Greetings fellow arcade enthusiasts!
For the past 6 years, I have been wanting to build my own arcade. As the years gone by, I constantly told the wife: "Don't buy me anything for my birthday, I'm gonna build my arcade."
But alas, I always found a reason not to. Either I was overwhelmed, didn't have the scratch to get the parts I wanted, etc etc.
Finally after 6 years, bigger house etc, I said F IT and got the ball rolling.
The end game is to make a 4 player pedestal, that can be easily transported/put away so the wife can't squawk ;-)
So here's the story so far:
I started off, like I said 6 years ago, and got a butt ton of arcade games. In fact, Im using MAMEUI32 0.128. Yeah it's that old. Like 2008 build. Why am I using that? Because it works, and if it works don't break it. I can't seem to find another updated collection, with CHD's etc, so to hell with it. Again it works.
I would LOVE to run hyperspin or mala, but I can't decipher the tutorials, so I gave up.
Next, I went to Monsterarcades.com and ordered the deluxe 4 player control panel with LED buttons. Keith is a stand up guy and actually explained a few things to me in plain English which was nice.
So that's on it's way.
Next, I ordered the LED-Wiz™ 32-port USB Compatible Lighting and Output Controller from Groovy Game Gear, because that's what I need to run the LED's apparently.
So that's on it's way.
I'm now in talks with the guys at Gameongraphics to get a custom overlay done for this bad boy.
So that will be on it's way.
So now I'm in prep mode. And here's where I could really use the help.
I grasp the concept of what everything is supposed to do. And I know what I want everything to do in the end. I grasp the concept of powering the buttons etc, running wires properly etc, but even after reading countless tutorials, I still seem to be at a loss when it gets to the software part. I'm hoping when this all gets here, I can get advice when needed.
But first things first:
I want to run MAME of the wife's old mini-laptop. It's an ACER ASPIRE ONE. AMD dual core c70. 2gb ddr3 mem. 320gb HDD. This will work i'm sure, I don't plan on running dragons lair or anything anyways....
It has HMDI out, which is terrific, and 3 USB slots avail. I believe the panel is coming with 2 encoders, and ledwiz is 1 so that's my 3 slots correct?
I'm aware that the led buttons require either a 5v or 12v source. The laptop won't power them. So I'm planning on taking a 500w PSU from my old desktop and using that. When the encoders come, I will have a question on how to wire it up without burning my house down.
Enjoy your day, and thanks for reading!