recommendations about my cocktail?

[Ghoul]

Well my upright is going on the backburner, so I was thinking of maybe doing a mame classics cocktail in the meantime.

I would be using either kyle's pac cocktail plans or just doing something very similar to lanie's http://www.type2guy.com/Arcade/ I don't think I would do a sidebar for a six button setup unless others have had great results with this and recommend it. I will also probably only have one control panel with a 4-way, start, and one button. This is ok for classics other than missile command/centipede right? Also where the player 2 control panel would go I'd probably get a thin mesh grill or something and mount a couple of fans to push air, and also have one fan on the bottom.

I have an old tower computer that runs with with no fans (it came that way) so I imagine if I take it out and mount it inside the cocktail with some airflow it won't have any problem. It's a p2 400mhz with around 128mb sdram and a voodoo banshee, it ran mame classics fine a few years back.

I was planning on doing classics in my upright so I have a ms. pac/galaga stick and some red buttons. I think I'd just do a keyboard hack or find a cheap joystick to hack since I'll have so few buttons that ghosting won't matter.

I thought I would do a cheap 19" pc monitor since this is a budget system and a 19" arcade monitor w/ arcade vga will run me around 330 before shipping, and I would probably leave the pc monitor in the case. If this is a big deal lemme know. It's too bad because I would love to have an arcade monitor.

So here's my parts list:

Controls: already have
Computer: already have
Interface: either a keyboard (1-5 from goodwill or free w/ a rebate from somewhere) or a gamepad (5-20)
Monitor: 19" PC (80-130)
Wood: 3/4 MDF probably around 18 for a 4x8 sheet
Misc. things such as paint, plexi, etc.: 50

Any suggestions or places I'm going wrong? I think this would be a fun project that will last a long long time after it's finished, and as I said keep me occupied until my upright.

EDIT: I'm not worried about including a coin door unless I find a CHEAP nice looking one or one that I can easily fix up since they will just drive the price up.

[paigeoliver]

My vertical 4-way upright plays all the vertical 4-way games full speed with a slower processor than that, so you should be fine in that area. You might REALLY want to consider having both control panels. That is the whole reason for building a cocktail.

Also, if you a building a cocktail instead of an upright because of space concerns, then just stop right where you are at. Cocktails may be physically smaller, but they take up about 3 times the square footage due to the whole 2 chairs, and need to be able to walk around one side of it thing. Heck, some of them are wider than uprights are too (my Time Pilot is much wider than an upright).

Basically, an upright cabinet needs as much floor space as an end table, while a cocktail needs as much floor space as an entire bed. Believe me, I know. I have a loft type bed (bunk bed with no bottom bed), and the entire underneath part is eaten up by a single cocktail table.

[Ghoul]

No it really doesn't have anything to do with space. It's mainly because building a cocktail will be easier (time spent cutting out panels).

[jakejake28]

actually, i have a galaga cocktail, restored, and a mortal kombat cab, mamed, and although the cocktail takes up mre floor space, it is less physically imposing, ie it is not as visibly cramping in a room.


edit: gawd, i have too many cabs...