update: done with the 3 main panels on this thing.
xbox/pc dual sf4 fightsticks
traditional MK panel
happ 6 button sf mame layout panel
new project that I've been working on for a bit now. I obtained a MK4 in pretty good shape that had the MK4 and MK3 boards. At first I was going to keep those and set it up to switch back and forth between the boards and mame, but I decided it's too much hassle to do that and instead create a MAME/X360 cabinet with swappable control panels. So I pretty much ripped out all the arcade stuff, it's a MK4 so I don't think too many people care, but oh well if they do.
so all I am keeping from the original cabinet is the cab, speakers, control panel, jamma harness.
I've already used the jamma harness and some extra wire to hook up the original MK4 control panel to a Jpac, so there's my swappable MK control panel, easy enough.
next I'm trying to obtain another MK control panel which I'll use for MAME/X360 controls. My idea at the moment to do this is to obtain 2 street fighter IV TE control sticks. which will probably cost me $400 at this point, they retail for $150 but you can't find them for that at the moment. So if I pick up two of those and get the control panel I can remove the top piece, cut some wood, then somehow arrange all the stuff from the x360 sticks on it, I'm leaning toward just using the big top red piece of the SF4 sticks if you've seen it, that way would be the easiest way to do it, but I'm thinking it might look a little goofy with SF4 logos on the control panel and MK on the rest of the cabinet, but I have the original MK4 control panel to slap on there too, little torn at the moment as to what I will really end up doing.
what's cool about this setup is the X360 sticks are recognized in windows, you just plug in the usb and it recognizes it as a controller and it's easy to configure. so all I have to do is hook up a USB switcher between the PC and the X360 and I've got easy to switch controls.
For the monitor I tested out hooking a X360 through VGA to my brother's Betson 27" multisync at 640X480 and it looked pretty good with Street Fighter IV. the characters are smaller at that resolution but it looked pretty good to me. I've tried running the monitor at 720p and it actually worked, but I didn't do that for long because I'm not sure if that's bad for the monitor or not, I would guess it's ok but I don't want to take a chance with ruining a $500 monitor without being absolutely certain it is ok to run it at higher than 640X480 resolution. Even at 640X480 I'm satisfied so I"m planning on ordering one and modding my MK cabinet to fit it. I know it will fit in there but I have to rig it or move the brackets about 1 and 1/4 inch down. I'm leaning towards moving two of the brackets because I can still do it and not put more holes in my new side art.
As for the side art, i've already overlayed the left side original MK4 (which I don't really like, have no idea who that character is and it's goofy looking anyway) and replaced it with MK3. I plan on overlaying full size MK2 on the right side. This is why I'm a little torn with just using the SF4 control panels as the main controls for the cabinet. originally I wanted to do a kind of hybrid MK3/MK2 control panel. if you look at the originals the MK2 has lightning going to the buttons and the MK3 is a shadowy square looking thing. I think it would be pretty cool to combine the two in photoshop so the left side looks like MK3 and the right MK2 and arrange the buttons in the SF4 layout (6 buttons first two are a little lower, which I find more comfortable) It would also be cool if I can come up with a hybrid MK3/MK2 marquee to go with it. I'm thinking the standard black MIDWAy signs on the side of the control panel would be good. then there's just the front of the control panel which I'll have to figure out also.
I want to use sanwa joysticks and buttons for the MAME/X360 control panel. So to do all the above I should probably just buy some cheapo X360 arcade sticks for the interface and hack sanwa parts to it instead of using the more expensive SF4 TE stick as my base. Another problem with the sanwa parts is they are kind of a pain to install in a wood panel. I've heard of people using the snap ins to snap to plexi then routing grooves in the wood for the snap ins to fit in, so I'm leaning towards that route if I decide to fully design the panel. the alternative would be to somehow mount a metal top to the panel.
for sound I have some cheapo logitech stereo PC speakers hacked to the 8" speakers that came with the MK4, which sounds ok and is nice because it has the volume control/headphone jack unit which I can mount to the inside of the coin door.
I'll post some pictures of this thing later tonight.
progress:
obtained MK4
ripped out arcade parts
tossed in new marquee light
hacked jamma harness to jpac for MK control panel
hacked computer speakers to original speakers
used wood putty to fill in scratches on front and left side
applyed full size MK3 side art to left side of cab
painted front coin door section and the coin door
replaced missing coin mech in the coin door
put mame pc together (2.4 quadcore/4 gigs ram/ arc VGA pciexpress/ sb audigy 2)
mounteded lower monitor brackets 1 and 1/4 inch lower to fit 27" Betson Multisync
obtained and installed new monitor
left to do:
apply right side art (MK2)
obtain 2nd control panel
create new top for it
hack some X360 control sticks for my MAME/X360 interface
obtain sanwa joysticks/buttons for the MAME/X360 panel
figure out new hybrid MK3/MK2 control panel artwork for the top and front
figure out new hybrid MK3/MK2 marquee
obtain usb switcher to switch between MK and MAME/X360 control panels
obtain VGA switcher to switch between PC and X360 vga input
figure out how I will switch between PC and X360 audio (get it to rca and use a rca switcher I'm guessing)
probably other stuff I'm not thinking about