Quickie Machine and Game Room

[fredster]

I finally finished my game room, for now anyway.

I wanted to show y'all and see what you think.

About 2 years ago I built a Mame Machine, or rather converted a dead cab to life.  Basically I gutted an old Cab I got at the auction that was running Vigilante.  Turns out the cab was an old stargate, but it hasn't been that in so long it forgot how to do it.  The bezel was still in the machine, it looked so good I kept it.

It took me a weekend. That was mostly the sanding and spray painting.  After that I put in a 20" monitor a friend gave me, the card from a Xarcade I purchased on Ebay, and a 1.8ghz computer picked up at a show.

I printed the logos out on my printer and covered them with shelf paper.  

The control panel was the easiest.  It had two joysticks and 2 buttons per player, all I had to do was drill up and down, paint it, and wire it, and she was ready.  I printed the Marquee on a plotter at work.

Total cost cab and monitor and buttons and paint - $80.
Computer - $450
Xarcade engine from ebay - $50 (I think)

I don't like the xarcade card.  I also have a stand alone control panel with the Ultramarc Jpac, it's much superior.  Use that one.

The rest of the game room are machines I have collected.  I go to a lot of auctions and pick them up here and there. Most of them are in some state of repair - disrepair.

[fredster]

This is my son. He is in awe.  That's not buck teeth, it's bubble gum.  Note the machine.  It's Orange Green and Black.

I choose those colors because I have leftover spray paint.

I also have very little taste.  Many people on the boards agree with that.

[fredster]

Here's the control panel. There isn't much room.  I plays mortal Kombat with a handicap.  Most games it runs pretty well.  I don't like fighters.  I don't find them violent enough anyway.

[fredster]

Here's another picture of my son. He spends a lot of time in here doing homework and thinking about deep concepts.  I'm really proud of him.  

This is a side view. Note at the bottom of the machines is a rope light.  With the neon clock it looks pretty good when all the games are running.

They are remote control (except for the mame).  I bought a couple of outdoor christmas light remotes.  They only sell them this time of year for some reason. They are in the decorations department.  They are supposed to turn off christmas lights plugged into it.  They handle 12.5 amps and 1500 watts.  They have a range of 50 feet.  

I got the neon clock, rope lights, and remotes at the spirtual and geographical center of the universe - Walmart.

[fredster]

Here's the last picture.

It's a view of the really cool drink light I got at target.

It also shows the last two machines.

Thanks for letting me vent!

[RayB]

Hmmm that MAME appears to be a Stargate cabinet?

[Gunstar Hero]

Awesome game room fredster!

We's jealous.

 

[Matt, GoC]

What pinball machine is that may I ask?

[danny_galaga]

gee, you look kinda young  

i see you have a wizards of war machine. damn you to hell...

[darktemp]

That kid lives in THAT house and he's not smiling?

[fredster]

Yeah, it's a Stargate. I have another one in the garage that's torn apart.  I also have a defender cab.  One is/was a double dragon the other is/was a Shinobi.  They were favorites for conversion in the mid 80's.

That's a gottlieb GENISIS. It's a cool game with the worst backglass I have ever seen.  I got it to learn how to fix pinball machines.

Danny, all I can say is BWAHAHAHAHAH.  Seriously, the WOR has an almost perfect Bezel and CP.  I took the coin door off of it to put on a Ms Pac I have on the Street. It works pretty good.  The Wizard voice is flawed, just like the one in Mame.  I've had 3 of these machines.  One I resurected and sold at auction, another I sold to a friend, and then this one.  I am keeping this one because it is in such nice shape and there aren't that many.  The back door is screwed up.  BTW, it's No 735, one of the earliest ones.

My Pride and Joy is the Asteroids Cocktail.  That is my first video game and my first love...

[pocketbikez]

this is a perfect example of how to properly use a dining room, instead of putting expensive furniture in there and never using it. I like the whole atmosphere of your gameroom, the decorations and wall colors are cool. and i think that kid just looks surprised because he was playing peekaboo or some other nudie arcade game when you surprised him with the camera.  

[Matt, GoC]

I also have very little taste.  Many people on the boards agree with that.

If that's true then I must too because that gameroom looks pretty sweet!  I like how you've got marquees all around the top.

[Dartful Dodger]

You have a kid and a game room with Wizard of War and Mame.
I have no kids and I still can't find time or money for my arcade.

I like the admin buttons in front, out of sight out of mind.
Do you accidentally hit them while you play?  
Are those coin buttons too?
You get that reach under coin feeding feel without the digging into your pockets for tokens.

Very nice, I like.

[fredster]

No, I don't have a problem hitting the buttons, I'm NOT THAT FAT.

The white one is coin 1, the three black ones are enter, tab, and escape, and the red one on the right is pause.

