I'm getting paid to build my own cabinet!

[vitaflo]

So the craziest thing happened to me recently.  I work at a contemporary art museum, and my old boss, who used to be the currator of my department, said he was currating an exhibition at Carleton College in Northfield, MN in Nov.  One of the themes of the exhibitions is gaming, and was wondering if I'd put my arcade cabinet in the exhibit.

Of course, the problem there was, I'm not quite done w/ my cab.  I'm only as far as prototyping my control panel, and didn't plan on having the full thing done for a long while.  I just don't have the money I need right now to finish it.

I told him as much and he asked me what I thought it would cost to complete the full cabinet the way I wanted.  I did some calculations and came to about $1700.  So he went to Carleton College with that figure and asked them if they would foot the bill for me to build the cab.  Sure enough, they're going to!

So now I have a comission to build my MAME cab for this art exhibit, fully paid for.  Of course my first thoughts were, why on earth would a MAME cab be in an art exhibit, and why would a college want to pay me money to build something I was going to do someday anyway?  But who cares, this is too cool!

Needless to say I'm pretty hyped.  For those in the area, the exhibition opens on Nov 5, and I believe there will be a workshop on Nov 1, on which I should be there to talk about my cab and show it off and whatnot.  I can give more details to those who are interested.

I just thought I'd post this because I'm just to excited to keep it to myself.  

[TheGatesofBill]

Urge to kill... rising...

[hooded_paladin]

1.  darn you.

2. watch out for illegal rom usage ON DISPLAY.  some trouble could be had.

[KevSteele]

First, congrats! Talk about a lucky, lucky break!

Second, you've just elevated the MAME cabinet to an art form. Do it justice.  

Third, damn you, damn you all to hell... (jk)

Kevin

[Hoagie_one]

you musta done something good cause karma is shinin down on you.

NOW DONT EF IT UP

[Apollo]

My advice, buy a lotto ticket immediately!

[Frostillicus]

Well they used a mame cab (running game launcher) for that UK Game On exhibit awhile back...so it's been done before.  My only thought is to get what they expect in writing - you don't want a misunderstanding about who gets to keep the machine after the exhibit.  

[APFelon]

You should let us Minnesota natives know the when and where so we can mock you and your project with derisive laughter.

Just kidding. Congrats! You should be able to produce an excellent cabinet with that kind of cash.

[vitaflo]

Well they used a mame cab (running game launcher) for that UK Game On exhibit awhile back...so it's been done before.  My only thought is to get what they expect in writing - you don't want a misunderstanding about who gets to keep the machine after the exhibit.  

Already taken care of.  I get it after the exhibit is done.  They're just helping me pay for it so I can get it done in time for the exhibit, not buying it outright.

We also talked about things like inserting coins to play games.  They really want the players to use the coin mech to get credits (they'd like it as "arcade-like" as possible).  I firmly told them that I did not want any visitor to be using thier own money to play any games.  We decided instead there would be a guard by the arcade area to give visitors tokens if they want to play the games.  This way nobody is using thier own money, and they can still use the coin mech to get "credits".

Speaking of credits, I was thinking of trying to get people like Andy and Oscar in the credits list of the project, since I'm using thier parts to build the thing, just as a thank you for all the hard work they do for this community.  I still don't know if that will happen yet (or if they'd want thier names in lights), so we'll see on that one.

[Shieldwolf]

OMG!!!!!

YOU ARE A GOD NOW GO BACK AND DEMAND MORE MONEY FOR ALL THE EXTRA GOODIES.

Seriously, congrats on your cab.

[hyiu]

ok... now... since your cab will be representing Mame Cabs.... (in some way... our community....)

you need to do a good job....

pressure is ON !!!!  

 

ps: why don't you let them insert quarters ??...
then at the end of the exhibition... you'll have a machine
FULL OF QUARTERS back ?!?!?!....

yeah !!!....      ok... j/k....

[DAmnb]

I think we all expect full photo documentation and journal on this project  

Gratz! and like people have said, the pressure is ON!  

[pointdablame]

well chalk me up as another toally jealous person. Congrats on this, better make it good!

And yes, we DEMAND a journal and photo documentation.  

[Justin]

Be careful with using ROMS on that cab, while on display at the exhibit.   I'd hate to see you get in trouble for this!

Congrats, what a great opportunity.

[u_rebelscum]

   I need to find me a stupid, err.. intellegent, arcade loving art museum director, too.    

[pulls out little black book... nope, darn]  Oh well, there's always the lottery or Las Vegas.

[slug54]

You lucky dawg! What did you do make a deal with the devil?

Congrats, but whatever you do don't build a 4- player
panel that looks like someone mounted a coffin on the front of an arcade machine and decorated it with a collage of every arcade control known to man!

If I were you I would build a simple 2-player panel
that fits nicely between the sides of your machine.
this could play all the classics and 90% of the games worth playing. They are giving you a bunch of cash so you could still buy the controls and wood for a huge monstrous panel and build it later.


                       Good Luck
                              Slug

[Sasquatch!]

Make us proud, son!

[lhallmark]

Congrats on your good fortune.
I would also reccomend using Peter's 3d Arcade front end ( http://3darcade.mameworld.net/index2.htm ) - Properly set up it is awesome! People will navigate the virtual 3D arcade, seeing the replicas of all of the games, complete with background arcade sounds.
I would also reccomend aquiring the PCB's of any game you plan on having the cab playing at the show. You could even make them part of the display.
Good Luck,
Lance
SF2 MAME Cabinet in progress
Safety Harbor, FL