BUTTON1=Orange
P2_BUTTON2=Orange
P2_JOYSTICK=JOrange
P3_COIN=Violet
P3_BUTTON1=Violet
P3_BUTTON2=Violet
P3_JOYSTICK=JPurple
P4_COIN=Red
P4_BUTTON1=Red
P4_BUTTON2=Red
P4_JOYSTICK=JRed

Whoa... back down some of that nerdy talk...

How bright are the buttons in the dark? Can you dim them?

The way I have them set up right now, its not ungodly bright, but not dim either. This is as bright as the buttons get. The joysticks get omg thats too bright, but I have them set on the low end of their dimming.

Yeah I can change the intensities to make them dimmer.

I want to play. :(

Damn, I'm a bit jealous.
Seeing this reminds me of how dumb I was for selling my Suzuka 8HRS arcade game. That thing was fun as hell.

Some more shots, shows how the arcade knows which one the 4way player one joystick is and such

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/609...9320136325.jpg
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8...0260496835.jpg
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1...0259199435.jpg
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3...0259533765.jpg
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6...0261674475.jpg
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4...0252298265.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/830...0260726375.jpg

Awesome. :dthumb:

What is the total cost?

I try not to look at that.

I would guess just under 2, knowing what I know now I could of done a similar cabinet without RGBs or TMNT stickers for under 1.

Reproduction art and LED buttons are fucking expensive.

If I build another, it will be 2 player and something I do completely myself. I really want to try the woodworking/designing my own cabinet eventually. Probably wouldn't save me any money though, because of tool purchases and I got a great deal on the old NFL Blitz cab vs cost of MDF.

I must say this is nerd gamer epoxalipse.

But I do want to play it.

looks awesome

I'd rock Neo Geo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtG0LD6iKho&feature=plcp

Got me a Neo Geo cabinet. Has the one slot board with the 161-in-1 cartridge. Now to either get on of those 619-in-1 carts or cram a PC in there hooked up to the original monitor and controls.

Nice

gonna build your own panel or restore it?

I'll just leave this one alone, but add a pc for mame in it. Switch between the two. Its 4 buttons so its good to go on the majority of games. I know theres a select few fighting games like SF that need 6 but not worried about it.

If I can get dimensions for a mame cabinet, I'll build my own. Most likely stick with 2 player with sticks, 6 buttons and a center ball.