Hi all,
I had been wanting to build a Mame machine for years. This summer, after spending much time in research (and reading a lot from this board), I came accross the Taitorama design:
http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/steptaitorama3.htmThat design, based on the Taito cabinets from the eighties, was exactly what I had been looking for.
I reused the profile from the plans in the Taitorama, however I made my cab deeper because I wanted the monitor to be mounted at a 45 degres angle for optimal viewing. I spent a lot of time finalizing the plans before getting started. Thanks to that preparation work, there were no big surprises when it came to putting the pieces together.
The cabinet is entrely built from 3/4" plywood. My father in law was nice enough to help me with cutting the pieces (I would never have been able to get the round cuts right myself).
The orientation of the monitor can be changed from horizontal to vertical in minutes (by sliding the glass out, unlatching the monitor from the vesa mount, then rotating the mount).
I used a minipac to interface the controls. The artwork was printed by gameongrafix. I used a piece of lexan to cover the CPO.
The PC runs SDLMame on Xubuntu Linux, with Wahcade as a frontend. I used car speakers (the exact same as on the Taitorama) driven by a Small 40W Lepai amp. I also use the machine as a file server, hence the UPS inside the cab.
I named my machine "Alconoid", a contraction of "Alcon" and "Arkanoid".
The only thing that is missing is a bezel around the monitor. I haven't got a chance to work on that yet.
I hope that my project will inspire others to get started with their cabs, the same way I was inspired by reading this forum.
Mike
The base is glued and screwed together.
View of the back
First time standing up
Painted, bathroom light + mirror for the marquee.
Kitchen cabinets hinges are in place for the front door.
Monitor in place (shown in vertical position).
Front door and coin door installed.
Layered control panel (made of MDF) with mount plates for the magsticks.
Early test, playing a video.
Controls wired to the minipac and ready to install on the cab.
Alconoid is finally up and running!
Still missing a monitor bezel at this time.
Control panel.
One more view.
The entire front panel is a door.
I did not need a keyboard try on my cab. A wireless keyboard and mouse are inside just in case, but I never need them.
The machine is networked: any software maintenance can be done remotely from another PC.
Here is what makes it tick!
Stored inside on the left side are a spare glass and the extra monitor "mask" for vertical orientation.