Man, these things cost alot...

[the3eyedblindman]

When I first got into this I wasnt thinking it would be over a thousand dollars, but boy was I wrong! Ive already exceded 1000 dollars and I still have all my joysticks and pushbuttons to buy, my encoders, paint, tmolding, i have to get my artwork printed, and I don;t even want to think of the cost of lexan!! AH! ha ha, I guess it will be worth it in the end though, lets hope! What are some of the costs of your cabinets?

[warreng]

That's a lot of crap left to buy if you already have a grand invested

What do you have that has cost you $1000 already?

-warreng

[Hiub]

Man, you caught me at the right time, I just tallied everything up. I have been lucky so far, since my computer has been free (p4 with 512mb RAM which is a hell of a deal!), my 27'' TV has been free, and I have spent $15 on a set of 2 car speakers and a 10'' sub. So far I have tallied up about $450, and that is including MDF, IPAC4, controls for 4 players plus trackball, an amp, t-molding, and S-Video cable. Home Depot KILLED me on the MDF, $90 for 4 sheets. So far so good though, already have everything cut out, hoping to sand and route tomorrow, and begin on my CP holes as well. I have the weekend off, so I should make some decent progress!

See ya, Fred.

[daywane]

that would be hard for me to break down.
one PC I bought off a friend I only wanted the monitor. I gave the 700 megahertz PC to my oldest daughter and gave her one of my old 15" monitors . I kept the 17"  price for all $200. cab was free. PC built out of old parts.
$35.00 for Ms pac CP. i did not like the joystick and bought another joystick, original ms pac $20.00 restored. primer $5.00, paint $8.00
two sidewinders I had given to me.
I forgot how much I paid for the door,
total $268.00 but not finished.
that's my vertical. oh I guess I should add 150.00 for the 8 hr trip and Uhaul rental ( I did pick up another cab also in that trip)

Horizontal.
$200 for 20" TV
PC $600.00
$50.00 for cab
$80.00 track ball
$50.00 for act labs gun ( a little less than that but can not remember)
$75.00 for tron joy stick
$25.00 for spinner
$100. pci slot video card ( yea I know way to much)
$35.00 for speakers
I have bought way more than I can use in joystick and buttons off ebay
I went parts crazy for a bit  
1015.00 total   ( thanks   I never broke it down that far.   )

driving arcade.
$125.00 ( pick up money order in the morning)
that's all on this one just getting started. still need PC and monitor or TV
plan on hacking a mouse for it.

Nintendo vs uni.
$150.00 it is still a nintendo cab . not mamed yet.
I still do not know what I want to do with it.
probably turn it into a 4 player cab
or one side rotary sticks and the other side tron.
but for now my 9yr old like it the way it is.
all are butt ugly as of now. every time I think I have time to work on them some thing pops up. as we all have found out.
thats not counting a buch of stuff I broke or lost.

[TOK]

Are you adding in the tools costs or something too? Sounds like you didn't even get a lot of the expensive stuff yet.
I consider it a mistake to keep close running tabs on your hobbies, but I can tell you I have under a grand in my cab...

Got an old, but decent Bally/Midway cab with good marquee/bezel ($50), put in PC built mostly from old parts (say $150 for motherboard and RAM), bought new 19" monitor ($180) and controls/encoder from Ultimarc ($160).
Originally just wanted to play Gyruss, Robotron, and some fighting games, but now I've decided to add a trackball and spinner. Got the trackball and interface for $110, didn't buy spinner yet.

Its not the all-new-work-of-art that many of the cabs here are, but I love it, and so has everyone that's played it. The play experience is what counts, and it's great! You're into it deep now, so no sense in stopping!

[MoonDog]

here is my tally so far...

$20 - cabinet w/ coin door & mech, marquee glass & light, speakers
$90 - minipac, t-stiks
$30 - buttons
$50 - trackball
$15 - misc connectors
$50 - 80GB hard drive
$5   - pc monitor
$5   - angle brackets
free - 600MHz computer
------
$265

stuff i already had - pc power supply, car amp, wire, etc.

wow, that did add up quick.  i was feeling good about my price until i recently added the new hard drive and trackball.  oh yeah, i've got more buttons on order.

[the3eyedblindman]

I take it back, i didnt tally everything up, its just a rough estimate, because my summer job yearly total is over a thousand dollars, and most of it has gone to this arcade. What I have boughten so far, for whoever asked up there....

Custom built a computer, ended up costing alot
27 inch tv with S video
4 or 5 sheets of MDF
Act Labs TV Gun
Rom Sets
A Few PC Games that will be played on the arcade (house of dead, Virtua fighter 2, MK4 ect)
Coin Door
Various handles and lock mechs for cabinet
marquee
S video cable
Marquee Retainer
Trackball
4 way joystick
1-4 player start buttons
60 watt pc speakers
keyboard
mouse

Thats all I can think of right now off the top of my head ,theres probably more I didnt list, Ill tally it up later, my point is this is a real expensive hobby!

