New cabinet Update. (3 pics)

[Locut0s]

A few days ago I posted a thread about building my first mame cabinet and asking a question about the leaf switches it came with. I also posted a number of pictures with it, probably too many pictures actually. Anyway I thought I'd post an update as a number of things have happened today. First I got my IPac in the mail this morning!!! WOW that was fast! They really do mean 3 days shipping, and that's from London! So I set to work on my newly cleaned out cab, no longer smells like dust and mold. I went out and bought 4 rubber washers to mount the IPac to the cab under the metal control panel. Then I set about the dubious task of correcting some of the bad wiring, removing wires where they were too short, adding some where they were missing etc.. I say dubious since I've soldered lets see a total of maybe 2 times in my life. Anyway things went relatively smoothly, don't look too closely at the atrocious soldering though . Actually the truth is I realized I didn't have the correct type of solder, or at least I don't think its the correct type. This is thick solder, and 60% lead, probably used for soldering pipes not electrical stuff. So I improvised and just melted the existing solder that was already on the connectors. I know some may be gasping at this but I really just wanted to get it up and working to test things out. I'll do a proper soldering job later once every thing's 100% settled out. Anyway after some soldering, stripping, cutting, and connecting I had all the player 1 controls hooked up and coin1 and start1 ! Then came the fun part. Let there be light! I plugged in the IPac to my fathers laptop fired up Notepad, and lo and behold it works! Then I downloaded MAME and moved some roms over to the laptop from my computer. In a few minutes I was playing pac man, asteroids, and street fighter!!!

You know it's interesting. You know when you are building a cabinet that one of the things your going to get out of it is that authentic arcade feel. But until you fire it up for the first time you really don't realize just how authentic it feels! And this is just a test play, I don't have a monitor mounted nor have I touched up the cab. I've been playing mame on a <$10 game pad for several years and this is a bit like rediscovering mame all over again. Anyone else feel like that with their cab?

Actually the truth is some games are probably easier on the cheap pad, though others are definitely not. I guess it comes down to getting accustomed to a new controler after so long using a D-Pad.

Sorry for the long post.





(I just had to get a shot of MAME running the game the cab was built for, even though I've never heard of it beofre)

[danny_galaga]

but I really just wanted to get it up and working to test things out. I'll do a proper soldering job later once every thing's 100% settled out.

famous last words!! hehe. lookin good so far though. hurry up and get a monitor for that bad boy...

[brained]

Man real controllers make a whole new experience. When I did my cardboard mock up for my control panels, Just to give it a test, I plugged it in, and pufff, played for about two hours!!... so I decided not play anymore until I'm done... just to put myself to a little pressure... you'd better get the same treatment

[gnateye]

if your low on soldering skills why not use quick connects, especially if you either dont have the right solder/iron or arent sure about your connections. wuick connects make troubleshooting and changing controls a breeze.

cab has some major potential though. keep up the good work!