Mame Cabinet Question

[boatofcar]

Has anyone ever seen a sit-down MAME cabinet? I'd love to take an old Star Wars or other cockpit machine and turn it into a MAME machine. Would it be possible to retain the original system's controls (like the ones in the Star Wars game) while adding an an additional arcade stick? If anyone has any pictures of anything like this, I'd love to see them!

[chadtower]

With the right tools, anything is possible.

[ghsqb]

It can be done, my understanding is that it uses potentiometers, the same type of controls as on John Elways Quarterback for example.

This has been discussed frequently in Usenet at alt.games.mame

I have never seen pics of one, but they have been built by some of the people that frequent that newsgroup.

[chadtower]

It wouldnt' be that complicated, actually. What you could do is simply replace the original arcade controllers with some new parts and connect them to something like this:

http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/ke72det.html

That one works beautifully with MAME (I have one) and connects well to actual arcade parts as well. I see no reason why you could not design yourself a new control panel and it would be pretty sweet.

[xertcev]

you should try:
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm
Check out the Controls section and there is a nice writeup on hacking a StarWars yoke.

Also, check out the examples page. (Although I don't think there are any cockpit examples)