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Looking to start my first MAME ever! (in Texas)

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Fallen_Veteran:

Hello everyone, newb here looking for advice, tips, tricks, etc when it comes to this whole MAME game. I am picking up a 2 player cab on Friday and checking out a 4 player cab Saturday. Before I get criticized for multiple cabs being a newb but the 2 player came across my path for 2 six packs! The 4 player cab is the one I originally wanted as I want to play games with both my boys like TMNT. I am in Kyle just south of Austin. If there are any forum members in the area I would love the help and to be able to bounce questions off of. Have a PC that I intend to use, the cab is coming, want to go lcd (for weight). Need to figure out Joysticks, Buttons, Emulation Software, ROMs, etc. Have trolled forums ad pages for months now but would like to start running some of my ideas through some of the experienced builders out there for constructive criticisms and feedback. Look forward to diving into the project head first!

yotsuya:


--- Quote from: Fallen_Veteran on April 15, 2013, 05:35:17 pm ---Hello everyone, newb here looking for advice, tips, tricks, etc when it comes to this whole MAME game. I am picking up a 2 player cab on Friday and checking out a 4 player cab Saturday. Before I get criticized for multiple cabs being a newb but the 2 player came across my path for 2 six packs!
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 :cheers: :cheers:


--- Quote ---The 4 player cab is the one I originally wanted as I want to play games with both my boys like TMNT. I am in Kyle just south of Austin. If there are any forum members in the area I would love the help and to be able to bounce questions off of. Have a PC that I intend to use, the cab is coming, want to go lcd (for weight). Need to figure out Joysticks, Buttons, Emulation Software, ROMs, etc. Have trolled forums ad pages for months now but would like to start running some of my ideas through some of the experienced builders out there for constructive criticisms and feedback. Look forward to diving into the project head first!

--- End quote ---

Welcome! Just remember, there's a lot of experienced builders here. If someone says "You probably shouldn't do it that way" or "You need to rethink that", they probably know firsthand what they're talking about. Take that stuff into consideration, but remember, ultimately it's your cab.  :laugh:

DaveMMR:


--- Quote from: Fallen_Veteran on April 15, 2013, 05:35:17 pm ---Before I get criticized for multiple cabs being a newb

--- End quote ---

Who would criticized you for that? Get a third one if you can!  :cheers:

Being you have a dedicated 4-player, I would just leave the control panel as-is and use that for the multi-player party games (TMNT, Gauntlet, NBA Jam, etc.) You may have to add a third or fourth button depending on the games, but little else. I think when things start to get added to a 4-player panel (fighter button layouts, spinners, trackballs, etc.) is when it gets all unwieldy. But you have the 2-player cabinet to add all that jazz if so desired.

There are broad answers for your other questions so you pretty much just need to read up a bit and narrow it down. 

Congrats on the find and enjoy! 

Fallen_Veteran:


--- Quote from: yotsuya on April 15, 2013, 05:59:37 pm ---Welcome! Just remember, there's a lot of experienced builders here. If someone says "You probably shouldn't do it that way" or "You need to rethink that", they probably know firsthand what they're talking about. Take that stuff into consideration, but remember, ultimately it's your cab.  :laugh:

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Thank you for the advice! I am so excited about the prospect of building my first cab that I have a million ideas running through my head. I want to ask as many questions as possible to avoid many pitfalls I am sure  most first time builders have run into.

yotsuya:

One thing I'd like to throw out there, and really, I'd throw it out to all new builders:

Decide exactly what it is you want your cab to be.
I say this because when we all get introduced to this aspect of the hobby, many times we're enamored by all the possibilities. The thought that "I can play every arcade game, every Atari game, every Nintendo game, every SNES game.... ever made on one machine!!!!1!" is exciting, but realistically not practical. My initial plan for my cabinet was like this. I built a control panel with two 8-ways, a 4 way, a trackball, and a spinner, was quite proud of it... then realized a 37 inch control panel was just too big. So I kept the control panel within the width of the cabinet, tossed the 4-way, loaded all those games and console emulators.... and found that even though I could do all those things, I couldn't do all of them well. I toyed with swappable panels, but ultimately, where was I going to put them when I wasn't using them?

So I took out everything but MAME. Better, but still, the CP was crowded, the 4 way games just didn't play right..... so I built a 4 way vertical only cabinet, I removed the trackball and spinner, pared down the game list, and now my original cabinet plays a multitude of games that I enjoy, and it does it quite well. It's not going to be an "OMG, It plays 40,000 different games!!!!!!!" machine, and honestly, that works great. It's a two-player horizontal cabinet that can play 8 way vertical games. Do I miss playing Tron with my spinner, battop joystick, and regular button? A little, but the control scheme was so awkward that it wasn't the optimal way to do it. I know now that if I want to play Tron, I should look into getting a Tron.

Just a bit of advice. There's no right or wrong way to really do it if you are happy with the end result, but you can save a lot of time and money along the way with careful planning.  :cheers:

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