Yet another new guy building a MAME cab

[AlienInferno]

Hi all,
I've been reading like a mad man (all my possible free time) to read these forums.  I must say that I never though about building a MAME cabinet before until a friend of mine started talking about modding his xbox steering wheel and shifter.  I was surfing around looking for stuff related to his work and BAM came across someone's build.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  I enjoy building things and playing games so this is right up my alley.  

I have got the basic plans for a cab all ready drawn up.  And am looking for a 25"/27" TV on craigslist to use as a monitor.  The computer that will be running everything is an old Sony Vaio with an 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4, 512MB SDRAM, 2 Hard Drives (1-80GB & 1-40GB) and an Nvidia video card.  Haven't thought of a theme yet but am planning on making it an all around cab to get some experience under my belt.  I am undecided on the controls layout.  I know I want a 2 player setup with joysticks, player 1 & 2 start buttons, a couple admin buttons, and whatever number of game playing buttons ( 6 seems to be the most common number).  As well as a trackball and possibly a spinner.

Once I get this build I would like to plan on several stand up cabs.  In a perfect world they would be for my favorite games as a kid.  A 4 player setup (for TMNT The Arcade Game, Simpson's, and Rampage), A light-gun setup for shooting games (Area 51, Police Trainer, etc.), and a 4 player racing controls for Super Off Road.  But that's all in the future so we will see.

But since this IS the projects thread.  I'll redraw my plans and try to post them up sometime tomorrow.  I also may end up getting the TV.  As far as building goes it may be a few weeks since I need to purchase some tools.  A router and all associated bits and possibly a new circular saw.  The one I have is a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down so it's starting to get rather worn.  Plus it's rusty enough to make it extremely hard to replace the blade.

Sorry for the rather long post but I'm a newb on the forum and really excited so I tend to ramble a bit.  

[Roo]

Welcome to the forums!  And certainly no one can fault you for lack of excitement!   

My advice is that it's OK to plan big, but try to stay grounded a bit too.  It's a big project to actually build a cab, and that goes double if you plan on doing a really good job that you'll be happy with and proud to show people. 

That and cabinets take up a lot of room   

That said it's a great hobby and a lot of fun, so welcome and enjoy!   

[AlienInferno]

Yes I am doing my best to stay grounded.  That's why I'm just planning on building one good all around cab for now.  As the only room I have is a corner in the living room until I can re-skin my garage/game room. 

[Rick]

You know you're dealing with a serious gamer when you read this:

As the only room I have is a corner in the living room until I can re-skin my garage/game room.

Good luck!  As one of the other resident new and overly-excited residents here, welcome!

[AlienInferno]

Well a slight update.  I installed TinyXP on what is to be the mame computer.  Took a few times before I figured out what I was doing wrong though but now it works and I can surf the net.  Good enough for me.  Tommorrow hopefully I will get everything setup on this computer to test it out.  Also I remembered we had a spare "broke" tv sitting in a corner of our living room floor collecting dust.  Measured it and it's a 27" Sharp Model # 2ZN-S100.     Plugged it in and it came on so hooked up the RCA inputs to test it with a movie.  The rca plugs on the back (INPUT 1) were not working (which by the way is also were the composite and S-video outputs are located).  Didn't get any sound or picture.  Hooked it up to Input 2 on the front and it seemed to work well.  The picture would cut out on occasion.  But I think it's a loose connection on the inside.  I could wiggle the yellow video plug and push it in a slight downward direction and would get a good picture.  I should have a PC to TV adapter in the shed somewhere so if I do I'll test the other connections on the back.  Otherwise I may be taking this one apart and seeing if I can repair it. 

Still learning/working with Google sketchup trying to create my cab and control panel.  Will do some of that tomorrow as well once I get some yard work done.

[nipsmg]

I'm going to try to do the impossible here and convince you not to do the 4 player panel.  I understand the excitement about being able to play all of those 4 player games you remember mashing on in the arcade... however...

They are HUGE, they increase cost for both controls and encoders (you need more inputs), increase the real estate taken up, and no matter how many friends you have that like games, you'll rarely get 4 of them to play at the same time if ever.  Even if you have everyone you know over for a party, you'll rarely get 4 people to play, or if you do it'll be for a few minutes before some drop off and you're back down to 2.  It's not worth the novelty. 

I'd spend the extra money saved either upgrading your controllers to U360's (greater flexibility accuracy in some games/but there are trade offs) , getting Aimtraks (light gun), or figuring out a way to integrate steering controls.


I'm speaking from experience (See Attached Image).

[nipsmg]

While I'm at it, some other tips:

• Browse craigslist for 27" CRT TV's.  It sounds like your TV has issues.  They're not fun to put in the cab, and they're less fun to rip out, and you'll inevitably have to.  I found one of the better 27" tv's that both remembers the last input after power off and remembers power state when the power is cut (key if you want a one button power on for the cab) for $30 (search the forums for many discussions on this topic).  You can find them cheaper.  NOBODY wants old school CRT's anymore.  Try to find one with Component-In.  It's the closest you'll get to a real arcade monitor.  You'll need a card that does 480i component-out.  There are plenty of older ATI's and newer cards that do this.  Pick one and go with it.
  
