MAME Cabinet

alot, and because i wanted one for my games room.

i'd been looking for a mortal kombat 2 cabinet to do the conversion myself, but they're like hen's teeth. then i considered building my own from scratch, but i don't have the time, space or tools.

i saw this a few days ago and started drooling...

i have a 2-player x-arcade stick that i used with my pc. 42" r-type and 'track & field' were hammered for the last few years, but this will be so much more special...

plus, after i saw the donkey kong documentary, i thought i'd give it a bash!
 
Interesting, I'd like one of those cabinets but they really can be expensive. So how much is "a lot"? :)
 
1250 quid, thats a shit load for an arcade cabinet, but then maybe MJ is opening an arcade for all the lil scrotes to come play games in, thus a quid at a time he will soon get it paid off! ;)
 
Spunk_of_MJ said:
plus, after i saw the donkey kong documentary, i thought i'd give it a bash!
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Oh yeah i watched that and its was a great film

but after reading the IMDB board its not at all as bad as the Docu made out, which was very disappointing
 
mate, that looks fantastic! i especially like the flashing buttons and the trackball! i'm jealous!

i can see you've been at it for 2 months. how much longer do you reckon before it's finished? how much have you spent in total so far?

like i said above, i thought about doing it myself, but i don't have the time (well, maybe i have the time) but i certainly don't have the room nor the tools.

i reckoned it would probably take me around 3 months if i was building from scratch, ordering the wood and all the parts, then getting someone to cut the mdf etc...

i'd been looking on ebay for a mortal kombat 2 machine, cos i read they were the best for a converison, but i was wondering about the condition it would be in, and other things going wrong afterwards.

in the end, i decided this was the best option...
 
mate, i've just read through your entire blog!

i'm gonna cancel my order (it is alot (too much) money) and build my own - it's not due for delivery until monday. i didn't think i would have enjoyed building it, but i suppose a nice wee project like that would see me through the dark nights. i'm gonna have to speak to a mate and see if i can use his shed...

when you said you had no tools, do you mean you literally had no tools at all?!? have you bought everything from scratch? tools and materials?
 
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Spunk_of_MJ said:
is this the same book you bought?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Project-Arcad...oryZ1107QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

do i need 'craig's guide'?

edit: i've just bought the book from amazon - should be here by friday so i can see what i need and start planning!
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LOL.. sorry - just checked back - see you've been busy!

Ok, in some sort of order:

* I'd never done ANY diy at all - so everything was new to me - woodwork, sawing, drilling and the electrical stuff. For example, it took me about 40 minutes to figure out how the router worked!!

* No, I had NO tools. I managed to get everything I need fairly cheap by buying budget tools (i.e. a jigsaw for £9) - had no problems with them at all, but yes, had to buy EVERYTHING!

* I originally budgeting (naively) £300 for the project. £100 materials, £100 controls and £100 PC... wrong! I reckon so far I've spent...

> £200+ on materials
> £120+ on Tools
> about £300 on the controls
> PC I am looking at will be about £200

So looking at around £800-£1000 depending on what you get. Like I said, I went budget!

* That is the book I built the machine from. Highly, highly recommended, couldnt have do it without it. You dont really need Craigs guide, that was more of a launch pad to get over the fear of doing it.

* The project is almost finished - just need the PC and get the front glass and the marquee done (the panel at the top of the cab that lights up). If I had the money, I could finish it in a weekend now.

* The trackball is SUPERB! I love trackball games, like Tekhan World Cup, DunkShot and Missle Command etc. Plus the lights etc are a nice touch!

Finally - go for it! Seriously, its been hard work, but it really is satisfying to do it yourself and you have a lot more freedom. I've realyl enjoyed it.

I cannot recommend this website highly enough either: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php

They will help with just about ANY problem - its a great community!

Good luck!
 
Reading that blog makes me want to make one as well :)

And then practice to Beat Billy Mitchells Donkey Kong scores and Ceh's Millipede one or what ever he has ;)
 
i spoke to my mate today, who i used to live with up until 6 months ago. the two of us used to sit in and play r-type and track & field using my 2-player x-arcade stick and a 42" plasma.

we often talked about building one when we lived together, but now i think it's gonna happen. he has a spare room in his new house and we talked today about building 2 identical cabinets, side-by-side, simultaneously - it means we can go halfers on the tools and stuff like that.

my mouth is started to foam up thinking about it, now!

pboreham, have you budgeted for a monitor in that £800-1000? i think i remember reading in your blog last night that you were goiong for a 25".

i've never done any diy either, but i reckon we should be able to do it no problem. i, too grew up in the arcades and i remember playing Tekhan World Cup (i'm 34). that would be cool to be able to recreate playing that game.

i noticed you had a steering wheel too - what happened there? the prospect of playing super sprint, power drift and chase hq makes me almost wet myself!
 
