Anyone built their own MAME arcade cabinet?

[Mik's Arcade]

4 hours ago, Max_Chatsworth said:

"..you would probably be fine just building an arcade control panel kit.."

Can you expand on that?

 

".. I might get the arcade control panel kit.."

How does that compare to the one you suggest building above?

 

they are the same thing.

 

I've attached the full bartop I built.  Basically, it is a big wooden box, and on the inside there is a USB converter that connects to a small board where I did al the wiring got the 2 player joysticks and buttons.  The screen is a computer monitor, there are speakers connected up to and I have a raspberry pi running it all.

 

If you don't want to deal with all that, you can just buy the control panel kit and you will just have to get that working and plug the USB into your raspberry pi computer.

 

Just go to the website I linked, they have many options. You can build it yourself or pay them more money and they will build it and ship it.  Of course, they DO NOT provide you a computer with all the games on it. You do that on your own....haha.  I built my Pi unit first and it was so good I needed to have arcade controls

[Cynicaster]

I often wonder what percentage of retro gamers "consider" getting into a MAME rig vs. what percentage actually go ahead and do something about it.  I fully appreciate that just a little bit of googling and reading may be enough to kill the idea for many, due to the appearance of the project being prohibitive on financial and/or technical grounds.  That's a shame, IMO.  I say that because I moved my first MAME cabinet into my basement 10 years +1 month ago - April 2011 - and I cannot count the thousands of hours of fun I've had with that thing (and continue to do so).  

 

First things first - you need to answer this question for yourself: are you a "tinkerer" who loves to fiddle with things in a DIY way, or are you more of a "just pay for a premade product" type?  There are a range of options to get up and running for people in either of those camps, and they are presently more varied than at any time since I've joined this hobby.  

 

If you're a DIY tinkerer by nature (or are willing to become one) then the sky is pretty much the limit.  You can do anything from a blank-sheet-of-paper original design, to a modification of an old discarded cabinet, to a modification of a low-cost commercial solution (Arcade1up), and everything in between.  You do not need to be a master carpenter if you're willing to learn some techniques and buy a few new tools.    

 

If you have little to no interest in DIY adventures then your options are far more limited but there are still numerous possibilites with vastly different price levels.  Pick up one of these and hook it up to a laptop running MAME and boom, off you go.  https://shop.xgaming.com/collections/arcade-joysticks

 

As a side note, don't think that you necessarily save a pile of money by going full DIY.  The primary advantage of full DIY is full creative control and personal satisfaction.  You may save a few bucks but it will be more than offset by the number of hours of your time that you will end up burning on the project (could be dozens to hundreds, depending on how deep you go.)

 

I definitely enjoy tinkering so I chose to build from the ground up for my main MAME cabinet.  Of course, at the time I was divorced with no kids so I was living alone and had all kinds of free time.  If my basement flooded tomorrow and I lost my cabinet, I would definitely replace it ASAP, but now that I'm re-married with kids and have much less time to spare, I would not even consider a scratch-build for a nanosecond.  More than likely I'd find some old arcade cabinet and modify it; failing that, maybe I'd splurge on one of the many full-size cabinet kits that are out there.  

 

I've built multiple projects - 3 examples below.  On the left is my "main" cabinet I built 10 years ago, it's still running like a champ.  In the middle is one of the above-linked X-Arcade sticks mounted atop a basic pedestal, which was basic enough to slap together in a weekend for my garage (obviously not very authentic looking but excellent bang-for-your-buck factor).  On the right is an example of how ridiculous you can get with DIY ideas, as it's a small Pi-based "cocktail" rig I built into an end-table in my pop-up camper (having an understanding spouse helps sometimes  ).  

 

  

 

[+5-11under]

For years I've considered whether I should build a full cabinet, or bar-top, or smaller unit.

In the end, though, I just made a controller that suits me, that hooks up to a device that's behind our 2nd TV.

The bad news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet. The good news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet.

[Cynicaster]

4 hours ago, 5-11under said:

For years I've considered whether I should build a full cabinet, or bar-top, or smaller unit.

In the end, though, I just made a controller that suits me, that hooks up to a device that's behind our 2nd TV.

The bad news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet. The good news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet.

 

And that's great, because it gets you in the game rather than sitting on the sidelines thinking about it.  Certainly, it wouldn't take much time using that controller to figure out if it meets the need or if you want something a bit more elaborate.  

