Monitors make me hate this whole thing.

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Donkbaca:
You are just psyching ourself out. Nobody builds a masterpiece with their first build. The most important thing is that it plays games you want, isn't a pain in the ass to keep up, and is acceptable enough in appearance that your wife lets you put it in your house.

The woodworking is a challenge, but go slow, and take your time and you will learn fast enough.

The wiring and soldering are really simple, especially now. Honestly, you can build without soldering a thing

Personally, I think the best looking, sleekest cabs have lcd's in them. But get a 4:3 LCD.

Mikezilla:
I got a dynamo cab, and luckily, I had a 27" CRT lying around with S-video that I didnt need. I decased it and luckily it fit in the frame that came with the cab(it had a monitor, but didnt work) and viola. Everything worked perfectly. The bummer though was getting it into the thing by myself, making sure everything lined up etc. The thing was more awkward than it was heavy, and I didnt discharge it, so I was afraid of getting a jolt. Everything worked out though, but I know what you mean. If that didnt work then who knows, I would just have a pile of junk in my garage :lol.

I do know what you mean about how peoples projects end up looking, most on here put mine to shame. SHAME. But like Donk said, as long as it looks decent, plays the games you want, and is easy to upkeep, who cares. I had to cut a metal CP with a dye grinder in order for it to fit on the cab. I have no wood working skills whatsoever, but hey, sometime down the road Ill make something nice, with LED buttons etc, but for now, this one works.

Hell, I had to rely on a friend to help me with the guts of the actual machine. :cheers:

DNA Dan:
CRTs are definitely for the more die hard enthusiasts. They present a lot more challenges unless it's a reworked existing arcade cab. I think unless you're building a dedicated cab, using NOS, leafs and all OEM stuff, it's just not worth the hassle to be that "genuine" for a MAME cab or something that's going to play multiple games. The sooner you choose which path to head down, the less hassle you'll have down the road.

krick:

--- Quote from: Guywiththegun on May 17, 2011, 01:06:09 pm ---The problem is I can never settle. You have brilliant people on here and throughout the net posting these amazing machines, making it seem like its easy. It makes you want to go for the best option . . problem is, the best option is $2000 in total, with years of wood-working experience and knowledge in wiring and soldering, etc.

For someone like me who doesn't know how to build a set of shelves, its impossible to match up.

I want my machine to look good and sleek, but I need to accept that its not gonna win any prizes here, or even be celebrated at all here. A self-built arcade machine with an LCD monitor and my Hotrod SE as controls would have made me weep in joy 5 years ago . . what the hell changed?

--- End quote ---

You're doing it all wrong. Find an amusement auction in your area and scout out a working arcade machine.

Basically, you want a good clean monitor with no burn-in, a large control panel, and no water damage or rot at the bottom of the cabinet. If you pick a crappy game that nobody likes, you can sometimes get really good deals.

I picked up my cabinet at an amusement auction. It has a clean 25 inch standard res arcade monitor, a wide 4-player sized control panel, a 4-slot coin door, and the wood on the bottom of the cabinet is in pristine condition. It came with a Capcom shooter called "Gigawing". After taxes and auction fees, I paid $250 total.

At the same auction, cabinets in much worse condition sold for a lot more money because they had desirable games in them. And by desirable, I mean desirable to an arcade operator, not a collector. Neo-Geo cabs sold for crazy money even when they were beat to hell.

Here's what my cabinet looked like after cleaning it up...

After getting my cabinet, I added the following...

1) A PC running MAME
2) Ultimarc ArcadeVGA
3) Ultimarc JPAC
4) USB powered amplifier (a PC speaker hack)
5) Two 4-inch shielded arcade cabinet speakers from Bob Roberts (the old ones were shot)

Guywiththegun:
I actually grabbed a SFII at a warehouse a year or so ago. It was an absolute nightmare. It just wouldn't power on, for seemingly no reason at all. It sucked the life out of me everytime I passed it, and it ended up on CL about a month later. Thankfully, I banished the demon from my home.

I was an idiot to take a gamble like that, not knowing if it worked . . but its made me weary of going with an older used machine. I just KNOW something would stop working a few days in, and nobody, not here, not in real life, would know what was wrong with it. I asked everyone here, electricians, other people in the hobby . . Nobody knew what was wrong with that GD Street Fighter. Sometimes I wish I didn't sell it, but took it out somewhere to throw off a cliff, for peace of mind, knowing it would never harm anyone's soul again.

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