Converting Arcade Cabinets to Mame Cabs?

[Blackjack]

Is it possible/easy to (and does anybody offer the service to) convert classic arcade cabinets into Mame cabinets.

 

*** Now I'm not just talking about using a simple cabinet to house your system, I'm talking about actually wiring the original controls to use with games that are difficult to emulate the controls on.

 

For Instance......

 

Could a Star Wars cabinet be remade into a Mame Cab, keeping the flight yoke, so that you could play not only Star Wars but The Empire Strikes Back on the same machine as well?

 

or

 

Championship Sprint with it's two 360 degree wheel/pedal setup.... Could you "Mame" one of these cabs to play all driving games in that series with the original controls?

[Ralph3]

You will be looking into a few different interfaces to work with those controllers. The Star Wars yolk will be the hardest to interface. For the multiple steering wheels, you will need a multi-mouse encoder as well. ( http://www.ultimarc.com/optipac1.html ) but since you mentioned only 2 steering wheels, you can get away with just 1 modified mouse to get it working by using up/down for one wheel and left/right for the other wheel.

I am setting up my computer right now and I will be ordering my i-pac 4 player interface ( http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html scroll down for 4P version )this weekend to put into my modified (heavilly) arcade cabinet (pics can be seen elsewhere on AtariAge). I'm starting to figuire out how to set up Mame Wah so if anybody has any helpful hints, please throw them my way.

[Blackjack]

I'd probably be in way over my head and better off paying someone to do it.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Could a Star Wars cabinet be remade into a Mame Cab, keeping the flight yoke, so that you could play not only Star Wars but The Empire Strikes Back on the same machine as well?

 

 

Yes

 

Only wiring I had to modify was the yoke, and I was very careful when I did that. I installed a front end that allowed "Welcome to Dave's Star Wars Machine" to be displayed. You used the flight yoke to scroll and the triggers to select. I used the coin mech as a credit button. Worked great on a P2 system and a 19 RGB CRT monitor I got for the cab.

 

 

I don't know of a service per se, you would most likely have to do it yourself. I built this one from parts I had and gave it to a friend. He gave me my SW cockpit the year before, so I would say I owed him . He ended up selling it for the same as an original right around EP 2's release.

 

Cassidy

[Curt Vendel]

Cassidy,

 

Where did you wire the yoke to? I was thinking the best route would be the the sound card game port analog inputs for X and Y movement.

 

 

 

Curt

 

Could a Star Wars cabinet be remade into a Mame Cab, keeping the flight yoke, so that you could play not only Star Wars but The Empire Strikes Back on the same machine as well?

 

 

Yes

 

Only wiring I had to modify was the yoke, and I was very careful when I did that. I installed a front end that allowed "Welcome to Dave's Star Wars Machine" to be displayed. You used the flight yoke to scroll and the triggers to select. I used the coin mech as a credit button. Worked great on a P2 system and a 19 RGB CRT monitor I got for the cab.

 

 

I don't know of a service per se, you would most likely have to do it yourself. I built this one from parts I had and gave it to a friend. He gave me my SW cockpit the year before, so I would say I owed him . He ended up selling it for the same as an original right around EP 2's release.

 

Cassidy

946842[/snapback]

[Cassidy Nolen]

Curt,

 

I used an analog flight joystick that I bought from a thrift store for four bucks. I converted the sliding variable resistors to pots of the same value and them mounted it as the original.

 

The yoke I gave you at Philly a few years back was the one I tested with.

 

PM coming your way about some other goodies.....

 

C