Project Arcade - Totally Custom MAME Cabinet

I thought I'd share my finished project with everyone. The cabinet is a converted Smash T.V. cab (I made sure all of the components went to a good home of someone restoring his own Smash T.V. cab, so don't bite my head off for this...) This video was made with those in mind who know little to nothing about building this type of cabinet, so I tried to avoid most of the technical jargon involved.

Internals:

Wells-Gardner k7100 series arcade monitor (I had two, one with horrible burn-in, the other with a bad circuit board. Long story short, I swapped circuit boards, and now I have a perfect picture.)
Creative 2.1 sound system, which worked nicely as, along with the very nice speakers, had a little breakout control for the volume/bass which I mounted on top of my coin box for easy access.
Athlon 64 3500+, 1gb DDR system with a special ASUS A8V-X motherboard allowing me to replace the BIOS screen.
Smart Strip to power on computer, marquee, monitor, and speakers at the same time.
iPac 2 and ArcadeVGA boards from Ultimarc
Mag-Stik Plus joysticks, buttons from Ultimarc
Fully functional coin door to complete the authentic experience.
Custom marquee designed by me using artwork I created and vectorized myself. Printed at MameMarquees.

Software:

MameWAH running a custom layout I made myself
Background audio is from the Arcade Ambience Project and plays while in the menu. Movies are silent.
Preview artwork and movies were made by me.
TeamViewer Host running at all times (in the background, and not visible) to allow me to connect to the arcade computer and add/remove/manage games remotely.

Thanks a ton to: Andy at Ultimarc for his unceasing support, Scott at MameMarquees, and my father for helping me with the woodwork especially, and my wife, for her infinite patience and support of me pursuing a childhood dream. It wouldn't have come together nearly as well without them.

Pictures available here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=99816.0

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• mame
• arcade
• cabinet
• classic
• mamewah
• pacman
• donkey
• kong
• tmnt
• joystick
• buttons
• arcadevga
• ipac
• games
• video
• gaming

[velocity73R]

Thanks for the video, it's nice to see someone actually talk about their cab instead of having thumping music play, or a guy that sounds like he's out of breath from just walking. I'm getting a list together of what I need to build my first cab, and I'm debating on the Mag-Stik Plus that you got, or the Ultra 360. I can't find much for reviews on the 360, and what scares me is if I have to program it for each game.[I'm not sure if this is the case].  Did you consider the 360 at all?

Thanks...

[deweyhewson]

@velocity73R

I did consider the Ultra 360, and many things about it are appealing (especially the custom profiles for each game), but ultimately what turned me off about it is that it's an all digital stick, not a physical stick. Meaning that it has 360 degrees of motion all the time, even if you program it just to detect 4-way, 8-way, etc. I wanted to have that tactile feedback.

In hindsight what I would do instead, though, is buy two dedicated 8-way joysticks, and one dedicated 4-way.

[deweyhewson]

I like that these joysticks are physically 4-way or 8-way depending on how you switch them and the feel is great. Switching them from the top of the panel is a breeze, too, so I'd say they definitely were worth the extra money.

Thanks on the MameWAH layout! I really like MameWAH. I looked at Maximus, but one thing I like about MameWAH is that it's not branded, unlike Maximus. Which means my cab looks like *my* cab, and not just something using some software I bought.

Thanks for the comments!

[FurryFighter20X66]

I like how you recompiled MAME to skip those nag and warning screens. Nice extra.

[321paden]

hey what is the name and brand of your 4/8 way joysticks.

[senseihaynes]

Very impressive! The 4/8 way joysticks are fantastic, and the seamless removal of Windows is superb. That is much more difficult than you made it look! Tell Katie I said she should definitely let you take it upstairs. :)

[GILakaGP3]

where did you get the videos.

[deejaytai1]

You're right about the difference between 4 & 8-way sticks. I got 2 8-way joysticks, found I couldn't play Pac-Man, went back & added a dedicated 4-way in the control panel. Cool video and cab!

[breakdancer1967]

very nice. I just built my own Mame arcade unit. I just purchased 2 Mag-Stik Plus joysticks from Ultimarc. id like to ask how you fitted the joystick washer on top of the controller. I cant pull off the joystick top. what did you do? if i feed the joystick from the bottom of control panel only joystick top will show. help!! thanks in advance

[FJNLLC]

Does anyone else find it awesome this guy finished his Mame cabinet before he finished the room he has it stored in? lol Would you be willing to share the custom XP start screen and recompiled mame for followers of your work? Thanks!

[TheFesta01]

oh man- i would have tried restoring the smash tv cabinet, rather than getting rid, good job tho : )

[tetramack]

Fantastic cab and setup! I'm planning to make my own! The joysticks are fantastic. What kind are they? Anyhow....superbuild.

[kendonsobers]

Epic Epic Epic