You bastard!

I'm sure you (and anyone else who played arcade games back then) know about it, but I'd _strongly_ suggest getting Rampart - there's a game that was designed for trackball play. Unfortunately it shines as a multi-player game, but even with one trackball, playing against the computer will be fun.

Yeah, trackballs are the nuts. Centipede is a pretty solid shooter, but the trackball brought it to another level. And of course there's Missile Command.

You really need a spinner for Tempest though

And a pistol grip handle w/ trigger for TRON

If I had a trackball I would totally lose a few days of my life playing Golden Tee

uh..... Cabal? Anyone? that game was the ill na na.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabal_(arcade_game)

My favorite arcade game circa 13-year-old me was Zwackery, which had an unusual spinner that you could both pull up to select spells and push down to cast. Is that something you can get on a MAME box?

Are there businesses that sell MAME boxes pre-made? I can't imagine ever having enough time to undertake OP's endeavor.

Are they still intentionally not putting the Golden Tee FORE games into MAME? I'd probably lose months of my life if I could build a cabinet with the 2002 and 2003 versions of GT.

This is the closest you'll find

http://www.xgaming.com/htm/cabinet.shtml

2 grand without a computer

whoops, wrong one

http://www.xgaming.com/htm/arcade-machine.shtml

There's one they sell at Costco for about $2000 CAD. I don't know what the guts are..

I've played on it. Controls have a good feel, but it's likely not expandable.

I built my own MAME game a few years back and its still running great. I'm so glad that I spent the money and time to do it, I've gotten so much use out of it. Here's an old OOT thread that I started when I did it: link

I have no skills whatsoever with tools or wiring, and I was able to build and wire everything up myself by just borrowing tools and trial and error. Go to byoac.com and spend some time reading the forums and you'll know everything you need in no time. Its a pretty simple project if you have the time.

I use MaLa as my front end and it works great. The computer boots right to the program and bypasses all the Windows crap. Plus its free. I also have Sega Genesis, old school Nintendo, Atari 2600 and Daphne (for Dragon's Lair) as other emulators on the game.

I also used a TV (in the case), but I used one that had component in on it so that I could also play some of the newer games (Golden Tee mainly) and it didnt look like total crap. I played around with S-Video, but I think that the component ended up working better.

I dont get into the forums as often as I'd like, so if you have any questions, shoot me a PM.

Here's a noob question: I got an arcade already. How hard would it be to make it MAME compatible.

Is it a JAMMA cabinet? JAMMA is a standardized cabinet system that makes it easy to swap games, etc. It will have a long thin connector that all teh wires go to. JAMMA makes it pretty easy. You can just buy a JPAC and hook it up to your computer

Oh snap, just found this
http://www.hanaho.com/Products/HotRodJoystick.php

looks like a custommade version of the xarcade. I'm guessing it uses something like an ipac mini (or whatever their cheap one is) and emulates a keyboard over ps/2

awesome; i'm following this thread

i always wanted to build one...i envisioned putting the tv on a lazy susan so it could rotate 90 degrees and on the side of the cabinet i'd put a racing setup (wheel/pedals/seat) so I could play racing games as well...hopefully one day i'll get around to building it

Sweet endeavor OP.. good luck with the build! Will be following along.

Major progress!

The computer is built. The software is installed and tweaked, calibrated, blah blah etc. etc. Woot! I can plug the TV and Arcade stick into the computer and I got everything working like it should. GAMES! OH LORD THE GAMES! THOUSANDS OF GAMES! AHAHAHA! Possibly my favorite part is I have a random game option on the software. One button and I'm playing... something. Something random. What's it gonna be? Arcade? Turbografx 16? I dunno! It could be Missle Command, or it could be Barbie Super Model. Yes. I hit that button and played Barbie Super Model. Hells yeah! I got hit with a frisbee while rollerskating and that was the end for Barbie. Damn!

