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How much do people typically spend building a cab?
shponglefan:
I just recently did a parts list/budget for the cab I'm designing here. I was a little surprised to see it came out at $2500. Mind you, that includes everything from scratch including PC, monitor, plus 3 separate swappable panels.
What's a typical budget for an arcade cab? I've seen the occational one posted, usually under $1000. Although I'm sure some cabs (Mission Control comes to mind) probably cost a pretty penny.
Nephasth:
Mine is currently at about $850-$900 and is almost complete...
DaveMMR:
People have built cabs from $100 or less to well over a few grand (note: educated guesses).
My first (current) cab cost upwards of a couple of thousand but I spent money on the "bling" like RGB LED's and Electric Ice stuff and a brand new 25" CRT monitor (plus shipping). I could have gone much cheaper if I exercised a bit of restraint.
My current project I'm planning on doing for under $500 but I have a lot of the more expensive stuff (display, computer, old controls, etc.) already on hand.
Gatt:
Depends on what you build. My build ended up around $2k, but I went with a modular panel, with a 2 player setup for almost every control type, lightgun, 360 and 180 steering wheels, star wars yoke, and a flightstick. I don't regret it one bit. I can play pretty much every game with the right controls for it.
I'd *really* suggest you consider if a modular panel might be better for you than swappable. Swappable do take up alot of space, especially if you decide you want more controls later. Modular can fit in a bookshelf and give you controls for everything, even doing a one-use setup like Defender is trivial. But you do sacrifice artwork.
paigeoliver:
I have had multiple Mame conversions come out with negative costs after I sold the leftover bits.
I did a from scratch build recently from furniture grade plywood, here is the cost breakdown. Prices are from memory so they may not be exact. Some of these items I had on hand, but I priced them anyway (either used what I paid or what they would cost me).
$40 4x8 sheet of plywood. I specifically designed the cabaret cabinet I built to only need one sheet to keep the cost down.
$1 1 furring strip.
$6 wood stain.
$20 Namco reunion joystick and some buttons from bob roberts.
$5 Used coin door.
$3 Piece of angle aluminum.
$25 Used 21" CRT monitor.
$55 JAMMA multigame PCB.
$9 Piece of plexiglass.
$4 Furniture feet.
$1 A fuse with holder.
$1 extension cord.
$12 El cheapo chinese power supply.
$10 Used jamma harness pulled out of a deconverted machine.
$5 Marquee my wife printed at work.
$10 t-molding
$5 Tacked on the end for misc shop supplies (sandpaper, couple blasts of black spraypaint, rags, etc).
$224 total.
Here is the resulting $224 machine. I haven't actually installed the marquee yet, it will go below the control panel unlit in cabaret fashion.