So, the wifey pretty much told me she'd kill me if I ordered/ built a cab right now because of our room situation.
Well you just need to tell her "SHUT YO MOUTH WOMAN! THIS BE MY HOUSE!, GET IN THERE AND MAKE MY DINNER BEFO I SLAP YO FACE!"
Now, I now that garner350 downplayed/backpedalled what he said here, but it still needs to be said ... if you think this, even as a joke, then you probably will end up being able to have as many arcade cabinets as you want ... because there won't be anybody around to say otherwise. If you want to know how much Astroglide is required in order to have intimate relations with Robotron, I suggest you run over to KLOV. I don't think that I have ever seen somebody who actually has both a wife and and arcade (used here in the proper sense to represent more than a single cabinet) ever say anything even remotely resembling "THIS BE MY HOUSE".
It seems to run to the contrary ... the folks who actually have a reasonable number of arcade cabinets are actually nice, normal (really, they are) guys who enjoy nice, healthy relationships with their wives.
There are a couple of questions that nobody asked before you start making decisions about cabinets and kits.
Do you just want to play a bunch of the games that you loved or are you jonesing for a big wooden box that reminds you of how you felt when you played those games ? *I* may need need the full cabinet and immersive experience (blacklights, cigarette burns, big hair, etc), but that doesn't mean that you do. If you are happy with arcade controls, then go for a countertop machine or a just a control panel ... whatever fits in the space you have.
Do you care about things like genuine arcade monitors or is there a specific game with specialty controls that you just HAVE TO play ?
If you want a fullsize arcade cabinet and want to do it on the cheap, then ignore all of these guys who have never actually done that. Going cheap is not an easy choice in a community like this. I know lots of folks who do it all the time, but they definitely don't post their projects here, despite knowing more than most. You can assemble a MAME cab for under $100 cash if you have patience (and having a stockpile of controls helps ... if you don't then you can still do it for $200 or $300).
Now, if you want of keep a lean budget, then buying a big kit from one of the fullsize cabinet vendors won't fit your bill. There are a couple of countertop kit vendors who I would feel free to recommend, even though I have never bought a countertop kit (word of mouth is a GoodThing(tm)). EMDKay and PeteDiak come to mind there.
I see one poster in this thread who used a gutted Dynamo cabinet. Some will say that $100 is too much for a gutted Dynamo (even one with a monitor) ... but cheapass collector pricing doesn't always take into account the fact that some of us REALLY want to play games NOW, so I can't fault him for that (hell, the choice of a gutted Dynamo is another GoodThing(tm)). Since I have the space, I always recommend grabbing up an old generic cab (not a classic or anything rare) and using that as a base for a MAME project. It is the cheapest way to get going.
If you are on a budget, I would also steer you away from the "normal" CP shops or X-Arcade. I don't have anything against them specifically (and I don't hate X-Arcade as much as others do ... their encoders are pretty nifty). OK, so Scott (MAMERoom aka GreatSomethingSomething) and I butted heads some time back because he was behaving like an idiot, but I'll never denigrate the quality of his work or his hardware. The time it takes to craft a quality product, especially if customization is required, costs money and you may not be willing to pay that much.
Take the time to cruise eBay -- I paid less for the last batch of *10* trackballs that I picked up (locally FTW!) than you can buy a single trackball for new from any of the vendors here (and I love our vendors). It took me a couple of hours, a bit of elbow grease, some WD-40 and some 3-in-1 oil and I ended up with 9 (of 10) perfect trackballs that you couldn't tell from NIB.
Having said that, be sure to check with our vendors and don't ever order from Happ directly unless you are absolutely sure that you can't get a better price (which does happen ... I have a Happ retail account to prove it!).
And I disagree with Delusional about some of his wiring advice, but that really is a matter of personal preference. I would say, if you aren't looking to build multiple cabinets, then spend your money on better wire and get a cheap crimper (if you are building one cabinet or control panel on a budget, then just use pliers!). If you are looking to build multiple cabinets, then buy good wire and a good crimper.
My best advice for someone starting out who doesn't really know what they want and doesn't want to think about it... grab up a cheap generic cabinet at auction, set up a standard 2-player SF2 control panel and get to playing. Then, as you desire, flesh out your design and expand the number of controls.
At the end of the day, the more you know, the more you can save.
I brought my first MAME cabinet (build from a generic cocktail) in on a nice budget under C$600 (3-sided cocktail, horizontal side in standard 2-player SF layout, no trackball or spinner, IPac2 and computer speakers). I haven't spent more than half of that on a MAME cabinet since, despite the fact that I like to use ArcadeVGAs and JPACs which are both fairly pricey (to be fair, I do have a MAME project awaiting spinners, wheels and pedals that will break that price point due to the controls involved).
Better advice is to figure out what you want to play and start from there.
EDIT: Man, that was a truckload of typos ... and there are still a couple that I am too lazy to fix!
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Topic: Recommendations on Arcade Cabinet Kits? (Read 30161 times)
