Newbie Here. First M.A.M.E. arcade cabinet project.

[craig.anderson]

Hello Forum Members,

I just purchased an old space invaders cabinet that I plan on transforming into a M.A.M.E. type arcade cabinet. I am new at this so I apologize in advance for any stupid questions. Very excited to get started.

My goal (as of right now)
1) 2 controller panels. Dont know about roller ball type things etc yet
2) plan on retaining the old space invaders artwork
3) LED monitor/TV. dont know enough to deal with one of those old heavy CRT type monitors.
4) would like to play the following emulators on it: NES, SNES, SEGA GENESIS, NINTENDO 64, COLECOVISION, INTELLIVIsion. NEO-GEO, MAME, and NINTENDO GAMECUBE. I dont think ill do anything more modern than nintendo gamecuble.

Any pointers to get started would be greatly appreciated.
If I could learn from other people's "mistakes" I would greatly appreciate the knowledge.
I am going to try to attach some pics

[craig.anderson]

Is "BONDO" the way to go as far as repairing broken chipped up corners etc?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/81338-13-best-repair-missing-corner-pieces-cabinet

[Caparo8bit]

use maximus arcade for emulator control (front end) is easy to use and imo the best .....this is good for noobs (like me)
http://www.maximus-arcade.com/

[Caparo8bit]

and about bondo yes and theres other sealers for wood that also work on small areas.

[mgb]

Hey Craig,
 welcome to the forums.
yes Bondo will work fine for repairs. there are also two part wood fillers (putty and hardner) but they cost more and I believe they are no different than bondo anyway, so for me bondo works great.

Best advice I can give you at this point is, look around this site and check out other guys builds and really come up with what you want the finished product to be and then figure out how to accomplish it. along the way, you will have more questions. some of these questions will be answered in other threads and others you will post and hopefully get some good insight.

a couple of other things to keep in mind:
1) what specific games are you hoping to play? Old school vertical classics, fighters, vertical shooters?
2) will you plan on 4-way games such as pac man or donkey kong or 8 way games such as robotron.
3) Think about budget.

remember there is always compromise. Think about whats most important first. I've seen many people be dead set on a four player with all the bells and whistles, only to end up with a way over crowded control panel with cheap controls because they blew their budget on everything else and had to cheap out on the sticks.
also remember that not all console games will necessarily be enjoyable to play on arcade controls.

LED monitors really seems to be the way alot of guys are going now. CRT Arcade monitors are getting hard to come by (and they're heavy). of course the crt tv route still has plenty options out there.

good luck

[craig.anderson]

thanks for the responses


This is the desktop I plan on using inside my cabinet. Will these specs allow me to play emulators for the following? Do i need to upgrade anything? RAM? graphics card? sound card? thanks

• atari
  intellivision
  colecovision
  nes
  snes
  nintendo 64
  sega genesis
  nintendo gamecube  <---this is probably the most modern one of the list??
  mame
  neo-geo
  

HP Pavilion p7-1423W Desktop PC:

Key Features and Benefits:
Intel Core i5-2320 processor
3.00GHz, 6MB Cache

8GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
The black HP - Pavilion Desktop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive

1TB SATA hard drive

SuperMulti DVD Burner


10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
Connect to a broadband modem with wired Ethernet or wirelessly connect to a WiFi signal or hotspot with the 802.11b/g/n connection built into your PC

Intel HD Graphics 2000
With up to 4GB graphics system memory

Additional Features:
15-in-1 memory card reader
2 x USB 3.0 ports, 1 x headphone-out, 1 x microphone-in, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x microphone-in/line-in/line-out, 1 x VGA-out, 1 x DVI-out
1 x MiniCard, 3 x PCI Express (x1) slots, 1 x PCI Express (x16) slot, 2 x external 5.25" bays, 1 x external 3.5" bay, 2 x internal 3.5" bays

Software:
HP Windows 8 Desktop Operating System (Monitor Not Included)
Norton Internet Security (60-day subscription)
HP Recovery Manager included with the HP Windows 8 Desktop Operating System (Monitor Not Included)

[craig.anderson]

What is the best pre-made controller panel that would fit this machine? Any guesses?
thanks
craig

[stigzler]

Good specs on the PC. You could run higher emulators on that - probably PS2 emulator - PCSX2.

When I started designing/conceptualising 4/5 months ago - mine, too started as 'old skool' - mame, C64, etc

However, as I tried more emulators, also relaised was loving the more modern arcade boards (NAOMI, Sega Model 3 etc) - remebering these machines form the end of my arcade youth.

Don't limit your emulators - you might get the bug. My advice: start off with as high spec as you can get - will also allow you to expand function of your cab in the future. Don't do like me + buy upgrade after upgrade form low spec- in for a penny - in for a pound

[craig.anderson]

Thanks.

I will definitely keep my mind open to other emulators?

Do I need a better graphics card or sound card?

Are all off the shelf computers able to have graphic card changed .... just in case I need a new one later on?

Sorry for stupid questions. Im not a computer guy by any means.

thanks

[Dawgz Rule]

First, welcome to the forum. 

You did a good job of identifying platforms you would like to play but I would recommend you take it a step further and define the games themselves.  This will help drive the overall design of your control panel.  Your PC specs are fine for everything you want to do but if this is a PC you are purchasing, you can go lower on your specs and still accomplish the same stated goal.  Unless you are on an unlimited budget, you have to decide where you want your investment to be and my recommendation is to invest most heavily in the cabinet hardware.   I say this because it seems as though you pulled the PC specs from a website and to mgb's point, you have to compromise somewhere. 

There are a number for front ends out there and my suggestion is to try as many as you can and decide from there.  Maximus Arcade was my first but it seems to lack support.  I ended up moving to GameEx but you will find there are a lot more.

