n00b here. Dumb questions

[Gamble]

Hi everyone.
I've been looking into making a MAME cabinet for quite some time now. I am finally going to go forward with this.
I've been on the web for HOURS searching this stuff. I have a mame emulator and roms at home. They are on my laptop and working fine, no problems there.
What I can't figure out is if I should buy a cabinet or build a cabinet. I'm on a pretty tight budget. I have an x-arcade controller already and a spare pc. I also have a old xbox that I thought about having chipped. Not sure what my better choice is exactly.
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Any who here are some questions. I have the roms on my laptop and desktop currently, is there anyway to get a better picture out of these when I hook them up into a cabinet onto a tv?

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Who sells premade kits that you can put together yourself. I found some at mameroom.com ,but not sure if I want to dish out $500+ on wood. I "can" do it myself, however I am terrible at cutting straight lines. I do have a carpenter in the family that would help but he would just kinda take over and not let me do anything. Plus then I wouldn't really be building it, and since it's not for him and he's not getting paid, I'm sure he would just rush it to get it over with.

So what are my options here. I remember looking into this a long long time ago and found someone that sold card board cut outs and you just trace and cut, which would make my life easier. Anyone still do that?

Also how do you go about finding the right angle to put the tv/monitor on?
A cabinet like this is cool, but wondering if it should be on more of an angle or not.
http://www.tmsoft.com/article-arcade.htm
I'm in to the fighting games, like motor kombat, street fighter etc if it makes any difference.

Any advice you guys can give me would be a big help. Thanks

[Ginsu Victim]

Check your local Craigslist.org for arcade cabinets.

Search eBay for ARCADE and sort by nearest location.

Find an old cabinet in your area and fix it up. The cheapest way to get into this is to use an existing cabinet instead of building.

Also check those sources for a television or large CRT monitor.

[Gamble]

Yah nothing on ebay or craigslist.
Is crt better than tv or vica versa?

Also on some of my roms, when it starts it starts under 2nd player. Is that odd?

Also what mame version is the best to use?

[cmoses]

If you can't cut a straight line do not attempt to build one from scratch.  It's OK, not everyone has mad woodworking skills.  The kits are nice and everything is cut, just like assembling a piece of furniture from Ikea.  Issue there is that they are pricey.  Best bet is to look on craigslist and ebay.  Don't expect one to just be waiting there for you.  It takes patience and a lot of looking.  Even then you will probably see a lot that you are not interested in.  Wrong size, bad condition, not easy to MAME, etc.  It took me about a month to find my first cabinet, but jumped on it as soon as I saw the listing and picked it up the next day.  You might also want to post what it is that you are looking for on craigslist.  Example - Looking for a non functioning arcade cabinet, willing to take it off your hands.  Or, seeking empty arcade cabinet to use for MAME project.  This approach sometimes works as well.

[Gamble]

How do I clear out the list of games in MAME? I got some new ones in a different folder and if I add the folder, I don't see them in the list.

[severdhed]

also, check in the phone book under amusements.  there are a few places locally here that service arcade machines...i called one guy up and asked if he had any empty cabinets he'd like to get rid of...picked one up for $20.

[dreamakuma]

I'd do everything possible through craigslist. I got a cab for free because a guy had three empty ones. It may take some time, but it's well worth it.

[Dazz]

Also how do you go about finding the right angle to put the tv/monitor on?
A cabinet like this is cool, but wondering if it should be on more of an angle or not.
http://www.tmsoft.com/article-arcade.htm
I'm in to the fighting games, like motor kombat, street fighter etc if it makes any difference.

Any advice you guys can give me would be a big help. Thanks

That cabinet is the Ultimate Arcade II design from Mameroom.com.  My cabinet is built from their plans for the UAII and I can say that the monitor angle is perfectly fine and very comfortable to play on for hours on end.  I have a friend that is 7ft 2in tall and he has played on the cabinet many times and never had any issues with the monitor angle.  http://dazz.genmaygamers.com is the link to my cabinet which is just another example of that cabinet design. 

[Gamble]

Thanks for the reply guys. Does anyone else make prebuilt kits that are not expensive?

And, maybe I missed it, but is there a control panel that shows your threads that you subscribed to?

[Ginsu Victim]

Mameroom is the cheapest you'll find, that's why I said to find a used cabinet.

And where can I go about finding chd files?  (<-- not sure if it's a legal question or not, so I apologize)

Remove that question and then go read the rules again.

[CheffoJeffo]

All of the suggestions so far are good.

You should add your location to your user profile so that folks will know where you are -- someone local may have a cabinet sitting around.

Also, you may want to make a "cabinet wanted" post here in Buy / Sell / Trade and over at the KLOV forums.

[Ginsu Victim]

Also, you may want to make a "cabinet wanted" post over at the KLOV forums.

That's what I did, and within three hours I had a cabinet.

[Gamble]

Sounds good, I will check it out.
Where is the control panel to see your subscribed threads?

[daywane]

How do I clear out the list of games in MAME? I got some new ones in a different folder and if I add the folder, I don't see them in the list.

point to new rom list
hit F5