Metalhead's Arcades (2.0) *Updated: 13 April*

[M3talhead]

Ok guys,

I've been here a little while but thought I'd keep an online version of my arcade "journals" since several people have asked about my previous projects. For those that dont know, I resurected an original Gauntlet cabinet over the summer of 2003. Here are a few pics of my progress (sorry for the bad resolution on the first set. It wasnt until later that I got a decent digital camera).

Arcade 1.0
****************

Originally, when I bought the Gauntlet cab ($115 working), it had been converted to a V-Ball machine that had a REALLY tacky "Barney-purple" laminate on the sides. That was the first thing to go.

http://img196.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img196&image=image594ru.png

Next on my list was an easier way to move the cab around as I worked on it. A new set of swivel casters suited it just fine. P.S. For those of you building your first cab, something often overlooked is how you move your arcade around. 2 straight casters in the back? 2 swivel and 2 straight casters? All swivel?

http://img211.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img211&image=image612hj.png


After I had the cab to where it could be easily moved around, I began working on  the big stuff. The old, burned-in monitor was discharged, removed and discarded.
http://img173.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img173&image=image359dd.png

The PCB, manuals, buttons, joysticks, and speakers all went on eBay and actually got me $50 for all items. I aquired a new 21" monitor from work (they were throwing it out cause it made a "buzzing" sound and was past its warranty). After playing with the power cable, I got the buzzing to stop and had a working 21" display for nothing!"

http://img131.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img131&image=image252gs.png
http://img131.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img131&image=image227af.png

Now the cab was coming together. My I-Pac had arrived, along with my t-molding from t-molding.com, Virtual Lightgun from Lik-Sang.com, and joysticks from X-Arcade. I added my PC, repainted the coin doors with a black textured paint, and began the wiring on my control panel.

http://img173.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img173&image=image327un.png
http://img173.exs.cx/img173/6641/s0044oi.jpg
http://img115.exs.cx/img115/8065/arcadepics003small1qa.jpg
http://img115.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img115&image=s0067op.jpg

The control panel ended up taking quite a bit of time since I decided to use 2 pieces of sheet metal on top of the wooden frame since the control panel had 2 large holes cut out of it and I had some extra steel laying around. The fabrication of the sheet metal was finished in about 2 weeks of on and off work by first sketching out the hole patterns in pencil, and then going over them with a titanium bit. Since you cant easily make holes larger than 1/2" in sheet metal without the aid of a punch or press, I used a 1/4" bit and made 12 smaller holes just on the inside my penciled in circles. Once they were all tapped, I went over them with a dremel, removing the material between the holes and sanded the insides down. This left me with a smooth hole large enough to fit buttons and joysticks through the 2 layers of steel. I finished the whole thing off with 2 coats of primer and a sheet of Lexan I got from a local glass and mirror shop. If I remember correctly, it was about $50 for a sheet 36x24. The end result though was really stunning.

http://img223.exs.cx/img223/7083/arcadepics002small6ys.jpg

After about 3 months of on and off work, it was completed. Most of my time was tied up with the control panel, but my hard work finally paid off. I could play every game in MAME flawlessly, as well as HotD with minimal jitters.

Final result!
http://img223.exs.cx/img223/7402/arcadepics001small2hp.jpg
http://img54.exs.cx/img54/4985/arcadesummary9ei.jpg

I also documented each purchase and "freebie" in Excel.
http://img240.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img240&image=sssarcade4gi.png

[M3talhead]

Arcade 2.0
*********
Ok. Lessons learned from Arcade 1.0, here is my new project. Its a Mortal Kombat 3 upright that I got for $50! It doesnt work, but I'm not that concerned with its functionality. Having a working monitor would have been nice, but unfortunatly, that wasnt the case. The board was beyond my skill to repair, and ever since I got stationed overseas, its been next to impossible to find a place locally that deals in any kind of picture tube repair. So I'm on my own for finding a replacement monitor/chassis. (*Update* I went ahead and bought a new 8-liners chassis to replace the fried monitor board)


I learned several lessons I hope I can pass on to future "MAME'ers".

1.Take lots of pictures if you can. Document everything. If the bug bites you, you're going to want some references to pour over when you decide to go at it again and build something bigger and better.
2. Budget your money. Dont cheap out on something if you cant afford it at the moment. The final result might bum you out. Save your money and do it right the first time. There's nothing more embarassing than having a friend come over to play SFII and have him point out flaws in your craftsmanship.
3. Take your time. Rushing the project just so you can play it only makes it look worse in the end. Plan everything out and dont cut corners.
4. Dont lose faith! It may seem like a huge task, but if you just chip away at it, you'll end up suprised at how far you've come.


