Arcade machines @ home

I've been running MAME at home for a couple of years, and quite fancy buying my own cabinet using MAME as a source of roms. Does anyone know how easy or difficult this process is? Or better still know of a guide online detailing how to do it?

I've also just gotten hold of an emulator for the Namco System 22 board which runs Ridge/Rave Racer. Ridge Racer 2 running at over 60fps at home is just amazing...

 

This might be worth looking at:

http://www.x-arcade.com/indexh.htm?ref=mamedk

I saw an article about a guy who was selling custom-built arcade machines running MAME that worked like a console. (can't find the link) The controls were all there, and looked pretty impressive, but the price was ludicrous.

 

Oop, found it.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/25/1815202&mode=thread&tid=127

 

This link might be usefull

http://www.arcadeathome.com/

 

When do we get our invites to your new arcade MilesbennettDyson? Me got a pocket fulla coins and me ready to go!!

 

You take the coins I'll take the roms

 

I've been looking into the scene as well, but then its probably a lot easier and cheaper to make a unit yourself. All you need is a bit of MDF, a decent monitor and some joystick parts. The actual joystick and buttons would be held in a metal case and the components in the cabinet.

If I had the time I would make one since I love some of the old arcade classics but right now I'm working on a "case mod" for all of my consoles...

 

Neoblade

Just sit them all in a AV rack that is what I do.
My xbox GC and snes are all snuggled together on the bottom shelf and they seem to like eachother although my xbox seems to bully the other two

 

lol Fuzzybee. Mind you I have to house a SNES, Saturn, DC, N64, PS2, GC and Xbox... I'll leave out the PSX since I can just use the PS2. Plus I don't want cables all over the place so I've designed a "Joybox" of sorts... Basically a small box that will have all the joypad connections under my sofa. The GC and DC pads have an awfully short cable >_<

I've only got some rought blueprints done atm... I'm planning to jazz them up with some CG work, then off to buy the materials (MDF, some steel plates, wires, fans, etc etc). I'll post them up if you want mate.

 

If your very lucky you should do as i do keep each console in a separate room and only sometimes double up as this is much more healthy and totally recommended by the RSPCC

 

I'm thinking of buying a decent VGA to TV converter. The one I fancy is about £110 and has H&V scaling to fit any TV. It also outputs RGB Scart and I think also outputs pure 60Hz too.

Quite fancy that on my 41" bad boy!

 

lol that would be sweet alright. I've only got the 36" Tosh atm, but it supports NTSC prog.scan so all is well. I need to get some more MAME stuff but that can wait until I finish off some designs for my case. Should be good.

 

MAME....There's a thing...
Just to say i love the Atlus/Cave games..

Donpachi
Do-donpachi
Esperade
Dangun Feveron etc..etc...

Utter mayhem......blow the **** out of anything on screen

Arcade madness........brilliant!

Adzman

 

I'm thinking of sticking a table through my 41" and going for a 41"+ Tosh with prog scan. I've had a pain in the arse convergence problem in the top right 3cm squared for about 2 years. Sony are pish.

They offered me my money back, but at the time there was bugger all for £1650 that compared to it. Still isn't much in the way of digital widescreen RPTV's... Now I've got Sky Digital, the digital tuner isn't really a requirement though.

[Edited by the moderator]

 

Hehe although the last discussion I had about certain files was deleted (the mod had to basically since he was just doing his job) its probably best to PM ^_^ I can't argue with do-donpachi alright. There should be more games like it about, hell I even bought a Sega Saturn for a certain Radiant Silvergun... Its nice to know that its "sequel" will be out on the DC and PS2 as well.

For me I love some of the NeoGeo stuff... KoF, ShockTroopers II, Samurai Showdown IV, Last Blade II, Metal Slug... Then there are the quality SNES stuff like Seiken Densetsu III, Chrono Trigger, Star Ocean, FF3, Zelda, SMW, etc etc...

Also I do like the old classics like BombJack. I've been looking for the GB version for years but no luck >_<

 

Sorry to bump a old thread, but get your self a real cab, i.e Japanese candy, Mame lolz.

 

Candy cabs are generic fat plastic lumps.

 

i just sold my killer instinct arcade for 670 quid on ebay. had to let go of it as i knew the game like the back of my hand.

 

This is something I've been looking at doing recently. Buy an old jamma cabinet, clear out the monitor, insides and joysticks/buttons, slap in either a 19" or 21" crt, get a 2 player x-arcade joystick and stick in a low-mid powered pc in and hey presto.

Just looking at the idea of building one, it would seem that getting a beat up old, dusty un-used jamma cabinet off ebay cheap and then cleaning it up would be the easiest option and not as expensive as I realised. Anyone know anywhere that sells old jamma units without game boards? Even without the monitor would be spot on.

 

Strange my Capcom Mini-cute is made from metal

 

ah, don't take offence. I'm just annoyed I can't find one for myself

 

Killercabs.com is the place to start.

 

Joined KC yesterday, funnily enough

Had a quick look though their Trading section but there was nothing and I'll be bummed if i'm paying GremlinSolutions £1250 for a knock-off.

gonna give it another few weeks, maybe a month before going for a woody, probably a Golden Tee conversion or just get another 29" TV.

If at some point you hear of any coming a up for sale, I'd love to know matey.

 

I will, keep a eye out on KC, there was a recent big order of 18 cabs & their might be another, but I'm sure at least 5 of those from the last will get sold back as people get bored, I just tri-synced my Impress btw:

http://www.sega-naomi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=382&highlight=

all plastic there

 

I bought a Jamma cab off ebay (probably a good 4 years or so ago now) and turned it into a Mame machine, whilst retaining it's Jamma ability and the monitor.

Basically you need a J-Pac to connect the Jamma connector to the PC as well as a graphics card that will run OK at 15 (or 31 I think) kHz. Then you need to run a program like AdvanceMame (which allows output at 15hz for the arcade monitor) with a frontend like Arcade OS.

The cab cost me about &#163;150 at the time but it's in pretty good nick and was a 6 button per player model. Just got an old Duron 800mhz PC running in it but to be honest it could do with something a little better for the modern games.

If you're after arcade authenticity and perhaps the ability to still play Jamma board (which I was) then the above is a good idea. If not then ripping out the old monitor and sticking a PC monitor in is fine.