Conversion to MAME

[mrtuesday42]

hey guys. this is my first post. i have been reading and reading because i am currently in the process of converting my first cabinet. i have a question about converting another cabinet though.

i think its possible in theory but i wanted some second opinions on converting a Lethal Enforcers to MAME. im not sure i want the cabinet if i cant do anything with it other than enforcers, but i was thinking that it might be possible to convert it to mame and have two working guns. is this impossible??? if it was a time crisis or house of the dead i wouldnt care about the mame but its enforcers and its 200$ so not a bad deal imho. ive searched this forum and the internet in general and have found nothing useful. so either im totally missing it or its just impossible and no one is talking about it. thanks either way.

[WhereEaglesDare]

do you only want gun games or do you want all kinds of mame games?
all kinds of things are "possible"  you could absolutely turn anything up to and including a toaster into a mame machine...

[bkenobi]

Arcade guns may be possible to connect to a PC, but it requires a $200 interface board that no one has tried yet.  Assume that the guns will not work and that you need to buy something different if you want to use MAME.

[matsadona]

You have other options. But that means replacing the guns or the gun sensors.
I use the TopGun LCD gun in my MAME cabinet, and that works fine. I.e. that I can use it for any shooter like Terminator 2, Operation Wolf, Under Fire or Cheyenne.
Maybe you can fit the new Ultimarc gun sensors in the original guns, which of course would be a better solution.

But please, if you convert it to MAME, do it as transparent as possible. Don't add joysticks and spinners etc and make it an ugly mutant.
If you keep the original gun housings, but with other sensors and a MAME PC, it would be hard to tell for anyone if it is the original or not.

[Turnarcades]

It may be awkward to do a gun conversion as with a PC setup you will inevitably need extra buttons to navigate menus etc. Also, if the cabinet uses a mirror to a lower- mounted screen you may find it difficult to install or calibrate PC gun hardware to be accurate. Thirdly, most gin offerings are still imperfect at the moment and none cover all bases, either due to calibration issues, game compatibility or functionality (such as differing reloading methods between games and some lack of 2 player support) so a dedicated light gun conversion doesn't seem to be worth it at this point. If you rip out all the hardware and make it all PC based it may be ok but the varied software setups and game compatibility issues may still give you headaches

[mrtuesday42]

awesome guys. thanks for all the honest replies.

looks like im gonna run into the same problem i am having with my current cab. my current one is a neo geo mvs. i only added 4 buttons to it to make it a 6 button so to matsadona its not obviously mame. of course the cab was crap so its getting refinished. i was thinking about adding gun support to it but when i saw the lethal enforcers i thought it would be easier. but that seems like it will be the same problem regardless of what i start with.

[mrtuesday42]

ok. they dropped the price down to 175$ so im tempted. it would be nice to use the stock guns rather than add them to my current mame arcade. do guys think it would be worth it? ive never played lethal enforcers so i dont think i would want JUST that game. and im probably gonna split the cost with my roommate, and he wants to play lots of the arcade shooters...just fyi.

anyone in the orlando area, there is a ms. pacman that looks original and a super mario (that doesnt look original, im not familiar with its side art so idk) on craigslist for pretty reasonable

[bkenobi]

If it's an original LE, I'd leave it for someone that wants that cab personally.  Of course, if it were me, I'd keep the MVS as an MVS too.   

[mrtuesday42]

fair enough. the mvs was in pretty poor shape wood wise, so i converted. maybe not the best but what you gonna do. as a kid i never really was in arcades so its not like i am attached to any particular cab either.

[bkenobi]

What did you do with the MVS hardware?

[mrtuesday42]

using the joysticks/buttons. not sure the sticks are 100% original. trying to figure out how to interface with the little number counters...took the board/cartridge out and have it just sitting in my garage if thats what you are asking about.

i have another cabinet that has been converted into a sf2 cab. but someone soldered all the microswitchs and totally fubared the cp. as well as using a monitor with wicked burn in. not sure what to do with it. been thinking about making it vertical.

[bkenobi]

I've been toying with the idea of putting together an MVS cab.  Most of the cabs available locally either include a single slot board or a dead multi slot.  I was just curious if you were using yours or interested in parting with it.

[mrtuesday42]

hmm lemme double check that it IS a multi board. it does work though. because i would consider parting with it for something. Im in orlando so i assume it would need to be shipped.

[mrtuesday42]

still not home but i will check on the multi tonite some time.

i didnt want to start a new thread, but im trying to recover the sides of that mvs cabinet. am looking at thisoldgames black vinyl to do it with. would be about 30$ to do it vs getting some laminate. the side is in poor shape but i have filled all it so its a pretty smooth finish now. sanded etc. i just dont feel like painting would come out well, and i dont want to lay the thing down to do laminate. especially since its all put together