Whats the Best Arcade Machine Building Forum These Days?

Thargor

Preferably UK/Ireland focused...

Haven't looked in years but the cravings are strong in me now, was kicking myself for not having plans and materials gathered and ready to go for the 10 days I was down home at Christmas, my father cleared out one of our big sheds and organised all his tools without telling me, I could have my own MAME cab finished now.

Ill probably just be cutting MDF or plywood sheets and sticking them together with a cheap Ebay pc inside, I would like a selection of controllers nicely stored inside but ready to go for the major retro consoles aswell as the sticks but that should be the only complex bit, not worried about authenticity as long as its solid and looks good.

TechnoFreek

Based in the US. But arcadecontrols forum aka BYOAC is probably up there

My advice. Use Birch ply and base your cab on an original! Also get your crt monitor first!

o1s1n

BrownFinger wrote: »

My advice. Use Birch ply and Base your cab on an original! Also get your cart monitor first!

Only just realized now that you're Urbanledge!

I'm too old to be keeping up with these name changes

Thargor

BrownFinger wrote: »

My advice. Use Birch ply and base your cab on an original! Also get your crt monitor first!

Ill be basing it on whoevers plans I can find that has the nicest combination of multi-controller support, ease of construction and aesthetics. Might have to be an LCD in there :eek:

Thargor

Thargor wrote: »

Ill be basing it on whoevers plans I can find that has the nicest combination of multi-controller support, ease of construction and aesthetics. Might have to be an LCD in there :eek:

Well each to there own but maybe take a look here first and familiarize yourself with the main pitfalls of the multi controller mame cab.
better to avoid all these mistake on your first go.

http://www.jammaplus.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16966&title=ultimate-shame-cabinets

Also crapmame.makes me laugh every time!
http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/

Thargor

Nah they wont be built in and on display, it will probably be just a drawer full of controllers with a slot for a cable, open drawer, select controller, close drawer. Even a sliding drawer might stretch my carpentry skills to the limit.

CathalDublin

Personally I think console games are best suited to a television, have you ever tried playing a couple hours of say mario standing up or at a stool, it just seems wrong, maybe that.s just me though.
Have a look at Brownfinger's DK Cab build, its amazing, I'd pick a cabinet you like and build a repo of it.

Thanks Cathal,
A year ago I started and I've still to do that last 2% to finish it.
This year Im going to make a 2p 4button Cp for my neogeo stuff.tastefully done I hope!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057121608

Jack burton

Just put down the flooring in my new games room and I have one full sheet of ply left. I had a quick google for plans and found this

http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Super-Easy-Arcade-Machine-from-1-Sheet-of-Plywoo/?ALLSTEPS

I have since deleted by browsing history

Tomo.Murphy

A guy has been selling similar on adverts for a few months. Much dodgier paint job though, and a button layout that requires the largest and most disfigured hands in the world to use. I think the last ad he posted up was priced at around €500.

Thargor

Some of us would be happy if we managed to build that

o1s1n

If he put a proper glass bezel on that to get rid of the 'LCD surrounded by cardboard' look and the control panel didn't look like it was also made out of cardboard, it might not be so bad. Could almost be a mini Vewlix.

Thargor

Tomo.Murphy wrote: »

A guy has been selling similar on adverts for a few months. Much dodgier paint job though, and a button layout that requires the largest and most disfigured hands in the world to use. I think the last ad he posted up was priced at around €500.

Are they selling?

Damien King

Jack burton wrote: »

Just put down the flooring in my new games room and I have one full sheet of ply left. I had a quick google for plans and found this

http://www.instructables.com/id/A-Super-Easy-Arcade-Machine-from-1-Sheet-of-Plywoo/?ALLSTEPS

I have since deleted by browsing history

I got this out of one sheet of ply...Not my most exiting work by any stretch but shows what can be done with limited materials and time.

