Converting a Final Lap 2 Cabinet

[Xynie]

Good afternoon all... Have a question for you all.  I have always wanted a driving cabinet but the thought of scratch building always turned me off... I'm just not much of a woodworker a side-by-side final lap 2 cabinet came available locally for a reasonable price (<200) fully working that I was thinking about picking up to use.  My question, I would like to turn the cabinet into a computer game or mame  system to play all the great driving games out there... What would be the process on something like that?  Would you use two computer and network them, or can you use a single pc with a dual monitor video card?  How about controls, are there hacks to use existing wheels/pedals or do you have to go USB?

Sorry for the generic questions, just hoping there is some guidance out there for a project like this. 

Thanks!
Anthony

[kronic24601]

Just an FYI ... most people here have the philosophy that MAMEing a fully working cab is kinda like dressing a little boy up in women's clothing, and turning him gay. Or like molesting a small cuddly kitten. Or killing a baby seal ,or something equally disturbing.

So the typical suggestion would be to find an already gutted cab to do your work.

As for the other parts of your questions...

1) Linking: You're going to have a problem linking MAME games, in fact, I don't think MAME supports that (but someone else can confirm/correct this).
2) Hacking: This usually involved finding something that is already made for the PC and wiring the arcade controls into the inputs... but there are many threads on how to do this for each individual application (ex. I bought a analog joystick on ebay, broke it out, took the POTS and used them for the POT driven gas pedals for my cab)... Pretty much all hacking requires some (minor) skill with a soldering iron.

I gave this a lot of thought one time as I actually did buy a dual sit-down style cab (working) and was contemplating MAMEing it, but decided that I didn't want to mess with a working machine and I ended up selling it (for a profit of course)  .