How much money do you have in your project?

[georgemcfly]

I'll start it off.

Buy or build cab?    Buy, 1983 Fast draw upright
Price?   $50

Screen?   19" Monitor
Price of screen?   Already had it

Computer?  P4 2.8, 1GB of ram and some 7200HD I have
Price of computer?    None, was spare

Controls?   Happ controls probably
Price of controls?  Around 65-80$

Controller?  Either Wiz or I-pac
Other electronics? $40

Software or other costs?  Will try out Maximus Arcade, if so thats 25$ I think

Supplies, paint etc? A few bucks for wire, ends, sand paper and brushes.

I can cheaply build this for about 175$ my cost. If I buy the software or spend more somewhere else I'll still stay around 250$.

Loads less than my RC cars or XBox 360, or Wii, or my Mustang.... all of which I put on hold while I build this thing.

[javeryh]

I probably put in over $1,000 into my last one.  After building a few I can tell you this - whatever you think your budget is at the beginning - double it at least.

[gatordad]

I can't tell ya........ my wife might read this.



More than a couple hundred bucks 

[georgemcfly]

I know the double your budget bit, which is why I AIM low, rather than realistically. If i said it'd cost me 500$ I'd spend a grand. So I'll say it's going to cost me 250$

[Ginsu Victim]

Though we've had a few threads like this already, without a breakdown of items, around $800. In September I'll get a new PC and bump that figure to around $1,000.

[missioncontrol]

if you have to ask, then this isn't the right hobby for you

[Ginsu Victim]

I can cheaply build this for about 175$ my cost. If I buy the software or spend more somewhere else I'll still stay around 250$.

Good luck with that. Shows us the receipts when you're done. 

(Says the man whose budget was $250. "Yes baby, $250 on the arcade, that's all I'll spend." $800 later....whoopsy!)

[TAG]

Controls?   Happ controls probably
Price of controls?  Around 65-80$

That part's probably possible if you're not planning on a spinner, trackball, or specialized joysticks, but I've read that shipping charges if you order direct from Happ might eat up that budget!

[Ginsu Victim]

Probably not ordering direct. If he's considering it, though, we should warn him:

DON'T!

[javeryh]

Also, I don't see any budget for the marquee/artwork, t-molding, coin door, monitor glass, power strip, speakers and some other typical stuff.  You said you paid $50 for a cabinet but depending on the condition it might take a lot to restore and unless you got a great deal on it I'm betting an old $50 cab from 1983 is beat up from the feet up.

[Paul Olson]

After 4 years of buying parts, I probably have about $3000 into mine. It could be more, but I will stick to that figure because it makes me feel a little better.

If you want to do a low cost build, figure out what you want your cab to do, then build it and play it. If you keep looking at new ideas, it will become a money pit quick.

To me, that is half the fun. I want mine to be able to do everything. Everything is very expensive. 

You will find that a wico 4-way is great for all 4-way games. I know this, but I still want the actual sticks. Because of this, in addition to my pair of wicos, I have a nintendo stick, pacman stick, galaga stick, 2 joust sticks, 4 karate champ sticks, a reunion stick (probably going to sell this one, etc. I think there are more 4-ways, but you get the idea.

I think most people start off thinking they are going to do a cheap build. Some actually do, and some of them are happy with the results. Don't be surprised if you blow right past your budget; just try to do it over time, it will make it easier to handle.

Have fun either way. Try to get the wife/ girlfriend to play some games, they will complain a bit less. 

[Kangum]

I have about 1200 into my pacman coctail. that was parts alone i had a spare computer. In the begining i thought it would cost like half that.

my next project im estimating about 1750. now that ive done it before i feel this estimate is alot closer. This time around i will be building a custom machine for it rather then recycle. the woodwork is the hard part so i will tackle that first and build the computer for it when its done.

[georgemcfly]

Also, I don't see any budget for the marquee/artwork, t-molding, coin door, monitor glass, power strip, speakers and some other typical stuff.  You said you paid $50 for a cabinet but depending on the condition it might take a lot to restore and unless you got a great deal on it I'm betting an old $50 cab from 1983 is beat up from the feet up.

