Anyone MAME'd this cabinet before?

[acasualtourist]

Hello,

  I just picked up a Prize-Zone cabinet cheap(free). It is just the cabinet, coin door, controls, glass, bezel and marquee.  Has anyone MAME'd one of these cabinets before?  Just looking for any hints, ideas or just bold-faced lies...

[mahuti]

<boldface=lie>I mame at least 5 of those a day. More if I'm not careful.</boldface=lie>

Here's a few tips... go nuts, have fun, take a look at the examples section, measure twice, cut once.


You'll be maming like a pro in no time.

[paigeoliver]

Well it looks like it already has a trackball, so I would go with that and make it a trackball Mame cabinet.

[Harakiri]

Quite generous offer for a cab with coin door and a trackball! Can't give ya hints sorry, good luck!  

[Stingray]

Looks like you could squeeze in a joystick and a few buttons without too much trouble. It'll make a nice one!

-S

[Sephroth57]

well it depends what you wanna do, you could probably put a joystick to the left of the Tball and put buttons to the right, so itd be a 1 player cab only but youll have trackball and joystick with  a full button layout.

or you could take that CP off and build a bigger one to sink in, thats probably what im going to do im getting a robocop cab and the CP is almost the same shape are yours, and its not big enough for the controls i wanna put in

[mushmouth]

Call me crazy, but that CP looks to be just about the perfect shape/mold for turning it into a 3-in-1 rotating CP, ala http://www.1uparcade.com

That's what I'd do with it.

[acasualtourist]

I'll have to call you crazy Mushmouth.    It's not a full sized cabinet    It's only 5' 2" (hope I got the ' & " right).  And there is no where near enough clearance between the control panel and the screen.  But that would be cool to try on a full size cab.  I think I'm gonna remove the trackball and build a new control panel for it.  The trackball doesn't seem real smooth to the roll so it's gone.  I think I'm going to go for the standard 2 player, 6 button each controller set up, but nothing is set in stone...

[Auntie MAME]

Take the trackball apart, a little cleaning is all they usually need.  I'd go for the one player/trackballl configuration.  Missle Command/Centipede ain't the same w/o a trackball.

[paigeoliver]

Just add a joystick to that panel, believe me, you are not gonna properly reproduce a curved metal control panel like that.

[Stingray]

believe me, you are not gonna properly reproduce a curved metal control panel like that.

You're possibly right, curves are trickier than angled bends, but it can be done.

-S

[gnateye]

its pretty easy to take out that control panel and build yourself a whole new panel, with a keyboard drawer underneath, then you can make switchable panels out of wood and have your 2 player joystick setup on one and trackball on another and you can always make more panels as you buy new controls(spinner, tron, etc). this is the method i have used twice now with older cabs, works like a charm and is always reversible when you want to change/refurb the cab. and it makes for nice clean uncluttered control panels. you can pics of one of these cabs on my site ( http://www.cosmicbreaks.com/arcade ) i should have some pics of the newest one in the next few days.

[Superdude]

The arcade monitor on that cab is Medium.  It doesn't look like a standard one.  Alot of people will say that Medium Rez monitors are no good for Mame.  Personally I think thats BS, I use a Medium rez one for Mame and like it alot better.  If you need help with configuring it let me know.

[acasualtourist]

Thanks for all the advice.  I think I'm going to go with a control panel like gnateye's version 2.  The cabinet didn't come w/ the monitor, so I'm going to use my old computer monitor, a 19" old, old beast.