MrBond's MAME Cab COMPLETE! <Details>

[MrBond]

WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Shall we play a game?
I'm typing to you now on my fully assembled, sweet and tears, super duper, COMPLETED MAME CAB!!!!!!!!!!

I actually finished moving the cab into the house (was in the garage), mounting the monitor, attaching the control panel, wiring up the computer and all it's little peripherals, screwing in the marquee light, attaching the marquee, and HAVING SOME SERIOUS GAMING SESSIONS on Sunday....just haven't got the chance to post...I was busy playing!  I have to say, I am VERY pleased with the results.  I played the games on a computer monitor, and even my new 27" monitor, but MAN, when you play them on a cabinet, only then are you PLAYING them!!!


<<<INTRO>>>
I originally came up with the idea for a dedicated cabinet to play arcade games on when I was talking to a friend about emulation at college during my first semester in 2001.  Now, I had already known about MAME and had the rom I actually owned the rights to have, TIME PILOT!  The subject of MAME came up and my friend told me he had actually seen some guy on the internet (could it be you?), who had a site describing his ventures in building a arcade cabinet that played MAME and other emulators!  WOW!  The gears began to turn...and from that day to June 8, 2003, I have made my dream come true!

<<<THE STAND ALONE>>>
Actually, the first thing I did was made a stand alone control panel.  I made it almost completely free of charge, costing only the $50 for the IPAC2, which I received as a Christmas gift anyhow.  It has 2 red ball joysticks, 6 buttons per player, 2 start buttons, 2 coin buttons on the sides that double for pinball games, 2 mouse buttons, and a 2 1/4" trackball that is one of 2 I received from my Uncle from a track n field game.  On my stand alone, all buttons and joystick switches (except for the mouse buttons) are LEAF.  I really got used to the feel and silent switches on my stand alone.  The mouse buttons are those clear, square, micro switch buttons that are able to light up.  I used a mouse hack to interface the trackball and mouse buttons.

But I still wanted something more, I still was aiming my dreams at that arcade cab!

<<<THE CABINET>>>
So some time went by and I studied all I could find on the subject, reading examples and write-ups, what others had done.  I really didn't get the ball rolling until I made the trade with my Uncle: my non working Time Pilot conversion from Frogger for his WWF wrestlefest conversion from TMNT.  I hadn't bought the Frogger, so I actually got my cabinet for free.

Here is what the TMNT cab would have looked like:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=10052

Now, I don't have a digital camera, but here is a similar project as to what my MAME cab looks like:  NOTE: This is NOT mine!  Just for comparison purposes!
http://home.neo.rr.com/martinko/mame.htm

[MrBond]

<<<THE CONTROLS>>>
For the cabinet control panel, I decided to modify the pre-existing one on the cab already.  I took off 3 ultimate joysticks, 1 super, and 12 buttons.  I bought the x-gaming package of 20 black micro switch pushbuttons, and 2 super knock-offs for $20 over EBAY.  I bought an IPAC4, Optipac, and e-stik from Ultimarc.  (he sent me a t-stik instead, but then shipped out a e-stik when I told him of the mistake!)  I also had my second trackball from the track n field game lying around to use, as well as an arkanoid spinner.  I drilled all of the holes (some where somewhat difficult, as the previous holes were in the way), routed the joystick bases, and then drilled the free plexiglass from Home Depot.  I routed around the plexi with a 45 degree angle flute bit, and drilled the holes through the plexi, lining everything up with the wood and drilling through with a scrap piece on the underside.  The trackball hole was a little harder, but I just went around it with sand paper until it was the required diameter.  The trackball has no ugly mounting plate.  The spinner was also a tricky bit of business.  I routed out the TOP of the wood, so the mounting plate would be hidden underneath the artwork/plexi.  The wood, of course, was routed out completely for the spinner, forming a small rectangular hole.  The plexi glass then has a small hole for the spinner to appear through.  I took off the protective covering on the plexi, and attached everything.  Oh no!  The nuts on the buttons won't work with the 3/4" wood panel and plexiglass on top!!!! AHHH!!! I turned around the nuts and they worked perfectly.  I also swapped out the x-gaming switches for the cherry switches I had from the original arcade panel.  I then swapped out the 1 player x-gaming joystick base for the super.  I kept the x-gaming shaft/bat handle, as it was in better shape (brand new).  The only thing I left the x-gaming switches in were the 2-player joystick, and the side mounted mouse buttons and coin buttons.

The 1 and 2 player buttons are the same type as the ones on my stand alone control panel, the clear, lightable, square buttons used on gambling/card games.  They have a unique feature in which you can remove the plastic top and create your own artwork.  For now, they simply say "1 PLAYER" "2 PLAYERS", but I think I will change them to the little black guys for the "coolness" effect...lol

The artwork for the control panel I created myself in Photoshop.  Fairly simple design, I didn't want any specific character or flashy design.  I made a blue gradient that starts at light blue (matching the MAME logo), to black at the bottom, and then created a mosaic effect.  The marquee is the one from Oscar controls with the purple circle behind the MAME logo.  

