Nudder Noob intro

[_) (V) (-)]

Hello everybody,

I finally managed to get in after some kind of 'registration snafu' that left me lurking for over a month. Glad I could finally join the fun!

I'm almost done with a homebrew Mame cabnet I've been working on for about 2 years now. Have had some dealings with a few members here already, in fact, it was them guys who kept suggesting I check this place out.

I'd like to get some pictures of my cabnet posted so you guys can tear it apart with your *ahem* 'constructive criticisms' and other helpful advice.

Also looking forward to sending messages to some of you guys to set up orders for control panel graphics and such. 

OK, to start with, can anyone suggest a place to host some photos online?

In the meantime, I've got shoppin to do! 
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[severdhed]

http://imageshack.us/

that should work for your image hosting needs...

i also had a registration problem that took several weeks before i could post...but it was worth the wait. YOU will find this forum very helpful....

welcome

(now get us some pics!!)

[_) (V) (-)]

Wow, that was quick! Thanks Severdhed!

Ok, here are a few to get things started...



This one is rather dark but you can see the monolith I am working with. It's about 20" wide to give you some idea of scale. (It was previously used for rack mount audio equipment)


And here is the 21" monitor I stripped down to be able to jam it in there.

[_) (V) (-)]

Then of course, the thing got too freakin heavy so . . .


Of course, this was before I saw what some of the craftsman here have done on their cabs. I really like the recessed wheels I spotted on somebody's project and may steel that idea to revise this one.

However, I am very confortable with the height mine is currently at so, maybe not.


Then there was the issue of monitor height while mounted in the cab...



This monitor is H-E-A-V-Y (about 65-70 lbs) Try not to pop a gasket as you  hold it up with one hand while the other atempts to mark a line with the pencil. 

This photo is the 1st mounting atempt, I have since raised it to  All up in my grill dawg! heights. Nothing like some cathode radiation directly injected into the eyeballs at about 8-10" distance. 

I will never be able to used the excuse "I didn't see it" again!

[severdhed]

very cool, keep us posted with pics of the process.  I am in the middle of a somewhat major redesign of my cabinet as we speak, i'll be posting updated pics when i get it closer to being complete. (relativly current pics are available at www.severdhed.com).

Have you given any thoughts to your control panel yet? What all controls you want to include?...what type of games you want to play? i see you're cabinet is only about 20" wide, that is going to make it a tight fit for 2players.  My cabinet is 23" wide, which would be fine for a 1player panel, but i wanted 2 players.  I ended up modifying the shape of the cabinet and building a larger separate control panel box, it worked out quite well and made it much more usable.

[_) (V) (-)]

Yes, a control panel is in the works. I'm working with a mock up that I'll use to test a few things before I comit to a proper one. (like you did)

I'd like to do a 2 player panel, and your right, it is tight. I've had to limit it to only 5 buttons and a joystick on each side.  Button placement is still in issue at this point. I've done most of this by trial and error, usually going by what ever 'feels' right.

Cutting the sides open seems like the best option for me. Were you nervious about chopping up the sides of your cabent? Y'kno like, What if I cut this and don't like the way it looks?

Then there is the trackball issue. Such a small % of games use it, will we really 'need' one? Is it worth all the extra costs/hassles?

Also thinking of putting in a flip down panel to access the admin buttons and eliminating the keyboard all together.


This intro thread is getting a little wordy, do you think I should move it over to a  project thread?

[NightGod]

Don't use imageshack, if you click on the Additional Options... link on the Post page, you can upload pics here. That way we can view them in-line and don't have to worry about bandwidth overages.

[severdhed]

i was very nervous about cutting out part of the cabinet, i waited a long time before i got enough guts to do it.  I tried many different combos of control panels, but no matter what, i couldnt find one i liked.  even without the trackball and spinner, there just wasnt enough room for 2 adults to play anything without hitting elbows.  So one day i just decided to be brave and cut it out...and i was happy with the results.  I figured..the cabinet only cost me $20, so if i really hated it, i'd look around for another one.

I had a trackball in my cabinet, but as you can see from the pics, it was in such a place that it was pretty much unusable(too close to the screen).  I just recently built a new control panel (pics soon) and now it is in a better place, but i have a feeling that once the novelty wears off, it wont get used that much...same with the spinner.  I made one out of some spare crap i had lying around, it works good...but i dont know how much i will actually use it.

if you are going to cut out part of the cabinet...measure it out and mark it off with tape so you can visualize what it will look like..make sure everything will fit.  make sure you leave enough depth for the monitor, know the dimensions of your control panel before cutting also...you dont want your control panel to be too low/high when it is all done.

good luck.

