MAME cab building advice

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Hey guys, I have a Neo-Geo MVS cabinet that Id' like to mame. I don't know the entire history of Neo-Geo cabs, but mine seems to be a conversion as it's actually mostly pitch black, not bright red like all the typical beauties I've seen. It's gutted and just the cab.

Basically I'm looking for info.

1. Anyone have a checklist for what kind of PC/PC parts I should get? I need the PC to run MAME and maybe a few retro consoles and that's it.

3. What kind of price point am I looking for for the PC mame setup itself? not including monitor or arcade controls, I already have those.

2. There's nowhere really for a keyboard or mouse. I'd need to be able to move through any menu using the joystick. Is that a problem?

Thanks.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

MEME cab?

I'd totally use a LOL Cats front end, and fill it with FUUU, Cool Story Bro, Troll Face Guy and Haters Gonna Hate roms.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

lol whoops I missed that typo. Good eye. Fix'd.

Edit: Hmm apparently digitalpress doesn't allow users to edit thread titles once created? Maybe a mod can step in and do that for me. Thanks. Just a simple typo.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

lol whoops I missed that typo. Good eye. Fix'd.

Edit: Hmm apparently digitalpress doesn't allow users to edit thread titles once created? Maybe a mod can step in and do that for me. Thanks. Just a simple typo.

Click edit, click go advanced and you'll be able to edit the thread title.

[InsaneDavid]

2. There's nowhere really for a keyboard or mouse. I'd need to be able to move through any menu using the joystick. Is that a problem?

Get yourself an I-PAC for your controls interface encoder. You run all your control leads to it and then plug it into your computer like a keyboard. As far as your computer is concerned, all it sees is a keyboard. The nice thing is that the I-PAC doesn't have the ghosting and multiple button press limit issues that a keyboard hack would. It's also fully customizable with a nice GUI configuration utility that reprograms the encoder. Best of all it's plug and play.

Then simply use a frontend program with MAME for your game selection management. There are a TON out there. I like GameLauncher since it works with the older flavors of MAME and older hardware (which is what I'm currently using) but a lot of people really like HyperSpin and MALA. Since I use an old Pentium II 350MHz chipset in my MAME cabinet, it doesn't have the horsepower for the more modern frontends. They all have different pros and cons, but those are the three I'd check out based upon your needs.

Using an I-PAC in combination with a frontend you're comfortable with setting up and that meets your usage needs will nearly all but eliminate the need for a keyboard and mouse. Although you should keep one handy for changing setup stuff and doing normal "computer side" maintenance. In my cabinet I ended up putting a keyboard port on the back so I could just plug in when I needed to do something and the mouse is wireless.

The I-PAC also allows you to double the amount of control functions due to the use of a shift key. Basically you assign a low usage frequency button to be the shift button, usually 1P Start, and then holding it down will shift into the second mode for other controls.

For example, the way I have mine set up...
Hold 1P Start + Credit = Exit to menu
Hold 1P Start + Joystick down = Pause game
Hold 1P Start + Joystick up = MAME volume adjustment (use left / right to adjust)
Hold 1P Start + Joystick right = Jump to next song at game menu

Here's the full rundown of my cabinet, which is 3/5ths regular size. I'm probably going to replace the LCD with a CRT once I get it moved back in later this month.

Long-winded video about the cabinet here, stuff actually starts happening around the 8:00 mark. I've since replaced the audio amplifier since I stupidly blew the original one out when moving some things and had to toss a cheapy one in as a quick fix, which is what's in there in the video. I also rebuilt the joystick switches, since the ones that come with the 4/8 way selectable joysticks suck but use switch actuators that are of a proprietary size. So I smashed those apart to get the actuators out, then transplanted them to my preferred Zippy microswitches and now the stick is 200% better.

[Aussie2B]

Just don't do this, haha:

http://wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/

[InsaneDavid]

Just don't do this, haha:

http://wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/

BIDEO DAMES, HOSS! Ah, Crapmame, it will always be funny.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

lol thats amusing. The first step is to get some sort of PC. I don't have anything on hand that I'm not using, and so I'd like to go for something powerful enough to run most games and consoles and thats it. Maybe Put in a modded original Xbox, but what about a power pc or something? Anyone have advice on this matter?


Another concern - the control panel is pretty thick metal, in pretty rough shape, and is configured for the Neo-Geo four button layout. I'd like to replace this with a wooden control panel with at least a street fighter six button layout.

This I think would require a custom designed part made of wood or something. Anyone know where I might be able to find something for this?

[kedawa]

Power PC? Good lord, stay away from that mess.

