Kodak Cabinet Into Mame Cabinet

[viet0wnage]

Background
Hello my name is Tuan Vo, I am  16 and I live in Portland, Oregon and I always been a fan of oldschool games including pacman, tanks, and tetris. Story goes that there is this "Kodak Photo Editing Machine Thingy Majig" in my basement which we were trying to get rid of. That's when I thought I can kill two birds with one stone, by saving the trouble of discarding the Cabinet at the same time converting it into a mame cabinet. This thing is perfect height and also perfect width for a LARGE monitor. About 6 feet tall, 2.5 feet deep, 4 feet wide. I am currently in the planning phase of what components will go into it, and the biggest decision right now is what kind of monitor/tv to use. My plan is to gut it, put in a new monitor, control panel, and decorate.





Control Panel
At first I wanted to go with a quad player panel but rethinking it, it would take to much time and money. This is why I decided to go with a x-arcade XXL dual player or tankstick. There basically the same except the XXL is bigger which is perfect for this size cabinet.

Other features
- I will upgrade my current PC to also use it as workstation. Probably to 4 gb ram, and good video card.
- 5.1 Surround, for movies and console games. One left and right of monitor. Large subwoofer in bottom center. Probably two more speakers behind where you stand.
- I will worry about decor later

Monitor
I want a 30"+ monitor but can't decide what kind of monitor. I plan to use this cabinet as a TV/Computer Workstation/Mame Cabinet/Console video games/PC Gaming. Arcade monitors is out of the question for console gaming and tv use because of size, cost, and resolution. Plasma tv won't be good because they might suffer from burn-in as computer us. That leaves either a computer monitor vs LCD TV. Please help me decide because they both have pros and cons. Please give me feedback on what kind of monitor should I use, again this thing is about 4 feet wide:

How Big A Monitor
Widescreen or 4:3
LCD TV Vs TFT LCD Vs CRT (Probably Not) Vs Etc.

[arcadefever]

 

well, you can play at least arkanoid on it, it look like that you already have 2 spinner on the panel 

[ablizno]

craziest mame convertion i have ever seen. Can not wait to see how this one turns out.

[IG-88]

If you can afford it you should probably go with an LCD. Do you really want to go 30+ inches? That might be a little big if you are standing real close to it to play. A 21 - 27 would be plenty big I would think.

You can't really use a widescreen with classic vertical games. If you stretched them to fit they would look silly and you would be wasting alot of "screen real estate" (on a 30+) playing them in their normal state. But if you watch more movies than playing games it may be worth it.

I think I'd put a 25" flat screen CRT in it (I don't care for the LCD look for games) de-cased if you have enough depth. It's hard to say without being there and looking at it. Maybe make some cardboard mock-up's and set them on it and step back and take a look.....

[Jack Burton]

I like it.   


Now, let's get real.  You want to put a 30" plus monitor and an X-arcade panel on this.  Well, if you are going to do that then you should go ahead and get a different cabinet or build one from scratch.  You'll save money and a headache in the long run.

BUT, there is nothing that keeps you from turning this thing into a MAME "cabinet".  I would personally stick a pc in there, buy a wireless keyboard and mouse, wire up the knobs somehow (don't really know how to do that kind of control off the top of my head), and go to town on some freakin Arkanoid! 

You can wire the controls around that monitor to be game select, coin, etc.

And is that a little trackball in between the knobs? 

[Namco]

Good Luck! I don't want to sound pessimistic, but that thing is going to be a nightmare to retrofit.  Cutting the plastic will be really hard; the plastic will melt and the cuts will look horrible. It won't support any weight and it will be tough to mount anything on it or in it.

Okay, okay I sound horribly pessimistic, I'm sorry. Anyway at the very least it'll be a good learning experience for you and you'll have a unique machine that nobody else has. Plus you'll be a PVC cutting masta!!!

[TOK]

I laughed when I saw that monitor, but after seeing the other pics, I think this could be a great project!
Since the monitor area is limited, and cutting the front would be difficult, I think I would just remove that whole front part.
Looking at the side shot, with the large monitor/control panel part removed, you're left with something a bit reminiscent of a Japanese candy cab.

 

[Ummon]

I just notice the 'cp' folds up. Hmmm. Anyways, I suggest gutting it, or looking all inside to see how things are fit and supported, before you make the decision to use it.

[severdhed]

looks like an interesting project...just be prepared for alot of work.   if you are going to go to the trouble of modifying the cabinet to support a larger monitor, why not build your own control panel as well?  i've use an x-arcade controller in my cabinet, and if i had it to do all over again, i would have just bought teh ipac and controls and built my own in the first place and saved myself alot of headaches.

[danny_galaga]

i say leave as much of the 'cp' as possible. utilise its shape as much as possible and DONT be going 'frankenpanel' on it. try and make the whole machine look as homogenous as possible. could look really cool (",)

[Ed_McCarron]

What, no one is going to yell at him for MAME'ing an original cab? 

Cool project.  Love it when someone applies some ingenuity and something useless gets reused.

[BASS!]

I know someone is going to shoot me down on this, but why gut the pannel? I see a space for a trackball, 2 spinners and space to surface mount 2 joysticks and buttons. I say work on the monitor area, and just drill right into the pannel to mount your controls. After that paint it all a cool color (like blue or orange) and mount a ultimarc coin door in the front.
All I can say is good luck and if you buy all the stuff and decide that it wont work you can always find a dead gutted cab for around $100.