Arcade Machine/Cabinet - Questions

RedTen

RedTen

RedTen

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Ok so I've always wanted an arcade cabinet and I'm thinking now is the time to research it properly.

I've been looking at HyperSpin is this the best front end available?

What sort of spec should I be looking at to run this and the associated emulators/roms? Would a small net top PC be OK (Atom 1.66/2gb RAM)?

Other than the cabinet itself what hardware do I need? Buttons/Joysticks and a controller card of some sort?

I'd be going for a full height cabinet with a flat screen LCD - I'm not that hardcore to require an authentic CRT. I was thinking Street Fighter style, minimal buttons - 2 player only.

Have I missed anything obvious? Can anyone recommend the best place to shop for parts?

Lots of questions sorry :o:)
 
craarc said:
pop this in google m8

How to Build a Kick-Ass MAME Arcade Cabinet from an Old PC
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'd seen that, unfortunately its a US based site so not so handy for sourcing parts in the UK.

I've found a company called Gremlin Solutions that sell Stick/Button kits that look OK @ £76 + VAT - was hoping someone could suggest a company on personal experience.

Will keep on reading :)
 
Hey mate, I play a lot of fighting games (well, mainly Street Fighter 3 :)) and I think your best bet is to head over to the uk fighting game scene forums neoempire.com and pm a chap called Fire Bug. He is the man who literally lives and breaths arcades, and is currently buying up all the cabs from the closed down Funland Arcade (London Trocaedro) to refurb and sell via the interwebs.

It also depends on the style of cabinet you are after (Japanese style candy cabs like the taito egret 2? or the chip shop ones :)), and if your going to buy the arcade boards then whether the harnesses (JAMMA etc) are compatible. Monitors play an important part too. Best to contact him for advice IMO.

How much of an "enthusiast" are you? Most of us young uns brought up with fighting games prefer japaneese sticks and buttons from either Sanwa Denshi or Seimetsu, the Tekken players prefer something a bit more stiffer and go after the Korean parts (Myoungshin Fanta), and then you have the old school pac man era guys going after the US branded Happ parts :D

Edit 2: I have used gremlinsolutions before, great company but can be a little pricey. I have also used arcadeshop.de (from Germany) and also etokki.com of Korea for my button needs!
 
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The Chemist said:
Hey mate, I play a lot of fighting games (well, mainly Street Fighter 3 :)) and I think your best bet is to head over to the uk fighting game scene forums neoempire.com and pm a chap called Fire Bug. He is the man who literally lives and breaths arcades, and is currently buying up all the cabs from the closed down Funland Arcade (London Trocaedro) to refurb and sell via the interwebs.

It also depends on the style of cabinet you are after (Japanese style candy cabs like the taito egret 2? or the chip shop ones :)), and if your going to buy the arcade boards then whether the harnesses (JAMMA etc) are compatible. Monitors play an important part too. Best to contact him for advice IMO.

How much of an "enthusiast" are you? Most of us young uns brought up with fighting games prefer japaneese sticks and buttons from either Sanwa Denshi or Seimetsu, the Tekken players prefer something a bit more stiffer and go after the Korean parts (Myoungshin Fanta), and then you have the old school pac man era guys going after the US branded Happ parts :D
Click to expand...

Thanks - very useful. I'll take a look at that site shortly.

In terms of style and level of enthusiast..uhm.. minimal. I loved them when I was a kid but I wouldn't have any idea what sort of controls I would prefer.

This is the sort of cabinet I'm looking at - http://arcadecontrols.com/images/examples/HeavyMetal.jpg

When I said street fighter style I was thinking of more art and visuals as opposed to set games I will be playing. I'm hoping to have it well stocked with a variety of roms so controls will need to cater for a little of everything.
 
RedTen said:
Thanks - very useful. I'll take a look at that site shortly.

In terms of style and level of enthusiast..uhm.. minimal. I loved them when I was a kid but I wouldn't have any idea what sort of controls I would prefer.

This is the sort of cabinet I'm looking at - http://arcadecontrols.com/images/examples/HeavyMetal.jpg

When I said street fighter style I was thinking of more art and visuals as opposed to set games I will be playing. I'm hoping to have it well stocked with a variety of roms so controls will need to cater for a little of everything.
Click to expand...

Ah right so some form of mame set up then? The tech in this scene has moved leaps and bounds, and you could easily buy an old arcade cabinet (might need some refurb), stick in an old pc or xbox 1, and wire up the controls yourself. A few years ago you would have had to do ghastly pad hacks where you would break apart for example a ps2/ps1 controller, and solder wires from the button to the corresponding point on the pcb. Now you can buy solderless pcb boards (cthulhu or mc chtulhu) which have screw terminals, so you can crimp the wires from each button to the respective point on the board.

Heres a little arcade stick I made/modded to work on the xbox 360/ps3 with authentic jap parts a few years ago :)

p1000221i.th.jpg


Solderless wiring thing

p1000277h.jpg


p1000280w.jpg


Final

p1000317.jpg
 
The Chemist said:
Ah right so some form of mame set up then? The tech in this scene has moved leaps and bounds, and you could easily buy an old arcade cabinet (might need some refurb), stick in an old pc or xbox 1, and wire up the controls yourself. A few years ago you would have had to do ghastly pad hacks where you would break apart for example a ps2/ps1 controller, and solder wires from the button to the corresponding point on the pcb. Now you can buy solderless pcb boards (cthulhu or mc chtulhu) which have screw terminals, so you can crimp the wires from each button to the respective point on the board.

Heres a little arcade stick I made/modded to work on the xbox 360/ps3 with authentic jap parts a few years ago :)

Solderless wiring thing

Final
Click to expand...

Yeah basically a mame cabinet running some sort of frontend such as HyperSpin.

Assuming I had a PC powerful enough and a monitor all I'd need to buy is the following...right? :o

Buttons/Sticks

http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/products/sanwa_cp_kit_white.htm

I-PAC Card
http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/products/i-pac2board.htm

Edit - I completely forgot to say your arcade stick looks awesome :)
 
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RedTen said:
Yeah basically a mame cabinet running some sort of frontend such as HyperSpin.

Assuming I had a PC powerful enough and a monitor all I'd need to buy is the following...right? :o

Buttons/Sticks

http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/products/sanwa_cp_kit_white.htm

I-PAC Card
http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/products/i-pac2board.htm

Edit - I completely forgot to say your arcade stick looks awesome :)
Click to expand...

That should be fine, although personally I would not buy that controller board. If using a PC then you can easily use cthulhu boards that will work on the PC or the more newer boards like pc360.

I think arcadeotaku.com have a forum dedicated to arcade cabinets and such. The buy/sell subforum is quite active too, a friend of mine recently picked up 2 cabinets (Sega Blast City + Egret III) for around £400 each with original monitors.

If you want to build your cab from scratch, the american forums shoryuken.com have a technical section where some guys have built modern cabs similar to the stock cabinets that came with Street Fighter 4 (viewlix cabinet), housing an xbox 360 complete with lcd monitors and speaker system. Check these out below...

2012-05-23010235.jpg

b5400911.jpg

DSC00916.jpg
< Noir Arcade cabinet made by Namco.
2012-05-24011710.jpg
 
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