I was thinking it might be fun to do, since I have the hardware laying around....and if I enjoy it I might invest in a nice cabinet.

For those who don't know its about making an arcade machine that can play all the old games from the 80's, 90's and so on.
http://mamedev.org/

Has anyone done this, and if you have do you care to share your results?

8/14/2012 5:25:56 PM

Someone here made a really nice pacman machine but I forget who. I bought a bunch of parts for one but eventually ended up abandonning the project :/

8/14/2012 5:31:20 PM

I guess it was noen. Here's my thread:

http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=540038

I still have like 150 in parts for this thing, I hope to eventually build it.

8/14/2012 5:36:45 PM

Yeah it was me.

Yes you can do it on the cheap. 1/2 of the money I spent was for licensed cabinet artwork.

But you will spend a LOT of time. I ended up with close to 200 hours of work in my cabinet, and I could have easily done a rev 3 and put in another hundred hours. You are not going to get something pretty and polished with a weekend project (unless you drop a lot of $$$), but you can get something useable in a week or two of work.

8/14/2012 5:57:03 PM

I was going to buy a predone cabinet.

I really want to find a way to just connect it when I want and bring out the controllers.
Think Pedastal setup.

Also...
I saw this for 399 + shipping
http://www.amazon.com/Xtension-Arcade-Cabinet-X-Arcade-Tankstick/dp/B00408X5N2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

8/14/2012 6:17:52 PM

^Note that's JUST for the cabinet. The x-arcade to go with it is another 200 bucks, PLUS the monitor (unless you just want a roll-away pedestal to use your existing TV). PLUS the computer itself.

Just the cabinet + x-arcade is going to cost you 600 bucks. Leaving out the side art, I spent about that much for the cabinet, monitor, materials, fabrication, have a welding shop redo the monitor mount for me, PC inside the thing, controllers, lighting and tools (for painting, sanding, et al)

You can get a cabinet in decent shape for <50 bucks at auction, and build the arcade joysticks yourself for <50 bucks in parts.

Like I said, it's all about time vs. money and what you want to get out of it. I personally think the x-arcade looks cheesy and tacky, and the premade cabinets are WAY too generic for my tastes, but I recognize that doesn't matter to a lot of people.

8/14/2012 6:38:08 PM

Mame?

Why not d3?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwtjomsXfGE

8/14/2012 7:06:00 PM

^using a joystick to mouse through menus? looks like a fucking nightmare.

8/14/2012 7:08:29 PM

I am sure you could use a track ball instead, good proof of concept though.

8/14/2012 7:12:27 PM

like I said, I have the computer parts. Kick ass video cards...even an SSD.

I don't know if XP even works with SSDs that great.
I wonder if Win 7 will work.

I just need a cabinet. I have a 15 LCD, or a 22" Samsung TV...
So I need to create the joysticks as well.

8/14/2012 7:21:23 PM

One of my roommates made one a while back. His parents own a bowling alley so he had spare buttons sitting around that we simply soldered to the pins on a USB game controller (the ones that look like playstation1 controllers). I have also heard you could use an old beige keyboard with the metal connectors for the key presses (not the rubber pad ones). It isn't that difficult of a project if you know how to solder and work a jigsaw.

8/14/2012 7:33:41 PM

^^Gotcha.

You will definitely want a 21+ inch monitor. 22 should fit in a standard upright cabinet just fine. I used a CRT in mine for several reasons, but if you are okay with a LCD panel, it will be a lot easier to deal with.

I'd suggest creating your own backing panel and "wall mounting" it to that, so you can get the lcd at the right orientation angle to the cabinet and make it look flush mounted.

DEFINITELY use Windows 7 (or Windows 8 for that matter). XP is going to give you fits.

The joysticks are REALLY easy to make. as ^Moox suggests, the best thing to do is to get a donor USB gamepad. The keyboard route has a lot of issues (max # of simultaneous inputs is the big killer), but a USB gamepad will take all of an hour to do yourself.

Check out the article I wrote: http://www.snotmonkey.com/articles/build-your-own-usb-control-panel/ which walks you through it step by step (on the controller side) including quick detach cabling. Then you just wire up the contacts to the joysticks and you're good to go.

8/14/2012 8:10:32 PM

i'm thinking I might just buy an icade...to suffice the need to play arcade stuff right now...

while I'm building my own arcade stuff and finish school. I actually have never done any soldering and such so these projects look fun.

8/15/2012 12:23:40 PM