vitaflo's MAME cabinet complete!

[vitaflo]

Well I just finished my MAME cabinet, and thought I'd share with everyone.  I would just like to say thanks to everyone here for all their help and support.  Without it, this project would never have been completed.

About the cabinet...it's modled after the Super Monkey Ball arcade cab, and was built with the help of my father who's been a carpenter for 30+ years.  It has a D9200 monitor in it, hooked up with an ArcadeVGA card.  Everything was flush mounted with the control panel so there are no visible screws, in fact the entire arcade has no visible screws on it at all (well, theres a couple on the back but who sees those?).  That was a big sticking point for me.  The marquee is a custom one printed by Emdkay.  Speakers are hooked up through a hacked PC speaker soundboard.

If I had to do it over again, I'd get the marquee height down better.  When I designed it I forgot about the marquee retainer taking up some height and thus the marquee is rather short.  Maybe someday I can fix this, for now I'll just have to live with it.  For the most part, everything else turned out the way I wanted.  Someday I would like to do sideart and a whole "theme" other than just the generic MAME one.

Anyway, on to the pictures!

[vitaflo]

Back of the cabinet.

[vitaflo]

Control panel, everything flush mounted.  Formica top.  J-Sticks, Happs Trackball, Oscar Model 3 Spinner.

[vitaflo]

CP underside.  You can see the hacked PC speaker sound board in the box for sound control.

[vitaflo]

Cab guts.  Not the cleanest wiring, but it all works!  

[SNAAAKE]

Good job !  
Looks pretty good imo.

[RetroJames]

Looks great man.  Very tight and clean.  Marquee looks fine, don't sweat it.

[zero-one]

Very nice! The paint job looks awesome. The fit and finish is superb.

It's play time! Oh wait. I have a question before you go playing.

What type of mechanism are you using to keep the cp top closed? I see something in the pictures but I can't tell what it is.

[vitaflo]

What type of mechanism are you using to keep the cp top closed? I see something in the pictures but I can't tell what it is.

It's a Southco catch latch.  Just uses friction to keep the CP top closed, and works awesome.  No jiggling, very sturdy, and just use force to open.  You can view them here:

http://www.southcoipsg.com/prd/hierarchymain.Showhierarchy?par_nNodeID=2098

[CthulhuLuke]

very very nice finish on that CP.  How much about did all that formica cost you?  I really like how all the screws are flush so you cant see a thing, just looks completely smooth.  How much did you route the wood out too on the joysticks?  Very nice finish on it, limited artwork but the construction and design look very professional, good job!
      -Chu

[SNAAAKE]

-edit
My bad.NVM  

[vitaflo]

very very nice finish on that CP.  How much about did all that formica cost you?  I really like how all the screws are flush so you cant see a thing, just looks completely smooth.  How much did you route the wood out too on the joysticks?  Very nice finish on it, limited artwork but the construction and design look very professional, good job!

The formica was free.  My dad was able to score a left over scrap from work.  Luckly it was a decent piece.  I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to do it without screws or mounting plates showing (especially w/ the J-Sticks) but we figured out a way.

As for the routing on the J-Sticks, it's 3/8" routed out on the bottom.  Gives the perfect height (IMO).

And yeah, I really want a custom marquee and side art.  I just didn't have time to do it since this is going to be in a show in a week.  After the show (which runs 3 weeks) I should have the time to work on some decent designs for side art/marquee.

[Cisco Kid]

WOW!  That is one slick lookin' cabinet ... cool design!

Now I know what I'm going to built for my Neo Geo MVS system  

Got one question for you ... is there a site that shows how you mounted that trackball? (are you countersinking the mounting screws then filling and laminating over them?)

... sure beats lookin' at an ugly mounting plate  

[vitaflo]

Got one question for you ... is there a site that shows how you mounted that trackball? (are you countersinking the mounting screws then filling and laminating over them?)

I actually did use the mounting plate for the trackball.  I routed 1/8" out of the wood on top for the mounting plate so it sat flush w/ the rest of the wood.  Then I also countersunk the holes for the joysticks and inserted the screws into them before adding the formica, so they were flush as well.  Then applied the formica and routed out around all the previously drilled the holes.  The trackball I got is the Golden Tee one from Happ, which has a 1/8" lip above the mounting plate, so with the formica over the top of the mounting plate, it actually lines up perfect w/ the trackball and is nice and flush when it's all done.  Routing out the trackball hole in the formica wasn't an easy task though.  Luckly it turned out alright.

Here's a pic of the CP top right before I put in the mounting plate and screws for the joystick so you can get an idea.

[Cisco Kid]

makes perfect sense ... thanks for the info  

[said7]

Very nice cab. I like the design.

Whered you get that keyboard from and how much?

[SpAwN]

Great Job, looks really nice.

[vitaflo]

Whered you get that keyboard from and how much?

You can get them at CompUSA.  It's the Virtually Indestructable Keyboard.  It's nice becuase it can roll up and you can thow it around without worrying about scratching or breaking anything.  A little pricey though, I think it was like $30-40.

[Smack]

When I first saw the pics of the cab, specificall the look and mostly the profile, the first phrase I said to my self was "That is f-in bad ass."

Nice work!
Smack