My mame cabinet w/pics

[Wade]

My arcade game is finally at a stage where I feel comfortable posting pics.  I will finish it up this weekend, finally!

I started surfing mame sites and this board around the new year.  I really want some classic games to populate my basement game room, but the classics seem so pricey!  So I decided I'd start with a mame game.

I bought the MDF around the end of January.  I've stayed pretty busy with it since then.  Of course, I've had lots of help from people on this forum!

The cabinet is entirely home-built.  I based the design on the konami/simpson style cabinet.  (Arcadeshopper.com's cabinet was the first one I really fell in love with).  I think the final result is very close, but you can tell the real differences where the control panel meets the monitor.  My dims are a little off there.

The hardware/software I am using:
---------------------------
27" WG D9200 monitor
2 Ultimarc J-stiks 4/8 way
Happ buttons
Wico trackball (not yet installed)
Mouse->Trackball hack (first attempt - failed)
Hacked hard drive spinner
Keywiz max
Sony car audio amp and 6" bose speakers
AMD K62 450mhz (upgrades planned)
Mame 0.37 (runs MUCH faster on my machine than .6X)
Plexi marquee with printed paper sandwiched between
painted surfaces (not laminate)


Like many people on this forum, I have many changes planned and many things incomplete.  The first things I am going to change are probably these:

* attach speaker panel, marquee holder, T-molding, etc. (FINISH the basic cab - this weekend)
Near future, but not this weekend:
* add the Imperial trackball and spinner
* snag a nice coin door from ebay
* graphics and/or plexi overlay for the control panel
* cut and paint a missing rear panel

I'll be putting up detail info on a website in a day or two.

Here comes the detailed website:
http://www.newwave.net/~flanham/wlanham/arcade

Thanks,
Wade

[rampy]

looks pretty cool Wade...

The choice of purple on the sides gives it a sharp/clean look in contrast with the black.  It's a nice change-up from the all black cabs (mine include)

I'm guessing that there was a nervous moment when you first applied the purple paint and it looked more pink than purple wet/in the can =P ( or does that only happen to me?) -- EDIT unless that is laminate? Did you laminate the sides - (looks good either way)?

*shrug*

rampy

[Wade]

Thanks for the comments rampy.

Hehe, it may look it in the picture, but it isn't purple.  Sometimes when the light is low, my digital camera adds some pinks to the picture.  I wanted to use my flash but my batteries wouldn't let me... sooooo.

It's actually bright blue.  I've seen a lot of cars in a very nice shade of blue lately, and I wish I could get my car repainted that color but I can't afford it right now (or ever, probably!)  So I figured I'd paint my cabinet that color instead.  It's similar to the Examples "button" on the left side of this web page.

Wade

[Merce]

I dig the purple too. (EDIT: I mean blue)

Should look real sharp when the T-molding goes in.

Sticking with the black T-molding?

[Wade]

Thanks Merce!

Yeah, I'm using black T-molding.  Though I have to admit, once I painted the sides blue and tried some other samples (orange, yellow, and green), I was surprised at how good they looked with the blue/black cab.

BUT... I've had $30 worth of the black stuff for a couple of weeks so I'm definitely going to be using it.

Wade

[SNAAAKE]

looks pretty good(considering its not 100% complete).

but whats the deal with red old school joysticks?

get some black ones.

you know..MATCHING

[Wade]

Well, they're J-sticks and that's what they came with.  Though I suppose if I could find some blue or black balls it might look better.

Wade

[Amra]

I like the cab, very clean, similar to the setup/design I am trying for.

Out of curiosity, since its home built, which plans did you use, or did you make them yourself, etc etc.

Great Job man, me likes.

And yes, change the balls

[Wade]

Thanks Amra!

I based the design on the Konami Simpson style cabinet, but I didn't have a machine to measure from or any plans to use.  I just used some outer dims from ebay listings and other places (used for shipping), and some other knowns like the monitor and marquee and just interpolated the rest from pictures.

