Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet - Kotaku Comments

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

koral — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:29:07 MDT

Building a MAME Cabinet from scratch is a lot of work but in the end its worth it.
Still if possible, it would be easier to restore an old arcade machine.
After loads of work my MAME cabinet is finished [www.eibmoz.dk]
For a frontend that hides the Windows interface i recommend MAMEWAH. It works with most emulators out there and is fully customizable.

koral

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

BobbyMike — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:54:15 MDT

My kids are playing Rampage on our converted Neo Geo MVS cabinet right now. Cost was minimal (got the gutted cabinet for free from Craigslist, free 21" CRT from freecycle and a free computer and speakers from my in-laws). We bought the X-Arcade Tank stick and I just modified the cabinet to fit the X-Arcade unit. Since I make furniture I had plenty of wood to finish out the cabinet. Fun project, I recommend it.

BobbyMike

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

CthulhuLA — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:53:17 MDT

If you are looking to build your own mame cab from original plans, this is the best site I know of.

[www.jakobud.com]

This is probably one of the most satisfactory projects you can do, especially since emulation has gotten so good! If you see in the video the guy has Street Fighter 3s up and running, CPS-3 has been emulated by the guy who created Nebula. Great stuff!

CthulhuLA

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Sixxtwo — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:23:39 MDT

Yup! I was working on a full cab w/a Sony Trini 21" in it. The more I got it together in the cab I reliazed it looked great, but how am I ever going to move this? (w/a 240sx)
Plus, My cab had the 7/8ths MDF!

So the idea has changed to an aluminium tabletop w/ an old 1gen Aopen mini PC, A Dell LCD, and an Ultimar Ipac USB.

With micro-PCs getting more popular, there should be alot more interesting/efficent ways to shrink 'the beast' =D

A few good sites:
[www.ultimarc.com]
[arcadecontrols.com]
[www.happcontrols.com]

Have Fun!
6

Sixxtwo

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

ThePimpOfSound — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:11:59 MDT

I did this a couple summers ago with my old man -- we'd spend a day working on it here and there whenever I was at my rents' place. We're not great a building things but it turned out pretty good. I Was also fortunate to have a friend at a graphic design shop to help me print the marquis and control panel design.

Since we already had a computer and monitor and various saws, the cost was about $300 for wood, electronics and other building parts. I recommend Happ Controls for the joysticks/buttons and the IPac by Ultimarc for wiring it up. Very simple and worked right away.

Even though the novelty has worn off a bit and some of my old favorites aren't nearly as exciting with infinite continues (Beat 'em Ups especially), I still get a tingle of joy and pride every time I look at the machine.

If you have the time and the ambition to follow it through, I highly recommend doing this.

ThePimpOfSound

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

RickBarrs — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:00:30 MDT

@Twoflower: I actually went to Maryland with you. We never talked or anything, but I remember you from the Terrapin Anime Society and a few film classes. Your name pops up surprisingly often in the random crap I search for in Google.

Weird.

RickBarrs

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

opt2not — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:27:55 MDT

I did this a few years ago as well. Highly worth it. If you're going to DIY, I advise to spend a little more money on buying higher quality wood, instead of fiber-based boards. I originally used Medium Fiber-board for the box, and it weighs a ton! The weight of the machine could have been a lot lighter if I spent a little extra money for plywood sheets instead.
Also, I used a old Tube TV...for my next cabinet I'm definitely going to throw in an LCD instead. A little more money, but believe me, when you need to move it around you'll be happy with spending a bit more money on keeping the weight down.

opt2not

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

MikeHateful — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:23:50 MDT

::sigh:: Part of me is looking at this project and saying. "I could so do this." And the other part of me is saying " for Christ sakes you can just hook up a freakin controller to your computer."

The lazy side of me has a point.

MikeHateful

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

tadslippy — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:53:34 MDT

I built one with my younger brother that looked pretty similar to the plans above a few years ago. It was truly an awesome project combining wood work (which neither of us had experience with) and software and hardware (both of which we are decent with). It looked awesome, and was truly a nice piece of furniture fit for a living room.

