What else do I need to build a MAME cab?

[Encryptor]

I've been veiwing these forums for a few months now and I'm collecting joysticks, buttons and the other things needed for the electronic side of my first cabinet. I'm the kind of person that when I want to work on something I don't like surprises. When I want to do something I don't want to have to wait a week or two to get the parts I need. What I need to know is what other things do I need. I intend to build a 2 player cp. I have the pc and monitor and I know I need buttons, joysticks, trackball and the other things for the cp. What else? I also plan on buying saints book so if these answers are in there just let me know and I'll not pursue this any further here.

1. How many power supplies do I need? Do I need a seperate PS to run the I-Pac and other electronics for the cp or can they be run from the computer PS? If so what kind do I need?

2. I'm getting an I-Pac2 for the cp. Do I need a seperate emulator for the trackball and spinner? Such as an Opti-Pac? What other ones are there out there besides the Opti-Pac?

3. I've read about different sound systems people have put into their cabs. Is that something that has to be done or can you just come off the sound card and into a set of speakers? Is adding something like a surround system just something people do just to have great sound for their gaming experience?

I think that's it for now but if I have more I'll ask in the future. Thanks for the help that has been given so far in other questions.

Encryptor

[johnm160]

1) Just the computer power supply is fine.

2) you would need an opti-pac for the trackball or look at the Mini pac, they have one that will do both and you can get a harness for it.

3) sound card and powered speakers are just fine.



Good Luck

[spacies]

You dont need surround sound.
Nearly all old arcade games were designed to run in Mono. Hence only 1 speaker on an original cabinet.

Waste of money IMO.

[leapinlew]

I've been veiwing these forums for a few months now and I'm collecting joysticks, buttons and the other things needed for the electronic side of my first cabinet. I'm the kind of person that when I want to work on something I don't like surprises. When I want to do something I don't want to have to wait a week or two to get the parts I need. What I need to know is what other things do I need. I intend to build a 2 player cp. I have the pc and monitor and I know I need buttons, joysticks, trackball and the other things for the cp. What else? I also plan on buying saints book so if these answers are in there just let me know and I'll not pursue this any further here.

1. How many power supplies do I need? Do I need a seperate PS to run the I-Pac and other electronics for the cp or can they be run from the computer PS? If so what kind do I need?

2. I'm getting an I-Pac2 for the cp. Do I need a seperate emulator for the trackball and spinner? Such as an Opti-Pac? What other ones are there out there besides the Opti-Pac?

3. I've read about different sound systems people have put into their cabs. Is that something that has to be done or can you just come off the sound card and into a set of speakers? Is adding something like a surround system just something people do just to have great sound for their gaming experience?

I think that's it for now but if I have more I'll ask in the future. Thanks for the help that has been given so far in other questions.

Encryptor

Encryptor,

I can tell by some of your questions that your at the beginning of building a cabinet. Surprises are part of the build process. Your best bet is to do a little research and just jump right in... You'll probably do some things over (like all of us have) and wish you did some things different.

Thats just how it goes!

As for things I was surprised I needed:
Clips, Connectors, screws\bolts, tools, bondo, wood filler, wiring, power strips, painting supplies, photoshop skills, ps2 keyboard, LED's, time, correct version of roms, the list of surprises goes on and on

As for surround sound... I agree it's a waste if your going to just be running mame. However, 2.1 sounds excellent. Robotron literally shakes the house when I play it with 2.1. While mono sound will work.... 2.1 sounds so much better.

[ahofle]

Definitely stereo at the least (and the sub, while not arcade accurate, really makes games like Asteroids rock).  The Atari games like Marble Madness, Paperboy, Indiana Jones, Super Sprint (I really crank this one), etc all have EXCELLENT stereo sound.

[spacies]

Definitely stereo at the least (and the sub, while not arcade accurate, really makes games like Asteroids rock).  The Atari games like Marble Madness, Paperboy, Indiana Jones, Super Sprint (I really crank this one), etc all have EXCELLENT stereo sound.

