MAME Machines - Questions, Suggestions, etc.

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Kelemvor

Kelemvor

Lifer
May 23, 2002
16,928
8
81
Well, got some inspiration from the other thread that started trning into a Mame thread so I thought I'd post one...

Has anyone built an actual dedicated Mame system in it's own casing, with the controllers, etc. If so, are there any sites you'd recommend with plans or general guidelines on how to proceed with this endeavor?

Also any recommendations on where to get the controllers and what ones to get would be great too.

If I have free time this summer I might just have to construct something. I guess I could just get the controller pieces and such and see how I like it before I go making a whole Box to hold it all.

Anyway, feel free to post any questions, suggestions, etc so everyoen can get help.

Thanks.
 
F

flot

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2000
3,197
0
0
Yes - I built one, from scratch, and it is a dead ringer for an old school Ms. Pac Man machine.

Definitely worth doing. People always do a double take when I tell them I made it myself... actually they usually just sort of nod, and then I'm like "no, really, that used to be 3 sheets of plywood" and then they freak out.

I'd definitely recommend trying to get as close as possible to a "real" cabinet look... the ones that people do that have a 15" monitor sitting on a shelf with a computer underneath it... not cool.

The only thing I don't like about mine, is that because I used Pac Man as a template, I only have a single joystick... I bought an ipac keyboard interface and buttons, joystick, etc, from happ controls, and bought enough to do a dual-joystick 6 button arrangement... but all I really wanted it for were some mean games of Ms. Pac and Galaga, so I decided to stick true to the original. I don't have any special woodworking skills, most of my previous woodwork was a handful of subwoofer boxes for friends - this was basically the same, just much bigger and less sealed. :)

Oddly, I can't seem to find a photo of my cabinet online - but will try to post one soon. I built everything from scratch, but got the layout for the sides of the Ms. Pac Cabinet from a PDF file online - it was a 40 page PDF that you printed out and then taped together, and then traced onto your sheet of plywood... other than that, it was easy. Of course... I used 3/4" MDF braced with 2x4s for everything so my cabinet weighs about... 150-200 lbs - but it is EXTREMELY solid and can be moved easily on a dolly.

Edit: Found some pics of the nearly completed cabinet:

MAME Cabinet Assembled
MAME Cabinet Insides

Edit 2: A couple notes, the coin door is an original I got off ebay for about $30, then sanded and refinished in rustoleum hammered grey, and it looks and works great. The actual construction time for the cabinet etc was about 6 solid days of work, but I got the first 70% done in 3 days and then the remaining 30% has taken me over a year... I'm still trying to find the side art I want, and I have some other minor things I'd like to work out - just have too many projects. Total cost at home depot was probably about $100, custom arcade parts probably $170, and then the computer and 21" monitor. The finishing touches are going to be expensive, the side art may run as much as $100-150, and then other minor things I'd like to touch up etc... but overall, it was a great project and pretty cool even in it's not-quite-finished state.

Edit 3: For comparison's sake, here is a original pac-man machine. Mine is a little different, biggest thing is that I offset the joystick to the left so that I could have fire buttons for other games.
 
Kelemvor

Kelemvor

Lifer
May 23, 2002
16,928
8
81
With all the techie people on here, I thought more might have already done this or at least be interested. Hmm.

Ah well.
 
S

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Originally posted by: flot
Yes - I built one, from scratch, and it is a dead ringer for an old school Ms. Pac Man machine.

Definitely worth doing. People always do a double take when I tell them I made it myself... actually they usually just sort of nod, and then I'm like "no, really, that used to be 3 sheets of plywood" and then they freak out.

I'd definitely recommend trying to get as close as possible to a "real" cabinet look... the ones that people do that have a 15" monitor sitting on a shelf with a computer underneath it... not cool.

The only thing I don't like about mine, is that because I used Pac Man as a template, I only have a single joystick... I bought an ipac controller and buttons, joystick, etc, from happ controls, and bought enough to do a dual-joystick 6 button arrangement... but all I really wanted it for were some mean games of Ms. Pac and Galaga, so I decided to stick true to the original. I don't have any special woodworking skills, most of my previous woodwork was a handful of subwoofer boxes for friends - this was basically the same, just much bigger and less sealed. :)

Oddly, I can't seem to find a photo of my cabinet online - but will try to post one soon. I built everything from scratch, but got the layout for the sides of the Ms. Pac Cabinet from a PDF file online - it was a 40 page PDF that you printed out and then taped together, and then traced onto your sheet of plywood... other than that, it was easy. Of course... I used 3/4" MDF braced with 2x4s for everything so my cabinet weighs about... 150-200 lbs - but it is EXTREMELY solid and can be moved easily on a dolly.

Edit: Found some pics of the nearly completed cabinet:

MAME Cabinet Assembled
MAME Cabinet Insides

Edit 2: A couple notes, the coin door is an original I got off ebay for about $30, then sanded and refinished in rustoleum hammered grey, and it looks and works great. The actual construction time for the cabinet etc was about 6 solid days of work, but I got the first 70% done in 3 days and then the remaining 30% has taken me over a year... I'm still trying to find the side art I want, and I have some other minor things I'd like to work out - just have too many projects. Total cost at home depot was probably about $100, custom arcade parts probably $170, and then the computer and 21" monitor. The finishing touches are going to be expensive, the side art may run as much as $100-150, and then other minor things I'd like to touch up etc... but overall, it was a great project and pretty cool even in it's not-quite-finished state.
Click to expand...

VERY nice work.
 
Kelemvor

Kelemvor

Lifer
May 23, 2002
16,928
8
81
Is the coin door hooked up and actually works as the Insert Coin command or is it just for show?
 
F

flot

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2000
3,197
0
0
Coin door works great. Everything functions just like a real arcade machine.

The "I-pac" is a cool little circuitboard, you plug it into your motherboard's keyboard connector, and it gives you ~50 customizable input triggers... everything in an old arcade machine (and probably most controls in the new ones) was a simple on/off switch. (the joystick has either 4 or 8, depending on if it had native diagonal support) Same with the buttons (duh) and the coin doors as well - when the quarter drops down it just happens to whack a little lever that closes the circuit.

So every switch gets mapped directly to a simulated keypress, so when you drop 2 coins in, the motherboard thinks someone pressed "5 5" on the keyboard, and MAME credits the game appropriately. If you don't want to shell out the $70 (?) or so for one of these interfaces, you can buy a cheap keyboard, rip it apart, and start soldering like mad!

Neat stuff.

For those that don't know what MAME is - it is an emulator - basically the computer boots up dos/linux/windows and then launches a front end to MAME... MAME runs the actual ROM files that were copied off of original arcade chips. When you "boot" a ROM inside of mame, it is exactly like turning on the arcade machine - it even runs self tests, hardware checks, etc. So once the game is loaded, game play and machine operation are indistinguishable from the original.
 
B

BA

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 1999
5,004
1
0
I'm working on one. Stripped an old cab, dropped a 20" monitor in it. Working on controls now. Going to attempt keyboard hack for them, we'll see how that goes.
 
M

MAME

Banned
Sep 19, 2003
9,281
1
0
Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
um, MAME should have some answers :D

MIKE
Click to expand...

lalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!


I am a little tired right now, but pm me if you want to chat on aim. I got your old pm, I'll answer it after I'm out of the shower
 
Kelemvor

Kelemvor

Lifer
May 23, 2002
16,928
8
81
How much did it cost you to put somethign like that together?

And where'd you find a pre-made cabinet? heh.
 
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