[Nature Boy]

I actually built my cabinet using an old laptop where I removed the screen, and built a sliding drawer right underneath the controllers in order to access it.

I've also mapped MAME to escape and pause on certain key presses (usually P1, P2, and another button down below), but there's no substitute for a real keyboard when you need it.

Another good alternative would simply be a wireless keyboard setup (assuming your PC is new enough to have USB 2.0 slots - my MAME cabinet PC isn't ).

[PapaStu]

What is this? A MAME thread in Classic Gaming, when Arcade Alley is just around the corner?

**punt to Arcade Alley**

[XYXZYZ]

I made a MAME setup for my Neo Geo. It's Neo Geo only, (and MUGEN) so I didn't hack up the cabinet in any way. You can think of it as a really awesome Neo Geo multicart. I made a bunch of Neo Geo attract mode AVIs with MAME, and play them in shuffle mode with an AVI screensaver program. It's like having a 25 slot MVS board in attract mode! The resolution is set to 321x240, so there's no stretching and the AVIs look as good as the original games.



MaLa frontend




The PC is a... I forget what motherboard, it has a 2.0 GHZ AMD Sempron, 1GB of RAM, and an Ultimarc Arcade VGA card. (AGP8) It's all mounted onto a board.

The interface is an Ultimarc J-PAC I modified for use with an MVS harness. (MVS is NOT the same thing as a JAMMA harness!)



I can simply reattach the MVS harness to the MVS board and it's an original MVS again.


Playing MUGEN.



My advice-

What kind of PC to get depends on what you want to play. Are you going to be playing Street Fighter IV? Dreamcast emulators? Just old MAME games?

The easiest way to interface a PC to an arcade machine is with Ultimarc products. Otherwise you're in for lots of trial and error.

1. Use an Ultimarc J-PAC.($60.00) It will solve the problems of controls, sound, and video connection in one handy item, as opposed to the I-PAC which only handles controls. If you're going to use your MVS harness I'll show you how to modify the J-PAC to use it. You just need to reroute some pins with a couple of wires and a soldering iron.

2. Since you're using an arcade monitor, you must have a 15KHz video signal. You can use a common video card and a program called Soft 15KHz, but you don't get the right resolutions; arcade games use all kinds of oddball resolutions like 352x288, etc. and a normal video card will only output the standard 320x240, 640x480, etc. MAME will have to stretch the picture somehow, and it's going to look like shit. (I had a Matrox G400 with soft 15KHz through a J-PAC, and it indeed looked like shit.)

What you want is the Ultimarc Arcade VGA. It's a modified ATI Radeon card that outputs a 15 KHz signal (no software needed) and supports all kinds of wacky arcade resolutions. And it connects straight through the J-PAC with no configuring or anything. I've comparered MAME through one of these to original arcade boards, and the picture is identical! Nice and sharp. If you're not using Arcade VGA, you're not taking advantage of having an arcade monitor.

3. For sound, I cut the cables off a pair of old headphones, strip the wires and connect it to the J-PAC's screw terminals. Plug it into the sound card's speaker output. This connects the arcade machine's speakers directly to the sound card. You may want to use an external amplifier, but I just run it straight from the card and the amplifiers on my motherboard haven't melted or anything. It's not terribly loud, though.

4.Please resist the urge to add cupholders to the cabinet.

[stonic]

For the majority of MAME machines, I-PACs are an unnecessary expense. I've built a half-dozen MAME machines, and I've never needed one. A basic model I-PAC supports 2 joysticks and 24 buttons (for $39). For a fraction of the cost, hack a USB PC gamepad controller such as a Gravis Gamepad Pro, which gives you 1 joystick and 10 buttons. Or get 2, for 2 joysticks and 20 buttons - plenty to cover basic MAME funtions such as start buttons, coin switches, running and exiting games, etc. Plus you don't need to run another program to configure them like I-PAC does - MAME already gives you that ability.

Same with Opti-PACs. Just use a USB-ready trak-ball or spinner, or hack a mouse and save even more money.

[InsaneDavid]

Another concern - the control panel is pretty thick metal, in pretty rough shape, and is configured for the Neo-Geo four button layout. I'd like to replace this with a wooden control panel with at least a street fighter six button layout.

This I think would require a custom designed part made of wood or something. Anyone know where I might be able to find something for this?

I'd strip and clean up the panel you have and then just bore some additional holes for buttons. If you don't have a drill press and holesaw, then call around some metal shops that do metal stamping or drilling. (or a friend that may have a drill press) Shouldn't be that expensive at all. Then just pop out three more holes for each player, below the B, C, and D buttons you have now. Then you'd have four buttons for NeoGeo stuff and six for standard control stuff (B, C, D and the three under them). This can all be configured in MAME.

