another noob needs help...

[radiator]

First, hello to all - I'm radiator, a complete arcade building noobie  

Just got some questions I need answering (that have probably already been answered before!)

I've been thinking of building a MAME/other emu cabinet for quite some time (2 years) but due to lack of money, kept putting it off.
I'm on the budget side, so the cheaper the better, and need advise on what to buy.  I've decided on buttons/joysticks by Happ, as they always seem to get praise, and the I-PAC interface from Ultimarc.
I'm just kinda stuck as to what to get graphics card-wise.

I want the machine to be able to play many emulators (mainly MAME though - DOS version (unless anyone can give me good reasons to use the windows version)), and would like some kind of setup where I get a boot menu when the cabinet is switched on, giving me the choice of loading either a DOS emulator front-end, or, to boot into windows (which will be customised - ie, no 'classic' icons, hidden start menu etc, icons to each of the emulators).

I'm defintaly gonna be using a TV for the moment, as I can't really afford a decent sized PC monitor, or arcade monitor - I can probably pick up a 25" TV for around

[radiator]

...ooh, forgot to add, I'll be using a standard PC trackball, so if anyone can recommend one with a decent sized ball that'd be great.

...and, I'm in the UK...

cheers

[cdbrown]

Radiator,

If you read through some other posts regarding PC hardware and dos vs windows you will see that when using a newer model PC (like yours) then the windows version of mame would be more appropriate.   This version of mame is the one the mame dev team concentrates on while the dos version is just a port (used to be the other way around).  Going through windows gives a much larger range of cards to use.  I have a Hercules Radeon 8500 LE with 128MB DDR.  It is probably overkill for mame but it was a good price.  The good thing was that once I put my machine together I plugged the s-video connector into my tv and it worked straight away without having any programs installed what so ever.

General consensus on these boards is that ATI produce the cards with the best s-video output - you'll just have to decide if you want the bells and whistles some of the cards come with.

Trackball - I've gone for a Genius Kidsball, some places it's a crayola kidsball.  It's a big yellow ball used to help young kids using the pc.  Don't know off hand but 1UP has them, hopefully he can let you know.

*EDIT - forgot to mention that Bob Roberts sells Happs products usually lower than Happs themselves so yuo may want to check him out http://www.therealbobroberts.com

Cheers
-cdbrown

[eightbit]

First off welcome!

Start with the newbie guide at the home page of this site. Read all relevant to you sections of the faq and spend a good amount of time browsing the examples section then come back here. Before posting a new question search the message board archive then if you can't find an answer post your question as clearly and consisely as you can.

Since your on a tight budget consider the keywiz as an alternative to the ipac. http://groovygamegear.com Though since your talking about a scart tv your probably in Europe then the ipac is probably cheaper for you and I don't think Randy is taking international orders yet. Scart is not common in the US but from what I've heard of it its better than S-video. There are some who really talk down TV but I think TV can look great, even better than PC monitors.

You need to research more and decide why you want to use DOS. With a PC of the specs you mentioned you'll be better off in Windows.

Here in the states you can get a decent 32mb ATI card with tv out for $30 US. You can't go hardly go wrong with  ATI cards.

[radiator]

cdbrown: thanks for the info on that trackball - must get me one!

eightbit: wanted to use DOS purely because of the speed it boots - but thinking about it, a minimum Win98 installation probably aint gonna take that much longer to boot (plus I could customise the standard 'Windows 98' startup screen with something else) - and it'll be easier to hook up a TV to the graphics card...

right then, I'm off to read some noobie guides  

cheers for the info - no doubt you'll be hearing from me again!

[cdbrown]

I'm finding that XP boots a lot faster than 98 on my machine and is very stable (as you will see a lot of people saying after having a look through the boards.

Cheers
-cdbrown

[radiator]

right, WinXP it is then  

thanks