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Top 10 Mame mistakes that keep getting copied from one machine to another.
paigeoliver:
Ok, I was thinking and I decided that a good topic for discussion might be the top 10 Mame mistakes that keep getting copied from one machine to another. And of course for almost every one of these there will be a few exceptions where they are not mistakes, but not many.
#1. The two piece cabinet. I am not sure who is originally responsible for this design, in which the top half of the cabinet bolts onto the bottom half. It might have been neat for a one off design, but real games were not made this way, it really complicates the building of the cabinet, and makes it weigh a lot more. I think the idea is that it might somehow make the machine easier to move. If ease of movement is your concern than you are better off building with plywood instead of MDF.
#2. The notch at the back of the cabinet near the ground. Not sure who came up with this one either, although it is often combined with the two peice cabinet. All this notch does is make the machine harder to build, less stable, and much harder to move since you cannot get a dolly under a notched cabinet.
#3. The notch at the front of the cabinet. I see this one on cabinets with large panels, where the cabinet will bulge out on the front about a foot from the ground, and the the panel itself will bulge out past the bulge. Once again, same issues as the notch in the back of the cabinet, added compexity, less stability, and now you can't get a dolly under the front of the thing either.
#4. Cabinets with internal frames. Arcade cabinets do not need internal frames made out of 2x4s. It is just added weight with no functionality.
#5. Angled joysticks. 4 player machines did NOT angle the joysticks for player 3 and 4. The only post 1977 game us researchers could find that did this was Mercs, and playing Mercs on a side position is painful.
#6. Too much depth in the control panels. I see this a lot control panels that are just WAY too deep for no good reason. If you want to have lots of Golden Tee room you are better off just leaning your monitor back than you are having a panel that is 2 or 3 feet deep. Even dedicated 4 player machines usually didn't have panels that deep, and rarely had panels that extended more than a few inches off the side or front of the cabinet.
#7. Grafting large panels onto classic cabinets. This can be done with a slightly larger panel and still be decent. But I see it done wrong about 30 times for every time I see it done right. In worst case scenarios this makes for cabinets that are physically unstable and just waiting to tip over.
#8. Adding a dedicated 4-way, but using the WRONG one. The happ fighter sticks might have a 4-way mode on them but that mode is useless for actual 4-way games, it is really only useful for modern puzzle games, but modern puzzle games actually play fine with 8-way sticks.
#9. Tiny monitor, with a piece of black construction paper bezel. Your monitor should be the single largest expense in your cabinet, unless you are doing a really strange project. Your monitor should mostly fill the monitor bay in your cabinet. General rule of thumb is that a 1 player cabinet under 22" wide can use a 13" or 15" monitor. 23" to 25" wide needs a 19" minimum (21" if using a computer monitor), and larger than that should have a 27" or larger display.
The black piece of construction paper looks a lot better if you at least spray paint the plastic casing of that PC monitor black.
#10. Using various "hacks" when they just are not needed anymore. This is not 1998 anymore. Just say no to keyboard hacks, gamepad hacks, I'd even say to avoid mouse hacks. The real hardware is available to hook up everything these days, and it isn't even expensive. I have seen enough hacks self destruct that I just can't recommend using them at all.
richms:
nothing wrong with the gamepad hacks, makes for simple USB hookup without buying anything else.
Keyboards, well yeah. Admin buttons only in my cab. Unsuitable for playing even with diodes.
mwatson:
Noob Comment: In regards to using the "wrong" 4-way stick, I take it the Happ Ultimate 4-way falls in that category?
*sigh* Serves me right for ordering before I did sufficient research :banghead:
btp2k2:
Yeah, what is wrong with gamepad hacks?
I am in the process of making a cabinet running my Sega Dreamcast...you got a better solution than a gamepad hack?
paigeoliver:
--- Quote from: mwatson on March 13, 2007, 01:52:37 am ---Noob Comment: In regards to using the "wrong" 4-way stick, I take it the Happ Ultimate 4-way falls in that category?
*sigh* Serves me right for ordering before I did sufficient research :banghead:
--- End quote ---
Yes it does. Last I checked Happ had two serviceable 4-way sticks available. The replacement stick for the Nacmo reunion and the Happ Universal stick (also sold under a dozen different names by other companies).
As for gamepad hacks. Yes, they are required if you are making a console based cabinet (although you should really ask yourself why you would be making a console based cabinet), otherwise avoid like the plague. They are fragile little beasts.