Cabinet questions

[ekinskofer]

Hi guys,

Been looking at this forum for a long time, however, I never had a cabinet.. until now. I acquired a cabinet from my cousin who was downsizing and needed this out of his basement. The cabinet had to be taken down to get it out of his house as it's a CRT build, I think that it's a kit of some sort, but I can't find any info on it anywhere about brand. Any idea if this was a common brand or kit? I believe it was acquired around 2000-2001.

How do I make a flip arcade controls top with what I have here? what do people recommend as hinges? I've seen some people use rope/chains as to stop the control top when it reaches 90. I couldn't find any instructions or links on this forum, can someone help me out please? see images below.

Regarding the cabinet, I'm wondering why there are notches (half circles) cut out at the start of the control support box? See the "lift" pic below.

Also, this cabinet comes with the first gen ipac ps/2 and optipac controllers that output to ps/2. Should I use these or think about upgrading to a newer version of these. The computer that this cab came with is a 10+ AMD 3000 that I haven't fired up yet.. I'll likely need to upgrade this computer or go Raspberry PI.

thanks for the help. I'm just at the start of my journey here, but can't wait to play this.

cheers.
Eric

[Slippyblade]

No pics attached, try again.

[ekinskofer]

Pics are waiting on approval, sorry about that.

[PL1]

Pics are waiting on approval

Pics approved.  Sorry about the delay.   


Scott

[ekinskofer]

No problem. Thanks! 

[paigeoliver]

That probably isn't the original control panel. The notch probably matched up with the original one.

[wp34]

Is there a part number on that monitor?  It almost looks like a Wells Gardner D9XXX model.  X-Arcade used to sell those with their cabinets and they are a very good monitor for MAME.

what do people recommend as hinges? I've seen some people use rope/chains as to stop the control top when it reaches 90. I couldn't find any instructions or links on this forum, can someone help me out please? see images below.

I'd probably use a piano hinge to secure that CP.

[Slippyblade]

Those notches are most likely compensation for a CNC cut.  A CNC bit can't make sharp angles, so they will design in cuts like that to make it easier and smoother to manufacture.

[ekinskofer]

Thanks for the responses. Based on my hunting around it looks like the piano hinge as you suggested or a euro style cabinet install is the preferred method. Thanks for the response.

The monitor is a Wells Gardner 27D9202. Seems to be functional, I have to do some testing on it.

Bummer about the CNC cut as it takes away from the general look, I guess I could bondo it if I really wanted.. not worth the time I think.

Thanks for the replies guys. cheers.

[wp34]

Since your monitor is a D9200 you may want to give GroovyMame a look.  It allows you to play the games in their native resolution.

[ekinskofer]

Thanks for the help and tips.

This cabinet came with a PC that I think might be too outdated for it. Specs are:

AMD 3000 (I think it's 2GHZ)
1Gig ram
500GB HDD.

It has a preloaded Mame frontend with a really old version of Mame on it that's been ok, but it's not good for the kids as the mame titles are cryptic, i.e. TMNT2P2U. I'm also finding that a lot of the ROM's are broken and don't work.

Honestly, I'm actually a little overwhelmed with the information and the options, frontends, emulators, etc. I'd like to get as close to true native resolution as possible. Should I grab another HDD and then install the GroovyArcade Live CD? I'm comfortable with linux and would like to squeeze some extra performance out of this dinosaur.. or should I just just kill this and start looking for some cheaper/better hardware? Raspberry PI?

I've seen some articles that mention that newer versions of mame require more horsepower, including the mame main website. I thought this article was good also:

http://wavebeam.blogspot.ca/2016/02/the-groovycube-diy-console-that-plays.html

Please point me in the right direction. Thanks so much.

cheers.
Eric

[paigeoliver]

That PC is more than powerful enough to run mame .55 or .78, a pi would be a direct downgrade from that pc.

[keilmillerjr]

 Build a pc for a few hundred bucks and look into GroovyMAME. Have fun with the build/setup. Keep the encoders. Horay for crt! Don’t let anyone talk you into an lcd swap.

[Osirus23]

Horay for crt! Don’t let anyone talk you into an lcd swap.

This. Use CRTs while you can.

[ekinskofer]

There's wo way I'd ever let someone talk me into the lcd. My 7 and 9 year old are going to learn and experience retro games the right way. Worry not! Love the colors on this thing.

As for the PC. I will have to keep this one going, while I source out some parts for a new build. Are there any front end recommendations that would work well with my current PC setup? Its currently running on xp and mGalaxy as the front end, which I'm not a huge fan of. I'll keep digging researching in the meantime.

Thanks all. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

Prices are dirt cheap for AMD processors.  I picked up a Ryzen 1800x  for my editing rig for $279.  It's way overkill for MAME but just pointing out how cheap the best processor is.  You can probably get a $100 AMD Ryzen 3 (it's quad core) and it will run just fine.  The new Ryzen 2 processors come out next week so the 1st generation prices will be even cheaper.  Memory though, that's another story.  But graphics-wise you can pick up a cheap $20 ATI HD series card for GroovyMAME and it will run everything you throw at it.

My advice, hold off and wait for prices to be even cheaper once the Ryzen 2's come out.  In the meantime, you can always toss emulation station onto your old PC.  It's pretty easy to do.  ETA Prime did a video on it here: 

DeL