Summer project: Arcade cabinet

matt3o · 15 Aug 2015, 19:13

This year no fancy summer holidays for me so I decided to endevour into a project I had in the closet since some time now: building myself a MAME arcade cabinet. It's almost done! I believe tomorrow I should be able to complete it.

First day of work, mostly woodmanship.

Second day of work.

Third and forth day of work

Fifth day, mostly cosmetics and electronics.

All systems check!

Almost there!

Muirium · 15 Aug 2015, 19:47

Wow, that's a fine endeavour. All that art is quite delicious, but after my time so I've no idea what it is! I'm guessing the lady with the fans is not Chun-Li!

Also, when a friend told me to check it out, I couldn't figure out what MAME was. The Internet was too interested in telling me what it wasn't. Stupid recursive acronyms. I am but a simple Super Nintendo player, beats me!

matt3o · 15 Aug 2015, 19:56

the theme is "Soul calibur".

MAME is "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator" http://mamedev.org/

but I guess you know that by now.

Muirium · 15 Aug 2015, 20:20

I probably confused it with some other emu project. I'm sure there was one that had me laughing out loud after chasing my tail around the Wikipedia and its homepage several times. It's name declared it wasn't itself… little did I know back then I merely had to PM the bot.

Soul Calibur. Yeah, after my time. Our arcade closed to teens and became a wrinkly old bingo parlour in about 1994. After that, it was all home gaming.

Engicoder · 15 Aug 2015, 21:46

Nice work!

Definitely before my time...Galaga is more my speed.

002 · 16 Aug 2015, 00:35

Nice work!

Metal Slug is one of my all-time favourites. CPS2 and NeoGeo was (IMO) the golden era of arcade gaming. I'll never forget the day that CPS3 encryption was cracked too

I've thought about building a cab but the biggest problem is that there's no real local competition for me. Maybe when my son gets a bit older, but in the meantime I have to travel like Ryu looking for my fights. Claim to fame right here.

matt3o · 16 Aug 2015, 08:18

well... I must say it's a fun project per se... even if you are not going to use it that much

I've never been a huge arcade player, but finally having that machine in house is a thrilling experience.

002 · 16 Aug 2015, 09:43

Did you do the plans for the cab design yourself?

matt3o · 16 Aug 2015, 10:14

yes, it's a 100% DIY project. I started from a 3D drawing, then a 1:10 model.

seebart · 16 Aug 2015, 10:52

Nice cabinet matt3o, of course I'm way too lazy for a project like this. As a teenager I often hung out at the arcades so when I discovered MAME about 15 years ago it was like heaven.

Quite a result on that challenge 002!

http://mameworld.info/

http://system16.com/

002 · 16 Aug 2015, 11:51

seebart wrote: ↑when I discovered MAME about 15 years ago it was like heaven.

Emulation is actually what led to me discovering the wonderful world of mechanical keyboards. Back in the WinKawaks and FinalBurn days, I used to play 2 player arcade games with friends from school and we'd both share a crappy membrane keyboard which is how I discovered that ghosting and rollover were a thing. It was a few years before I had the mind to actually bother searching to see if someone had solved this problem and lo and behold, I find premium NKRO keyboards

seebart · 16 Aug 2015, 12:27

There you go. Oldschool software lead you to oldschool hardware. I have quite a few memories of arcade and home gaming. I remember when I lived in the states my neighbors getting an Atari 2600, which was a big deal. Kids from around the neighborhood were lining up to get a glimpse. This must have been around 1978. This was also the earliest I remember hanging out at the local arcade and watching kids play PAC MAN and similair games. I had no quarters to play so I just watched. Sometimes when a player left the game frustrated I got to skim a final credit. Seems like a different world now.

vivalarevolución · 16 Aug 2015, 13:25

Build me one, please. You can sleep on the couch while building it.

Prelim · 16 Aug 2015, 14:27

wow, great work man! the stickers are insanely beautiful

matt3o · 16 Aug 2015, 18:00

ALL DONE! Now I just need a MAME GUI

seebart · 16 Aug 2015, 18:03

Looks great! I see new high scores coming.

Madhias · 22 Aug 2015, 15:10

Great work! Did you use an I-PAC interface? I don't know if there are other options to build the controller though. If it is not too boring show us some internals how you did the wiring!

chzel · 22 Aug 2015, 16:07

Especially for MAME the controller can be anything that can emulate a keyboard. So any flavor of firmware we use is applicable. Not sure about more elaborate controls like spinners and balls, but for plain joystick controls it's quite easy!
I-PAC is a nice integrated solution, but not necessary!

matt3o · 23 Aug 2015, 15:01

yes it's an ipac-2. while not strictly necessary, it's a not-matrix based, 1:1 mapping solution which guarantees lowest lag possible, n-key roller and no ghosting.

seebart · 23 Aug 2015, 15:08

I see Metal Slug running. What are you're favorite games matt3o?

matt3o · 23 Aug 2015, 16:30

metal slug is definitely one of my favorite. The two Dungeons and Dragons were both very nice. Golden Axe. Some puzzle games such as puyo-puyo. Tetris. Bubble bobble. Dark Stalkers. Alien vs Predator. Too many to mention

If you have any suggestion just let me know, I'm just going through the infinite arcade roms database.

seebart · 23 Aug 2015, 16:48

Cool. I don't think I need to give you any suggestions.

Like you say, just too many good ones to mention. Some of my favorites include Mr.Driller, Plotting, Neo Bomber Man, NBA Jam, Ordyne, Track & Field, Gradius, Parodius Da!

Muirium · 23 Aug 2015, 16:53

Marble Madness… Come on, the song was superb! And Q*bert had a frickin' solenoid to sound his death whenever he hit the floor of the cabinet. Brilliant feature.

seebart · 23 Aug 2015, 17:07

Muirium wrote: ↑Marble Madness… Come on, the song was superb! And Q*bert had a frickin' solenoid to sound his death whenever he hit the floor of the cabinet. Brilliant feature.

Marble Madness, yeah the whole game was brilliant. Even the Amiga port was really good. There are so many classics.

matt3o · 23 Aug 2015, 17:57

Marble Madness requires a trackball (that I don't have, but I have the amiga version with amiga trackball

)

002 · 24 Aug 2015, 00:01

seebart wrote: ↑NBA Jam

Countless hours spent playing this classic on the SNES.
One thing that is really great about MAME is being able to play the original arcade versions of classics that I could *only* play on consoles.

Playing the arcade versions of NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat, Primal Rage, Killer Instinct, Street Fighter III was reliving my childhood in high definition

sth · 24 Aug 2015, 12:40

he's on fire!

klikkyklik · 24 Aug 2015, 13:33

Brings back good memories of the early ones- Space War, Asteroids and Defender. Then Tempest, Robotron 2048, Asteroids Deluxe, Stargate, etc. At the height of my arcade lunacy I played Asteroids for 5.5 hours on one quarter and got a high score of 4.5 million. High score on Defender was 1.6 million. Fun times.

I really like this arcade cabinet. Nice work!

cookie · 24 Aug 2015, 21:04

Matteo makes me feel like a lazy piece of shit

That Arcade is fantastic though!

klikkyklik · 24 Aug 2015, 21:18

cookie wrote: ↑Matteo makes me feel like a lazy piece of shit

LOL! That quote should be in someone's sig.