Unfortunately we had to sell it due to it's size. It was made to hold a 27 CRT TV. A word of advice, if you are going to put this much energy and time into it, plan to make in investment in a cheap LCD. The thickness required for a large CRT will make it crazy heavy and large.

tadslippy

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

newtype2011 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:31:03 MDT

...the Star Wars reference was golden. You get two cookies.

newtype2011

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Kickstone — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:44:06 MDT

I would love to build my own but I know it would just be too much hard work.
A mate asked if I wanted to buy a cabinet, he'd gone into putting them in pubs as a sideline but couldn't be bothered anymore. £125 it cost me. The thing was jamma so all I did was buy a j-pac ( [www.ultimarc.com] ) and then stick a pc in it. Any pc will do for the old games. I'm now the envy of all my friends........I think.......or maybe they just pity me, hard to tell.

Kickstone

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Agies — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:35:57 MDT

@doctorwily relic1980: Thanks for the answers guys. Now all I have to do is finish remodeling parts of my house.

Agies

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Keanu — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:48:55 MDT

Doing the board looks pretty fun, but the rest, god I would lose intrest in so fast.

Keanu

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

daschupa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:28:07 MDT

So is there software that makes running an emulator less windows like and more like the neo geo gui or something easy like that?

daschupa

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

ese — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:56:45 MDT

Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to mention something. If you do get a mame cabinet up and running, I would recommend trying out a version of mame compatible with kaillera netplay. There's something fun about having a human competitor to fight, even though nobody is there.

ese

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

ese — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:41:47 MDT

Building a cabinet is a lot of work, and refinishing one is no joke either. I bought a stand up Capcom 4-player cab with a Naomi set up inside (ran Power Stone 2). I just took out the Naomi gear and hooked up a PC inside (the Naomi set up is in my Neo Candy Cab 29). Now I can play all of the great emulated games and all of the multi people games the correct way. (The Simpsons, X-men, TMNT, Armored Warriors, NBA Jam) The stand up is great for parties, and the Candy Cab is where Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Project Justice duke it out for screen time. For me just refinishing a cabinet can be just as fun as building one. Just without all the headache.

ese

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

kunai — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:18:38 MDT

Do NOT use the X-arcade "tank" stick for this- it's impossible for two adults to play side by side without hitting each other's elbows.

kunai

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Jnkzm4 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:13:55 MDT

I will do this and enjoy everylast bit of it in my apartment. Hope essko will join me in for some mame action.

Jnkzm4

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Maaxxx — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:11:06 MDT

the kids can't reach the joystick or buttons.

Maaxxx

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

jack-tha-reaper — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:05:09 MDT

@Luke Plunkett: only thing cooler maybe show how to make one like they did for the racing games like with the wheel and all.

jack-tha-reaper

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Pinhead — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:58:44 MDT

Bookmarked!

Pinhead

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Xelotath — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:38:37 MDT

I actually bought all the parts to build an arcade controller like 3 years ago but never got around to building it. I'm thinking of doing it this summer and have my dad help me for the wood. Building or restoring a full cabinet is something I would like to do in the future.

Xelotath

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

none — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:11:48 MDT

Hey, I have an idea! Just buy the original hardware and get an empty cab from a distributor for cheap! Problem solved!

none

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

JustOneFix — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:02:34 MDT

@wana10: I've also got that book.. I'm working on my 3rd MAME cabinet now

JustOneFix

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

relic1980 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:09:08 MDT

@Agies: I used the diy board and the buttons and joysticks from XArcade. it works fine as long as you aren't squeamish about cutting some of the wires for length (depending on your setup).

relic1980

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

relic1980 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:06:00 MDT

@wana10: I have that book...very well recommended (I built my own arcade controller with everything I need (and I hope to eventually add a spinner; working on a hack). Next up is building the cabinet...

relic1980

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

doctorwily — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:43:36 MDT

@Agies: Actually, that's not precisely true. The main goal of the MAME project is to bring parity to all systems by emulation. 3D acceleration is used through the many filters and plugins available. The problem is dealing with multiple drivers and implementations for graphic accelerators. But you correct that it does have a purist view of emulating the original games as purely as possible.

