328 replies to this topic

[Chris1977]

My work in progress built a year ago finally picking up my ipac 4 and joysticks this week.

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[jman]

Me being the lazy person I am, got sick of emptying the coin box every time i needed more credits, so I built a RFID scanner kit, and mounted it under the table top so I just have to pass an RFID tag on my keyring past it for credits.

I marked where the scanner is by placing another surface protector between the glass and the table top.

It's not needed, but I hooked the output up to a relay that's connected to my IPAC. The "clunk" of the relay sounds a little like dropping a coin in...

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The only problem is that the output is designed to activate a doorstrike, and stays on for 5 seconds. Some games do not accept it as a coin (software anti-stringing or something...)

The processing of the 40-bit RFID tags is done by an 8bit 10mhz Atmel AVR microcontroller (itself worth $2), which can be reprogrammed with a serial programmer (about $50). I've downloaded the code used (as it was kindly provided by the makers of the kit) and recompiled it with a 100ms delay - which is how long the electronic coin slot closes it's output for. Now I just need to get the programmer and reprogram the AVR...

Tags come in credit card size, keyfob style, and mini dot size.
Here's a close up of the mini dot one:
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I think I'll get an ash tray, and hide one under a felt lining underneath it...

[FigBug]

Here is mine, I finally finished it after about 3 years.





It's currently updating the game list.

[gerble1000]

bazzman69, on May 31 2006, 04:14 PM, said:

hi real intrested in the moterised keyboard could you let me know a little more info as i ve been thinking of installing 1 in my lastest cab cheers barrie

here bazz
i found a pic of the motorized keyboard drawer whils i was making it
it works great ,,just a little noisy

gerble1000

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[vuduman67]

Introducing...Arcadia, yea I know bad name. Anyway this is my first attempt at a arcade cabinet. Almost everything is handbuilt. The controls are a modified X-arcade. Thought it would be a simple mod ended up taking me well over 10 hours to complete. The controls not the arcade. The total build time for the arcade was about 2 months but I had it up and running in about 1 week, it just wasnt pretty yet. All the vinyl is done by myself and my trusty partner(Brother ). We went for a Robotron design without replicating it exactly. Robotron is by far the most played game on it and of course my childhood favorite! Also now my 10yr old daughters favorite! Taught her to play a little over 3 months ago and darn her she's got my high score beat by 10.000pts! 330,000 and climbing. Anyway the cabinet was alot of fun to build and works flawlessly with GAMEEX! Thanks Tom for such a great product and the best support I have ever encountered!
And thanks to all who pitched in to help on the build!

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[walmartman]

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here ya go guys 3 pics of my mame cab running game ex keep in mind the cabinet is prefabracatied i went prefab due to time and space constraints still a great little cab though and im having a blast running game ex on it! once again thanks tom for a great front end!


jester

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[NIVO]

hello folks. Finally got mine to the point where i could post pics. I'll just refer you to my link on BYOAC. NIVO's BIGTOP tabletop

[rygars#1#fan]

Heres some pics of my now completed cocktail cab.
21 inch vga monitor installed vertically,P4 -1.7 ghz.
Once again a HUGE wrap goes to Tom for this amazing frontend which allowed me to display the games vertically without any special graphics card.
Cheers,

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[super dog]

Well y'all, this is our first try at a home built cabinet - though I know there are flaws, we love it!

The RTS M.A.M.E Arcade got its name from my daughter Ruby, wife Sonya, and myself (Tim). The dragon and unicorn on our marquee was designed by a 6th grade student of mine...we copied them on to paper and back painted them on to plexiglass.

We liked Talking Bull's theme best - for now we are using it, but hope to create our own using alternating dragon and unicorn pictures on each page.

We have added a plexiglass covering today, and need to redo the bezel and raise the TV up, but wanted to share a few pics!

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[chris77]

my bartop / tabletop selfmade cabinet running gamex:



for more pics click here: http://picasaweb.goo...Bartop?stop=333

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[vuduman67]

Hey all,
Here are a few shots of the cab I helped build for a buddy of mine. He found the Case in the garbage! The best we can tell it was a display case for something but we cant figure out what. Maybe someone here will know. Any way it converted nicely to a very unique cab. My buddys name is Doug if you didnt figure that one out. Future plans call for some vinyl decal work to the X-arcade controller.

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[shbon]

Right. Time for some quick snaps of my baby!

It's neeeeaaaarly finished, just a screen bezel to make and hide the computer ON switch (visible in some of the images!)... but I've waited long enough, so for now I'm playing games...

I'm getting my Galaxian back up to scratch. My MAME record is currently 143,000. My 1980's arcade best was about 255,000. So still some more work to do. (Watch out Gary Whelan...)

The cocktail cab is based roughly on a Ms. Pacman, but stands only 22.5 inches high and is a classy MDF black and chrome number with detachable control panels (connected via RJ45/CAT5 to the internal wiring). Currently sports my Defender panel in the horizontal position! Working on a Playstation / Console panel. May even try the analogue joysticks available at Ultimarc. Also planning a vertical spinner panel for Arkanoid, Tempest etc.

Computer is just built with second-hand parts (no case) and is a medium spec P4-2.4Ghz with a reasonable graphics card. Fast enough for MAME and GameEx. I've got a hidden cable underneath for attaching a USB hub for keyboard/mouse and internet connection as needed. I went for a Diamondtron 19" (flat) CRT instead of arcade monitor so as to cater better for Pinball and GameEx, which I'm running at 1280x1024 with good results. MAME with 75% scan-lines is real enough for me.

Thanks to everybody on the forum who's helped me and inspired me over the past few months and a special thanks to Tom for the FE that raises the standard of all of our projects that little bit higher.

