Some Mame Guidance Needed

[chunkyktr]

I have a couple of cabs, one is a ridge racer sit down, the other is a little bigger than a beer can and uses the guts of a gp32.

I have a spare 29" SVGA monitor if you are in the UK and want it cheap...

-Craig

i remember you were doing a 'blog'-type thing on your old website about the RR cab renovation. it was very interesting but i havent seen any follow-up. -any chance you continued it behind the scenes?

it would be an interesting read and maybe telcolou could get some pointers (?).

 

[craigix]

When I stopped it it was when Sony were fucking with me.

I did finish it (i removed the wheel and replace it with 2 joysticks (I still have the wheel though)).

 

[fluffyhamster]

Hate to steal a thread, but does anyone know how big the .84 romset is?? Just the roms and nothing else. I might get a free xbox, and i have a 12.5 gig hdd lying around

 

[Ravnos]

I've got a .60 romset and it's about 3-3.5 gigs all rar-ed up. It should fit on your 12.5. I would just get a bigger HD for the XBox, though, cause the other emulators for it are awesome and once you start throwing all of them on there it will start to take up a bit of space. Plus it's nice to be able to launch your own games from the HD without having to track down the discs. I know some people will call bullshit on that last part but I do actually have a lot of my own games on there because it's more convenient.

 

[CABBAGES]

i think i had .84 on dvd a while ago. Think it was only 2 dvds so it was 8gb or less but im not 100% sure that it was only 2 dvds.

 

[fluffyhamster]

I've got a .60 romset and it's about 3-3.5 gigs all rar-ed up. It should fit on your 12.5. I would just get a bigger HD for the XBox, though, cause the other emulators for it are awesome and once you start throwing all of them on there it will start to take up a bit of space. Plus it's nice to be able to launch your own games from the HD without having to track down the discs. I know some people will call bullshit on that last part but I do actually have a lot of my own games on there because it's more convenient.

I just softmodded my friends box and he put 250 gig in it <_< . I just built a comp so i don't have the money for any bigger and if I can put a complete Mame Romset on it, I would lose a lot of sleep!

The only thing I'm afraid of is the F and E partitions to be to small for one complete romset on just one of the partitions.

My friends box already has 6 games he doesn't own :unsure:

EDIT: when you say rar-ed up , do you meen that you have one big directory of mame roms that are rarred, or one big directory that is rarred itself?

 

[chunkyktr]

When I stopped it it was when Sony were fucking with me.

I did finish it (i removed the wheel and replace it with 2 joysticks (I still have the wheel though)).

any pictures?

(the cab i mean, not of sony f***ing you) :blink: :lol:

 

[Ravnos]

I've got a .60 romset and it's about 3-3.5 gigs all rar-ed up. It should fit on your 12.5. I would just get a bigger HD for the XBox, though, cause the other emulators for it are awesome and once you start throwing all of them on there it will start to take up a bit of space. Plus it's nice to be able to launch your own games from the HD without having to track down the discs. I know some people will call bullshit on that last part but I do actually have a lot of my own games on there because it's more convenient.

I just softmodded my friends box and he put 250 gig in it <_< . I just built a comp so i don't have the money for any bigger and if I can put a complete Mame Romset on it, I would lose a lot of sleep!

The only thing I'm afraid of is the F and E partitions to be to small for one complete romset on just one of the partitions.

My friends box already has 6 games he doesn't own :unsure:

EDIT: when you say rar-ed up , do you meen that you have one big directory of mame roms that are rarred, or one big directory that is rarred itself?

One directory that is rarred. That's the way I found it on the torrent site I got it from. I can't remember how big it was when I unrarred it. I didn't put the whole set on my XBox anyway, since there were only a few games I cared about.