• If your PC is powerful enough (i.e. a Core 2 Duo or a newer dual core) I'd go with 64 bit windows.  There's a good performance boost with 64-bit compiles of mame.  For compatibility, go with Windows 7.  Trust me.  It runs almost exactly as fast as XP and the compatibilty is much higher.  Ignore any arguments against Windows 7 when someone mentions Windows Vista as an argument for why it sucks.  Vista was a complete pile of crap.  Windows 7 is an EXCELLENT OS and many core components were re-written.  I'd say windows 7 is by far their best followed by XP, and windows 7 has better compatibility in 64-bit mode and more drivers have been written for it.
  
• Before you get playing, manage your rom list.  I never did, and people get all annoyed by going through 100 of each game due to all the clones, international versions, etc.  Set up categories of roms too so people can go to classic, sports, fighters, lightgun, trackball, etc.  It'll make it much easier on your and your friends when you want to play.
  
• Make sure that you don't map your buttons so that mashing lots of them together will trigger an "exit emulator" event in any of your console emulators 
  
• Find some of the examples of great wiring here and follow them.  MAKE SURE your wires are well run, well organized, and well connected.  Diagnosing a wiring problem in a birds nest is a nightmare.
  
• MAKE SURE you leave enough clearance to attach your wires to your buttons and joysticks when the control panel is closed.  I've made this mistake more than once and has to chop out pieces of the CP to fit the wires.  Check and double-check your clearances.
  
• Don't cut corners.  I did on mine and did plenty of "good enough" work and it annoys me every day and makes me want to pull it all apart and start over (which I might).  Use good materials, get the proper tools, Use a router and a flush trim bit to ensure evenness.  If you're painting, do the proper number of coats and sanding.  Get T-Molding.  While it might cost a little more and may take a few weeks longer, the finished product will definitely be worth it.
  
• GOOD LUCK!   
  

[EvilNuff]

Nips has some good tips there, well said.

[AlienInferno]

Put the questions in bold as to help identify them in this mess of text.

Nips,

The 4 player panel is strictly an idea for possible future builds.  I will be going 2 player with this one.

On the TV I have been debating this one all night (eeh. morning I guess).  There are several TV's I've been looking at on craigslist.  The closest one is listed for $35 and is a 27" Sony Flat-screen CRT.  I think I'm going to keep looking for a normal curved one that's at least within an hours drive as all the others are farther away.  Would the flat-screen or the curbed TV be better in your opinion?  Flat-screen may be easier to put glass over but I think the curved TV's would look better since the speakers are usually on bottom.  The bezel would be more uniform instead of having longer sides to cover speakers.  Thanks for the tip on the video card.  I'll start looking for one that does 480i.

As much as I would like to this is an older comp.  Came out early 2000's.  It's not a dual core.  I will be going with XP.  I think I'm going to dump TinyXP and install a full version of XP that I trimmed myself.  Having a few problems I can't seem to work around this morning.

Good idea on setting up the categories.  I didn't even think of that and it's a relatively simple idea.  I'm planning on running Maximus Arcade as a front-end and MAME .139.  Do you know if I would need to do this in Maximus or MAME as I have yet to try setting up categories?

Any exit/shutdown buttons I set up will be single buttons that have to be pressed and held for a minimum of 5 seconds.  Not a big fan of the multiple button presses.  Don't even like having to press Ctrl/Alt/Del on comps.

Wiring and control panels was one of the things I looked at first when I decided I wanted to build a cab.  If I couldn't wire the controls myself I didn't want to build a cab.  Came across several good wiring discussions and videos were I got a lot of good ideas for keeping everything organized.  Honestly think that will be the funnest part aside from playing as I love wiring things together and making them work. 

I will end up painting it.  Not sure on colors yet though.  And T-molding is a definite.  Wouldn't look good without it IMO.

Thanks for the tips.

[AlienInferno]

I've spent all day yesterday playing with Google Sketchup.  I must say that for my first time using that program, it is relatively easy to use.  For the simple things I'll be making it will work great.  All I did was enter in the dimensions for my cab to get an idea of how it looked.  I think it looks pretty good.  Also colored it to the two color combinations I've thought about going with.  Black & Blue or Black & Green.  Just depends on my (still as of yet) undecided theme. 

What's ya'lls take on the two pieces of T-molding running horizontally underneath the control panel area?

Black & Blue


Black & Green

[eds1275]

The blue goes with just about everything! The green on the other hand would require more thought on your theme to really tie it together I would imagine. At least in my head it seems to be less universal.

I really suck at sketch up for some reason, and prefer drawing on graph paper - but everyone else's renders look so nice!

[nipsmg]

@Alien Inferno:
 
Flat vs Curved:   I really think this is a matter of taste.  If you're going to use a bezel like the one Happ sells for 27" arcade monitors, you'll need a curved tube.  Personally I think it looks more authentic, but it's totally a personal preference thing.

GameLists/Categories in MAME/Maximus:    I'd use RomLister to make your lists.  Read the Wiki here : http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/RL_tutorials.  This tool will let you output in Maximus Arcade format that you can apparently import.