Cheapest + Easiest way to mame a cocktail cab.

[slicer_d]

Hey guys I have a friends relative who want me to do take their old non working cocktail cab a mame it.  They aren't hardcore arcade fans or anything so if they had something like 20-30 games to play on it they would be happy.  I would like to use the monitor that is already in the cab.  What would be the easiest and cheapest way to mame this thing?

Also I remember seeing something like a 13 in 1 board around that had a bunch of classic games all on one arcade pcb.  Did I just dream this up or is there such a thing?

[MrSaLTy]

Yes there is such a thing..... I don't have a link handy.  But I think they are like $400 bux tho.

[paigeoliver]

If it is a 13" cabinet the cheapest and easiest way is to juice out that original monitor,wiring, and board (ebay them), and decase a 15" PC monitor and put it where the old one was (the tube will darn near match the original mounting holes). Add a $20 surplus computer and the cheapest encoder you can find and you will be able to finish the whole thing for free (the monitor, harness and board should bring you enough to buy the $10 monitor, $20 encoder, and $20 computer that you will need).

[Lilwolf]

If the monitor works....

It might be cheaper to get an old ATI video card + old system and go with dos / advancemame / advancemenu also.

I haven't done the setup myself, but I hear its not as easy as other solutions.

But for the price of a hacked video cable.  8year old video card and 5 year old computer... your pretty much there.... Minus the 10 hours to set it up

[SirPoonga]

It might be cheaper to get an old ATI video card + old system and go with dos / advancemame / advancemenu also.

He said cheap and EASY.  unfortunately in this situation you can't have both.  That's the cheap route, the easy route is AVGA and JPAC.

[JoyMonkey]

I'd get an old Dell Optiplex PII or PIII from CraigsList or a local surplus- the onboard ATi Rage video is perfect for an arcade monitor and the onboard sound is simple to get going from DOS.
Get a J-Pac from Ultimarc to hook up the controls; if it's got a standard Jamma game in it already, hooking this up will be simple plug n play. It'll also protect the monitor from any bad video signals from the computer.
Then I'd carefully set up AdvMame and ArcadeOS (or GameLauncher) to run on that monitor.

It'd take a little time and patience, but I likes arcade monitors.

What game is the cocktail cab?

[slicer_d]

Its either a Pacman or a MS Pacman cocktail.

I'm kind of liking the idea of using advmame and skipping the Arcade vga and saving almost 100 bucks.  Like others have said thats may not be the easiest way but it would be pretty cheap.  I need to talk to the people some more though if they want more than like 20-30 games on it I will just tell them to go for the arcade vga and better setup

[JoyMonkey]

If it's an original Pac or MsPac, it would be a shame to make any major changes to the machine. You should think about maybe only using games that run on a vertical monitor with a 4-way joystick and no buttons, that way you wouldn't have to modify the control panels or do any wiring.
That does limit the amount of games that would be playable though.

[Lilwolf]

There is a guy selling control panels that fit that on the b/s/t forum. 

If it really is a mspacman they will probably want a button or two.

DONT destroy the cab unless its already gone.  Mspacman cocktails retain their values better then any other game out there (minus starwars and maybe tron / dot and a few others).

But replace the control panel.. and your good to go.

Also... the advance mame will allow you to run as many games and even more then arcadevga + windows.  Unless of course there are games taht would require hwstretching...  But your still talking 1000s of games (or all the vertical ones) if the controls are there.

[slicer_d]

Dont worry about guys I greatly respect the classics and will try my hardest to change as little as possible on the actual cabinet.

[JoyMonkey]

I haven't set up AdvMame in a long time, it wasn't too tough when I did though. A little time consuming, but not difficult. Basically, you'll need to set up the resolutions used by each game and tweak them to display correctly on your monitor. This mainly involves resizing and centering- some resolutions won't be possible on your monitor, but there's always a similar one that can be tweaked to work just as well.
Maybe it's gotten easier since I set it up on my Nintendo/Sanyo monitor with AdvMAME .67 ?
 
Here's a list of most resolutions used by vertical games:
http://mame.joymonkey.com/vrez.html
When setting up, you should make sure that all of these resolutions display correctly, then all your vertical cocktail games should be fine. Once they're set, you've got the most authentic looking arcade display you could ask for.

As far as front-ends go, ArcadeOS is the grand-daddy. It's still the easiest to get going on an arcade monitor too; a simple flag in the config file sets it to VGA/Arcade.

[slicer_d]

Thanks joymonkey I think I will mess with it for my cabs in nothing else I have 2 cabs sitting around that I want to mame but thought I had to save up cash for the arcade vga this way I can spend it on controls that I need.

I'm still wondering how I go about forcing a video card to go down to 15khz.  I was looking at advmame website and they have a bunch of programs like AdvanceVBE and advanceVGA is this what I use to lower it down to 15 khz?  Do I first start with a pc monitor set it up then move to a arcade monitor? 

[Lilwolf]

You should consider getting a jpac because it will limit the video to make sure you don't damage your monitor.  (so you can turn everything on... and it will not send video to the arcade monitor until its safe).

I'm not sure if there are any other devices for it.  But having your encoder and video safety all in one is nice..


But for your question.  I believe most people have to swap between monitors.  Or hook a network cable and remotely configure.  But this might take some extra time.