 

[pkostrze]

I looked into building my own cabinet (and still might) but I picked up one on eBay for $25 local pick up and then, a year later, saw five cabinets being thrown away behind a place that sells arcade games. Check around, a lot of those places chuck gutted cabinets and with a small amount of work (much less than building from scratch) you have a sweet cab... most times with a few free parts like the light or coin mechs.

Anyway, just my two cents.

 

[TelcoLou]

I looked into building my own cabinet (and still might) but I picked up one on eBay for $25 local pick up and then, a year later, saw five cabinets being thrown away behind a place that sells arcade games. Check around, a lot of those places chuck gutted cabinets and with a small amount of work (much less than building from scratch) you have a sweet cab... most times with a few free parts like the light or coin mechs.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Ewww! I don't do used!

Besides, the slikstik combo kit comes with pre-wired working coin mechanisms. I want the set up to be as easy as possible.

Interesting note:

I was checking out the various categories and looked under "Shooters, Vertical" ... there's 198 ... my favorite arcade games are vertical shooters. I nearly fainted from excitement :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[fluffyhamster]

I looked into building my own cabinet (and still might) but I picked up one on eBay for $25 local pick up and then, a year later, saw five cabinets being thrown away behind a place that sells arcade games. Check around, a lot of those places chuck gutted cabinets and with a small amount of work (much less than building from scratch) you have a sweet cab... most times with a few free parts like the light or coin mechs.

Anyway, just my two cents.

Ewww! I don't do used!

Besides, the slikstik combo kit comes with pre-wired working coin mechanisms. I want the set up to be as easy as possible.

Interesting note:

I was checking out the various categories and looked under "Shooters, Vertical" ... there's 198 ... my favorite arcade games are vertical shooters. I nearly fainted from excitement :lol: :lol: :lol:

there's probably a good reason you know about only half of them <_<

 

[saehn]

Well, guess no one here has a MAME cab

I built one in 2005 from scratch. I used and modified Lusid's cabinet plans, his were the clearest designs I encountered: http://users.adelphia.net/~seanhat/arcade/.

General advice? Take your time with it. Try to avoid unnecessary shortcuts. Definitely rent/borrow a router for your T-molding (how many people generally need routers around the house?). MDF is good but dusty to cut, work outdoors or in a shed with a dustmask. Dust will get everywhere.

Questions to consider: Is a coin cabinet all that important? What games do I really want to run (re: CPU cost, space, etc). I built my controls from dissected MS Sidewinder joysticks and arcade-quality Happ controls, but I see that you got the Slickstick. That should be much easier. Try to save as much money as you can on parts. You set aside a generous budget. I pulled mine together for under $500. Looks great, though. Will have to send you some pics.

I use GameEx too, on top of Windows 98. Works well.

Wife is calling me to bed, will catch up with you later if you want to know more.

 

[TelcoLou]

I built one in 2005 from scratch. I used and modified Lusid's cabinet plans, his were the clearest designs I encountered: http://users.adelphia.net/~seanhat/arcade/.

General advice? Take your time with it. Try to avoid unnecessary shortcuts. Definitely rent/borrow a router for your T-molding (how many people generally need routers around the house?). MDF is good but dusty to cut, work outdoors or in a shed with a dustmask. Dust will get everywhere.

Questions to consider: Is a coin cabinet all that important? What games do I really want to run (re: CPU cost, space, etc). I built my controls from dissected MS Sidewinder joysticks and arcade-quality Happ controls, but I see that you got the Slickstick. That should be much easier. Try to save as much money as you can on parts. You set aside a generous budget. I pulled mine together for under $500. Looks great, though. Will have to send you some pics.

I use GameEx too, on top of Windows 98. Works well.

Wife is calling me to bed, will catch up with you later if you want to know more.

Nice cab!!