I had both printed and shipped for $30 from mameroom.com.  Very good service and turn around time.  The artwork looks very good on my control panel, as right where the black joysticks and buttons are, the background is still blue, but directly below them, it turns black...nice symmetric effect pleasing to the eyes    Also, the e-stik is light blue as well, and is mounted to the left of the spinner, which is dead center at the top of the panel.  The arkanoid spinner has a purple top, which I might change to light blue.   Also, the way the control panel is set up right now, the keyboard and mouse are able to be placed on top the front of the control panel with just enough room.  The keyboard has a anti-slide type material, and the mouse of course has a mouse pad.  Neither hurts the plexi.  When I'm finished, I open the control panel (it's hinged), and pop the keyboard and mouse inside on top the coin mech coin holders.  Works great...I can manage windows and play games like starcraft, or ANY game/app I want!

[MrBond]

<<<THE MONITOR>>>
The monitor is one of the most important aspects of a MAME cabinet.  You must choose wisely my son .  I am using a 27" NEC 4PG multisync display monitor.  Hooks up just like a PC monitor with a 15 pin VGA cable.  Also has s-vid and component for consoles.  It works FLAWLESSLY for gaming AND Windows XP.  It works great at 1024x768, that's what I use for my "real" computer's desktop res as well!!  I am typing this from the arcade cab now, so you see, I can read the screen VERY well.  You can see the specs here:
http://www.griffintechnology.com/archive/monitors/NEC13.html
It was $75 on ebay!  What a steal!!!  I picked it up to so no ridiculous shipping charge!

<<<THE COMPUTER>>>
I bought the computer that is in the cab back in November 2001.  I "recently" (November 2002) bought a newer one, and so this became my gaming computer, destined for the MAME cab.  The Specs:
Intel Pentium 4  1.6GHz with 400MHz FS Bus, 256KB Second L. Cache.
80 Gig hd, 256MB RAM, 64MB DDR 4x AGP nVidia Geforce 3 Ti200, 4 USB, Network card, 3 firewire, Sony  CD-RW, 16X DVD, floppy, 6 channel Dolby Digital Audio Controller for 5.1 audio, modem, keyboard with hotkeys (volume comes in very handy right now), and scroll mouse, running Win Xp home.  
I bought it at a food store (of all places) called ALDI's.  It is a MEDION computer.  If you ever see one of these deals, I suggest you buy it immediately.  I bought it for $699 total.  It was a steal at the time (2001)

<<<Software>>>
Emulaxian FE:          http://3darcade.mameworld.net/index2.htm
MAME32 with all the trimmings:
                            http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/down.htm
Visual Pinball           http://www.randydavis.com/vp/
and vpinmame        http://www.pinmame.com/
Arcade Jukebox 7:  http://home.att.net/~mark.schwartz/
NES, Super NES, N64, Sega emulators...

Many PC games...I suggest these for arcade/cab quality:
Star Monkey: http://www.smallrockets.com/pc/starmonkey/
Mutant Storm: http://www.pompom.org.uk
Marble Blast: http://www.garagegames.com/pg/product/view.php?id=15
LaserAge: http://www.pcgameworld.com/details.php/id/83/
DX-Ball 2: http://www.longbowdigitalarts.com/dxball2.html
Microsoft Pinball Arcade: http://www.microsoft.com/games/pinball/
Bejeweled: http://www.popcap.com/bejeweled.php
Tetris 4000: http://www.alawar.com/games/tetris4000/

<<<PUTTING IT TO THE TEST>>>
I now was staring at a fully functional gaming cabinet, what to do...what to do...um GAMES!!!!!  I booted up Peter's extremely excellent Front End, EMULAXIAN!  The first game I tried on the cab was Pacman (to test the e-stik and vertical games), the 27" screen displays VERTICAL games GREAT!  It looks very much like a 19" vertical monitor because of the large screen size!  I then tested out the vector game TEMPEST for my spinner test/vector test.  PERFECT!  Then, it was marvel vs. capcom for some button smashing/joystick testing...I was amazed.  The super with cherry switches is better than the x-gaming stik with x-gaming switches by the way.  I did a side by side comparison.  Then, to test out some PC gaming goodness, I played some starcraft, red faction, dx-ball 2, rollcage, Labyrinth, and Star Monkey.  I then had to test out PINBALL games...of course, I tried VISUAL PINBALL, then Microsoft pinball arcade, and also 3D Ultra Pinball Thrillride.  Catch the silver ball addiction!  Eventually though, I went back to MAME for some time pilot, time pilot 84, qix, quantum, Mr. Do!, Donkey Kong, marble madness, asteroids, and I couldn't forget Arkanoid for my dedicated Arkanoid spinner!

