The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Project Announcements => Topic started by: nulogix on March 30, 2019, 11:02:33 am
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Built a cabaret kit as just to see if I could do it (will post pics later). It's a MAME machine mortal kombat ii themed. Now I want to build a Ms Pacman cabaret from scratch.
I'm new at this, so this will take a while and I will have some dumb questions. I want to take the leap and use an actual pcb.
I have some questions to rate 1 to 10. So for the purists, on a scale of 0-10 where 10 is as good as finding a NOS Paperboy and 0 is as bad as taking that same paperboy and converting into a 60 in 1 with Zaxxon side art:
Using a 4 in 1 pacman board?
Using a bootleg ms pacman board?
Computer with latest mame and only having all the pacman's installed?
Using jamma harness and jamma converter?
Using an LCD arcade monitor?
Using an LCD computer monitor?
Using a 17" crt inch computer monitor with vga converter?
Using a 13" arcade monitor but with bad burn in?
Finding a 13" arcade monitor in good condition but paying a lot (~$500)?
I'll have more questions later I'm sure....
EDIT: Pictures of finished cab. All in all it was a fun project
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Why not just use a raspberry pie?
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Why not just use a raspberry pie?
I like the raspberry pi. Honestly, I just want to see if I can do it with original equipment. Might be a new hobby restoring/building stuff...
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If you want to jump into the restoration hobby then go with a CRT and original PCBs. Where do you live? People talk about how expensive and hard to find CRTs are. In the Chicagoland area they are not rare or expensive.
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If you want to jump into the restoration hobby then go with a CRT and original PCBs. Where do you live? People talk about how expensive and hard to find CRTs are. In the Chicagoland area they are not rare or expensive.
North Carolina
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Ask here if there are locals that know where to find what you are looking for. Go to KLOV.com and join up. You can enquire there too. I have found a lot of stuff there. I met a guy in Minnesota. I got my Time Pilot, Eagle, and Vanguard cabs from him. I had to do some driving, but it was a great score, and I met a good dude who I just helped score a pinball machine near me.
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Another caberet is probibally not the way to look at this. The BEST caberet ever! more like it. Be proud of what you build...Some Minnesota Klove guy probibally ain't going to be much help, There are archived builds right here at BYOAC that will get you on the right track....*And fun story, wait till you see Jenns fire damaged Ms pac caberet project. (Wink) OMG, this one is bad.
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My point was you have to reach out and meet other arcade collectors, online and in person. I started here. I met some good people. They became online friends. I flew out to Zapcon and we became good friends. Same thing with the guy in MN. He lives near a friend of mine. I hauled stuff for him and he hauled stuff for me. Now we stay in touch every couple of weeks.
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Jennifer dated a guy from Minnesota once too, I didn't meet him on Klove though, over at the bowling alley, but He was kinda lazy, and wouldn't haul any slots for me in his stupid little pickup...I just left him at Kmart a couple days later.
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Why not just use a raspberry pie?
Why not just punch yourself in the nuts?
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But in all seriousness, are you strictly looking for Ms.Pac hardware to run this? I ask because the Namco 20th Anniversary PCB’s have Ms.Pac, Galaga, and Pac-man (hidden)...are official released boards, are small sized JAMMA pcbs, using more modern components for longevity.
They can be found for about $200-250 these days.
JAMMA would give you a clean wiring install, and opens up options to swap boards down the line you wanted to convert the cab.
As for monitors, if you can find an arcade CRT, definitely go for it. LCD’s are fine if you have no other choice, but they won’t last as long and are harder to service.
Being in this hobby you pick up a lot of different skills, monitor repair is one of them. Once you learn how to fix the usual problems with a CRT, you can keep you monitor running for decades.
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Why not just use a raspberry pie?
Why not just punch yourself in the nuts?
:laugh2:
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Jennifer dated a guy from Minnesota once too, I didn't meet him on Klove though, over at the bowling alley, but He was kinda lazy, and wouldn't haul any slots for me in his stupid little pickup...I just left him at Kmart a couple days later.