[_) (V) (-)]

D'oh! OK Nightgod, I'll do the pictures that way from now on.

Severedhed, where do you find these $20 cabnets?!?!

Re: Cutting, I want to make this cabnet as confortable as possiable without alienating any others from using it. Therefore I need to make the right considerations for height and all of that.

Most of the time it'll be a single player experience, however, there are a number of games in my target range (80's, some early 90's) that do support simultaneous dual player action, and it will be during those games any extra room will be most appreicated I'm sure.

[severdhed]

i found my cabinet by dumb luck. I looked in the phone book for Amusements, after a few calls to places that no longer existed, i found a local guy who buys/sells/services arcade games/pinball/vending stuff. I asked if he had any old empty cabinets lying around, he said he had a golden tee golf cabinet with a badly burnt monitor...he took the game boards out and said i could have it for $20.  MY friend came over and we hauled it in the back of his jeep cherokee.  It came complete with coin door/mechs, marquee, light, dead monitor, glass bezel, 3 buttons and a broken 3" wico trackball.

I have since gone there to get some extra buttons and such, but he isnt around much anymore...took a full time job doing something else, he only does the arcade stuff an evening or two/week.  I'm hoping he stays around for a little while yet, my friend wants a cabinet..and for $20, you cant beat that.


my cabinet is also mainly used only by me, but now and then when i have friends over, i am really glad i have room for 2 people.  One thing i did with mine is i made the control panel higher than most real arcade games...i have always found that they are too low and angled too steeply, that they hurt my wrists after only a very brief time playing...so i made mine so that i can rest my arms on the panel and my elbows are almost at 90degrees...this makes it very comfortable for extended play.

oh, and if i can make a suggestoin..install working coin doors, it really adds to the experience when you have to drop in a token/coin to play. ( i am too cheap to buy tokens, so i modified mine to accept steel washers i picked up at Lowes...they work good, and i dont have to worry about people walking off with them)

[_) (V) (-)]

Oh yeah, I'm lookin for a cheep coin door, if only for the visual effect.

I'm at the point where I have the computer system booting up and running. Still need to make some O/S tweeks to allow start up and shutdown without a KB & Mouse. Looking into moding the bios splash screen too.

Also have my controls mounted on a test board and wired up to a GP-Wiz, that seems to be working OK now, after some innital difficulties. Still have to do some 'placement' tests before I commit to a layout. It is rather tight for two players. 

Currently playing around with a 'Mame logo surrounded by screen shots' marquee thing across the top of the monotor panel, I don't really like the print quality from the inkjet printer. Need to explore some other options for this. Also I'm getting some light bleed along the top edge of the monitor. May even decide to kill the backlight idea.

I've got a 21" tinted glare filter to mount inside my plexi panel too. I'm liking the idea of hiding the admin buttons under this hinged panel too.

Really need to get me some of that black marble contact paper the guys here like so much for my temp panel.

"That just screams Itallian"

[severdhed]

i changed the bios splash screen, windows boot screen, and loaded the frontend (MALA) as shell, so the windows desktop never loads.

your keyboard encoder is a keyboard, according to windows anyway, so as long as your control panel is connected, the pc shouldnt have any "no keyboard" erros. you dont need a mouse connected for windows to boot. (if you decide to add a trackball, windows will see that as the mouse)

i couldnt get decent results with a printed marqee, so i cut mine out of posterboard and a tranlucent layer behind...that way only the cut out layer lights up...cheap, but is ok until i can buy a real marquee.

[_) (V) (-)]

Got the bios thing working, sort of. The picture is kind of small, centered in the middle of the screen. I was hoping for a big, full screen display like the previous Intel one. Hey, it's still better than looking at their logo every time I boot up!

My encoder is actually a 'gamepad' encoder (GP-WIZ) that connects to the USB port, I am considering putting an previously 'hacked' KB thingie into the ps2 hole just to avoid the boot up error message. It's not like I 'haaave' to use it.

Neat idea for your maruqee SH.  Cheep and effective! I wonder if you could get one of them clear things with the different colored waters/oils in it mounted up there. (sort of like a wide lava lamp in a frame) Then when the light shines through, you'd get a cool moving psychadelic lightshow effect?

Going to hit this project hard over the coming weekend, get some newer pictures and post a proper 'project anouncment' some time next week. I'd really like to get some feedback on my Control Panel options and some Fit & Finish advice so I can get steered into the right direction to finish this up sometime this winter.