 

I think a lot of it depends on the setup of your space(s), how/where you store things, etc.  A big standalone arcade controller would not work well for me because, if everytime I wanted to use it, I had to go into some closet or cabinet, get the controller, untangle the cords, clear a space on the coffee table or desk, plug it in, and then do it all in reverse when done, I'd never use it.  I just know myself that way.  Another issue is having somewhere to put the controller where you're comfortable for extended periods of time.  I've tried sitting on the edge of a couch hunched over a coffee table and my back/ass start to get sore pretty quickly.  Thankfully, I have plenty of room for a cabinet so I can go that route, which provides a walk-up-and-play option.  

 

 

  

 

 

[Keatah]

On 5/14/2021 at 11:34 AM, 5-11under said:

For years I've considered whether I should build a full cabinet, or bar-top, or smaller unit.

In the end, though, I just made a controller that suits me, that hooks up to a device that's behind our 2nd TV.

The bad news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet. The good news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet.

Indeed.

 

I'm not one to get all starry eyed over the traditional arcade cab these days. Not any more. A bartop is as far as I go. Or like what was just mentioned - breaking it into 3 parts. I do however prefer to put time and effort into X-Arcade style controllers. Custom or pre-made or pre-made & modded.

 

Key point is everything is more or less modular and can be upgraded gradually over time.

 

[+batari]

I built a MAME cab back in 1999. It's a gutted Circus Charlie. It's so old, it was built closer to when the classic games it emulates were released, than to today.

 

Still have it, probably still works or did last time I plugged it in 5 years ago. I think it's running a Pentium III, around 300 Mhz with a DOS-based MAME (0.35). Today it just sits in the garage, unused. It's not pretty nor was it ever meant to be, it was built for function, not looks. So no pics, it doesn't look as nice as any of the others here!

 

Not sure what to do with it today as honestly I haven't powered it up in years and I have a JAMMA cocktail cab now with a 60-in-1 that meets my needs, takes up a lot less space and is possible for me to move around without help.

[Keatah]

Gut it an sell the parts. Some (just some) select vintage motherboards sell for a respectable price on ebay.

 

Other choice is to give it away to someone looking to refurb and do their own mame cabinet.

 

[SoulBlazer]

Bumping a old thread -- I'd like to find a cab that I can drop my X-Arcade Tankstick into.  I'm not having any success.

I'm willing to pay, but I don't have much building skills.  The cabs like the Xtension ones are no longer available.  Sites like EBay and Amazon and X-Arcade are sold out due to the pandemic.  I'm not having any luck in finding anything.

 

As a backup option I'm also looking into some of the wood cabs that are sold on Etsy, but they don't seem to fit the Tankstick very well.

 

Edit: Why is this site selling this so cheap? https://www.cteisn.com/32-quot-quotpro-quot-xtension-arcade-cabinet-for-the-x-arcade-tankstick

Edited December 19, 2021 by SoulBlazer

[ClassicGMR]

21 hours ago, SoulBlazer said:

Edit: Why is this site selling this so cheap? https://www.cteisn.com/32-quot-quotpro-quot-xtension-arcade-cabinet-for-the-x-arcade-tankstick

Not sure. Nothing I could find online suggests it isn't a valid site beyond the fact it's only 9 months old. I don't see any reports of scams. It IS a good price for a new cabinet if that's what you end up getting. Wish i had $75 to spare I'd give it a shot for a new cabinet.

 

EDIT: To hell with that. I went back to their site and they claim to have a PS5 for $67. I saw that and closed the browser and deleted my temp folder and cleared my entire cache just in case. Steer clear.

Edited December 20, 2021 by ClassicGMR

[SoulBlazer]

Yeah, I decided to take a chance and pull the trigger.  I used a credit card, so in a worst case situation I can just dispute the charge with them.

[Mik's Arcade]

On 5/14/2021 at 12:34 PM, 5-11under said:

For years I've considered whether I should build a full cabinet, or bar-top, or smaller unit.

In the end, though, I just made a controller that suits me, that hooks up to a device that's behind our 2nd TV.

The bad news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet. The good news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet.

 

If my bartop ever becomes too much of a hassle, that is what I would do next.  For me, the controller is the most important piece.

[Keatah]

On 5/14/2021 at 11:34 AM, 5-11under said:

For years I've considered whether I should build a full cabinet, or bar-top, or smaller unit.

