If you had to buy a pre-built Arcade for MAME which would u recommend?

[Gavica]

so here is my dilemma, I live in an apartment building so I dont have the space nor the tools to build an arcade cabinet from scratch.

Second, I don't have much of the skills to build one and will probably end up looking like @ss.

thirdly, it is too much time consuming, I rather just dropp $600 on the thing and be done with it.

I already have a spare PC for MAME, a 19" PC Monitor and an Arcade stick (HANAHO SE) which I don't know if it will fit in either the prebuilt I've found.

here are a few options I found:

http://www.quasimoto.com/quasicade-ex.php ($600 shipping included)

what I don;t understand from the description is if the Arcade Controllers are included or I have to provide my own?
And the plus on this one, is I believe it is upgradable with the stuff they sell there so it looks nicer.


http://www.mameroom.com/product_UltimateArcadeII.asp ($600 roughly with shipping)

this I believe you either must provide your own joystick or get the xarcade adaptor and get an xcarde which i don't have.



http://www.pcarcadeusa.com/SLIMPCARCADE.htm ($price?)


this one looks nice because it is very small, unfortunatly there isnt much info yet, as for price, and what is included?

[Crax]

Don't know where you live, but it might be cheaper/easier to find a used cab in the classifieds or on craigslist and mame it

[Gavica]

south florida, unfortunately havent seen any on craigslits

[ahofle]

A friend of mine just got a UAII kit and had it put together in a day.  It uses simple cam locks like you see in those assemble-it-yourself furniture kits.  I was surprised at how sturdy it was.  You have several options for control panels, but the one horrible thing I found about it is that the control panel shelf is not sloped toward the player (it's parallel with the floor).  So any control panel you put on there, you have to make sure it's sloped.  Really bad design flaw if you ask me.  My friend ended up building the control panel himself, with the slope.

[Gavica]

A friend of mine just got a UAII kit and had it put together in a day.  It uses simple cam locks like you see in those assemble-it-yourself furniture kits.  I was surprised at how sturdy it was.  You have several options for control panels, but the one horrible thing I found about it is that the control panel shelf is not sloped toward the player (it's parallel with the floor).  So any control panel you put on there, you have to make sure it's sloped.  Really bad design flaw if you ask me.  My friend ended up building the control panel himself, with the slope.

the hotrod stick i have is sloped, but will it fit in that thing?

[ahofle]

Take some measurements of it and compare with the Product Specifications from their site.  If it's big enough to cover the opening it should be fine (you can just use some L-brackets to secure it).

[Gavica]

Take some measurements of it and compare with the Product Specifications from their site.  If it's big enough to cover the opening it should be fine (you can just use some L-brackets to secure it).

cool, thanks for the info.

another question about that cabinet, can it hold the weight of a full 19" pc monitor? the one I have is very haeavy, and im afreaid this cabinets wont be able to hold it.

[ahofle]

My friend currently has a 25" TV in his which I imagine weighs more than a 19" monitor. 

[Gavica]

cool

[tommy]

I live in florida aswell. It's very hard to find anyone who is selling any kind of arcade related items anywhere. It was hard to find anyone selling arcade related items even when arcade related items were being used pretty much anywhere at the hight of arcades in general.

The only thing i can tell you is when you do happen to see a rare arcade machine somewhere in the public is to find some kind of a phone number on the machine from the person who put it there. I have done this a few times and found some decent guys who would sell me an odd pcb or cab when i called.

Paying over $300.00 to ship a huge wood box is something i could never do. Find it local, somehow.

[fjl]

Wow, that slim arcade looks like it will easily topple over while playing. Is it supposed to be attached to a wall or something?

I kind of like the Quasimoto arcade. Its one of the first pre-built arcades who's style doesn't make me want to vomit. Could still use a few tweaks though. But of course that's just me.

[BobA]

Paying over $300.00 to ship a huge wood box is something i could never do. Find it local, somehow.

The UAII is only 125 shipping in the US.   It is a good solid base if you do not want to get involved in woodworking.   Send them an email and ask about Hotrod II se mounting.  I saw a review of all the panels on Retroblast and you can compare the size.  I think the hotrod and x arecade are similar in size.

[Gavica]

so is UAII the best out of all of them in the budget range?

[BobA]

Looks like they sell a base for the x arcade to mount.  Compare the size of your hotrod to the x arcade and see if it will work for you.  This mounts a portable cp to a fixed base for mounting on the uaII.   The price with shipping is within your price requirement but I cannot say it is the best as I do not know if it fits all your needs.  You can find a review of the cab on retroblast and the are many others who have copied this cab to build their own version.  Remember this is BYOAC so asking which is the best will always get the response "build your own".

[StephenH]

Try HanaHo Games at www.hanaho.com

[Gavica]

yeah, those are nice, but unfortunately the cheapet one is like $3000, i am not very wealthy, my budget is only of about $600. 

[Scottk]

I just bought the UAII, and built it in a day as well.
It is really very sturdy, and very large!

It can handle up to a 27inch screen, so it can very easily handle your 19inch monitor.

Well worth the 600 bucks, as I, like you, don't have the space or time, (or the skill) to build
your own from scratch.

Shipping was 120 bucks I think, but considering its like 145 pounds, thats not too bad.
(4 boxes @ 40 pounds, and a small box at 5 pounds)

[btp2k2]

Another thing you could do is get the UAII with a standard two player control panel, then take apart the Hot-Rod (Which if it is anything like it's cousin the X-Arcade should be very easy) and use the parts in the panel from Mameroom.