Also as has been said by XYXZYZ, if your cabinet still has most of the original hardware in there, including the monitor, go with a J-PAC. If at any time the thought crosses your mind to use something other than your arcade monitor, PLEASE use something large enough to fill the cabinet, that's like "MAME Cabinet Mistake #3. I totally missed that in your first post.

For the majority of MAME machines, I-PACs are an unnecessary expense. I've built a half-dozen MAME machines, and I've never needed one. A basic model I-PAC supports 2 joysticks and 24 buttons (for $39). For a fraction of the cost, hack a USB PC gamepad controller such as a Gravis Gamepad Pro, which gives you 1 joystick and 10 buttons. Or get 2, for 2 joysticks and 20 buttons - plenty to cover basic MAME funtions such as start buttons, coin switches, running and exiting games, etc. Plus you don't need to run another program to configure them like I-PAC does - MAME already gives you that ability.

Same with Opti-PACs. Just use a USB-ready trak-ball or spinner, or hack a mouse and save even more money.

Yeah, but I got a set of four I-PAC encoders for $20 off eBay. Granted one ended up being defective (the one the seller tested before listing them) but I more than made my money back selling the other two that I didn't need. Speaking of which, I need to take a look at the defective one again. The I-PAC utility only ever has to be run once when you're first setting everything up and takes ten seconds to configure your inputs and shift options.

For me using a USB device was out of the question because of the version of MAME I'm running and the old computer I'm using, that and I find keyboard hacking a pain in the ass. Even at $40 a pop for an I-PAC, to me anyway, is worth the few hours saved over performing a hack. Years ago when I did my Pole Position conversion everything ran off a hacked keyboard and mouse and it worked fine but then again that had extremely limited inputs.

[stonic]

I'm not talking about hacking keyboards. I didn't even mention it. Besides, I usually mount a keyboard somewhere in the machine. Sounds like you got a good deal on the I-PACs, but not everyone will be that lucky. Used gamepad controllers can usually be had for $5 or less, either locally or on Ebay, and wiring up one doesn't take a few hours, more like a few minutes.

And I doubt anyone these days will be using PCs w/o any USB ports these days, or DOS-based versions of MAME. If they do, more power to 'em

[InsaneDavid]

And I doubt anyone these days will be using PCs w/o any USB ports these days, or DOS-based versions of MAME. If they do, more power to 'em

I too will change over eventually I'm sure. The lure of more modern vertical shooters is hard to ignore. I'll be the first to admit I'm chicken to use a different boardset than the one I've always used in my MAME endeavors.

[Milk Thistle]

My only MAME cabinet advice is don't alter the original cab...

It's such a shame when people hack the control panel for things as silly as a trackball and 8 more buttons.

[XYXZYZ]

MEME cab?

I'd totally use a Cats front end, and fill it with FUUU, Cool Story Bro, Troll Face Guy and Haters Gonna Hate roms.

Man, I forgot about these alternatives...

[bradd]

lol thats amusing. The first step is to get some sort of PC. I don't have anything on hand that I'm not using, and so I'd like to go for something powerful enough to run most games and consoles and thats it. Maybe Put in a modded original Xbox, but what about a power pc or something? Anyone have advice on this matter?


Another concern - the control panel is pretty thick metal, in pretty rough shape, and is configured for the Neo-Geo four button layout. I'd like to replace this with a wooden control panel with at least a street fighter six button layout.

This I think would require a custom designed part made of wood or something. Anyone know where I might be able to find something for this?

i use a really old PC a friend gave me. i think anything from the last 6 or 7 years you wont have a problem with 95% of the games, all the classics and classic consoles will work fine.

as far as replacing a metal control panel with a wood one thats what i did. i use a drill with a circle bit for the holes, got one at the hardware store for about $2, cut the panel to size on my table saw in about 2 minutes.

[Ze_ro]

For the majority of MAME machines, I-PACs are an unnecessary expense. For a fraction of the cost, hack a USB PC gamepad controller

One nice thing about the I-PAC is that it can make for a much cleaner and neater installation. I build an arcade stick a while back, and initially used a keyboard controller. After I realized the serious ghosting problems, I rebuilt it using an I-PAC (Here's a picture of the wiring... please, no comments on my carpentry skills :P ). Also, there's no soldering required with the I-PAC.

I don't own any cabinets myself, but the people I've known who did have spent a good bit of time repairing them over the years... so keeping things neat and tidy will make it far easier to deal with down the road.

--Zero