Any MAME'ers On The Board?

[NaptownChief]

Any of you guys play the old arcade classics on one of the MAME emulators? I had messed around with several games like Galaga, Track and Field, Hyper Sports, Pole Position, Pac Man, Punch Out, Super Punch Out etc on my desk top for several years. A friend of mine talked me into buliding a stand up arcade system to be able to run almost every arcade game ever made. Currently have like 4,750 games loaded on to it.

I haven't decided on the marquee, side art or bezel art that I am going to use but is everything else is pretty much complete. Anyone else tackled a MAME arcade project?

[Pezman]

I'm an ancient one when it comes to the emulation scene. Hell, I used to code for Genecyst and do the write ups for Davesclassics.com before "the day" in '99 when the first playable N64 emulator came out and nearly killed the emu scene. I've been away from it for so long, but I love to go back and see how much its changed over the years.

I used to have a great collection of MAME cabinets fliers and roms but sadly, most of my roms are outdated and need to be re-ripped so that I can update to the latest MAME (because you know, its so important to have japanese porn roms)

[NaptownChief]

I'm an ancient one when it comes to the emulation scene. Hell, I used to code for Genecyst and do the write ups for Davesclassics.com before "the day" in '99 when the first playable N64 emulator came out and nearly killed the emu scene. I've been away from it for so long, but I love to go back and see how much its changed over the years.

I used to have a great collection of MAME cabinets fliers and roms but sadly, most of my roms are outdated and need to be re-ripped so that I can update to the latest MAME (because you know, its so important to have japanese porn roms)



Awesome...

I'm running MAME32 right now and in the process of using MAMEWAH as my front end so that I run the thing with all the guts inside the cabinet. I'm a computer moron but this project has been a good educational experience. From ripping out the old hard drive and installing a new 160g hard drive, upgrading RAM, installing, unistalling, re-installing Win 98, XP, Win 2000 and ultimately back to Win 98, putting in a new soundcard etc.etc has forced me to learn far more than I though possible about computers. Did all the work myself just so that I would force myself to learn.

I would show you a picture of the final cabinet but they are too big to upload and I am too stupid to know how to downsize them.

[Pezman]

Awesome...

I'm running MAME32 right now and in the process of using MAMEWAH as my front end so that I run the thing with all the guts inside the cabinet. I'm a computer moron but this project has been a good educational experience. From ripping out the old hard drive and installing a new 160g hard drive, upgrading RAM, installing, unistalling, re-installing Win 98, XP, Win 2000 and ultimately back to Win 98, putting in a new soundcard etc.etc has forced me to learn far more than I though possible about computers. Did all the work myself just so that I would force myself to learn.

I would show you a picture of the final cabinet but they are too big to upload and I am too stupid to know how to downsize them.

You can upload pix via www.imageshack.com and they will give you the option to resize them.

As for cabinets, try this site for cool homebrewed cabinets http://www.arcadeathome.com/pics.phtml as they have been around since the emu scene first started back in '95

[NaptownChief]

Ok...I figured it out....kinda. Didn't get the whole thing cropped in but this will give you an idea.

[-Slap-]

Ok...I figured it out....kinda. Didn't get the whole thing cropped in but this will give you an idea.
That's cool, man. How much did that whole set up cost you?

[NaptownChief]

That's cool, man. How much did that whole set up cost you?



Not too much. The control board from X-Arcade is the most expensive part. That was $129 for the dual control pad. The rest is cheap if you have or can come up with a decent pc for free or very inexpensive. I got a Pentium III from work for free. I did spend $59 to put in a new 160g hard drive. You only need about 15-20g hard drive to run your OS, the emulator and put all 4,700+ roms but I went ahead and upgraded because I only had 15g and was pushing the limit and didn't want that to be a problem in the future. The monitor was a 19" CRT that I was getting ready to replace with a new flat screen here at home so that didn't cost me any extra. Other than that it was $60 for the MFD wood and about $10 for paint supplies. $20 for the red t-molding on the side edges and $10 for the plexiglass for the marquee and $12 for the light to go behind the marquee. Only other thing I spent much on was the speaker system. I decided to go top of the line and bought some EV 4.1 Surround System. Got that off Ebay for $100 but easily could have done a good job with some cheap computer speakers laying around home or for about $20 at Office Depot. Also spent $15 on the plastic bezel to go around the monitor.

