Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

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BOOMY
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Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by BOOMY »

Ok this post is well overdue. I made an arcade machine. It was 2 months of all consuming construction during my non working hours. I used 1 drawing I made on graph paper and pretty much winged the rest with pure obsession; I could see it all in my head before I even started. The aim is to be able to play any game, any way and contain my madness in one space. I have just moved house a month and haf ago and am still in the process of getting my mad scientist lab back to where it was at my old house. I am still working on the software/emulator/rom side of things but here are a list of the features.

switchable VGA/HDMI input
HDMI upscaler for retro consoles
Usb controllers of every shape and size.
Built in Arcade joysticks for 2 players with SANWA DENSHI hardware(good buttons).
Slide away drawer for keyboard and mouse.
A shitty old laptop and my megadrive inside but this could be anything from a NES to a raspberry pi as long as it has VGA, HDMI, RCA or DVI.
I want to be doing this shit for a living in some way shape or form but I feel the demand for it is too long, my build speed is too slow and my price would be too high. What do you clowns reckon?

p.s. Yes I know it is Drawer not Draw. I spelt it wrong in my video and noticed after uploading.

Who else has a Mame cabinet at home? Who else wants one? Who wants to build one? Lets get some words flowing fellas.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by GameHED »

Love the electricity at the end. The cabinet couldn't contain the power of mame so it had to release energy in some form to stabilise itself and accidentally destroyed all the other apliances in the home when it went super saiyan.

There is a guy near me that does these cabinets. Only the control for the buttons are not that good. Tried to play street fighter III but it wasn't good enough because the control seemed too slow. But it was sturdy and hard to break if you are rough on it.
Last edited by GameHED on 21 Dec 2017 10:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Lepo5 »

That looks really good :up:
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by GameHED »

How much do yours go for? The idea of connecting any controller sounds cool. People must have dozens of fighting sticks packed away from all the previous consoles they owned. Can you flip the monitor for vertically scrolling shooters?

Might be good to create an FAQ so you don't have to answer the same question over and over again from different people.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by t0mby »

I want to build one myself. Now I've just moved into my first house with a massive 40sqm garage plus I plan to get the ball rolling in the new year even if I just buy the pieces bit by bit. My plan is to have a big enough control panel for controls for two player fighting, a trackball, a paddle for pong clones like Arkanoid and maybe a modded paddle with fitted joystick for 720 Degrees cos I love that game.


Love your cabinet Boom, nice and clean.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Candy Arse »

This is sick.

I've got a custom-made cab in the garage with a modded OG Xbox in there...except the modded OG Xbox has shit itself :/
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Candy Arse »

Boomy I think we might be due for a games day/night at my new digs?
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by BOOMY »

Gamehed, that’s why you need Sanwa Denshi and not a handheld on the bus or some dodgy non Sanwa knock off.

Lepo, thanks man, please share. :)

Tomby, yea I bought mine piece by piece. I starts with a monitor, joystick parts and cut the two side panels from one big piece and the rest was done slowly 1 piece at time each time I had a day off. I reckon I could probably make one in a week if someone feels like paying me enough to do so. I can take some more photos if you need some ideas on how to put it all together, I winged as I said but I reckon I worked out a pretty good construction method in the end. You can pause/play the video during the photo montage to get a more step by step idea of how it came together.

Candy, I have an old Xbox original I have been meaning to soft mod. Do you have splinter cell and the cable to do it? Maybe I can bring it over and you can help me? Regardless... MAHVEL!
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by t0mby »

I might be going down the modded OG Xbox route, had an NTSC one sitting in my cupboard for years that I received from a friend and was only just reminded recently that it could be modded. It all depends as I do have my old hdds with roms and emus.

Also, the little old local town I moved to has someone that sells arcade bits including proper arcade monitors that have been refurbished. Boxing Day I'll price up some board for the cabinet.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

BUMP!!!

So my sister bought one of those Arcade 1Up machines (this one) and it's pretty cool! Joysticks feel a bit "off" but it's pretty cool to step into her nerd room and see a freaking arcade machine sitting there with all the artwork. She hasn't modded it or anything but there's plenty of tutorials out there showing you how to hook it up to a Raspberry Pi to access all the games.

I see they're releasing 4 player ones through EB Games, like one of my all-time favourites Turtles in Time. Also separate 4-player machines for The Simpsons and X-Men.

Which is kinda annoying.

Which led me to discover a company in Perth that sells these bad boys (this is a US video but same cabinet):
3,500 games, so there will be a lot of shit on there, weird hacks and multiple versions of the same games (games list here) but it includes all the Arcade 1Up games like the Mortal Kombat games on my sister's one (plus MK4, which isn't on the Arcade 1Up machine), all the Konami ones I'm keen on like the ones I mentioned earlier, plus a bunch of Tekkens and Street Fighters, and a shitload of the vertical shoot em up games like 1942. And Metal Slug.

So yes, I am sorely tempted :lol:

Any updates on your arcade machine making exploits BOOMY?

Or anyone else?
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by klee123 »

I've been into Arcade stuff for the past year now and it's been damn expensive.

I own one of these Japanese Candy cabinets made by Sega:

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Only problem is that these cabs are made to run the original Jamma hardware.

