How long did it take you to build your cab?

[slug54]

I thought it would be interesting to find out how long it has taken for some of us to build our cabs or do a mame conversion. I know projects like these may never be 100% done there is always something you can add or fix or change.
Approximately how long did it take from  the first cut of the wood to the first mame party.
also I know some of us are doing some very different
things with our cabs  I would like to know what programs you run on your machine besides the normal Emus.
for example my wife likes to sing so I decided to put Karaoke on my cab for her ,it has over 600 mp3 style karaoke songs and is usally one of the biggest hits  when we have partys.

I thought my cab would take about 5 weekends to complete that was last august and I say I'm about 85% done. its in the house and functional but I still  have a lot of work to do.
it took about 8 and a half months before it was usable
with about 3 additional months of planning and research. mine was built from scratch using modified defender dimensions.
some of the special features of my cab are:

Video poker
Blackjack
You don't know jack games
custom made mp3 jukebox software
custom made front end software
Karaoke
Web surfing
playstation controllers for console emus
Act-Labs light gun (eventually if it ever ships grrr)
             
         Just interested about other peoples projects
        my project turned out to be a monumental task
        and has earned the affectionate name from my  
        wife of "Tim Taylors Hot Rod"

                            Thanks for your input
                                       Slug54

[DanU]

One week, from cut to play, as you say. However, it was a solid year of planning, buying (and saving for) parts, experimenting with software... In the end, I went home to my Dad's place (he has tools and a shop) and we built it over Easter vacation, then hauled it back to Baltimore in a minivan. Planning is the key. I was very proud of myself. Of course, as you say, I never really finished... still want to rewire to make things neater, add a new frontend, get a spinner, better paint job, better bezel, replace the marquee, put some side-art on, add a switch for Dreamcast controls, add a TV out to play DVDs on the TV. Crap. I have to get to work!
DanU

ps - Has this board has slowed down -alot- from the good old days, or is it just me?

[hyiu]

I have researched and planned for at least a couple of months... and have had my first cut about 3 weeks ago... still nowhere near finishing up... (but I'm mostly working on weekday nights.... so, did not spend too much time on it...) its going slow....  Hopefully... I'll be able to get it done by end of July..... (this is my current deadline...)

[SNAAAKE]

well....i had a control panel ready..(that look over a week to make).i did not order anything online...i had a vga arcade monitor..and a spare coin door...so i started working and got it almost done in about a week......it will take much longer if you order stuff online...HAPPPPPPCONTROLS by the way take 20 years to ship anything...but expect around a month to finish up if you want this to be NICE.....
today is the 7 th day of me working on my cabinet...i will likely finish within 3 more days....good luck building your cabinet...

[SirPoonga]

Well, I started my cabinet last year.

[Thenasty]

Its now 3 years and still not doen. Well, it was done but the control panel had to be re-done and configurations also had to be re-done. Right now, It is still not doen hehe.....I had fun with it when it was done, now I am so eager to finish it cause I need my Pacman/ms.Pacman crave. I need it BAD, and don;t tell me to play it using my keyboard or a joystick, its not the same with the 4-way stick in my panel.....AHHHH  HELP ME....
Back to the drawing board......

[tubuku01]

i started working on my cab last september and had planned to finish by january, well, here we are in june and it's about 85 percent done.  the hard part was buying the required materials, and since i didn't have the tools,  i had to buy those too.  it's a four player cab like the one in the www.mameroom.com website.  

I'm saving the encoder and control panel for last, cause i know i won't EVER finish it if the games are up and running, even if it's half assed done.  if it weren't for the financial strain, i'd have done it by feb.  oh welll...

The best part is showing it off to the people that doubted your abilities to begin with.  HA HA HA the jokes on them!

[SNAAAKE]

man....wooooooooo....to be honest...you guys make me sick  ....no offence..the silver cabinet look ULTIMATE...really really cool paint job...but why take like 3 years...by then i will be all old and loose interest on video games.....BUT AGAIN>>>if you want somethin that looks like the "mamerooms.com" cabinet then....you gotta have serious "skills" and of course the CASH>>>anyways...good luck building...

[SirPoonga]

man....wooooooooo....to be honest...you guys make me sick

[Gorre]

The planning and finding out where I could get all the equipment and components took me about 2 months.

After I got my 2 cabinets I started slowly. It took me about 3 months to have the first one operational. But ... as we know the job is never done, almost a year later one cabinet is 95 % done (need some more finishing).
I haven't started yet on the second one.

I've already trashed 3 CP's, and also dropped one (plexiglass is not strong material !).
So my guess is that I'll never really finish.

I'm using DOS with ArcadeOS for MAME and Windows 98 for ZSNES.
Also my Playstation is hooked up in the cabinet.

(Another thing I'm planning, almost a year, is setting up a website with some pics and stories how I messed up painting, burned my fingers while soldering, cut myself, ..., the only thing I haven't done yet is electrocute myself, and this is something I'm NOT planning)

But I don't mind that it takes me so long ... I have a great time.

