Time to finally build my Mame Cabinet......

[Ledsigns80]

Where do I begin.  First off new to the forums but after reading over posts the last couple days, this is where I need to be for my project.  What I have would love to do is build a four player mame to play all my old favorite games.....Turtles, Xmen, Avengers, Sunset Riders etc. Ideally the middle two controllers would be six button (for fighting games) and the end two controllers would be four button. Also would love to add a trackball, guns and four way joystiq for the classics.  I just inherited a free computer from my sister and thinking of using that for the the cabinet.  The specs on it are as follows:
It is a HP pavilion a630n

2.8 GHZ, 1MG L2 Cache, 800MHz bus P4HT with 512MB Memory

The graphics card is stock(prob. need to update)

I'm sure this is plenty fast for most of the 90's games, I also want to play the first three MK's on it as well as the street fighters.   Right Now I just need direction on which mame version to go with with....I currently have two mameuifx32 and Mame32 0.106 and not sure which way to go with them.  Also I would love a check list of gear I would need to make my vision a reality.  Thanks in advance.

[mwong168]

Ideally the middle two controllers would be six button (for fighting games) and the end two controllers would be four button.

I'm sure this is plenty fast for most of the 90's games, I also want to play the first three MK's on it as well as the street fighters.

Some advice for your control panel because it sounds like you will be playing Street Fighter series and MK series to do what I did for my control panel.




I made the two outter players with 6 buttons but using the MK3 button layout with the yellow run button as well.  For my two inner players I went with the classic American Capcom straight six.  For games like Sunsetriders, TMNT, NBA JAM and X-Men the button layout isn't as critical as fighters so everything worked out just fine.  I was originally going to do the same thing and have the two other controllers with four buttons and the I figured my KeyWiz or GPWiz has more then enough inputs to support the extra buttons and this way I could enjoy MK the way it was suppose to be played.  I also have a dedicated 4 way joystick above Player 2, illuminated trackball and a spinner above Player 3 as well.

Good luck with your build!

[Ledsigns80]

Ideally the middle two controllers would be six button (for fighting games) and the end two controllers would be four button.

I'm sure this is plenty fast for most of the 90's games, I also want to play the first three MK's on it as well as the street fighters.

Some advice for your control panel because it sounds like you will be playing Street Fighter series and MK series to do what I did for my control panel.




I made the two outter players with 6 buttons but using the MK3 button layout with the yellow run button as well.  For my two inner players I went with the classic American Capcom straight six.  For games like Sunsetriders, TMNT, NBA JAM and X-Men the button layout isn't as critical as fighters so everything worked out just fine.  I was originally going to do the same thing and have the two other controllers with four buttons and the I figured my KeyWiz or GPWiz has more then enough inputs to support the extra buttons and this way I could enjoy MK the way it was suppose to be played.  I also have a dedicated 4 way joystick above Player 2, illuminated trackball and a spinner above Player 3 as well.

Good luck with your build!

That is a great idea actually......I think I might go with that...never thought of it that way.  You mentioned KeyWhiz and GPWiz I assume these are the keyboard decorders such as IPAC....I was looking at IPAC4, any advantage of the other two you mentioned?  I guess I'm looking for user friendly solution here.  Also do you have the dimension of your control panel?

[mwong168]

No real advantage over each unless you are after Rotory support (used for games like Ikari Warriors) then you will need to get a GPWiz.  I only went with a KeyWiz and GPWiz because the KeyWiz basically emulates a keyboard so I could make use of keys like "ENTER", "ESC" and "TAB" to map out admin functions to hidden buttons or switches on my control panel.  I could have gone with two GPWiz encoders but I figure might as well use up that PS/2 keyboard port as well and save as many free USB ports as I can for my spinner, trackball, light guns, etc.  With regards to the IPAC4 I can't comment as I haven't used it but I have used other products from Ultimarc and had no problems whatsoever.  Another reason I went to what I did was I had to order a bunch of other stuff and saved on shipping from ordering everything from one place as opposed to two.

I will post up the plans and measurements for my control panel once I get a chance.

[mwong168]

Here are the measure I based my control panel from.  Let me know if you have any questions.



You can also download by clicking it here to zoom in to see the measurements.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=90051.0;attach=142134

[Ledsigns80]

got it thanks alot!!!