Advice needed on a build (not mine)

[myntik1]

I got a call earlier today from my buddy.  His company is interested in a pedestal mame cabinet for their office.  15 years ago I started off as a mame guy but since then I have gone the dedicated route.  I'm unsure of what the best encoder, joysticks etc for their project.  An advice you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

They are looking to build a pedestal with 4 sticks and an illuminated trackball.

I figure at least 1 of the sticks needs to be easily switchable to a 4 way stick for pac type games.

What are decent sticks?
Do they need an optipac and another encoder?
Is there a trackball that plugs directly into a usb port?

If you can hit me with a shopping list I would be pleased as punch.

edit - the games they mentioned they would like to play are Ms. Pac, Galaga, Turtles in Time, X-Men and KOF

[yotsuya]

Advice - find out up front what the support expectations are going to be.

[Frank Drebin]

I've got nothing but good things to say about Andy at Ultimarc.  Email him and he'll help you build a list.  He carries everything you need and it all fits together nicely.

[Slippyblade]

Advice - find out up front what the support expectations are going to be.

This.  Oh god, this.

[myntik1]

This is the setup they have decided on.

Before they pull the trigger on this, any input:

4x Ultrastick 360
31x classic HAPP pushbuttons
4x Wiring harness for Ultrasticks
4x start buttons
Spade Connectors for wiring harnesses
U-TRAK flush mount trackball with USB option

[romshark]

31x classic HAPP pushbuttons

What is the layout you're planning on? 4 player games only need 3, maybe 4 max buttons each. Personally, I'd go with the two controls in the center "Street Fighter" style (6 buttons each), and the ones on the far left and right 3 or 4 buttons. Also, don't add buttons that are specifically for the trackball. Just map the buttons on the nearby joysticks for the trackball games (assuming you're just using MAME for games. Other games or emulators might require "real" mouse buttons [the ones on the trackball harness]).

On the other hand, you'll need these buttons for other functions too. I doubt a coin door is going to be used, so buttons for "coin up" for each player is needed. You'll probably want some admin buttons too. At least a pause button for an office environment. Maybe a quit button too (try not to have these on top of the control panel. Maybe on the side of the control panel or something.)

[ppv]

Advice - find out up front what the support expectations are going to be.

This.  Oh god, this.

Thrided... That is why I never do tech support for pc unless it's my immediate family. Some people will hound you for every little problem they have under the sun, be them thinly linked to the service you procured...

[aldub516]

when i sell any of my machines, i have a lengthy " disclaimer" about maintenance and support.. This would be the part regarding support.. Note this is usually part of my sales posts on social media and such, where its mostly friends or people that know me, so my humor is always mixed in. Truth is, 90% of the people that want to buy or pay me to build something are friends and can lure me over with a doob and a cheeseburger for some repairs. With that being said, so far all of my builds for people have been running for years with no problem. The one issue i got was the screen resolution on windows randomly rotated itself one day... and my uncle called me at 2 am drunk, trying to show his buddy... and somehow took him 15 minutes to simply right click on the desktop, and change the resolution right in the dropdown menu.. the rotated screen turned my uncle and his friend into apes.

on to my random disclaimer, for humor

"I would prefer to sell this to someone who has atleast SOME computer/emulation knowledge. Mame/arcade systems are PC based, and as everyone knows, PCS dont ALWAYS do what they are supposed to. And while all of my systems are completely stable and smooth, i dont want people calling me because they pulled the hdmi plug out, or something froze up and they dont know the basics of windows to get out of an issue. I stand behind my product 100% and will offer trouble shooting and maintenance to an extent for 60 days. If your baby pees in the machine, thats on you tho.
With that being said, Here is a note about emulation. There is a massive community that over the years, has been able to reproduce and emulate classic games of all kinds to play on pc. That is thousands upon thousands of games, dumped and reprogrammed one by one from original games. While 99.9% of the games you will ever play work without issues, there will be some games that do not operate perfectly, or at all. This is simply a limitation of the ever progressing emulation community.  As i said, if u have a tiny bit of emulation knowledge, yer good.... you only know about 10 games anyway...
Im more than sure one of my friends will end up buying this, so the endless disclaimers are probably pointless. But it has to be said anyways, right? If i like you, come over and play it/try it. If i dont, you suck.