Even though I just lost my job, I have a large settlement coming from a car accident a few years ago. And with this money I've decided that I'm gonna take part of it and build a MAME cabinet. Since I want some more experience within the IT field I've decided to build my own PC for it. I want to include an ethernet port and network it up to my home pc with wireless internet access so that I can run it like a normal computer and not exclusively a MAME machine. I'm looking for the cabinet to include the following:

• Intel 4 2.0Ghz
• DVD-ROM
• 40+GB Hard drive
• 512MB RAM
• Video card with S-video Out
  

any suggestions on Mobo's, what type of memory, books on building your own pc, or general electric tips would be highly appreciated. I plan on using the plans for the ultimate arcade II (the idea of playing 4 player Simpson's, Ninja Turtles, or X-men in my own home makes me drool)

Day-yam. Reading some of the sub-links from that site makes me want to do one of these myself. My dream would be a system with two trackballs AND 2-4 joysticks AND a spinner, so I could do two-player Marble Madness, Discs of Tron, and multiplayer Gauntlet... God, I need another project like I need a hole in the head, though....

Marble Madness, Discs of Tron, and multiplayer Gauntlet


droooool

I left out Tempest... That's another one I'd need the spinner for...

Actually, I think I'd like to own a refurbed Tempest box, the real thing. Something about the color vector displays is too cool.

I'm told there's a certain component that blows out regularly on the Tempest displays, and that's why you don't see many of them around any more. But if you know how to fix 'em, you're golden.

Greetings!

Tempest happens to be a very common collectable game. You can find them all over the place on ebay. Usually there are a few at any given time, almost like empegs.

I agree - Tempest is the classic to have, especially in the full vector format! If you ever decide to do this, I have a few board sets for Tempest here - at least two sets that I purchased as working. I collect (in case anyone missed that).

Also, if you are curious, a cool Tempest site. A nice editor for creating your own levels, and a great history of the game.

A few others to think about are Major Havok (rare, but very compatible with Tempest) and Joust (just classic).

you could just get one of these
http://www.hanaho.com/products/ArcadePC/

(the pictures look better if you highlight them and do a mouse over stupid dark background)

Hey, that Tempest editor is cool. I was pretty close to making a Crystal Castles editor at one point, the level format looked pretty easy to decipher and I believe I had it almost completely worked out at one point, then ran out of steam.

Do you recall what exactly it was that kept blowing on all the Tempest machines? I was under the impression it was some highly-stressed part in the vector display, but not exactly sure what.

Greetings!

Hanaho products...

I have their HotRod Joystick and it is very nice!!! The only reason I do not use it more often is because I mostly play Tempest, and it is just easier with a trackball. I have asked them if they are going to incorporate a trackball or spinner option, but they said they are not planning on it in just the joystick versions. The full ArcadePC can come with a trackball, though...

tempest

I think it was a capacitor on the deflection board for the X-Y display that had a tendancy to wear over time. They make replacements for it, and many of the machines out there have been rebuilt. There are a few good pages that you can check. I know that they are not hard to fix, and the parts are available, if specialized.

Just a few links. I've got my mame cabinet up and running and these items/sites were invaluable:

http://www.msu.edu/user/jonesdes/
Easy setup instructions for software and hardware. I think he even has a batch file now that sets up everything you need in one swoop.

http://www.ultimarc.com/
A JPAC and an ArcadeVGA are all you need to get your PC and your Cabinet talking. These are some sweet pieces of hardware... they just work and are quite elegant solutions.

http://www.freemameroms.com/web/burners.php
Get the full MAME Romset for the cost of the media. Find someone local and you'll have the full set of over 4000 games in a few days... no picking and choosing online

http://www.underachievers.com/mame/
a little weblog i put up of my mame cab journey... it's in need of updating and pics... but i haven't had the time. PM me if you have any questions.

If you wanna save yourself time and headaches... i'd just buy an older 4 player cabinet like TMNT or Simpsons or similar with a nice monitor in it and just slap in the PC. You can be up and running in a matter of days. You can probably pick up a good 4 player cabinet for under $500 if you look around.

Damn, that Jpac and that 15khz card make it sound like it's getting to be almost plug and play these days.

Argh, I'm starting to get the itch real bad. Someone stop me. I don't have any place good to put the machine, and somehow, that isn't making the itch abate.

Greetings!

That's why I went for the Hanaho joystick - space. I have no space for a full machine, and I can do emulation just as well from my primary PC. Still, it is not a "dedicated" environment, but that stick helps give a good feel. The only thing I might try to do is build a Tempest spinner...

Paul, your avatar and sig aren't showing for me today. You may want to check the server on whatever box they're on.

Greetings!

Bah, humbug! Unfortunately, that is my ISP's "member" server. I have no control over it, other than to complain to Verizon. Not a useful thing to do, other than to vent. I am sure it will be back soon.

One of these days, I will have to take enough Gauntlet II snapshots to make that GIF animated. In my infinite spare time...

It is plug and play. I can setup a mame cab in under 20 minutes. The only thing that takes time is copying the files and installing the OS. Everything else just works thanks to the brilliance of the Ultimarc stuff.

