Starting 2 MAME cabinets - One for home - One for work **Updated 3/11/2011**

[mn_big_dog]

Been following a few threads for awhile, finally decided to register and start a thread about the 2 cabinets I am starting.

I have been using MAME now for many years, and have always told myself that as soon as I had the space, I would start a full cabinet.  Well, after buying a new house this last summer, that time has come

After discussing the project with some co-workers and the President of the company I work for......I was told that we need one for the office also.

My first plan was to build the cabinets from scratch, following Lusid's plans.  After tossing that around for awhile, I thought that maybe I should swing by the local vending/game room business to see if they had any empty or broken cabinets.   Of course they didn't.......but.......they were having a huge sale on some working games that they wanted to get rid of.   After looking them all over, I ended up buying a Tekken3 and a Demolish Fist cabinet for only $99 each.  Both cabinet's look identical. They are getting delivered tomorrow here to work (only charged me $20 total to deliver since they manage our vending machine and soda fountain here at work) and I will get some pictures posted then.

Also ordered a couple 3" Trackballs, a couple new joysticks, various buttons and a couple I-pac's

Here's how they are going to be set up.....

1. Work cabinet - 2 player set up with trackball in the middle

2. Home cabinet - 4 player set up with trackball in the middle

Going to be running Maximus Arcade as the front end on both.

The main question I have is the setup of the arcade monitors.  I have read a ton of threads about using or not using a ArcadeVGA card, and I would like to hear from the people that DIDN'T use one.....how where the results?

I'll post pics after I get home tomorrow night of the cabinets.

[painterinfo]

Awesome score.

Look forward to seeing the pics.

[mn_big_dog]

The cabinets got dropped off today.  We fired them up and played a little.  Going to start on the control panels this weekend.

Here's some pictures......


Demolish Fist - Cabinet is a NAMCO, not sure what the original game was.


Atomiswave System and Demolish Fist cartridge - Going to sell.....anyone interested? Works great!


Demolish Fist Monitor Model # - Picture is still great


Tekken 3 Cabinet - Cabinet has both a SEGA and a NAMCO sticker on the back.  Also a Spiderman The game sticker.


Tekken 3 JAMMA Board - Going to sell.....anyone interested? Works great!


Tekken 3 Monitor Model # - Picture is still great


Couple of co-workers "testing"


That's it for now.   Going to get the control layout done for the Demolish Fist cabinet tonight.  Should have the new control panel top cut and drilled on Saturday.  There is enough space on the current panel to have two players and a trackball.  So I am going to cut a new top piece, move the joysticks and buttons(6 per) further apart so a trackball can fit between them.

Thoughts....concerns....comments?

[tightwad]

Wish I could find a Cab around here (Dallas, TX) for $99 that was a working game!  Good luck!

[mn_big_dog]

Yeah I got pretty lucky.   If anyone in the MN area is looking, they have the remaining games left.

$99.95 each
1. Demolish Fist (same cabinet as the one shown above)
2. Tekken 2
3. Stand-up Outrun
4. Virtua Cop

$295 each
1. (3) Silver strike bowling

$795 each
1. Ms. PacMan

$895 each
1. Simpsons Pinball
2 3 other Pinball Machines

[jessybr]

hi
nice cabinets.
i am running mame on my cabinet without arcadevga card but with a j pac
you could use soft 15 khz or powerstrip for the resolution
its a p4 2800mhz with a good videocard most look for the brand.
it has a clean good picture

goodluck

[mn_big_dog]

Got the Tekken 3 cabinet home today.  Plugged it in and me and the kids played for a while.  Got some fun stuff in the mail today......

I-PAC 2 for the work cabinet, I-PAC 4 for the home cabinet and a video amp for each


Also got some new joysticks, buttons and a couple trackballs. (I'll add pics tomorrow...the stuff is at work)

Here a shot of Tekken 3 up and running....plays great


Should have both of the new control panels cut and drilled this weekend.  Will hopefully have both cabinets converted over and working in the next couple weeks.
I noticed I didn't post PC specs earlier....so here ya go.......

Both pc's will have the same specs (extra PC equipment I had laying around)

Asus motherboard
   Will use onboard sound and network
Athlon X2 3800 CPU
2GB DDR Memory
Nvidia 6800GT 512mb video card
450watt power supply
WinXP
Haven't decided on Front End to use

I'm going to use my old Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speaker set for my cabinet, not sure what we are doing with the work one.
That's where I am at so far.  Not a whole lot of progress.....but will get the ball rolling this weekend.

[DCsegaDH]

Tekken 3 is such a great game, awesome memories playing that game.  I wish upright cabinets in AZ were that cheap, most places want $200 and thats just the cabinet. I use Maximus Arcade frontend, Ive heard Mala, Mamewah, and GameEX were also great choices, but its all preference. I can't wait for some progress pictures.

[slapaham]

Out of interest - how much are you looking for the Atomiswave and DF? I live in the UK and depending on price I may be interested...

[mn_big_dog]

Was thinking $100 for the pair.  If you don't need it right away, I'm flying over to Manchester in May

[slapaham]

I'd probably knock you down to $75 if you were happy with that? If so, I can definitely wait until May - no rush - it will make life a lot easier in arranging delivery/collection.

Thanks for your help!

[mn_big_dog]

Finally got the 2 player control panel cut and drilled (still need to do the Track Ball hole, battery died).  Going to cut the 4 player panel tomorrow.



Test Fitting on my cabinet.  The 2 player is for the work cabinet.


It's a direct size replacement for the original....fits good.  Still needs a little sanding


Threw the buttons in to see how it looked.  If you look closely, you can see a small hole in the middle, track-ball pilot hole

[mn_big_dog]

Updates again tomorrow night.

[mn_big_dog]

So..........

Only a year later and here's another update
Moved into a new position at work, and ended up traveling around the world a couple times a month.  Needless to say, the machines got put on the back-burner.  Now that the traveling is done, I finally started moving ahead again.

My home machine is almost complete.  Only thing left is cosmetics.(Marquee, graphics, trim)
Ended up going with Maximus Arcade as a front end, and am very happy I did.   I tried out pretty much every one out there, and Maximus did everything I wanted to, and was easy enough for my kids to navigate around(6 kids.....6 to 19).   The only thing I changed, was to make mine a 2 player and not a 4 player.

Here are some pics........

Finished control panel


Control Panel wiring almost complete


Control Panel in place


Up and running!!



So that's where I'm at.  The kids are loving it, and it works great.  Ordered a new Marquee and some new t-molding, should be able to get everything finished up next weekend.

Also, I have the Tekken 3 Jamma board, Marquee and monitor trim pieces that show all the fighters/moves for sale in the "for sale" forum.

[mgb]

Nice progress