Chad finally makes a MAME cab

[ChadTower]

My kids recently learned about MAME.  After many long drives to Funspot they've finally broken me down.  I'm building a MAME cab.  Nothing fancy, this is almost entirely made up of parts that were already on hand plus a cab.

The cab is a Gyruss that someone painted black and converted to a two button JAMMA.  Marquee/CP are Crime Fighters.  The cab was generously donated by Mark Spaeth.  Control panel was filthy but complete, game was actually working, JAMMA harness all hacked to crap.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the process.  This has been more of a quick project to get up and running and move on.



First thing was to clean up the control panel, remove all wiring, add two more buttons per per player.  Cut a new plexi as the old one was cracked and burned.  Buff out the bolt heads and joystick shafts of a ton of rust.  The new buttons are the slightly discolored white ones.  I took them from a spare Asteroids Deluxe control panel from my shed.  Buttons are all leafs and sticks are Wico leafs.  There is very little spare room under the CP now.



The monitor is a 17" 4:3 LCD I got from Freecycle.  It is mounted on a piece of plywood bolted into the rails from the original monitor.  The mount is a simple LCD tilt mount from Monoprice.  This method was cheap, easy, and it will be simple to swap in a better LCD if I happen to acquire one.  I still need to paint those bolts/washers black.



That is the PC.  It's a bunch of spare parts that were lying around.  I'm not exactly setting the world on fire here.  500mhz, 512meg ram.  Video and sound integrated.  Sound might actually be amplified on board as I see a lot of caps right by the audio jack.  Model is Intel CA810E.  I had a 40gb hard drive in there but I dropped the damn thing on the concrete floor.  Now I have a 20gb in there and space is an issue.  I might have to hunt down a larger drive.  The plan is to swap in whatever parts come my way as they do.  As you can see attached to the corner of that board is an Ipac that has been on my workbench for years.

I do not plan on going with artwork at this time.  I might in the future but for now I'll finish cleaning the cab and that's it.  You won't see sideart in my row of cabs and the CP/marquee are decent.

[ChadTower]

With all of the cabinet details out of the way I'm on to software.  I know I've been outspoken at times about MAME and its inherent IP issues.  I am compromising that now to make my kids happy.  I've never had a MAME setup before that was more than a benchtop CP and typed in MAME calls.  Setting up a full blown MAME cab, with a front end and full blown metadata, as well as all of the various MAME utilities, is new to me.

Khigh suggested in the chat room that I go with something in the MAME 0.99 range.  That would give me hiscore.dat support and still be old enough to have a chance to run on this PC.  We'll see how this old hardware chugs and if it doesn't I'll start sniffing around for a more modern trashbin PC. 

The OS is TinyXP.  I'm hoping to use Mala as a front end.

I could not find a 0.99 era romset so I downloaded a set from 0.136.  It took a while but I think I figured out how to use clrmamepro, found a dat file from 0.99 and a rollback romset from 0.143, and rebuilt my roms dir to 0.99.  I think that's what I did.  It's a very circuitous route to take.  That was this morning.

That's where I am now.  I don't have a pic yet but the CP has two 12 pin amp connectors (parts on hand).  I still need to make the other side of that to connect to the ipac. 

So, assuming I now have a valid romset for 0.99, is there a way to filter this romset further down to games that work with my control scheme?  This cab has a pair of 8 ways and 4 buttons per player.  I'd like to get rid of all the games that don't fit this control panel.  As of right now just the romset is 23gb and it's a 20gb drive.   

[ChadTower]

So, assuming I now have a valid romset for 0.99, is there a way to filter this romset further down to games that work with my control scheme?  This cab has a pair of 8 ways and 4 buttons per player.  I'd like to get rid of all the games that don't fit this control panel.  

More great advice from Khigh.  

ROMLister!
A great tutorial in the wiki on ROMLister

Using ROMLister I was able to search the romset for the list of games that specifically fit my control panel and are not clones and are not adult games.  Very useful.  It even has a feature for indirectly creating a batch file based on the list.  I generated a batch file that copied the whole list into a second directory and thus creating the romset I really want.

Oooh, and that brought me down from 23gb to 4.7gb.   

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Any plans for hand picking some console games? I think SNES Mario Kart should be doable in 4 buttons per player.

[ChadTower]

Any plans for hand picking some console games? I think SNES Mario Kart should be doable in 4 buttons per player.

Oh yeah, console games will go in based on available hard drive space.  Likely order of priority will be 2600, Vectrex, NES, anything else.

[drventure]

Wait. You have 35000+ posts and haven't actually built a mame cab yet?

That has GOT to be some kind of record around here, right?  

I'm just ribbing ya. Glad to see you giving it a try as well.

Now, I gotta get back to my cab!

[ChadTower]

Wait. You have 35000+ posts and haven't actually built a mame cab yet?