That said, MAME setups on the Western woodies are just as viable. I'm just more into Japanese candies myself.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Twit »

I had a Hankin table style cabinet. Weighed a fuck-tonne. Was a beauty. Only ever had Strider Jamma board in it, but eventually I gave it to a nephew who always liked playing on it when he was at my place and I installed one of those however many-in-one boards in it so he could get more out of it.

Super fascinating story. Very necessary that I told it.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by t0mby »

Wonder if those ones EB are selling will be easily modable to run emus or what? I suppose it's going to be a similar set up to that one your sister has Ambrose. Still, for the price and then getting Raspberry Pi is a big cost given there's a place here that makes cabinets to order with software loaded, up to 2000 games. However, imo the perfect cabinet needs to have 4 player support, 6 buttons each, a trackball & a paddle (dial for you other heathens) for a few obscure titles such as Arkanoid, Centipede, Marble Madness and Tempest. I know they're niche titles but still, be nice to cover them all.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by klee123 »

t0mby wrote: 07 Nov 2021 08:19 pm Wonder if those ones EB are selling will be easily modable to run emus or what? I suppose it's going to be a similar set up to that one your sister has Ambrose. Still, for the price and then getting Raspberry Pi is a big cost given there's a place here that makes cabinets to order with software loaded, up to 2000 games. However, imo the perfect cabinet needs to have 4 player support, 6 buttons each, a trackball & a paddle (dial for you other heathens) for a few obscure titles such as Arkanoid, Centipede, Marble Madness and Tempest. I know they're niche titles but still, be nice to cover them all.
Only problem with that is the amount of real estate you'll have in playing this. I dunno, I always find the idea of 4 grown ass men on a 4 player CP is not going to be comfortable at all.

Heck I already find 2P on my current Cab is a bit small and am considering getting another blast for 1P on each cab.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by t0mby »

😅 I didn't actually think of that although it would be cool to get the young uns into some se screen co-op.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by unfnknblvbl »

I have a spare 55" TV that I really want (somebody else) to make into an arcade cabinet.

But! Maybe I should make it into a dedicated racing game machine. Having a dedicated Sega racing machine would be ace..
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by MiNiStRy »

I bought a 4 player cabinet last year from a place in melbourne called 240 amusements its a 4 player street fighter themed machine running their custom hardware and plays games right up to the laser disk ones. It cost me $2500 but it kept me sane during lockdowns in melbourne.
I also ended up putting sanwa components in also so i could change from 4 way to 8 way easily.

http://www.240.com.au

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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

I really hope their website is deliberately designed to look like something from the mid-90s to be on brand cos holy shit :lol:
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by t0mby »

😂 Reminds me of those old crack sites, click the wrong image and you're stuck in a loop, find the hidden link for the warez. 🤣
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by MiNiStRy »

hehe yeah i thought the same thing. but to be honest its a very legit company and was happy to deliver my machine for free.
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by unfnknblvbl »

MiNiStRy wrote: 09 Nov 2021 09:17 pm http://www.240.com.au

Thanks for giving me an excuse to put off the timing belt service again!
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by t0mby »

That's why you buy cars with a timing chain instead of belts. /Pats Corvette powered Clubsport. 😅
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

Finally pulled my finger out and installed RetroPie on my Raspberry Pi. I already had the Pi (a Christmas present from a few years ago) so I figured this would be a cheap/free way to see if an actual arcade cabinet is something I want, or if I would end up with buyer's remorse.

Setting it up was fairly straightforward. Used the Raspberry Pi Imager to install a fresh version of the latest version of RetroPie onto my SD Card. It detected my PSOne controller straight away (using the USB one that came with the mini PSOne). WiFi took a bit of extra fiddling around, but that's working now too, so I'll be able to update the software without having to juggle SD cards, and scrape artwork etc.

Tested out Aladdin (Mega Drive) and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (PSone) and they seemed to work well. Have downloaded arcade versions of Mortal Kombat 2, Turtles in Time and NBA Jam TE and keen to test them too.

So ... where do you guys source your ROMs from? Been using ROM Hustler. Seems legit but a bit worried I'm going to download a virus or something. It's also slow af. Keen to download a zip file or whatever that just has everything in it :lol: everymegadrivegameinenglish.zip and everysnesgameinenglish.zip etc :lol:
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

OK so tested the arcade versions of Mortal Kombat 2, Turtles in Time and NBA Jam TE, and they all seem to work.

Tried the arcade version of Tekken Tag Tournament and it didn't load. I suspect it's because my Pi 3 isn't powerful enough. Have seen footage of the Pi 4 running it so that's something.

Keen to try Metal Gear Solid next. Man, why didn't I set this up earlier?
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Re: Arcade machines, cabinets, MAME etc.

Post by Ambrose Burnside »

Metal Gear Solid wouldn't load, just got a blank screen, downloaded a PSone BIOS, whacked that in the BIOS folder on my USB drive, now it works.

It's not quite plug and play but still easier than what I was expecting.

I wonder if MK Trilogy will run better now too? I'm no expert but it seemed to run well enough out of the box without a BIOS so I dunno.
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