Firstly, hello to all you BYOACers. This is my first post and I want to let you all know what I have started
I've been coasting these forums for the past few weeks to learn common practices on building a MAME cabinet. I had no idea this hobby had such a dedicated forum and I am glad because there are so many bright minds here who have built AMAZING cabinets.
For my first attempt a cab build, I wanted to start with an existing empty cabinet but customize it to my terms. I got a deal from a guy who was selling these on Craigslist. It was originally wired for Jamma so I gutted it and put all that aside. Since gutting it I have picked up some parts:
- 24" Flatscreen TV w/ S-Video
- 2 Sanwa JLW-UM-8 Joysticks (Picked these because I heard good things and they are easy to switch to 4-way)
- Happ Buttons
- 1/2" 4x8 sheet MDF to replace a few parts
- Casters
I have mounted the casters and have replaced/hinged the back door (rather than having it just come off). My next step is to piece together the marquee and lower the monitor platform (to make room for the larger 24" TV). Also I want to replace the front of the cabinet and lower the coin door hole. One thing that I realized is that I won't have any room for a keyboard tray, which is quite common here. Instead, once I create the control panel and have it hinged on the front, I will mount a keyboard on top of plexi-glass on the reverse side of the control panel above the guts of the controls. This way I will be able to use the cabinet as a computer comfortably and easily (there will be a mouse too).
I picked this specific cabinet because it was smaller than the usual cab (and also smaller than LuSiD's plans). I wanted a cabinet that wasn't too large but still had that nostalgic feel to it.
I am going with a black & white theme. Black cabinet with white t-molding and also white designs on the side and on the control panel. Right now I am going with space invaders on the right and asteroids on the left. I haven't quite figured out what to do with the control panel, suggestions are very welcomed!
One thing I may do is leave a space for a trackball to be installed at a later time, but I am still on the fence about this because I never played too many trackball games.
This is just another "plain jane" cabinet, no steampunk style here, but I am just going for something that will be fun to make and fun to play.