Best console for arcade simulation

[cabrando]

I was thinking of building an arcade cabinet, maybe even gutting an old one my friend has.
I don't really want to go the emulation route so I was wondering what console has the most/best arcade ports or original arcade style games.

Another consideration are the peripherals available for the system. I planned on building it where the console disc tray would be accessible for easy swapping of games.

[GSZX1337]

I don't really want to go the emulation route...

Why not?

[tbeeghly]

A friend and I actually built one over the summer, a full stand up two player arcade cabinet. There's no console on earth that will allow you to emulate as many games as a moderately fast PC can with good emulators and a slick front end. Plus, if you were to buy the arcade sticks for whichever console you choose, you're looking at an extra $150 dollars or so. It really isn't that hard, and the PC doesn't need to be that powerful to play many games. I can play SF Alpha 2 at full speed on my old 867mhz PowerMac G4. Granted, I know that isn't a PC speed, but you get some idea. It'll be much simpler to find a cheap PC to use. I can post pics of the cabinet and or marquee if you want.

[Niode]

If you don't want to go the emulation route I would suggest an xbox.

If you do decide on the emulation route, I would suggest an xbox .

I have neo geo, cps1, cps2 emulated with everygame that has been decrypted and playable, i also have a 4GB mame disk with quite a few of the best known games, including stuff like gigawing, marsmatrix, asteroids, tempest, the simpsons, moonwalker, AVP. All running extremely well with no slow down. The only catch is you would need to mod the xbox, i softmodded mine with splinter cell and an edited save file, it works like a charm. I put unleashx dashboard on it and you can edit the entire front end in notepad as it's just an xml file. I have my xbox split into virtual console mode (where i have all my emulators for every system) and then media (xbox media center/load dvd/save manager etc). Theres nothing stopping you creating a front end for your arcade machine that way, plus unleashx is very easy to skin.

another bonus is you have access to all the great arcade ports of modern games like outrun 2, house of the dead 3, street fighter 3 3rd strike etc.

If i was you, i'd get an xbox, they're dead easy to wire into an arcade cab as the ports are standard usb, they just use a different connector, so just get an xbox controller extension and hack it up to a female usb port.

[Caboose]

I'm actually building a cabinet as well. I'm going to use an old pc and MAME. It should be able to play many fighting games and shooters. I'm also planning on getting some arcade sticks or just he separate buttons and I'm gonna wire it up to an old usb pad since most keyboard can only handle a certain amount of keypresses at once (I think it's 4, could be 8 though) which will be a pain in the ass for multiplayer games. The project is kind of on hold at the moment, I'll probably finish it in the summer.

[cabrando]

Hmmm I might have to rethink the emulation route it seems.

I was wanting to stay away from it for a couple reasons

-Interface
-Playback quality
-Configuration
-Load times

Another concern was peripherals. I'm not sure what ones an emulator will be able to use. I'm sure there's arcade sticks, but what about things light guns, ddr pads, etc..

[Niode]

Mame for PC will let you use any pointing device for shooting games, you could use a wii remote plus IR source for that but it would probably suck. Or you can get an LCD topgun (i don't know of any other pc compatible lightguns) they also work with mame.

I'm in the planning stages for my arcade cab. I've got my neogeo MVS already, but i'm planning on putting an xbox for emulation of other systems (and xbox arcade games played off the hardrive, like dead or alive/SF3TS so I don't need to swap disks.) and a psx. So i can have true arcade games along side emulation. I'll have the ultimate arcade cab .


I think other than actually buying a jamma cabinet and swapping arcade pcbs you're going to be stuck with emulation. As even ports are a form of emulation really. It's not running on the original hardware so some things will have been changed to work on the new hardware. Ports very rarely work 100% the same as the original. It depends how much of a perfectionist you are though.

If you want true arcade feel, i'd go for getting a NeoGeo MVS, MVS carts don't cost too much and they're the original arcade game. MVS motherboards don't cost that much, I recently paid £50 for my 4 slotter. So you're getting 100% accurate arcade games on your arcade cab. I'd defo urge towards that and then having an xbox in there as well for other systems/original games.