New MAGT, My First Cabinet Build

[Wolfwood]

Hi Everyone!

After reading so much about arcade cabinets, and how I never had enough space to even fit one in my tiny little room I'm moving in to, I decided to make a small entertainment center for my room, it removes a desk, and a pc from my space usage, and now, I want to add classic controls to it, just for a mame cabinet, but in a smaller design.

Here are some badly drawn mockups of what I'm aiming at.

No laughing....



This is what I'm praying my control setup will be like, I really wish I could make it a 4 player cab, but since space is at a premium, it had to go.

It will have small railings, to allow it to slide in and out of a little door pretty much making it a "Secret" attachment, it will probably look like an ordinary tv stand, to deter eager visitors...

This is what I am hoping the front will be like, remember, badly drawn and badly imagined, just keep you're jokes to yourself.



Nothing horribly fancy, just the Swivel monitor and the drawer's for the mouse and keyboard.

The side view is nothing interesting, just thought id share.



As you can see, the marquee will be resting on top of the monitor, with 3 inch rubber feet, and the marquee will be attached to either a wide flat piece of wood the is bigger then the monitor, or a long narrow metal pole, either is a good option for me.

That's just about it, any thoughts would be helpful and I know i will be getting a lot of flak for only making it a 2 player setup, but its all I got, a 2 player set up is about 27 inches wide...I can't fit any more controls!

[severdhed]

sounds cool...can't wait to see off the paper.  there is nothing wrong with a 2 player cabinet.  there are alot of us that don't have room for a 4 player monstrosity...plus i have found that i very rarely ever have enough people over for it to be worth while.  you can always hook up some gamepads for players 3 and 4 if you need them.

my friend has a 4 player panel, and to be honest, it very rarely ever gets useds for 4 player games....we spend more time taking turns playing Donkey Kong than anything else.

[Wolfwood]

Never really thought about gamepads...it does sound like a good idea.

How do people even see the screen on a 4P cabinet anyway? its like the guy on the right is over in England and the guy on the left is in China...while the people in the middle are right there in America, it just boggles my mind sometimes... 

EDIT: I also want to get 2 UltraStick 360's, is it possible to connect up to 6 buttons per joystick? or do you still need an I-pac?

[severdhed]

i have two u360s in my cab...you can connect up to 8 buttons to each stick....so you could have 6 action buttons, plus start and coin buttons.  my friends cabinet is showcase style' with a 36'' monitor...there are no problems seeing the screen

[cmoses]

You need to have a little room between the buttons and the front of the control panel.  This gives the players a place to rest their hands/wrists.  Otherwise you will get tired a lot quicker if your hands are hovering in the air.

[severdhed]

my stick is 6 in. from the front edge...i wouldnt want it any closer

[Wolfwood]

I was thinking about 5 inches from the edge, since it is going to be 15 or 13 inches long, just so it can reach my chair =/

The Ultrasticks seem like a really cost effective way to get things done, not buying a dedicated 4 way and not having to get an I-Pac is just awesome.

Even so, It will be made out of a drawer, the most sturdiest thing you will ever fudging see! could make a bomb shelter out of that thing XD

Yeah, the dresser is a lame place to put everything, but it is the exact dimensions as I want it to be, plus its already built and I already own it! gotta spray paint it black though...its scratched up to hell XD

I am also looking at front ends, does anyone know where I can get a Macish sort of look, one that I can just point and click to get from games to the internet and multiple emulators? since this will be my main computer in there.

[Wolfwood]

anyone?

[severdhed]

well, if you are using this as your main PC, i'd probably avoid using a front end.  why not just have desktop shortcuts to your emulators?  dont make it any more difficult than it needs to be. 

[Wolfwood]

True, but it looks so plain  it has to be hip with the times brotha!

[Wolfwood]

Does anyone know of a front end that allows me to have a good look, not the boring greyness of the Mameui32, but without covering windows? I still need to get to firefox and my documents...

[severdhed]

i guess you could always use any front end you want, and just exit out of it when you want to do regular windows stuff


Mala is nice, it is easy to set up and you can make it look pretty nice

[Wolfwood]

Can you give me a link please?

[severdhed]

http://malafe.net/

[Ummon]

Wolf, echoing old wisdom, make a cardboard mock-up to scale at least, if not life-size. Looking at your drawings and prospective dimensions, I'm thinking the experience will be mind-blowing.

[severdhed]

yeah..definitely make a cardboard mockup, you might be suprised how much it can help.

as for the front end..Mala is awesome, and there are alot of layouts that you t.can download and use...then when you are ready, you can create your own to customize it for your cabinet

[Wolfwood]

I was going to make some cardboard cutouts, but so far I really don't know the dimensions of the buttons or the joysticks.

I know I can just look at the homepage, but the pictures really don't do it for me, as far as I know, the Happs Competition buttons are 1 inch each, others say they are half an inch, since I want half inch spacing between all the buttons, its kind of nerve racking to find some decent information.

anyone have any clues on where to find drilling dimensions?

[severdhed]

oh...when i did cardboard mockups, i mounted real controls in a piece of cardboard...not printed pics.

i have found that 1.5" between the centers of the button holes is excellent spacing.

this site here has alot of button layout templates..

http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html

i decided to just make my own, which i think i need to tweak a little...but those will get you a good start.  (although they are all in metric, so you will need to do some conversion if you are in the US)

[Wolfwood]

If only I know the Metric division of inches, that would be awesome, I guess I could Order all the buttons and such and arrange them on some cardboard, get a good feel for where things need to go, then get the joysticks.

Still wish I could find the Ultrasticks for less then 60 bucks each...

[severdhed]

it took me a long time before i could finally convince myself to spend the money on the u360s....but let me tell you, they are well worth the money.  (make sure you get the heavier springs)

[Wolfwood]

I guess, I really can't get any of my controls together until I move, so it will be a while until I can make a cardboard mockup..

[Wolfwood]

I was thinking about making the Joysticks portable, as so I really don't have room for an entire mame cabinet, at least not now.

Maybe making two joysticks, with the same parts, and when I have the room, and hardware, build a nice cabinet of my own.

Since the UltraSticks allow me to hookup 8 buttons and have it all hooked up via USB, I think I should have a nice controller, but skip on the cabinet for a while.

I just don't have the ---gosh-darn--- room.

Thoughts? anyone know how to make a small but comfortable joypad?