Introduction, And a bit of history....

[trencej]

First off a big hello to all you BYOAC'ers.

My Name is terry.

I have been a big Game fan all my life, And one of my lifelong dreams was to have an arcade machine of my very own.

For all the uk guys and gals out there, i pretty much spent the first 13 years of my life (all the 80's and early 90's) in the arcade establishments on the clacton and southend areas of the country, and probably spent way to much money on the games there. So, i got to about 18, and discovered this fantastic little program called mame, Some of you nay have heard of it  . Having downloaded the program, and a few choice roms, i was in hogs heaven.

But soon, playing on a keyboard was not enough, I needed more.

PSX-PC converter. Was getting better, But still not quite there.

Then, One evening, whilst stumbling about the net, i came across happ controls.
"must be an industry site i thought. No one would need this stuff at home" I thought.

"Hang on, whats this Ultimarc Link?"

The penny dropped. I COULD have a proper arcade caliber joystick at home.

About a week later, and a slightly lover bank balance later, i was sat with a bo0ox of bits. However, I cant do woodworking to save my life, Im a techy, not a builder. All i managed, was this:



Not great, but was sturdy, and made my game playing all that much better. But after a few months, friends expressed interest on playing with me.

So, back to happ, and with help from the father, Mk2:



Just the top panel there. After getting a tv out card for my pc, the Ghettocade was born:



This served me well for many years. Then, Life broke out........

Got a girlfriend, Moved out, Had a kid.

Hang on, no parents? My own House? Time to step up the game.

So, to ebay i went, and as much as my wife hated the idea, I got this Baby:



It was a generic jamma cab, that had a playstation inside it. Paid £113 for it. Not bad at all. But now i had the problem of hooking up my pc to this bizzare monitor. I should have looked it up before to be honest. So, Back to ultimarc i went, And an arcade vga and jpac was purchased. At the time, i was'nt interested in the Look of the cab, just wanted to play arcade games how they were meant to be played.
Having Absolutlely no idea how a jamma harness worked, I replaced all the buttons and sticks from my previous stick and reused the ipac, hooked up the whole thing, found a nice frontend, and viola:



Mortal kombat 2, my favorite Beat em Up of all time. I was happy as could be. Until the Ipac died. Not having time, i gave up on the cab for now.

Then, Another kid, Marriage, And a bigger house. Cab was moved to the new house but not set up. just gathered dust in the front hallway.

Until a month back. Decided rather than get another i-pac, to get 2 u360's, and hook the controls up that way. All was good. Wired everything up, And......

No picture. No jamma board to test. Bugger. screen much have died in transit. Slightly annoyed. Ok, Ill get a new screen, maybe replace with an lcd, so, off to ebay.
Not a good idea. Two weeks later, THIS was in my front hall:



Wifes not happy, as there is now 2 cabs in the front hall.

Hook everything up to the new cab. No picture. 

After many tests, and much harrassing of mr andy warne of ultimarc (cheers for all your help andy) i have concluded that either, the j-pac has died, OR two seperate monitors in two seperate cabs have died in transit. Im hoping for the first option, otherwise i will not be very happy. So, the j-pac has been sent back to andy for him to test, and i await the results with baited breath.

Anyway, i know this is a massive intro post, but Im quite excited to be here finally, and to be able to pick all your brains about cab building and so forth. The new sega cab is going to be my show cab, Not really interested in a restoration, But its gonna look nice when finished. Also, if i find that the older cabs monitor is still working, will be up fro grabs in the buy/sell/trade forum as soon as i've made my 5 posts.

Good to meet you all,

Terry
Build, Play, Enjoy

[garwil]

For all the uk guys and gals out there, i pretty much spent the first 13 years of my life (all the 80's and early 90's) in the arcade establishments on the clacton and southend areas of the country, and probably spent way to much money on the games there.

I grew up in Saaaarfend! It's all about Mr. B's, Electric Avenue and the Orient Express kebab shop for after hours beer served in mugs!

[Ginsu Victim]

Separated at birth?

[trencej]

Garwill:

Indeed mate. now if i go down there with me mates, it all about getting off your head by 2, then a few rounds of drunken Minigolf across the road!

Ginsu Victim:

Creepy indeed. Im not sure why the CP was recoved in black, But thats one of the things that will be changed on that cab. Anyone know if you can tighten up those Stick. I beleve they are sanwa sticks. They feel too loose to me. I would put my Happs Ultimates on it, but the Control panel is not deep enough, which is a shame, But whoever decides to take the old cab off my hands, will be getting the happ sticks and buttons instead 

Also, How the hell would i mount a new stick on the thin metal panel without screws showing through the top of the panel? As i want to put a u360 higher up on the left hand side.

[eclipso]

Great read! For my wife its like a 12 round fight, I just got to wear her down till she says yes 

[trencej]

I must admit, Once i had gauntlet running on the cab, she was happy, And played to level 113 on her own!

And no doubt my kids will play on it now, As my 4 year old is starting to love games, And i have bought him up right, so Megadrive Sonic 2, And Snes super mario world are his two favorites. 

I may have to make him his own little cab from my old tablet pc. In fact, thats a damn good idea, i'm gonna plan that when i get in