Main > Main Forum
One all-in-one cab or multiple cabs?
Mr. Bubblehead:
I'm relatively new to the whole MAME/home arcade thing, and before I built my first cabinet I was going the all-in-one route (although I wasn't really a big fan of the "Frankenstien" control panel). But suddenly the planets aligned, and I had the time, space, materials, money, and (most importantly) permission from the wife to convert the basement into a game room. So I decided to build 7 different cabs, each one themed after a classic arcade game, and each one featuring different controls and screen orientation to best suit the games I will play on them. I am currently working on cab #2, but I should have them all completed by mid-fall of this year. Although I could get by with playing on one big-ass machine in the corner of the living room, I think that the "atmosphere" of my game room will be more satisfying and will complete the experience for me.
shawnzilla:
I attempted to go for the all-in-one concept, but there are just too many variables to cover in one machine. I have my Frankencab built, and now I'm working on a Vector Cab, for example.
Tiger-Heli:
Basically, there are pro's and con's to each option -
One cab and swappable panels - Pro's: Nice clean layout, optimized for each game. Only one cab to deal with, so less space and expense. Con's: Panels/Modules need to be stored somewhere. Sometimes is a pain to swap around if you play a lot of different games, e.g. "I got my Pac-Man fix for the day, I feel like playing Centipede, but not sure I want to dig out the trackball module and plug it in, or just fire up a quick game of Time Pilot instead.
One cab with FrankenPanel - Pro's: Less space and expense required, avoids the hassle of swapping controls around. Con's: Generally doesn't look as "clean". Tough to get a layout that works for "all" games and even if you do, it will probably be sup-optimal for "some" games.
Multiple cabs - Pro's: Allows you to have multiple control layouts and swap by moving to the appropriate cabinet. Control layouts are more optimized. Multiple games can be played at once. More similar to having a real home arcade. Con's: more expensive, more space required, harder to justify to non-arcade game nuts in your family.
Hope this helps!!! If I could do it, I think I would lean toward the multiple machine option.
traknfieldSUPAstar:
Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys... I think i will go with my original plan of 3 arcade machines (minimum)... I guess I was getting "cold feet" while I was gutting my data east cab (i'm going to have to do a ton of work to restore the cabinet to how i want it). But I think I really want to be able to look in my garage one day and see a bunch of arcade games waiting for me to play (hopefully that day will be sooner rather than later
Quarters:
--- Quote from: traknfieldSUPAstar on July 30, 2005, 11:16:09 am ---
Anyways, if space/money were not an issue for you, would you rather have an all-in-one machine? or multiple cabs?
--- End quote ---
If space/money were not an issue I would have All the original cabs. ;D