Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Voodoo_Ray on September 09, 2005, 01:22:17 pm
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Hi folks
To keep costs down I was thinking of just using an old Pentium 2 to run the show off eBay. Will I have any problems using an old system? I know old classics will run fine on this but is there anything else I'm missing?
Seperately, I plan to follow Saints book but it would be more convenient for me to paint the cabinet near the end of the project. Will this cause me any problems?
Thanks in advance
Steve
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To keep costs down I was thinking of just using an old Pentium 2 to run the show off eBay.
What show??
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All depends on the games you want to play. You may be better off saving a little longer, especially if this is going in to a full cab.
You are going to spend quite a bit of money on the whole project. If you don't have a budget for a reasonable computer (based on you needs, ie. "what show" are you aiming at), then you don't have a budget for the project.
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A guy at work gave me a PII last week. It only has a 2 gig HD. I've got MAME running on it now, and was amazed at how many games would fit.
I plan to make a 'countertop' arcade w/it that I'll put in one of my kids rooms. It's not too bad, but as expected the more graphics, sound or CPU intense games don't work or don't work well.
Go ahead & start your cab. I waited pretty much til the end to paint mine, that seemed the smart thing to do. If later you can scrape up a better PC, just swap out the 'ole PII & put the new one in there.
Good luck!!
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You could get a pentium 2... if you saved a bit more money though, you could get even more games playable... each little bit of extra speed will make a differnece when your dealing with those kind of speeds.
I remember running MAME on a 300 MHZ.. i think got a P3 550 on it and it blew it away (the other one) with a lil bit more ram too.
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There's no reason not to go with a cheapie- you can always upgrade later, and the cash you save now can help you finish the rest of the project sooner. Don't spend much on a PII, though- people are always throwing out old computers. Tell everyone you know you're looking for an old machine, you may find one somebody's got in the closet they'll toss you free. My local dump keeps old computers separate, you may find one at yours. Thrift stores sometimes have them. www.craigslist.org and www.freecycle.org are good ways to find cheap and free computers, as well as other junk.
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Thanks for the replies.
The idea is to get a cheapie for <$20 so that I can get cracking on the project. My home PC is a P4 and doesn't need updating quite yet. The idea is to swap this machine in to the cabinet in a year or two when I upgrade my home PC.
Steve
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I've just built a cab with a 667 pentium in it and it runs sweet. Not to mention that 512 megs of ram makes it happen though......keep that machine....just in case you want to build a vertical and a horizontal cab!
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Even though I said, not to go too cheep, I think going free (or nearly so) and upgrading later sounds like a reasonable idea.
The scenario that I would want to avaoid would be to spend $50-100 bucks on a computer now, put it in a cab in 6 months, then spend $500 on a new machine 6 months after that.
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I'd make a dedicated cabinet out of it, have it run one game of your choice, then build a replica of a dedicated cabinet, pacman for example. I am doing this with an old computer, and I am making a replica moonwalker. Use the arcade VGA card, or a video card with s video out to make it capaple of running on a big monitor, or get a big pc monitor, give it original artwork, dedicated controls, etc. You can tell everyone its a dedicated machine ;).