Before I found out that all you had to do was shake the joystick left and right to get rid of the "press ok to continue" screen, I programed P1 & P2 Start as 'o' and 'k'.  

The Xarcade card inside causes some problems with setup.  It's programmable and all, but it is hard to change the wiring around.  It also takes like 3 reboots before the keyboard is recognized by the PC.  It may just be the PC.

All of the  workings of the computer take place through the coin door.  This Williams cab has three buttons on it for some old stargate functions.  I hacked into one for the reset button on the computer.  There's a powerstrip just inside the door to turn it off and on.  I have the volume for the surround sound inside, keyboard and mouse are just laying in there.

I didn't mount much.  I had to take off one of the two doors in the back since the monitor stuck out.  It sits right where the arcade monitor was. I personally like PC monitors tons better than Arcade monitors.  I think this one is better.  

This is one of the Best things I ever built.  It's running .77 mame32.  I find new games all the time to play.  

I use it to troubleshoot arcade games too.  It tells me if there is something wrong with a game sometimes.  I had a bad chip on one and I looked up the dipswitches with mame.

It also helps me ID games for friends and for sale.  It doesn't play them all, but It plays enough.

I tried to build three others.  One is a cocktail, one is a small dynamo, and the other is a midway type stand up.  two are in a half functioning state, and one is a shell.  One day I may actually complete another one.  

[fredster]

Here's a better view of the Pinball machine.

It has to have the ugliest backglass I have ever seen.

[fredster]

Here's an abandoned project. I had this thing working! I swear it was working.

Trackball, 3 buttons per player, steel panel, etc.

I tried the keyboard hack.  I soldered it all together but I had a problem using the menus.  I swapped out a couple of wires and it froze.  I must have taken out the bios.  Nothing on boot. Nothing.

So I have abandoned it for now.  I'll return to it later when I get another keyboard hack soldered together.

[fredster]

Here's what's in my garage. The big one with the guns is a crypt killer.

From left to right - semi working old stargate cab, a working Tekken 2, a centipede cab that's now a bowling game, the crypt killer, and a super pacman cab 1/2 through a conversion to a 9 in 1.

[pocketbikez]

cool. youve just made me realize i need a bubblegum machine. off to ebay i go!  

[patrickl]

Wow Fredster that's really cool. Quite an impressive array of machines there. Like someone else already noted, amazing how you find the time for all this (I also struggle to get even a single cab build).

[DrewKaree]

My sons were wondering....it doesn't look like you have room to put us up for the weekend on our next road trip....mebbe we'll have to store some of those games in our van to make room....I sure hope we remember to take them out when we leave  

Does your son help you out on these projects or does he just stay outta the way?  

I wish I had HALF your collection, and a "spare" dining room to put 'em in!  I'm working on a few, but MAN do you know how to spoil your kid!  I'm glad to see he enjoys 'em!

[danny_galaga]

My sons were wondering....

you mean im an UNCLE and you never told me? 

[fredster]

Drew,  I always have room for you and your boys.

You Too Danny. We could have a few Millers and talk about the Wizard of Wor. It needs some minor fix ups.  We could figure that out in-between asteroids games.

Thanks for commenting folks.

[danny_galaga]

hey, wheres the pics?

[fredster]

I guess they are lost with the new format.

[Matt, GoC]

I've been having those problems, too.  They should know about it by now, as I've sent Peale a message and he forwarded it to everybody.

[danny_galaga]

I guess they are lost with the new format.

no, thats not it, because you can now see pics on other threads. you should query one of the moderators...

[fredster]

Maybe they were too big, or the format doesn't match.

I didn't edit them, I should have made their size smaller before I posted.

I'll bring down the format and re-post them this weekend.

[sirwoogie]

There seems to have been a few instances where attachements no longer display, but I cannot account for them. If you do notice attachements missing, simply modify your existing post and repost the attachement. If you are putting images up there, a more appropriate way to handle this is with an IMG BBC tag and reference an off-site URL. I understand not everybody has that capacity, so attachments are still appropriate in that case.

[fredster]

I'll repost the pics

Here's the converted Stargate that's now a Mame machine

[fredster]

Here's a view of the Ugly Pinball machine (Genesis '86, Gottlieb)

[fredster]

Here's a view of the walls, orange and yellow stripes.

[fredster]

Here's a view of my cocktail tables.

One is an Arkanoid, the other an Asteroids.  They have a remote control to turn them on and off.

[fredster]

This a view of the other machines in the corner.

[sirwoogie]

Please note you can put these all into a single thread. The attachement limits have been upped a bit, and all of these pictures would be fine in one message.

[DrewKaree]

My sons were wondering....

you mean im an UNCLE and you never told me? 

I was under the impression you were more of a MOTHER....and that EVERYONE told you that!