I'm going the kit route since I don't know anyone with any wood working tools, and don't want to rent them. Also I'm very lazy

Working coin door is a must! We have nieces and nephews and will have a tray nearby with quarters to use for our cabinet. Limiting them by only having a few quarters available would be hilarious; "Mommy!! Can I get another quarter?!??" :lol: :lol:

I'm still unsure of using a front-end ... I looked at some screenshots for GameEx ... I don't get it ... what's the benefits of using front-end? MAME32 looks great, has screenshots, and can select games via different categories ... and is easy to use

 

[saehn]

Nice cab!!

He did do a beautiful cab, didn't he? Highly inspirational.

I'm going the kit route since I don't know anyone with any wood working tools, and don't want to rent them. Also I'm very lazy

Well, you hardly need any advice then! It all comes down to this following question, I guess:

I'm still unsure of using a front-end ... I looked at some screenshots for GameEx ... I don't get it ... what's the benefits of using front-end? MAME32 looks great, has screenshots, and can select games via different categories ... and is easy to use

I'd suggest that you go ahead and try them both out. I would have preferred using MAME32, as well, just for the simplicity. However, in actual "live" scenarios, there's just no comparison to GamEx, IMO. MAME32 is clunky, doesn't work as well using arcade controls for me. The swankiness of the GamEx interface blows MAME32's away. But, of course, whatever works for you.

 

[TelcoLou]

I found this:

http://www.mameworld.net/mcm/

... it filters all those 'naughty' mahjong games, etc. That's really the only feature GameEx offered that I couldn't figure out how to do in MAME32.

I guess what I'm now in need of is hardware advice. Specifically, a TV set ... not a PC monitor; I want to see scan lines, dammit! I don't think we can afford an arcade-cabinet-specific monitor (though the screen display comparisons did look impressive) I'll be getting a 27" set to fit the kit that slikstik makes, and need one with s-video input.

Those forums at mameworld scare me h34r:

 

[saehn]

I guess what I'm now in need of is hardware advice. Specifically, a TV set ... not a PC monitor; I want to see scan lines, dammit! I don't think we can afford an arcade-cabinet-specific monitor (though the screen display comparisons did look impressive) I'll be getting a 27" set to fit the kit that slikstik makes, and need one with s-video input.

I just got one that was on sale and had s-video input. I read the reviews before I purchased it and it seemed fine. I couldn't even tell you offhand what make/model it is. I think I purposefully avoided Sony, but other than that, I just looked for price/features/physical-dimensions/reputation.

 

[Skies]

www.arcadecontrols.com has tons of examples of cabinet builds.

This pc I'm using now is going to be the heart and soul of my future mame cabinet (it's only a 333 but that'll do me fine). I have a drawer next to my pc with the circuit boards from keyboards and other stuff that should come in handy. One day maybe I'll make a start.

I remember seeing one site that a guy made to show off his cabinet. He built it with a detatchable joystick panel. He had nomal sticks, tron sticks, track balls. All sorts of stuff.

 

[TelcoLou]

www.arcadecontrols.com has tons of examples of cabinet builds.

This pc I'm using now is going to be the heart and soul of my future mame cabinet (it's only a 333 but that'll do me fine). I have a drawer next to my pc with the circuit boards from keyboards and other stuff that should come in handy. One day maybe I'll make a start.

I remember seeing one site that a guy made to show off his cabinet. He built it with a detatchable joystick panel. He had nomal sticks, tron sticks, track balls. All sorts of stuff.

Many thanks for the link
I saw that crazy, interchangeable cabinet!! Pretty cool actually, but since my main addiction is vertical shooters, I won't have a need for that many specialized controllers

 

[saehn]

I saw that crazy, interchangeable cabinet!! Pretty cool actually, but since my main addiction is vertical shooters, I won't have a need for that many specialized controllers

You might consider installing your TV at a ninety-degree angle, then. I was thinking about that for my own, but decided it wasn't enough of a difference to justify the graphical limitations it would place on horizontally oriented games.

If you were really, really wacky (and I thought about this but decided against it as well), you could make a cabinet with a rotating TV like this crazy cool cat:

http://www.russprince.com/cabinet/