Mo's MAME

Yup, just like everyone else who get's into this sort of thing, I got nostalgic looking at all of the MAME cabinets on the examples page of BYOAC, so I decided to go ahead and try to make my own arcade machine.

This has been a work in progress for the last 3 years, because I think I may have some type of starting-projects-and-never-finishing disorder.

I started with some guidelines that I wanted to follow:

• Build the cabinet from scratch to fit a 27" TV.
  • I didn't want to go through the hassle or expense of getting an old arcade cabinet, restoring it, and getting the computer to output to an arcade display. Besides, a TV would also allow me to use the cabinet for other things, like watching DVD's, and plugging in game consoles.
• Have at least 2 joysticks with as many buttons as possible.
  • I decided to hack 2 USB game pads instead of using a keyboard encoder. It seemed easier and cheaper to solder leads to the game pad's contacts, plus I could play PC games with the control panel.
• Have some sort of trackball.
  • This was more to make it easier to function within windows than playing any games. Original arcade trackballs are expensive, so I decided to get the largest trackball I could find and make it fit on the arcade's control panel.
• Have some sort of spinner.
  • Tempest and Arkanoid were games that had to be played, but like trackballs, spinners are pretty expensive. I decided to try and build this myself as cheaply as possible.
• Have an operational coin door.
  • This would help give the cabinet an authentic look as well as serve as a cool piggy bank. I would recoup my expenses by charging hapless relatives and friends.

 

Cabinet construction: General Construction

Section for general construction notes and pictures.

 

Cabinet construction: Coin Door

Section for coin door notes and pictues.

 

Control panel construction - Controllers

Section for controller construction notes and pictures.

 

Control panel construction: Trackball

Section for trackball construction notes and pictures.

 

Control panel construction: Spinner

Section for spinner construction notes and pictures.

 

Observations:

• Don't start putting anything together until you have a solid plan.
  • I spent way too much time revising my construction because something didn't work or was in the way of another phase of construction. Things like having to route out pockets for hinges with a Dremel, and abandoning ideas you had because it would require you to tear things apart is a real bummer. Go in with a drawn plan with definite dimensions and all the support and hardware areas defined.
• Consider the width of a normal door when you draw the plans up.
  • It would suck to get your project completed to find that you can't bring it in the house. I didn't really think about this and just built it to fit the TV and got lucky that it was just shy of my house's doors when the control panel is removed. Duh...
• Use the right tools for the job.
  • I don't have any friends or family that do any woodworking, so I used this project as an excuse to buy a lot of tools I've had my eye on. Of course they haven't been used since, but it's cool because it's one of the man laws or something.
• Don't be too cheap with the building materials.
  • Ensure you have good working materials. I made the mistake of trying to use some old 2x4's that I had in my garage for a couple of years. They were so warped from heat and age, that they made measuring and aligning difficult.
• "Liquid nails" is your friend.
  • If in doubt of the stability of your cabinet, construction adhesive will rip the wood apart before it lets go. Trust me.
• This freakin thing is heavy.
  • If you don't put some heavy duty castor wheels under this thing you are a dummy.