Scratch Build – In Progress Project: The Answer (Full 4 player MAME cabinet) UPDATED 8/28/06

These are the buttons I purchased, the guy I got them from is no longer in business.

http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/illuminatedbuttons.htm

 

Very nice project - doing my own NeoGeo pacific upright right now, in the planning stages though.

Very simular to this one...

 

My Capcom cabinet restoration is well on it's way now and dare I say nearing completion? Pics updated later. Anyways, thought I'd ask you a few questions again and simeltaneously give this awesome project a bump.

What gauge wire is recommended for wiring the controls?

What is the length on the submerged portion of your buttons?

And finally...
I am trying to assemble a Capcom rom collection. Specifically I need to find a working Marvel Superheroes rom (and yes, I own both the a and b boards so it's perfectly legal ).

The ones I got from http://www.emuasylum.com and http://www.romhustler.net don't work. MAME seems to say that they lack the bios or correct bios or smthng . How is this corrected? BTW I'm using MAME32 0.109u5...

Any and all help is always appreciated! THnx!

 

Your roms are fine. You need the correct cabinets BIOS to add onto the emulator... Read the readme file for the emulator, and then check out some emulator forums.

For your other questions, check out http://arcadecontrols.com/
They should have all the information you will need on wiring, etc.

GL.

 

The wire gauge for the buttons can be as small as you can find. The smaller wire the better to be honest, makes life so much easier. As for the length on the buttons, maybe 2 inches?

As for the roms, not sure.. Try what devenfore suggested first. Ill see if I can get the game to work but I've had very few issues with any games so my advice on setting up a specific game will be limited.

As for an update myself. I recived a new drawer front from the company that made the cabinet so I can remake that better and get rid of the holes and peices of MDF that show when its open. I also sent out the holster diagrams to a machine shop that is going to make them for me and Ill then have those powdercoated.

Slow progress but sure....

 

Omg,thats' awesome! :sbav:

Do u like metal slug series?

 

love metal slug, play it all the time

 

Whoa! I love your work! That cabinet is realy something to be proud to!

Keep up the good work!

 

i saw light guns!! How can you get light guns to work on a PC? I never seen it before! dont you need the monitor hooked up 2 the light gun aswell? the old Playstation if i remember had something like that?

Please tell me, im sure light guns dont like tft's, but i could be wrong.

Love It!

 

From earlier in the thread...

 

Double post for a good cause! Hey, other than "very carefully", can you give me any tips for installing sideart? I ruined one of my Capcom decals already.


Did you install yours first and then trim it or did it come pre-cut to fit the cab? Are your decals vinyl?

Thnx!

 

They are vynil but they are very thick, its laminated vynil. I trimmed it down after I installed it and yes its a pain in the A$$. I had another person help me and started from the top and went down. I peeled back maybe a foot of the backing and then used a wet rag to smooth it out and had the second person slowly pull the backing about a foot at a time so I could make sure no bubbles appeared.

It was not the easiest thing to do.

good luck

 

Trimming Overlays and Side Art

Hi Abom,

Love your cabinet.

I'm planning my own Mame cabinet and plan on using Mamemarquees to print the artwork.

Can you tell me what techniques you used to do the trimming on the control panel and side art? I'm especially concerned about getting that trackball hole right on the CPO.

Thanks for sharing!
Dmod

 

You made a great choice. Scott over at Mamemarquees is very cool and really goes out of his way to make stuff look great.

As for tips. Do you have a plexi top going over your control panel or are you having scott print up a laminated one that you apply directly?

I'm going to assume directly since that is scotts preference (and boy was he right, that stuff is bulletproof.)

Basicly its very very thick and that makes it easier and harder at the same time. Easier because the combination of it being almost rigid and the holes in the Control Panel means no air bubbles to worry about. Bad because its very hard to fold over.

What I did was lay it down on the control panel where I wanted it after cleaning the panel with alcohol. I then used shears to cut it to size leaving about a 3/16" border around the control panel. I then folded it over the edges and used a screwdriver to score the corners to get it to fold over. If you dont score it there will be a bubble that will get bigger over time. I then trimmed the excess that overlapped where my t-molding would have to go and hammered in my t-molding. Going on a year and a half now and it still looks perfect with moderate use.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask, Ive done this a few times now and have most of the kinks worked out

 

Thanks for the help... I am using the laminate from Scott directly without any additional plexi.

How did you cut the button holes and trackball hole? Can you cut the overlay with a razor, or did you have to drill them out?

Are there any good tricks to getting a clean edge around the trackball?

Dmod

 

Yeah, you can cut the holes for the buttons and trackball with an exacto knife, thats what I did. As for the trackball hole it depends on how you mounted it and which unit you used.

Did you flush mount it or top mount, is it a happ? ect. Assuming you did what I did and mounted it flush and its a happ (most popular), then just do what you do with the sides. Cut it leaving about 1/4" - 3/16" to fall over in the hole and fold it down then slide the trackball up through the hole to stop the chance of it peeling up from the trackball edge.

 

This is one of the best MAME cabinets I have ever seen! Any updated information?

 

Unfortunatly, no. I've really gotten into racing lately and it takes up alot of my free time. I'm ashamed to say it but I almost never turn it on unless visitors drop by. I've had some... dare I say, insane offers on it but after all that work and time I just cant part with it.

I did switch to a new front end, mamewah just wasnt cutting it for me so I went to game EX and am much happier. I did hook it upto my wireless network and can now use it as a networked jukebox which is cool, the sound system in it rocks. The company that was making the holsters for me flaked out and at the last minute wanted to charge me tripple, 300 bucks for 4 pieces of plexi machined, nuts! So I'm currently using the cup holders as holsters lol.

I do want to clean up the access hatch still (coin door). By creating a sealed cavity on the inside with all the usb ports and the CD rom showing, to clean it up. I know nobody should see it but it bugs me. Same with the keyboard drawer, I have a replacement panel and painted the edges (didnt like the look), then laminated the edges, but didn't take into account the increased size from doing that so I know have a 3rd panel waiting to be put on lol.

I appriciate all the compliments on it quite a bit, it was a pure labor of love like all the mods on here. And for the guy that suggested it be featured mod on the front page, I was actually offered that but again I couldn't find the time to type up an article and organize my photos so at least a few people really liked it

 

From Denmark: Pure art!
Wish I had such an arcade machine in my house! Loved 'em when I was younger!
[nostalgia] mmm all those hours (and coins) spent at the grill shack around the corner... [/nostalgia]

Great work Abom! Truly great, even if it was premade, you did a lot of work out of it and made it unique/personal! Abom, you are not overseen in these forums!

/Frido

 

This is truly incredible, cant believe this hasn't been front paged its got dedication written all over it.
Ticks all the boxes, and to top it off you have some sweeet cars Love the camero.

I wish i was more into arcade machines as id love to make something like this.