need possible theme ideas for first mame cab

[Rice Cube]

Hey everyone new to the arcade game, but this is my first attempt of building my own mame arcade. i read some stuff, online, tried to find good pictures of someone building a cabinet, watched some videos and this is what i ended up with after a saturday and sunday of work with my dad about a total of 8 hours work. it was frustrating but fun, especially when I had to move plywood with our old 90s VW jettav and have constant arguments with my pops. but yeah next is doing the slot cutting for the t-molding and will probably laminate it soon, just ordered it today. i do need help wiring the control panel and where to wire it to after connecting it to the joysticks and buttons so if you want to help me out, PM me. thanks!

[n88n]

looks like a great start!

[Rice Cube]

hey everyone, i thought i might give an update on where im at with the mame arcade. let me know what you think, any advice or suggestions are welcome.

been working on it for about 2-3 weeks now. worked on it every weekend i could and i had to take a medical leave for work because i fractured a bone in my ankle, so when i was able to walk around again, i worked on it almost every other day for a few hours doing a little something hear and there. its been raining here in southern california so that really put the work at a halt but im getting there.

i know i made a few mistakes like laminating the sides first but oh well, live and learn.

[Rice Cube]

some more pictures. thought i would include me using a drill press for my control panel because i thought it was amazing my dad had one. he came up on for about $120 at a machine shop that was closing down. shout out to my pops who had every tool we needed, all we had to do was find the drill bits for the t-molding and the laminating.

[Rice Cube]

some more pics

[Rice Cube]

and one more for the day

[Rice Cube]

i lied, wanted to show this one too. did the laminating for the tv today.

[mgb]

That's looking real good. I like the cabinet shape.
Laminating lloks great.
As far as your questions regarding wiring and all that, just keep searching the forums and google. Every question you have has been asked and answered.
Good luck and keep up the good work.

[mgb]

Heres what to wire the joys and buttons up to
http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html
or
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76&zenid=d70ebcf2c0b6edaae3e8eb89f1265be4

Make sure to use stranded wired, 20awg if possible, 22awg will work for you too. I wouldn't advise solid wire (like typical cat5)

Good Luck

[Rice Cube]

What's wrong with using cat5 wire, thats the type of wire that is used for ethernet cables right? that's what i was planning on using. I ended up using this for my control interface.

http://www.focusattack.com/products/Akishop-PS360-Tri-Mod-Joystick-PCB-%283rd-Wave%29.html

[mgb]

Yes Cat5 (or now also Cat6) is whats used for ethernet.
The thing is with Cat5 is that its very thin and solid. Solid thin wire tends to break easily. I'm not saying it definately will but there's good chance of it. How are you attaching it to your micro-switches?
Crimp connectors are specifically for stranded cable. At best I would say if you are going to use cat5 for control panel wiring, make sure that it won't be flexed alot. If you use crimp on connectors, also solder the wire to it at the crimp point, I've done this before at work for various equipment program cables and it works well.

I also like to keep more arcade proper cable sizes which would typically be 20awg for controls (micro switches) and 18awg for power cables.
But 20awg is not a super common size so 22awg is cool.

I'm not saying Cat5 won't work, I just feel that its not best.

[Rice Cube]

laminated some more pieces and got the speaker grill done, put in the joysticks and buttons. Next steps are to get a coin door, wire the control panel, and figure out hyperspin. any help would be much appreciated.

[mgb]

Progress is looking good.

[Martijn]

Lookin good, the design reminds me of someones cab 

will it get a lcd or a tube?

[Rice Cube]

haha, martijn im practically jocking yours. one day i googled, street fighter 'something', i forgot what exactly i was doing, but on google your post of your cab project came up and thats actually how i learned about byoac. and you were posting stuff all the time and your stuff was clean and that it inspired me to do one except with an LCD. i didnt want like a traditional looking cabinet you would find at a regular arcade, and i liked your design. im not sure if you did this but i am trying to connect my xbox 360 and pc to it. one difference i know that i did though is i didnt get to laminate the inside because of the order i did stuff in, didnt think about it until it was too late and the area where you have your volume control and usb ports, im actually trying to make that into a drawer of some kind where i can open it and a keyboard and mouse and whatever else i need will be right there. but for the most part the shape of the cabinet and some other stuff was all inspired by your arcade cab.

so everyone, i would like to give props to martijn for his amazing arcade cab and for inspiring me to do one of my own.

[Martijn]

hi, and good luck with the project, i had only a pc in my cab, and installed sf IV pc edition on it. how will you switch between controlls? if i should do that i would use some kind of lpt printer port switch and make the switch somwhere outside the cab in a descret way.

i am google sketchupping a new cab with a lcd(37 inch), based on my old cab one, but way less dept. my old cab with crt was about 100 cm dept and the lcd type is 60

to bad about the inside laminate , but it looks good. also i noticed your lcd bezel, will it be like that with tv logo showing?

if any questions , ask me.

[Epyx]

i know i made a few mistakes like laminating the sides first but oh well, live and learn.

I laminated first as well and just used packing paper with painters tape to cover it and all was fine

[Rice Cube]

yeah the tv logo will be showing, the vizio tv i got has a certain design to it so i had to do it a certain way i think, i ended up making the tv flushed with the bezel. but yeah i wanted to do it without the logo showing but it just seemed easier and a bit more stable to do it the way i had it. i think i can still get a bezel though from like happ or something, ive seen it before, that would only show the screen so i think i have that option if i want to go that way.

[Rice Cube]

yeah someone suggested i use these akishop pcbs from focusattack.com, i was going to use an ipac but i wanted to connect to an xbox 360 and pc. they have a printer port connection attached to them and then from there someone here suggested i connect them to a usb kvm switch so i dont have to manually unplug them in and out when i need to. i havent tried it out yet, but I am wiring the control panel right now so I should know by the end of the week. if that doesnt work, i got a backup plan that i hope will work.

[Erik]

Update plz! 

[Rice Cube]

Hi everyone, here is an update. Ive been working on it as much as I can ever since I started it. But work and my dad going out of town for a month kinda slowed progress but I still kept working on it. Mostly I have been working on the software part, getting my control panel to work with MAME, xbox 360, and my front end properly. Still working on that. Also been doing a lot of painting, a lot of small detail stuff, more laminating and re-laminating stuff. ALso put in a coin door although its not wired yet. Put in my back door and wheels.

I finally moved the cabinet in my house and began to piece stuff together. Here are some pictures.

Still got a whole lot to do. A lot of configuring stuff. My girlfriend and a ladyfriend of ours who did some artwork for street fighter toys are going to do some artwork for the entire thing hopefully by or around my birthday in June, they got school and stuff. Yellow t-molding is on its way and I do have happ competition buttons and joysticks to swap with my current stuff. 

[Rice Cube]

Some more pictures

[Rice Cube]

And a few more

[Rice Cube]

can i get suggestions from anyone. I plan on making a little shelf for my xbox 360, also got yellow t-molding. right now im about to swap out the joysticks and buttons with competition ones.

i might get a kvm switch but I feel like I might be spending a lot on a good one. right now the pc is connected through vga and 360 through hdmi. thanks.

[Rice Cube]

this is what i got so far, still got some stuff to work on but everything is together...working...sorta. here it is running the new mortal kombat game.

[Corbo]

Lookin good, likeing the black and yellow (black and yellow black and yellow sing it!) theme 

This is the first time I've seen a 16:9 monitor in a cabinet, makes it look very modern. Good job.