dsheinem's "MAME Cabinet in a Month(ish)" project - DONE!?

[dsheinem]

So the Tankstick arrived today and HOLY SHIT is having a trackball awesome for MAME. Some Missle Command and Golden Tee were requisite, but my two year old nearly LEGITIMATELY beat me at World Class Bowling and I loved every minute of it. I also thoroughly enjoyed some SMASH TV with real sticks...beats the hell out of analog nubs for feeling and accuracy.

Anyway, I hope to have some more pics to share of the cabinet later tonight. I am pretty certain on putting the PS2 and DC in there, as I have a healthy amount of shmups/fighters/and arcade compilations for each. Plus, stuff like the Tekken and Virtua Fighter series is laggy as hell in MAME, and stuff like DoDonPachi DOJ or Ibara is buggy or unsupported (afaik). And I'll also use it as a Steel Battalion cab, though won't keep the Xbox in there full time. I am getting quite excited about having this done!

[MrPopo]

people have thrown consoles in before, so it's not like it'd be a huge stretch.

actually the more I think about it, the more a ps2 with HDAdvance or something loaded with arcade-friendly games that don't emulate well would be really cool.

I know Ultimarc sells a line of special video-out cables which plug in to the console and work on arcade monitors.

I've got a couple of arcade cabinets arriving next week that I plan to MAMEify, so I'm gonna be going over this thread to see if I can pick up any tips.

[dsheinem]

people have thrown consoles in before, so it's not like it'd be a huge stretch.

actually the more I think about it, the more a ps2 with HDAdvance or something loaded with arcade-friendly games that don't emulate well would be really cool.

I know Ultimarc sells a line of special video-out cables which plug in to the console and work on arcade monitors.

I've got a couple of arcade cabinets arriving next week that I plan to MAMEify, so I'm gonna be going over this thread to see if I can pick up any tips.

A couple?

[MrPopo]

people have thrown consoles in before, so it's not like it'd be a huge stretch.

actually the more I think about it, the more a ps2 with HDAdvance or something loaded with arcade-friendly games that don't emulate well would be really cool.

I know Ultimarc sells a line of special video-out cables which plug in to the console and work on arcade monitors.

I've got a couple of arcade cabinets arriving next week that I plan to MAMEify, so I'm gonna be going over this thread to see if I can pick up any tips.

A couple?

I didn't want to have a crazy control panel, so I've got a two-player 6 button and a four-player 3 button (which I'm going to add a 4th button on each player). So one for two player games and one for four player games.

[dsheinem]

pics of today's progress, as promised:

[CFFJR]

Its looking damn good man.

[indecks]

people have thrown consoles in before, so it's not like it'd be a huge stretch.

actually the more I think about it, the more a ps2 with HDAdvance or something loaded with arcade-friendly games that don't emulate well would be really cool.

I know Ultimarc sells a line of special video-out cables which plug in to the console and work on arcade monitors.

I've got a couple of arcade cabinets arriving next week that I plan to MAMEify, so I'm gonna be going over this thread to see if I can pick up any tips.

A couple?

lol cabs aren't that tough to come by. The well's sorta dried up in the Austin area (at least for my pocketbook) but in the last couple of years, I had some SERIOUS good luck on Craigslist for cabs.

I got a Neo Geo 2 slot 'Big Red' MVS that I was gonna restore, but ended up selling it. Got it for 150, and it was working. I sold it for a tiny bit more since it was in pieces and I needed some space.

Also, I found a free (yes, FREE) "non working" Street Fighter II cab that just had a switch turned off in the back, it worked fine. Sold it a few months later for $300.

Then I found a Sega Megalo410 arcade cab that had some bad coolant that resulted in foggy video for $250 - but with 3 game boards. King of Fighters 2003 (pcb version, not MVS cart ver), Capcom's Battle Circuit and Alien Vs Predator. AvP was worth about $200 on it's own at the time. Sold those PCBs and used the cash to fix up the video and get one of the cab's extremely rare remote controls. Sold it for $600 with it's sharp vid and brand new remote.

With that $600, I hit an auction in Dallas TX and came home with a Tekken Tag cab for $150, sold it for $450 a week later. Also came home with an Atomiswave cab that had the AW board and Demolish Fist for $270. MAME'd the cab and kept it for about a year, but I sold the Atomiswave and game for $150, I think. Maybe a little less. Once i decided to let go of the cab, I sold it for $700.

I found a lady selling her 'soon to be' ex-husband's Dynamo foosball table for $75. Got it, waited a week, put it back on craigslist and boom. $500.

