MAME Cab Project

[bjones371]

Well, it only took a year after moving in, but I've finally managed to get hold of an empty JAMMA cab to tart up and MAME! I plan to photograph and document the whole thing, and here seems as good a place as any to do it...

So as it stands I have the cab, which isn't in the greatest of shapes. The fibreglass control panel is definitely aftermarket since it doesn't fit properly, so that's going to be coming out and replaced with a wooden one eventually. The cab cost £50 plus fuel.

I've already procured the iPac, 12 buttons, three illuminated buttons (1P and 2P start plus a coin up button) and a couple of joysticks from Ultimarc which are sat waiting to be installed. That lot came to around £120 including delivery and taxes.

There are some pretty nasty bulges and cutouts on the sides of the cab too, which I plan to file down and then build back up to a level surface with wood filler. The wood grain effect is pretty much done for and so will probably be covered with fablon or similar.

One of the many PCs I had lying around has been upgraded with a bigger hard drive (second hand, £12) and is running Maximus Arcade, which I have working with just MAME for now, but intend to add other consoles to in the future. A generous donation from @random_dave of a decent graphics card also means I can exploit GLSL at higher resolutions to add scanlines, pincushioning and motion blur to my monitor.

Speaking of which, the monitor is a Dell UltraSharp 2007FPb obtained from a recycling company on a well known auction site for £40 delivered - as it's tricky to come across new 4:3 monitors in this day and age. It arrived in excellent condition, looks the part, and the black bezel masks well behind the smoked screen glass. I've decided I'll probably be running it in tate, but may try and fit a rotating screen mount so I can spin it around if the mood takes me. CRT did cross my mind, but a combination of cost, and my doubts that the cab would safely support the weight of a CRT put me off that idea in the end.

I think I'll be tackling the woodwork side of things before I start to think about the graphics/decals I want to add, so I'm open to suggestions at this stage if anyone wants to contribute any? I'm even considering letting an RGR logo sneak its way on there somewhere

Running expenditure so far:

• Cab - £50
• Joysticks, Buttons and Interface - £120
• Fuel - £25
• Monitor - £40
• Hard Drive - £12
• Total - £247

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[Leathco]

That's a good start. Remember the illuminated buttons require an extra couple of wires for power. Also if you wanna go all out they make control boards so the buttons do things like only light up when pressed, or have a "demo" mode while not in game where they will flash in patterns.

Great choice of a true monitor. The games simply don't look as good on LCD or LED screens. I have my mobile setup which is an X-Arcade with a Pi I built in, but still nothing beats my machine in the back room.