<<<Future Enhancements>>>
-install light blue t-molding
-Mount the speakers, get a strong base speaker
-lengthen lightgun wire
-light coin mech slots
-wire up coins mechs to except coins and activate coin "buttons"
-add volume dial
-add headphone jack
-KEEP ON PLAY'N!


Questions/comments/suggestions?  Thanks for reading this mess!
~Mrbond

[mameplaya]

get us some pics, dammit!

[rampy]

just a suggestion:  get a disposable camera and pay the extra couple a bucks to automagically get them scanned in by kodak or whatever for online prints or whatever that options is...

i.e. lets see some pics!

rampy

[MrBond]

Ok, if i get some pics somehow, how do I upload them and where to?

[rampy]

Ok, if i get some pics somehow, how do I upload them and where to?

You can upload them right here using the attach/browse below... or if you go the route i suggested you can make your "kodak" or whatever  photo album "public" and share the URL with us...  worse case scenario shlop up a page at geocrappies or that freehost that sirpoonga uses (which is actually pretty good) or more than likely your ISP gives you a 5 meg or 10 meg web space home page you could use...

*shrug*  if you need more specific help, I'd gladly walk you thorugh whatever ...
Rampy

[Molloy]

I hope ywor cabinet will bwe a shite for swhore eyes Mr. Connery.

[MrBond]

Update:
-All 4 coin slots now except coins and activate the coin buttons on the IPAC
-The coin lights are hooked up to the 5V and ground wires from the PC power supply (however, 2 are burned out  )  I'll ask my uncle tommorrow if he has any laying around.

Another thing added to my todo list: cup holder

[MrBond]

Power is also rigged up to the original switch on top the cab...however, it is a little screwy.  I have to jiggle it sometimes to get it to turn on.  I will eventually turn this into a button.

[armad1ll0]

I have a friend that bought a mint TMNT cab like that to build his out of. It's been untouched since he got it. I keep on telling him that he just needs the ArcadeVGA video card... but he's draggin his feet.

[MrBond]

I tell ya, now that it's up and running, I really love my cabinet.  Everything I could have hoped for!  Closest thing to actually being in the arcades.  I was on vacation last week at Seaside Heights, New Jersey.  While on the boardwalk, I found an arcade called "Flashback's", I entered in, thinking it would be just like the rest, but this one was different.  It actually had many older arcade games that I had heard of, and played in MAME, but had never actually played in the arcades (I just turned 20, so I never really went to the arcades).  I got to experience Mr. Do!, Donkey Kong, Star Wars, Space Invaders, Q-bert, Tempest, and Gyruss, all in their original glory!  The artwork on some of those machines, especially the bezels is awesome!  Road blasters, asteroids, kung foo, ms pacman, space invaders deluxe, mario bros, popeye, galaga, and a host of other great games were there too!  I would have spent the whole day there had it not been for the heat...they needed air conditioning.
   Interestingly enough, they also had a machine that played around 30 games, I think it was an called an ultra arcade or something to that effect.  Does anyone know more about these commercial "multi game" machines?  The one at flashbacks had a real cool "front end", a big screen, and a podium type control panel complete with bench to sit at.  Kind of cool...just wondering how they work.  Rom/computer based or PCB stacks?

Anyway, back to the original arcade machines...I just thought it was cool to actually play the games as they originally were designed, so I can see how my controls compare.  The star wars yoke was GREAT!  I can vouch that Star Wars with a joystick, trackball, or keyboard (yuck!) is NOTHING like playing it with the yoke.  I'm going to eventually have to get one of those babies!  And the tempest spinner rocked!  I am now a tempest adict!  I loved entering my initials in those machines.  Hey, just wondering, do some arcade machines keep track of the high scores even after power off?  I had my initials in tempest, but the next day they were gone...I know no one beat me....ok maybe someone, but they couldn't have knocked me off the list completely...

Cheers for mame, and even more cheers for the original machines!!!

P.S.
The power button now works flawlessly and is mounted on the top of my cab!  Light blue T-molding installed too!!!  It really accents the glossy black very well and matches the marquee and control panel art.
Emulaxian is "mame" skinned with the valtane skin available at the 3d-arcade site.  I personalized the button layout and also reprogrammed the IPAC for shift buttons, such as F1 (cursor for light gun games), F2 (service mode), F3 (reset), F7 (save), and F6...or did I make it F8? (save).  Some others too for visual pinball.  I also downloaded a crap load of vp tables at IR pinball.  Yippie!

[MrBond]

Now i remember, I also mapped the F10 (turbo) and F11 (show FPS)...

[IIOIOOIOO]

Those ultracade machines are running "not mame" to emulate the games, and have made arrangements to purchase ROM licenses from the original publishers. The operator buys the base platform, which comes with like 82 (?) games, and he can purchase additional game-packs, which come on CD-Rom. Speculation abounds that the guy at some point purchased rights to run a custom version of MAME for his platform, but the lead engineer claims it's a brand-spanking-new original emulator. If nothing else, the development team to game library ratio indicates that they at least "borrowed" emulation code from MAME.