[SpamMe]

Mine's about done (no more purchases at any rate):
$110 - Used CPU, mobo, ram, heat sink & fan
$13 - CD Drive
$38 - Smart Strip
$55 - Video Card

$48 - Translucent trackball & buttons
$12.50 - T-Stik + upgrade
$93 - IPAC2 & 2 t-sticks
$24 - 2 N64 adaptors
$25.34 - Crayola Trackball (ebay)
$250 - Dance Pad
$15 - Quick Disconnects
$8 - Parts for dance pad adaptor

$68 - 3 sheets of MDF
$50 - Primer, drop cloth, flowtrol, paint

$47.89 - Coin door (ebay)
$8 - LED pulser
$125 - Used 27" TV
$2 - Misc
$78 - Artwork (CPO, Marquee, Dance pad)

----
$1070.23

[Knoxximus]

I got a decent deal on the cab: Dynamo Showcase with 33" monitor and "Street Fighter" (Happ P360's!) control panel for $1000.  

Built a 1.6Ghz Athlon, 512MB, 250GB HD for $500.

Ultimarc: Mini-Pac, Video Amp, and AVGA for about $180 or so.

Creative speakers (T2900) for $50 at Comp USA.

Roms?....PRICELESS!!

[AmericanDemon]

Knoxximus.... good deal dude.  

[fastredpacman]

look at the bright side. At least its cheaper and takes up less space than buying each cab individually.

[GGKoul]

I'm way over $1000...

[SteveJ34]

My total was in the neighborhood of $1,600 when I was through.

It was a scratch build with all controls from Happs including 3" trackball, hagstrom encoders, new 27" Toshiba TV, new PC, etc

It was easy to crack a 1,000 with the PC, TV, and controls purchases.

[Pieman2004]

Well the good thing is you can pretty much spend as much as you want. I've only spent about $100 dollars(except for gas). I have a working arcade machine at the moment. I'll admit it is not pretty at all but it works and is a lot of fun. I just bought the controls and encoder. Everything else I already had, and I got the cabinet for free. If I had $1000 to spend though I easily could. (I have lots of plans when I strike it rich )
But for now I'm happy with what I have.

[LeedsFan]

I'm keeping a close tab on the costs for my first project. I set myself a budget of

[danny_galaga]

http://moncom.net/mame/page4.htm

about half way down for my cost break-down  

$1271 AUD  

but worth every cent  

[daywane]

I new this was going to get expensive , My wife griped at first. all I had to do was show her the price of golf clubs and fees. I told her I could always take up golf.
my cost listed above has been over a total of 3 years
so not to bad .

[RayB]

I'm at about $582 u.s. ($786 cdn). Not bad considering I have all parts I need. Oops, wait, still need light fixture, side art and CP overlay. About half that cost was for a new 19" arcade monitor. As for PC parts, they are "free".

~Ray B.

[johnnysmitch]

I estimated that I'm @ around $800, but thankfully I already had a 52" TV to use (that i won for $1, so i guess it wasn't TOTALLY free...), and I had some of my materials already (stainless), but my total keeps going up as I add little finishing touches, like pieces of aluminum trim and whatnot...

[mahuti]

Any hobby can cost you an arm and a leg. With this one, at least you can get started for cheap. Initially, I had a free cab, a free computer, and a TV that had been setting around, so the whole thing cost me less than $250. Over the last few years, I've continued to purchase and upgrade, but the initial cost was minimal.

If you start out to have the absolute best it's going to cost. If you start out just to have fun, you can do it on a shoestring.

[Gunstar Hero]

The beautiful thing about the MAME hobby is, you can spend as much or as little as you want to, and you have something awesome to show for it.

Like we were saying on the last thread like this, you wanna spend some money? Try racing R/C cars or flying R/C planes. My MAIN R/C race car cost almost $1000 wth all the upgrades and crap, then I have like 4 other cars my buddies car is way over that... and we haven't even looked at them in almost a year.  

[MinerAl]

Just as an exercise in self-chastisement:
$35 - dead Atari Football cab @ thrift store
$32 - 2 T-Sticks
$180 - 24" Apex TV
$100 - MacG3 233MHz Desktop
$40 - USB card
$40 - I-PAC 2 (USB)
$20 - Rollers for 4.5" Atari Football Trac-balls
$50 - Misc Buttons, Switches, Wiring, and connectors
$60 - new balls for Trac-balls
$100 - tools, shipping, and things I forgot about buying

Total about $650 so far.

[missioncontrol]

havn't been keeping track and don't plan to. that way I won't worry about the price when I go to build the next one...

[DYNAGOD]

havn't been keeping track and don't plan to. that way I won't worry about the price when I go to build the next one...

amen to that!
i dont dare look, and i dont keep the reciepts around for the woman to inspect either.
this isnt the kind of thing you can do with a budget..
thats clear..

[mahuti]

Man, if we were talking about the price of bicycles, I'd really be crying.

Arcade machines are easy.