Should have worded my reply better.
Surround sound, 5.1, is a waste of money.

You should run a good set of PC speakers with a sub. They are as cheaps as chips these days.
I like the Ozaki PC speakers. Cost about $18NZD which would be approx $12USD. They make a pretty good sound in a MAME cab. The little satellites can be easily removed from their plastic cases and mounted on your arcade cab. Another good thing about them is the satellite grills are flat to give you a nice finish and hide those ugly holes you cut.

 

[ahofle]

I like the Ozaki PC speakers. Cost about $18NZD which would be approx $12USD. They make a pretty good sound in a MAME cab. The little satellites can be easily removed from their plastic cases and mounted on your arcade cab. Another good thing about them is the satellite grills are flat to give you a nice finish and hide those ugly holes you cut.

Do you happen to have a link to the specific speakers you mentioned?  A friend is looking for some low profile ones for his MAME cab.  Thx!
(sorry for the thread hijack)

[spacies]

I like the Ozaki PC speakers. Cost about $18NZD which would be approx $12USD. They make a pretty good sound in a MAME cab. The little satellites can be easily removed from their plastic cases and mounted on your arcade cab. Another good thing about them is the satellite grills are flat to give you a nice finish and hide those ugly holes you cut.

Do you happen to have a link to the specific speakers you mentioned?  A friend is looking for some low profile ones for his MAME cab.  Thx!
(sorry for the thread hijack)

Sweet:  http://www.ozaki.com.tw/global/en/products/products_Spec.php?source=type&pID=21

Not sure where you buy them in the USA. I am listening to a set right now. Streaming Chronix Radio at 128kbs. They sound pretty darn good IMO for the price.

[Xam]

Gahhh! Don't get those if you like the thumping bass! I have a set that looks exactly like those (though they have a different name plate). They do okay for the mids and highs (would actually do really well if you want that authentic arcade sound) but the bass is horrible!

Course this is just my opinion. They would certainly work fine for any MAME application if deep bass is not on your agenda. You can pick up a set at Fry's for around $14.

Xam

[spacies]

They dont have thumping bass as such.
But when they are removed from there plastic cases they sound pretty good for the money.

Not sure how much they guy wants to spend but I have been more than happy with the results from these.

Besides, how loud do you need it? Just for that one time you crank it up to show off to your mates?   
Because loud sounds while playing annoys the crap out of me.

[miles2912]

Just keep reading the forums and it will start to click.  I read for a few months before even starting the design process.  The 2 major things that will influence your cab are

1)  Monitor size
2) Control Panel lay out

The monitor will dictate what size cab you can use and the CP layout will help you design what back end (mini-pac, opti pac, key wiz .. etc) you will need.  Depending on how many controls you will have, you might be able to get away with a mini-pac and save some money on the encoder.    Just design it and post the cp and I am sure a lot of us will help critique it and offer suggestions.  My advice is look at what has been done and copy it.

To answer your questions.   Get a good 450+ watt power supply for the cab/pc.  You only need 1.  Trackballs and spinners use different interfaces depending on which one you buy.  Some go thru a opti pac/mini pac and some are ps2 or usb.  Just depends.

Unless you want your cab to act as a juke box you can get away with cheapest speakesr you can find and the on-board sound should be good enough.  For the record I use my cab as a juke/karaoke box and I have a sound blaster audigy and some creative 2 +1 speakers and it sounds great.  The older games pre 1990ish use pretty basic sounds.. while most of the newer 1990+ games really sound great with an updated sound system.  When in doubt run mame on your home machine and give em a listen.

D-

[Timoe]

You dont really need an optical encoder.  Its just as easy to get a spinner or trackball today that has its own encoder and usb cable.

[spacies]

You need roms too, but none of us know where to get those     

[johnm160]

You need roms too, but none of us know where to get those     

Is that those dry noodle that come in a bag?