That has GOT to be some kind of record around here, right?  

I'm just ribbing ya. Glad to see you giving it a try as well.

Oh, I bet I hold a whole lot of posting records, postive and negative.   

I'm a cab/pin restorer.  All of my vids but one are vectors.  MAME hasn't really fallen into my wheelhouse the way it does most around here.  The kids want it bad, though, and for the right reasons.  Funspot has really made them get it.  I'm doing everything I can to nurture that.   

[ChadTower]

Coincedentally someone in my area just posted on a local yahoo list selling a Dell desktop for $100.  2.8ghz, 2gb, 80gb drive.  I got him down to $60 so I'm picking that up tonight.     That ought to solve a whole lot of minor issues.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Wait. You have 35000+ posts and haven't actually built a mame cab yet?

^ This!   
 |

Seriously, this is a good approach - a fairly quick/dirty and low cost mame rig with parts on hand.  You will probably find as I did that anything dedicated draws a lot more attention than the sweet mame rig next to it.  If you put mame next to original, it becomes somewhat of a curiosity.  My mame rig was the bomb until the pinball showed up.  In your situation, if the kids get done with it, you don't have a huge investment and you've still got the cab you could do something with or just get rid of. 

[drventure]

Seriously, this is a good approach - a fairly quick/dirty and low cost mame rig with parts on hand.

This is probably pretty good advice, and completely NOT what I did 

In retrospect, A standard 2 player Mame cab would probably have been 98% as good for gaming as what I've been hacking on for years now.

On the other hand, it has been kind of fun coming up with all the nifty bits to put in my cab, so I can't complain too much!

[ChadTower]

Years of wildass, borderline lunatic, boasts and claims, and the only one that's ever backed up is he's making a ratty MAME cabinet out of spare parts?

Actually I have quite a few project threads.  I've posted gameroom pics in the past.  I've had forum members at my house.  I stopped posting threads for projects a long time ago because I have limited spare time.  I can either work on projects or I can document them but I don't have time, at this stage of my family's life, to do both.

[Mikezilla]

Years of wildass, borderline lunatic, boasts and claims, and the only one that's ever backed up is he's making a ratty MAME cabinet out of spare parts?

Actually I have quite a few project threads.  I've posted gameroom pics in the past.  I've had forum members at my house.  I stopped posting threads for projects a long time ago because I have limited spare time.  I can either work on projects or I can document them but I don't have time, at this stage of my family's life, to do both.

I never got an invite to come over.  ACtually, I think 90 percent of you guys live in the midwest, or the south. 

[Vigo]

 

While I could do the CA weather, I don't know if I could handle the 12 lame-ass traffic tickets per week. 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

So what is H+X=B?

[ChadTower]

So what is H+X=B?

 

My son wrote that in the dirt on the marquee while he was doing his math homework. 

[drventure]

Awesome use of a cab. Scratch paper! 

[Ond]

Years of wildass, borderline lunatic, boasts and claims, and the only one that's ever backed up is he's making a ratty MAME cabinet out of spare parts?

Actually I have quite a few project threads.  I've posted gameroom pics in the past.  I've had forum members at my house.  I stopped posting threads for projects a long time ago because I have limited spare time.  I can either work on projects or I can document them but I don't have time, at this stage of my family's life, to do both.

Even this cab has plenty of potential and could be much more than just a 'ratty' old MAME cab.  Document this project?

[ed12]

first thk-u  chad for the s/w lead
second nice build from spare part's
some ppl around here can learn a lesson from it

but the use of tie wrap's...?

ed

[BobA]

Good to see you taking on a common man's project. Inovative way to attach parts with tie wraps.  At least you will not run out of inputs on your ipac.     

[ChadTower]

but the use of tie wrap's...?

Heh.  They're cheap, stronger than hell, and take two seconds to cut/attach new ones.  I use them all over the place in my house and keep them in my truck.  I even keep a bunch in my hiking gear because they add zero weight and have eleventy uses.

[drventure]

Heh.  They're cheap, stronger than hell, and take two seconds to cut/attach new ones.

+1

Zip ties, velcro cable tie strips, and industrial strength sticky back velcro. I use that stuff all over the place!

[ChadTower]

Heh.  They're cheap, stronger than hell, and take two seconds to cut/attach new ones.

+1

Zip ties, velcro cable tie strips, and industrial strength sticky back velcro. I use that stuff all over the place!

I never have good luck with the adhesive strip velcro.  The velcro is always stronger than the adhesive and just rips it off the object.

[drventure]

Yeah, depends on what you're sticking it to. I've found the industrial velcro sticks pretty good to most stuff, but there have been times when I've supplemented the sticky with glue (usually GOOP or something similar).

[ChadTower]

Heh, the one time I did that, it was on bare plywood.  The glue held but the velcro was still strong enough that it just chipped off the surface of the plywood.   