Restore will be 2 boards that have water damage *top actually* , sand and paint. Then it needs a new lock for the rear.

The cab has great glass, coin door, I have a power strip APC smart power, Boston Acoustics speakers, all the hardware for PC I could need besides a small keyboard if I want to leave on in it *not planning on it*.

As for art work, I'll keep the Fast Draw marquee and the rest will be black.


I'm not arguing that its possible or plausable, just that my plans are simple. Was going to build control panel to run on PC, but had everything except cab to put it in. So the only added cost to my plan is the cab. I figure this will be my test. If i get it running and never play it again, I wasted little money. If I want to make it better, I'll build my next cab and do a nicer 4 player unit or possible a mini arcade for my kids.

Time proves all things. We'll see if I can do it for that much. Thanks for the info.

[Ginsu Victim]

Plan on paying for it with money from your book?

[ChadTower]

Hey you, get your damn hands off my joystick.

[ahofle]

 

I can cheaply build this for about 175$ my cost.

Hello?!? [knocks on head] Hello, anybody home??!  Come on think, McFly, THINK!
 

[ChadTower]

Hello?!? [knocks on head] Hello, anybody home??!  Come on think, McFly, THINK!
 

Maybe he gets his parts from Iranians in VW busses.

[Ginsu Victim]

Afraid to spend money, dad...dad...daddio?

What's the matter, McFly.....CHICKEN?!?

[ChadTower]

Afraid to spend money?

What's the matter, McFly.....CHICKEN?!?

You mean you have to use your hands to play his cab?  That's like a baby's toy!

[ahofle]

At any rate, building this cabinet...is your density.....I mean destiny.

[ChadTower]

SLACKER!

[georgemcfly]

Glad to see I could bring some smiles to a forum filled with so much negativism.

I mean come on, if you knew your arcade would cost 1200$ when you planned on 600$ would you still have started it? Or better yet would your wife have let you start it

I gotta START reasonable. Or at least make it appear reasonable to the wife.

[cadmium]

Lets see

$100 A gutted Phoenix cab about 4 years ago
$50 For expenses in moving cab around from apartment to garage to new house basement
$340 For new PC (with shipping)
$50 Buttons and joysticks
$50 IPAC (with shipping)
$10 Wood for CP
$25 For Maximus Arcade
$30 Misc wires, screws, etc
$0 Donated Monitor

[georgemcfly]

Lets see

$100 A gutted Phoenix cab about 4 years ago
$50 For expenses in moving cab around from apartment to garage to new house basement
$340 For new PC (with shipping)
$50 Buttons and joysticks
$50 IPAC (with shipping)
$10 Wood for CP
$25 For Maximus Arcade
$30 Misc wires, screws, etc
$0 Donated Monitor

see this is what I was asking for. You've got 655$. Take PC cost, and 100$ off of the price of the cab and its 215$. Its just odd that a 250 $ budget it laughed at.

Its alright though. Like I said, time will tell. If it cost me 250 and i hate it, then its not bad. if it cost me 2 grand and i love it, it'll be worth it.

Still appreciate the info, and laughs.

[ahofle]

I mean come on, if you knew your arcade would cost 1200$ when you planned on 600$ would you still have started it? Or better yet would your wife have let you start it

I think the problem is really that it never ends.  Upgrades, cool new features, new controls, etc.

Oh...and
"Whew! Chad!! Time to change that oil!"

[Flake]

Well in my opinion, to say your cab doesnt cost much because you already have purchased parts in the past (speakers, computer, etc.) and they are simply "lying around" is a fallacy.  You purchased those parts at some point (so it costs you money then) and you incur an opportunity cost after implementing them into your design in that by doing so you cant use them for anything else (say like a jukebox).  

So just because you spent the money over a long period of time rather than from the point you decided to go ahead with the arcade project doesnt mean you actually are spending less.  

Not trying to rain on your parade though.  

My wife tells me I have a bad habit of pointing these little things out and that its annoying as hell.

For purposes of this thread, I have spent about $1850 on my cabinet.  Oh, add $35 to that for the Logitech Driving Force Pro PC steering wheel I just bought on E-bay.