I've got about $300-350 in mine and once I buy the side art, marquee art and bezel art I will be around $400 to $450 but with cheaper speakers and leaving the hard drive alone and no decorative art I would have pulled it off for under $250.

Pretty fun project and hanging out with your buddies, drinking beer and going old school with all these games is a riot.

If you give it a try you will want to pick up this book. A lot of useful tips and ideas:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0764556169.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[-Slap-]

Not too much. The control board from X-Arcade is the most expensive part. That was $129 for the dual control pad. The rest is cheap if you have or can come up with a decent pc for free or very inexpensive. I got a Pentium III from work for free. I did spend $59 to put in a new 160g hard drive. You only need about 15-20g hard drive to run your OS, the emulator and put all 4,700+ roms but I went ahead and upgraded because I only had 15g and was pushing the limit and didn't want that to be a problem in the future. The monitor was a 19" CRT that I was getting ready to replace with a new flat screen here at home so that didn't cost me any extra. Other than that it was $60 for the MFD wood and about $10 for paint supplies. $20 for the red t-molding on the side edges and $10 for the plexiglass for the marquee and $12 for the light to go behind the marquee. Only other thing I spent much on was the speaker system. I decided to go top of the line and bought some EV 4.1 Surround System. Got that off Ebay for $100 but easily could have done a good job with some cheap computer speakers laying around home or for about $20 at Office Depot. Also spent $15 on the plastic bezel to go around the monitor.

I've got about $300-350 in mine and once I buy the side art, marquee art and bezel art I will be around $400 to $450 but with cheaper speakers and leaving the hard drive alone and no decorative art I would have pulled it off for under $250.

Pretty fun project and hanging out with your buddies, drinking beer and going old school with all these games is a riot.

If you give it a try you will want to pick up this book. A lot of useful tips and ideas:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0764556169.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Can you just make another one and sell it to me for cost?

[NaptownChief]

Can you just make another one and sell it to me for cost?



If you will pay for the divorce....The old lady wanted to file after I spent a couple weeks tinkering on this one.

[-Slap-]

If you will pay for the divorce....The old lady wanted to file after I spent a couple weeks tinkering on this one.
If it took you a couple weeks, it would probably take me a couple months. Unless I get my buddy Israel involved, then it would take a couple days.

[Goobzilla]

Did someone call my name?

Here's my cabinet, picking up the 27" arcade monitor shortly:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Goobzilla/arcade.jpg

Also running Daphne which is the Laser Disc Emulator. Now I've got Dragon's Lair and Space Ace going as well.

[Rigs11]

I got an emulator disc that runs on my Xbox. Mame, snes, genesis...

[NaptownChief]

Did someone call my name?

Here's my cabinet, picking up the 27" arcade monitor shortly:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Goobzilla/arcade.jpg

Also running Daphne which is the Laser Disc Emulator. Now I've got Dragon's Lair and Space Ace going as well.



Nice work Goob....You putting in a 27" Wells Gardner? I damn near went that route put settled on the 19 inch CRT since I already had it.

Looks like you are putting in a trackball also?

[NaptownChief]

If it took you a couple weeks, it would probably take me a couple months. Unless I get my buddy Israel involved, then it would take a couple days.


I built the entire cabinet in one day but spent about 7 or 8 days tinkering around with the computer system trying the different operating systems and the such.

If you have your computer system all ready to go then total time for me was 1 full day to build the cabinet. 1 day to put on primer coat (about 60 mins), 1 day to paint 3 coats (about 30 mins each) and then another day tinkering with the t-molding, cutting out the marquee plexiglass and mounting the control board. (about 2 or 3 hours).

My brother helped me on Thanksgiving building the cabinet which made it turn out nicer than had I gone it alone. The extra set of hands was nice but he is kind of a work working savant and my wood working skills aren't bad but fairly average. So with him on duty all the cutting and design came out nearly flawless.

[TDmvp]

cool thread .... i went from pc noob getting first one in like 97- 98ish ... to able to build one from scratch and it all started with learing how to get mame/ any emulator to run and mirc ... dave's was by far best site ...

good times ...