Hello, I'm a n00b here, but I do already have a partially-build cabinet. My cousin, my uncle, and I came up with the idea to build a MAME cab a few months back. The hardware is still extremely sketchy, though we plan on using a 27" tv with s-video for now. The pc will be whatever I can pick up online (looking at some nice Sempron bundles on Outpost) with an IPAC 4. We already have about 24 buttons + 1 and 2 player start buttons and 4 joysticks and a trackball (all new HAPP gear). We don't really care about making look authentic, so the design is rather unconventional. (excuse the rambling) My uncle works at a high-end woodshop making custom ($40,000+) staircases for new construction (they mainly use red-oak for the treads) they cut 10" or 10.5" rips out of 12" boards. Naturally this leaves hundreds of unused planks of otherwise very nice wood lying around unused, my uncle on his off time made several sheets of solid wood by gluing and pressing together a bunch of these pieces. The end result is the kind of wood used in many doors and some wood (kitchen) cabinets. One of these slabs of wood makes up the "floor" of the unit, the edges are rounded (I think routed but I don't know, I'm not a woodworker) all around, and the front 2 corners are bullnosed into a curve. He then took some A-grade plywood and made kerfs (?) in it every half inch or so (on the inside of the sheet) using a rip-saw, this allows the wood to flex while still looking exactly the same on the outside. (I really am sorry for the poor writing here, I'll try to get pics soon) He made little jigs in the corners of the bottom slab to attach the plywood to (perpendicular) so it follows the contour of the bottom slab. After that, he made another slab out of oak, and put it on top of the plywood, mounting it the same way as the other (bottom) one. He repeated it and put one more kerfed piece of plywood on top of the middle slab, then one more piece of plywood then another larger slab. The larger slab forms the bottom of the control deck, the deck slab has about 4-6" of plywood on top, and then another large slab, to form the top of the control deck. That is all we have done now. The construction is very solid, and the whole thing is quite heavy. It rolls on casters (not sure which kind). I'll stop ranting now and ask some questions, ones I haven't been able to find in the faqs.
1. Flat screen vs. convex. I haven't been able to find any good info for which one looks better with arcade games (assume a 27" screen size) I don't really care which looks more authentic, just which looks nicer.
2. TV model. Are there any particular makes or models which I should not use? Cost is a big factor here, the cabinet is nice, but that was the free part...
3. Should the screen be exposed, or should it be under another sheet of glass?
4. What is a good front-end for using multiple disparate types of emulators? E.G. MAME and a Genesis/NES/SNES emulator.
I'll leave the questions at that for now...
Btw, this post has been checked for spelling, but not for clarity, any questions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
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Topic: Red-oak cab (Read 4437 times)