Regards
Shaun

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[TSpeirs]

Not a cab as such.. but just as cool. If not more. Ill be paying for it for years!

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[jthompson]

OK after a few months of fiddle farting around with my cab I finally decided to post a web page dedicated to it. Here it is Jay's Arcade Classics Cabinet.Check it out and let me know what you think.

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[Deadly]

Here's my cabinet with specs, some pics are old and computer hardware has been replaced with the following:
GAMEEX of course!!!
Intel Pentium Extreme 3.2GHZ proc
(2) Gig Corsair 667mhz RAM
(1) Intel 955XBK motherboard
(1) EVGA 7800GT PCIE 256 meg PCIE video card
(2) Seagate 120 gig SATA drives with Mad Cat fans on them
(1) 10" powered sub woofer
(2) Harmon Kardon surround speakers mounted below marquee
(1) USB powered hub "needed for the Act-Labs guns as there is a non admitted USB power timing issue.
(47) buttons
(4) 8 way joysticks
(1) 4 way joystick
(1) 3 inch trackball
(1) Tornado spinner
(1) Powermate USB volume knob - the friggin best idea by the way
(2) Act Labs laser guns
(1) 27" Samsung flatscreen TV
(1) Bits LTD Smart Power Strip - everything powers on by one button
(2) Original Lethal enforcers gun holsetrs not mounted yet!
(4) Cup holders not mounted yet
Games include "and still adding"
All American Laser games such as Mad Dog McCree, Drug wars etc, the original Daphne Lasergames that alot have since been removed from the package now available, Current Mame collection 6228 games, Virtual Cop 1&2, Die Hard Trilogy 2, House of the Dead 1-3.
I personally designed the control panel top "after slikstiks quad unit" had a guy CNC it for me and had it shipped with t-molding for $45.00.
I made the bottom half of the CP myself. The cabinet is actually a 1984 Williams cabinet which I gutted and framed in the TV and everything else. Added new light fixture and removed all the old original crap.
The back board has 2 fans mounted. The bottom fan is 4 wire plugged into the motherboard which allows me to adjust speed to cool the bottom half "cabinet is sepearted into two halfs" and the top fan is one constant speed to keep the TV hot air moving it's way out!
Lastly, you learn so much by building your first cabinet. Good and bad things happen but you most certainly will want to build another. I am going to sell this cabinet and build yet another. I can't wait!
[PICS!!!] - I won't bore you with every step of the build "ok well almost not all of it" just the important stuff Excuse some of the crappy blurry pics.
I have $1400 into this and it is well worth every penny.

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[U2Edge]

Well here's my "cabinet" or lack thereof. I have a second 2-player X-arcade stick on the way, so I'll have four-player capability. I'm HUGE into NBA Jam and a lot of 4-player games, so that's almost essential to have it (even though we don't usually have four people in the house -- but it'd be great for parties, etc.).

I'm pondering building a cabinet, but I want to use the infrastructure I have (2 2-player X-Arcade sticks, my Sony VAIO P4 multimedia workhorse with Windows MCE, etc.). I've even got a remote to control GameEx when I don't want to use the joystick as well as a wireless mouse tucked away on the top right swinging shelf. I don't have the need for spinners or trackballs or lightguns or anything overly fancy. Do you think it'd be pretty easy to build a 4-player cabinet ("easy" as in time, cost, etc.). If I already have all I need (pretty much), it should be simple and cheap to build, I'm hoping.

I was thinking all I would need is the wood, get it cut and painted and maybe put a lit marquee on it. I'd build a box to house both of the 2-player x-arcades, so there wouldn't be any crazy wiring or jamma cards, etc. I don't even need a coin box (unless that is crazily simple to wire into my system).

I use this computer for work a lot and I don't want to shell out cash for another one just to play MAME games. I like the idea of dual monitors for arcade as well. Your thoughts? Have you seen specs for a four-play x-arcade cabinet?

I'm open for thoughts, suggestions, etc....to cab or not to cab? And if so, how.....

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[vuduman67]

Here is my second cab, Its not quite done yet. Needs some tweaking here and there. It not running Gamex yet, but will be soon. Need to send some more cash for a second license Anyway Future plans call for having the seat redone and some better trimwork installed. Toying with the idea of building a Racer X twin for some serious head to head

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[bfrye]

hansolo77, on Oct 27 2006, 05:39 AM, said:

I wish I had a laptop. Sounds like you're doing good so far. When you say a PS2 steering wheel.. do you mean PlayStation 2 or PS/2 (like keyboard/mouse plugs). If it is the Playstation, how well does that work with racing games in Mame?

To tell you the truth I haven't completely finished setting it up yet. It's been the biggest pain getting it mounted up and comfortable. It's a playstation 2 steering wheel I've hacked apart though. I'd like to find some beefier pedals as the plastic ps2 ones are kind of cheesy.

Here's a couple pics of the makeshift setup I've got going to test out placement of the controls and monitor.









All in all, should cut down on the size needed on the inside of the cab for computer stuff too as the laptop itself is pretty small. I can build a small channel into the side of it with the docking station in it that the laptop just slides into with a door covering it. Plus it works out because when you move it around you can pull the laptop and not have to worry about it getting banged up or anything if you have to put it in the back of a truck. Keeping it cool should be easier too with a couple of decent fans and a much smaller space to pull the air out of rather than a fullsized computer.

[Wouter]

Ok here's some pics of my cab/gameroom. I bought a NBA Tournament dedicated cab and then I modified it with some extra buttons. I only need to change the T-molding because at some points it's totally been broken. But this is my winter project ;-)

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[katuuuz]

I love game ex.

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