Work on the cabinet itself looms large this week. The main issue I'm dealing with is the choice of fitting the TV in the cabinet. I can either remove the back panel of the cabinet entirely (I'd rather not, so as to maintain as much structural integrity as I can), cutting up the rear plastic of the TV (I don't like this idea), or cutting out just a piece of the back panel so the rear of the TV pokes through (I'm leaning this way). I have no desire to remove the TV from its casing. That just sound like me asking for trouble.

Looking forward to doing some hands on construction. Building the computer was more annoying than fun.

Lesson learned thus far: Everything will take 3 times as long as you think it is going to take, and you will spend more money than you think you will spend.

good to hear things are coming along!

Na na na, gonna have a good time!

Good stuff so far today. I wanted to start out by determining exactly how the X-Arcade Tankstick would fit into the project.

Here’s what the housing looks like for the controls. A sort of bicycle handlebar attachment sat on the top and was used to “control” that POS game.



First step, take that bitch off. Here’s what we got.



Okay, so what does it look like if you just set the Tankstick right on there?



Okay, not terrible. I think we can work with this. However, there is quite a sizable gap both from the monitor area to the tankstick, and also from the front of the cabinet to the tankstick.




The gap from the monitor area down to the tankstick doesn’t worry me too much, I think that can be easily masked with a piece of plastic or something. The gap between the cabinet and the rear of the tankstick though, this must be addressed. I have an idea! What if we bust this baby open, and slide the entire top panel of the tankstick forward, so there is nothing jutting out the back? Hmm… that might actually work. Here we go.

Here’s what the inside looks like.



I was hoping that the top panel of the tankstick would just be held in place by a bunch of tiny L-brackets. Woot! It is! Uh oh… wtf is this goop?



That blue goop was only around one of the brackets and is being used to hold a wire in place. You may be thinking “So what? Dried glue? Who cares?” I’ll be damned if that **** still wasn’t sticky as hell, and when you’re trying to be as delicate as you can, it can be pretty annoying.

However, success was obtained! Slid the entire panel forward and re-screwed it down.

The results




I think this is gonna work! There’s a couple nice holes already drilled in the framework of the cabinet from the previous controller so I can bolt this baby down. I won’t do that yet though, there’s still a lot of work to be done on the cabinet first.
So here’s what we got!



I have a bunch of errands to run, so probably no more serious work till tomorrow, but I will stop by the hardware store and get some supplies.

One suggestion - before you start adding in computer/electronic components, take this opportunity to spray-paint that butt-ugly case to something a little more aesthetically pleasing. Once you add a monitor etc, you're going to be taping up alot of stuff to avoid getting paint on it.

Naturally.

It's going to be mocked up to ensure everything fits, then stripped down to sand/paint/put on the new T-Molding/do whatever we want. My chief design and artistic engineer (girlfriend) is in charge of that part.

VN job with the pre wired control pad. I was going to recommend that. You should use a real monitor instead of a TV- it will ft better and look way better (im sure u can find a better price): http://www.xgaming.com/htm/wells-gar...FQOjFQodMwT60g

The sound and video really make the machine.

My buddy built a MAME a few years ago and it's incredible, he used the same controller as you, but he just used the wiring from it, and cut his own holes and placed the buttons in his own board, but I think you did a nice job with that portion. The hardest part of his was the custom made cabinet, but you found a great deal on a nice one.

Land Maker FTW!

That's not going to happen for this project. TV is already purchased, is the perfect size for the cabinet, and works very well with the computer. I've already got the bezel to mask it off. $80 TV that works well > $400 monitor with minimal quality improvement imo.

The only downsides are that it's very heavy, and I'm going to have to cut out part of the back of the cabinet to make it fit. I've taken about 2,000,000 measurements for the supports I'm putting in, but this looks like something I'm just going to have to hold the TV in the right spot and make some lines where I want the supports.

Sound is going to come from the computer and I've got a set of 2.1 Creative speakers w/ sub. It sounds pretty good.

Looks awesome man, cant wait to see what your girl comes up with to get rid of that eyesore!

Keep up the good work!