My first build woohoo! (Lots of pics warning?)

[D-Lew]

Hi guys.  This is my introductory post here and it's gonna be a BOOK!  First a little about myself.  My name's Dan, I'm 19 and I go to Auburn University in Alabama pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, I'm a game-a-holic, and I just got a new good paying job so I'll have more money that I'll know what to do with.  I dunno about you guys but to me it basically screams - "Build a MAME cab!"  So I decided I would give it a go. 

I've been wanting to do this for a very long time.  I've been into Mame32 on my pc for a little while now and wanted to go a step further.  Recently I just had an event that would really light the fire and get me going, not necessarily the new job, but about 7 months ago, I was dumpster diving, and found an old computer that was missing a side panel, power supply, and a hard drive.  Being pretty savvy myself I decided to see if it worked and what I could do with it.  Turns out it was a fairly nice machine, at least compared to what others are using.
1st gen S423 Pentium 4 (1.3GHz)
256MB RDRAM
GeForce2 MX
Creative sound card

yada yada yada...

I went to the local computer store and picked up a used PSU for $15 and gutted my dad's 12 year old PC to recycle, except the part where I saved his 8GB Seagate drive. 

It works!  Pretty well, I might add.  Later on I will probably see if I can get a higher end processor for it, maybe closer to 2.0GHz and also an updated graphics card like the X1300 pro and I will be in BUSINESS!

So far:

The motherboard


1300 MHz baby!


Yay for RDRAM [/sarcasm]


The reason I gutted everything was because this case was FILTHY!  Full of dust and it had a solid cake under the CPU fan that made it rattle.  Got that all fixed up now.

Aside from the HANDY T25 torx screws used to secure the board (thanks, Gateway) I found this beast of a thumbscrew in the center.

Hide your kids!


Nice sound card!


...or IS IT???    Mind you this was AFTER I blew some of the dust off.


Everything back in place... Not the prettiest thing in the world but I've seen worse.


Now, then.  I put Windows 98 Se on there because it's relatively low-resource consuming and available to me.  After that I got MAME installed and configured how I like it, and then got the ultrastyle frontend installed and configured.  So basically the whole PC hardware and software part is complete minus maybe future upgrades I mentioned earlier.

These pictures are huge, so I will provide you with the links to them.  An idea of what I wanted my cab to look like in my head, rendered in gmax.  I will go back and do them in Solid Edge to specify and record all the dimensions and stuff since this program can't really do that:
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p152/Dcl2049/MAME%20build/drawings1.png
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p152/Dcl2049/MAME%20build/drawings2.png
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p152/Dcl2049/MAME%20build/drawings3.png

Thoughts?

The graphic will most likely be changed.  I think I want to have the controls laid out like that but I have yet to make a template yet to decide where I want the buttons.  I'm very comfortable with the Naomi system controls (and I think I'll be purchasing two Naomi oval-top sticks soon) so that's where I got that from, it should be alright.  I'll probably get the buttons and hookups soon and start mocking up prototype CP's.

I've also decided not to hack a keyboard, and just use a PS/2 KeyWiz-ST I think it's called... And just hook up the controls that way.  Should save me a lot of trouble and probably money since it's a good possibility I'd jack up at least two to three keyboard doing that.  And I've always had problems with ghosting, especially with M vs C.

And that's pretty much where I have left off.  I've got a budget sheet I'm working on and so far the components minus speakers (amp is accounted for, however), the CPU and GPU upgrade, and materials like mdf, etc.. total $190 (always growing as I'm sure you guys know).  If I can fix an old TV I have lying around I will get that for free as well.  So it's a pretty nice budget project if I do say so myself.

Well I'm looking forward to the build and the insight of all you pros on here to help me do a little research and plan this out before I go to the next step...

 
Dan

[ark_ader]

Looks good so far, so lets see your designs regarding the wood part of the project.   

[D-Lew]

If you will look at the 3 links there just after the pictures I have the preliminary drawings of the cab in gmax (they are kinda large).

That gave me a general idea of the dimension so right now I am redoing everything in Solid Edge, which is taking a long time because I am terrible at that program.  However, when I finish, it will give me every dimension I could ask for and more.

Here we go, side profile with dimensions in inches, minus the protruding CP which I will add later in the assembly:


I'm also open for names.
So far here are a few I have pondered on...
The MAME-U-LATOR
Super Tuff Fun Ultracade
Just "Ultracade"
What The Fun (I shouted that one out at midnight, my brother promptly responded with "Shut the fun up!" True story.)
Dancade

And I guess that's all I've got right now.  Not very creative at the moment.

[D-Lew]

I need some more feedback if possible guys.  Never worked with wood before so I'm wondering if anyone could foresee any problems or has a suggestion i.e. just start out with an old cab or go use someone else's design...

I kinda like mine, I was going for a stealth look here with all the sharp angles and such, and I just finished the 3d model of it.

One thing in particular I'm curious about is CP width.  I want it to be a two-player and was curious about how wide it should be.  I'm sure some of you out there have some two-player cabs and I want to know a width dimension where it's comfortable for two people to get in there and play.  Right now my whole CP is right at 36" but some of that isn't really usable.

Here is the final drawing of the cab itself.  Might make some tweaks later, though.  One thing I can see is how far the bottom section juts out... I will probably have to draw in the front panel there so I have some foot room, or lessen the angle of the front. (I really liked it.  )

[stephenp1983]

Good to see another Auburn person here.  My wife and I both went to auburn as well, but live in Birmingham now.  Nice project btw

[D-Lew]

War Eagle!
I'm from Dothan and right now I'm a co-op student that just signed on with Farley Nuclear (Alabama Power).  So now I've got the funds to pursue one of my dreams.

If I may ask your opinion, what do you think about the width of the CP?  Too narrow for 2 players on a SF button setup, or about right?  I modeled the cab to be 30" wide because that's the approximate width of my TV that I'm trying to put in there.  I may end up going bigger depending on whether or not the CP is too small and/or if I can't repair the TV and have to go get a larger CRT to put in there.

[stephenp1983]

So let me ask some questions, and the bottom of the control panel it would only be about 20 inches right, or am I reading the drawings incorrectly.  That might be a little cramped for two players, but someone else with more buidling experience might be better to answer that one.

The only thing I saw that might be an issue is the bottom, and how it comes out so far.  That might get in the way of your feet standing in front if you see what I mean.

Also are you only going to put a two player setup, no track ball or anything like that?  I would atleast at a trackball, its really alot of fun playing the golden tee and other type games.

Take a look at some of the control panels on the main page sticky thread to give you an idea of sizes

[D-Lew]

Yeah I know I have to modify the bottom, I just caught that a couple hours ago.  A trackball isn't in the plans right now but I don't see why I couldn't add one later.  The only trackball games I'd really be interested in are Centipede/Millipede and maybe a few others as I was never really into Golden Tee.

That bottom part of the CP is 26" wide and I have about 28" to work with between the two side panels as it stands right now.  The whole CP is 36" wide at the parallel sides and is about 11" deep (toward the screen, not vertical depth).

[stephenp1983]

I'd say you'll be alright on the control panel, may be a little tight.  I never played any trackball games prior to building my cab, but really enjoyed a few like crystal castles and marvel madness once I had it.

[SteveJ34]

I would second the comment regarding the front panel sloping outwards.....either make that straight down or perhaps like Defender.

Welcome to the madness!

[D-Lew]

So I decided to finally fix that.  I present to you version 3.

The cool thing about this is, now that my CP is in a "box" type setup, I can have a folding door on the front with easy access to the 4-8 way restrictor plates as well as the possibility of a slide-out keyboard, etc.