Q. im new to building my own arcade cabinet. are there any tips that anyone wishes to share to a bignner? like where to shop? safty precautions? or how much money and time and space it could take up?
A. I am assuming you are building from scratch. Best advice is plan, measure twice, cut once, Use quality controls, and Take Your Time.
Let me start off by saying the end product is what every thing is based on:
Money:
The wood: What you use to make the cabinet needs to be sturdy and one side finished for a good look. (I have used HDO plywood in the past very good product http://www.freemansupply.com/HDOFirPlywood.htm)
The computer: It needs to be fast enough to run the games you wish to play. You can go overboard here and just buy to fast of a cpu that you just didn't need. Remember hard drive space.
The monitor: This can very also. Mainly 3 types to use. 1 a CRT type like the original arcade games used. 2 a flat screen plasma or lcd TV/Monitor. and 3 a regular TV 20+ inch. (Note that orientation is a factor also for the install and overall size.)
The controls: You will need to know how many buttons, joysticks, rollers, spinners, ect you will need for the games you will have loaded. The control panel is what I always built my Cabinets around. I determined How many player and the needed controls and placement. Made a mock up with cardboard to see the size and function ability of the controls. Knowing this size allowed me to know how wide the cabinet would be and then the size of the monitor. Also it showed what king of hardware I needed to connect the controllers to the computer.
The Hardware: You will need wire and at least one ipac/jpac. I always added two fans, a power strip, lighting, speakers, wireless keyboard and mouse.
Cost: from scratch can run from as low as $800 to over $2000 from my experience.
Time:
As stated before TAKE YOUR TIME! plan, plan, plan. I never finished one on a set time schedules, but did make goal points.
1 acquire the computer, hardware, and controls.
2 while still acquiring parts,start design as mock build ups.
3 acquire the wood and other materials to assemble the cabinet.
4 build the cabinet.
5 build the control panel.
6 install the monitor.
7 install the wiring
8 Install the CPU
Not really that easy but generally the order.
Space?: To build? I use an 8x10 Shed. Cabinet size, I've only made one monster that was almost 4foot wide and deep. I built one that was a sit down that was two parts and they pinned together and took up about 3.5 wide and 7 foot long. But most are gust over 2 foot wide and just under 3 foot deep. All sizes are footprint size, control panels not added.
Here is a great resource sight for a lot of you needs when building. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1
More reading:
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm
http://www.dave-gallagher.net/arcade/porn/page17.htm
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/arcade/
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/10/mame_cabinet_build_photos.html
http://thydzik.com/mamecab/
Now the Meat and Taters:
http://www.happcontrols.com/index.html?http://www.happcontrols.com/pushbuttons/5891xxl.htm!
http://www.ultimarc.com/
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index
http://midwestgames.stores.yahoo.net/
http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/
http://www.ozstick.com.au/
http://www.thrustvector.com/products.html
http://www.conntrol.com/default.html
http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl
http://www.arcadeshop.com/parts.htm#Monitors
http://www.twobits.com/parts/
http://www.quarterarcade.com/Default.aspx
http://www.highway.net.au/parts/wiring.html
http://www.thebuttkicker.com/
http://www.elektronforge.com/parts.htm
http://stores.ebay.com/TWISTEDQUARTER
http://www.t-molding.com/store/home.php
http://www.directron.com/mods.html
http://www.svideo.com/displayvideo.html
And lastly a good tip is use a front end program such as GameEX http://www.gameex.net/ and use mame32 version. It makes for a clean install and easy for anyone to find a game and plat, very programmable.
Congrats on on your build, take your time and have fun.
Yahoo questions closed about MAME Cabinets http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=AoNzY_JsDy56jbDPJsJm_OQnzKIX;_ylv=3?ps=2&p=mame+cabinet&pn=&scope=&mc=&fltr=_en&tab=1&asktime=&save_search=1&st=1
Let me start off by saying the end product is what every thing is based on:
Money:
The wood: What you use to make the cabinet needs to be sturdy and one side finished for a good look. (I have used HDO plywood in the past very good product http://www.freemansupply.com/HDOFirPlywood.htm)
The computer: It needs to be fast enough to run the games you wish to play. You can go overboard here and just buy to fast of a cpu that you just didn't need. Remember hard drive space.
The monitor: This can very also. Mainly 3 types to use. 1 a CRT type like the original arcade games used. 2 a flat screen plasma or lcd TV/Monitor. and 3 a regular TV 20+ inch. (Note that orientation is a factor also for the install and overall size.)
The controls: You will need to know how many buttons, joysticks, rollers, spinners, ect you will need for the games you will have loaded. The control panel is what I always built my Cabinets around. I determined How many player and the needed controls and placement. Made a mock up with cardboard to see the size and function ability of the controls. Knowing this size allowed me to know how wide the cabinet would be and then the size of the monitor. Also it showed what king of hardware I needed to connect the controllers to the computer.
The Hardware: You will need wire and at least one ipac/jpac. I always added two fans, a power strip, lighting, speakers, wireless keyboard and mouse.
Cost: from scratch can run from as low as $800 to over $2000 from my experience.
Time:
As stated before TAKE YOUR TIME! plan, plan, plan. I never finished one on a set time schedules, but did make goal points.
1 acquire the computer, hardware, and controls.
2 while still acquiring parts,start design as mock build ups.
3 acquire the wood and other materials to assemble the cabinet.
