Main > Main Forum

Thinking of Building a MAME cabinet and I have some questions/concerns

(1/3) > >>

TrekkiesUnite118:
My brother was talking to me the other day and he said he would really like to have something like an arcade cabinet in the basement of his new house.  So after telling him that it could probably be done if we built a MAME cabinet I figured I would look into this for him and I have a few questions before I really get into this.

First the one game he would really like this for is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. So obviously the cabinet would need to be designed to accommodate this game meaning 4 player controls. One thing I have noticed when looking at this is a lot of MAME cabinets that have 4 player controls have 6 buttons for players 1 and 2 and only 4 buttons for players 3 and 4. I was wondering if there was a reason for this. I know Turtles in Time only uses 2 buttons but we would probably want 6 for fighting games and what not. But is there a reason for only going with 4 buttons for players 3 and 4? Are there no games that are 4 player that need more than 4 buttons or something?

Next, what was the Monitor size for Turtles in Time? I can't seem to find this anywhere. Was it the standard 19 inch used by most arcade games at the time or was it bigger? I haven't seen one of the original machines in such a long time that I can't really remember.

Finally, for now at least, what is a good quality joystick that will look nice but also not kill the bank account since 4 would be needed. I was looking at some Happ joysticks and I liked the way the Competition one looked because it had different colors that would be perfect for Turtles in Time, but I hear that it sucks and that the Super-8 is the way to go. Anyone got some good recommendations?

GaryMcT:
For a straight 8-way joystick, the J-stick from Ultimarc (which is a slightly tweaked Sanwa JLW) is nice and cheap too.

If you want to play games that have non-8-way configurations (Q-bert is 4-way diagonal, pacman is 4-way, sinistar is effectively analog, etc.), I'd get an Ultimarc Ultrastik 360.  You can do those for player one and two and get the cheaper JLW/J-stick for the other two.  The look and mount exactly the same since the Ultrastik is a heavy mod of the JLW.  The Ultrastik isn't cheap, but it is very flexible and works really well.

TrekkiesUnite118:

--- Quote from: GaryMcT on August 12, 2009, 11:42:51 pm ---For a straight 8-way joystick, the J-stick from Ultimarc (which is a slightly tweaked Sanwa JLW) is nice and cheap too.

If you want to play games that have non-8-way configurations (Q-bert is 4-way diagonal, pacman is 4-way, sinistar is effectively analog, etc.), I'd get an Ultimarc Ultrastik 360.  You can do those for player one and two and get the cheaper JLW/J-stick for the other two.  The look and mount exactly the same since the Ultrastik is a heavy mod of the JLW.  The Ultrastik isn't cheap, but it is very flexible and works really well.

--- End quote ---

Well, if we feel there is no need for non-8-way configurations will the J-Stick work just as well as the Ultrastik for everything else?

GaryMcT:
It doesn't feel quite the same.  I wouldn't say one is better than the other, just different.  A lot of it comes down to personal preference.  The U360 is more of a "no-moving-parts" kind of feel, no clicking, etc. (uses magnetism to detect where the stick is) while the J-stick uses microswitches.  You can put the same restrictors on both (I prefer the circular one), and I think you can also swap out the microswitches for something quieter.  I have one to try this with, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

If I only wanted 8-way, I'd probably just get the J-stick.  If I were doing a 4-player machine, I'd personally do U360 for the first two players and J-stick for the other two since I like some games that don't work well with 8-way sticks (mostly Pacman, Donkey Kong, etc.)

mwong168:

--- Quote from: TrekkiesUnite118 on August 12, 2009, 11:31:22 pm ---One thing I have noticed when looking at this is a lot of MAME cabinets that have 4 player controls have 6 buttons for players 1 and 2 and only 4 buttons for players 3 and 4. I was wondering if there was a reason for this. I know Turtles in Time only uses 2 buttons but we would probably want 6 for fighting games and what not. But is there a reason for only going with 4 buttons for players 3 and 4? Are there no games that are 4 player that need more than 4 buttons or something?
--- End quote ---

The only reason I can think of why people only put 4 button is either not enough room, less wires to connect and run, not enough inputs on the controller interface or they just don't need it.  You can do what I did and get the best of both worlds for fighting games.







I personally can't stand playing Mortal Kombat using the Street Fighter layout so I put them as my player #1 and #4.  For those that come over and are use to playing a "bootleg" cabinet for MK growing up I can configure player #2 or #3 for them so they have no excuses when I am ripping their head off with Sub Zero  :dizzy:

You can check my build thread here:  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93701.0

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

Go to full version