Ok, now that I'm done ranting, lets get down to business.

As I said before, I got the cab for a mere $50. It had 44702 hits on it, which means that the arcade has seen quite a bit of wear ($11,175.50 worth of play).






Here's a shot of the tag used by the dealer.


The cabinet utilized a Hantarex Polo 25", common in many upright cabinets including Killer Instinct. The monitor was busted, and since tv repair shops are non existant out here, I hade a few choices to make. Tthe biggest problem I faced was that I'm stationed in Europe, but would eventually be heading back stateside in 18 months. I didnt want a monitor that was dependant on 220V power, so I decided to go with a replacement chassis from 8liners.com. I'll update the page with pics and a tutorial as soon as it arrives in the mail.

[M3talhead]

After taking about 30 pictures, I began the breakdown of the cab, making sure to document every wire and connector incase I made any mistakes. The power supply, PCB, power cord, control panel harness, sound wire harness, and video were all disconnected and places aside so I could clean up the interior of the cab.














Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! Nice and clean!




After the control panel was disassembled, it was cleaned out to get rid of 10 years of dust and dirt.


Scrap. Some of the buttons may be reused. I'll have to see.


This had to be the coolest find while cleaning out the cab. Its a coin from the Netherlands before they switched over to the Euro in 1999. The date on it is 1972. I wonder how many other games this little coin has been in......

[M3talhead]

I recieved my packages from t-molding.com and Happs last month.  Now I have my trim and main components. I cant start assembling control panel quite yet because the I-Pac I ordered (along with the AVGA) somehow got mishandled by DHL and ended up somewhere in BFE. Anyways, I called DHL and had them re-route the package. Should be here sometime next week.

I opened up the box from Happs and found my 2 Super 8-ways inside, along with 16 black buttons and 3, 7-pin locks. I took apart the coin doors, keeping the coin mechs stored in ziploc bags so I dont lose any components. The locks were installed on the coin doors and rear access panel in about 10 minutes.






Happs contents








The coin doors are really chewed up, but they'll recieve a nice coat of textured paint as soon as I get a chance to pick some up at the hardware store.




The finished lock assembly on the rear access door.

[Gunstar Hero]

Wow. $50 for a complete (dead) MK3 machine?? 

Nice find. I'd scrap my cab in sec for one of those. 

Although I like the MK2 "Raiden" sideart a bit better. 

[M3talhead]

More cleaning today.

Since yesterday's cool find of the Netherland guilder (coin), I wanted to see if anything else interesting had fallen in the crack where the play counter was mounted. In order to get to its lower compartment, I needed to lift the stainless steel access panel that was screwed into the frame.






Unfortunatly, there was nothing there but cobwebs and dead insects.

While I had the access panel off, I decided that now was a good time to remove the 6 bolts holding the lower coin door frame to the cab. I'll sand and prep the doors sometime this week. I've decided to use a flat, low textured black paint instead of a gloss to keep with the authenticity of the machine. My goal is for someone to look at the cabinet when its turned off, and think its just another arcade.

I've also ordered my 4 rolls of black vinyl from  PartsExpress.com (Item# 260-018). This should be enough to cover the sides, front, CP, and give me a little room for any calculation errors (though I dont expect any). Either way, I need just over 3 rolls of 2'x20' to cover any exposed areas. I decided on the vinyl because my previous experience with contact paper showed me how much of a pain it was to  get it unrolled and placed where you wanted it to go without it curling up on you or sticking to itself. It wasnt a terrible process, but the end result was a little cheap looking and not very durable (the longevity of contact paper isnt very impressive when you have friends coming over and alcohol is present on most of those occasions).  Additionally, I considered that while paint may be easier to touch up in the event of a scratch or ding, its a lot messier when you've got to work within the confines of a relativly small apartment. I also wasnt sure which paint would be best to cover the existing laminate or how it would react to it. It just made more sense to go with a few rolls of vinyl.

[M3talhead]

Here it is.


A clean, gutted MK3 arcade. Most of my major components are in, but I'm still waiting on a few more pieces, the vinyl rolls, monitor chassis, aVGA and I-pac. I've put off buying the computer until I have everything else completed. No need in rushin out to buy a machine thats only going to be cheaper in a month anyway, right?