4 build the cabinet.
5 build the control panel.
6 install the monitor.
7 install the wiring
8 Install the CPU
Not really that easy but generally the order.
Space?: To build? I use an 8x10 Shed. Cabinet size, I've only made one monster that was almost 4foot wide and deep. I built one that was a sit down that was two parts and they pinned together and took up about 3.5 wide and 7 foot long. But most are gust over 2 foot wide and just under 3 foot deep. All sizes are footprint size, control panels not added.
Here is a great resource sight for a lot of you needs when building. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1
More reading:
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm
http://www.dave-gallagher.net/arcade/porn/page17.htm
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/arcade/
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/10/mame_cabinet_build_photos.html
http://thydzik.com/mamecab/
Now the Meat and Taters:
http://www.happcontrols.com/index.html?http://www.happcontrols.com/pushbuttons/5891xxl.htm!
http://www.ultimarc.com/
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index
http://midwestgames.stores.yahoo.net/
http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/
http://www.ozstick.com.au/
http://www.thrustvector.com/products.html
http://www.conntrol.com/default.html
http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl
http://www.arcadeshop.com/parts.htm#Monitors
http://www.twobits.com/parts/
http://www.quarterarcade.com/Default.aspx
http://www.highway.net.au/parts/wiring.html
http://www.thebuttkicker.com/
http://www.elektronforge.com/parts.htm
http://stores.ebay.com/TWISTEDQUARTER
http://www.t-molding.com/store/home.php
http://www.directron.com/mods.html
http://www.svideo.com/displayvideo.html
And lastly a good tip is use a front end program such as GameEX http://www.gameex.net/ and use mame32 version. It makes for a clean install and easy for anyone to find a game and plat, very programmable.
Congrats on on your build, take your time and have fun.
Yahoo questions closed about MAME Cabinets http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=AoNzY_JsDy56jbDPJsJm_OQnzKIX;_ylv=3?ps=2&p=mame+cabinet&pn=&scope=&mc=&fltr=_en&tab=1&asktime=&save_search=1&st=1
Want to build a MAME arcade cabinet?
Q. I want to build a MAME arcade cabinet, where I will buy the monitor and PC to run the MAME emulator.
I will probably play with it a bit and then want to sell it.
Is it illegal for me to sell the arcade cabinet WITHOUT ANY ROMS just the emulator?
I will probably play with it a bit and then want to sell it.
Is it illegal for me to sell the arcade cabinet WITHOUT ANY ROMS just the emulator?
A. As mentioned, it should be legal to sell without any roms (although not 100% sure if that violates any licensing with MAME.. might want to sell it without MAME as well if you want to be 100% legal.. maybe just delete the main EXE file and leave the rest configured hah).
As for where to buy the PC and monitor... any PC and monitor will do. The more powerful, the better for newer games, but most classic games will run fine on even an older PC.
Some people get proper old school CRT monitors so they have the right look and feel, but you can use an LCD monitor as well. Many emulators have a simulated scanlines options to make it look more like an older CRT monitor or support plugins to enable this kind of feature.
MAME for Windows isn't optimized for 3D hardware acceleration (last I read), so if you're trying to get something that'll run newer 3D games, you're probably going to have to go with raw processor horsepower rather than something with a fancy graphics card. I think it'll do 2D hardware acceleration but there's no DirectX support for 3D acceleration so it's all decoded with the main processor.
If you're buying a PC specifically for it, depending on what you want to do, you might look at home theater PCs (HTPCs). Lenovo, Asus, Shuttle and Zotac have a wide range of small Mini-ITX (?) and smaller boxes that look pretty good. Some look like the Nintendo Wii or like a cable modem. Very tiny. Half the time they come as barebones so you have to provide some extra parts.
If you wanted something halfway portable, you could get one of those and a small monitor (maybe even a USB-powered one from Liliput or Mimo so you'd have one fewer power cables).
Also, I'd highly recommend either an X-Arcade controller (or the buttons/sticks/etc they sell non-assembled) or SlikStick for the controls. Very durable.
As for where to buy the PC and monitor... any PC and monitor will do. The more powerful, the better for newer games, but most classic games will run fine on even an older PC.
Some people get proper old school CRT monitors so they have the right look and feel, but you can use an LCD monitor as well. Many emulators have a simulated scanlines options to make it look more like an older CRT monitor or support plugins to enable this kind of feature.
MAME for Windows isn't optimized for 3D hardware acceleration (last I read), so if you're trying to get something that'll run newer 3D games, you're probably going to have to go with raw processor horsepower rather than something with a fancy graphics card. I think it'll do 2D hardware acceleration but there's no DirectX support for 3D acceleration so it's all decoded with the main processor.
If you're buying a PC specifically for it, depending on what you want to do, you might look at home theater PCs (HTPCs). Lenovo, Asus, Shuttle and Zotac have a wide range of small Mini-ITX (?) and smaller boxes that look pretty good. Some look like the Nintendo Wii or like a cable modem. Very tiny. Half the time they come as barebones so you have to provide some extra parts.
If you wanted something halfway portable, you could get one of those and a small monitor (maybe even a USB-powered one from Liliput or Mimo so you'd have one fewer power cables).
Also, I'd highly recommend either an X-Arcade controller (or the buttons/sticks/etc they sell non-assembled) or SlikStick for the controls. Very durable.
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