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A Teacher in a search for answers

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gnateye:

you may also luck out at an OP, if you explain to them what the project is for, you may get some free stuff that the Op can write off on his taxes (an old cab, your coindoor, monitors etc. you'd be suprised). its worth a try.

as far as the rom issues go. i would avoid it all together and buy a pc 'arcade flashback' CDrom of some sort, so that is it fully legal. or go the 'star roms' route, something really on the up and up though. you dont need to teach a whole grade of kids how to steal copywritten material (they'll learn that soon enough)

back to your setup though. if i was in your position (monitarily as well as literally) i would skip the tv idea, use the monitor you have, or buy a cheap 19" they are super cheap right now. get an ipac maybe even the VE (value edition) or the key wiz, both are well worth their prices. buy a set of those joysticks and buttons that are on ebay all the time for 20$ for a joystick with 6 buttons, they arent the highest quality sticks and buttons, but your on a budget and most of what your gonna end up with isnt going to be top notch.  you can find trackballs on ebay as well, get hte usb mouse interface from oscar controls.

and your best money spent is going to be buying the "project arcade" book. that will teach you everything you need to know and i gues swill be your kind of ad hoc textbook (not sure of the copyright rules etc about that, but you get the picture)

god luck and have fun!



krick:

I think the quickest, easiest, and probably cheapest route to results for your situation is to use your PC with a PC monitor.

paigeoliver:

Also, with that processor speed try using mame version .55 or .60 as opposed to the current mame. The popular Neo Geo puzzle and sports titles will run full speed with those older versions on the hardware you have, but will not run full speed on that hardware with the current version of mame.

SnowsDream:

Awesome!

You guys are so helpful, thanks for all the support.
I'm checking out the sites you guys listed and looking up some of the other info you posted.

My budget that I work with is around 200 - 300 dollars I was gonna personally pump into this. Basically when the school year ends I become responsible for the Cabs well being so it will go with me every where and I wanted to make it durable and of at least a decent quality.

As for ports, it's got 2 USB ports so that's all and all the rest are regular stuff.

I was wondering about the copyright issue. I thought and this is another question I needed to post to you all. I had someone tell me that the copyrights sunset ed on alto of older games. Something about a clause that if a piece of software is not available in it's original form any longer for so many years that it then becomes legal to own a back up of that. I could not find info on my own research, but maybe you've all heard that? but I love that there is sites out there with free Roms and I haven't checked out the sites yet but if they are made but regular Joe's I think that would be even more awesome for the kids to experience. I really want them to get a wide range of experiences from this. To the shaping of the cabnet to the mounting of the gear into the cab, too the painting and designing the look, too programing the machine it self. Now if I run the older Mame, should I stick to the dos based or windows based? I was gonna do windows just because I am more familiar with that environment or is it possible to have a boot option at start up? that would be really nice. OK well off I go to research the links and info you all posted. Thanks again! ;D


P.S. Last thing, whats an "OP"?

markrvp:

Check this Ebay auction for a coin door:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6161545761

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