*Note: The burn in on the monitor is much more pronounced in the photo above. Looking at it directly at it in a lighted room, you dont see any at all. Funny how cameras pick that up huh?

There's not much else to do now except start shopping for a replacement control panel board and paint the coin doors. Since I have no MAME computer or working monitor (other than the one I'm using to type this with), I'll have to wait a few more weeks to begin installing and configuring the system. The t-molding arrived a while ago (along with my MAME set on DVD from Freemameroms.com) , but I dont want to start cutting that up until I get the vinyl on. Running the edges of the vinyl into the t-molding grooves will give the cab clean lines and just make it as a whole, look better. Attention to detail is what its all about.


A big thanks to "mameburner" at Free MAME Roms for this outstanding DVD romset! Very quick to ship and professionaly burned. Great job guys!

[M3talhead]

I finally got the monitor out of the cabinet today. After weeks of cleaning and snapping photos to document everything, its now ready for its own dust-off and photo shoot.

Before I just started unscrewing everything, I was careful to take measurements of where the monitor was positioned and a few pictures to help me line everything back up so there were no problems during reassembly. The first step was to take a permanent marker and outline the monitor's position via its mounting brackets.





After I had outlined all 4 corners with the marker, I removed the top lock nuts holding the monitor in place, followed by the bottom ones. I wasnt worried about the tube falling forward, since nearly all of the weight was behind the screw-studs and was tilted back at an angle.







Now comes the big heave-ho! I prepared my workbench with an old blanket to rest the tube on and make it easier to work with. I was expecting a 25" arcade monitor to weigh a lot more than it did, but came out without any problems, so I set it down and started cleaning it up.

(*Note: Just so people dont think I'm a total idiot, the monitor was previously discharged before removing it from the cab. Always ensure a monitor has been fully discharged before handeling or sticking your little fingers anywhere near the anode cap.)


You can see the abuse the cabinet has been through by the big horizontal gouge on the sideart and all the chipped MDF on the side of the CP (where the Midway logo is). Though it might not look that bad to you, to me its one of the main reasons I'm going with the vinyl rolls to cover the side.

[Gunstar Hero]

You're covering the sideart? Man, that seems like a bad call to me. It doesn't look too far gone for a little touch up... well, to each his own I suppose.

[darktemp]

I'd cover it too.  I hate sideart that looks like a photo instead of a drawing.  Konami for instance has some of the most dated and ugly marquees and sideart because of this.

Excellent work so far.

[M3talhead]

My packages from DHL finally arrived after an amazing trip around the world. As I said earlier, the shipping orders got mixed up and it somehow went from the UK, to NY, to Minneapolis, to Florida, to Belgium. Long way to go for a little pcb! 

Atleast its here.


I like the re-design of the I-Pac most of all. When I built the Gauntlet cab, I had one of the older boards, a bit bigger with the I/O ports on opposite ends. This one (I think) is a little more compact and has the I/O ports on one end, side-by-side. A much better design IMHO. Another nice thing Andy (at Ultimarc.com) does, is burn the software and drivers on a Datasafe disc. This is a much better media to write information to than regular cds because they are less prone to "CD rot". CD rot occurs when a disc has been in storage for a long period of time, and the foil layer on top of the cd containing the information begins to "bubble up" and chip off. I have several cds I burned not but 2 years ago, that are already losing data because of rot.


Now that I have the aVGA card, all I need is the computer I'll use to run MAME with. I have my desktop I could test it with, but with no monitor chassis replacement, I'll have to wait until that arrives before going any further. Right now, Dell has a really good MAMEable system for about $350 ($450, less a $100 rebate). Its a 2.8 P4, 512 ram, CD-R/DVD combo, 40GB HDD, onboard LAN/audio/video, and even comes with mouse, kbd, and XP preinstalled. Not a bad deal at all.

*Note: If you ever send anything ANYWHERE, via USPS, always, always, always, get it insured, no matter the value. The postal service gets my packages here 2-3 days earlier than standard Priority mail. Its like having 100% insurance for whatever it is you're mailing, plus a faster delivery. (I think they take better care of it too)

[SirPeale]

You got the I-PAC?  Why not the J-PAC, then it would have been pretty much plug-and-play?

[M3talhead]

You got the I-PAC?  Why not the J-PAC, then it would have been pretty much plug-and-play?