[ChadTower]

My wife tells me I have a bad habit of pointing these little things out and that its annoying as hell.

She also says you should make like a tree and get outta here.

[georgemcfly]

Its not annoying at all. I argue that I did not spend money on the parts that I have.

The 19" monitor is one we upgraded at work so we were going to throw away. The system is the same way. Was missing a HD, I have many that I have pulled from systems that were given to me or i upgraded someone elses drive. So this was no cost.

The speakers I did spend money on. In early 2002 I paid 40$ for them and used them up until  months ago. So you figure depreciation in and its free b/c i meant to throw them away but instead they got stuck in my shop. The power strip cost me nothing, the tools were my dads or my friends, the shop i will build it in, i already have.

Although i appreciate your pointing out why my idea of cost doesn't match yours, you are wrong

[Flake]

Its not annoying at all. I argue that I did not spend money on the parts that I have.

The 19" monitor is one we upgraded at work so we were going to throw away. The system is the same way. Was missing a HD, I have many that I have pulled from systems that were given to me or i upgraded someone elses drive. So this was no cost.

The speakers I did spend money on. In early 2002 I paid 40$ for them and used them up until  months ago. So you figure depreciation in and its free b/c i meant to throw them away but instead they got stuck in my shop. The power strip cost me nothing, the tools were my dads or my friends, the shop i will build it in, i already have.

Although i appreciate your pointing out why my idea of cost doesn't match yours, you are wrong

Well I didnt presume to know your exact situation and my post was more general in nature.  Yes I would agree that if you got your parts for free then you obviously have no cost basis in them.  I have seen others post that their projects cost them nothing because they have parts lying around that they purchased years ago and it was really meant to combat that argument.  Congrats on your low cost project.  I wish I could have gotten away with a $500 cabinet.

I would like to think of a witty Back to the Future line to counter ChadTower but I think they have all been used up in this thread......so.....if you were being serious go --smurf-- yourself, it not then I thought it was pretty funny.

[leapinlew]

The only one I could get under $250 needed no artwork, little t-molding, already had a good monitor and ipac in it when I bought it.

I've done a few machines around $300 out of pocket, because I had quite a few left over parts from various projects.

An arcade cabinet for under $250 is like a car under $500. You can do it, as long as you have the proper expectations.

[Jack Burton]

My cab.




Costs

Mortal Kombat Kabinet:  0$.  I got it for free from a local laundrymat after the monitor died in it.

Monitor: 0$ I got it for free from a computer repair shop here in Lexington, the guy there got it from the University auction for 1$.  It supports 15khz modes.

Controls:  Already had em around, but if you bought them new from Lizard Lick it would be about 30$

PC: Already had it around.  It's an AMD something or other.  About equal to a 1Ghz Intel processor.  Could buy it's equivalent off of ebay or craigslist for 20$

Wiring:  Already had it.  And if you can't find it for free then you fail.

Coin Door, Marquee, T-molding repair:  Didn't care.

Speakers: Used the existing ones and hacked them to a set of PC speakers.

I-pac:  50$ with shipping

Screws, bolts, etc: Already had em.

Hole Saw Kit and other tools: Borrowed.

Bathroom fixture door from Lowes: 7$   I was going to buy a whole sheet of mdf to make the new control panel, but instead I saw this.  IT was already smooth and nice looking.  I sent it through the table saw a couple of times and drilled a few holes and voila, a new control panel.  I used like that for a while before a friend of mine gave me the capcom overlay for free.  

Yes, that is a cardboard bezel.  I made it for fun when my friends kept ribbing me about not having one.  Yes it looks awful.  I am too lazy to paint it black.  I always meant to, but over time it has kind of grown on me.

The cushion is taped to the stool because my roommate kept throwing it across the room.

The picture is grainy because I took it with a ---smurfy--- old digitalcam I had laying right next to the cabinet.

So, I have about 57 bucks in what you see there.  The stuff that I already had could all be bought in a day for probably less than 100$  So a sub 200$ cab is completely doable as long as you can get the cabinet for free or very cheap.

