Ok guys, While I'm a little behind on getting the post started, I have decided to take the plunge and build my first cabinet from the ground up.
After a month or so of reading through the forums, and thinking about likes/ dislikes, and features I wanted to incorporate, I started to lay things out.
I'm a CAD designer by trade, so I did my design in Inventor.
As it turns out, picking a theme for a cabinet is incredibly difficult lol, but I decided to go with a Houston Astros themed cab.
I looked at several cabinets others had done, and there are some pretty amazing builds out there, but nothing quite fit all the options I wanted, so I decided to start from scratch. Some of the things I wanted were:
1) 4 player capability
2) Ability to maximize the number of playable games (Easily accessible usb ports for controllers)
3) Storage for existing gaming consoles we already have
4) Light guns with recoil
5) Storage for controllers, etc
6) Ability to easily switch from the arcade pc, to gaming consoles
7) Ability to turn recoil on/off easily
Ability to have sound through headphones instead of speakers
As I get further along, I will go into detail into specifics, and will try to post updates as often as possible. I've been working a lot lately, so for now I've been limited to a couple of hours per day after work, so progress has been kind of slow. I took on what I think is a semi-ambitious build for my first attempt, and there are some concerns I haven't even addressed yet, as I have never even installed mame on a machine before.
I would like to thank those who have contributed to the forums and answered questions. It's been really helpful so far, and have provided a ton of help getting me started and inspiring ideas.
Andy at Ultimarc was particularly helpful when selecting components. I emailed him a button layout with the joysticks I thought I wanted, as well as the I/O interfaces I thought required. He offered some better alternatives, saved me some headaches and money, and his products were delivered quickly. I'm excited to get past the woodworking stage and on to setup/ troubleshooting because the components already look awesome just sitting in boxes
I'll be posting pictures soon of my design, and progress to date.