The control panel was just in for a test fit and has since received a chrome strip

You cant really see in the pic but the black sections are done in carbon fibre wrap. looks good against the chrome t molding and orange graphics.



small jamma.jpg

eddhorse

Damien King wrote: »

I got this out of one sheet of ply...Not my most exiting work by any stretch but shows what can be done with limited materials and time.

The control panel was just in for a test fit and has since received a chrome strip

You cant really see in the pic but the black sections are done in carbon fibre wrap. looks good against the chrome t molding and orange graphics.



small jamma.jpg

Impressive stuff. I guess when using LCD's the depth isnt needed at all compared to the behemoths with CRT's or older CGA monitors.

Damien King

eddhorse wrote: »

Impressive stuff. I guess when using LCD's the depth isnt needed at all compared to the behemoths with CRT's or older CGA monitors.

Yep the lcds do save a lot of space, A lot of people would take the view that an older CGA or CRT looks better during gameplay and i'd agree with this.

Theres no way on earth i would go chucking an lcd in an original old cabinet. but if i'm building from scratch for a client who has limited space and just wants a low maintenance machine then the lcds are great for this. in the event of a monitor going belly up its pretty straight forward to swap one out for another. Another plus to this is that I'm not using a perfectly good CGA monitor that could be otherwise used in a original cabinet restoration.

Scanline effects on some emulators are pretty good these days and I have yet to test out a SLG, must get round to that at some point!

Thargor

That would be my ideal end product thanks Damien, I know lots of people dont like playing retro games on a MAME cab but Ive always loved the idea of a full ROM library for nearly everything up to PSX standing in the corner of a living room. With the original controllers and a comfortable seat it would be my ideal retro gaming setup. I find anything else to be too distracting, ie flicking back to the tv or a more modern game that I havent finished yet if playing them on a JTAG 360 or tabbing out to a webbrowser all the time on pc. I need a dedicated device with no other function than playing games and I dont have the space or the plugs for the original consoles.

Damien King

Thargor wrote: »

That would be my ideal end product thanks Damien, I know lots of people dont like playing retro games on a MAME cab but Ive always loved the idea of a full ROM library for nearly everything up to PSX standing in the corner of a living room. With the original controllers and a comfortable seat it would be my ideal retro gaming setup. I find anything else to be too distracting, ie flicking back to the tv or a more modern game that I havent finished yet if playing them on a JTAG 360 or tabbing out to a webbrowser all the time on pc. I need a dedicated device with no other function than playing games and I dont have the space or the plugs for the original consoles.

Yep it a nice thing to have, however I do find that once you get into console systems that use analogue sticks and multiple shoulder buttons it all starts to go a bit arseways when trying to configure a arcade type control panel though...

Damien King

Thargor wrote: »

That would be my ideal end product thanks Damien, I know lots of people dont like playing retro games on a MAME cab but Ive always loved the idea of a full ROM library for nearly everything up to PSX standing in the corner of a living room. With the original controllers and a comfortable seat it would be my ideal retro gaming setup. I find anything else to be too distracting, ie flicking back to the tv or a more modern game that I havent finished yet if playing them on a JTAG 360 or tabbing out to a webbrowser all the time on pc. I need a dedicated device with no other function than playing games and I dont have the space or the plugs for the original consoles.

Heres a digital equivalent of sketching it out on a beer mat or cigarette pack,

diagram shows 1 piece of ply, asterisks represent cuts and the dots are just there as fillers and can be ignored.

Sections a, b, and c are all cut at the same width and are used for front, back, top bottom and internal panels. I went with 450mm but you can play around, a narrower cab will mean its higher, if you are just doing a one player panel then i reckon you could swing it.

sections d and e are the side panels..

You can *just* about get a reasonably sized smallish cab out of one sheet

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*..............a..............*
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*..............b..............*
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*....c....*....d....*...e..*
*.........*.........*........*
*.........*.........*........*
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