Mikey Boy Arcade! Announcement MAME cab!!

[skmastaz]

So I've had a decent MAME cab toiling about in the corner of my basement for the last 8 years or so. It's not that impressive. It was a bit of a hack job that I stuffed into a TAITO home arcade I bought from a yard sale for $25. Never mounted the monitor right, everything is just kind of floating inside, and some awfully embarrassing soldering work. I just recently finished up a pincab build and as a wise older man (and a man with far more power tools than his early 20s self) I've decided it's time to update this poor little sad cab.

The original plan was to use the old computer parts inside the old machine and just rebuild the cabinet to fit a new control panel and monitor. Well, I'm bad at restraint and that quickly went out the window. So all new pieces it is! Computer hardware list, ASSEMBLE!

Main monitor: Vizio E32-D1 32"
Let me explain this choice. I know it's a little bit big, and far better refresh than I would really need for a MAME cabinet, however! I want to be able to play all the newest PC fighting games (ie Street Fighter V) in addition to all of my other arcade and console favorites. So I splurged a bit, this is a recurring theme.
Secondary monitor: LG 29UM67P Ultrawide 29"
So excess is a bit of theme here. I was researching different ways to make a cool new marquee outside of the spray painted plexiglass I had on my original cabinet (I said it was hack job already) and I thought, golly, wouldn't it be swell if there was something that would dynamically change to the marquee of the game I'm playing! And sure enough there is! If I can do it... It's going in the cab!!
Third Screen:
I'm also considering putting a third screen into the control panel to display controls for the games, this is a big maybe as it seems really unneeded, but that makes me want to do it even more.
Video card: ASUS GTX 970 TURBO-GTX970-OC-4GD5
Again, waaaaaay too much for MAME and emulators, but I want to be able to push newer PC games at pretty high settings at 1080p so I wanted to get something that could do that. This seemed like an excellent choice (and I may end up getting another to upgrade the GTX 720 that's in my pincab)
The other stuff:
8GB of RAM, I'm thinking this is going to turn into 16 before the project is finished
650W power supply, Why not?
Core i5-4690 Haswell Quad-Core 3.5 ghz, I feel I may have skimped a bit on the processor, but I think everything will turn out good. We will find out in the near future.
DIYPC Alpha-GT3 Case, Nifty open air bench case so I don't have to worry about ventilation of a case in the cab.

So there's the PC components. I think that should be pretty well setup in that department. I've got all that in my possession and I've got it all built and just need to get the software setup. I'll be using Hyperpin as my frontend as it seems to have everything I want this bad boy to do and is what I had used previously.

Control Panel:
I'm planning on a 4 joystick setup with an Ultimarc Ultimate I/O running it. I'm planning on 4 RGB joysticks, probably the Paradise RGB joysticks, Player 1 and 2 with 6 buttons and 3 and 4 with 4.
RGB Novagem buttons for credits from GGG that Randy JUST added to the site because he's the awesomest dude around. (I really need the credit buttons to match the turtle colors in TMNT)
Pushbuttons is where I sadly hit a wall. I was planning on using the Electric Ice concave RGBs for all the player buttons and start buttons, but sadly Randy says they are going to be out of stock for awhile. I'm at a loss a bit as I really love these buttons as they are what I have on my pincab. He has plenty of the convex buttons, but I don't really know how I feel about those. I may switch to the HOKU buttons from Paradise, but they told me they will be adding a new item that will come with the connectors for the Ultimate I/O in the near future, so I'm holding off on that for now. Hopefully I can come to a decision soon on that, I may have to get a few different buttons and do a test board to see what I like the most.

Cabinet
I'm planning on building the cabinet out of 3/4" MDF. I don't have a design idea at all yet. I'll probably draw some things up tomorrow, but I'm thinking it is going to be based on the TMNT 4 player cab, but a little wider to support the monitors and of course my control panel will be wider than the TMNT panel. The only thing I'm worried about is potentially being too close to the 32" play screen. Maybe I will set it back a little further into the cabinet than a regular monitor would be as I really don't want to turn this into a pedestal style.

And that's where I'm at right now! I'm going to work on some drawings tomorrow and hopefully share some ideas with you guys as I go and get some input. Looking forward to this build and really want to get it done within the next month or so. We'll see how that goes! Feel free to hit me with help or criticism, I take both happily!

Good journey!

[yotsuya]

Why don't you add a 4th screen on top so the people waiting in line to play can see as well?

How about a 5th one on the kick plate so your dog can watch, too?

Just funnin' ya, guv'ner. ;-)

[skmastaz]

Why don't you add a 4th screen on top so the people waiting in line to play can see as well?

How about a 5th one on the kick plate so your dog can watch, too?

Just funnin' ya, guv'ner. ;-)

Haha! It's like Pimp My Ride for MAME cabs.

I do agree that the third screen is probably way overkill. But again, that may just be the perfect reason to do it.

[skmastaz]

Well, after reading some posts about different RGB buttons I've decided I need to just get some different ones and test them myself. I'll be making a little harness to put the different buttons in and I'll be sure to share my results.

[vwalbridge]

I think you and chito should have a build race.

[pbj]

Difference is this guy has actually built a couple, and cheeto is "still planning for when I move out of my parent's apartment."

So I got $5 on skmastaz cutting an actual board.

[skmastaz]

Oh man, now I'm in a race! I actually started this thread to kind of push myself to finish a little quicker than I would normally. My pinball cab took probably six months to complete, but there is a heck of a lot more going into that thing than there is in this. Some of my buttons shipped today and I'm going to start working on some drawings now. Best part of these test buttons is I can just use them to make a cool light up activity board for the baby too. That will score a few extra points with the wife!

[skmastaz]

Got my buttons in the mail today. I'm going to have my kids help me build the testing panel so it may take a little bit longer than if I just banged it out myself without explaining how the things worked, but we like tinkering with things together! I'll be sure to document this journey! Fun fun fun.

I'm also learning sketchup so I can make a 3D model of the cabinet too. I swear I'll cut some wood soon!