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First build! 4P MAME *now with pics!*
Jefferson:
Hi nerds! My name is Jeff. I'm here to infiltrate your ranks and learn how to build my own arcade cabinet. I've enjoyed spying on these forums for the last few weeks and look forward to documenting my own process. It may take weeks or even months to truly take the plunge but I figure its never too early for the 'statement of the goal'. I've got a lot of newbie questions but hopefully I'm a little further along than those 'whats the difference between 4- and 8-way joysticks' guys (idiots, am I right?) Plus, your answers ought to help me figure out the best road to take and thus, how quickly I can start this bad larry...
Goals for Upright Arcade Cabinet
-4 Player. 6 buttons for players 1 and 2, 4 buttons for players 3 and 4 (more on that later.) I guess a start/'coin' button for each player, also as few additional aux buttons as mame/ the frontend need ('menu' and 'exit'?) and some volume + and - would be sweet.
I'm so-so on the trackball but who am I to eliminate game options? I probably love Golden Tee and just don't know it yet.
-A cheap but powerful PC running MAME32 and Hyperspin on Windows 98/XP. I switched to Macs in college so I do this begrudgingly.
-That^ being said, its important to me that its retains as much arcade-ness as is possible. Meaning, one power switch to rule them all (like it, nerds? You're too easy. Give me your secrets!) no Windows startup crap, hi-scores kept, authentic resolution/frame rate, etc.
-Wheels baby!
Goals for Later:
NES, SNES, 64, Sega/PS emulators would be awesome. But then I'd want 6 buttons for players 3 and 4 (4P 'arcade' games use 3 buttons per player max I think?) Stuff like the coin door and side art are just icing on the cake. I'm not really worried about that stuff yet. Abom's The Answer (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=99144) is beautiful with his lit up buttons and sticks but c'mon now that guy is funding his nostalgic arcade dreams with leftover muscle car money!
So also I'm not interested in instilling my MAME with an mp3 jukebox or DVD movie library or the ability to love or some such.
It'll be used for games like
-4P Konami style sidescrollers (X-Men, Simpsons, Turtles)
-Fighting games (SF 2, Children of the Atom, Marvel VS Capcom)
-Classics (Ms Pac, Donkey Kong, Galaga)
Things I have going for me:
-I'm kind of artistic. I can draw and paint simple stuff. I feel like theres no way I'll end up with one of these... (http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/1.html)
-I'm also kind of 'handy'. I painted houses for a few summers and did some light construction and took a shop class so I know what a router is.
-I've also circuit-bent a Speak and Spell (80% finished for over a year) and made a theremin out of a kit (completed and sucks) so I'm no stranger to the hot lovin of a soldering iron. Of these formidable skills, I am least confident/lack tools in woodworking.
-I live in LA (big market, lots of opportunities for advice, handouts, etc.)
Things working against me:
-Time. I work full-time and have many projects both silly and serious on the side.
-Money. Don't got none.
-I am not a programmer. I am okay with creative programs (photoshop, FCP, dreamweaver, DVD Studio Pro) but coding and stuff is beyond me. No experience with MAME.
-The fear of creating a haunted arcade cabinet
(http://kotaku.com/366370/the-haunted-ms-pac-man)
-I live in LA (errand driving sucks, people know how much their stuffs worth, etc.)
So I'm Leaning Towards (/ some QUESTIONS):
-An Ultimate Arcade II 4-player kit (http://www.mameroom.com/ProductDetail.asp?ID=UAIICAB27E4) I know you people consider this the dark side. It lacks character and I hear they might need some extra reinforcement but I could throw this puppy together in a day and get right to the endless hours of wiring up a 4 player control panel. Thats the clincher, the nice wide 4P CP. Alternative: How hard would it be to integrate a wide 4 person CP into an existing cabinet? I assume its a nightmare from which I would never wake up.
-What's better, a 27" Phillips TV with component in (speakers are on the sides though making it kinda chubby) or a 19" computer monitor. I'm thinking TV. You decide.
-How much more taxing are add'l console emulators on the comp? How much more taxing to finesse the actual nerd-code to make it work?
-I'm hearing that 4 players furiously mashing buttons can confuse MAME and result in missing keystrokes. Poppycock. How can we overcome this? Is it a comp processor issue? Initially I only wanted to deal with JAMMA, after all the appealing thing about arcade machines is that they are cut and dry and NOT pc's. Of course though, JAMMA soon led me to MAME which seems like the way to go. Especially after I heard that 1XXX-in-ones like these (LINK REMOVED! My bad...) are basically running mame-ish front ends anyway. I live with a group of dudes so I dont expect to regret the bulky 4P controls like so many others do once their shits built and they realize their friends were imaginary all along. I want to ensure my Turtles in Time seshes are as smooth as they'd be on a classic dedicated cab.
GaryMcT:
I might be able to help out with advice on getting everything to run at the right resolution, etc. I also code and I'm contemplating rolling up all my favorite diffs and some stuff that I'm working on for a Mame dist on here.
For the "running at the right resolution" part, my advice is to try to find a 19" multisync CRT monitor if you want the classic to look right. If the monitor is much bigger than that, games like Pac-Man look funky. Even the anniversary legit release of Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga looks funky to me on a 25" monitor (I think that's the size). If you can find a Wells Gardner D9500, I love 'em. I haven't had much experience with other arcade monitors, so there are likely others out there. They are getting pretty hard to find new these days since the tube industry is drying up.
If you are willing to be cheap and try to use the hardware you have, try using soft15khz to do your video modes. That's what I use and it is great. The only games that aren't running properly for me with it so far are those that are vertical that I'm trying to run on a horizontal monitor, and with some tweaking, those are okay (until I get a vertical machine set up.) If you don't already have a card, get an ArcadeVGA 2 if you are sure that you are going to be sticking with Windows. The AGP and PCI-Express version are different chipsets. . I would assume that the PCI-Express version would be faster since it's a more modern ATI chip, but I don't actually have much experience with it.
If you are going to use soft15khz, dig up the thread on the German forum (I think there is a link to it from the wiki here) for a list of cards and how well they work. I probably wouldn't bother with a card that isn't known good on that list unless you already have the card and want to give it a try.
You may want to start with cabmame for now. I'm not sure that it has the most complete high score support, but most everything else is in there. I personally don't like the audio tweaks that are in there, and they aren't configurable. . I'll probably have a derivative dist that at least makes that configurable by the time you are ready.
Epyx:
--- Quote ---Hi Nerds!
--- End quote ---
The correct term is geeks...geeks look outwardly "normal" whereas nerds are pocket protector, flood wearing, social inverts...big difference! :)
Additional Emulators are no problem at all given the right front end. There are numerous front ends that can handle arcade/console/computer emulators and PC games (Maximus Arcade, Gamex, Mala just to name a few). The general rule is the more commercial ones tend to be easier to configure (less "geek" code...).
I would go with the 27" Philips with component hands down as you really haven't mentioned PC games as being a requirement (although there are some excellent cab friendly pc games). A larger monitor would be different but in this case and based on your requirement I would go 27" over 19" given you will have up to 4 people crammed around the screen.
The 4 player button mashing shouldn't be an issue with any of the commercial encoder options if mapped correctly for the game in question.
javeryh:
Welcome! Don't build a 4P cabinet unless you are really really really sure about it and then you think about it some more and you are really really sure about it.
Aabra:
What's wrong with 4p cabs? If you don't have many parties/get togethers at your house then it doesn't make sense sure but if you've got people coming over on a regular basis then 4p is the way to go.