"Do you recall what exactly it was that kept blowing on all the Tempest machines? I was under the impression it was some highly-stressed part in the vector display, but not exactly sure what."

If you figure it out you can come over here and fix my Star Wars stand up... It has the messed up display which I am told is definitely a capacitor or something relatively easy to fix. I have no skills with a soldering iron.

Anyone in the greater Seattle area know a good place to get arcade machines fixed? The one place I know of has been in the news for shady business practices...

Fixing my arcade monitor is how i learned to really solder well. It's super easy since all the old components are huge. Cap Kits (a kit with to replace all the capacitors on your board) are easy to find and easy to solder. I'd suggest doing it yourself. There are instructions all over the internet. The best resource/nicest guy is Bob Roberts... TONS of info and parts:

http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/siteindex.html

you can email him with the type of monitor you have and he'll send you the kit and instructions you need. My buddy here at work had his Asteroids Deluxe machine fixed at a shop, cost him $400 for labor and parts. I could have done it for $15, the price of the cap kit. The only scary part is discharging your monitor.

If you need any help i'd be happy to do what i can, but unless you wanna waste serious money i'd recommend you avoid bringing the cabinet to a shop. Cap Kits are easy and cheap.

If you want a quick soldering lesson, just download Patricks instruction manual for the tuner kit. It has all you need to know. Take the plunge!

Did you ever get your PC to turn on when you turn on the cabinet?
If it's an old AT style PSU then it's just a relay but if it's an ATX style on then you'll need to add a simple one-shot circuit made with a 555 chip.

- Trevor

Hmmm... Thanks for the encouragement. Everyone I've talked to about it has the same DIY attitude, but I'm worried about destroying a piece of history. There is a guy who had a four day crash course in all you needed to know about fixing these monsters. I really wanted to take his course, but he never seems to make it up to the frontier.

I'll take a look at Patrick's tuner stuff... and maybe practice on some old junk. The only soldering I've done was trying to keep my old 1984 boom box working using the stylus from a wood burning kit!

And just to try and get this thread back on track... Those of you wanting a MAME cabinet might want to look into some thing like this smaller model. I have four full sized cabinets and I'm starting to wish I had gone the "cocktail" route...

EDIT: oh man... I hadn't seen the latest price on that pre-built. when i first looked it was only $750 for the base model.

What about this cabinet and controller?

That's pretty cool. You have to add your own tv however... and MAME doesn't look to great on a TV... it takes a lot of tweaking. I can see how someone would want that though... you can play any console on it in addition to your mame stuff... but it's expensive as hell. a grand is a lot to pay for an xarcade and just a cabinet. You'd still have to procide a beefy PC and TV... it would get over $2000 real quick.

Call me a purist, but i wanted a 15khz monitor, and a real cabinet.

How and where do you find an old cabinet? How much trouble is the display?

I got my cabinet at the Arcade Convention in San Jose, but there are various auctions all over the country. check here: http://www.superauctions.com/ for a date near you. I paid $350 for a good quality Mortal Kombat 1 cabinet with a 27" monitor. $450 seemed to be the going price however... but most of the guys are willing to deal. Check your local arcades too... see what they do with their old machines.

Not sure what you mean by how much trouble the display was... but you can read my weblog at http://www.underachievers.com/mame to get an idea of what i went through. It's really not hard at all, and discharging your monitor is a rush to say the least... knowing that 20,000+ volts just zapped across the line in front of you is quite the adrenaline picker upper. =]

Basically, you discharge your monitor by grounding the anode, then take off the board, unsolder all the caps and resolder a new cap kit. If you have a bad flyback transformer, then you ground that and unsolder it and replace it. That's that. A cap kit apparently fixes about 90% of the problems people see with monitors.

Read this if you ever fiddle around with the insides of a monitor. Best to be safe.

- Trevor

Yeah, i read that when i was fiddling. I read a TON of stuff before i opened that sucker up. I was scared shiteless the first time i grounded the tube... turned out there was no charge in it. My friends were laughing their heads off because i was wearing leather gloves holding a wodden dowel with a screwdriver on the end grounded to the chasis and inching toward the anode freakin' out as i did it. I've got pictures of it somewhere.... bastards. I risk MY life so they can play games. Hah!

knowing that 20,000+ volts just zapped across the line in front of you is quite the adrenaline picker upper.

Even more so after you get chosen to be the ground. My arm didn't stop twitching for hours. Your heart pounds like hell the next time you go to discharge a monitor. I still can picture it, the little blue bolt of pain jumping its way up the screw driver, then in to my hand. Seamed like it took forever to hit my hand yet I never moved just sat there and watched it come.
I was lucky it was only a 13in. tube otherwise I might not have been able to laugh about it later.

Just be careful with monitors they can hold their charge for a long time.

wow. in all my readings of monitor discharges, that's the first story i've read of it going awry. Yeah... y ou should see the rig i used... a 2 foot dowel with a screwdriver taped to the end grounded out with a lamp cord with aligator clamps on the end. I wasn't getting my hand anywhere near that sucker.