Building a MAME from scratch: Cabinet, Control Panel, and PC.

[SephYuyX]

Somewhere in the basement, havent decided yet lol. Wasnt planning to get a stool, but ill probably get one eventually, I wont need two.

[SephYuyX]

I just uploaded this as a reference.
In most early 1990 and on Namco arcade machines, they would have a voice say something at the initial boot up. In the case of Tekken and a few others "Good Morning" was used.

This is a sound clip from Tekken 1 and 2, Tekken 3, and Tekken Tag.

Uploading this since I couldnt find it anywhere when I wanted to add it to my arcade introduction, so i just recorded it myself


As far as the build goes: Im about 98% done at the moment; the cabinet is finished, just needs touching up, and my emulator list is over 40 with about 60,000 games, but need a couple more.

Finish pics and a video by next weekend hopefully.

[drglass4]

The first Good Morning in that clip is classic. I think perfect for a cabinet machine. Depends on what theme you like though

[SephYuyX]

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._2944053_n.jpg
So, refocused on getting back to the software aspect of the arcade.. and I seriously underestimated the amount of effort and time needed to get things running.

44 consoles (3 of those being flash games, pc games (SF4 and BBCS), and arcade games (near half of the size and files come from mame), 52GB worth of files, and around 43,000 games, and will just keep growing at this point lol. For most of these systems I have all the games, but like I said earllier, some of the systems games are just too big to have all of them. Right now I just have 1 ps2 game, 1 ps1 game, a couple DC games, etc, just to get things working.

Ive been using emulators formany many years, so finding ways to obtain them wasnt an issue, and I thought getting them to work would be just as easy. Nintendo, Sony, and Sega systems were easy to set up, only a few minutes each, however the rest of these legacy consoles.. ouch. It was hard to find a good emulator to use for them, the bios files werent too bad, but getting things to all work properly together was a different issue.

Getting the emulator and games to work is one thing, but to get them to work smoothly and seemlessly with the arcade front end so that it looks and runs flawlessly is another thing. Some emulators arent too friendly being ran via frontend, and there was a lot of trial and error, but maximus arcade the front end im using, made it a bit more easy that it would have been.

So all in all.. getting the software side of things to work took much longer than I thought, it took at least 40hrs, and sadly im not completly done yet. While everything is running probably, I still have to do a bit of controller configuring, but that shouldnt be too bad.

[Minions]

Should make a guide when all is said and done, would be a good read and really helpful as far as other people getting these emulators to work with various front ends. I know I was having similar problems getting a front end to work with various self made programs and such. Takes a lot of trial and error, glad to see it is all paying off.

[SephYuyX]

Haha, ive already forgotten how to set up most of it. But I could probably remember if people needed help.

But yes..
Im finally finished!

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6583444_n.jpg
Buttoned up the back. I think I mentioned earllier that I glued up the top board since I dont think Ill ever need to get in it. When the middle and lower boards were off it was easy enough to get to everything, adds more stability too. The middle board is mainly for support, I really didnt need it there, but it does help block the marquee light. The bottom board holds the TV from falling out

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3963240_n.jpg
Yup, back of TV

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6178063_n.jpg
Bottom of it; PC and woofer with the wires all ran and looking pretty. Need to find a good surge protector, but other than that

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1228594_n.jpg
Full view of the back, hopefully never to be seen again for quite some time

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5061256_n.jpg
Finished shot of the marquee

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7719114_n.jpg
Finished shot of the bottom looking down

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6613285_n.jpg
Finished shot of the control panel

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._1292134_n.jpg
Finished shot of the bottom half

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7861188_n.jpg
Finished shot from the front

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3942732_n.jpg
Finished shot of the side art.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...9_395284_n.jpg
Final cost sheet. I originally figured around $1k, so 1.25 isnt too bad. I dont forsee many more costs to it aside from some maint in the distant future. Aside from that I plan on buying a good surge protector, and probably a controller, so itll end up being $1.3k. Not bad I think.

I really wish I kept track of the time I worked on this thing. The building took me on and off over a year, because I didnt have a solid game plan, had to wait on parts/etc, couldnt work during some of the colder parts of the year, laziness, busy with other things, etc.. If I had everything together, materials, plans, etc.. It would probably have taken me two or three work weeks at most. No reason for the whole project to go over a month.