And finally, I found my current (and only, at this point) cab - a Neo25 with a 4 slot MVS board and the guy had lost his keys. I had to drill out the lock and it had ELEVEN carts in it. Some were dupes that I already had so I sold them. I got the cab and it's little cache of carts for $250. My wife made me promise to keep this Neo Geo. I have a tendency to 'want' a neo, get one and then get bored of it and sell it and a few months later, regret the decision and start the cycle all over again. So apparently this one is not going anywhere. I do love it though, such a cute little cab.

Just gotta hit up Craigslist. I usually do it at least once a day, and just search for "arcade", and pray that the Arcade Fire isn't playing my town. (totally borks the search).

Cabs are easy to find, but unfortunately, people seem to think that their beat up cab with ghosting and scrolling video is worth $1500. but some deals can be found. Just gotta keep an eye out or build your own!

[AppleQueso]

I know Ultimarc sells a line of special video-out cables which plug in to the console and work on arcade monitors.

I've got a couple of arcade cabinets arriving next week that I plan to MAMEify, so I'm gonna be going over this thread to see if I can pick up any tips.

A couple?

I didn't want to have a crazy control panel, so I've got a two-player 6 button and a four-player 3 button (which I'm going to add a 4th button on each player). So one for two player games and one for four player games.

Personally, if I were going to have two cabs, I'd have one with a vertical monitor and one with horizontal.

Still looking great btw. It's seriously making me itch to buy up some tools and try this myself.

[AppleQueso]

So I just discovered that the Steel Battalion controller is about the same depth as the X-arcade Tankstick and only about 8 inches wider, which means that I could easily create a board for it to sit on and have an awesome second use for the cabinet. I might need to figure out some way to attach the pedals.

I am also seriously considering throwing my slim softmodded PS2 and my Dreamcast in there as the tankstick comes with an adapter for each, and I mostly play arcade-style games on those machines anymore (and have a BC PS3 if I am dying to play a non-arcade style title). There are several titles for each that run much better on those consoles than they do in MAME.

For dreamcast, it might be worth looking up an emulator called Kawaks.

I don't know how well it'll handle 3D stuff, but if you want to get games like MvC2 or Guilty Gear running on your cabinet it'll work fantastic.

WHOOPS

Meant "Makaron". Sorry. Kawaks is a cps/neogeo emulator.

[dsheinem]

lol cabs aren't that tough to come by. The well's sorta dried up in the Austin area (at least for my pocketbook) but in the last couple of years, I had some SERIOUS good luck on Craigslist for cabs.

I got a Neo Geo 2 slot 'Big Red' MVS that I was gonna restore, but ended up selling it. Got it for 150, and it was working. I sold it for a tiny bit more since it was in pieces and I needed some space.

Also, I found a free (yes, FREE) "non working" Street Fighter II cab that just had a switch turned off in the back, it worked fine. Sold it a few months later for $300.

Then I found a Sega Megalo410 arcade cab that had some bad coolant that resulted in foggy video for $250 - but with 3 game boards. King of Fighters 2003 (pcb version, not MVS cart ver), Capcom's Battle Circuit and Alien Vs Predator. AvP was worth about $200 on it's own at the time. Sold those PCBs and used the cash to fix up the video and get one of the cab's extremely rare remote controls. Sold it for $600 with it's sharp vid and brand new remote.

With that $600, I hit an auction in Dallas TX and came home with a Tekken Tag cab for $150, sold it for $450 a week later. Also came home with an Atomiswave cab that had the AW board and Demolish Fist for $270. MAME'd the cab and kept it for about a year, but I sold the Atomiswave and game for $150, I think. Maybe a little less. Once i decided to let go of the cab, I sold it for $700.

I found a lady selling her 'soon to be' ex-husband's Dynamo foosball table for $75. Got it, waited a week, put it back on craigslist and boom. $500.

And finally, I found my current (and only, at this point) cab - a Neo25 with a 4 slot MVS board and the guy had lost his keys. I had to drill out the lock and it had ELEVEN carts in it. Some were dupes that I already had so I sold them. I got the cab and it's little cache of carts for $250. My wife made me promise to keep this Neo Geo. I have a tendency to 'want' a neo, get one and then get bored of it and sell it and a few months later, regret the decision and start the cycle all over again. So apparently this one is not going anywhere. I do love it though, such a cute little cab.

Just gotta hit up Craigslist. I usually do it at least once a day, and just search for "arcade", and pray that the Arcade Fire isn't playing my town. (totally borks the search).

Cabs are easy to find, but unfortunately, people seem to think that their beat up cab with ghosting and scrolling video is worth $1500. but some deals can be found. Just gotta keep an eye out or build your own!

I don't live in a metropolitan area, so Craigslist ads are usually an hour away @ minimum, and then there's not very much listed in terms of arcade cabinets or games in genreal. tbh I think I have had a ton more fun building this from scratch than I would have buying a cab and trying to convert it.

Still, that's quite the impressive history of turning around cabs!