Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: Old Pentium  (Read 1390 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Voodoo_Ray

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 10
  • Last login:January 11, 2012, 12:39:37 pm
  • I want to build my own arcade controls!
Old Pentium
« on: September 09, 2005, 01:22:17 pm »
Hi folks

To keep costs down I was thinking of just using an old Pentium 2 to run the show off eBay. Will I have any problems using an old system? I know old classics will run fine on this but is there anything else I'm missing?

Seperately, I plan to follow Saints book but it would be more convenient for me to paint the cabinet near the end of the project. Will this cause me any problems?

Thanks in advance
Steve

RayB

  • I'm not wearing pants! HA!
  • Trade Count: (+4)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 11279
  • Last login:July 10, 2025, 01:33:58 am
  • There's my post
    • RayB.com
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2005, 01:52:33 pm »
To keep costs down I was thinking of just using an old Pentium 2 to run the show off eBay.

What show??
NO MORE!!

JCL

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 239
  • Last login:April 20, 2008, 04:11:10 pm
  • What Are You Looking At?
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2005, 02:01:14 pm »
All depends on the games you want to play. You may be better off saving a little longer, especially if this is going in to a full cab.

You are going to spend quite a bit of money on the whole project. If you don't have a budget for a reasonable computer (based on you needs, ie. "what show" are you aiming at), then you don't have a budget for the project.


GameOver

  • That's right. I'm Abe Froman.
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 532
  • Last login:February 11, 2013, 06:54:31 pm
  • Got a quarter?
    • Check out my cab!
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2005, 05:49:24 pm »
A guy at work gave me a PII last week.  It only has a 2 gig HD.  I've got MAME running on it now, and was amazed at how many games would fit. 

I plan to make a 'countertop' arcade w/it that I'll put in one of my kids rooms.  It's not too bad, but as expected the more graphics, sound or CPU intense games don't work or don't work well.

Go ahead & start your cab.  I waited pretty much til the end to paint mine, that seemed the smart thing to do.  If later you can scrape up a better PC, just swap out the 'ole PII & put the new one in there.

Good luck!!

Scott84

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 717
  • Last login:May 17, 2022, 08:24:59 pm
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2005, 06:24:05 pm »
You could get a pentium 2... if you saved a bit more money though, you could get even more games playable... each little bit of extra speed will make a differnece when your dealing with those kind of speeds.

I remember running MAME on a 300 MHZ.. i think got a P3 550 on it and it blew it away (the other one) with a lil bit more ram too.
"Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man
affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in
darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to
repetitive music." -- Marcus Brigstocke

Kremmit

  • - AHOTW -
  • Wiki Contributor
  • Trade Count: (+2)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3165
  • Last login:June 17, 2025, 04:07:55 pm
  • Who the heck is that?
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2005, 12:08:46 am »
There's no reason not to go with a cheapie- you can always upgrade later, and the cash you save now can help you finish the rest of the project sooner.  Don't spend much on a PII, though- people are always throwing out old computers.  Tell everyone you know you're looking for an old machine, you may find one somebody's got in the closet they'll toss you free.  My local dump keeps old computers separate, you may find one at yours.  Thrift stores sometimes have them.  www.craigslist.org and www.freecycle.org are good ways to find cheap and free computers, as well as other junk. 

Voodoo_Ray

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 10
  • Last login:January 11, 2012, 12:39:37 pm
  • I want to build my own arcade controls!
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2005, 03:12:32 am »
Thanks for the replies.

The idea is to get a cheapie for <$20 so that I can get cracking on the project. My home PC is a P4 and doesn't need updating quite yet. The idea is to swap this machine in to the cabinet in a year or two when I upgrade my home PC.

Steve

LPZ

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 241
  • Last login:April 11, 2015, 01:55:21 pm
  • 2nd place is the first loser!
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2005, 03:21:53 am »
I've just built a cab with a 667 pentium in it and it runs sweet.  Not to mention that 512 megs of ram makes it happen though......keep that machine....just in case you want to build a vertical and a horizontal cab!
Dual 50 Caliber Continuous Fire Leon Type Machine Guns......OH YEAH!!!!!

JCL

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 239
  • Last login:April 20, 2008, 04:11:10 pm
  • What Are You Looking At?
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2005, 10:37:21 am »
Even though I said, not to go too cheep, I think going free (or nearly so) and upgrading later sounds like a reasonable idea.

The scenario that I would want to avaoid would be to spend $50-100 bucks on a computer now, put it in a cab in 6 months, then spend $500 on a new machine 6 months after that.


the3eyedblindman

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 665
  • Last login:November 17, 2006, 03:00:06 pm
  • Soon: 4 Player Mame and Scratch Built Moonwalker.
Re: Old Pentium
« Reply #9 on: September 11, 2005, 12:25:10 am »
I'd make a dedicated cabinet out of it, have it run one game of your choice, then build a replica of a dedicated cabinet, pacman for example. I am doing this with an old computer, and I am making a replica moonwalker. Use the arcade VGA card, or a video card with s video out to make it capaple of running on a big monitor, or get a big pc monitor, give it original artwork, dedicated controls, etc. You can tell everyone its a dedicated machine ;).
Coming soon: 4 player mame cab and Scratch built Moonwalker....Hall of Fame, here I come!