WANTED: Someone to build cocktail MAME system

[AGGIEZ]

My mother-in-law is looking to get a cocktail PacMan for her gameroom. I started searching for these on the web for her and came across a MAME website and started reading up on MAME systems. Anyways, to make a long story short, I think it would be better if she could get a cocktail MAME system that includes the PacMan ROM as well as many other games for her grandkids, nieces and nephews, etc. to play.

Does anyone here build these things for less than the $3,000 - $5,000 that Custom Arcades, JJ's, and the other custom builders charge?  

If anyone knows where I can find a MAME cocktail system for sale or if you custom build these systems for others, please let me know (and your price too). My e-mail address is cardnutt@yahoo.com and I'm in Texas.

Thanks!!!

[mozzer]

check out this auction. It might be what you're looking for?


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3271526444&category=13716

[Harakiri]

Fair price, cabinet looks nice, it's kinda sad that europe doesn't have this kinda services...  

[AGGIEZ]

mozzer, yeh I saw that auction earlier. Man I hate reserve auctions! That guys reserve price might be $4,000. Is it pretty easy for the laymen to add ROMS to a system like that? That one doesn't have PacMan and that game is a necessity. Also, I'd like to have some of the older NES games on it...

[TheTick]

Man I hate reserve auctions! That guys reserve price might be $4,000.

Did you actually look at the auction? The "Buy Now" price is $1,398.00
Common sense would dictate the reserve price is between $1,125.00 and $1,398.00.  Not bad if you're too lazy to BYOCT. Too bad, they didn't add a second control panel on the sides for older vertical games.

[eightbit]

Well dream arcades has a website and sells the cocktail cab like on the ebay auction for $1399 and they have a kit minus computer for $699. I having never heard of them before but they seem to be pretty up front with everything. The reason they only have the licensed roms they do is because they are easy ones to legally offer. Its not that hard for you to find the rest of the roms but its not legal for anyone to sell them with a cab so you will have a hard time finding them included.

If you have basic woodworking and wiring skills you could build your own. After all that what this web site is about but this company seems like a reasonable alternative for people looking for a plug and play solution.

Definately post back if you end up buying one and let us know how it turns out.

[AGGIEZ]

Tick, guess I didn't look close enough. Thanks for pointing it out.

eightbit, if by 'basic' you mean being able to connect 2 wires with a wire nut, then yeh, I can do that. I saw some of the plans to build these cabinets and the wiring diagrams scared me off. I'm not at the point yet to where I can read those things. I really would like one with the second control panel on the sides for older vertical games like Tick said as well.

How much time does it take to put one of these cabinets together? Hopefully, I can just find a plug and play system...

[mozzer]

The auction says assembly should take 30 - 45 minutes and includes detailed instructions. The $99 shipping isn't bad either.

[StephenH]

HanaHo.com sells pre-built ones!

http://www.hanaho.com/products/ArcadePC/Mega/index.html

[GroovyTuesdaY]

HanaHo.com sells pre-built ones!

http://www.hanaho.com/products/ArcadePC/Mega/index.html

Holy dog doodoo, 3999.00?? thats INSANE lmao.   SUUURRRRRE. Go for that one, its a real steal heheh

[Nannuu]

Where are you in Texas?  I'm in Fort Worth so if you need help or just a garage and tools I'd be more than happy to give a hand.  I'm just building my first two mame cabs right now for some friends so I'm no expert but it really isn't that hard, just takes time.

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=13366

I would expect a kit to be a piece of cake to knock out!  Even easier if you put in a computer monitor instead of an arcade monitor (hardware/setup wise).

[paigeoliver]

I can do a cocktail Mame in a used school desk type cocktail with 13" display, new 4-way sticks, i-pac or keywhiz encoder, used computer, all ready to go for $650. That is the price picked up. Add $60 for crating and then whatever forward air would charge to ship (should be under $100 for most destinations).

The cocktail I have "in stock" is labeled "Magical Spot", and it has nice instruction cards underneath the glass, nice overlays, the bottom cabinet art is really nice on the player one side and a bit beat up on the player 2 side. The control panel currently has 2-ways and one button, but I would swap the 2-ways for 4-ways so it could correctly play Pac-Man. I believe this cocktail would properly support about 80 games, including all the Pacs, and other favorites such as Space Invaders, Dig Dug, Mr. Do, and Galaga. Of course I would only install the games it could properly play (only vertical monitor, 4-way joystick, zero or one button games that support cocktail mode would be installed).

That price should be pretty solid, the only thing that would possibly increase it was if I had to buy a special small computer due to space issues. I don't THINK I will have to do this and could check on this before we went any further.

[AGGIEZ]

paigeoliver, your price seems great, but I am really looking for a little nicer setup than a school desk. I would like it to look like a real cocktail game.

[Wade]

I have one that I'm almost finished building that I am considering selling.  It is fully configured software-wise, the cabinet is fully wired to the original switch on the bottom.  It has a new Keywiz encoder, new translucent illuminated red buttons, and new 4-way mspacman joysticks.  It is set up in such a way that anyone could use it easily (very simple to start and exit games, etc.)

