Help: mame/nes/snes/jukebox cab

[Vintage1945]

Hi all, I want to turn my old box (amd 1.4, gforce3 s-vid out) into a nice little mame/nes/snes dedicated machine hooked directly to my TV.

The goal: Use my mouse and keyboard as little as possible, hopefully not at all, to play all my games on each emu w/ the following controlers. Original NES, and SNES controllers, and an arcade stick to be added later. The NES and SNES wont be to much of a problem, since I can mod them to the par port.

What I need to know is what frontend to use, which rom manager (have ClrMamePro 3.07b) and the best way to set up the system for mame, nes, and snes.  Later it may be added to its own cab, w/ a 25" TV i have laying around.

What I have Hardware: amd 1.4, 512 ddr, 30 gig, g3 s-vid out, sb audigy 2. 25" TV. Modded NES, SNES controllers for par port.

Software: Xp Pro. Mame32v76b + roms, NES emus + roms, SNES emu + roms. NTPadXP for nes, snes pads.

I really love the nes and snes controllers and will be using those primarily, at least at first.

Any links to a similar project would be great, as there is so much info out there I am kinda overwhelmed, as well as being new to this stuff. I will check the faq link and these great forums, but if someone knows of some direct links that can save me some time, it would be greatly appreciated!

[crsdawg]

try this website, it's dedicated to building nes computers:

http://www.junkmachine.com/nintendo/members/tutorial.shtml

here's their forums:

http://www.junkmachine.com/nintendo/members/forum/index.php

as for an interface, you could try using a remote like this:

here

or this one

be sure to use girder instead of the included software. it's much more flexible.

as for a fe, i'm sure there are others who can help you more than i could. i've pretty much only used mame32 and game launcher. gl could handle the options your after, but it's pretty much a barebones program. i'm sure there's better choices.

good luck.

[SpamMe]

I'm in the middle of a similar project. Mine is a Mame/SNES/NES/Jukebox affair, and I'm using two of these controllers along with Mamewah and JoyToKey. The main control panel will be 2 T-Stiks from Ultimarc, and 6 buttons per player set up like all the fighters, as well as 5 admin-type buttons (for power, exit game, pause, and 1 & 2 player start).
Mamewah doesn't work with joysticks directly, but JoyToKey is working great.
Here's a joytokey link: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA016823/joytokey/english.html

My site's here: www.upup.tk
but I don't know whether there's any useful information there for you specifically at the moment.

[Vintage1945]

Thx for your replies, actually i am shooting for the mame/nes/snes/jukebox now also. And I am seriously thinking about putting it in a cab straight off, complete w/ dvd player/cd burner so it will be a movie player as well. it might even double as a beer chest! might as well make it an all-in-one garage entertainment center/cooler  

I havent gotten far enough along yet, but i might just keep the keyboard and mouse on a slide out panel (similar to a desk) in the front, so it is easily concelled and accessed.

Starting this weekend. Lots of research tomorrow, then I will start on the cab Sat, or Sun.

[Vintage1945]

I threw up a website real quick so you guys can see what I am trying to do w/ this. Please check it out and let me know what you think, and if you can help out w/ info/advise, thats welcome too!

www.vintage1945.com

As the project moves along the website will be updated on a daily basis, provided I have new info to add. Hopefully by the end of this I can make a nice tutorial out of it. (let's hope!)