Newbie Questions

[King Friday XIII]

Hello all,

I've been lurking the forum for a couple of days as I get ready to start my MAME cabinet. Budget is very tight, I have a spare PC to work with already. I have some questions that I could not find the answers for:

1. The cabinet will be located in my loft, a second story room only accessible by a small spiral staircase. I will have to assemble the cabinet in the loft itself. Still, the cab needs to be small. I've seen one plan for a cabaret cab. (based on Tron, I believe). Does anybody else know of any other cabaret plans? I don't think I want a 75% scale cab since I'll be doing most of the playing and I'm 6'1".

2. Since the cab will be small I am wondering if I want one or two joysticks. The CP will probably be 20" wide. Will the CP be too crowded (especially with 2 players at once) for 2 joysticks? I'm trying to keep the CP as little crowded as possible. No trackball (out of my budget).

3. I'm only interested in 80s era arcade games. 90% of the games I want to play are vertical, so my plan right now is for a vertical monitor. However, there are a few favs (Joust, Karnov) that I really want as well. My monitor is a 17" PC monitor. I've seen some people with rotating monitors. How much of a pain is that and is it worth it?

4. What's the best way to do artwork on a tight budget? It does not have to be perfect but I'd little something a little more than just a coat of paint.

Thanks. I'm sure I'll have more questions later.

Dan

[Jeff AMN]

1. I don't have any specific plans, but maybe you should consider doing a bartop and place it on a stand or table.

2. I'd go with a single player cab, especially at that size. Also, most of the games that interest you seem to be single player or alternate play anyway.

3. I haven't tried a rotating monitor myself, but there are many techniques documented here.

4. Cabs that are painted carefully look great. You don't need a lot (or any) artwork for your cabinet to be attractive.

[leapinlew]

If you go vertical - I would definitely make it a single player cab.

1 Joystick with 2 buttons. Joust will be pretty tiny on that 17" screen.

[am_monkee]

i say spring for a 19".  you can get a crt one on craigslist for 30 bucks.

also-why not try a cocktail cabinet? good for small spaces. throw in a stool and you're set.

[shardian]

A pacman cabinet, or a Taito cabinet are your best bets for a compact vertical cabinet. With a 20"cp, you will never get two players on that thing comfortably.

[Tiger-Heli]

2. Since the cab will be small I am wondering if I want one or two joysticks. The CP will probably be 20" wide. Will the CP be too crowded (especially with 2 players at once) for 2 joysticks?

I think it will be too crowded.  I have a 2-player SF setup on a 24-inch panel, and that works, but spacing was a bit tight.  If you have three buttons per player, you have basically a SF setup, but if you can trim it to two . . .

Basically it depends on how often and what 2P Simultaneous games you might want to play.

3. I'm only interested in 80s era arcade games. 90% of the games I want to play are vertical, so my plan right now is for a vertical monitor. However, there are a few favs (Joust, Karnov) that I really want as well. My monitor is a 17" PC monitor. I've seen some people with rotating monitors. How much of a pain is that and is it worth it?

IMHO, setting up a rotating monitor in a small cabinet you are building in-site, would be pretty complicated.  A rotating LCD would be simpler, but if a trackball is out of your price-range . . .

Personally, I have a 17-inch PC monitor (no cab-though) and use it horizontally - although vertical games would look better rotated.  (I've tried it with them rotated and sideways and they look better).

I recommend trying all the options with the current monitor and see which options you can like with vs. the number of games you will play on it.

IOW, leave the monitor horizontal -

MAME 1942 = Letterboxed on sides, but playable.

MAME 1942 -rol  = Sideways but looks good

MAME joust = Correct and looks good

MAME joust -rol = badly letterboxed top and bottom.

If you think you won't play joust real often and can live with the letterboxing, put the monitor vertical.

If you can't stand joust but can live with 1942 letterboxed, put the monitor horizontal.

[King Friday XIII]

Thank you for all of the replies!

I may reconsider the size of my cab. I really want a 2 player machine for Joust. What would be the minimum width for a 2 player CP?

I'm still thinking about rotating the monitor. I'll have to see how ambitious I get.

So many decisions....

[Tiger-Heli]

I may reconsider the size of my cab. I really want a 2 player machine for Joust. What would be the minimum width for a 2 player CP?

It CAN be done.  See the image and word file below from when I was planning my panel.  (The Word file might not convert properly, so I left a screenshot also.  This was supposed to be on a 22-inch box with 3/4-inch wood for the sides, so 20.5 inches wide for the middle part.  Note that I was using the GGG Prodigy joysticks which I think have a 5-inch square base plate, so with standard joys, you could tighten it up more.

Also, though, note that for the final design, we added two more inches to the width for a total of 24 inches and that was still a bit tight - works well, but . . .

As I said earlier, your big questions are "Do you need three buttons wide per player (Gunsmoke, Ajax) or can you get by with 2 each?" and "How much do you want to compromise your design for one game (Joust) that you might not even play that much?"  (I went through a similar thing with trying to support 4-button Neo-Geo games that I never play).

I'm still thinking about rotating the monitor. I'll have to see how ambitious I get.

FWIW, I played around with the different settings on my PC last night.  1942 looks really good on a vertical 17-inch screen.  It looks okay on a horizontal.  Joust looks okay on a horizontal and tiny on a vertical (like playing on a 14-inch horizontal monitor).

If it were me, though, if you didn't want a rotating setup, for the number of vertical games compared to the number of horizontal, I would mount the monitor vertically.

[CheffoJeffo]

also-why not try a cocktail cabinet? good for small spaces. throw in a stool and you're set.

Maybe I missed something here, but cocktails typically take more floorspace than an upright.

Cheers.

[am_monkee]

also-why not try a cocktail cabinet? good for small spaces. throw in a stool and you're set.

Maybe I missed something here, but cocktails typically take more floorspace than an upright.

Cheers.

floor space, yes, but actual space, no. i was thinking if he had a small room, a cocktail would seem less imposing than a 6 or 7 ft. upright. though, i guess this argument makes less sense w/ a cabaret involved...

[SithMaster]

Cocktails can double as a table.

[Tiger-Heli]

Cocktails also have an advantage that if you are working with a small monitor you can put controls on three sides of the cocktail and have vertical games oriented vertically on the monitor and horizontal games oriented horizontally without the complexity of a rotating monitor setup.