First MAME Cabinet Finished

[BuriedEgg]

Hello,

I thought I would post links to videos and photos of my finished MAME Cabinet. I included Build videos as well. This post is kind of a "Thank You" to the whole BYOAC and home arcade community for all the help I've recieved over the years working and troubleshooting my MAME cab.

It was a 1982 "Dig-Dug" machine that was mutilated beyond recognition. I purchased it online from some guys in Jersey. Someone had scraped off and painted black over all the side art. They punched dozens of uneven button holes in the steel CP. It was terrible. It was also poorly converted into an MK1 machine. It was really upsetting to see all the damage done to this classic cabinet.

So I restored the wooden body as best I could and just cut out big areas of the CP and installed plexiglass overlay/underlay to support new buttons (6-button config). I installed new marquee and coin door lighting, speakers, LCD monitor, repaired the coin mechs, etc. I purchased a proper Midway Mortal Kombat conversion kit and applied the correct art. Then I installed PC components and ran it as a MAME cab!


Here are the links:

Link to the Final Version of the arcade machine itself. There’s a loooong 3-Part Technical Demo video here:
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Dickjones/Arcade%20Cabinet%20%20-%20Final%20Version/

Here’s the shorter less boring version of the Tech-Demo video:


Here's the build video and photos before I updated all of the software:
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Dickjones/Arcade%20Cabinet%20Project/

[Termin8tor]

Brilliant build, well Done love the FE and the guns. I'm in the process of putting some guns together and your video gave me push I needed to order the Aimtraks 

[ivwshane]

Damn I hella want light guns now!


It's always funny to hear how other people pronounce things too:p

You said the mugen video was called broken mugen but what was that build called? Is it easily downloaded or am I going to have to piece it together myself?

[BuriedEgg]

Well, BrokenMugen is the screenpack and WinMugen is the build. So, you would download the BrokenMugen Screenpack and apply it to WinMugen.

Usually screenpacks will come with a few characters. It can get complicated so you have to read about each screenpack and build you use. I stick with the WinMugen build and just download screenpacks that are compatible with that. Then you can start downloading extra characters and backgrounds. Once you get really comfortable with editing Mugen you can start downloading other screenpacks and taking elements from them and sticking them into your own build. You can even create and add your own custom-made elements like graphics and music. You also might want to start creating your own select screens too. Its addictive. It never feels like its enough! I had no choice but to start programming my own select screens because I had so many characters.

MUGEN is a lot of fun!

-Buried Egg

[Epyx]

Like the arcade but have a comment regarding your video, some people prefer having their arcade cab boot up into windows with the functionality that windows provides.  Only pointing that out because you made it seem like an educational issue. I know how to hide the Windows shell...I choose not to

[BuriedEgg]

Good point! Yeah, that was a big issue when I used to use Atomic FE. I like to have that seemless arcade experience so I set Atomic to shutdown on exit. This meant if I quit Atomic to go to Windows it will shutdown instead.

However, once I switched to MaLa I was able to keep MaLa config'd to shutdown on exit (like I wanted) but still be able to quit into Windows (right-mouse then "exit") whenever I need.

I have to admit I really did a poor job explaining, in my video, why a seemless experience is important. I was thinking along the lines of having little nephews and neices over to play without my supervision. That's also the reason I have everything locked (coin doors, rear maintenence panel, etc.). Last Thanksgiving I had about a dozen kids over (family) and they were banging away on the thing and pressing everything. Since I had no specialized Windows function keys (only secret shift-shortcuts) and no access to Windows or a mouse or keyboard, the cabinet was bulletproof!

Thanks for pointing it out, though! Its important to note.

[Epyx]

Lol yep young kids would be a perfectly good reason for a front end seamless machine.  Mine is 14 and loves tinkering around in Windows as much as her old man and I don't like other peoples kids lol so all good