I think the final design came out great, BUT I'm sure it is off a little bit.  I think I made the whole thing just a little small, judging by the way the back of the monitor chassis stick out the back of the cab.  It doesn't actually stick out, but I have to cut a special rear piece to accomodate it and I'm sure the real ones aren't like that.  Another inch or two of depth would fix that.

Also, I know my CP and neighboring dims are off because I can just see it from looking.  I might make a new CP top in the future and make it come out another 1-1.5 inches forward.  If you look at a Simpson cab you can see the to of the panel overhangs the box by a fair amount (as well as the monitor bezel).  Mine only hangs over the front by about 1/2 inch.  I didn't realize I made this mistake until later and I didn't want to slow down at this point.  I can always make another one later (I will have to disassemble the CP to add a graphic overlay anyway).

Right now I'm just dying to play the sucker!

Rampy, Yeah I know exactly what you mean, I've been painting around the house a lot lately and the paint always looks brighter when wet!  I originally planned to laminate it black but decided against it because formica is $40/sheet, and later because they didn't have a color I really liked (after deciding against black).

Wade

[Distortion]

doh! bad links....could be a bandwidth thing.

[Wade]

Changed the picture links to a link to the web page, got it up this morning.

Wade

[Homebrew]

I was reading on your page that the paint was a custom mix, but is there a name for that color?  i.e. maybe the color you originally saw and wanted to recreate?  I'm digging the color alot as well as the whole blue/black scheme.  Painting and adding the T-molding are the last tasks i have left.  Between not being able to decide on a color and sears not getting the router i want in stock, it seems like i may never finish this project.  At any rate, if theres any added info you could give me on that color, i'd greatly appreciate it.  

-Kevin

[Wade]

I was reading on your page that the paint was a custom mix, but is there a name for that color?  i.e. maybe the color you originally saw and wanted to recreate?  I'm digging the color alot as well as the whole blue/black scheme.  Painting and adding the T-molding are the last tasks i have left.  Between not being able to decide on a color and sears not getting the router i want in stock, it seems like i may never finish this project.  At any rate, if theres any added info you could give me on that color, i'd greatly appreciate it.  

-Kevin

Kevin,

   Yes, there is a name for the color.  I don't know it offhand, but I have the samples for it and should be able to find them around here somewhere.

   I put the T-molding on the cab this weekend, and it looks a lot better than I thought it would.  I'll add some pics to the website in the next few days.  I think you'll like the color combo even better after seeing the game in a more finished state.

   You won't believe this though.  We got to play it for 2 days, then my PC went haywire!  The CPU or momboard seems to be bad because I couldn't get it to run anything without crashing, and the more I messed with it, the worse it would get!  Eventually everything on the hard drive even got ruined.  So I had to build up an old P-133 machine.  This morning, when I turned on the game, the monitor wasn't working right.  It is really green (it looks like there is no blue being displayed at all).  So I might have to send the monitor off for work!  I just bought it and it only has a few hours of use on it so far.  Ugh...  Talk about a streak of bad luck!

Wade

[Homebrew]

I've been there myself.  I originally threw together a pc from mostly spare parts for my cabinet.  I've recently been uprading it(with spare parts, LOL.   Been upgrading my other PC's) and started running into problems.  I upgraded the ram and cpu without problem.  When i reinstalled on a new hard drive though, xp started having problems.  Suddenly i'm getting errors at startup saying that a windows file was corrupted or couldn't be loaded.  When i switch back to the old hard drive though i have no problems whatsoever.  I've tryed reformating the hard drive, i've check it for errors and found none.  I'm starting to think its just my pos ECS motherboard having some conflict with the hard drive.  I haven't seen any related updates for something of this nature on ECS's website, so no help there.  I can't for the life of me figure out what the problem is.  HD works fine in other PC's.  I'm at a loss.  I still have a system to power the cabinet at least so i lucky there.  I should be routing the groove for my t-molding this week as i broke down and bought a cheaper brand router.  So once thats done all i need to do is paint it and mount the monitor glass.  I'm getting excited that it should soon be finished.  Anyway, if you happen to find the name of that color, please let me know, it would definetly give me a good place to start as far as deciding on a color.

