Anyone ever built/bought a MAME cabinet?

[francis247uk]

Been thinking about building a MAME cabinet, has anyone had any experience?
Can't decide whether to buy an old machine and convert it to a MAME cabinet, or buy a wooden kit and completely build from scratch.
Lots of stuff on ebay and a few old looking websites - can anyone recommend a good place to start?

 

[Jeff Strong]

I use an Xarcade for sort of a bartop setup, but if I was to go the full cab route I'd look to convert an old cab for a cheap price. The wood kits I've looked at in the past seemed rather expensive.

 

[danivempire]

Four years ago I decided myself to make a mamecab. I wanted one for a long time.

This is the result, and it's still there kicking ass

I built it myself, painted, decorated and all, it was a lot of work but It was worth it!

So, if you want advices, don't hesitate to ask ^^

but so far, here are my two cents

Buying an old cab and converting to a mamecab can be really good.
But you have to check the condition of the wood, and be able or know someone you can work on wood to repair it. Because let's face it, it's pretty hard to find and old cab in good condition (where I live anyway).
The screen has also to be in good condition, no burn or be worn out.

and finally, what kind of games you want to play.
Being a Street Fighter fan, I needed 6 buttons. May sound logical. But I've played a few mamecabs with 4 buttons, or 3.

Building from scratch is not easy and not cheap, but making one from and old cab is not easy either... and for cheap, yep if you find one in good condition it's ok.

ps: whatever road you decide to go, here's a link of what NOT to do ^^ http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/index.html

 

[Trenchbroom]

I got an old Midway "Blue Print" cabinet from an arcade distributor about 15 years ago that he had set out for garbage pickup (cannot believe it's been that long!). Bought a TV with S-video, an old Celeron 566 PC with Windows 98, an I-Pac keyboard interface and some Wico joysticks. Plays pretty much any video game you can think of from 1990-earlier and it is still working perfectly to this day.
It impresses everyone my age who sees it and I still play it weekly. It really was an easy thing to assemble with a little money, a bit more patience and lots of visits to www.arcadecontrols.com (look for my user name in the forums if you want to see pictures of it). Good luck!

 

[whoozwah]

I built one a long time ago. Building the cab and wiring it can be done in a weekend if you power through. Getting the artwork and software set up is where all the time goes. Get all that sorted first. Then build it.

I'd say when you do decide to get the cab going I'd prolly build one vs covert because unless the cab it totally trashed I'd personally rather see a cab restored than gutted for mame. That and if you build it you have more flexibility to modify everything to suite your specific circumstances. You can make it a 4 player, you can make it low profile. You can make it a bartop. It's what you want.

Write down what all you want to accomplish with it. What features do you want? decide which ones are essential and which ones are just "nice-to-haves". Do you need an arcade monitor or can you live with an LCD? what kind of sticks do you want, separate dedicated 4 way and 8 way? do you want to mount one diagonally for q bert? do you need a rotary for ikari warriors? spinner? trackball? lightguns?

This is the kind of project that you'll probably never be "done" with. It's just that kind of beast.

Final thought: measure twice. cut once.