In the end, though, I just made a controller that suits me, that hooks up to a device that's behind our 2nd TV.

The bad news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet. The good news is it doesn't have the same presence as a full cabinet.

Yes. As time rolls on I find the traditional stand-up cabinet to be boring and same-old same-old. Limiting. Strongly prefer STB SFF PC on a big monitor with whatever controller I pull out of my stash. Whatever controller matches the game the best.

[ClassicGMR]

On 12/20/2021 at 1:03 PM, SoulBlazer said:

Yeah, I decided to take a chance and pull the trigger.  I used a credit card, so in a worst case situation I can just dispute the charge with them.

I'm keeping the negativity to myself and hoping you get the cabinet! That would be awesome.

[ClassicGMR]

On 12/20/2021 at 1:03 PM, SoulBlazer said:

Yeah, I decided to take a chance and pull the trigger.  I used a credit card, so in a worst case situation I can just dispute the charge with them.

Did this ever happen? Still curious if the cabinet showed up and how the quality is.

[SoulBlazer]

I forgot I posted this!

The company canceled my order without letting me know.  However, I located a company on Etsy that offered to build me a cab for $680.  I just finished assembling it last weekend and here's some pics.

The TV set is a 32 inch.  Still need to decide if I want to paint vs apply artwork.

[ClassicGMR]

On 3/17/2022 at 6:54 PM, SoulBlazer said:

The company canceled my order without letting me know.

At least you didn't lose anything. Good.

 

On 3/17/2022 at 6:54 PM, SoulBlazer said:

However, I located a company on Etsy that offered to build me a cab for $680.  I just finished assembling it last weekend and here's some pics.

Very nice raw build. I like it. That has some great potential.

[Gamemoose]

I’m a “tinkerer” but with children. So actual “mad scientist” construction is typically not in the cards.  I had aspirations of building two arcade sticks-one with an RPi and all the outputs and the other a matching stick that would link to the first for two players. Start small, right? Don’t overwhelm.  Then if this goes well, go bigger.

 

In this endeavor I learned three things:

 

1. My designing skills are $#%}.

2. My wood working skills are on par with my design skills.

3. Have the proper tools before doing any wood working project.

 

I got a stick roughly done but no where near where I wanted it to be. I should have listened to my gut with painting the top instead of my wife (brush paint it, don’t spray it….yeah THAT turned out well….not. Thanks honey). I still have that dream but I learned my current construction limitations. One of those regrets I didn’t think I’d have not taking up my Dad’s business of working with wood and learning from him. But I digress.

 

There’s a place in Milwaukee that makes cabinets you can assemble. I am debating on that. I’m also, hopefully, getting my Ms. Pac-Man cabaret cab from my ex. If that is truly “dead” (as my daughter said, though I know the monitor was going but everything else worked), I can always gut that.

 

One day….one day.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Gamemoose

[NE146]

I did make a mame barcade cabinet using a raspberry pi a number of years ago.

 

While I'm not too shabby with basic woodworking, I basically purchased a precut MDF shell and artwork from gameroomsolutions.com.. pretty much like this (I believe they also sell turnkey kits). I liked it as it was put together ikea style so it goes together quick.

 

 

The shell is half the battle though as I still had to buy a good enough monitor that would fit, an amplifier, speakers, joystick and button controls, power supplies, LED light strips, not to mention raspberry pi and configuration, etc and assemble on my own. It came out pretty ok though.. I won't be doing much 'updates' on it as it's been in a state of functioning well enough for what it is.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by NE146

[scotty]

