Thumbs up or down on adding jukebox on arcade cab?

[nickynooch]

Basically I am debating whether or not to add a jukebox to my arcade cab with maximus arcade frontend.  It's your basic street fighter controls.

Pros:
Nice for listening to music while cleaning the house.
Pretty cool for when friends are over for music.
They make some darn cool programs (probably using dwjukebox due to it fitting my controls well)

Cons:
Not very arcade-y
Takes away from the "Gaming" idea of the cabinet. (The biggest reason I am shying away from doing it)

Anyway interested in your thoughts.  Please sell me one way or the other!

[Beretta]

i personally would'nt an arcade machine should be an arcade machine.

however the thought of building a dedicated juke box is interesting..
but NO imo the arcade cab should stick to doing what it does best

[saint]

If it was my only machine to be put in the social gathering area, I'd put a juke on it as well. If I had the option of other sources of music instead, I wouldn't put a juke on it.

[tjterrill]

I agree.

 If its your only one, and its a standard cab... then I would do it too.

I wouldn't do it it, say if it was an exlusive DK cab or something.

[csaun9001]

I added a Juke to my cab and it's awsome!  The cab is in a bar area of the house and when not playing games, it's fun to let people pick the songs they want jukebox style.  I highly recommend it and it only adds to the cabinet IMHO.

[Fordman]

I agree with both points above, but I'd make a separate unit for a jukebox, you'll be glad you did. The only issue with the juke on an arcade machine is, you would have to close the jukebox, to play the arcade or vice versa. You can run them both at the same time, but the sound is terrible and you would have to get out the mouse, reduce one to add/play the other. kinda takes away from the arcade experience! several really good ideas in the mp3/jukebox portion of the forum, some are simplistic and some are a little elaborate. Just what suits your wants/needs by budget and style!

Go Ahead, build that jukebox! You already get the 'WOW' factor with the arcade cab, get the 'WWWWooooWWWW' factor with a dedicated jukebox as well. All you really need is a P3, 512mb memory and a cheap touchscreen from ebay to set one up!

If you build one, take plenty of pics for us all to see!

 

Fordman

[milkit]

i do 80's music videos on mine

[More Cowbell]

I just turned an old Megatouch into a juke by stripping it and throwing in a touch screen running E-Touch software. Easy peasy. Runs videos and songs, it gets a lot of time on it when people are over. I threw a wireless speaker setup in there too so I can take speakers all over the house if I want. So I say just make a new one. And yes, I'm a Michael Jackson fan. No, you're gay!

[BobA]

If you only have one cab then go ahead and add it.  You don't have to use it if you want to keep on gaming. If you can spring for a separate jukebox then build it because it is much more impressive and you can keep on gaming and still have music.

[nickynooch]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks adding a jukebox program could take away from the gaming expecience.  Interesting to think about building a jukebox! Hmmm... I think you guys may have just started me on another project haha. Thanks for the input!

[Ginsu Victim]

Go for it. Just make it run in the background so that if someone starts playing a game, it doesn't stop the music.

[ark_ader]

Why in a cab and not on a dedicated touch screen embedded in a wall?

Like this:

[drventure]

That LCARS wall screen is fantastic!

Hadn't seen that before

Made my day

[nickynooch]

That screen in a wall is amazing.  I'd imagine that's not a "byoac" type project right?  Still I'll bet it is possible to do it using freeware and a touch screen.  If only I were techy enough to be the test creator on that!

Such a good idea!  Maybe I'll get gutsy one day and try that.

[GameOver]

I have a jukebox in my (only) cab. Very nice!  While I do consider myself an arcade enthusiast it's nice to have a multipurpose machine.  Adds to the 'wow' value too - after playing games I'll fire up the jukebox & people are like 'omg that's cool'!  I say go for it.

[Malenko]

people put Super NES on their "Arcade Cabinets", so why not a juke? Especially if space is an issue. Its your cab.

[Beretta]

super nes and consoles are still games though.

[Benevolance]

I run both music and movies from of my cabinet.

[Space Fractal]

Of course yes :-D.

There exists jukebox software designed with arcade cabs in mind.

Example like my own Arcade Music Box, MultiFE (the frontend part is automatic removed, if only music used).

Also dwjukebox is great on cabs as well.

Look out the arcadecontrols wiki.

Those who have a trackball can also nicely use a touchscreen app, due most of them can show a mouse pointer.

[Benevolance]

When you actually want to play a game, it kills the music and you hear the game instead.

Is that a built in feature of Atomic FE or are you running a 3rd party program access through the Atomic FE?

[andrewbean90]

i found out if you use gameex you can do both arcade and jukebox at the same time

[Space Fractal]

If the frontend can launch PC games, then you canjust launch PC application as same way.

Even my jukebox software is also a frontend, it can still been used as a jukebox application too, since its was originally a jukebox softwae app and all frontpart is hidden when not used.

PS. I dont care which software our use, but do that in your cab, if you want to play music from your cab.