CRT's are not difficult to deal with at all.  They are heavy.  However, if you want a truly authentic feel, you just can't beat a CRT.  In my world of compromise, this is one of the areas I felt was worth the investment.

In the end, you should always do what is right for you.  Different people have different priorities, goals, and opinions.  The one opinion that is probably universal is that you have to be happy with your build.

[Caparo8bit]

im using this dinosaur and works great  ...emulators  atari ..nes..snes...mame..n64...sega... and im about to try psx

dell latitude c510
ProcessorCeleron 1.06 GHz
Memory 256.0 MB
Display Type14.1 in
Graphics ProcessorATI Mobility Radeon M6P

cant make it work with soft 15 so im taking arcade monitor out and installing led 32"  + ipac
this is my pjoject:

[DGP]

Caparo8bit,

I love those Dynamo cabs, almost bought one but they are just so dang big.


craig.anderson,

Grab the fastest CPU you can figure into your budget so you're not limited to what you can play, something in the 4Ghz multi-core range is a good goal (unless of course all you want is old school DK/PM/SI).

Just recently I went from a 2.8 dual to a 3.4 dual to a 4 ghz quad and saw a nice bump in performance each time. I can now play those games that are known to be the most difficult to emulate.

As for GPU some emu's use it more than others and you'll want something decent here if you wish to run some of the console oriented emu's as well as some PC games that are great on a cab (like SSFIVarcade).

Best of luck, nice find.
Jason

[craig.anderson]

Good specs on the PC. You could run higher emulators on that - probably PS2 emulator - PCSX2.

When I started designing/conceptualising 4/5 months ago - mine, too started as 'old skool' - mame, C64, etc

However, as I tried more emulators, also relaised was loving the more modern arcade boards (NAOMI, Sega Model 3 etc) - remebering these machines form the end of my arcade youth.

Don't limit your emulators - you might get the bug. My advice: start off with as high spec as you can get - will also allow you to expand function of your cab in the future. Don't do like me + buy upgrade after upgrade form low spec- in for a penny - in for a pound

Thanks.

So with the above specs, I should most certainly be able to play those emulators including gamecube (dolphin)?

I only ask again because I recently returned this computer (above specs) to walmart (after the hard drive crashed (it was still within 14 day warranty)), But before it crashed I noticed that some of the gamecube games were really scratchy/cracky sounding. I didnt know if that was the emulator not being perfected or if the computer was too wimpy to play it.??

Stupid question...can one add a new graphics card to any desktop?? ie...if i buy this same desktop again, and i want to upgrade graphics card, will i be able to? thanks

could a new sound card get rid of the scratchy/cracky sound? It was most noticeable on lego star wars just fyi...

thanks

[craig.anderson]

Any easy way to get the x-arcade with ball controller panel to fit an old machine like the space invaders machine in my first post?

http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/product/x-arcade-tankstick-includes-usb-cables/

the base of the arcade panel is a few inches larger from left to right and 5 inches or so deeper from front to back..

i was thinking about building little extensions sticking out from the top of the original control panel thus forming a little platform to set mount the xarcade panel on. i guess that would raise the height of the controllers a little bit as well...


just thinking

newbie here

thanks

thanks

[GiMiK]

Stupid question...can one add a new graphics card to any desktop?? ie...if i buy this same desktop again, and i want to upgrade graphics card, will i be able to? thanks

Without getting overly technical, the answer is yes you can add a new graphics card to any desktop. The only reasons you would not be able to, is if it's an ultra compact desktop, or for some reason there is no available slot. Almost every standard modern desktop will have a PCI-E 16x slot available for installing nearly any modern graphics card. You will usually see a significant performance boost over integrated graphics on anything that is even remotely drawing on graphics. Internal graphics also use a portion of your system memory, also modern versions of windows draw heavily on the graphics unless you turn a lot of settings off, causing even some older games to get better performance.

What graphics is right for you? That I will leave to members more experienced with emulation.

[Dawgz Rule]

craig, you can do much better for your money getting a pc at newegg.  I would even go so far as saying you can build one for the same amount that you will pay for that Walmart purchase and it will run circles around it.   

[paigeoliver]

Gamecube and Nintendo 64 have analog controls and shoulder buttons and many of those titles do not translate well to arcade controls. Having never emulated gamecube I am not too up on PC specs needed to do so, but all the older consoles and 98ish percent of mame was running full speed on hardware that was modern 10 years ago. My main cabinet is a $2500 scratchbuilt job and it is running an 8 year old PC and I have never saw any reason to upgrade it.

Do you need the front Space Invaders Deluxe plexiglass for that cabinet? I have one available (I have sold 3 of those cabinets in the past few months and one guy didn't want the plexi).

Space Invaders Deluxe is a pretty small control panel. I'd suggest just doing the standard Streetfighter 2 control setup and not worrying about things like trackballs, spinners or 4-way joysticks. I (and likely several other people on here), can build you a premade panel to latch up exactly to your cabinet, with all the controls on it wired up and ready to plug in.

Buy your PC last, and if you have any kind of budget then the PC is exactly the place to cut money from the budget. The difference between A PC you pick out of the trash and a high end gaming computer are minimal when it comes to emulation.

Just did a quick search on Gamecube emulation, and it doesn't really seem to be that mature yet.

[DGP]

Many GC games run just fine with Dolphin.

The 3.4 dual + Radeon 5750 combo I was using in my cab offered fully playable GC via Dolphin and the 2.8 dual I was running before that had a hiccup here and there.

My years of experience with Dolphin tells me that it does indeed use the gpu for best results and something that is 8-10 years old is simply not going to cut it.

Best of luck,
Jason