I finally decided to build my own MAME cab. It only took me three years to muster up the strength to actually do it. There are lots of different ways one could build a MAME cabinet, some more expensive than others. After years of looking through forums and sites, there weren't any methods that I really appreciated or they were simply too costly for my small budget. For most of them, you have to buy this little electronic board called I-PAC (http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html) so that you can plug your stick and buttons to your PC through the PS/2 port. This is rather expensive for me, considering the shipping costs, additional cables and plugs. And for the price of buying this board I can literally get something else.. In the end, I decided to mod two cheap fighting sticks into a panel, stick an USB adapter to them and run a old PC with MAME on XP with a nice frontend. What I want: - Two player panel - 8 buttons, 8-axis sticks - Play games like I'm on an arcade
I'm truly surprised they don't make arcade style pads with usb for pc.
>Two player panel But who would you play with?
The plan: Like I said on my previous post, going the traditional route would be too expensive for me. For the money I need to give for I-PAC ($58) plus the sticks and Sanwa buttons ($70), I can actually get two Wii arcade sticks ($29 ea) and the adapter ($15). That's right. The sticks in question are Mad Catz Wii Tatsunoko vs Capcom arcade fightsticks. They are extremely cheap and the best part about them is that they are so easily moddable (see pic for insides). Obviously the problem here is that they are made for the Wii. I could probably mod the cables to put an USB plug at the end like I did to one of my old Xbox pads but I'm not sure those cables are USB standard since I couldn't find anyone doing such a mod or information on that matter. Better go the safe route, and so I found this nifty little adapter made to plug the Wii Classic Controller to the PC (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-6m-49-en-70-3nu3.html). This way, I can open up the Mad Catz stick, remove the printed boards and the buttons, put them on my custom made panel and stick all of that to the USB adapter. In theory, it should work. (*´Д`) >>1257 They do but they are really bad quality. Usually you use an adapter or 360/PS3 stick instead since they have an USB plug.
Holy shit man you're actually doing this.
The materials I already have: - 15" LCD screen - P4 3.5GHZ and 6600GT - 300W generic power supply - 80GB HDD - Audigy 2 5.1 sound card - Speakers - Plexiglass sheets - Some wood parts - Clippers, plugs, cable clips, screws, tape etc. - Sand paper - 4 wheels The things [b]I still need: - Solid wood plates - Paint - 2 arcade sticks - Wii to USB adapter - Configure the PC and MAME - Have a general idea of how I want to put this together - More time >>1258 My waifu, Tomoyo. >>1262 Yeah, I hope I don't fuck up somehow or that I'm missing something. I really need to lay out a plan for the cabinet.
An update and probably the last one for now. I ordered the sticks and the adapter. They should be here in about 2 to 3 weeks if I'm lucky. Total cost: 51,67 USD or 71,83 EUR at current rate. Though I won't start the actual wood work right now as I have final exams these next two weeks. Currently setting up WinXP and the frontend, getting the roms and all the emulators. It's like people only play Street Fighter on these things though. I want to at least have some Altered Beast, 1943 or Sunset Riders. Those kind of games. For the frontend I will use Maximus Arcade (www.maximusarcade.com) as it looks really nice and is easy to configure. Also, I found this (http://arcade.hofle.com/) yesterday while looking at some Youtube videos. Some guy recorded actual arcade ambiance sounds for more than an hour so you can feel like you're really at an arcade. Pretty cool.
That was fast! Such a big Amazon box. No cats playing with it though. (´･ω･`)
Two high quality sticks for the price of a single game? You bet!
How they look like. I'm satisfied. They look solid, the joystick is good, the buttons not so much. Played for TvC on the Wii for 5 minutes and they're responsive and work as intended.
>>1294 Looks pretty sweet.
Back with another small update. The Wii USB adapter arrived today and I also got me additional wood plates and plexiglass. It's now time to sketch up the actual design of this thing. I think I might do this later today or tomorrow. Open to suggestions, of course, if you have a good idea. The code is free for grabs if anyone is buying on Play-Asia. First come, first serve, as always.
>>1320 Forgot to say, the adapter works like a charm. Didn't even need to install drivers or anything as it recognized the stick instantly which is pretty cool. Already played around on GGXX, so easy to get out combos.
Ohio, I got back to work on this. This is where I am at the moment. I have hopes of finishing this tomorrow, then apply some paint the next day.
>>1398
As long as it doesn't explode and catch on fire you should be fine.
Looks great so far.
I spent the whole day configuring the frontend and the emulators and it turns out it doesn't recognize the sticks at all. So right now I'm trying to find new frontends and configuring them. This takes so much time and is like, not fun at all. Sorry, for the stretched picture. I also finished the back panel and the sticks but I hadn't them on in this picture. Next step will be making a frame for the screen and coming up with some kind of marquee for the top.
Woops... You could try mod the keyboard and just wire the buttons to their respective keys. Bit of pissing around but it should work for sure.Post edited on 15th Aug 2011, 2:10am
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