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My old MAME Cabinet Revision
jimfath:
After looking through the various projects on here, I'm utterly impressed and amazed. I'm revamping my old MAME cabinet so I thought I'd throw it in here as it's technically a project. If I'm wrong let me know and I'll pull it down. I'm not nearly as savy as some of you fine folks.
About 6 years ago I had a MAME cabinet made. The design laid out by the cabinet maker was great. It came apart in 3 pieces as I am an apartment dweller and I am prone to moving for work. I am in the process of putting it back together after a recent 4th move (Chicago to LA) and I am motivated to make some improvements on it while I'm putting it back together and have some $$$ with which to make it happen. Bear in mind that I am not a wood worker and I did none of the control panel wiring though I did Frankenstein the PC together that ran it. So I do have some skill and a willingness to learn and experiment. Actually seeing the various home builds here has given me a lot of ideas.
Here is the machine (It's not a Spy Hunter machine. I just LOVED that game as a kid so I made a marquee for it)
Upgrades I'd like to do:
Marquee:
Illuminate Marquee with an LCD light source
Design original Marquee with various video game elements. Specifically incorporating Kinky Pinky from NARC.
Power
Install a MASTER power switch on top that powers on PC, Speakers, Monitor.
Finally configure PC to auto execute hyperspin upon power up.
Monitor
Replace TV with sharper LCD panel.
Speakers
Install 2 speakers and 1 subwoofer into the cabinet.
Coin Door
Replace door with a coin door.
Marquee
I just installed a lcd light bar. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000IV5PCY.
I'll be working on the actual artwork last.
Power:
I'm not sure what kind of switch to buy. I've seen a few threads here of people saying to use the smart power strip but I'm going to have read up on the best way to get this accomplished. My goal is single power on switch. I believe the FE's have a power down option. I'm currently using Hyperspin.
Monitor:
The cabinet was designed to hold a 27" CRT tv. I'm contemplating getting an LCD monitor. Maybe without having to rotate the orientation of the monitor. I'm still looking at this. I've already seen how MAME can crop the game display. I might be nice to have some of the bezel artwork displayed if it doesn't cost any resolution.
Speakers
I'm looking at finding some decent but not terribly expensive PC speakers and install them in the yellow areas. (Subwoofer at the bottom) I'll have to find a way to get these pieces cut. I don't have a jig saw.
Coin Door:
There is already a door, it's just not attached at the moment. Once I get the machine able to power up from a single flip of a switch (push of a button?) I'll seal off the front with a coin door. It looks like this might be a pricey facade.
drventure:
You've got a great cab to start with. I can totally see your planned updates.
For power, I'd get a master control powerstrip and then just extend the PC powerbutton out of the cab somewhere.
Or better yet, drill a hole ALMOST all the way through from the inside, put a magnetic alarm switch in it, then you can just wave a magnet over the area to power up the cab. Look ma, no buttons!
Nephasth:
--- Quote from: drventure on July 06, 2011, 10:58:43 pm ---Or better yet, drill a hole ALMOST all the way through from the inside, put a magnetic alarm switch in it, then you can just wave a magnet over the area to power up the cab. Look ma, no buttons!
--- End quote ---
AWESOME! :drool
drventure:
You know, I got this wild hair at one point about a year ago to build a control panel with nothing but joysticks sticking out.
All the buttons would be magnetic or better yet, capacitive touch sensors under the overlay.
In the end, I can't imagine much benefit of the design other than the "slick" factor.
But for a power button, or admin buttons, it could be sweet.
kalars123:
get a smart strip "google it" and use that, then for the power button use an arcade button mounted on the top of your cabinet out of site wire the micro-switch to your mobo and your good to go, when you turn on the computer everything else will power on, that's how i got mine set up, the only thing on the CP is joysticks and buttons, no extra anything.
For the LCD if "and only if" you have the money to spend on it consider a WG 9000 26" replacement LCD it has a beautiful picture and will allow you useing groovymame to run games at the correct refresh rate. However it is very much a luxury item and is not needed.
For the speaker's look into a good set of 2.1 speaks with a remote power/volume switch then you can either decase them or just mount them face down, and use a drill to drill speaker holes through the bottom of your marquee make sure you use a drawn layout first to mark your holes so that it looks good, don't want just a bunch of random holes drilled through.
As for the coin door if you already have a real coin-door then it shouldn't be that bad if you have a fake one you could consider wireing up a couple button's there that act like credit buttons... IE this GGG button http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=295&zenid=qhiv2ct11lac4jjlnr6fmonrn4
"Edit" a smart strip has a master outlet and 2-6 slave outlets, basically it cuts all power to the slave outlets when it see's that the master outlet as fallen below as certain electrical draw, and conversely it power's on the slave outlets when the draw on the master outlet increases. so when you wire your computer power switch to the top using a normal arcade button+micro-switch, when you turn on your computer a few seconds later everything else will power on as well, and when you shut down your computer a few seconds later everything else turn's off. It literally is the perfect solution for power management for a Mame cabinet