Main > Project Announcements
MAME Cab Black Nintendo -- Updated 13 feb. 2011: 1080i CRT TV
ptinolv:
We are 2 students and we decided months ago to have a MAME cab. We finished the cab approximately 2 months ago. I couldn't find the time before to write this post.
Cabinet Structure
At the beginning, we checked around and we fell in love with the zombie machine of zombiearcades.co.uk. The only problem is that we don't have the £2499 + taxes that it costs, being students living in canada (2499£~4300CA$). So we decided to make our own.
http://www.zombiearcades.co.uk/
We decided to make a cab similar but with a theme different than zombies, and with a CRT TV because lcd screen was too expensive. We managed to get exactly the dimensions of the cabinet from the pictures but realized that it was too small for our TV Toshiba 27" flatscreen that we found on craigslist. We decided to scale everything up and make it a little deeper so the TV would fit. After getting all the tools from craigslist or kijiji, and having plywood from a precedent project (a bar countertop), we could start the cuts :
In order to make the round edges, we bought a platic hashtray in dollarama that we screwed and routed around. Then we put the formica on it. We got the formica from a local distributor in order to have very big sheets and less scrap.
We first tried to glue the laminate directly, but it was not positionned correctly and we broke it trying to remove it. So we did it like presented here http://alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/htseries/formica.html and it went a lot better. You just have to be carefull of not leaving anything under the formica. It happened and we had a bump on the formica. We made a hole with the router on the other side to remove it.
Then started to put the elements together. As we don't trust glue for our plywood 5/8" and had a good experience using pocket holes, we decided to use that. For those who don't know what pocket holes are, you can check thoses links :
http://www.kregtool.com/products/pht/product.php?PRODUCT_ID=30
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5cza-XVSHA
Then we made the groove with a cutting bit, in order to put the T-molding. We couldn't find other brand that FREUD. Those things are expensive but we managed to return it and have a refund.
At some point there were sparkles while routing because we were cutting the pocket holes screws. (yeah , you can't think about everything). So we had to be carefull and route around.
We dismanteled the TV and put it inside the cabinet. For the bezel we just put a board of wood (our screen is flat) that we routed, laminated and painted on the egdes.
We put on the back a ventilation grill and an 110V computer input
PS : I apologize for my english. It is not my first language.
ptinolv:
Speakers
It was time for some electronics. Let's start with the speakers. We got i-trigue speakers from craigslist for a very cheap price. We wanted to put a grill but we couldn't find a decent one. So as a temporary solution (that finaly became permanent), we routed 3 holes for each speaker so it finally looks like that :
Control Panel
For the control panel, we ordered the components from divemaster (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=47066.0) 2 joysticks sanwa JLW8 and chrome illuminated push buttons of Ultralux. Divemaster was very nice and replies very quickly (within the 15 next minutes sometime). For the layout, we chose the standard japanese one : http://slagcoin.com/joystick/layout.html with 6 buttons. It feels very confortable and i don't regret this choice.
For the surface of the control panel, we put laminate, made 2 holes for the jack connectors, and we put envirotex on it. Envirotex is a product that you can spread and becomes hard like glass. It is a toxic product and you need to apply it in 20 minutes, so you have to be careful when you do that. http://eti-usa.com/consum/envtex/envlite.htm
We made the hole for the buttons. But by drilling the envirotex a white mark could appear around, probably because some air could go between the laminate and the layer of envirotex. So we had to drill carefully using different bit sizes. If i had to do it again , i would drill all the holes before applying the envirotex.
The controls are 2 wired xbox 360 controllers that i hacked, so the arcade would be xbox360 compatible. One is an official xbox controller and the other one is a joytech pad. For the joytech i couldn't find any information on internet, so i had to find where to connect my wires without having 2 wires per buttons. Unfortunately none of them has a common ground so each pad has 20 wires.
Marquee and finitions
Our theme is nintendo. We wanted to have a nice theme but discrete. We made the following marquee :
We printed it on a local print shop. The result is very nice.
For the marquee retainer, we use this T-molding : http://www.t-molding.com/store/product.php?productid=15&cat=5&page=1 This is a T-molding with an offset. By using this one, we have a perfect continuity between the molding and the board. We had to screw small pieces in metal behind the marquee so it stays in position.
Glass & other finish
We bought a square of glass grey tinted 6mm thick, in a local company. We got some black edge borders on an old desk some guy in our building was throwing away. We glued them with a glue gun. So after putting everything together :
Software
For the frontend we chose Gamex. It provides a lot of functionnalities even i found strange behaviors and bugs in the setup (its no big deal but made me lose some time).
In order to use my xbox 360 controller, i use the XBCD driver. You can for instance affect the D-Pad(pov) to the analog joysticks etc.
To have a correct profile for each game and emulator , we use xpadder with different profiles that i select by launching "xpadder.exe Pad1.profile Pad2.profile" before the game.
For mame, i use MameUiFX that supports hiscore and have nice fonts.
As an intoduction video, we made this one (with blender) that is launched at the beginning :
emphatic:
All in all, a very nice job! :applaud:
Gamester:
Very nice work! :applaud:
Interesting approach on the control panel coating. I'm guessing that stuff is very durable. Is there anything in particular you have to do to keep air bubbles out?
Oh, and thank you very much, you just made up my mind to use chrome T-Molding on my build. Looks very classy!
ptinolv:
It does seem durable. When you put it, there are a lot of bubble. The bubbles pop out with the CO2 apparently. I used a torch. You can see the bubbles disappear as soon as you approch the flame (the flame needs to be around 15cm away).