Home built arcade ...with guns!

RedXIV

Hey guys,

I'm looking into joining the club of cabinet holders and for a few reasons, I've decided to go down the "build your own cab" route.

I'm still in the design stages while actively setting up a PC to run HyperSpin, but I've come up against something and I'm looking for advice on it. I really want the arcade for basic arcade games but a very strong second was for a couple of light guns as well. What I'm thinking here though is that I have two issues.

1) the screen has to be compatible with the light guns, I know some only work with CRT tv's which suited me as I'm planning to put a 21" tv in the cab. But the only light gun's I have are the old battered PSone GCons. Can I upgrade these without affecting my screen choice?

2) The games I'd be interested in playing, in the arcades all had a "step" button at the bottom of the cab. I haven't seen much of these in online resources for building cabs (correction, i've seen none of these) and my hardware side is still getting up to speed on everything else, has anyone come up against this before or is there a simple solution I'm missing?

Cheers for the help!

o1s1n

Hey man, good luck with the project

You definitely want to go down the build your own cab route?

Just so you know, picking up a generic woody Jamma cabinet and modifying it to your own needs (keep the original monitor and get an adapter to let you hook up a PC) will work out a lot cheaper - and be authentic.

Retr0gamer

One thing to note is that the guns you use will depend on the game. Stuff like Lethal Enforcers and Time Crisis use lightguns but some games like Terminator 2, Gunblade or Operation Wolf fake it where the gun is basically a glorified mouse.

I'm not sure about getting guns to work with Mame and a CRT but pretty sure there were guns released a while ago that did work with them. As for using arcade guns well they will probably be specific to an arcade monitor due to the frequency difference, I'm no expert but it's worth looking into.

Steve X2

For mame etc these are supposed to be ok.
http://www.ultimarc.com/aimtrak.html

Not for real arcade pcb's though.

brianon

Retr0gamer wrote: »

As for using arcade guns well they will probably be specific to an arcade monitor due to the frequency difference, I'm no expert but it's worth looking into.

Yeah. I have one of those ... I think. Dammit. Cannot remember what they are called. Will check the attic later.

RedXIV

I could definitely be convinced to step away from the build your own idea, I'm not exactly a handy person, but I thought this would be the cheapest way to get my own one.

If I were to buy a woody, I presume it would be feasible to change the button layout if necessary as well?

I spent so much time reading up on building from scratch I kind of neglected the modify idea. I'll have to look into that.

Regarding the guns, I'd be happy enough sticking with one type of gun game, so if it was a case of get the time crisis series alone, I'd be happy to do that. Just like the variety once in a while

Cheers for the link to the aimtraks, they could be the solution!

Steve X2

RedXIV wrote: »

I could definitely be convinced to step away from the build your own idea, I'm not exactly a handy person, but I thought this would be the cheapest way to get my own one.

If I were to buy a woody, I presume it would be feasible to change the button layout if necessary as well?

I spent so much time reading up on building from scratch I kind of neglected the modify idea. I'll have to look into that.

Regarding the guns, I'd be happy enough sticking with one type of gun game, so if it was a case of get the time crisis series alone, I'd be happy to do that. Just like the variety once in a while

Cheers for the link to the aimtraks, they could be the solution!

They are supposed to be a tiny bit light weight for some people. If you like a heavier gun maybe some lead weights or my plan is to just buy the aimtrak internals and fit them in an airsoft gun.

RedXIV

Steve SI wrote: »

They are supposed to be a tiny bit light weight for some people. If you like a heavier gun maybe some lead weights or my plan is to just buy the aimtrak internals and fit them in an airsoft gun.

Suits me, it'll be me and the kids playing with them for 90%of the time and god love them, they need all the help they can get

If I was starting out in this game again I'd buy and modify,
and Id never recommend a build to anyone,
The hassle/money is savage

brianon

brianon wrote: »

Yeah. I have one of those ... I think. Dammit. Cannot remember what they are called. Will check the attic later.

Act Labs ! That's it...http://retroblast.arcadecontrols.com/reviews/actlabs.html

Old ... wow. I am at this stuff too long.

RedXIV

urbanledge wrote: »

If I was starting out in this game again I'd buy and modify,
and Id never recommend a build to anyone,
The hassle/money is savage

When I first started thinking about this, I imagined that it would be more chaotic to get the cab you wanted by modification. As in the first post, I am very keen on getting one that has the step plate with it, hence why I was looking at the solutions people had for this before.

But I do have a contact running an arcade so I should be able to pick up an old cabinet to modify if it really is easier?

smliv

had the same problem with a pedal for a cab i converted ended up using 2 pedals that are used for tattoo guns with a small sheet of steel bolted to the top of pedals they terminate in a big audio type jack so i just put a audio jack socket from an old tv at base of cab and wired it to jpac, so that way it could be stored away while not in use as for guns the aimtrack is your best bet they work independent of monitor uses infra red led bar like the wii, so stays calibrated regardless of the different frame rates or resolutions from different games. I got lucky and got a cab on adverts from mitchomatic taito underfire were the guns worked on the same principal so it was easy to swap the parts in.

Optimus Prime

Ive a Time Crisis cab and when i was trying to fix it up a few of the guys over on Jamma plus seem to have converted theirs to Jamma, I hadnt looked into it too much but if you can convert it to Jamma then im sure you could get a time crisis gun going with mame somehow? might be worth researching it a bit further over there. I bought a new time crisis gun from arcadespareparts.com and its great, its heavy has the recoil and everything on it, if you where able to get that going on mame you would be laughing.

You can also buy Time Crisis step plates, ive seen them floating around, i think their is one or two on ebay at the minute, i also seen them somewhere new at one stage as well.

These things can be pricey though, arcadespareparts was the cheapest new gun i found, i didnt want to buy an old one covered in dirt. the ones on ebay seem to be roughly the same price second hand anyways.

Los Lobos

urbanledge wrote: »

If I was starting out in this game again I'd buy and modify,
and Id never recommend a build to anyone,
The hassle/money is savage

I thought I could never afford a cab, and building one would be the only way to go.
Herself then got a carpenter to build me a cab for christmas, so I went about buying all the parts to hook it up.
I have since spent near to 600 quid and it's all still sittin in the spare room!

And in between all that I picked up a cab for 250!

So yea, buy one and modify it to suit!

Thats candy territory

Los Lobos

bit late tellin me now! :pac: