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First Timer: Advice Welcomed
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HanoiBoi:
I strongly believe that your first step should be the pc and wiring stuff.  You should install and configure MAME and a front end on a computer.  No sense going all out on building a cab if you don't have the PC side down.

Along with this, I too think you should then build a control panel.  Not a final one, just one that'll will connect to your PC and have you playing MAME.  You'll be able to mount a joystick and buttons and learn the wiring.  You'll probably want a joystick, several buttons, a keyboard encoder and wiring.

Next step, before futher locking in on a 4 player cab is to go ahead and post that Craigslist ad seeking your fighter, cleric, thief, etc now.  Test the waters while you have time.  If you don't have willing participants to answer the ad, perhaps you'll reconsider the 4 player cab.

Your wife okayed your budget, but what is your budget?  Building it all from scratch can be more than you might expect, especially if you have no tools.  Do you feel confident that you can do what you want within budget?
Generic Eric:

--- Quote from: Generic Eric on June 04, 2014, 08:12:09 pm ---I'll echo the suggestions on the FAQ, search and the wiki

I have a few suggestions.  Try something like mameui and play a few games with your keyboard.  I know its not the same, but it will give you an idea of what game you might be interested in.

In other posts, I suggest making a fight stick or 2.   As a second project, I'd suggest a pedestal.  They are good for 4 players or an arcade of joysticks and buttons.  This will give you good practice for your layout.

The prime challenge with a bartop is building around the PC, monitor, encoders and joysticks and buttons.  You might be interested in a mini or micro itx board for something like that. 

My biggest suggestion is not to worry about art until you have chosen a front end.   

There is a chance to expand your horizons in a number of ways from woodworking, learning gimp & inkscape along with sketchup to setting up a variety of different front ends.  You may even learn how to program a teensy 3.1!

In the end, it may just be a game of boxes

--- End quote ---


I deleted a few words from the quote, but I think it holds in your case too.

Know your budget.
Start small. 
Find a computer to use for this.
Find mame
Know mame, be mame
Pick your games
Choose an encoder
Buy your sticks and buttons

There is a lot to do before you need to consider build. 

There is no wrong way to do this if you are building from scratch.  Just quicker ways.  If you think my line of thinking is right for you, let me know and I'd be happy to share my opinions and give advice. 

Either way, Best of luck!  There is a lot of fun to be had here.
Slugworth:

--- Quote from: HanoiBoi on August 26, 2014, 10:28:21 pm ---I strongly believe that your first step should be the pc and wiring stuff.  You should install and configure MAME and a front end on a computer.  No sense going all out on building a cab if you don't have the PC side down.

Along with this, I too think you should then build a control panel.  Not a final one, just one that'll will connect to your PC and have you playing MAME.  You'll be able to mount a joystick and buttons and learn the wiring.  You'll probably want a joystick, several buttons, a keyboard encoder and wiring.

Next step, before futher locking in on a 4 player cab is to go ahead and post that Craigslist ad seeking your fighter, cleric, thief, etc now.  Test the waters while you have time.  If you don't have willing participants to answer the ad, perhaps you'll reconsider the 4 player cab.

Your wife okayed your budget, but what is your budget?  Building it all from scratch can be more than you might expect, especially if you have no tools.  Do you feel confident that you can do what you want within budget?

--- End quote ---

I'm not concerned about finding people to play with... I've got a wife and three young kids always clamoring to play with me and  I'm sure between us and their friends we will have at least a few occasions to fire up all the joysticks throughout the life of the machine.  I'll give the CP a go first, I like that idea.  Then I can hook it up to my current computer to make sure I can manage that side Of things.  Money shouldn't be an issue (she was actually okay with me buying one of the prebuilt machines for $3.5k, but I was too cheap to pull the trigger).

Not a bad suggestion to do the computer stuff first, but between the wiring, computer, and monitor I'm guessing that will represent the majority of the cost, so I'd like to get the cabinet done first  so if for some reason this doesn't work out (or if I accidentally saw off one of my digits) I won't be out too much.
AzureKnight:

If you are looking to avoid a wood grain look another option is MDO.  I know a it isn't available everywhere but I was lucky enough to have a hardwood supplier near me that keeps it in stock (I happen to live in Buffalo, NY the home of ICE Games so the local supplier has it on hand for them).

It is a quality plywood that is paper coated like MDF.  So you get the solid foundation of plywood, no risk of crumbling or the heavy weight of MDF, the paper overlay for finish and because the stuff is designed to build outdoor billboards it is also water resistant.

It also is expensive....

I'm in the process of building my cabinet now with MDO and I am very happy so far.
dkersten:
MDO is great, but yeah, kinda spendy and hard to come by.  If you can find a place with Baltic birch, they probably carry some MDO too.

Funny thing about building your own cab, you can do it for a few hundred or for a few thousand, and it can get away from you FAST.  You might look at $30 joysticks and $3 buttons and think there is no way this will cost a lot, might as well go big, and next thing you know you have $900 in your control panel alone, and still want to add lightguns and gas pedals..

I know from experience that once I had in mind to do this, I was going to do it regardless of the advice, so I didn't stop to play games to see what I REALLY wanted (I wanted it all).  But in hindsight, the advice is solid: mock something up and play games with it.  Functionally, my 4 player cab works well because I did a fair bit of research and didn't add a kitchen sink and four tron controllers, and it DOES get used, even the P3 and P4 stuff.  But aesthetically, I kind of wish I had done something far more reserved and super clean.

If you aren't in a rush to get started on construction, spend some time figuring out what games you want.  Spend 10 minutes on each game you come across and if you still want to play after 10 minutes, add it to the list.  Then after 3 or 4 hours of doing that (when you are only 5% of the way through the list of total games out there), go back and play each one you chose to keep for 5 minutes each.  If you can do that without quitting and STILL like it, then keep it.  I would bet you will have less than 100 games if you took the time to go through the ~10k games you COULD put on your cab.  And even then, I will be surprised if in the first year you play more than 30 of them.

Most people want an arcade for all the reasons OTHER than to play it every day.  Nothing wrong with that, it's just that you can save a lot of money if you recognize exactly how much you really will play it (and hence what controls you actually need). 

I will leave you with this:  Building or buying an arcade is like buying a boat.  If you already LOVE boating and do it every chance you get with your friends, then owning your own boat will probably pay some great dividends for you.  But if you have boated and really like it but haven't gone for a few years, buying one isn't going to get you to love it like you might think it will.  Sure, the first year you will go every weekend, but then it will be a chore, and other things will be more interesting.  Don't buy the boat of you don't already love the water.. And the only way to know is to try it, and try it, and try it, and try it, and if you STILL like it, THEN you should invest.
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