Project: One. My first Mame Cab.

[mrtie]

Hi everyone

I'm new here and starting a project that I have been meaning to get around to for a few years. My Cab project started its life as conversion cab for single slot Neo Geo that I bought quite a few years back when I was 17. The Neo served me well and got me into the arcade scene, but I had been thinking of having a bit more expandable and universal device so when I read about people building MAME cabs I was intrigued to say the least. So I figured with my tax return this year I would consolise my Neo and use its cab as a jumping point to build a MAME machine.

I plan on adding picture of what I have done so far and keep you updated as the project rolls forward.

Currently I have the machine running but barely together and still have a lot of work ahead of me.

Specs are as follows:
Asus A8N32-sli deluxe
AMD 4800 X2
nvidia 7950GX2
3gb of DDR400
dvd burner
400gb sata
40gb ide
wireless card

a 20" 4:3 lcd

creative 2.1 system(Speakers are in the marquee and the sub is right behind the coin door.

an x-arcade dual stick(I know you guys are a big fan of building your own CP's but having used a X-arcade before I enjoyed the feel of the unit and really like thats it is modular so I can use it else where If I so choose.)

Work I have left to do:
1. Build a permanent mount for the PC guts inside the upper part of the cab.
2. Cut a hole in the back panel for mounting a 120mm fan for intake of air.
3.Mount 3 80mm fans onto the top vent to push hot air out.
4. Tap a hole for the power button.
5.Cut a hole for the DVD player, so I can easily put my ps1,ps2,DC etc games in the system.
6. Cut the front and back off my old CP so I can fill in the space around the X-arcade.
7.Drill a hole in the bottom of the CP tray so I can run my speaker control there and glue/velcro it under there so it's hidden and easy to adjust.
8. Rewire my marquee light to a 3 prong so I can use it again.
9. Make a new marquee as the NeoGeo one doesn't feel right anymore.
10. Paint my runners.
11. Perhaps produce some side art for the cab.
12. Get a front end shelled and running, for far too many emulators...lol.


I still Have a lot of work left to be done but my ultimate goal for the project is a cab that can play through my history of gaming, emulate my large collection of home console systems along with my MAME etc, and also have access toe wireless internet game play as well. I'm aware that the PC specs are insanely overkill for any MAME application, but I'm also going to running DC, PS2, and GC emulation as there respective emulators have seen some great leaps in maturity lately. So if not tonight then tomorrow I should have some pictures up in it's present, ghetto but working form. My question to you guys(and gals) would be which front end is best suited to deal with 5-10 emulated systems and a few PC game extensions as well? I have read positive things about AtomicFE and have been messing around a little with but wish I could find like wiki for it that goes a bit more in depth. So if anyone has any suggestions for front end, feel free to let me know or anything about the build I should think about adding etc.

Thanks for reading and thanks for letting me be a part of your community.

-Kevin

[ablizno]

I think MameWah is wonderful, its a bit wierd to figure out how to get it started but after reading the wiki its quite easy and it looks nice as well.