System 1 Project

[Dire Radiant]

Planned features:

• MAME plus many other console emulators.
• Interchangable control panels:
  1. Two player panel with joysticks and 6 buttons each
  2. Driving panel - restored Roadblasters panel
  3. "Other controls" panel. Spinner, trackball etc
• Jukebox with several thousand tunes and possibly videos (havent decided yet)
• Mamewah front end with custom skin
• Original graphics for marquee, side art and cp overlays

In short, the usual stuff that people put in their cabs these days!

Ok time for some eye candy!

[Flinkly]

woah...slow down there mate.  first, just get the cabinet in a respectable state.  i'm only trying to help, but don't get too into everything else yet.  i wanted to put alot of stuff in my cab too, but after spending some dough, realized it was gonna be too tough, or wasn't worth it.  now i'm not saying any of that stuff fits into my two categories, but start with the basics.  you can always add more later.  also, mame takes up a large enough chunk of the hd, so you might find yourself investing too much in space with all those programs.

[Dire Radiant]

Thanks Flinkly. This is something I've been planning to do for three years now. I fully expect it to end up being another year before it's finished. I weighed the merits of various things and in the end decided to do it slowly and do it RIGHT. No shortcuts, bodges or quick fixes.

The software and storage side of things is already sorted. I have a 250GB PC waiting to go into this beast. The only thing that's left on the software side is the front end.

I'm having the panels fabricated by a friend of mine who bends metal for a living so they'll be a perfect match for the roadblasters panel. Then I'm having them powdercoated (I toyed with the idea of getting them chromed but I'd spend more time polishing it than playing) Changing them is easy. Hardware is already in the cabinet. All I'll need to do is install the controls and assemble the wiring harness.

As for the woodwork and finishing, I've been building speaker cabinets, flightcases and equipment racks for years out of much the same materials and with many of the same techniques. I've gotten pretty good at it so I'm not worried about that.

Just to set your mind at rest on the financial side of things I added the cost of everything I want to do then DOUBLED it. Thats my budget

[Flinkly]

what about a monitor?  i hope it's gonna be a multisync.  i'd hate for you to spend all that dough and then use a tv.  anyways, just keep giving us info so we've got something to chime in on.

[Dire Radiant]

The monitor is a standard 21" PC monitor. I thought long and hard about putting in an arcade monitor but eventually went for the 21" for a number of reasons, chief among which is the fact that I already have a 21" monitor so it saves me quite a chunk of change. Also since this is going to be something of a jack of all trades as far as function goes I want something that can display nice sharp text that won't be fatiguing for the eyes. I know some people like the slight blur and scan lines from an arcade monitor as that makes it more authentic but I dont mind sharp pixels and high refresh rates.

[paigeoliver]

If you have the cash then toss down for a 19" VGA arcade monitor. It will look better, is the same size as a 21" PC monitor, and matches up with the arcade bezels, and you won't have to chop a hole in the back of the cabinet like you will have to if you use a 21" PC monitor.

[Dire Radiant]

I suppose a valid question is always "where do you draw the line when it comes to spending?" I daresay we could spend thousands if we put our mind to it. I'm certainly not about to chop a hole in the cab though. If I find that's necessary then I'll give up a couple of other things to get an arcade monitor. This is why I doubled my initial estimate..lol Won't kill me to wait a while for a trackball panel for example. I'm in no particular hurry. Like I said, I want to do it right, not fast so it may be worth a second look.

[Glaine]

Wow where do all these Roadblasters machines come from? I'm on the end of finishing my mame'd roadblaster machine, and all along the way, it seems this cab pops up the most. Very odd.

O, don't know how far along you are, but please don't do what I did and wire straight to the speakers in the grill first time around, I did so without thinking and ran it like that for a while, and sure enough, they were unshielded and now my monitor flickers between regular and yellowish tone a lot. Luckily, I got some shielded ones from Bob Roberts.

[Dire Radiant]

Thanks for the heads-up Glaine. I'd planned on replacing the speakers anyway. Since this is going to be a jukebox too it could use something with a little mpre oomph. I'll make sure whatever I get is shielded.

[Gunstar Hero]

Man, System 1 cabs look cool.

Good luck with that, man!

[Glaine]

Yep, if it must be a jukebox as well as an arcade machine, then "umph"-ing the speakers (as you call it) would be the way to go. Do you plan to widen the speaker holders and cram car speakers in? Haha, then you could put a steering wheel panel in and pretend to be bored in traffic. O the ironies.

I have to agree on the coolness facter of the cab alone, but anyone seen the original sideart on these? No wonder alot of em get painted over to plain black.

[Dire Radiant]

Yeah the blue and silver thing just isn't doing it for me. Mine came in the plain black though. (Which naturally is going to be stripped off and replaced) I've decided that I'm not actually going to use the speaker panel to mount speakers. I have a pair of nice speakers that are going to sit at the side of the cab on stands. Not as neat and pretty but it will sound a hell of a lot better.

The thing about this project is that it's pretty much just a cabinet refinishing and conversion. The hardware and software side of it is almost all stuff I have already.

By the way I wouldn't blame anyone from upgrading to Roadblasters. Road Runner is a god-awful game