[Encryptor]

First of all let me say thank you all for your input. As leapinlew pointed out this is my first cab and I'm sure there will still be some surprises but I'd like to cut down the number as best I can by doing research and asking questions. I have been reading a ton of stuff here. That's why I asked about the power supply. I've seen it mentioned many times about power supplies and hooking things up to the PS so I thought I'd ask about it.

leapinlew - You don't happen to know where I can pick up some photoshop skills do you? *lol*

Timoe - I know there are spinners that come with pretty much everything in them but I love Tron and I'm going to have a seperate cp just for playing that game. I have an Tron spinner and joystick as well as a DOT push/pull spinner. I'm getting an aftermarket optic board for the spinner as I understand the originals were hard to hook up. I will probably get some other type of spinner for the main cp.

Anyone know if Oscar is ever going to take orders again?


miles2912 - I have a 20 inch Dell Ultrasharp monitor and the cp layout is going to be a basic 2 player cp (for now anyway). The cab itself is going to be a LuSiD design as I like the looks of that cab. Who knows. Depending on how this cab comes out I may build a dedicated Tron cab. I see a lot of the Tron pcb's on Ebay. But one at a time for now.

Again thanks for all your help.

Encryptor

[Dervacumen]

I tried to assemble everything I'd need before I started too but ended up in analysis paralysis and found it best to just get started.

I've had to purchase more supplies about 20 times now, including:

paint (3 times), wireties, usb extension cables, molex connectors, usb -> ps2 adapter, extra screws, plastic washers, standoffs, a slot cutter for my router, plexiglass and polycarbonate cut to fit, a poster, wall corner protection strips, angle aluminum, a 1 1/8" drill bit, a flush cutting bit, some black posterboard...

Geez.  I got tired of typing.

In all honesty, you can spend more time drawing up your plan than building the thing.  Nothing wrong with a good plan, but even steel erectors and carpenters make changes on the fly.

I did some "engineering" at ACE hardware just yesterday.

[Noobert]

You also need one of these 2 things:
either 1) a wife who will let you have time to work on your cab, or 2) to not have a wife.

As a newbie, I have found Saint's book extremely helpful.  Also I've found the answer to most of my questions with the "Search" function.

[WunderCade]

You need roms too, but none of us know where to get those     

Have you tried ?

Hope this helps. 

[shardian]

You need roms too, but none of us know where to get those     

If you want them free, then good hunting. If you want the complete updated collections that have been CMP'ed, try here:


Hope this helps.

 

You better get rid of that... or else you will be getting a visit from a mod...

The guy was joking...it is against the forum rules to discuss roms.

[whynotpizza]

> Anyone know if Oscar is ever going to take orders again?

[Encryptor] I think Oscar is out of business for good, although I have seen once in a blue moon an Oscar DOT on ebay - not very often though and very very expensive due to bidding wars.

If you want a DOT spinner, Apache Controls makes an outstanding next generation PUSH/PULL model. http://www.apachecontrols.com/

There is even a product review on Retroblast which goes into the details of this unit.
http://retroblast.com/reviews/apache-070106-01.html

I personally have an Oscar DOT and an Apache Blackhawk, and they are night and day when comparing. The Apache Controls is way better and comes with a full Optic controller board (primary option). I have a Blackhawk in my cabinet and it rocks for not only DOT but also regular spinner games like Tempest, etc. I don't even use the Oscar any more since I like the Blackhawk soooo much. Keep it more for nostalgia sake.

Some others as well have written reviews of the blackhawk.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=57329.0

    David

[leapinlew]

You need roms too, but none of us know where to get those     

lol... nice one spacies.

[Timoe]

Monitor bezel, Marquee retainer, drink holders, casters, t-molding.....

