First Timer

[3eyez]

Hello im 15,M, From australia and recently discoverd this site while reading the latest pcworld when they had an article about making your own cabnits! This was an eye opener for me as ive only ever played my MAME games on an old PC sitting in my room.

Ive already done searches and read the newbie FAQ so if I missed something im asking please no flaming  


1. I was looking at alot of your personal made cabinets on the the site and looking threw everyones diagrams alot of them are mostly complicated or not layed out well, I would like to know what cabinet is the most simplist and easyest to build. (And does anyone have any links or diagrams?)

2. Buying a cabinet, It seems you can find them in alot of places in America but none in Australia! So if anyone from australia in here has any ideas where I can buy an old gutted cabinet in NSW please let me know.

Thanks I hope you can understand me not the greatest at english I speak czech.

[paigeoliver]

Leisure and Allied "Lowboy" style cabs are very common in Australia, try checking ebay.au, and you can also try placing a wanted to buy ad in the local paper.

Or, an even quicker solution (this works everywhere too, not just Au), open your local paper and look for the wanted to buy ads for arcade games and pinball machines (every paper in my area has at least a half dozen every week), and call them and tell them you want to buy an empty cabinet, you can probably find one easier that way then you can sniffing around operators.

[3eyez]

I checked ebay and couldent find anything but I picked up the Trading Post today and found a few arcade sales places and I will ring them in the morning about finding an old cab


Thankyou for your help.

[Apollo]

Best way to get started in Oz or NZ ( I'm in NZ ) is to give your local arcade parlour a call and ask them who does the servicing for their machines 9 times out of 10 this guy ( or gal ) will have a garage full of gutted cabs. I picked up my first cab with marquee, bezel, monitor glass and coin mechs for $50NZ, good deal. The same guy could also fix me up with a 19" arcade monitor for a further $200NZ also a good deal.

[the3eyedblindman]

Hello 3 eyez,

Just want to say I am also 15 and a first timer and have been researching the site for quite some time now and have also bought the book "Project Arcade". I have already built most of my Pc for the cab and have boughten a 19 inch tv to put in it. I have some advice for you.

1. If you don't want to spend much money on your cab and can aquire a set of powertools, use particle board, its one of the cheapest woods, and primed a few times and painted a few times, you cant even tell its particle board.

2. You are not supposed to request roms on this site,  <nuff said --- saint>

3. When  posting on this site, ask specific questions at a time instead of a bunch in one post, I found that this will give you more detailed replies and answers.

4. Alot of times when looking at other peoples example pages they will have links with the measurements for their cabinets. just go to the examples page at this site.

5. Use ebay, You can find great deals on parts,

Hope I could help for now, The3eyedblindman