Completed My Cabinet

[Pungo76]

Well finally finished off my Mame Cabinet, "MameBert", currently have Mamewah running as my front end with Arcade Jukebox and Golden Tee PC installed.  Took me about 3 1/2 months to finish, not bad since we also had a new baby during that time.

Here is the cabinet in it's new home, my basement.  The wife originally wanted it to stay in the garage, until she got hooked on World Class Bowling and Shuuz, much too cold out there.  




A shot of the finished control panel with Oscar restrictor plates and Spinner, Imperial Trackball and Happ Super-8 Joysticks.  The power swith for the cabinet is a small pushbutton locating on the top right of the cabinet.



And here are all the guts to the control panel, with the Keywiz installed, works great.  You can also barely see the hacked pc speaker that I am using to control the cabinet speakers.  The volume control is on the outside front of the control panel.



Well, thanks for looking.

Matt

[JamIt]

Looks great!  Congrats!
--JamIt

[zero-one]

Very nice! I love that you maintained a consistant graphics theme.

The cabinet looks unique. Did you convert a cabinet or design/build it from scratch?

Cheers.

[Pungo76]

The cabinet looks unique. Did you convert a cabinet or design/build it from scratch?

Cheers.

Yes I converted the cabinet, originally looked like this:



But it had a Street Smart PCB inside not Soul Calibur, was working though.

[pathdoc2]

Love the name and look of your project.  Thats a cool design.  Good work.

[iwillfearnoevil]

great work!

[RetroJames]

Hey I remember this cab.  You got the bug while your wife was first pregnant am I wrong?  I see from the pics the nipper has arrived.  Nice to see someone pull it off.  Our first is due in April and I rediscovered MAME and this whole arcade cult a couple of weeks into the pregnancy.

Like I said, nice to see someone else pull it off while tending to "she who must be obeyed" as well.  Great work the cab is very tight.

[Cameronj]

Looks awesome. Good job. Especially nice clean wiring on the CP.

 Hey 1hooked. Maybe there really is something with pregnancy and mame cabinets. I just realized that I get the mame bug typically several months before we have a baby. We are due in 3 weeks. That is why I have been rushing to finish mine before the baby comes. I am only really waiting for the SlikStik to come at this point other than FE configuration and the like.

Cameron

[TalkingOctopus]

It looks Great.  I especially like the Mame-bert Marquee.  I wish I had made one of those myself.  

Where did you get the Q-bert Side Art?  I love Q-bert and my cab does not have any side art so I was considering getting some Q-bert side art.

[RetroJames]

Hey 1hooked. Maybe there really is something with pregnancy and mame cabinets. I just realized that I get the mame bug typically several months before we have a baby. We are due in 3 weeks. That is why I have been rushing to finish mine before the baby comes. I am only really waiting for the SlikStik to come at this point other than FE configuration and the like.

I have noticed that with other folks as well.  I am certain that many of us have taken to this hobby for a few reasons:

(Here is my Top Ten List)


# 10. Child on the way, soon to be Dad starts thinking about fond childhood memories.  



# 9. Wife has taken over the house with towels Daddy can't use and chairs that ain't for sittin'  , arcade cab is like a land grab! It's now or never!



# 8. Baby on the way, no more blowing all that dough on fast food and beers with the boys.  Time to stay home..what to do, what to do?  



# 7. Midlife crisis test run.  



# 6. Maybe a fairly new mortgage, baby, car loans, work, baby, bills, economy, baby, war,  AKKKK   something's got to give.  (Dad needs something for himself)



# 5. Can't quite afford that classic car yet...



# 4. Just to see the look on your parent's faces when they come to YOUR house to see the new baby and see **HORROR** it's those D*#M games again!!!  




# 3. Out of town cabs...ROAD TRIP!!  



# 2. If you turn up the sound real high and focus on the screen, it's almost as if she's not yelling at you anymore...


And the number one reason expectant father's dive into the MAME/Arcade cab Hobby....


# 1. Dad who builds big arcade games = COOL DAD!!

[Pungo76]

Great top 10 list, I love it.  Plus you can always just tell people that you are building it for the boy, keep his college savings in there.    I did actually get the "bug" just around the time we became pregnant, started off with a little desktop controller and finally convinced the wife to let me get the cabinet in the 8th month.  Everything worked out great though.

TalkingOctopus, I got the sideart on ebay, picked it up for like $45, and it is definitely worth it, I think it really makes the cabinet, plus I like the fact that there isn't actually any text on it, so it blends nice.

Thanks for the compliments, and good luck getting your cabs done before the little one arrives.  Although if you don't it'll still get done, a half hour here and there, eventually adds up.  

Matt

[Apollo]

Fantastic job I love that cab.

[RandyT]

Great Job, Matt!

That's a cool looking cabinet, after you dressed it up properly.  Now I'm thinking of building one that's similar in shape.  

RandyT

[Pungo76]

Great Job, Matt!

That's a cool looking cabinet, after you dressed it up properly.  Now I'm thinking of building one that's similar in shape.  

RandyT

Thanks Randy and thanks for your email help with the Keywiz.  User Tip:  If your Keywiz is acting strange or not connecting make sure you don't have your coin door microswitch wires reversed, makes all the difference.  

[snowdogg187]

Props on the great looking cab man!!!

and congrats to your fam on the baby!!

[slycrel]

  Congrats on the baby!

  Nice cab, I hope mine works out that well.  If I could only get a design together that I really liked enough to build...  

  I just had to post and say that my wife was 4 months pregnant when I started seriously looking into my own MAME cabinet.  =)

  And my wife thinks that top 10 list is hilarious.  heh...