Need help with a Mini Arcade Cabinet

[peppie132]

hi,

I'm new to the whole Arcade Cabinet scene, but i want to make a mini arcade cabinet.
but what kind of stick should i use? i though of this one.
is that a good one?

thanks for the help.

[tom61]

How 'mini' are you planning on going? That would work well for a bartop-style cab, but the mounting plate and mechanism would be a bit big for anything smaller (like this)

[peppie132]

i want to make it 30 cm wide, 30 cm long and 50 cm high.

and this is the plate I'm going to attach the buttons and joystick to:

[Haunted360]

Haha, this is like mine I made.

I have to make a new one too...


DO NOT get the sanwa joystick! It is rubbish. It is for claw machine games I realised. Not good for game like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter etc...

Get the HAPP Competition Joystick. I have 2 if you would like to buy them.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/1-HAPP-COMPETITI ... 3caf4a5e71

Red is for Mortal Kombat cabinets. Thats what I got.


The PC must be at least, an Intel Pentium 4 or higher for running Street Fighter, MK etc and the graphics, must be higher than a Nvidia Geforce 7000 GT or equivalent. RAM must be at least 256 MB or higher.

The monitor I used was an LCD. But I want to now put the CRT PC monitor in as the colours are stronger and the screen it clearer. No glossy screen too.

I was going to put a coin system in. But its easier to just have a button on the back. Besides, you set the game ROM's on freeplay anyway.

The joysticks and buttons, were wired to a PC UBS 3rd party cheep game controller from eBay. Just solder the wires. So Button 1 would be soldered to Button 1 (or X in terms of a PlayStation layout to make it easier to understand). Button 6, can go to Left Bumper (or L1). Coin, goes to Back (Select) and 1-Player goes to Start (Start). Then, you can use player 2 controls on the analogue sticks. If you run out, just use another controller. MAME will pick it up...

For the OS, I used Windows XP and hid it 100%. The only thing you see quickly is a DOS box. No mouse, no backgrounds etc... All hidden.

The MAME version, was MAME+. It saves the data. VERY IMPORTANT.

Also important to have a USB plug inside. So you can use a keyboard. I press CTRL+ALT+DEL to then start explorer.exe and that allows me to copy ROMS and backup data.

Also have a shutdown button on the cabinet. You can put this all inside. I also have system lights. So HDD activity, power, amp power, LAN power and activity etc...

The speakers, are just PC speakers. But I changed them after to car speakers with an amp (+12 volts from the PSU). The amp, has bass settings, treble, pitch etc that I got from eBay. Also of course, has a volume control which is on the back too.

Also important, to install a fan into the cabinet. They DO get hot and it is required.

Mine also has neon. haha. So just think whatever would look and be cool...


Hope that helped.

Take your time on the wood and cabinet. The electronics takes a while, but the cabinet is important to get right.



Thanks

[Shugs81]

If you're going for a mame based arcade use a mini itx board... would save loads on internal space and power consumption too..

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