Planning my first arcade cabinet. Feedback would be welcome.

[vickvega82]

Just to preface ive got no experience with a MAME and until about 2 weeks ago had never even heard of one.  I was scoping out listings for used arcade games for my man cave and saw an add for some one selling a mame and was immediately interested in the idea.  So needless to say I have zero experience with building a mame.  But i do have the desire and a fair amount of the know how.

so for starters the cabinet.  Im a carpenter by trade so building the cabinet is the one area that I feel very confident.  Im thinking of using an LCD/LED monitor instead of a classic tube so the caninet im thing of would have a low profile depth.  I found a detailed design of someone who did what im thinking her

http://www.lightscamerahome.com/lcd_mame_cabinet_1.html

i really like the classic loom of the cabinet but i dont have such a desire for nostalgia that i want to use and old outdated tube.  Plus if i want to some day connect a modern style console id like to have a monitor to handle it.

For controls im probably going to use the x arcade tank stick.  Where im totaly new to this i think i need to inject some simplicity into my design and the tank stick seems to have good reviews and be fairly plug and play.  And down the road i can always make custom controls if i desire.

here is where i need some help from seasoned mame vets. 

A) Hardware - im looking at using a 24" computer monitor.  I think that width will jive with the tank stick width fairly well and be reasonably cheap.  But how much computer do i need.  Realisticaly the most modern arcade game im going to try to run would be like area 51 so i wouldnt think i need alot of power but i dont know.  I was hoping i could get a fairly barebones system and just get a basic video card w/ an hdmi port and be good to go.  So id love some advice on that.

B) software - this is where as far as mame goes im totally ignorant.  Is their a specific version of windows i should be shooti g for,  what should i use for emulation, what do i want to make this feel like a pro setup, etc.  The tank stick comes with free maximus arcade software, is that any good or something i need?  Any details on the setup of a mame system would help me a ton.

Thx in advance

[Slippyblade]

The fact that the first game you mentioned is a gun game makes me think you might be in for a few surprises.  Using an LCD for a display makes gun games...  interesting.  The tech is totally different between CRT guns and LCD's.  You will need something like the Aimtraks or other gun styles that use an LED bar on the display.

Maximus is fine.  There are a BUNCH of different front ends out there.  Hyperspin, Mala, Maximus, GameEx, etc...  Some are free, some cost.  All a front end does is display what games you have in some form of list and then it calls MAME or other emulator with the correct info.  They all do effectively the same thing with various levels of bells and whistles.  Your windows version doesn't make much difference as long as there are drivers for whatever hardware you are gonna use.  A lot of folks around here still use XP for their machines since it is so mature and has a relatively small footprint.  I've used XP, Win7, and Win8 with no problems.  (Though I HATE Win8 - but for other reasons)

As far as MAME version, just make sure you match your ROMS to your MAME version.  I use .149 in my setups.

[vickvega82]

Ya the area 51 thing was really just meant as a benchmark of sorts for the high end of what ill be looking to run.  I had actualy looked specificaly at the Aimtraks and thought that integrating that would be the high end goal of my arcade.  I also thought windows xp would be optimal and windows 7 would be fine but in my mind 8 was right out. 

But ya the area 51 reference was really just to give an idea of the high end im looking to run.  In all reality im mostly going to be running alot of games in the realm of NBA Jam or Golden Axe etc. and wasnt sure how much c8mputer i needed to accomplish that

[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.   

[vickvega82]

That was exactly why i wanted to do some extensive information gathering.  I cant imagine something sucking more then getting $1000 into a cabinet and 200 hours and not liking the end result.  My initial plan is to use games that are in the style of sega and snes t7me period.  I thought if i was in that range to start id have similar button configs, similar graffics, and play style etc.  And if i liked how it ran that i could go from there.

[keilmillerjr]

Ya the area 51 thing was really just meant as a benchmark of sorts for the high end of what ill be looking to run.  I had actualy looked specificaly at the Aimtraks and thought that integrating that would be the high end goal of my arcade.  I also thought windows xp would be optimal and windows 7 would be fine but in my mind 8 was right out. 

But ya the area 51 reference was really just to give an idea of the high end im looking to run.  In all reality im mostly going to be running alot of games in the realm of NBA Jam or Golden Axe etc. and wasnt sure how much c8mputer i needed to accomplish that

Don't shoot down windows 8 before trying it. It was the fastest version of windows (XP and up) in my speed tests, and I have stuck with it for my mame machine.

If I wasn't interested in running some steam games that are winblows only, I'd install linux. Attract-Mode front end runs on windows, linux, and mac. You should check it out.

[vickvega82]

My windows preference are really just based more on familiarity and then actual performance. I really just don't have that much experience with windows 8 but if its going to run the mame better ill give it a look.  I probably wouldn't go with Linux just because I have zero experience with it.

also does any one have any hardware recommendations. I'm trying to keep it within a budget so I don't want to have to run something far more powerful than need be

[Cynicaster]

If you can build a cabinet, then you can build a control panel.  I'd strongly recommend you not settle for an X-Arcade.

The X isn't a bad product, it's just that I've never seen it integrated into a cabinet without it having all the subtlety and aesthetic appeal of a bad toupee. 

I bought one myself just recently, to use as a "secondary" MAME rig in my garage, but I mounted it onto a pedestal that I was able to build in one afternoon, so it's not nearly the same thing as what you're talking about undertaking. 

Sounds to me like you don't really need a trackball--just go with 1- and 2-player 8-way sticks, each with 6 buttons (since you said "SNES time period" I'm assuming you want to play Street Fighter 2 and the like, so you'll need all those buttons). 

As for PC, I'm running an older dual-core 64bit AMD machine on Win7 with 2 GB RAM, and it runs everything I've thrown at it so far.