★★★ Making a MAME arcade machine ★★★

UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
edited April 2012 in Miscellaneous
Well its Sunday afternoon here in the UK so i decided (as it's raining outside) to carry on with my MAME machine.

My PC had been gathering dust for years (since i moved onto Mac) so decided to put that along with the monitor to some good use and downloaded a front end called Hyperspin.

It's early days but I'm hoping to have something like the video in a couple of weeks all wrapped up in a nice bespoke cabinet.

To make things easier i got one of those X-Arcade 2 player sticks from ebay with a lifetime warranty so i expect there pretty good and can take some bashing.



Will take some pics when its done.

***EDIT*** Nearly finished it:)

image

Darren.

GS TEMPLATES
DBA RESOURCE CENTRE

Comments

  • capitalcarnagecapitalcarnage Member Posts: 371
    Darren

    Are you going to make your own cabinet?,

    When i started my cabinet project i found this usefull

    http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/stepprojectmame.htm

    James
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    Thanks James thats a big help as i do plan to make my own cabinet.

    ATM im setting up all the emulators to work with hyperspin...not as easy as i thought.

    Plan on having a few systems from Atari 2600 upwards so far i have a complete set of Master System, Megadrive (Genesis), Nes, Snes, Neo Geo and N64.

    Darren.
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    I will admit its a lot harder than i thought but i think that's because i have gone for the flashy one ie Hyperspin.

    Today i got PC Engine working, always always always!!! wanted one of them as a kid:)

    Darren.
  • SteverdSteverd Member Posts: 194
    I made a MAME arcade machine about 5 years ago. Got the cabinet plans from a regular seller on Mameworld.com.
    Man that sucker turn out huge!! I think the company I got my controllers from went out of business, was it called Slik Stik?. But it had a great trakball and spinner (Tempest). I do own an actual Tempest now. I also have almost 30 arcade and pinball machine in my personal basement arcade.
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    Wow that's a mega collection!!! I would love a house of the dead machine but after taking the measurements the only place it would fit is outside in the back garden lol.

    Darren.
  • SteverdSteverd Member Posts: 194
    All of my arcade machines are from the early 1980's, the era I grew up playing them. I might an old man here.
    A few in my collection: Space Invaders, Pac-man, Ms Pac-man, Tempest, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Tron, Defender, Asteroids, Tempest, Outrun, etc... A few Pinball machine are: Xenon, Funhouse, Twilight Zone, White Water, Star Trek Next Generation, Diner, World Cup soccer 94, etc.

    It's a fun hobby, but man it takes up ALOT of room!
    steve
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    Just upgrade the X Arcade stick with a new board, wasn't as easy as it looked lol.



    Darren.
  • 3xL3xL Member Posts: 676
    I built one of these. Currently have ps1 sega Saturn, snes, n64, wii hd and arcade games like mortal kombat 1 2 3 and 4, killer instinct 1 & 2 and most street fighters.

    I would love to have an "h2Overdrive" arcade machine. That game is great. It's a sequel to hydro thunder but with way better graphics.
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    edited March 2012
    I'm a big Neo Geo fan, got all the Metal Slugs, Fighters and they also made some really good shmup's

    I don't think the X Arcade stick is a good one for N64 as i can't find a nice set up so might have to leave that out.

    Darren.
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    It's been a while but i have almost finished it, i took some WIP pics along the way so when it's completely finished i will upload them and share.

    Wayne came round today and had a 2 player blast on metal slug :) but still have to finish the marquee and sort out the light behind it.

    Darren.
  • basil81basil81 PRO Posts: 103
    edited April 2012
    Been wanting to make my own MAME cabinet for a long while, but I hadn't heard of Hyperspin, it looks brilliant! Will be looking forward to more updates on your progess, :)
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    Nearly finished it just got to order my marquee art now but not sure on what to choose.

    image

    Darren.
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    edited April 2012
    Hi Guys,

    Well its took longer than expected but i'm at the choosing a marquee stage and could do with some advise on a nice one.

    Here's the cabinet and as you can see it's missing the all important art at the top:)

    image

    I was going to go for Donkey Kong or Mame but not sure now so...any thoughts.

    Darren.

    GS TEMPLATES
    DBA RESOURCE CENTRE
  • tenrdrmertenrdrmer Member, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-Chef Posts: 9,934
    Hey man I went ahead and merged this. we would do it to any other user. You can at least adjust the thread title to call attention to helping you name your machine.

    Looks Cool as hell btw.

    Cheers
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,394
    Does look cool :) Is there a site that does the stickers for these things? Perhaps get some inspirations that way!
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • capitalcarnagecapitalcarnage Member Posts: 371
    Looks very good!

    I had this website bookmarked, has a boat load of original marquee art apparently

    http://www.progettosnaps.net/marquees.html


  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    Get Chris to design you one. Get a UtopianGames one made with a medley of art from your games redone to all fit together in an arcade style?

    Ace
  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,394
    Love that idea Ace!
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    edited April 2012
    They don't call me Mr Bubblegum for no reason

    Ace

    EDIT: I have no idea what the hell I'm on about before anyone asks.
  • olster1olster1 Member Posts: 396
    You just inspired me to spend the evening researching everything to do with MAME cabinets. This will be my Summer Project. Out of curiosity could you post the specs of the PC you used to run with the Hyperspin front?
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    edited April 2012
    Great idea ACE!!!

    I ended up getting a 2nd hand pc from ebay for around £70 it's dual core 3ghz 2mb ram with a cheap graphics card and running xp pro.

    It really depends what you want to run for eg if you want to run dreamcast and playstation i would go for a 512 graphics card.

    HyperSpin and the older games don't really require a high end pc tbh.

    I used instant sheller so it boots straight into a custom screen which then goes straight to HyperSpin in around 10 seconds so there is no sign of a PC.

    I set the PC up so it powers on when i plug it in or flip the switch on the plug socket and it all closes down via a menu in HyperSpin so its pretty neat.

    I found a guy on ebay that's selling an external 2TB hard drive for around £140 jam packed with hyperspin and 62 emulators so might take him up on the offer for my next one...yes all my m8s and some family members want one now lol.

    I found that running neo geo in winkawaks is better than using mame because mame running neo geo roms suffers from slow down and winkawaks runs them super smooth.

    Darren.

  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    edited May 2012
    Got my Marquee a few days ago so will upload a few pics or mb a video of it in action.

    I got some T-Moulding and a slot cutter from the states (cheaper than buying in the uk and have it flown half way round the world...crazy i know).

    Might leave the T-Moulding off this one and use it for another cab...yes i got the bug and will build some more over the summer.

    Daz.
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    Decided to go with a universal MAME marquee in case i ever want to give it away or sell it.

    I also plan on making another full sized one to keep and learn from the mistakes i made making this one.

    image

    image

    Darren.
Sign In or Register to comment.

© Vanilla Keystone Theme 2025