Some of that super velcro is just too strong for normal use.

[leapinlew]

Tell your son that H=8-X

I was going to suggest that a 500mhz computer most likely won't have enough ass to do what you want, but it sounds like you have something better.

Mala is a great front end and easy to setup. I would suggest GameCreatures Blue front end or Alien Dashboard depending on which color scheme you go with. You can find them in Malas download section.

[ed12]

i was olny pooking u on the tie wrap's
it is a neat fast ass way of doing thing's
for me i am just ust to the old hard done ass way
u know wire bundle's,plastic clip's etc

on a side note i wish i knew u guy's wanted cab's like that
or at-least i should read more often..as i have 2 full size golden tee complete cab's.less gut's but with coin door's cash box etc i should through up for grab's
they make perfect mame cab's

ed

[ChadTower]

I was going to suggest that a 500mhz computer most likely won't have enough ass to do what you want, but it sounds like you have something better.

Yeah, when I first set it up, I would have sworn it was a 850 or 1ghz cpu.  I was surprised when I looked up the mobo specs for this thread and saw that the max was so low.  I have 4-5 mobos on my parts shelf and must have pulled the wrong one.  No biggie, I picked up the "new" machine last night.  That should address any resource issues.

[Woodshop Flunky]

but the use of tie wrap's...?

Heh.  They're cheap, stronger than hell, and take two seconds to cut/attach new ones.  I use them all over the place in my house and keep them in my truck.  I even keep a bunch in my hiking gear because they add zero weight and have eleventy uses.

I like the tie wraps.  I've got all my electronic components mounted on a piece of plywood with rubber feet.  I had the same idea about using tie wraps, but couldn't find anything that large at ACE or Radio Shack...

Where can you get them that size?

[ChadTower]

Where can you get them that size?

Hardware store.  I buy them in a canister that contains many different sizes and colors. 

[Malenko]

How are your kids going to play Mortal Kombat with only 4 buttons? you need at least a fifth one, or are you just going to ensure that they cant turtle by not giving them a block button?

[HaRuMaN]

MK with no blocking would make the game go faster...  But don't you need block for Scorpion's fatality?

[Malenko]

MK with no blocking would make the game go faster...  But don't you need block for Scorpion's fatality?

Actually no, you dont, its just UP, UP. Holding block just makes it easier (I usually do it while tapping high punch, cause it looks neater). However, Sonya does require the button for her leg grab move and her fatality. Johnny Cage also requires it for his nut punch move. No one ever uses Sonya though

[HaRuMaN]

MK with no blocking would make the game go faster...  But don't you need block for Scorpion's fatality?

Actually no, you dont, its just UP, UP. Holding block just makes it easier (I usually do it while tapping high punch, cause it looks neater). However, Sonya does require the button for her leg grab move and her fatality. Johnny Cage also requires it for his nut punch move. No one ever uses Sonya though

What about Kano?  Block required, or does it just make his moves easier?

[Malenko]

MK with no blocking would make the game go faster...  But don't you need block for Scorpion's fatality?

Actually no, you dont, its just UP, UP. Holding block just makes it easier (I usually do it while tapping high punch, cause it looks neater). However, Sonya does require the button for her leg grab move and her fatality. Johnny Cage also requires it for his nut punch move. No one ever uses Sonya though

What about Kano?  Block required, or does it just make his moves easier?

You dont need block for kanos ball or fatal, knife toss Im not sure about. I only ever really used SubZero and Scorpion (and the occasional Lui Kang). I'll try when I get home. Kano has a pretty neat corner combo, deep jumpkick > Ball > leg sweep

[ChadTower]

How are your kids going to play Mortal Kombat with only 4 buttons?

They won't.

[Malenko]

How are your kids going to play Mortal Kombat with only 4 buttons?

They won't.

oh sweet , so where are you putting the 5th button? Dont bother with the run button, MK3/Umk3/MK4 arent that good

[HaRuMaN]

How are your kids going to play Mortal Kombat with only 4 buttons?

They won't.

oh sweet , so where are you putting the 5th button? Dont bother with the run button, MK3/Umk3/MK4 arent that good

Might as well make it 6, so KI and all the SF are playable.

[ChadTower]

Might as well make it 6, so KI and all the SF are playable.

Heh.  Do I need to show you guys a picture of the underside of the control panel?  There is no room for 4 more buttons.  It's a small control panel and those are leaf switch buttons.

This isn't a case of me being stodgy about game content.  There just isn't much room on the underside of a Gyruss control panel.

[Malenko]

I would love to see a pic of your kids playing some Samurai Shodown (prefer SS2) then, with blood turned on

[HaRuMaN]

I would love to see a pic of your kids playing some Samurai Shodown

Good call, that uses 4 buttons.