Because I'm not keeping the JAMMA equipment. Look at the control panel  from my Arcade 1.0. You'll see how I wired everything together. This is not going to be a dedicated cabinet, so I didnt really need the J-Pac.

[SirPeale]

You got the I-PAC?  Why not the J-PAC, then it would have been pretty much plug-and-play?

Because I'm not keeping the JAMMA equipment. Look at the control panel  from my Arcade 1.0. You'll see how I wired everything together. This is not going to be a dedicated cabinet, so I didnt really need the J-Pac.

It would have made the wiring a ton easier.  Unless you're going to pull the arcade monitor, and use a PC monitor.  If that's the case...man, that sucks.

[M3talhead]

Aside from the enjoyment I get from creating my own custom control panel, the wiring in the cab was in serious question. Several of the wires and terminals were corroded, broken or brittle. Instead of replacing each broken component, I decided to start from scratch like I did in Arcade 1.0 and use the cab's original CP as a template on which I could design and build what I wanted. This avoids a lot of pain and suffering that I dont want to deal with. Wiring the CP up myself eliminates any questions that might arise regarding what condition everything is in.

(Plus, its really cool to see people's reaction when you tell them you did everything yourself.)

I'm also a bit of a perfectionist, which really shows when you look at Arcade 1.0's CP. It was my first CP job and I was really proud of it, since most of the other attempts by first timers I saw online looked a little "hacked" and unorganized. I cant stand things just being rat-nested together.

[M3talhead]

Ok, so it finally stopped snowing and raining for a few days. I checked outside and it was a little gray, so I decided that if I wanted to get out and paint the coin doors, now was the time. I knew I'd only have a small window of opportunity to get everything done, so earlier this week I went ahead and had everything sanded and preped.


Satin black spraypaint. 240 grit sandpaper. This is about all you need when refinishing coin doors. Keep in mind, most doors and frame assemblys are powdercoated, not painted, giving them an extremely durable finish. You can do a Google search to learn more about powdercoating and how you can do it yourself with an ordinary oven. Its a little more involved (and expensive), but if you really want something thats going to be bulletproof......


Taking apart the doors from the frame only required that I remove 4 screws. Some people skip this step and just paing the doors while still assembled, but if you care about attention to detail as much as I do, take the extra 3 minutes and disassemble it. Once everything is painted and put back together, you wont have to worry about paint flaking off the hinges after a few openings and closings.


Be careful when preping the surfaces of the doors. The sandpaper is only used to "rough up" the old paint so it gives the new paint something to grab on to. If you rub to hard or go overboard with it, you could very easily remove that  "pitted" texture the doors have. I did that on accident in a few places, but I didnt have much of a choice. The powdercoating had chipped away on some spots of the frame, caused by previous abuse and attempted break-ins. Sanding those spots and blending them in to the paint was the only option I had.


The lip of the door was in pretty bad shape. You can tell that someone had at one point or another, tried to gain access to the coinbox by forcing a screwdriver or prybar between the door edge and frame. I fixed this by using 2 pliers and working the edge back to a clean line.


It wasnt easy




 There's really nowhere to paint in my apartment, so I settled for the next best thing.......the bed of my truck. I grabbed my can of satin black paint, lower coin door and frame assembly, and headed out before I got caught in some nasty weather.

[M3talhead]

Now that the paint is dry on the lower coin door/frame assembly, I can start on the upper.  Here's the final result.

Before

After


What's more, is that my paitence and self control with the sandpaper paid off, and I was able to keep the original texture using only 2 thin coats of paint.

[quarterback]

Great job on the coin doors.  You've inspired me to actually do mine as well one of these days.  I figured I wouldn't bother but the results you got look like it's definitely worth it.

[M3talhead]

I finished the upper coin door today. Only 5 minutes of prep and about a half hour of waiting for the paint to dry left me with the same great result as the bottom door I did yesterday. After I took this picture though, I noticed a small ding smack dab in the middle. I guess it just goes to show how far a little paint and time can improve the overall look of a coin door.



*Note: The little white specs and off-colored flakes are just pieces of dust that got attracted to the paint after it dried due to some static electricity.

[SirPeale]

Aside from the enjoyment I get from creating my own custom control panel, the wiring in the cab was in serious question. Several of the wires and terminals were corroded, broken or brittle. Instead of replacing each broken component, I decided to start from scratch like I did in Arcade 1.0 and use the cab's original CP as a template on which I could design and build what I wanted.