I live in a small condo, so I do not have the room for a cab, but I built a custom control panel.  I have a X-Arcade dual and an X-Arcade Tank Stick.  But, I like leaf springs, and ball top joysticks.  So I replaced some of the buttons in the Tank Stick, and replaced the sticks with Dominux 8 set to 4-way Ball top's from Groovy Game Gear.   A little pricey, but phenomenal for games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong that REQUIRE a 4-way.  Had the best of both worlds, but still wanted MORE.   So I built what you see below.  I am a huge fan of Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, so I put that on the left.    Other games like Space Invaders and Astro Blaster also work great on the left side as they used buttons for movement.    I wanted the two joysticks closer together than what the X-Arcade sticks were, because Crazy Climber, Robotron and Smash TV was fun to play, but WAY too far apart on the X-Arcade.  Problem solved.   Originally the two silver buttons at the top were for coins, but when I came across the coin buttons, I made them do other things in Mame.   The coin buttons are AWESOME!!!   WAY brighter than what appears in the picture.   I played a LOT of Taito cocktail Space Invaders as a kid, so I knew I wanted to recreate  the control panel.   Just cut a piece of aluminum to size, and took the graphic to a print shop and had them print it.  very cheap joystick set for two way with the small ball works GREAT!  Pinball plunger a real plunger (cheap) connected to the Zebsboards.ca controller.  Works GREAT!   Even has nudge and tilt.   "Launch Ball" button next to it for pinball games that had it.   I should have taken a slightly different angle view picture.  There are two pinball buttons on each side of the panel.   Flippers and Magna Save.  White and red respectively.   I like playing Mouse Trap, so thus the reason for the red, yellow, blue and green buttons.    Many other games, like Neo Geo and others use that same combination.    All the buttons are leaf springs.   Last part the Joysticks......

 

For the same price as the Dominux mentioned above, I wanted to try the Ulimarc Ultimate 360 ball top sticks.   THIS IS THE STICK YOU WANT!!!   WOW!!!   The screw pattern is NOT a direct replacement in the X-Arcade the way the Dominux is, so that is why I went with the Dominux on the X-Arcade.   The Ultimate 360 does it ALL  4-way, 8-way, 8-way Diagonal for Q*bert, Q*Berts Cubes and Congo and a few others.   It also works as an analog stick!!   So easy to change from one to another for either stick.  All done with software.  After using these, I can never go back to anything else!!   These are SO worth the money!!  Last thing....    The balls on the sticks unscrew easily.  I have various sizes including a large for Targ and Spectar, smaller for Nintendo games, and the standards for Pac-Man, Galaga etc...   Also 3D printed a beer tapper for Tapper.    

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by scotty

[ClassicGMR]

19 hours ago, scotty said:

 

Can't see the pic.

[scotty]

4 hours ago, ClassicGMR said:

Can't see the pic.

Not sure why, but here it is on my Google drive....   https://photos.app.goo.gl/FrXF4X9GJ1RMiXMLA

 

[RJ]

On 3/23/2022 at 4:20 PM, Gamemoose said:

I’m a “tinkerer” but with children.

???

[Gamemoose]

1 hour ago, RJ said:

???

Not sure what you mean on the frownies. I love my children & step children but I have a grand total of twelve, age ranging from six to twenty-two under one roof. Maybe during the week I’ll average ten (not including the wife and I) in the house on a day, so there is limited space to tinker along with time.  
 

So it’s not a dig on the kids, just a fact in my situation. 
 

[Cynicaster]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:37 AM, scotty said:

I live in a small condo, so I do not have the room for a cab, but I built a custom control panel.  I have a X-Arcade dual and an X-Arcade Tank Stick.  But, I like leaf springs, and ball top joysticks.  So I replaced some of the buttons in the Tank Stick, and replaced the sticks with Dominux 8 set to 4-way Ball top's from Groovy Game Gear.   A little pricey, but phenomenal for games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong that REQUIRE a 4-way.  Had the best of both worlds, but still wanted MORE.   So I built what you see below.  I am a huge fan of Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe, so I put that on the left.    Other games like Space Invaders and Astro Blaster also work great on the left side as they used buttons for movement.    I wanted the two joysticks closer together than what the X-Arcade sticks were, because Crazy Climber, Robotron and Smash TV was fun to play, but WAY too far apart on the X-Arcade. 

 

 

I did something very similar on my cabinet.  I originally built it with a 2-player/6-button control panel plus 4-way and trackball, which is great, but the joysticks were not optimal for Robotron and they were spaced way too far apart.  

 

So I converted my cabinet to handle swappable control panels.  Now I have a 2nd panel that uses a pair of Dominux 8s spaced around 10" apart for Robotron and similar games, and on the open space of that panel I also put in an Asteroids layout.  I call that my Robosteroids panel.  Once you make some fine adjustments to the D8s they're fantastic for twin-stick games. I also really love them for shoot-em-ups in general.  So smooth and responsive.  For fighting games and side-scrolling stuff like Kung Fu Master and Rush N Attack and Metal Slug and the like, I still prefer the original panel that uses Happ Competitions.