My first cab

aN.Droid

Hey there!

I am planning building my first mame cab this summer. I plan on starting it in about 5 weeks time and will use this thread as a log of my progress.

I want to do this 100% diy, no refurbs or anything like that as it will be my summer project.

Problem is I have 0 tools and experience in woodwork I am a quick study though.

Could you guys reccomend reasonably priced tools that will do the job? I would prefer good quality items while still staying in the diy'ers price bracket.

Also could anyone reccomend MDF, MDO or Plywood? I would rather have good quality materials but still be affordable.

I plan on using this as my plans for starting it off and probably will stick to it religiously for my first cab. It lists all the tools I will need aswell as a few other things.

I plan on buying this aswell for the guts of the CP and other parts.

I have been using the mame software for many years and have the latest rom set right now without CHD's (Don't see the point for a few games) and will be running other emulators up as far as ps1. What would you recommend the specs be for the pc running it. Surely cheaper parts would do? I will be keeping the parts current gen but trying to keep the costs down.

I have a set of car speakers as well that I will be wiring the sound too, they have a good bit of sound off them and they would look well with there round design that you would see on arcade cabs anyway.

Anyway yeah I am sure I left some questions out so any general advice you guys have would be greatly appreciated!

Optimus Prime

I based my cab off those plans too, made some slight changes, some on purpose some by accident! most of the mistakes and questions i asked are here..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056152726

aN.Droid

keithgeo wrote: »

I based my cab off those plans too, made some slight changes, some on purpose some by accident! most of the mistakes and questions i asked are here..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056152726

I read your thread in it's entirety aswell as a few others here to get the mental juices going. Have to say I lol'd at your dextering of that room in your home

You had the cab looking well in the end by the way Very simple looking but eloquent. The black with blue trim came out really nice and the CP art rocks!

aN.Droid

I just had to laugh at this. My friend just sent me these pictures that I sent him About 5 years ago. it's when I got the first ideas of building a mame cabinet, and being young and excited about the project I proceeded to draw up my ideas, me being me and terrible at anything artistic drew these in paint.

It's pretty hilarious now that I look back on it haha. As you can guess I gave up soon after that once I realized I was young and had no money to go through with it :P times have changed though!

http://i.imgur.com/tXcEE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/moX0D.gif

So funny.

o1s1n

Heh, I love finding old pics like that. A little while ago I came across some similar plans I had to build a cab about 10 years ago. Never happened either though!

Figured out then that it's far easier (and probably cheaper) to just buy one instead!

aN.Droid

o1s1n wrote: »

Heh, I love finding old pics like that. A little while ago I came across some similar plans I had to build a cab about 10 years ago. Never happened either though!

Figured out then that it's far easier (and probably cheaper) to just buy one instead!

Oh I don't doubt that. But as I said in the op I would rather do this 100% diy, it's my summer project so blast the cost (as long as it doesnt go over 1k )

Won't be starting for a few weeks anyway, going on holidays in 2 weeks time so have no spare cash right now.

I have been messing around with hyperspin and it's great but I don't have ftp access nor the funds to get it so it's looking basic right now. I wish there was a faster way to add games to your favorites list though, going into a menu to add to favorites one by one is annoying and I have about 200-300 games I want too add to that for mame alone!

Does anyone out there not use the favorites list? I don't think I would be sane if I had to go through all the games to get too the ones I want but at the same time I want the full rom set just in case. Who knows when I want to play some drunken Majhong!

I think the next 2 weeks before my holiday will be me setting up various emulators for hyperspin :P from what I gather it's no easy task!

I also own the full version of gameex and while it is awesome there is just too much in it, it's not just a launch and get games list sort of thing. I want something where i can have friends just press a button to play a game rather then having to go through menu's and waiting for the game info to load!

Also toying with the idea of using tokens. Will add one more step in getting to play but it also adds to the retro-ism of it :P

I am really excited about this and have been looking up info all week on byoac and here and other places. Can't wait to get cracking!

Also, anyone got any advice on which power tools to get?

unky chop chop

Mitch has this silverline for 150 quid.fully working by the looks of it.
small bit of work but it would save alot of time and money.
http://www.adverts.ie/1567598

kevin2me

Limericks wrote: »

Does anyone out there not use the favorites list? I don't think I would be sane if I had to go through all the games to get too the ones I want but at the same time I want the full rom set just in case. Who knows when I want to play some drunken Majhong!

Hey I nearly gave up on Hyperspin for that very reason, wasnt usuable with 8000 games to scroll through, Thank god I didnt.

So what I did was download all Hyperspin Themes etc,
Then in Hyperspin can set a setting to only show Games with themese,
and hey Presto now only showing i think 500-1000 Games and all have artwork and videos.

Then I Add My Favs from there, Finding Fav and adding ur old favs is part of the fun. It also spilts into Genre too

Steve X2

This attached file might help out a bit. Might be easier to pick games from a category and add them to your favs instead from the main mame games list.

.

aN.Droid

unky chop chop wrote: »

Mitch has this silverline for 150 quid.fully working by the looks of it.
small bit of work but it would save alot of time and money.
http://www.adverts.ie/1567598

Hmm it's tempting but I want to build my own I think, also want 6 buttons per player

kevin2me wrote: »

Hey I nearly gave up on Hyperspin for that very reason, wasnt usuable with 8000 games to scroll through, Thank god I didnt.

So what I did was download all Hyperspin Themes etc,
Then in Hyperspin can set a setting to only show Games with themese,
and hey Presto now only showing i think 500-1000 Games and all have artwork and videos.

Then I Add My Favs from there, Finding Fav and adding ur old favs is part of the fun. It also spilts into Genre too

That is exactly what I did today, I got emumovies and hyperspin gold membership and it opened it up way more and is amazing now. Can't wait to get this cab going!

Steve SI wrote: »

This attached file might help out a bit. Might be easier to pick games from a category and add them to your favs instead from the main mame games list.

.

Thank you so much that will help allot!

I have been at this all day today and yesterday and have 8 emulators up and running now!

I think after I build this cab I will make a hyperspin console from some sort of mini pc! Hyperspin is amazing, makes me wish I didn't buy Gameex now!

Limericks

Limericks wrote: »

I plan on buying this aswell for the guts of the CP and other parts

I would steer clear of that kit if i were you. Put your control panel bits and pieces together individually. It might cost you a bit more, but go for brand name sticks and buttons, and try as many different cabs out as you can before you choose which ones you're going with. I bought that exact kit from gremlin for my very first build 7 or 8 years ago, and while it all worked perfectly fine, the sticks and switches felt cheap and didn't have the kind of response i eventually grew to know was right for me. Mine had Circle gates on them too, which meant that hitting the switches on the stick felt like trial and error in a lot of games, particularly 4 way ones or ones that needed precision (street fighter, etc)

Ring up gremlin, andy there is very good with giving advice, he'll steer you right if you tell him what kind of games you like to play, but in general sanwa sticks are excellent, maybe with some modifications like octagonal gates or spring changes. Also, Suzo/Happ pushbuttons are a favourite of mine. Have a think about whether you want convex or concave buttons, and what level of resistance you want on them. The happ competition pushbuttons are very light touch convex buttons designed for speed and accuracy, whereas something like the happ ultimates are concave, and have a much stronger spring action because of the vertically mounted microswitch. Fractionally harder to "find" and push in a pinch, but feel more solid and hard-wearing as a trade-off for their lack of speed.

It's only personal preference, but you will be able to feel the "cheap" every time you hit the generic switches that come with those complete DIY kits, and if you're using the cab for a few years (like i was back then) you might wish you'd spent the extra few quid on top quality stuff.

I would at the very least recommend a pre-built PCB joystick like the sanwa JLF or something. They're a little more pricey but the configuration will all be done for you when you get it (gremlin put my 2 JLFs together for me for free, including all the mods i bought for them). You might have hassle with setting the switches on those kit joysticks, which can be trial and error, and quite fiddly.

Limericks wrote: »

I have been messing around with hyperspin and it's great but I don't have ftp access nor the funds to get it so it's looking basic right now. I wish there was a faster way to add games to your favorites list though, going into a menu to add to favorites one by one is annoying and I have about 200-300 games I want too add...

Hyperspin's great, but it is a lot of work, and there's a learning curve on getting it working right. The FTP access makes it a LOT quicker and easier, but it is doable without it with a bit of patience and time.

You can edit your "Favorites" file in the genres directory for your emulator, under Hyperspin/databases. You need to know the exact name of your game, but if you do it's just a case of manually typing the name of the games you want to add on a new line in the text file, then saving and closing the file. It's a little quicker, but TBH i'd still add them all manually anyways, just run through the list with your keyboard out, and tap a couple of buttons, and move on.

Limericks wrote: »

anyone got any advice on which power tools to get?

Ald and Lidl are your friends here. Their DIY and power tools stuff is cheap but the quality is perfectly fine for basic round the house DIY or anything you're likely to be doing with a cabinet build. It's a shame you have to buy your tools all at once, this kind of stuff is normally built up over years, as you need it.

For a cab you'll need the following at a minimum.

Decent handsaw
Half decent power drill (a hammer action option is good to have generally, but is not needed specifically for cab building)
A set of wood & steel drillbits with small and medium sizes from 2mm up to about 10 mm(don't mix these up with masonry bits which are for concrete and stone, and usually silver in colour, the ones you need are black or dark grey)
An extension lead
A couple of hole saws or spade type drillbits that match your button diameters, usually around 28-29mm
An adjustable spanner
A screwdriver set with small and medium sized flat head and Phillips head screwdrivers, and preferably a set of posi-drive bits that you can use with the drill or a with a cordless screwdriver
Various grades of Sandpaper and something to use as a sanding block
A square
A wire stripper with various wire gauges and a crimping tool on it
A decent stanley knife
A pencil
A thin felt tip marker
A ruler or straight edge
A measuring tape

Stuff that's not essential but very handy to have:
A circular or "skill" saw (around €50 for a cheap one, be very careful if you're new to them, they're lethal if youre not careful)
Handheld belt or oscillating palm sander (under €20 in aldi, makes sanding down stuff much less work)
A pair of woodworking clamps, preferably with soft or rubber jaws. You can get them for under a tenner online or in some of the better discount shops. Aldi/lidl carry them occasionally.

Buy a toolbox as well. It will come in handy to store everything in, and it makes you feel a lot more manly than toting everything home in a plastic bag.:D