I would have just replaced the JAMMA harness, but that's just me.  You still get the kudos for wiring it yourself, plus the bonus neat wiring job, and getting to keep your arcade monitor.

[M3talhead]

Whew!

OK. Update...

I received my Parts Express package yesterday and inside were the 4 rolls of pica vinyl I ordered. This stuff is about what I expected in terms of thickness, feel and grain.



One thing I never could tell from all the pictures of this vinyl, was the size of its grain. Oscar's Centipede cab used this same vinyl, but I could never see how detailed the texture was, since all of the shots didn't have any sizeable reference. I put a dime in this photo to show the grain size on the vinyl. This really is a great product for covering cabs though.



Next, I prepped the surface for the vinyl by removing the external hardware (monitor bracket and CP latch bolts) and washed it down with soap and water and let it dry. I then took a razorblade and went over all the bumps and screw holes and sliced them so they were flush with the rest of the surrounding area. I can only guess that the previous owner of the cab had a few cup holders screwed into the side and then removed them, leaving several raised "mounds" on the sides right where you might think one would be.



Now came the tricky part. Lining up the vinyl. This is something that really helps when you have an extra set of hands, but it can be done my one person if you just go slow and take your time. I gave myself a lot of slop and room for error by hanging about 1/2-3/4 of an inch over the edges incase it was laid crooked. Luckily, I got it right on the first time, and rolled the rest of vinyl down the length of the cab with one hand pulling the paper backing from underneath, and the other running back and forth on the leading edge to work out any trapped air. That was the most difficult part, making sure that all the bubbles were out and that any imperfections in the surface (dirt, pieces of MDF, gunk, etc...) didn't get under the vinyl. If I had to pull it up, it could have distorted the vinyl as it was lifted, causing a problem that wouldn't be easily fixed. After I was done rolling the vinyl, I went over the entire surfave looking for any bubbles I missed, and worked them out using my razorblade. I laid it at about a 45* angle and drew it across the bubble, flattening it and pushing it to the closest edge. This turned out to be a great way of doing this, as the blade is perfectly flat and didn't scratch the surface at all.







Once one side was done, I flipped the cab over and did the other. I then finshed the front of the cab the same as I did for the sides. The only thing that was  trickier for the front, was keeping the vinyl straight, as it had a tendency to sag into the coin door space. When it did, it pulled away from the edges and screwed up the alignment. It eventually worked out in the end by going slowly, checking, rechecking, and checking again the alignment every inch or so. It was a pain in the ass. 



Now then, a little red T-molding here.......



.......the coin doors.........



And there you have it.

The cab looks just as good as I had imagined it. The only thing missing now are the 3 biggest components...
                      1. The monitor (new chassis is on its way)
                      2. The computer (pricing out the best deal)
                      3. The control panel (Need to find someone with a router)

[AmericanDemon]

Looks good!  The vinyl really brought the cab together.  I love side art, but the solid black looks great on that cab.

[quarterback]

I agree, it does look good. 

That vinyl isn't as wide as your cab, right?  Did you have any trouble lining up the 2nd pieces as you finished each side?

[M3talhead]

Looks good!  The vinyl really brought the cab together.  I love side art, but the solid black looks great on that cab.

Thanks. This is exactly the style and feel I was going for. Black and red, subtle, yet sharp. I didnt really care for the sides that much anyway. The problem with that kind of artwork, is that its not something that can be replaced, and if its damaged, it cant be fixed without it looking like crap.

I agree, it does look good.

That vinyl isn't as wide as your cab, right? Did you have any trouble lining up the 2nd pieces as you finished each side?

The vinyl was 24" (61cm) wide, so it obviously wasnt going to cover the side with just one strip. I used a method described once before on BYOAC, where you overlap the 2 pieces by an inch or so, then cut through both layers and remove he excess material. The only difficult part was peeling the top layer and removing the strip underneath it to make a perfect seam. You have to be very careful not to press down on the overlaping piece to hard, or peel the top layer back to quickly, or with to much force. This will stretch and distort the vinyl to a point where you will get wrinkles in the edges that cannot be worked out. I found this out the hard way. Luckily, I had an extra roll to redo it with. I did one side like this, but the other, I left alone. It was to difficult to get right without warping the edges, so I just lined up the edges as best as I could (about an 1/8-1/4 inch) and left it at that. You really cant even tell that they overlap unless you point it out. The coin door was perfect. The width was exactly 24", maybe 24 1/4".