[NickG]

you might want wheels or leveling feet later

[Kremmit]

Sounds like you've been doing your homework if you already know you need a different optic for your Tron and DOT spinners.  There is another option, that won't force you to buy new optics, you can hack the originals:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=41803.0

As for interfacing your trackball(s) and spinner(s), there's the previously mentioned Opti-Pac and Mini-Pac, and there's also the Opti-Wiz from www.groovygamegear.com.  Or you can hack some mice.

I always find that everything uses twice as much wire as I anticipated.

I also always find that everything takes ten times as much time and money as I anticipated! 

[Encryptor]

Kremmit - I bought an optic board for the Tron spinner as the original wasn't there when I purchased it. I bought 2 of them from fixumdude so I'd have a spare. I made a bracket and mounted one after receiving them today (shown below).

"As for interfacing your trackball(s) and spinner(s), there's the previously mentioned Opti-Pac and Mini-Pac, and there's also the Opti-Wiz from www.groovygamegear.com.  Or you can hack some mice."

I was looking at the Opti-Wiz page.

My question is do you have to have an Opti-Wiz for each device? ie...1 for the trackball and a seperate one for the spinner? The description was a little confusing to me.

Thanks again for everyones help.

Encryptor

[Kremmit]

One Opti-Wiz will interface 3 optical axes- X, Y and Z.  That's good for 3 spinners @ one axis each, or one trackball (2 axes) and one spinner (1 axis).  The computer recognizes the X and Y axes as your mouse movement, and the Z-axis as the scroll wheel.  Thus, you'll want the trackball connected to the X and Y axes, and the spinner connected to the Z-axis.  You will need to be using a a recent version of MAME to take make use of the Z-axis for your spinner; older versions ignore it. 

The Opti-Pac has support for 4 optical axes, which the computer recognizes as the X and Y axes of two separate mice.  There is no Z-axis support.  In addition, the Opti-Pac allows you share one axis of each mouse with another device.  Example:  You connect two trackballs to your Opti-Pac; and then add two spinners to the "shared" inputs.  If you move the trackball first, the spinner goes dead, and the trackball is active.  It will stay this way until you don't move the trackball for (60 seconds?  30 seconds?  I forget. ) a while, and then the Opti-Pac will open up both the trackball again until you move one or the other, which will then become the active input.  Thus, you can connect two trackballs and two spinners to only 4 axes, but you can only use two devices at the same time. 

The Mini-Pac works just like the Opti-Pac, except it only has one pair of axes, so it's good for one trackball and one spinner, but only one is active at the same time.  And of course, it includes a keyboard encoder as well.

Hope that helps, and let us know if fixumdude's optic cards work with the Tron encoder wheel- I've read that some optics don't like the hole width/spacing on those.  Be good to know if his do the job.

[Angry_Radish]

If those don't work, I was able to use a green happ trackball board on my tron spinner, works great..

[kelemvor]

When you start to layout your CP, I'd also take a trip to a local arcade or bowling alley or some place that has a bunch of games.  You can stand in front of each oen to get a feel for the spacing of each player's controls as well as the spacing between each set.  This might be more helpful for a 4 player CP but they are all different and you might just find one certain setup that you just love and can then measure it and copy it.

[Encryptor]

Yee Haw! Just got home from work and my Project Arcade book has arrived!

Kremmit - Thank you very much for the explanation. It makes things much clearer now. The original thread below is from fixumdude. He told me when I pm'ed him about the optic boards that "BYOAC member HooPZ got his Tron spinner working with one of our boards and his Opti-Pac" so hopefully I won't have too much trouble when the time comes to hook mine up and test it.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=48855.0

Angry_Radish hopefully I won't have too much trouble. They've been proven to work with the Tron spinner but if not I have looked at many sites with various spinner/mouse hacks.

kelemvor - That's a great idea. There is an arcade in the mall not too far from me. I didn't even think of doing that. I've been playing with the cp designer I got from one of the sites I looked at.

Thanks for the great info and ideas.

Encryptor