[Kangum]

there is also shipping costs that can kill you if your not careful. had i been smart i would have ordered what i needed all from one place at the same time. would have saved a bundle on shipping.

of course it feels like your spending less when you getting it piece by piece. 100 dollars here. 50 dollars there. oops forgot this and that add another 30 there.

[surface tension]

Glad to see I could bring some smiles to a forum filled with so much negativism.

Whoa there tiger. You didn't even have a smiley after that sentence! 

[TAG]

I think they have all been used up in this thread.

How about, "Wait a minute, [georgemcfly], Ah... Are you telling me that you built a [MAME cabinet]... out of a [Fast Draw upright]?"

Okay, that was a stretch, sorry.

[georgemcfly]

Glad to see I could bring some smiles to a forum filled with so much negativism.

Whoa there tiger. You didn't even have a smiley after that sentence! 

DANG... here's two to make up for the one I forgot. 

[ChadTower]

That's about what you get for fully scrounged up parts.  Most people won't get theirs this nice for $250 because they won't start with a pretty cab like that.  This is a good cab - I'm not knocking it at all - but be sure that if your budget target is $250 that your expectations are at or lower than this one here.

Oh, and don't con me.  Make sure you put two coats of wax on it.

[Jack Burton]

What it comes down to is whether you are building or converting the cab for the joy of building it, which it seems is what the majority of this forum likes to do, or are you building it to play games, and only games, and that's all that matters.

The second choice is especially important if you are only building or converting for playing a select number of games.  I am a street fighter player personally, so I skipped the trac ball and spinner because I wasn't interested in playing those games.  If I had wanted to, then I would easily add anothe $100 to the project. 

I think most of the time when people say "MAME cabinet" they expect it to be a fully finished, slick looking product, with at least a trac ball, spinner, and a way to operate in 4 way mode.  I can appreciate the joy in constructing a well built machine that would great in any garage or living room.

This may be the source of confusion when people think that a working MAME cab can't be built for less than $600 dollars.

[wbassett]

I also have 'free' parts in my cab. 

The PC that's in it was an old AMD Thunderbird I bought around eight years ago.  I built a new system so I gave the Thunderbird to one of my kids, who a couple years later said it was broke so they gave it back.  I guess the mindset that I did pay for it at one time is true, however my other kid gave me a 3.33Ghz system that they said was 'broke' and that's going in the cab!  So my cab PC really was ultimately free!

The sound system is also something my son bought and was going to throw out.

The monitor was a spare 21" Dell Trinitron I had laying around and was given to me for doing some PC work for a friend.

My total though, still around $800!   I don't have access to old cabs, so that was out, and I don't have all the tools I would have needed for getting 4'x8' sheets of mdf and cutting them and then the cost of the hardware so for my first cab I went with an UA-II kit, which is the bulk of the money in my cab.  The rest is pretty much the XArcade TankStick. 

Price will shoot up soon though because the plans have always been to build a swappable cp system.  I'd say by the time I'm done I'll probably have around $1200-$1400 in it.

After this is finished, I want to build a sit down cab and I'll build that one from scratch... but I still estimate it's going to end up being around a grand by the time I'm done with it.

[Ginsu Victim]

I think most of the time when people say "MAME cabinet" they expect it to be a fully finished, slick looking product, with at least a trac ball, spinner, and a way to operate in 4 way mode.  

This may be the source of confusion when people think that a working MAME cab can't be built for less than $600 dollars.

I have no trackball and I built my spinner for about $6.00. I converted an old Track and Field cabinet using a free monitor and free PC.

My cabinet is very basic and is not very polished.

Yet I have $800 so far in it. (Headin' for $1000)

[TAG]

What it comes down to is whether you are building or converting the cab for the joy of building it, which it seems is what the majority of this forum likes to do, or are you building it to play games, and only games, and that's all that matters.

Very true.  And that joy of building is worth something, too, so what I get out of the expense isn't just a cabinet to play games; it's the experience of building something like that from scratch.  It's nice to sit back and look and say, "I made this," whether it's an arcade cab, or a bookcase, or a toy chest, or whatever.

At the very least, that logic helps sell it to your spouse...!