Spunk_of_MJ said:
i spoke to my mate today, who i used to live with up until 6 months ago. the two of us used to sit in and play r-type and track & field using my 2-player x-arcade stick and a 42" plasma.

we often talked about building one when we lived together, but now i think it's gonna happen. he has a spare room in his new house and we talked today about building 2 identical cabinets, side-by-side, simultaneously - it means we can go halfers on the tools and stuff like that.

my mouth is started to foam up thinking about it, now!

pboreham, have you budgeted for a monitor in that £800-1000? i think i remember reading in your blog last night that you were goiong for a 25".

i've never done any diy either, but i reckon we should be able to do it no problem. i, too grew up in the arcades and i remember playing Tekhan World Cup (i'm 34). that would be cool to be able to recreate playing that game.

i noticed you had a steering wheel too - what happened there? the prospect of playing super sprint, power drift and chase hq makes me almost wet myself!
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Ah yea, forgot to say - I already had a spare 19" monitor. You can use any sort of monitor and most TVs though.

The steering wheel is an accessory to the spinner from Groovy Game Gear (where I got all my stuff) in the USA. Its fab - and yea, will be great for Power Drift, Ivan Steward, APB etc!!! :D
 
the price has dropped on this cabinet down to a mere £750 so i haven't been able to resist! delivery to northern ireland was a rip-off £83 though... :(

i ordered it on tuesday and delivery is due at my mate's house in northern ireland on monday. we're gonna stick it in his garage-cum-gamesroom.

i've got 20 dvds crammed with mame roms, and every single nes, snes, master system and mega drive game ready to be installed as soon as it arrives!

this is going to be soooooooooooo special!!!

pboreham, which front end do you use? i've read that maximus arcade is the daddy...
 
Yea, Maximus is VERY good, but not free for the full version. I find them all a bit complicated back-end wise and dont have the spare time to sit and work it all out.

So because of that, I plumped for MaLa - mainly because it has a plugin (LEDWIZ) which lights all the buttons up I got (looks fucking AWESOME in attract mode, all the lights randomly flashing and chasing each other like a proper cab!).

MaLa is pretty basic looking (though can be jazzed up with skins), but you can make favourite lists in it (I have like Classic Arcade, Driving, Fighting etc), so its quick and easy to use.

If I really cared and was showing the cab off, I'd go Maximus evertime and find the time to make the lights work.

Nice one on getting the cab though, you'll love it! I've just hooked a Playstation GH guitar up to it and have hundreds and hundreds of 'Frets on Fire' songs on it now...
 
pboreham said:
Yea, Maximus is VERY good, but not free for the full version. I find them all a bit complicated back-end wise and dont have the spare time to sit and work it all out.

So because of that, I plumped for MaLa - mainly because it has a plugin (LEDWIZ) which lights all the buttons up I got (looks fucking AWESOME in attract mode, all the lights randomly flashing and chasing each other like a proper cab!).

MaLa is pretty basic looking (though can be jazzed up with skins), but you can make favourite lists in it (I have like Classic Arcade, Driving, Fighting etc), so its quick and easy to use.

If I really cared and was showing the cab off, I'd go Maximus evertime and find the time to make the lights work.

Nice one on getting the cab though, you'll love it! I've just hooked a Playstation GH guitar up to it and have hundreds and hundreds of 'Frets on Fire' songs on it now...
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hey pboreham...

time to dust off the old cabinet and stick this baby on it!!!

my jaw is still on the floor - blows every other front-end clean out of the water...

it's called HyperSpin - check it out here:

YouTube - TB's Hyperspin cab.

the guy over at emumovies has played EVERY single MAME game, and edited a 30 second video clip for each one!! there are also vids for each and every console game/emulator out there!!

it should give your cabinet a new lease of life!
 
thread revival Batman! I really wanna do this but living in Japan it's probably easier to buy a candy cab.
 
crayon said:
thread revival Batman! I really wanna do this but living in Japan it's probably easier to buy a candy cab.
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i have shipped my cabinet over from northern ireland this week - should be receiving it tomorrow. can't wait to get started on this!

i thought about a candy cab back when i was buying mine, but then the guy halved the price to clear some space in his warehouse, and £750 was just too tempting, and it was brand new...

have a look on some of the arcade forums - 'byoac' is one of them... usually people are selling candy cabs at reasonable prices...
 
I sold my cab a couple of years back :(

We moved from Lincs back to Essex and got an appartment, so even without the hassle of shipping it, I wouldnt have had room for it.

Got £750 for it though and the family that brought it have 2 young kids and they were going mental when set it up for them, so that was nice :)

Would love to have one again - may go the Candy Cab route... damn, you got me wanting it again! :D
 
mine has been lying in my mums kitchen for the last 2 years. i played it to death everytime i was home at the start, but it literally hasn't been touched in the last 12 months.

when i saw that new front-end, and what can be done nowadays, i had to have it shipped over in preparation for a new lease of life!

i have a beast of a pc now too, and apparently dreamcast and am2 games run pretty flawlessly nowadays, including much of the ps2 stuff...

can't wait! go on mate, you know you want a new project!! :p
 
Spunk_of_MJ said:
mine has been lying in my mums kitchen for the last 2 years. i played it to death everytime i was home at the start, but it literally hasn't been touched in the last 12 months.

when i saw that new front-end, and what can be done nowadays, i had to have it shipped over in preparation for a new lease of life!

i have a beast of a pc now too, and apparently dreamcast and am2 games run pretty flawlessly nowadays, including much of the ps2 stuff...

can't wait! go on mate, you know you want a new project!! :p
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Dreamcast?! Really.... hmmm!
 
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