Awww the poor fellow.....abandoned at Kmart :
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Just use a 60 in 1. They’re idiot proof and have all the best vertical games anyway.
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Just use a 60 in 1. They’re idiot proof and have all the best vertical games anyway.
And you can just turn off every other game except Ms.pac and it’ll boot straight to that game, bypassing the menu.
Some of the roms aren’t properly emulated though, especially the sound inaccuracies (DK and Gyruss come to mind), but they’re cheap and real easy to plug-n-play. Again, JAMMA wiring will serve you well for inserting these types of boards into you project.
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As for monitors, if you can find an arcade CRT, definitely go for it.
I wanted to use an actual PCB with the speed up chip just to see if I can do it. I wanted to use a Jamma converter and harness for ease and so I have to option to convert it down the road.
As far as monitor, In a past life I used to own a computer store and actually have a few 17" CRT monitors laying around. How much of a pain is it to use one of those with a VGA converter? What are the drawbacks to doing that?
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Edited post to include pics of MK II cabaret from a kit.
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Why in the world would you have a dedicated MK2 cabinet and then slope the buttons like that? I'd forgive you for doing a SF2 layout, but dude.
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Why in the world would you have a dedicated MK2 cabinet and then slope the buttons like that? I'd forgive you for doing a SF2 layout, but dude.
It was a cabaret kit that was on sale on ebay.
As far as the button layout, it came pre-driled; I had no choice in the matter.
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As far as monitor, In a past life I used to own a computer store and actually have a few 17" CRT monitors laying around. How much of a pain is it to use one of those with a VGA converter? What are the drawbacks to doing that?
Well if you go with the 60-in-1 option, that board supports VGA output, so you can just plug the video feed straight into your Computer monitor and it should be good to go. You'd still have to wire the controls off the JAMMA edge, but that's easy stuff.
But CGA to VGA converters vary in quality and lag. You're dealing with upscaling the image, and while there are cheap converter options out there, most of the quality of those are sub-par and made from cheap chinese manufacturing. For instance the Gonbes GBS-8200, though cheap and available everywhere, introduces image degradation and display lag. Pretty much negating any point of going with original hardware. Lag is important to think about when having to deal with converters. It'll break the game play experience right away.
If you're going for the authenticity of real arcade boards, you should get a real arcade monitor. Introducing converters into the chain just adds another point of failure, and unless you shell out the bigger bucks on a proper upscaler, you're not going to get a truer experience than going with something like MAME.
Seriously though, if you have PC monitors readily available, and you want to go with dedicated hardware, going with something like a 60-in-1 and setting it to just play Ms.Pacman will not only save you a bunch of money, but the outcome will be pretty close to authentic. No one will really know, tbh.
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And so it begins...
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Power supply getting started...
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Controls, bezel...
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Power supply built. Are these correct so far?
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More progress...
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Found a pcb at a decent price. Cabinet wired and voila! Turned it on a it's alive! Paint and prime. Artwork goes on.
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Looking good. I wish you rotated the pics so they displayed properly!
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Fixed pictures. For whatever reason they are like that from my phone. Started project around December finished this past Friday.
Decided on a real board with a Jamma adapter. Playing it side by side vs my mame machine I can actually tell a big difference. Mame is almost unplayable now. Maybe it's in my head. Now to find one of the 90-1 chips. Anyone have one laying around they would be willing to part with?
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Any details on how you applied the side art? This thing came out great and should be getting more attention. :cheers:
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Decided on a real board with a Jamma adapter. Playing it side by side vs my mame machine I can actually tell a big difference. Mame is almost unplayable now. Maybe it's in my head. Now to find one of the 90-1 chips. Anyone have one laying around they would be willing to part with?
Looks great! and Fantastic choice to go with a real board. :applaud:
Did you end up using a computer monitor?