As for NAOMI boards, that really has more to do with proper emulation code. Its running on proprietary code and will take awhile to solve similar to the CPS3 engine. Sega has a very closed system as many can attest to the Saturn console.

Lastly, you should give the X-Arcade kit a shot. I run ipac for my cabinet and it has serious issues with multiple button presses, especially on a 4player setup. The ipac is basically a keyboard hack. For tools you really just need a dremel with different saw attachment to cut out the wood. And go for building it yourself, its harder to work with an existing cabinet, which will probably detour your schematics. Plus, you'll get a sense of accomplishment.

doctorwily

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

realjas — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:33:25 MDT

Whoops. I must have deleted the link. My bad!

realjas

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

realjas — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:26:03 MDT

Been there, done that. [www.sinthesisent.com] :)

There are no pics of the absolute final stage of the arcade, but you get a pretty good idea of what it was like.

I loved it when I had it, but a big move made me have to make the tough choice of leaving it behind.

realjas

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Agies — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:14:51 MDT

I've been toying around with building a MAME machine. Has anyone worked with the diy kit from X-Arcade? It appears to be easier to use than an ipac. The X-Arcade guys are local to me so I'd kind of like to give them my support. Also, short ship times.

Also, what kind of tools are absolutely necessary for building your own cabinet? I have a reasonable set of tools for doing stuff around the house (no jigsaw however). Might it be less costly to search out a gutted cabinet?

Agies

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

wana10 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:11:55 MDT

forum.arcadecontrols.com has everything you need to know and more. so many amazing projects in the project announcement section...
start with saint's book, [www.amazon.com]
then ask any further questions on the forum.

is it worth it? HELL YES!

wana10

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Revenge_of_Nekojin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:04:31 MDT

Oh, awesome. I wanted to do this a while ago but couldn't find any clear instructions and such.

Revenge_of_Nekojin

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

TimO777 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:01:48 MDT

Nice! I did this like four years ago. It took me a a whole year to do. And about 2,000 dollars in parts, not including computer. If you do it, spring for the 4-player controls.

I still have it, but right now it's got a virus and I have to reformat it lol.

All in all, its SO worth it.

TimO777

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Agies — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:01:30 MDT

@geoffcbassett: Too bad MVC2 (and all other NAOMI games) runs like shit on MAME. MAME prides itself on being faithful to the original hardware so they don't use 3d hardware acceleration.

Agies

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

geoffcbassett — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:57:17 MDT

lets see games list...

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
Street FIghter 2 Turbo
House of the Dead 2
Virtua On
Simpsons Arcade
Icaruga
Radiant Silvergun
Gauntlet

geoffcbassett

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Twoflower — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:55:40 MDT

.....that's MY blueprint! Seriously!

Why the hell did they pick that one to promote, though? That cab's measured to my specs -- I have a dwarfism disorder and am 3 feet tall. No way in hell 99.5% of their readers could use those blueprints. :)

Twoflower

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

Darcii — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:53:51 MDT

I want to build a badass one like that Virtua Fighter set-up from a couple of weeks ago on Kotaku :D
I smell an Autumn project

Darcii

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

kunai — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:50:23 MDT

A pretty basic guide, but for those of you seriously considering this, do NOT use the X-Arcade stick. As a stick, it's not that great to begin with, but my main gripe is that the 2-player "tank" stick leaves NO ELBOW ROOM when 2 people are using it. For what it costs, you'd be better of picking up a custom made one.

kunai

Hey Kids, Build Your Own MAME Cabinet

geoffcbassett — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:47:36 MDT

awesome, I smell an summer project :)

geoffcbassett