MAME cabinet thread?

[Mailmann006]

I was just wondering if anyone else had any nice MAME cabs that are done or that they have been working on. I just started this one. Got the Tempest box for $90 on e-bay, just had to pick it up. Ordered most of the other stuff from Ultimarc.

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I got a much bigger 22 inch flat screen CRT monitor also on e-bay for 40 dollars (what a deal!) that looks really great in here. Ghosted out some Plexi with spray-paint for the Bezel. Gotta chop out that wood thats still in there and make a lil stand for the monitor. Working on the new control panel now.

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And here is a pic of a lil bit of the guts so far that will be in it.

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Let me know what you think.

[Jazzmarazz]

Seeeeeeeeeexy! The only cabinets I find around here are several hundred dollars, working or not!
I must see more, and SOON!

[Mailmann006]

I know a guy I met recently has a whole barn full of working/ non working games only like a 1/2 hour from my house. I had a blast when I went out there. Originally I paid for an Asteroids Deluxe box but somehow it was misplaced but he let me pick from anything he had there in the same price range. A good deal in the end. Here is a quick vid of the system up and running. It's not nearly done but it's shaping up well. Whoops, the last thirty seconds or so got cut off. Must have been a camtasia screw up lol.



Also, I got this surge protector called a smart strip for her and extended the soft power switch from the PC to the back. That way when you press the soft power button, the smartstrip will turn on the monitor, computer, and lights and stereo all at the same time to give it a more original feel. It will be set up to auto boot into the MAME frontend once it's all nice and tidy in it's new home so you won't have to see that dastardly windows 7 running behind the scenes.

[LeftyGuitar]

Nice cabinet. If I had the money I'd build my own mame arcade cabinet.

[Andy_Jerk]

That's rather inspiring. Arcades always seemed so magical to me as a kid. After 128 bit systems came home, it wasn't the same, but I would imagine that having a cabinet like that would bring back some memories. I know some of the Bourgeoisie specialty stores offer their own model with a meager assortment of games for a couple grand by comparison, so I would have to say that your plan is most likely the better one.

[Mailmann006]

My buddy paid $800 for a flat black X-Arcade Box... EMPTY!!! Another like $175 for a controller, and he still had to use all of his own hardware inside. And it's ugly, unoriginal, and has no coin door... Basically just a glorified box/shelf. What a rip. The total cost for my whole box is about $500-$600, not including the $100 Dremel tool i'm getting tomorrow that will be necessary for me to put this bad boy together. It has always been a dream in the back of my head to have one of these in my house since I was a child pumping quarter after quarter into the arcades. Now that I'm a bit older and had some extra cash lying around, I figured now is the time. It's amazing that you can have one box that will play all the MAME games, nintendo, snes, sega, pinball, and so much more. I love using emulators on my PC, but when it comes to arcade games, they really lose a lot of feeling if they aren't in their proper environment with the right controls. I'm really enjoying wiring up all of the controls to the IPAC (keyboard encoder) and making it exactly the way that I want it so it is original and will mean something to me, not just be some expensive toy. Hopefully (if my girls father cut the few pieces of wood I need) I will be really putting in some work on this bad boy this weekend. I will post some pics when it starts to shape up. Thanks for the input guys.

[Beelzebub]

My buddy and I have really been wanting to do this recently. I have a co-worker who said she had a working arcade cabinet, dunno what game, that I could have for free. I was thinking of just using a PS3 w/Final Burn Alpha as the core of the MAME cabinet. Instead of building a dedicated PC. Can't wait to see more pics of your project though.

[Mailmann006]

That sounds like a good plan. I'm not too keen on the whole Final Burn thing because I have a 360, got it on launch day so decided later on not to get a PS3 due to lack of time to play either. I am only putting in an old PC I had lying around @ the moment. I have an HP desktop... well motherboard with all the accessories because I junked the case when I built one for it out of legos in my spare time when I got hurt at work. It has a 250 gig HD, 512 mb ram, and a Pentium 4. I have used it for years and it emulates everything up to and including N64 and PS1 with no lag whatsoever. So I'm just going kinda cheap on it. I love the older games because I don't have to play them for hours at a time to get anywhere. I can play for like 15 minutes and have a great time instead of grinding endlessly. I'm probably just going to put everything up until but not including N64 on it anyway because with the control scheme I am building each player will only have 7 buttons and a start button. All of the newer systems have too many buttons to be really practical for me and are truly a bitch for me to play with arcade controls anyway. I really like that other people share the dream lol.

R.I.P. Lego Comp. You treated me well. Time to morph into your bigger and badder self.

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[Mailmann006]

I just added the joysticks today. It will look nice once it is painted. Still have to do all the buttons. Can't find a 1 1/8 inch hole cutter anywhere. I will surely prevail. The bottom is just a cardboard prototype. I am going to attach a hinged door that will swing up and down and have a pull out keyboard and mouse in there for ease of access. Where the bottom and top pieces meet, It will form a triangle on each side. I am going to fit the triangle pieces in there once I get the exact measurements and that will be where the buttons that act as flippers for the pinball games will be located.

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[Mailmann006]

Breathing life into her now at a good pace.

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[Quiji]

I actually have a couple.

Smash TV: (one of my all time favorites)

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Tetris:

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I have a few more I didn't take pictures of for some reason, and I'm getting Soul Calibur 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3 soon. Might get Blazblue.

My brother has one of those DDR stations, I don't know if that counts for a MAME cabinet or not. That thing is humongous, but so fun.

EDIT: Not Alpha 3, I meant Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike.

[Mailmann006]

Nice. Are those dedicated cabinets that play just the one game or do they support mame and other emulators to play all sorts of different games? Just curious. That smash TV one is in really good condidtion.

[Mailmann006]

Well... Here is how the inside will pretty much be set up. At least that's close to what the guts will look like anyway. Still deciding on a couple of little things.

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It's fully functional at the moment. I just need to finish setting up all of my software the way I want it.

[Mailmann006]

Ok. For anyone who cares to see my almost complete masterpiece lol.

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[Jazzmarazz]

Ok. For anyone who cares to see my almost complete masterpiece lol.

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Looking sexy! After a bit of paint, and a bottom to the button platform, will it be finished?