First time cabinet build

LeroyIII

Hi,

I'm looking to build my first arcade cabinet and I'm looking for some start off dos and don'ts. I've no experience in this so I'm looking for the right (best?) approach re the emulator, screen, wiring side of it. Not overly fussed on the actual cabinet as I'll make something work there. It's more the tech side of it (what boards, emulators, screen etc. etc.) For what it's worth, the game I'm aiming for is Wonder Boy (in case that makes a difference).

Any advice on where to start would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

Inviere

This is going to be obviously full of personal choice, but given this is a bit of an enthusiasts forum, there's a few things many of us would agree on im sure.

There's tons and tons of examples of badly put together cabinets, all with common mistakes.

1) If you have to use a modern 16:9 display instead of a 4:3 CRT display, don't set it to stretch the display out fully. Set it for 4:3 mode, at least the game running won't be stretched then.

2) Don't go with the usual obnoxious aircraft carrier style control panel filled with sticks, buttons, rollers, pinball flippers, you name it. Realistically, you only need two joysticks, 6 buttons each, a start button and a coin button each too. Less is definitely more here.

3) Don't go with big garish LED lighting themes. Illuminated buttons, strip lights, speaker lights, etc might seem like a good idea...but they're not really. Real arcade cabinets never really looked this way, and diy cabs don't at all look authentic this way. They look tacky in person.

4) For the guts inside, the Rolls Royce solution would be a Mister setup, @o1s1n has one he can prob best advise you here. Next best thing would be a relatively decent PC in there running things for you, launchbox as a frontend (for an LCD display) or hyperspin (if using a CRT I THINK is still best? It's a bit awkward with setup etc though). This point itself is a thread in itself, if using a CRT with a PC you'll need to get 15Khz out of the PC, if using an LCD you can use HDMI...but then you'll want to explore scanline effects etc too. There's a lot here, so decide sooner or later what type of monitor you want. CRT is best, but they're larger, heavier, harder to come by, harder to keep running, potentially dangerous to fix, etc....but they ARE the best.

5) Sound, don't sleep on the impact a proper set of 2.1 speakers can have in a cab.

6) Keep the artwork minimal, authentic, and tasteful. You see all sorts of awful decals and things on cabs that never should be....Playstation 3 logos, Black Ops artwork, film posters....all manner of crap that is clearly not at home on an arcade cab. Avoid all this, stick to nice simple side art, nice simple control panel art, and a nice simple bezel. Light the bezel area up actually, that's the part that SHOULD be lit up.

7) Don't scrimp on cheap buttons and sticks. Buy proper, well regarded controls. The feel of them is the feel of quality, not cheap plastic crap that makes you feel like you're playing a piece of crap.

8) Don't fill it with half a million and one games. Pick ten or twenty top arcade games, and leave it at that. Choice paralysis is real! The VAST majority of games that Mame can run you won't bother with either.

o1s1n

I would add as well, before going head first into building anything, spend a bit of time reading some arcade forums to get a flavour for everything. (www.arcade-projects.com and www.arcadeotaku.com are both great)

If you're looking to build a traditional wooden standup, I generally find the ones that work best are modelled after existing dedicated cabinets, rather than a jack of all trades one with random artwork that will more often than not, look like a monstrosity.

Nintendo woodie dedicated cabinets look great, there's actually a fantastic one up on adverts at the moment that's modelled after an original Donkey Kong, has a CRT in it and everything. Might be worth considering the price of this versus one you were looking to build.

https://www.adverts.ie/arcade-retro/arcade-cab-jamma-arcade-crt/29156569

That machine is JAMMA wired so you could have pretty much anything you want connected up to it with the right bits and pieces.

LeroyIII

Thanks @o1s1n and @Inviere I appreciate the quick replies!

Those replies are full of the info I need.

My main worries are around getting the "guts inside" right and what the setup of that should be. So this helps me out. I'll dig around on those forums as well and come up with the setup that I'm comfortable is within my reach!

Thanks again 👊

mm_surf

I built a MAMEmachine using an old PC.

One handy thing I did was rewire the on/off button to a momentary button on the very top of the cabinet. Out of the way, doesn't take away from the traditional "look" of the cab.

And as said, proper mini-amp amd speakers for authentic 1980's deafness!

M.

The_B_Man

Are those flat pack arcade cabinets worth it? They seem a bit expensive, from the ones I've seen.

Has anyone seen a good flat pack 2 player driver cab? Obviously the tricky part would be the seats, so that's probably why you don't see them.

dav09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121958585#Comment_121958585

When I first got into the hobby 7/8 years ago I started with with a flat pack bartop. Good learning experience and they're they good fun too. Never thought I'd end up with shipping containers full of original cabs years later.

i would much recommend buying an old sit down driver and converting it rather than buying a flat pack kit.

The_B_Man

I have an old sit down driver, which i had semi-functional, but then had to store it coz of some building work, which stretched out for over a year. I haven't tried power it on recently but by the looks of the board, some capacitors leaked all over it. I suspect one of them needs a new cap kit, or worst case, a new board. The other one could probably do with a cap kit. Its not as bad. But really i don't have time for all this so was just gonna give up on the CRT thing and go with a flat-pack flat-screen arcade.

I've also a Naomi Universal cab, which is my favourite cab, but there's a lot of faffing about with the CRT and i have another 2 kids now that I didn't have when I bought them so for the sake of prioritising game time over troubleshooting and replacing parts, i was considering flat-pack machines.

dav09

Depending on what driver it is, if it's the older onges (Sega model 2/3) usually graphics chips or power supplys, if its newer then often HDD or Ram or less often motherboards. But I would recommend converting that to a sit down multi driver, I've done them before.

And there's a few guys who do CRT repairs I recommend Edmundo in Spain for either the Naomi or driver. Getting a multi kit for the Naomi a good option too Pi net boot or whichever.