Homemade Arcade

kaiserjim

I've been following Keithgeo and Andrews excellent threads on building your own arcade machine. I've decided to give it a go myself and have got as far as buying an old P4 3 ghz and a 25" trinitron at the combined cost of 50e .
Ive upgraded the graphics card to one with Svideo connected it up to the TV and upgraded the ram to 2gb.
Next up I'm going to set up the emulators and front end. Im struggling to find site where I can download everything in one block so this is taking forever. I originally wanted to use hyperspin but from what Ive been told my system would struggle with it. So Mala or Maximus arcade seem to be the options. Anyone have any opinions on them?

Jack burton

I heard good stuff about maximus arcade

Just saw this, an irish person who has videos up on building cabs....a rare site on youtube!

steviebg

Maximus is grand easy to set up and use i have it myself, however the guy who set it up has gone off the scene.So if you do choose it as your front end be careful about sending money for the code to unlock it !!

Steve X2

I bought the Maximus Arcade reg code from him in March 09 when I was planing on getting/building one of these.
If I remember correctly he was hard to get hold of back them so definitely be careful about purchasing the code. Make contact with him before paying anything.

LoGiE

Hyperspin would be my first choice but MaLa is very customizable if your willing to do without the video stuff and put a bit of effort into making your own skin.

CiDeRmAn

Hyperspin = Resource Hog!

Steve X2

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Hyperspin = Resource Hog!

It's not so bad once your running on at least a dual core proc with 4GB ram. Which isnt asking a lot these days.
And of course you'll need to be willing to learn how to customise and optimise Hyperspin itself.

andrew241983

kaserjim ye can have my registration details if you want they should work ive used them on my two computers and gave me the full edition of Maximus Arcade... which is the easiest frontend to setup if its your first one!! pm me if you want my code cheers

if im breaking any rules here feel free to edit mods

kaiserjim

andrew241983 wrote: »

kaserjim ye can have my registration details if you want they should work ive used them on my two computers and gave me the full edition of Maximus Arcade... which is the easiest frontend to setup if its your first one!! pm me if you want my code cheers

if im breaking any rules here feel free to edit mods

Cheers man pm sent.

kaiserjim

I am having awful trouble setting up Mame. Almost every Rom I open is missing files. Would I be better using an older version of Mame? Or am I missing something simple.
Every other emulator was grand no problems.

o1s1n

Just means you don't have the correct romset for that version of mame.

Without wanting to go too much into the rom site of things - try to get ones which match.

kaiserjim

o1s1n wrote: »

Just means you don't have the correct romset for that version of mame.

Without wanting to go too much into the rom site of things - try to get ones which match.

Was thinking that alright. So when they upgrade Mame the Roms need upgrading aswell?

I think Ill try and match the emulator to the roms I have.

Myrddin

You also need Bios files for certain roms, & the chd's have their own folder structure too...both give missing file errors if not set up correctly.

Also, its more likely the roms don't match the executable as mentioned

MartinH1

Do you have your cabinet sourced? If not you should check out my ad on adverts.ie. I'm selling genuine cabinets cheap!

o1s1n

MartinH1 wrote: »

Do you have your cabinet sourced? If not you should check out my ad on adverts.ie. I'm selling genuine cabinets cheap!

As a matter of interest, where'd you get them? They're pretty interesting items.

MartinH1

o1s1n wrote: »

As a matter of interest, where'd you get them? They're pretty interesting items.

It was our family business! We would supply and maintain machines on a profit share basis with business owners. These cabinets were bought in brand new but never used. I have a few used stand-up cabinets I'll be selling soon as well. I need the room.

o1s1n

MartinH1 wrote: »

It was our family business! We would supply and maintain machines on a profit share basis with business owners. These cabinets were bought in brand new but never used. I have a few used stand-up cabinets I'll be selling soon as well. I need the room.

Oh wow, thanks for that! Really interesting to hear. Good look selling them anyway. I'll keep an eye out for your stand up cabinets when they go up.

Steve X2

MartinH1 wrote: »

It was our family business! We would supply and maintain machines on a profit share basis with business owners. These cabinets were bought in brand new but never used. I have a few used stand-up cabinets I'll be selling soon as well. I need the room.

Make sure to post here when(or before) you stick them up for sale

MartinH1

Will do! Thanks for the advice guys.

kaiserjim

Cheers Martin let us know when you have the stand up cabs ready to go ill have a look. More than likely ill build my own but as I don have any woodworking skills its nice to have a plan b.

kaiserjim

Lads thanks for the help with Mame set up. I have it up and running now.
My latest problem is getting it to open in Maximus arcade. Snes and Megadrive are working out fine. With mame im getting the error message:" The following emulators have invalid media locations" MAME" Im definitely pointing it to where the roms are. Outside of Maximus when i dbl clck on mame.exe all the roms are available to play. Any idea's?

kaiserjim

Finally got Maximus Arcade working. For some reason the romset (147) I was using was not being recognized by the programme. So I changed to 146 and that sorted it. Spent hours trying to sort trough the games before I came across romlister programme which should help.
Out of interest which games do you all have in your favourites list. My favourites growing up where Bad dudes, Salamander, 1942 and pheonix. Outside of these, street fighter and MK what mames do you all play most?

andrew241983

Did the details I have u gave u work for maximus arcade mate?

kaiserjim

andrew241983 wrote: »

Did the details I have u gave u work for maximus arcade mate?

Yeah spot on man thanks. Did you get that MK problem sorted ? Im having the same problem as you now.

andrew241983

Yeah man the problem is with mame 147 it messed with MK I switched to mame 147u2 and it works great

kaiserjim

Right lad's this has been on the back burner for a good while but I'm finally getting back round to it. I've my software set up 90 % and I've decided to go with a lightweight build using a 20inch LCD non widescreen monitor ( which means I've a 25inch Sony trinitron free to a good home pm if you want it.) Im hoping for something similar to this. http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/stepprojectmame4.htm.
Next up I'm going to buy joysticks and buttons ipac etc.
What buttons and sticks etc would you recommend.

Go with the CRT!

kaiserjim

urbanledge wrote: »

Go with the CRT!

I knew that would be the first reply :-) but practicality rather the authenticity is more important with this build. Its for a kids playroom which is tight for space.

Plus trintron has a new home with Steve si.

kaiserjim

Thinking of buying this http://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/2-Player-Arcade-Joysticks-Buttons-And-IPAC2-Wiring-Kit-No10.html

Anyone have any experience of the buttons and sticks?

Yo,
I'd get better sticks and buttons.
there not bad but a few exta quid would see a BIG improvement in quality and feel.
especially the buttons.I think there zippy sticks in the kit.not the worst stick imo
the rest of the kit is spot on.

you got a wood control panel or metal?

kaiserjim

I'm planning on a wooden control panel. Any recommendations on sticks and buttons and where's good to buy them? I'm willing to spend around €150 for the whole kit.