FredMAME, Take 2

[FreddieD]

Before I start with this, let me thank you all so very much for the ideas that you all bounce off of each other through these forums.  It has been an incredible help and will continue to be in the future.

About 4 years ago I built my first MAME cabinet:



It was alright for a first cabinet.  I was happy with the electronics setup, and pleased enough with how I took a TV apart and mounted it (yes I know that's a huge no-no, but I couldn't help myself).  However, after taking a step back and looking at it, the woodworking job was incredibly shoddy, and after a few years I simply couldn't handle it anymore.  So, much of the lumber is being turned into fire wood, the electronics and such are being ripped out and going to be used in this new MAME project.

My upgrade goals for this project are:

• A real arcade monitor instead of a rigged television
• A much improved look to the casing, including t-molding in the proper areas
• A more efficient control panel layout

So, the first thing I sought was a CAD design of the new machine.  I'm a software engineer by trade, and while if I make a mistake on software I can perfectly fix it with a delete key, I've ruined a piece of lumber if I make the same mistake with woodworking.  So, I'd like to design this thing out as much as I can before actually building anything.  It turns out that Google Sketchup is the *perfect* software for this, as it allows you to put together some really nice designs but doesn't require it's own degree in order to use.  Click on any of these pictures to get much larger sizes.



The Structure
Unlike my first version, I'm going to build an internal frame with 2x4's that bear the burden of structural integrity.

The Monitor
As I mentioned previously, I took a regular 27" television apart and mounted it into my arcade.  While I was able to save money by using a TV that I already owned, it looked horribly amateurish inside the cabinet, and I spent far too much time trying to figure out a clever way to turn it on or off.  For this new MAME, I'm using a Wells Gardner D9400 27" arcade monitor.  Now while their specs give fairly detailed dimensions, there were still a few little questions I needed answered about the nuances of the hardware.  And while I could always shift boards around in my CAD, the monitor dimensions themselves were concrete and immovable.  Incidentally, the thing is so heavy it's almost immovable in other ways, but that's for a different story

So anyways, in order to have peace of mind that I wasn't guessing on something that I would later regret, I bought one first.  I plugged it in to my CPU and gave it a naked whirl just to see how it looks with MAME.  WOW, it was so crisp.  Way more crisp than my television with S-video conversion.  One other thing to note is that it showed both horizontal and vertical raster games perfectly.  I had read that someone with a D9200 model had a subpar display with vertical raster games with their normal video card and needed to get an ArcadeVGA card in order for it to all look nice.  This may simply be an improvement with the D9400 series, but both raster types looked just fine with my puny Riva TNT2 Ultra video card.

And the other nice thing about a dedicated arcade monitor?  There is no on/off switch!  You plug it in, and it's on.  You unplug it, and it's off.  This will make my life so much easier when connecting it with a SmartStrip.

The Control Panel
By angling the 3rd and 4th players, I am able to trim off some of the corners of the control panel, making it look a little less like an airplane wing.  Also, I'll be taking my trackball apart and mounting the bottom piece, removing the need for the trackball plate.  Not that a trackball plate is the worst thing in the world, but it was eating at me.  And while one alternative that I found was to route out 1/16" into your CP to allow the plate to sit flush, it would make my 2 1/4" trackball feel even smaller.  Plus this way if I want to upgrade to a 3" trackball, I can simply route a larger hole.

The Coin Door
It's not in the CAD drawing, but I have a dummy coin door that I originally just bought for aesthetic purposes.  However, I intend to rig a bracket behind it along with the proper switch such that pushing the coin return button will act as a coin insert.

Electronics
I have an I-Pac4 board for mapping buttons and joysticks into keys, and an Opti-Pac to turn my trackball into a mouse.

Computer
I will be using a Pentium D processor with 2 gig of RAM.  This is really overkill, but I recently upgraded my regular home machine and I needed something to do with my old computer!

Remote Access
Instead of opting for a keyboard tray or anything of the like, remote access will be done through the network, using the free RealVNC virtual network computing software.  The only times I will need to use a keyboard that is physically connected to the machine will be if i'm upgrading my operating system, messing with BIOS settings, or troubleshooting some horrible problem so bad that I can't connect remotely.  In these cases, I will have a USB extension cable tacked near the coin door on the inside, so a simple opening of the coin door and plugging a USB keyboard in will do the trick.

At this point I'm finished with the design phase.  This weekend a friend and I are going to haul the necessary lumber into my basement and construction will begin.  If any of you have any suggestions on things you might do differently, or if you would like me to attach my Google Sketchup drawings file, please let me know!  Thanks!

[DJ Infinity]

Before buying a WG monitor I strongly suggest reading this thread
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64564.0
Get one from Nieman Displays

[FreddieD]

Thank you very much for the heads up.  Unfortunately, the monitor has already been purchased and is sitting in my basement as I type.  I bought that first in order to verify a few minor measurements before considering my CAD complete.  I suppose at this point I can hope for the best