My Mame + PSX cab, Now With A Creamy Nougat Center!

[rhoelsch]

Ok, no nougat, but I'm finally posting my cab here after it was completed almost 2 1/2 years ago, with a new control panel I made last summer. The pics I took show flaws about 100x more than you notice them in person, except for some woodworking issues, that's all me

I wanted a standard-looking cab that wouldn't stick out too much in the basement, mainly because I wasn't sure how good it would look when it was done, so I opted for a LuCid-style body, painted semi-gloss black; wanted to look almost like an MK1 cab -- body style's generic enough not to imply any particular game, especially since I also wanted to get some console fighters in there as well as all the standard retro games.

Body is 3/4 inch MDF with black T-moulding. Framed with 2x4s with casters on the bottom. Wouldn't frame it like this again-- it does wobble slightly side to side when playing hard.  Monitor is a 24 inch Apex tv, using S-video input (yes, I'm very pleased with the resolution).  PC was built from scratch, using a 1.4 Ghz AMD processor, 256 megs o' ram... cost 3 years ago with mobo, case and all, less than $300 from Newegg.  Plays all MK games well, but Killer Instinct lags just slightly.  Running Mame32 until I can incorporate Mamewah in there. Full 0.59 set of roms.

Yes, that's tinted plexi with a *gasp* black paper bezel.  I went with a 24" TV because I wanted the cab to fit thru my basement door frame, so I designed the cab width to be 27", with an inch or so on either side to still fit through. A 27" monitor might have fit, but the Apex got good quality reviews on the boards here, and it was cheap, not to mention looks to be a good size fit in the overall cab layout.  As for the bezel, I couldn't find a custom plastic one, so it's a compromise. Might add bezel artwork in the future, or at the very least, instructions, once I get the frontend finalized.

Coindoor was bought for $20 from a local guy and refurbed by me, using a little elbow grease, CLR cleaner, and flat black Rustoleum.  As for the marquee, that's still a placeholder... can't seem to decide on a final theme.  Backlit by a flourescent fixture (with diffuser) at Wal-Mart.  Marquee retainer is clear poly wall corner protectors from Depot... cheap, but serviceable.  Speakers are a Creative 2.1 pc system I got on sale.  The sub can shake the house... especially during Asteroids

Knowing that I wanted to play console games on the cabinet, (Tekken, Soul Caliber) I needed a way to easily switch my controls between my IPAC and the hacked psx pads.  A printer switchbox (mounted below the keyboard drawer in pic), using DB32 connectors did the trick.  Took some time to pin and match my inputs up, but now I just turn a knob and switch where the power goes.  Non-analog PS2 games also work with an old psx controller, so I can play some recent games on it too... emulators take care of all my retro console needs (Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Sega, Nintendo, even put Vectrex in there).  Pinmame too... why not? 2 extra buttons on the sides of the cp...done.

Yeah, the control panel is rather full, but I wanted 6 buttons for fighters. That may have been enough, but I added the extra 2 below in case I would need them for console games.  The 4 colors grouped together are for the 4 action buttons, the next 2 on the right (to finish up the standard SF layout) are shoulder buttons, and the bottom two are the other shoulders.  Start is wired to the 1UP buttons, and each respective Select doubles as the pinball on either side of the cp.  Now the PSX interface can be completely hidden in case any combo of shoulder buttons would need to be used.  Default Mame buttons 1 and 2 are mapped to the 2 buttons on the bottom, to try and avoid confusion when the others aren't needed.  They're also mapped to the mouse buttons to use with the trackball, virtually eliminating the need for the keyboard drawer, but I put it in there anyway, in case I wanted to rename anything easily...etc....

Ergonomically and aesthetically, it's the best layout I could come up with.  That's a Happ Competition on the far left, with a dedicated Ultimarc 4-way balltop next to it... and a Super on the right... no one visiting can really tell the difference between the two, and I like both for various games for my own reasons.

That's about it... more things to do to hide the "computerness", and it'll be some work so that visitors don't need too much of a tutorial to play, but as of now, I don't need to swap panels or crack open anything to switch between games, and that was more important.  Um, that's wood-grain shelf paper used on the cp. Using real oak or whatever instead of MDF for it didn't occur to me until after I wired the darn thing up.  That'll change as soon as I have time, but, um, at least it don't scratch... *hangs head in shame*

[Sylpher]

Nice!

I would suggest remounting the Trackball so the mount plate isn\'t exposed. And you may get a little slack for the woodgraind CP top, but I like it.

[rhoelsch]

Yeah, Sylpher, I'm waiting for the flames to come, but hey, it wasn't the 70's/early 80's without some random faux wood, now was it?    Has anyone panelled the sides of their cab yet? Anyway, would I just lose the mounting plate and route the bottom of the cp? Might help if I had a router... borrowed a great uncle's to use for the T-molding slot... the thing was from the 50's...looked like one of those little canister vacs from back then... can't believe I didn't seriously injure myself with it

[Crafty]

Nice effort..

It is obvious that you are happy with the end result as its been used for many years now..

From hanging around this forum it is plainly obvious to me that whatever works and your happy with is a good thing. Secondly there is always something to be done with the arcade machine, tweaks upgrades etc etc..

Good luck with that and keep us posted