Arcade cabinet recommendations?


timothee

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Hey there,


I've managed to convinced my boss that the office would be a much cooler place with a arcade cabinet in it. Especially one where we could play some funky retro-goodness. Now's the time to make a proposal to get the $$, and make it happen.


I was initially only aware of X-Arcade, which I liked for the self-conferred "indestructibility", and the adapters to modern systems (some of my colleagues are pushing for a PS3, trying to make everybody happy here). After some research, I found another company called North Coast, which I like for their off-the-shelf 4-player setup.


Has anyone here ever purchased a pre-built custom arcade cabinet? Any tips or recommendation on other providers? Are these stuff really as sturdy as they are sold for? For us this would be an international purchase (we are in Singapore), and so we could never ship back a full arcade cabinet if something's not working or broken :/ .


I was also looking for nice all-systems flashy arcade frontends. I found plenty for windows (like hyperspin or mala), but only one so far for linux called Cabrio (In fact, Cabrio looks like it could be nice on the pandora (sources here for the hardy :p ). Do you guys know of other linux-based front-ends I could look at?


Thanks in advance!


Tim.
 
Linux front-ends? You might want to check out Wah!Cade. It's a Linux-based "clone" of MAMEWah.


As for pre-built custom cabinets, I'm afraid the only suppliers I have any knowledge of are UK-based, so I doubt this would be of much help.
 
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Thanks Prometheus!


I had not found Wah!Cade, thanks for the link. Wah!Cade looks nice, but is considerably less "flashy" than Cabrio.


I haven't found any custom arcade cabinet provider in Singapore, so we are considering importing (and yes, that means paying the ridiculous shipping charges :( ), so I welcome any reference, even in the UK, for me to do comparisons.


Many Thanks!


Tim


PS: Oh wow! I just realized the maker of Cabrio is a fellow pandora owner (SteveM!). I should bug him to get a pandora port :)
 
You should try to find an arcade cabinet importer and buy an Egret 3 or a similar cab.


It's a japanese sitdown cab, its screen is able to handle VGA and RGB, so you can plug any console or a computer easily.


In Europe the price for such a machine is ± 1200€ with a 450 in 1 Jamma board.
 
I haven't found any custom arcade cabinet provider in Singapore, so we are considering importing (and yes, that means paying the ridiculous shipping charges :( ), so I welcome any reference, even in the UK, for me to do comparisons.
In that case, you may want to check out Surface-Tension (they only do tables, though) and Turnarcades (more info here).


As far as the Candy-style cabinets that KodeIn mentions go, this site (not open yet, but it apparently will be soon) belongs to a fellow who specialises in importing such machines, and may well be worth keeping an eye on.
 
UK here, I recently built an (North Coast plans) Ultimate Arcade 2 with X-Arcade from scratch. It's 11 months in the making but nearly complete. Hard hard work. My favourite frontend is GameEx which is only for Windows, unfortunately.


There's a wealth of information at the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forum.


BYOAC Forum


My cabinet diary


GameEx frontend for windows
 
To be honest, I don't like custom built arcade cabinet made by companies, often they are overpriced and equipped with LCD screen.


And LCD screens are not great to play the pixelated retro-goodness of the old arcade games.


(and I have to say that I hate cabinets where they integrate a X-arcade in the panel… it's just… wrong. Even more when all you have to do is buying buttons, sticks and an I-PAC, or similar product, and put cables between them.)


That's why I mentioned the Egret 3
smile.gif



As Prometheus said, many other candy cab are available. But they're not always fitted with 15/31KHz screen (15KHz is the TV and old arcade cabinet games, 31KHz is VGA). So be careful.
 
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Thanks guys, your input is very much appreciated!


I've seen the sitdown cabinets in plenty or arcade places in Singapore (based on some pics I just saw of the Egret 3, I assume they are that). I'll visit an arcade tomorrow, see what the cabinet is like close, and ask if they have some for sell. I did favor a standing cabinet though, that's just the way I remember them from when I used to play :/


It's cool that the Egret 3's screen is VGA, but are the controls USB/HID, such that they can be connected to said PC? Time for more research :)


@RAMpack: Wow! Congrats on making a full cabinet! Post some pics! I have plans for such a project as well, for when I have a garage/work area, and for when my son is older, so we can do it together (that's my plan for being the coolest dad in the world ;) ) . For now, what I need is for the office, so we definitely need something pre-build, and with a reasonable delivery timeframe.


[Edit: duh, you kept a cabinet building diary with pics and already gave me the link.]


@KodeIn: thanks for the extra clarifications. I do share the overpriced concern, but we'll take it as the price of the time we save. Oh, and the 2 pre-made systems I was looking at from X-Arcade and North-Coast both come with a 29" CRT monitor :)
 
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There are loads of USB controllers cards. It just need some soldering work to connect the buttons to the card.


Here is an example : http://www.starcab.n...roducts_id=1013


Alright, I understand your point of view about sitdown cabinets
wink.gif



There are many cheap upright cabinets in France (mostly "Jeutel" ones), maybe you should try to get in touch with specialized stores (like the one in the previous link or on arcade forums like this one http://www.dragonslairfans.com/ ).
 
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Why not convert an original cabinet ? They're definitely built to last, and look a lot more authentic ;)


For controller interfaces, try www.ultimarc.com - they're boards are excellent value and more or less plug and play...


EDIT: I just noticed Kodeln has already mentioned the I-PAC - they're made by Ultimarc...
 
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