My Arcade Cabinet

[fergie666]

I've just been haggling with some guy over his 'original' Galaga cab.. In his actual words he says theres some damage to the back, the control panel overlay was wear on the front edge. Game works good but it smells of smoke cos it was in a lounge for many yrs...

He had it listed at $750, i offered him $300 but he says his flat bottom is around $650.. Are the original's worth a lot more then? Should I avoid considering I'd butcher it to a PC running mame.

Also tried downloading Maximus Arcade last night, after after 6 failed attempts of downloading the software I gave up. The exe should be around 45meg, but in both its zipped and self exectuable format, it only comes down as a 30odd meg file which is unable to expand itself. Seems strange ? For $25 I'd probably just buy it, even if it was just to set my XP partition up to be a mame only emulator.

If it was me, I wouldn't gut a working machine, that would be a shame ! Try and find something that is not working but has a good shell, like I did.

Not sure what is going on with your download of Maximus Arcade. Try contacting them and reporting the problem. The download is only a trial version, which is time limited. Buying it, gives you a code to remove the time limit.

 

[fergie666]

Absolutely fantastic fergie666!

What did you find the most difficult about the build?

You got me thinking about building one!

How do the buttons and sticks interface with the PC?

Thanks mate

The hardest part was mounting my CRT monitor into it lol. It took a while and was a right pain. I also had to extent about 25 wires from the controls on the front of the monitor, so that I could access them once the glass was in place.

The sticks and buttons are interfaced via a small circuit board called an I-Pac. This simulates a USB keyboard. So when you are setting up MAME, when you press up on the joystick, it tricks MAME in to thinking you are pressing up on the keyboard. It works really well and was a piece of cake to set up.

If you need any more help or info feel free to contact me

 

[fergie666]

Do you have a selection of different games you can load on this or is it the classic paperboy?

If the former, I'd be interested to read a list of your retro games!

There is over 4000 games on it, so a list is out of the question lol

 

[fergie666]

WOW! Top 10 most played then perhaps?

So far my most played games on it are

Donkey Kong
Mortal Kombat
Gigawing
Guwange
Moon Cresta
Scramble
Mortal Kombat 2

There are many more but those are the most played

 

[fergie666]

That's looks ok and you're obviously happy with it, but to me it's absolute sacrilige (sp!) to convert what looked to be a very decent condition original (and as you say, complete) Atari Paperboy cab into another Mame box (especially when i've been looking for one for quite a while although I haven't really got the room! ). Could you not have found a decent standard Jamma cab like a Silverline or something instead and converted that? There's thousands of those still around! I'm probably only saying this because i'm probably a biased arcade collector (been collecting arcade stuff for years, got 3 cabs and at least 100 games pcbs and loads of parts) but no original cab should be converted unless it's absolutely past it or empty (even then they can be restored, there's plenty of most of the parts about, indeed, i've even got one of those huge Paperboy pcb sets in the loft!) The medium resolution Wells Gardner monitor that would've likely been in there are getting quite rare these days. At least you replaced it with another CRT. To put an LCD in would've finished me off!

Thanks ! The cabinet was complete but wasn't working, the monitor was scrap and the PCB, although had power, was unresponsive. The side art was gone and the control panel needs a complete overhaul. I picked this up for £100, by far the cheapest thing I could find. I live in Northern Ireland, so finding any sort of cabinet is like finding a needle in a haystack ! If I bought something cheap from the mainland, it would have cost me a fortune to get it shipped over here.

I fully understand where you are coming from and if it had of been in better condition, I wouldn't have converted it. It would have cost me more than I paid for the cab, to just buy the wood to build my own.

Love your collection mate, very jealous : )

 

[fergie666]

Have you still got any of the parts you removed? Parts as I say are available but they are always being looked for and are worth money!

I still have the PCB and the control panel. The control panel is complete and the artwork is in pretty decent condition but the whole unit needs a overhaul as the handlebars are quite loose and well worn. The chrome is pretty much gone and has been replaced by rust lol

I also have the original marquee which is still in the cab but I plan to replace it soon

Here is a vid of it when I first got it