-Kevin

[Wade]

Kevin,

   I couldn't find the paint sample.  Come to think of it, I think the guy at Lowe's kept it when I gave it to him to mix the paint.  BUT, I can pick it out and when I see the name I'll definitely remember it.  I might run out there after work today (if not today, then tomorrow for sure) and find the name of it for you.

   I took some more pictures of it, but the blue never seems to look quite right in photos.  I added one to the bottom of my web page that shows it with T-molding and the side color pretty clearly (called "Finished").  It appears a little brighter than actual though.  In the photo it looks like its the same color as the blue Mag-lite in the background, or the network cable.  But it is easily darker than that when seen with the naked eye.

   The real color is kindof a "royal" blue.  It is straight blue with no green in it at all, slightly darkened up and with just a hint of purple.

   If you like the blue/black combo, you could just go to a paint store and pick out whatever blue you like the best, since that is what really matters. Be sure to take a piece of black paper with you so you can see how the blue looks with it, you'll be surprised how a slightly darker blue will still look really bright when next to black.

Wade

[Homebrew]

Thanx for the help Wade.  Don't make any special trips or anything though.  I definetly plan on looking at samples, i just wanted to use that color as a starting point.  I tend to be attracted to bright blues, but being as this thing is rather large, i don't want to go too bright and have it be an eyesore.  The blue you have doesn't appear to be super bright but rather a deep(not dark) blue.  I think its a good hue and i was gonna use that as a starting point.  I still need to try lowes, but at home depot i couldn't find a decent blue.  The samples they had were either too dark or too light.  There didn't seem to be a good middle ground.  If you happen to find out the name of the color, i'd be interested to know, but its no biggie.  Thanx for you help though.  I think a combo color scheme may be in my future.  

-Kevin

[Wade]

Kevin,

    Guess what?  Checked the bottom of the can.  "Harvest Blue".  That should get you started, or at least allow you to see the true color of my cab (you might not like it!)

TTYL,
Wade

[Wade]

FYI I added some updated pictures and info to the site.

Wade

[CitznFish]

I've been there myself.  I originally threw together a pc from mostly spare parts for my cabinet.  I've recently been uprading it(with spare parts, LOL.   Been upgrading my other PC's) and started running into problems.  I upgraded the ram and cpu without problem.  When i reinstalled on a new hard drive though, xp started having problems.  Suddenly i'm getting errors at startup saying that a windows file was corrupted or couldn't be loaded.  When i switch back to the old hard drive though i have no problems whatsoever.  I've tryed reformating the hard drive, i've check it for errors and found none.  I'm starting to think its just my pos ECS motherboard having some conflict with the hard drive.  I haven't seen any related updates for something of this nature on ECS's website, so no help there.  I can't for the life of me figure out what the problem is.  HD works fine in other PC's.  I'm at a loss.  I still have a system to power the cabinet at least so i lucky there.  I should be routing the groove for my t-molding this week as i broke down and bought a cheaper brand router.  So once thats done all i need to do is paint it and mount the monitor glass.  I'm getting excited that it should soon be finished.  Anyway, if you happen to find the name of that color, please let me know, it would definetly give me a good place to start as far as deciding on a color.

-Kevin

Sounds to me like bad ram.  I've experienced this almost exact issue twice now. bad ram both times.  Get a free DOS based ram test. I can't remember the name, but it's free and creates a boot disk to test the RAM.

[Homebrew]

Thanx for the suggestion CitznFish, but i tried that already.  Its weird, its like it didn't like that particular hard drive.  I've since replaced that POS board and been problem free.  I think that board had a bad ide controller or something.  May have even been that the power supply wasn't good enough, i've heard the ecs boards are really picky about PS's.  At any rate, switching boards cured the problem so i'm happy.  

-Kevin

[SirPeale]

Very nice.  You might want to break up the site a bit.  I got lost in trying to read it all.

[JamesMolloy]

The blue colour is really nice. I get so tired of all the black cabinets out there.

I'm going to go for white myself.

[Wade]

Fixing old links:

http://webpages.charter.net/wadelanham/arcade/