Quick update on the planning / purchasing side for now.
Joysticks, buttons, an ultimarc I-PAC Ultimate I/O, wiring for 4 players, and wiring for my 32 planned LED buttons are on the way.
I won't know what wiring is included (or required) for the joysticks until they arrive. Surprise!
The buttons are convex transparent with transparent surrounds. I will probably buy inserts for coin and player selections and I plan to black out the tops of the buttons to give a look similar to Chance's machine or the Pathway Zelda 4p machine. I like the look of coloured rings more than fully lit buttons.
I tested the latency on my 2006 LCD 32" using the HDMI output on my Alienware laptop. I mirrored the same image to both screens and used online-stopwatch and my camera to capture a shot of the difference between them. The TV had 33ms higher latency than the laptop's own screen.
(I originally misinterpreted this as better, thinking lower number meant lower latency - the monitor was actually 33 ms ahead of the TV)
I've seen the TV's latency listed at 8ms, so I'm hoping this was an issue with dual outputs that will be faster with a dedicated computer.
I downloaded Chance's plans for a 4 player machine since it seems to have worked well for a
32" TV build hereI really love the look of Chance's "Flynn's Arcade" machine so I will probably shamelessly 'borrow' some of his design for use in my own. Chance, you're a generous dude sharing plans for such a great cab.
Edit: I moved recently so I don't have an old PC to use in this machine; As a result, I'll probably have to buy new parts. The plus side is that this machine should be able to run modern games. I plan to host a weekly arcade night so being able to run modern titles is a bit of a no-brainer.
I'm looking at the following as a basis for the computer.
i5 (3.5ghz or higher)
8 gigs of RAM
nVidia 1050 (900's are power hungry for what they do and have coil whine)
Small SSD for the OS
2TB 7200 spin for the ROMS, videos, and CHD's
Power supply.
I'm not sure whether to stick with an ATX motherboard or if there's an advantage to using a smaller mobo.
If any of these components are over (or under) kill, please let me know! I know this system would be overkill for MAME.