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How much money do you have in your project?
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: megaultrasuper on August 13, 2008, 04:31:36 pm ---
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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:
--- Quote ---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.
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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:
--- Quote from: megaultrasuper on August 13, 2008, 04:47:45 pm ---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.
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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...!