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Anyone paid for cab plans, worth it?
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Zathras:
I bought the UAI plans but after looking at all the changes I would have to make that I wanted decided to go with a Lusid cab.

The plans were nice and who knows I may build one one day.
nipsmg:
I think that the type of cabinet you build should be based on many different factors:
Skill, amount of cash to spend, space, games intended to be played, personal tastes.

Many people really want the "classic" feel, so they replicate or mod a classic cabinet.  Classic cabs, however, tend to be smaller, and have little to no room to put controls.  I, personally, would rather have a classic dedicated cab, and a big beast of a MAME cab, but that's just me.. :-D  I've seen people who have multiple cabinets: One for vertical, one for horizonal, one for classic, etc..

Personally, I don't have the $$ or the space to sink into multiple cabinets/multiple PC's to run them.  I wanted to be able to play pretty much EVERYTHING (thus I went with the UAII with a custom CP design),
which is easily detachable/swappable. All signs pointed to the Ultimate Arcade II. :-D

Not like I even came close to staying on budget.. (had to get REAL glass (smoked/tempered), had to get more controls, had to get really good speakers, just HAD to have the 27" monitor, etc etc etc) ;D

--NipsMG
anthonylitz:
Thanks alot for that great feedback.  This most be a huge community to get all those responses so soon!  I have to say I am going to get the plans now, not the template ones though, I think I can meassure :)  
On the topic of the look of it, I like it.  It reminds me of the first Neo-Geo machines I used (the real ones with the memory card slots), It's "neo".  I  actaully like the idea of 2 pieces not for looks but moving, I am 25 so will probably move it once or twice too.
I just had to hear some real info on these plans though, they look good on the website and their review is excellent.  But it seemed fishy that multiple sites sold the same plans, but since a few of you guys already got them, I trust them now.
thanks,
Anthony
ThePaul:
Not trying to be snotty here (really), but if you have the ability to get MAME running on a PC, get ROMs running, set up a front end, config the games, install the keyboard encoder, plan a CP, order buttons, trackballs, joys, wire them all up .. and most of all you can see yourself actually making an arcade machine... don't you think you can sit down with a pencil and paper (and all the info available for free on this website) and figure out the deminsions of the different pieces of wood that go into building a cab?

The little extra effort and ability to say "I made that all by myself from scratch" makes it worth NOT buying plans to me... the money isn't even the real issue.
krick:
I didn't see anyone propose the other option...

Buy an old machine and MAME (not maim) it.

If you go to an amusement auction, there's always a bunch of cabs to choose from.  And they are usually really well constructed.  Far better construction than I could possibly do even if I did go out and drop several hundred dollars on tools.

The trick is to pick machines at the auction that aren't desirable games.  I had my eye on a Simpsons 4 player machine with a cab design very similar to mine.  It ended selling for $750 even though the cab was really beat up.  Heck, half of the control panel overlay was ripped off down to bare wood.

I set my sights on a few different cabinets and ended walking away with mine for $220...



I'm already begun converting it to a MAME machine.

It was made in 1992, it has a huge control panel (great for MAME), the monitor is perfect, and I plan on selling the Capcom System II A board and GigaWing B board on eBay to recoup some of what I spent.

I suppose things would be different if I had access to a wood shop or knew someone who made kitchen cabinets for a living or something.  Then I'd definitely build my own.

Just my $0.02 cents.
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