It's ALIVE! Video of my crappy MAME cab.

[Locut0s]

Here's 11min of video of my MAME cabinet up and running. First bit is just me talking about what a MAME cab is and the last bit is me playing 3 games. For those who have built MAME cabs or looked at them this does not look good I know! : embarrassed: But I'm thrilled I've got it all running 100%. Now to see if I can get the rest of it looking 1/2 decent.



Anyone please leave a comment or thumb it up if you like it, thanks!

Again yeah I know it's probably the worst cab you have seen. Still I'm happy with it!

[fibreoptix]

Looks great to me. Mabey add a bevel or paint the plexi to hide the monitor but I think it's great.

[Locut0s]

Looks great to me. Mabey add a bevel or paint the plexi to hide the monitor but I think it's great.

Thanks!

You'll see in the vid that I have a piece of heavy matt black "art construction" board that I'm going to use to hide the monitor. It may be possible for me to put some art work on this as well. I'd like to sand down the sides and repaint the cab as well.

Ultimately I might end up making a whole new one at some point with a custom controller layout.

[amendonz]

looks ok man, might not be the flashest cab on the site but def not the worst lol.  once you sus the surround for the monitor it will be just fine

[liquid8]

Looks fine! Just needs some cosmetic work.. don't be so down on it! If you can play some Metal Slug, you are good to go

[Locut0s]

Thanks guys!

First thing I'm going to do is replace those damned coin buttons. They're just about falling apart lol. Will go out today or tomorrow and get two switches to replace them. I'm also going to look to see if I can get an odl school crappy TV from some 2nd hand store. This should make it look even more authentic. A computer monitor's resolution is just too high.

Instead of making a whole new cab another idea I have is to replace the control panel with a custom made one. This will allow me to design my own layout with a spinner, roller ball and other old school controls.

[Jack Burton]

That cab is not crappy.  It looks like it gets the job done, and done well.  

The CP is clean and uses quality parts suited for the type of cabinet they're in, and the games it looks like you play.  

The monitor is a good choice for a fighting cab.  CRT = no input delay.  

The IPAC is a solid well known pcb.  It also is known to produce no input delay.


Couple of suggestions:

-The video card for an emulator cab DOES matter.  With that monitor you can actually display native arcade resolutions.  Look up some posts on this forum about Soft 15khz and the notion of "double refresh" modes.  The scanlines will be quite heavy, but it will look better than anything else on that monitor.  (I have had several identical models).

Personally, I wouldn't replace the monitor with a TV.  IMO the clean RGB image of a monitor is actually closer to a true arcade monitor than a TV through a graphics cards' tv out using s-video or component video.  Don't use composite.

-It looks like your joysticks are mounted a little bit too high.  Usually a competition stick like those will want to be mounted in 5/8" to 3/4" MDF.  You can buy a few washers and put them between the joystick base and the CP to even them out and get the sticks to the "official" height.  But if it doesn't bother you or your friends then I wouldn't go to the trouble.  

[Locut0s]

That cab is not crappy.  It looks like it gets the job done, and done well.  

The CP is clean and uses quality parts suited for the type of cabinet they're in, and the games it looks like you play.  

The monitor is a good choice for a fighting cab.  CRT = no input delay.  

The IPAC is a solid well known pcb.  It also is known to produce no input delay.


Couple of suggestions:

-The video card for an emulator cab DOES matter.  With that monitor you can actually display native arcade resolutions.  Look up some posts on this forum about Soft 15khz and the notion of "double refresh" modes.  The scanlines will be quite heavy, but it will look better than anything else on that monitor.  (I have had several identical models).

Personally, I wouldn't replace the monitor with a TV.  IMO the clean RGB image of a monitor is actually closer to a true arcade monitor than a TV through a graphics cards' tv out using s-video or component video.  Don't use composite.

-It looks like your joysticks are mounted a little bit too high.  Usually a competition stick like those will want to be mounted in 5/8" to 3/4" MDF.  You can buy a few washers and put them between the joystick base and the CP to even them out and get the sticks to the "official" height.  But if it doesn't bother you or your friends then I wouldn't go to the trouble.  

