MINI MAME Cabinet for my father. Need ideas.

[audiomidiman]

Ok, here is the deal. My father was very close to picking up a Centipede a couple of weeks ago when I went to pickup my Donkey Kong Jr. but he ended up in the hospital. He is now scheduled for caradic artery surgery in March and has other things to worry about. I put my MAME project on hold a little bit while I look for a cabinet to put my computer in. I have the front end working and MAME working great. In the meantime, I'm thinking it might be fun to do a bartop or some sort of table top arcade machine for my father. He really loves centipede so a track ball would be in order. However, we would want a Joystick and a few buttons. As far as the monitor, I'm not sure what to do, possibly a 15" CRT? or am I better off looking for a 15 or 17" LCD?

Anyone have any plans for me to accomplish this inexpensively? I have 1-2 450 MHz Pentium II that I can install in there. I would probably need to pickup an inexpensive monitor. I would also need a trackball, 4/8 way joystick, buttons and something like an iPac to accept these items. If it turns out good, I'll probably make two and forget about making a full upright.

After I start w/ the project I might get my dad involved because he will not be able to bowl for the rest of the season after his surgery.

I appreciate any ideas or thoughts on this project. I do have the Project Arcade book so I have my simple answers. I'm just looking for inspiration.

Bill

[leapinlew]

Check out all the bartop designs in the PA forum. Lots of people have built bartops. You can borrow from their designs.

You could also build just a control panel and mount the computer inside it and have it connect to a TV. You may want to check out World Class Bowling - especially if your dad can't bowl for a while.

[javeryh]

I hope your dad is OK.  If I were building a bartop (and believe me, I will at some point) I would probably use an LCD monitor instead of a CRT one.  I think there will be less of a space issue going with an LCD and you could make the overall design more compact (which is the whole point of a bartop, IMO).  A lot of bartops that use CRTs are almost as deep as a full upright cab because they have to be.  LCDs are also much lighter so you'd be able to move the thing a lot easier too.

[Kaytrim]

For your dad I would defiantly recommend using a LCD screen because of the weight savings.  Also to give the best versatility for 4-way, 8-way and other joystick games I would go with the Ulitmark 360 or the GGG 49-way joystick with interface card which should be out soon.  Go with a 2 /14" trackball to save some space and several buttons to round out the CP controls.  Look at the Nintendo bartop over in the Projects forum for a nice layout of the controls.

Good luck with your builds and hope your dad is doing better soon. 

TTFN 
Kaytrim

[vrf]

Yeah, do the LCD thing. Saves a ton of weight.