MEC: Multiple Emulations Of Classics

[Pinball Wizard]

I have been a long time lurker of this forum, busy getting ideas for my mame cabinet. So now finally I post my project.

It is a conversion/heavy mod of a game called Frenzy Express. Apparently it is a kick scooter game that is a lot of fun, but this one is dead. When I got it it looked like this:

I attempted to resurrect the game but the hard drive had 12 volts put to the 5 volt spot by the previous owner, so I am claiming the game dead. Luckily, I only paid 5 dollars for it. After further inspection it has a 29 inch monitor and it is VGA !!! There were even more boards under the shelf with the game on it. It was a 110 to 220 volt power converter (the game is from Italy apparently according to the manufacture sticker), and an audio amplifier for the two speakers.

Getting rid of the scooter, hooking up a computer running Wah!cade to the cabinet, and replacing the light bulbs in the speaker covers I got this:

The cord hanging down out of the coin door is the keyboard. The railings on the cabinet were bent in but with a vice grip and a little leverage you can fix anything . I plan to use the railings for a removable control panel system that will uses latches and no plugs to be easy on and off, but more on that later. But for now the controls are staying as a keyboard and mouse on a piece of plywood. This way I can actually get this done instead of just playing games . On a side note, when I bought this game I also bought a non-working Golden Tee 97' for $5 for the trackball. The only issue I think is that the switching power supply is dead. I'll end up converting the cabinet into something else since the game isn't worth much anymore.


The monitor is crisp and clear, though this picture doesn't speak for it.

I was also given one of those metal dance pads for free, and as a plus it has a USB plug, the only issue was that 3 buttons weren't working. I tore it apart and it was cheap and broken wiring so I reran the wires (with a thicker gage) and it now works perfectly. So I installed StepMania and am happy enough with the quality to include it in.

Now this isn't how where the cabinet will stop, far from it. The plan is to do a lot of woodworking to include a bench seat with a subwoofer inside the seat (if you can't feel Space Invaders then why bother playing it?) with speakers right behind your head. The back of the bench seat will have a huge piece of plexi or glass in the back that is etched with a collage of 80's video game characters and scenes that will be lit by LEDs. The bench seat will also slide out on some sort of track system I haven't quite figured out to reveal the dance pad that I mentioned earlier. I was originally going to have it fold down from the back of the bench seat but after doing some testing of how it would feel, it seemed to far away from the screen (Hint: If you build something that has a bench seat, using an old, beat-up Firepower pinball backbox upside down is a great to use as a temporary solution). I will post a photoshopped photo of my ideas as soon as I take another side picture of my cabinet or I might make a Google Sketchup of one.

I don't plan to build another Mame cabinet and space isn't a problem (this is going in my own personal arcade, 30 feet by 100 feet of pure gaming), so I wanted to go all out on this. A big influence is also atmosphere. When going through the menus of the frontend, it plays sounds of various games being played, I want to light it with neon AND LED to give it a glow that isn't overpowering, and awesome sound system to be added to really get you in the zone. This is not a machine that you will just play because no other machine works around it, it will lure you in by itself, or at least that is the plan.

I tentatively have named this MEC: Multiple Emulations of Classics because I am putting in game system emulators and PC games, and everything that brings back childhood for everybody.

Here is my price list so far:
Cabinet                  $5
Computer              $Free
250 GB HD            $119 dollars 3 years ago
Keyboard & Mouse $Free
Trackball               $5
OS (Ubuntu)          $Free                               
Total:                    $124

I will keep you updated. I have already given some thought into artwork and hopefully will post my drafts soon. My next step on my cabinet is to figure out the control panel system I am going to use.

[Yvan256]

I think it's going to be hard to beat that cost/quality ratio on a used cab! 

Congrats!

[BASS!]

I think you should leave the controls as is. Try and play the classics on that pad

[Pinball Wizard]

I think it's going to be hard to beat that cost/quality ratio on a used cab! 

Congrats!

Yeah, I got that and 12 other games at one time. 3 of those games were free, got a decent shape galaga (monitor is out otherwise working) for less then $200, and a Gaunlet Dark legacy (not-working because they only had the marquee plugged in nothing else) for $180. The rest were for $5.

I think you should leave the controls as is. Try and play the classics on that pad

I think not, a little awkward. If I keep it that way I'm going to turn myself into a cripple.

[drventure]

5$ for that? 

Impressive. That's a fantastic looking cab for 5$ and a working monitor to boot!

Where do you guys come up with these deals?

[Pinball Wizard]

Auctions. That is where any of these deals come from. I bought this game DOA on the spot all because all the pieces are there. I knew that with that size monitor, as long as the neck was good, it was repairable, and therefore worth more then I paid for.

[BASS!]

I think you should leave the controls as is. Try and play the classics on that pad

I think not, a little awkward. If I keep it that way I'm going to turn myself into a cripple.

Beat track and field on ddr govna!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LFzZ9VcrXw[/youtube]

[Pinball Wizard]

Wow, that is an "interesting" and "different" concept. Would be interesting to setup the keys to be linked to the dance pad.

[Pinball Wizard]

Is SDLMame multithreaded? If not is there a multithreaded version? To help games like Guantlet Legends and NFL Blitz along in getting decent speed I want to set up a cluster server in my machine. Just my mame PC and a secondary PC to jjust donate processing power.

[Seith]

Wow, that is an "interesting" and "different" concept. Would be interesting to setup the keys to be linked to the dance pad.

It's pretty fun actually.

Bought the girlfriend some metal DDR pads a couple years ago and one day we had them hooked up to the computer, playing Punch Out! on the NES... talk about making a hard game harder!  But it translated wonderfully, you literally had to dodge punches.