MAME?

Posted by: Ladmo

MAME? - 30/04/2005 13:50

Anyone into MAME or MAME32 ???
Posted by: FireFox31

Re: MAME? - 30/04/2005 18:10

I'm kind of into it. I have a version that I downloaded, oh, 3 years ago. Does what I want it to: play SideArms and Cadash.

Why do you ask?
Posted by: pgrzelak

Re: MAME? - 30/04/2005 19:08

There are a bunch of people that enjoy it on the board. There were cabinet discussions a while back, and thoughts of dream arcades. Not much activity or discussion at the moment, though.
Posted by: Ladmo

Re: MAME? - 30/04/2005 21:52

I was just wondering. I am building a cabinet, and was just wondering if anyone else had...I'm also looking for a legal source for the ROMs...
I hope to have the cabinet done in another week or so...the to put the trons to it...I can post pictures of it then, if there was any interest...wouldn't want to waste the bandwidth if there is no interest...
Posted by: loren

Re: MAME? - 01/05/2005 06:05

I did a cabinet a while back, but I'm about to sell it soon i think. I never play it and I need the cash. I still can't make myself do it though! http://www.underachievers.com/mame has some details but I stopped updating that a long time ago.

Get your ROMS here:
http://www.monstarcade.com/index.asp
Posted by: loren

Re: MAME? - 05/10/2005 08:43

How's the cabinet coming? I just got mine up and running again... and holy crap was it WAY easier to do this time... the software part I mean.

A JPAC and ArcadeVGA card (both from Ultimarc), with WinXP, MAME (Win Command Line version), and MAMEWAH is by FAR the easiest way to get a MAME cabinet up and running on a Jamma based arcade cabinet with a 15KHz monitor. Wow. I'm floored how easy it was! I can't believe I did my first cabinet on DOS... UGH. That was such a nightmare.
Posted by: loren

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 05:41

Just thought some of ya'll would like to see this... it's a short 4.5 MB Mpeg4 video I made quickly to show how my MAME cabinet is setup. Check it out:

http://www.underachievers.com/mt/archives/MAMEintro.MP4
Posted by: tonyc

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 12:39

Sick, dude, way sick.
Posted by: visuvius

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 14:20

Bad. Ass. How much did the whole project end up costing you?
Posted by: tfabris

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 15:54

LOVE That user interface.
Posted by: loren

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 16:04

Hrm... good question. I never added it all up... lets see...

Cabinet
$350 Mortal Kombat with Wells Gardner 25K7197 25" monitor
$34 WG K7000 Flyback repair kit
$1.50 1 pk 555 lamps

PC
$80 ish Arcade VGA card
$55 PC Chips mobo
$13.78 TAEC floppy drive
$10 CPU fan
Free donated Athlon XP 2500+
Free canabalized RAM
Free canabalized HD
Free canabalized Power Supply and case
Free canabalized DVDRom drive
Free keyboard and mouse

Interface
$73 J-Pac
$46 Replacement control set for MK
$7 1 Bag of 20GA 10' x 10 colors (100' total) wire
$5 4 .100 Housings with pins 12 pos
$4 2 Midway 12 pos double headers

ROMS
$11.50 Complete MAME .100 ROM set

Tools and Misc.
$3 Charging clips (alligator clips) (for monitor discharger)
$1.50 4ft. of "lamp cord" power cable (for monitor discharger)
$6 random shipping charges
----------------------

So lets say somewhere in the ballpark of $700. I'd say $800 is a good estimate of what it would cost to get running from the ground up if you had nothing.
Posted by: Cris

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 18:44

That's a really cool cabinet loren, very interesting

I have often thought about making my own MAME cab, but I lack the space for a full size cabinet. Is there a reason why people use large CRT monitors, I would like to make a thin cab that takes an LCD to keep the space down, would it work well on a LCD?

Also, I'm not really that bothered about sticking with the arcade cab look, I'd like to build mine into another piece of furnature, like a coffee table, so when it's off no one could tell it was a MAME cab, anyone seen this done anywhere yet?

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 18:48

Quote:
Is there a reason why people use large CRT monitors

Yes, for the retro arcade look. There's something about arcade cabinets and the big monitors that evokes a certain feeling. It makes it feel exactly like the original arcade game, instead of feeling like an emulator playing on a PC.

Quote:
I would like to make a thin cab that takes an LCD to keep the space down, would it work well on a LCD?

Yes, but at that point it wouldn't be much different than a PC with a fancy joystick. Part of the fun is the cabinet and the monitor.
Posted by: loren

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 18:51

LCD's involve hardware stretching the graphics. It's possible.. in fact I think there's a section on it either in the MAME FAQ (EDIT: http://www.mame.net/mamefaq.html#h14) or MAMEWAH FAQ or instructions... i remember glossing over it. You'll loose the arcade look and some games will look stretched, but it'd definitely be awesome to have it built into a coffee table or something. You could just build a low to the ground cocktail cabinet:

http://home.comcast.net/~cpviewer/pics_cocktail.htm

Full plans are available here:
http://home.comcast.net/~cpviewer/cabinetplans.htm

and are insanely detailed. You could modify it to your hearts content though. That's what I always really wanted, I just lack the workshop to build it in. I'd LOVE to replace my coffee table with a cocktail cabinet!
Posted by: loren

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 18:56

Quote:
Yes, for the retro arcade look. There's something about arcade cabinets and the big monitors that evokes a certain feeling. It makes it feel exactly like the original arcade game, instead of feeling like an emulator playing on a PC.


Yeah... 288 horizontal lines of resolution at 15KHz looks way different than 480 from a regular TV. =D

It definitely feels different... even playing NES games at 640x480 on the cabinet feels like a real arcade game.
Posted by: Cris

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 19:08

288 lines! Wow, text looks really clear on your video. So what res does a 15KHz work at?

I think I had better stop the MAME talk right here! I'm getting waaaaaayyyyyyyyy to tempted here

I suppose I could ditch one of the new Pachislo machines, and build a mini table top cabinet, sounds expensive....

Cheers

Cris.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: MAME? - 12/10/2005 19:34

Monitor frequencies in kHz are horizontal frequencies and only tell you how many lines are being drawn per second. Given 288 lines of resolution (call it 300 to factor in front porch, back porch, and sync) and you get 50Hz refresh rate (or vertical frequency). Most of the time, the number of pixels per line isn't really limited by the monitor (well, at least not electronically, only by the size of the phosphors) but most people like to use square(ish) pixels, so, assuming a 4:3 aspect ratio, that's 384 pixels.