[SNAAAKE]

wohhhh hoo hooo...hold up..i never said i was sick off any arcade games  >>NEVER<<

what i said was..its a really bad idea to take around 3 years to build a cabinet...HOW SAD IS THAT ..

i am equally ADDICTED as everyone else here

LONG LIVE VIDEO GAMES

[flynns place]

took me about a month worth of prep and about a week to create.

http://www.johnbiank.com/mame/

[gnateye]

i planned and researched fro about a month while i was waiting for my freelance chacks to roll in, once i did that i ordered all the stuff frrom happs & ultimarc. it took about a week for everything to arrive. i went to home depot, bought the MDf had them cut into 12" strips for me, brought it home and made my first control panel in 2 nights after work, it worked like a charm in front of my g3 on the desk.....

so it stayed that way for about a month until....

a millipede cabinet fell into my lap from a friend, it didnt work and was pretty beatup, but thats ok, simultaniously 2 macs fell into my lap as well as a slew of freelance work (read: more $$ for the cab, my wife has restricted my spending on this hobby to cash i make on the side) so i got the cab and the macs, it took me about a week to get the computer all up to speed and configged and whatnot, a few days to gut and clean the cab, one night to build the monitor shelf and control panel, another to figure out the sound system (which works on the existing speakers with a computer subwoofer powering the whole thing), another night to rewire the marquee, and install the keyboard drawer.  it was playable about a week after i got it, i just couldnt continue to look at it night after night without using it, so i made it usable and then am working on all the cosmetic stuff but i still have alot to do:

get a bigger monitor
get my optipac working with the spinner and trackball
get an upgrade card for the mac
get a video ram upgrade
get the swapable control panels all wirted up to the quick connect switches, and latch system
get my oscar restrictors installed
and a bunch of cabinet wood repair i have been puttin off

my cab runs, macmame, geomame,cpsmame, playstaion emulator, nintendo emulator, n64, super nintendom atari 2600, turbo graphix 16, gameboy, its a boomin mp3 jukebox with 3 hard drives, and surfs the internet.


as far as im concerned it will prolly never be done. my goal is to have a few mame cabs, one with a trackball CP, one witha spinner CP, one for joysticks and a driving one. but that will have to wait until we get a bigger place atleast

[SirPoonga]

wohhhh hoo hooo...hold up..i never said i was sick off any arcade games

[SirPoonga]

I forgot to add.  Techincally my cabinet is over a year in the make, designing, etc...  It will never be done as new ideas come up (like act labs gun and the glowire I want to put on it).

It's taking long as I have elsewhere to spend my money, mainly my motorcycle.  I have what we call in the motorcycle world CLAPP - Chrome, Leather, Accessories, Polish, Performance.  Also know as MCS- Motorcycle Customizing Syndrome

[Todd_H]

I expect it to take at least a good year to finish my cabinet.  So far all I've done is buy the wood and play around with my software options, like which FE to use, what emulators, etc.  I've pretty much settled on Game Launcher with MAME, ZSNES, and VirtuaNES.  I'm still deciding on joysticks and other parts.  And Plus I work at lot and don't have much free time.  But I'd rather be patient than rush and make mistakes.  I'm a perfectionist.  What can I say?

[ddebuss]

I started my prototype almost a year ago.  Was playing it a bit within two weeks.

About a month later, re-wired the control panel.
About two weeks later, had to re-layout the control panel because I couldn't close the front door.  (It's a countertop so there is very little clearance under the control panel.

While re-doing the control panel, I decided on a better way to make the control panel interchangable.  Had originally created my own disconnect using sprinkler signaling wire and 25 pin seriel connectors.  A lot of work to solder all those wires and the harness itself was cumbersome.  Thanks to a wonderful idea from this forum I redid this interface with a monitor extension cable cut in half.  (Depressing how long I spent on the old one, but the new one is MUCH better.)

I've been playing all along, but just last week I got it more or less completely together.  I just got my Robotron control panel together so I now consider it mostly done.  This was my main inspiration in getting started.  No progress since last week because everytime I approach the thing I got to spend 3 hours playing...

Over the last 6 months whenever I have my tools out for another project, I do a bit on my "production" cabinets.  I've got all the pieces cut for 4 more additional systems.  Just a couple modifications to the original and cut 4 pieces for each part.

First unit: 1 year (60 hours work - 5 to go)
Copies 2-5: About 6 months (15 hours work - 10 hours to go for all 4)

[telengard]

It took about 3 months to get mine to the point I could play
games on it theway they should be  played.

Features mine has:

Rotating monitor
Swappable metal panels

I still have a few more panels I want to make and someday  I want
to raise the monitor about 3/4" because it hangs a little too low.
Other than that, the cabinet does *everything* I'd like it to.  Someday
when I have copious amounts of free time I want to make a cabinet where 4 people can play at the same time, ala Simpsons.

[Tehrasha]

Rapidly approaching the two-year mark for my cab.

I had it designed, cut, and operating within a month, but that was the mistake... I put it together to test it, and then sat and played with it for months instead of finishing it.

Then other projects got in the way...  with any luck, Ill have it finished  by Labor day.

http://www.tehrasha.mamehost.com/monolith/

--Teh

[SNAAAKE]

tehrasha,,,

you know whats really funny??i had the same problem..instead of finishing up..i kept playing on that PROTYPE of mine..today i did most of the work on my cabinet...the new one ofcourse...i will post up pictures as soon as i am done....anyways...good luck to anyone who is thinking of making one..i say...GO GO GO for it..because the result is toooooo damn great...what can i say..all the work is worth it...