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah that makes sense that the sticks are high, didn't think about that. The control panel here is a piece of hard steel, much thinner than MDF or something similar. I'll look into the video options you mentioned.

[Darien]

Reminds me of my first time out. Especially the part where I explain in advance that it's crappy LOL.  If you're having fun, that's all that matters.   I think most people over do it. I like the subtle approach where you may not realise it's a mame by looking at it. Then again my first mame was a zaxxon with a street fighter layout.

It's the little touches. Cut another piece of foamboard and you won't even notice the monitor. Go to your local hardware store and replace the marquee light (should be around $10) and just plug it in to the power strip. i7? you are going to annihilate everything mame has to offer with that. 

So EXCELLENT work so far. Recommendations: bezel the monitor, find a nice frontend that is joystick navigable like Hyperspin or MaLa (which are also mapped to default mame keys), and have a blast!

oh and if you didn't know, playing the 2 player variant of Simpsons (or any of those Konami games) let's you choose your character so player 1 isn't always Marge.

[mrclean]

cheapest solution for the marquee light is walmart sells an "under cabinet" ment for a kitchen light that's 6.97.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lights-of-America-18-Under-Cabinet-Fluorescent-Light/16877468

Also it looks like your using MAME32... Get rid of that ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and grab MAME / and the front end "Hyperspin".

I just posted in another thread an easy as pie on how to set it up...
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115015.0

Video Example:

[Locut0s]

Small update: I had to place the computer at an awkward angle inside the cab so it was really hard to reach the power switch. Well I corrected that today by taking the swtich out of the case and soldering it to a long piece of wire and mounting it to the front of the cab, now you don't need to touch the computer at all. I've also installed a florecent light kit to light up the top of the cabinety, the marque. And I've cut the foam board insert so that it hides most of the monitor, though this part still needs a lot of work.

Here's a pic of it running Puck Man.

[Locut0s]

cheapest solution for the marquee light is walmart sells an "under cabinet" ment for a kitchen light that's 6.97.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lights-of-America-18-Under-Cabinet-Fluorescent-Light/16877468

Also it looks like your using MAME32... Get rid of that ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and grab MAME / and the front end "Hyperspin".

I just posted in another thread an easy as pie on how to set it up...
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115015.0

Video Example:

Thanks for the suggestions. As you can see I already went ahead and mounted something similar for the marque. Unfortunately the cheapest thing I could find at my hardware store was a florescent light kit that was about $20+. Still it looks good.

Yes you are very correct I need to ditch Mame32. I'm still looking into which front end to run.  Everyone I ask recommends something else. Will have to check a few out to see which I like. Thanks for the link that will be very helpful!

[Vulgar Soul]

Now it looks real nice! Keep up the finishing touches, it looks good!

And yes I'd recommend command line MAME, don't use MAMEUI for a Mame cab + front end.

And in terms of presentation, and functionality Hyperspin can't be beat. It's the only front end I've seen that went with a commercial looking approach (it's based on the Ultracade) and I expect the next version of Hyperspin to set a new standard for MAME/Emulator front ends.

Mala functions really well, has a lot of versatility, and looks great with a well made theme! A great alternative if you're running an older computer.

There's also a nice front end called 3DArcade which simulates walking through an old video arcade with cabinet models and all.

Those are my top 3.

GameEx, and Maximus Arcade are also very nice if you don't mind the home theater PCish look, but I prefer something more commercial looking like Hyperspin or a clean MALA interface.   

[Mister Hat]

I personally found HyperSpin to be a bit flashy for my taste. I used WahCade on Linux but if you're going to stick with Windows, I recommend Mala.

[Jack Burton]

Yeah, I'm not as fond of hyperspin as the rest of the board either.  I'm sure it took TONS of work to put together and is by far the most sophisticated and slick looking, but it just seems a bit much of a muchness to me. 

I like my frontends to seem sort of overly "computery" and feel like sort of an ether that exists between games.  So I usually stick to nothing more than a black background with a white list of rom names that scrolls up and down.  No preview, no music, no nothing.