Advice on building a Mame cabinet

Quigs Snr

I am going to build a mame cabinet over the next few months, there are a few routes to take it would seem looking at arcadecontrols.com. I have been doing some reading and it is early days yet, but if anyone has done this before, I'd like to hear any tips or comments.

I currently favour something like getting an old jamma cabinet with a working monitor and doing something like the pc2jamma project whereby, the old monitor and controls are kept and mapped to the PC.

The other approaches seem mostly to involve building or butchering a cabinet, making your own control panel, or buying something like the xarcade control, then sticking in your pc and monitor, or a canibalised tv hooked to a TV out.

Preferably, I want this to be as close to original as possible. I don't want windows boot up screens etc... if possible I would prefer a dos machine which boots straight to a front end from power on which allows you to select the game you want via the joystick on the cabinet. (arcadeos ??)

Of course there are problems, finding a reasonable jamma cab for one. The PC part will be no problem, I will be running an XP2000 with 256MB ram, I will pick up a few oldie sound and video cards too, perhaps a SB16 if required for the DOS version and an old VESA gfx card too if I have to.

Other quandries, such as which version of MAME, (dos, windows 0.67 ??, i686 optimised etc.....), should I put ion the other emulators too, are they easily supported by ArcadeOS or similar ???

I have a million questions at this point, but does anyone have any comments on the above or suggestions for the best way to get a cabinet built that will play to most games possible with the minimum of fuss ?

Ronan|Raven

http://www.arcadecontrols.speedhost.com/arcade.htm

http://mame.dockingbay.net/

http://www.oneilldesigns.com/mame/

http://www.arcadeathome.com/aah.phtml

http://www.mrsalty.net/links2.shtml


Some of those may be of use to you.

Also there are some other threads regarding this issue poster this forum a while ago they may be of some use to you.

conZ

there was a guy on the for sale boards selling three Jamma cab's less than month ago.

BLITZ_Molloy

Building one from scratch is definatley pricy so converting a 2nd hand jamma cab is the best option.

Trying to find them cheap and in condition is another matter. Irish opperators never kept them properly.

I'm going to get the x-arcade pcb and wires so i can have a universal interface so I can play my PS2, GC and DC games as well as any of the consoles in a few years.

Quigs Snr

Tough enough to find a reasonable cabinet alright. The only really important part for me is the working monitor.

Was half thinking of using the X-Arcade controls alright, will see about that.

Don't care too much how ropey the cab is though, it will be washed stripped and repainted from ground up.

defenderdude

Quigs snr wrote:
"Don't care too much how ropey the cab is though, it will be washed stripped and repainted from ground up."

Just be careful regarding repainting...
The cabs are usually made of chipboard covered with a plastic veneer/laminate. It's usually a melamine type of product which is really hard to get paint adhesion on - pretty much no matter what type of paint you use (unless you dont intend hauling it about too much)
That said - sand with say, 600+ grit paper first, wipe down with IPA and paint with 2pack acrylic and you should do ok.
Also be careful - the "few" operators who did actually look after the cabs, probably cleaned them with MrSheen or something similar. This will result in silicone contamination which will give you a lovely hammer pattern in your paintwork...

If you need any assistance with coating or materials(I work for a coatings company)or indeed getting cabs or any parts such as coin doors or joys/buttons - please drop me a line.

ps I have a nice cab in the garage (with artwork) - few scratches but the monitor is a bit fuzzy (and it's not jamma) - but it would make a nice mame cab. ;-)) Seriously - drop me a line if you're looking for a cab - I know of some jamma's for sale.

hope this helps ;-)

Quigs Snr

Hi defender, just saw this post now. It was me who emailed you last night, thanks for the reply, have sent you one back.

deadl0ck

It's much easier to convert an existing cab.

I'd go for the ArcadeVGA card from Ultimarc and then you won't have any problems conneting the Arcade Monitor to your cab...

BLITZ_Molloy

I'm not going to use the actual x-arcade stick, I'll just order the guts and connectors. The actual stick is all crud american controls. I'm going for J-sticks from Ultimarc.

You could buy one with a clapped out monitor cheaply and just put a TV in it. They're practically the same thing. Plus, then you can connect your consoles easily.