To anyone considering this to a busted up cab, do it. Its worth it. 

[M3talhead]

Wohoo!

A new toy! I received my shipment from 8-Liners.com today. I'm replacing my 25" Hantarex Polo chassis and went ahead and started the disassembly of the old monitor.




Unfortunately, I wont be able to start the assembly and testing of the new board until next week, 'cause tomorrow I'm headed off to Ireland for a 7 day vacation (read: St. Patrick's Day extravaganza). There will be much alcohol consumption, as well as tours of the Jameson whiskey distillery and Guinness breweries. I'll be sure to take lots of pics (you know how I am) and post them for your jealous eyes to feast upon.

[M3talhead]

Well folks, I made it back alive.

I have a ton of pictures from Ireland (about 400) and just cant tell you how much fun I had. After I toured the Guiness brewery, my friend had to "physicaly" remind me that I couldnt live there....



......but it would be a great life! (and no, I didnt steal the truck. I coundnt even if I wanted to, they drive on the wrong side of the road, remember? )

[M3talhead]

SUCCESS!!!

(sort of....)

I hooked everything up internally to the monitor. I double, triple, even quadruple checked to make sure I had every single connection properly wired, crimped, and in what I believed to be the right places. Then, after wiping the sweat from my brow, I closed my eyes and pluged it in.......

*crackle*......*crackle*..............*crackle*...... ~hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~

Whaddya know, it worked! The picture came up (no RGB inputs though) and displayed a brilliant white horizontal line. This is because I have an issue at the yoke, but I'm looking into what the problem might be.

[M3talhead]

Problem solved.

I'm going to start off by first thanking Guru and Ken for the support and troubleshooting tips in the monitor and video forum. I couldnt have dont it without you guys.

As it turned out, when I was crimping on the terminals for the H/V posts, I didnt crimp one of the wires properly, leading to poor contact with the vertical posts and a thin white line in the middle of the screen. After attaching a new end to the faulty wire, the screen came up as it should, with only minimal size and positional tweaking needed to correct the picture. There was a little barrel distortion, but that was fixed by adjusting the pincushion pot, which was tucked away next to the flyback.



Now all I need to do is attach a monitor cable to the RGB inputs on the back of the chassis, and I should be in business.

[M3talhead]

Today I was able to score a busted Dell monitor for salvage. I unscrewed it and removed the VGA cable without any hassle. Just 4 screws for the case, and one for the cable mount and that was it.



Then, using a digital multimeter, I figured out the pins on the molex end to that of SVGA plug using a continuity test. Once I had the wires mapped, I clipped the ones that werent going to be used, and separated those that were to be spliced. My idea was that I would use molex or serial connections at the ends for quick disconnect.

*Note: Almost every store in town is closed due to the Good Friday/Easter weekend  holiday. I'll have to wait until the 29th to get my connectors.

[M3talhead]

Update:

Well, as it turns out, I was one of the lucky few chosen by Retroblast in their "Honorary Starcade" contest. I won a Starcade DVD with this photo.....




In other news, I finished the splice on the video cable coming out of the monitor. It took less than a half hour, with the hardest part being the continuity checks between the VGA plug and the molex connector. Anyway, it just means I'm one step closer to getting this thing together. I wasnt able to hook up the monitor though because it slipped my mind that my desktop has a PCIx slot, not AGP, so testing the display with the AVGA I bought will have to wait until I build and buy the machine I'll use for good.

[AceTKK]

ouch, all that work for the monitor and you aren't even able to test it?  Plz keep us updated and congrats on the award!

-Ace-

[RetroJames]

Yeah, right on for winning the contest and great job on the cabinet.  Love the attention to detail! 

[IntruderAlert]

I still have the Hantarex in mine
Do you think the pinouts are the same?
If you made note of them please post them when you get the chance

[M3talhead]

If you're using an AVGA card, the only thing you need to worry about it where your R,G,B,Ground, and H/V sync will go in relation to both plugs. I used the following diagram for my cable splice.


