Neo Geo Mame Cabinet Project... Assistance required!!! :)

[sharp3D]

Hello Friends,

It's time for me to start my latest project. I am finally getting around to building my MAME cabinet. I've been pretty picky deciding what old cabinet to start this project with, but I finally found it. I am a huge Neo Geo fan and I have been looking for a MVS upright in decent shape. Finally one popped up on craigslist in my local area. I don't have any pictures of the actual cab I have purchased yet, because the guy I bought it from can't deliver it for a few days. So the next few pictures I post are generic google images.

The cab is basically identical to the MVS-1 slot pictured at far left.


Now this will be my first MAME anything, so please excuse the stupid questions and if you answer one please don't be too specific that I don't know what your talking about.

First things first, the Neo Geo's only have 4 buttons. This just wont do, but fortunately there is plenty of room to add 4 more. I made a couple crappy photoshop mocks to see how it might look with the added buttons. I would of course have a custom control panel overlay made to accommodate these extra buttons.



I think I like the white layout the best as it keeps a kind of stock feel even with 4 added buttons, though I may move the Red A button to top left so it wont be too confusing when playing actual neo geo games. What do you guys think?

So my first real question is this... what other buttons do I need for controlling MAME? I cant find this info anywhere. Things like start or esc buttons? What else is required or would be nice to have? I really dont want to finish this project only to realize that I need another button or two for controlling other aspects of MAME. There should be plenty of room where the player start buttons are to add these controls.

I plan on using the Hyperspin front end as it seems to be the coolest and best organized.

I'm sure I am going to have a TON more questions as I finally get this thing home and start to work on it, so please check back often and help me out! You can expect a lot of pictures of the build. Also, if this isn't the best place to have posted this thread please let me know where is? There doesn't seem to be an obvious place to post MAME stuff here.

Oh also forgot to mention. I restored at MVS-2 Mini 13 awhile ago. Did a number of upgrades as well as the restoration. Here is a few pics of her.



If your interested my WIP thread can be found here: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20168&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Thanks!

[thelolotov]

Not a mod, but I don't see why this would be in the wrong place,

Can't wait to see how this turns out! How much did you pay for that cab?

[sharp3D]

Thanks thelolotov!

$200 for the cab.

As I mentioned before the guy has 4 Neo cabs on his property. Two 1-slots and two 4-slots. The guy knows nothing really about arcades, yet has about 30ish various cabinets on his property. He said his buddy buys them for resell and he just lets him store them on his property. Some of the MVS games installed in these cabs are somewhat rare/expensive. I offered to buy them(well under value), but he didn't want to sell because he wanted the cabs to all have games in each slot because he thinks no one would buy them if they didn't.

Instead he is letting me trade a few of my(cheap common) games for these rare ones he doesn't know he has. I think trading Art of Fighting for Viewpoint is fare! AHAHAHA! I feel kinda bad, but he has a computer and could easily find how much this stuff is worth if he really cared.

[Breetai]

I think trading Art of Fighting for Viewpoint is fare! AHAHAHA! I feel kinda bad, but he as a computer and could easily find how much this stuff is worth if he really cared.

Exactly.

Your room looks pretty sweet, btw. The bone on the floor is a nice touch.

As for buttons, you would either have to rig the push-in coin slots to an "insert credit" button or have separate buttons for that. You might also want to consider adding start buttons, and possibly tab or escape buttons semi-hidden somewhere. Creating access to a keyboard would be helpful.

[fedexin]

Everything you'd need to know: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/

But man, don't mod an actual MVS cab.

[EllertMichael]

Everything you'd need to know: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/

But man, don't mod an actual MVS cab.

Agreed. Please Don't maim for MAME

[bdlou]

Agreed. I have a 4 slot MVS that I pulled the 4 slot out of and put a MAME PC inside of, but I did so without hacking up the panel, cables, etc. I run it for only Neo games, as I have a seperate cabinet for non-Neo games.

If you hack up a Neo cabinet, I guarantee punishment in the afterlife.

[sharp3D]

You know, one of the other things I have come to love about the Neo is just how loyal the fans are.

I appreciate everyones concerns and I promise I wont "hack" her up. The only cosmetic changes I will be doing is adding extra buttons to the control panel. But lets say years down the road, I want to turn her into a stock machine or if I sell it(I never will) and the person wants it factory... all you do is put the original control panel overlay and plexi on and no one would ever know those extra button holes exist and it wouldn't affect game play in the slightest.

Besides I am doing this thing a favor. It has a hulky security thing guarding the coin door thats all dented in, it's scuffed to hell and rusting in places, but the worst part is that I live in Florida and it along with 3 other MVS cabs and dozens of other random cabs are sitting in an open air garage collecting dust. Florida!!! The dude had MVS carts sitting on the floor when I walked up to it! I will be cleaning up and restoring this thing to almost factory. It's a pretty lucky cab.

[fedexin]

You know, one of the other things I have come to love about the Neo is just how loyal the fans are.

I appreciate everyones concerns and I promise I wont "hack" her up. The only cosmetic changes I will be doing is adding extra buttons to the control panel. But lets say years down the road, I want to turn her into a stock machine or if I sell it(I never will) and the person wants it factory... all you do is put the original control panel overlay and plexi on and no one would ever know those extra button holes exist and it wouldn't affect game play in the slightest.

Besides I am doing this thing a favor. It has a hulky security thing guarding the coin door thats all dented in, it's scuffed to hell and rusting in places, but the worst part is that I live in Florida and it along with 3 other MVS cabs and dozens of other random cabs are sitting in an open air garage collecting dust. Florida!!! The dude had MVS carts sitting on the floor when I walked up to it! I will be cleaning up and restoring this thing to almost factory. It's a pretty lucky cab.

I agree with you that Florida is a horrible place, and disagree that you're doing the cab a favor. If you're handy enough with a drill to make holes, you could make a cab from scratch! It's VERY rewarding to make your own Neo cab. Get some wood and some Behr Grenadine s-g-180 paint from your local Home Depot and fire it up!