My Ghetto MAME Idea

[Dai Shan]

I want a MAME arcade area in my office, but 1) I don't have the funds for a full-sized cabinet, and if I did have the patience to save up for one, it would annoy me that I couldn't rotate the 20" widescreen LCD monitor I want to use. I have one for my main PC and while it's not true to back-in-the-day, I like the old games filling the screen in both vertical and horizontal scenarios.

But I DO want the feel of standing (or sitting on a barstool from time to time) like you would w/ a free standing original cabinet.

So my idea was to just have a 20" widescreen LCD, a computer, 2.1 speakers and a SlikStik Classic setup. But without a cabinet, the only idea I can think of is to build two Metro shelving units from The Container Store. One would house the monitor, speakers, and computer, and a 2nd one in front of it would just be a shelf for just the joystick.

Ghetto, yeah, but I can't think of anything remotely cooler that would let me have the feel of standing at a machine, while still allowing me the ability to spin the monitor for vertical and horizontal style games at will.

Any comments or ideas? I'm totally open here. Call me an idiot and point out problems if you'd like. I don't mind.

P.S. - I have no woodworking skills or even an area to do woodworking to do something custom.

[Bluedeath]

Just place the speakers on the side of the display and place the joystick and the display on a shelf more or less where they should be in a cabinet. then build a cardboard mockup of the cabinet front.

[shardian]

Any reason you are using a widescreen monitor? I am assuming it is because you just have it sitting around, because 99% of all arcade games are in a 4:3 format, horizontally and vertically.

[Dai Shan]

Any reason you are using a widescreen monitor? I am assuming it is because you just have it sitting around, because 99% of all arcade games are in a 4:3 format, horizontally and vertically.

I understand that a widescreen monitor isn't true to the original, but honestly after a few minutes on my office 20.1" Dell, I just don't notice the differences and instead I really get into the game and enjoy the extra size I get vertically on games like Galaga, and horizontally on games like Robocop. Kinda like how on a widescreen DVD being shown on my crappy 27" 4:3 tube TV I can ignore the black bars quickly and focus on the movie itself.

Not to mention the fact that I can't find a 20" 4:3 that rotates. Even if one exists I doubt it would be as cheap as the 20.1" wide Dell I have my eye on.

[Dai Shan]

Just place the speakers on the side of the display and place the joystick and the display on a shelf more or less where they should be in a cabinet. then build a cardboard mockup of the cabinet front.

Unfortunately I can't find a single shelf that would be wide enough and deep enough for the entire setup of joystick, speakers, and display...while giving the height that mimicks a standard cab.

I don't quite get what you mean by mocking up a cabinet front with cardboard when using free-standing shelving. Although I'm sure I lack the creativity to make anything look appealing out of cardboard.