VGA Pin #                            Monitor's wire harness                 
1 - Red ---------------------------- Red (1)
2 - Green ------------------------- Green (2)
3 - Blue -------------- ------------- Blue (3)

6 - Red Ground   \
7 - Green Ground \
8 - Blue Ground     >---------------- Black (4) -- Ground
10 - Ground         /

13 - H Sync \___________________ White (5) -- Combined HV Sync
14 - V Sync /

Look very closely at the end of a computer monitor's 15 pin D-sub connector. You will see (starting in the upper left corner) sequential numbers going from left to right. These identify the pin # of the PC monitor's wiring, which I've identified above. Pins 5, 9, 11, 12, and 15 are not used in this splice, so dont worry about them. After you remove the cable from the old PC monitor, use a digital multimeter and starting with the #1 pin on the 15 pin D-sub, check wires at the end for continuity. Write each color wire down and what pin it is wired to. Once you have everything mapped out, solder your monitor's video cable to each of the corrisponding wires.

Make sense?

[IntruderAlert]

Nice explaining!

I've made my own cables like this before for projectors and such
I wasn't sure about the pinouts on the arcade monitor but I must admit that I haven't even looked yet.

I hope you get your PC soon so that you can test yours out
I'm leaving for a few days so I won't be getting anything done for a while on mine 

[M3talhead]

News:

Today I bit the bullet and finally pieced together a new computer through Newegg. I wanted to have a machine that could run most MAME games at 100% and leave room for whatever else I might want to use it for. When I built  Arcade 1.0, I kept this in mind and occasionally used it as a dedicated game server for Battlefield: 1942 and BF:V. This turned out to be very handy during LAN parties, because the machine I pieced was powerful enough to run the server in the background and still allow you to play Marvel VS Capcom through MAME.

When you've got 12 people over beating the crap out of each other on PCs, its nice to take a break after 4 straight hours of mayhem and play a few oldschool titles. During one party in particular, we ended up quitting about 3 hours into it because whenever people would get frustrated and pissed off from dying so much, they'd run over to the cab and play an arcade games as a breather. Pretty soon, everyone just said "To hell with it..." and we started a Street Fighter tourney right then and there. 

Something about people leaving behind $10,000 worth of high-end gaming rigs to play outdated arcade systems that have less processing power than their video cards brings a smile to my face. 

Anyways, here's the specs of tha machine I bought:

Apex CASE /350W PS
N82E16811154017
$29.50

MoBo MSI|VIA K8T800 PRO K8T NEO2-F    
N82E16813130469
$98.00

AMD 64 |3000+ ATHLON 64    
N82E16819103486
$146.00

512MB CORSAIR DDR 400mhz    
N82E16820145026   
$51.00

Western Digital HD 80GB WD800JD 8MB %    
N82E16822135106
$60.50              
            
Subtotal
$388.99

Shipping and Handling
$21.35

Total
$410.34[/color]

[AceTKK]

That's a whole lotta processor for a MAME cab.  But, really, the price/performance ratio on AMD stuff is so good you might as well go for it.  My AthlonXP 2800 (oc'ed to 3200 speeds) runs everything @ 100% (except for the obvious few).  You might want to pop that Athlon64 into your main/gaming rig and use your old chip for the cab.

-Ace-

[M3talhead]

No dice man.

My desktop is a P4 3.0. Suits me just fine for surfing and minor graphics work. Doing what I do for a living doesnt give me much time anymore for hours and hours of PC gaming. Besides, its becoming rediculously expensive to keep up with the latest hardware. I've done it long enough and now I think I'm ready to stop playing the catch-up game. Not only that, while titles may be getting more detailed and indepth, they're also getting out of hand in terms of price. I remember when a top selling game for my 286 was no more than $30 the day it came out. Paying $60 for a game like Doom 3 and then shelling out another $350 for the video card it requires is just more than I'd like to chew. I mean really, do the math. I spend on average about 5 hours a week playing games. I'd have to play that game for a long ass time before I get my money's worth out of it.

Now MAME on the other hand, well, I think we all know what we can get out of that.

[IntruderAlert]

That'll be great for the newer games
I'm looking at similar specs myself for my MKII cab

I know that I want at least 2ghz
I was worried about celeron or sempron performance but caffinefiend says he gets full speed and no frameskip with his 2.2 ghz celeron & 300 some megs of ram
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,34514.0.html

I don't want to spend any more than necessary so I might end up going with something like that

But with your system you definately will be in the ball game for a looooooonng time 

[M3talhead]

After a few months going back and forth on different marquee designs, I finally came up with one I'm going to keep.



As for the CP, I'm still working on it, but I can tell I'm getting very close!