info about buildin mame arcade cabinet

[nintendo_Freak]

just wondering about building a mame arcade cabinet. is it possible to squeeze all the trackballs, light guns, rotary joysticks and such in a cabinet.

 

also a question about monitors, how big can i go. should i use al older arcade style monitor or just buy a big tv ...

 

also to run mame with no issues , what recommendations for a pc. sped and ram wise.

 

thanx

[tta583]

I have not built one but I would suggest you go over to arcadecontrols.com. They sort of specialize in doing what you are looking to do. Specialize in that is what they discuss and document. I don't think they actually sell much if anything at all. The forum is great. There are sections on every topic you are asking about.

 

This may be of use as well when it comes to hooking up the controls. It is supposed to be the "thing" to use. I have a buddy that has one and loves it.

 

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

[Blackjack]

You could always just have the pros do the control panel for you like I did.

http://www.slikstik.com/

[yuppicide]

The Slikstik units go for over $600 for a dual setup. You can build your own much cheaper.

 

Arcadecontrols is a great forum. One word tho, I registered and it said I would receive an email when my account is activated. I never received an email. I emailed the people there and got no response, so if you register there just wait a bit and try back and you should be activated.

 

You can put everything you want/listed above onto your control panel. Mameroom.com sells a nice cabinet for under $500 if you want a stand up model. You can custom design the control panel layout with their free software and they will custom cut it for you, or you can just take a stock layout.

[TheBman80]

There really is no limit to how big you can go with it al long as you have the two most important things the room and the money to do it. If you really wanted to you could search ebay and buy one of thoes huge 55" arcade tv's and have a control pannel station set up like 6 feet away from it. They usually go cheap because no one wants them because there too big to handel. But you could go 25" to like 33" in a wood cabinet again its all about how much money you have a 33" is going to cost several hundred to buy and like the same price to ship. Heres a good priced place to buy 19" monitors http://www.genao.com/parts.htm I haven't used them yet but their stuff looks good.