Im also a very meticulous person, so it was measure 50 times, mark a line, measure 20 times, start to cut, check 10 more times, then cut. I hadnt done a major woodworking project like this in many years, so I had to relearn a few things, redo a few things, etc. So if I had to do it again, it wouldnt be a problem at all.

But would I want to do it again? Not any time soon hahaha, and I would do pretty much everything differently.

I think the next time I do something like this itll be for my home theater/game room, and then I may build another, but building a room solely for a HT is huge project within itself.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._4197777_n.jpg
Finished shot of it. Ignore the dog! Next to my dads juke box that he rebuilt from scrap many a year ago.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7313802_n.jpg
Close up final shot. Yup yup, finally all finished and done. Looks good. A love/hate project, but very happy with it in the end. Im glad I decided to build this

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7220631_n.jpg
Cover shot.

[SaviorSelf]

Looks amazing, great work!

[Kajii]

Wow, nice!!!

[Gentaro]

Really awesome! When I saw the thread for the first time i still got the picture of ur cute lil mithra in my head....not the rl tank that builds MAMEs >_>

[SephYuyX]

Thanks guys

Two videos for yall

Walkthrough:


Slideshow:

[sruon]

Amazing work, I'm in love.

[Arc07]

Well after looking at this thread for the 900th time I called my cousin up and we're gonna build one too. Won't be able to start the actual construction until December but I might as well get the design finished and start a parts list in the meantime. Definately not looking forward to wiring this thing.

Spoiler: show

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8...asdfdsfdsf.jpg

Updated.
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3445/78036954.jpg

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1542/66679091.jpg

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/4868/39087279.jpg

[Omniyoji]

Yeah wiring seems to be the most tedious thing especially when you start adding more buttons/interfaces. I've been planning on making one in the future. Just not sure if I want to go with the general upright American style or the smaller JP ones you sit at (like Astro City). There's also the question of what I want to load it up with, fighters or everything?

Goodluck Arcknight~

I remember when the thread first showed up last year. Always wondered what it'd look like finally. Gratz on the build Seph

[SephYuyX]

Thanks Sruon/Omni, and you might as well just put everything on it your only limit is the PC you put in there, and ever then, the HD makes the biggest difference. If you want to play new fighteres like SF4 and BB, then youll have to step it up. As far as design, either is fine, I like stand ups, as standing up doesnt really bug me, but I can also sit on a stool if im playing for a real long time.

Arc, that looks to be a pretty safe design, my only suggestion would be to bring in the width of the base if you can, makes it from looking overly huge. And obviously, make sure you can detach your control panel from the cabinet. 4p CPs are massive, and if you ever need to get it through doors

I didnt find wiring to be hard, just time consuming. Ultimarc's IPACs make wiring simple, just cut to size, crimp on a disconnect on one side, and screw down the other side. Wiring only becomes a hassle if you use non USB spinner/trackball interfaces, or are trying to connect legacy hardware, etc. As long as you have some basic knowledge of stripping and crimping, itll be np.

[SamanosukeShiva]

What games does the finished product ended up having?

[SephYuyX]

Consoles or games? 44 consoles (3 of those being flash, pc, and arcade), and around 43,000 games.

[kuronosan]

Damn good job, Seph. The interface looks pretty tight.

[Cheerios]

I use the Hyperspin front end, and when I redid the cabinet, I can say that getting games, emulators, front ends, and other software working is a much more difficult task than wiring a few things up.

Someone should just upload a torrent with everything in the correct folders with a Readme that says "Paste everything into C:\Whatever". I swear front end tutorials are meant to be cryptic.

Good job on the cabinet, btw. I'll likely look into using Maximus instead of Hyperspin pretty soon. Too much of a hassle getting all of the artwork, sounds, flash video intros, and all that other bullshit working correctly.

[SephYuyX]

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I never used any of the other frontends, but visited the different sites, and youtubed, and just figured MA would work best for me. I havent had any complaints with it, it's pretty straight forward for the most part, and skin customization is pretty up there.

[SephYuyX]

Still a few software things I want to do, but lack of time prevents me from doing so, and I need a break from the thing lol.

Made a PDF of all the pictures/descriptions from those who are interested. It's just basically all the content from my posts in a nice PDF.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PXRIJAR6
Wait 60 Seconds
Click 'Regular Download'