Ghostbusters themed Cabinet.

[rahum]

I have been wanting to build a cabinet for years now, and FINALLY one of my good friends told me that his friend was getting rid of his "half finished" Mame unit. 

There is much work to be done, and we were coming up with ideas for a theme, and we decided on a ghostbusters theme.

I think the idea is that we are going to give it a look of an Ecto-1.  GB logos on the side, white paint job, and of course, the top "rack" complete with random gizmos....

Now this project is FAR FAR FAR from being complete, as I just got the cabinet.

And of course, I'm VERY new to all of this.  So I will ask a few questions, and continue to search for my answers.....

I figured I would start with a 4-player arcade, why not start big?  So I'm curious.... Ive been reading, and it seems to me that its smartest to have 2 of the controls 6 buttons, and 2 of them 4 buttons.  Is it almost pointless to have all 4players 6 buttons?

And I was curious what Keyboard encoder would work best for a setup like this.  I'm not quite sure how many keys you can input on an encoder.

Any advice would be great, and I'm REALLY looking forward to starting this project.

Once we begin, pictures will follow.  WOOHOO!

[Sir Auros]

ipac4 or the GroovyGameGear equivalent is what you want to use as an encoder, and there's no point in having more than 4 buttons on players 3 & 4. The only games that I can think of that even use 4 buttons and are 4-player are the D&D arcade games.

[gonzo90017]

This should give you some ideas in the artwork department.

[Turnarcades]

Could be very cool, if done tastefully. Take care to protect that white finish well though, as it'll get dirty very easily.

[unclet]

You can always get the KE72 encoder (or KE72T - with trackball connections) from Hagstrom Electronics as well.  I like my KE72 encoder a lot. 

http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/

They also make a new KE-USB108 encoder.  Seems to have trackball, spinner, 2 programmable rotary, and 3 analog (pot) X,Y,Z ports as well. 

[helpmebuild]

This should give you some ideas in the artwork department.

WHOA!

Once you get a few pages in and see the finished product you realise this guy is no joke. That is some serious talent on that guy. Between then original artwork and then his ability to animate and vectorize his images and color them, that is rediculously good.

rahum: you've got your work cut out for you man lol

[Daniel B.]

With the upcoming release of the new ghostbusters game I too considered a ghostbuster themed cab. My only "good" idea , IMO was to have the open ghost trap in the bottom center of the cp, with the lights and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- flying up. I was going to use a translucent yellow trackball lit with yellow/green leds and add some design elements in the cp art to make it appear as if it were a "trapped ghost"

EDIT: Just saw the link posted prior. That is some AMAZING side art. I love the gb2 logo for the player 2 start!

[ChadTower]

I thoroughly approve and encourage a Ghostbusters cab.  Love it.

I have a KE72 on the MAME CP in my house... it's a great encoder, not quite as friendly as some others, but very powerful.

[ratzz]

This should give you some ideas in the artwork department.

WOW! That artwork is fantastic!

[Havok]

You can always get the KE72 encoder (or KE72T - with trackball connections) from Hagstrom Electronics as well.  I like my KE72 encoder a lot. 

http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/

They also make a new KE-USB108 encoder.  Seems to have trackball, spinner, 2 programmable rotary, and 3 analog (pot) X,Y,Z ports as well. 

Wow - just checked this out, has some really cool features. But Gulp! $169!