Going to take the plunge and build full mame arcade cabinet

[h20123]

Hello, first post for me but researched mame for sometime. For a number of years I've wanted to take the plunge and build a full mame arcade cabinet and decdied now is the time. I've read project arcade a while back and tinkered around with modding an xbox.

I've done quite a bit of research and am looking to build a 2 person upright cab, ~lcd screen, custom controls and a slim cab. As far as actual woodworking that's not an issue, I manage a construction company so I can have actual carpenters build the cabinet. I think what I would like to do is rather than use mdf board I would have it constructed out of pine board or something with a wood grain and put a clear stain on it like a piece of actual furniture. What I don't have are plans, can anyone point me in the direction of suitable slim cabinet plans I could modify for this project?

Also I know most mame games do not need high end processing power, I have an old gaming pc from about 2010 with a pentium 4 3.2 ghz, 1 gig ram and a 128bit video card. Do you think this is enough power to run just about any mame game smoothly, or do I need to buy something faster? My plan is to buy a multi TB meme hard drive and get mame up and running on the computer. Then once that is sorted out start construction on the cabinet

[voltz]

I think the hardware is certainly good enough, but when it comes to some of the 3D games like Model 3, I'm thinking I'd add a graphics card that is under par with today's standards, but quite capable of keeping up (and cheap).

Since you mentioned the workers being carpenters, do you think to build one for the work place?   

[paigeoliver]

My cabinet still has a PC from 2001 in it. It rocks out, just don't try to use the current mame version. I think I have .106 on it.

My only suggestion is to go CRT. There is no LCD option that is better than the bottom basement crt solutions. I have 23 crts in my basement and about 40 spares hoarded and I haven't needed a spare yet in 16 years.

[ZoOl007]

I have 23 crts in my basement and about 40 spares hoarded and I haven't needed a spare yet in 16 years.

  wow... 23... I've got 3 scart crt's

[yamatetsu]

For slim cab plans, you might take a look at http://koenigs.dk/mame/eng/index.htm. He has plans for two slim cabs, my favorite is the Taitorama, a slim version of a Taito cab.

[Mike A]

I agree with paigeoliover. CRT is the way to go. I dove into this hobby head first about 2 years ago. I have 10 dedicated machines and one MAME machine. They are all CRT. I had to cap a couple of them when I bought them. None of them have developed any problems since I have owned them. I have 5 arcade CRTs in my basement as spares or future projects. CRTs just "feel" better in addition to looking better. I run a small distribution warehouse as a profession. I went to U of I for premed before I left to take over the family business. I have no formal electrical, carpentry, or computer science background. This stuff isn't terribly difficult to learn (so far).

[rackoon]

Knock 17" off the height so you can play sitting in a chair   The community will love you 

[yotsuya]

Knock 17" off the height so you can play sitting in a chair   The community will love you