There are a couple of pictures here:
http://www.newwave.net/~flanham/wlanham/arcade/mamecocktail/index.html

My main arcade webpage is here:
http://www.newwave.net/~flanham/wlanham/arcade/

It is set up with the following games (but other games can be added easily enough):

Bagman 1982
Burger Time 1982
Carnival 1980
Dig Dug 1982
Donkey Kong 1981
Donkey Kong Junior 1982
Frogger 1981
Galaga 1981
Galaxian 1979
Mappy 1983
Mr. Do! 1982
Ms. Pac-Man 1981
Pac-Man 1980
Space Invaders 1978

All this game still needs is new artwork and I still need to refinish the legs and a few other minor cosmetic improvements.  I have had trouble deciding what artwork to give it.  I was going to give it Donkey Kong artwork since I found some good scans of that on the ne, but Pac-man or something else could be used.  I was wanting to sell this for around $700 or so, or keep it.

If you are seriously interested, I could finish the cosmetics and get you some better/more recent pictures, and an actual shipping quote.  Just reply here or to my email at wadelanham at hotmail.com.

Thanks,
Wade

[TheTick]

paigeoliver, your price seems great, but I am really looking for a little nicer setup than a school desk. I would like it to look like a real cocktail game.

 

You misunderstood him. Its not a school desk. It just has metal legs, rather than just being a cube of lumber. They are actually nicer this way... you can slide you feet/legs underneath.

[paigeoliver]

Oh yes, this is a real cocktail table. That is just a descriptive term used to show the difference between an all wood cocktail, and one with metal legs.

I don't have a photo of that exact one yet, but here is a picture of another one I own in this thread http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=15876 look for the picture of the big guy in the red shirt playing a table game.

Same basic idea, except that the Magical Spot one has artwork.

Let me know if you are interested.

[AGGIEZ]

Tick, thanks for pointing that out. It's pretty obvious that I'm new to this.


paigeoliver and Wade, those both sound interesting and the price sounds good. Can ya'll e-mail me with the specs of the computer you'd be using, the monitor, and the games that would be included? Do they have controls on both sides? Is there any way to change the controls so that they are more horizontal than vertical? Thanks for the replies!

[paigeoliver]

Well Aggiez.

When you reffered to the controls being more horizontal, were you reffering to the angle of the control panel, or the orientation of the monitor? I am going to assume you were talking about the control panel.

I COULD in theory rework the control panels so they come out and are more horizontal, but it wouldn't look as nice and would take extra work. I would have to charge extra to do it. A lot of thought was actually put into the original design of these things and they play just fine the way they are.

The monitor included would be a used 15" VGA monitor. If you wanted a brand new one, then add the current Best Buy or CompUsa price of a new 15" monitor to my quoted price. The monitor will run "decased" and will be installed in exactly the same mounting brackets as the original display. I stopped buying new monitors for projects like this though, as it is so easy to pick up a very nice 15" display used for almost nothing.

I have not purchased a computer yet, but there is a certain type of smaller Compaq I like to buy for tight installations like this. That one is usually 400 mhz, 64 RAM, and a 6 GB hard drive. That is more than double what is needed to run the software that this machine will be running. You could waste your money on a new computer for this (and if you want to, then just pick any model you would like and add the purchase price to my previous quote), but it isn't needed.

Yes the machine has control panels on both sides, and all installed games will flip back and forth so that the monitor will face the active player.

I will see if I can post the game list, give me a few minutes.

[AGGIEZ]

Paigeoliver,

What does the 400 mhz, 64 RAM, and a 6 GB hard drive PC cost? Just curious...

[Wade]

Aggiez,

I replied to your e-mail address listed in your profile, in case
you haven't checked it.

Wade

[paigeoliver]

Paigeoliver,

What does the 400 mhz, 64 RAM, and a 6 GB hard drive PC cost? Just curious...

Usually somewhere between $20 and $40 plus shipping. I have a specific model I look for because it is really compact, easy to install in the cabinet, and so far I have never had any problems with any of them.

[Brad]

You could always try this guy. He's been making and selling kits and completed units for ages now and with a decent exchnage rate the aussie dollar is good value currently $0.77 us per Aussie Dollar

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3273478258&category=3945

Brad

[Tiger-Heli]

My mother-in-law is looking to get a cocktail PacMan for her gameroom. I started searching for these on the web for her and came across a MAME website and started reading up on MAME systems. Anyways, to make a long story short, I think it would be better if she could get a cocktail MAME system that includes the PacMan ROM as well as many other games for her grandkids, nieces and nephews, etc. to play.

Does anyone here build these things for less than the $3,000 - $5,000 that Custom Arcades, JJ's, and the other custom builders charge?  

If anyone knows where I can find a MAME cocktail system for sale or if you custom build these systems for others, please let me know (and your price too). My e-mail address is cardnutt@yahoo.com and I'm in Texas.

Thanks!!!

Just started reading up on this, but,

http://www.gamecabinetsinc.com/plans.htm sells coctail table plans for about $25-30, although their finished kits are in the $3,000 range.

http://www.arcadedepot.com/HTML/kits.html sells full kits for approx $200 and lots of people here recommend them.  To this you would have to add the PC and monitor, controls, encoder, and glass (optional), so your total cost will probably be in the $600-$700 range.  http://www.gci-net.com/users/e/ekemp/ has a review of their kit.

Here are some of my favorites from the examples page if you want some ideas/inspiration.

http://www.smacksville.com/
http://cocktail.loungespot.com/gallery.html
http://www.geocities.com/grandmb_99/cocktailcab.html

Hope it helps!