MAME Answers
Mar. 14th, 2007 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cheshirenoirAs someone just asked me about MAME and I wrote a lengthy reply, I thought I'd post it here too.
Thi tutorial assumes you are "gutting" an existing arcade machine.
MAME cabs are actually quite easy to build, and don't cost too much.
However, difficulty (and time) is inversely proportional to money spent. If you have loads of time and no money, the cab can be put together out of "scrounged" components. If you have no time but lots of money, there are solutions that will get you up n running for almost no effort at all :-)
Okay first, I don't build them any more. No time! I have 3 in various states of disassembly lying around my home and workplace, plus "blueprints" for a fourth. (I have a 21" monitor with nothing better to do)
MAME cabs range from "mickey mouse" to "Oh my god thats a work of art!" but your existing cabinet will dictate much of that.
Next you need to choose your screen. LCD vs CRT vs Inbuilt
LCD: INCREDIBLY easy to work with. Lightweight. Easy to set up so you can "rotate" it. Relatively expensive. Will need some sort of "image scaling" to fill the CRT.
CRT: Most flexible picture. Bitch to work with. Heavy. Impossible to rotate. Practically "free" for 17" displays
Inbuilt: (Using the existing tube) Will only work if the tube isn't the problem. Authentic. Needs additional hardware. Can give you super awesome big displays.
Me? I'd go LCD if I was doing it today. Rip out the existing tube. Put in a black bevelled 17" LCD, build a frame so that I can pull the whole lot out and rotate it.
Next your interface. Premade vs scratchbuilt.
Premade are easy to use and fairly flexible. Pretty much the I-Pac is the market leader here, although there are other solutions out there...
Scratchbuilt usually involves hacking up keyboards, mice and maybe some joysticks. Fun, Rewarding and cheap. But TIME CONSUMING and can be a real pain in da ass.
Again, I'd buy an off the shelf I-Pac
A bit of wood work, some wiring and you have a MAME cab.
Here are some good links:
BYOAC - Start here! Build Your Own Arcade Controls is like the Godhead of MAME boxbuilding. examples, ideas, hacks, tricks, contacts, you name it.
Ultimarc - Good source of all sorts of bits and pieces, including some gear that allows you to build a MAME box from a working arcade machine in two steps!
Filtek - Not sure how much you can still get from them. They are "sort of closed" but are in Perth, support MAME and are cheap!
Mameworld - Believe it or not, we are here for the ads at the top! All sorts of REALLY funky stuff for MAME gets advertised here.
My list of "things to do" for MAME cabinets.
1) Make sure your cab is in good nick. Clean it up if it's not. Paint is cheap!
2) A pair of buttons on the "outside" of the cab on the left and right edge turn it into a pinball machine as well. Future Pinball is the best of these I have found. (it's also developed in Perth.)
3) If you want to play Gauntlet / XMen / TMNT and other 4 player games, think about buying an XBox to USB adapter hub. It plugs into a USB port, from whence I'd run a pair of XBOX extensions to either side of the Cab. Need Player 3 & 4? Just plug them into the exposed ports and away you go.
4) Don't worry about a super-duper computer to run the games. 1.4 GHz Duron or faster will be fine for 99% of games. Just make sure it has at least 20GB of HDD to store all the games. Windows 2000 is enough of an OS too.
If, after all this, you still have questions, ask away!
Thi tutorial assumes you are "gutting" an existing arcade machine.
MAME cabs are actually quite easy to build, and don't cost too much.
However, difficulty (and time) is inversely proportional to money spent. If you have loads of time and no money, the cab can be put together out of "scrounged" components. If you have no time but lots of money, there are solutions that will get you up n running for almost no effort at all :-)
Okay first, I don't build them any more. No time! I have 3 in various states of disassembly lying around my home and workplace, plus "blueprints" for a fourth. (I have a 21" monitor with nothing better to do)
MAME cabs range from "mickey mouse" to "Oh my god thats a work of art!" but your existing cabinet will dictate much of that.
Next you need to choose your screen. LCD vs CRT vs Inbuilt
LCD: INCREDIBLY easy to work with. Lightweight. Easy to set up so you can "rotate" it. Relatively expensive. Will need some sort of "image scaling" to fill the CRT.
CRT: Most flexible picture. Bitch to work with. Heavy. Impossible to rotate. Practically "free" for 17" displays
Inbuilt: (Using the existing tube) Will only work if the tube isn't the problem. Authentic. Needs additional hardware. Can give you super awesome big displays.
Me? I'd go LCD if I was doing it today. Rip out the existing tube. Put in a black bevelled 17" LCD, build a frame so that I can pull the whole lot out and rotate it.
Next your interface. Premade vs scratchbuilt.
Premade are easy to use and fairly flexible. Pretty much the I-Pac is the market leader here, although there are other solutions out there...
Scratchbuilt usually involves hacking up keyboards, mice and maybe some joysticks. Fun, Rewarding and cheap. But TIME CONSUMING and can be a real pain in da ass.
Again, I'd buy an off the shelf I-Pac
A bit of wood work, some wiring and you have a MAME cab.
Here are some good links:
BYOAC - Start here! Build Your Own Arcade Controls is like the Godhead of MAME boxbuilding. examples, ideas, hacks, tricks, contacts, you name it.
Ultimarc - Good source of all sorts of bits and pieces, including some gear that allows you to build a MAME box from a working arcade machine in two steps!
Filtek - Not sure how much you can still get from them. They are "sort of closed" but are in Perth, support MAME and are cheap!
Mameworld - Believe it or not, we are here for the ads at the top! All sorts of REALLY funky stuff for MAME gets advertised here.
My list of "things to do" for MAME cabinets.
1) Make sure your cab is in good nick. Clean it up if it's not. Paint is cheap!
2) A pair of buttons on the "outside" of the cab on the left and right edge turn it into a pinball machine as well. Future Pinball is the best of these I have found. (it's also developed in Perth.)
3) If you want to play Gauntlet / XMen / TMNT and other 4 player games, think about buying an XBox to USB adapter hub. It plugs into a USB port, from whence I'd run a pair of XBOX extensions to either side of the Cab. Need Player 3 & 4? Just plug them into the exposed ports and away you go.
4) Don't worry about a super-duper computer to run the games. 1.4 GHz Duron or faster will be fine for 99% of games. Just make sure it has at least 20GB of HDD to store all the games. Windows 2000 is enough of an OS too.
If, after all this, you still have questions, ask away!
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*sniff*
Date: 2007-03-14 08:13 am (UTC)A bitch to get in to fix, but my fav was a tabletop 'Moon Patrol'. Bastard thing shocked me more than a few times :P
Re: *sniff*
Date: 2007-03-14 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 03:07 am (UTC)Saw a TRON sitdown one in very good condition. So much Glowey goodness!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 03:59 am (UTC)The only other arcade I came close to finishing was Thunder Force AC, but the two other people showing up in the high score table got there before I did, at which point I suspect income from that one dropped 70% as it vanished soon after.
*ponders getting a megadrive* :)