I want to build a mame arcade setup, where to start?

[modman]

                                        I am building a cocktail arcade game setup and don't know which is the best recommended parts to get. I have a 26" crt monitor and can build the cabinets and parts. I would like to know which board is the best to get. I've seen some you can download your own mame games into the existing serial port and ones that already have games on them. Also some that can only play certain games when the monitor is horizontal and vertical. I have a Frogger sit down game that I want to convert to a combo game and also build another cocktail table game as well.  I've always wondered how accurate the games are to the original. I've seen a few but they don't appear to look the same in detail or sound. I want all the games to be like the original. Can anyone give me any recommendations on which are the best parts to purchase. I know I would need a power supply and a power switch board to covert power. Just not sure what type of board to look after.

[stayouttadabunker]

I remember there was some website that sold a board which
had like 160 of the original arcade games on it.
That board would be a blast to have!

here's one link I found!>>>
http://www.arcade-game-sales.com/products/pcb/5506-1.html
I'm sure some guys are selling something similar to this or even better in the US.

[jay]

I have built a cocktail mame cabinet. With a 26" CRT. Love the format.

The first thing you will want is a KE72 by hagstrom electronics. This is the heart of the whole game.
This board plugs into your keyboard port on your PC and then you can plug a regular keyboard into it (if desired).
This then gives you 72 inputs; for which you can hook up 72 buttons.
Each of the 72 inputs corresponds to a different key.
For a real key board I use a wireless keyboard.

The board has 2 IDE style edge connectors on it. They also sell a small break out  box with screw connectors for these. They include a IDE cable and the break out unit.
Each break out unit has 36 screw type connectors. I have used a long piece of IDE cable and wired it to each switch (ugly) and the break out works so much cleaner so I recommend you get a couple of these too.

The only thing weird about this board is that to connect it to the PC you need a male-male PS2 cable as both the PS2 port on the PC and the board are female. They sell this cable as well for $5.95 so I would pick it up. These are not too common of a find.

My game has 3 control panels. One on each end for classic games like Galaga/pacman etc and then one down the side. The one down the side has 2 players on it for games like Joust and Street fighter.

Using a 26" CRT - I ran into a few minor problems. First was the depth of the cabinet. You will end up with a taller than normal coctail table. I ended up pulling off the cabinet from my TV.
Second was finding a Bezel - they make them for 26" but 19" was a lot more common. The 19" you could even get with the pre-printed pacman graphics etc. Once this was completed I had a hard time getting the unit into my basement as the unit was wider than stairs and I had to turn it sideways. I would recommend making the CRT removeable with quick disconnect connectors so you can remove it. I actually screwed my PC to the bottom of my cabinet so its metal case doesn't hit the exposed tube if it gets knocked to hard. Also give the weight I put this on casters.

If your using a TV (like I did) you will need a video card in your PC that outputs Svideo.

The next most expensive part is going to be a track ball. You need this for games like GoldenT golf, missle command etc. The bigger the better. This usually doubles as your mouse. The easiest interface is to get one that is USB compatiable. Happ sells these but you can get one for about 1/2 the money (same manufacturer) from arcadeparts.com

Next you will need to decide if you want a spinner or not. These are needed for games like Tempest and Tron. Again stupidly expensive.

Next you will want to decide about your joysticks. Joysticks are either 4 way or 8 way. The only difference is the joystick insert that limits the motion. On an 8 way (which handles diagonals) it press's 2 switches at the same time. While the 4 way can only press 1 button at a time. I installed 2 joysticks (1x4way, 1x8way) at each end of my cocktail table. This was probably overkill and I could have gotten away with just the 4way. Pacman is meant to be played with a 4 way. if you use an 8 way and accidently go at an angle the Pac creature just sits there rather than going any direction and you get gobbled. games like Galaga, space invaders only use 2 motions (left / right) so this doesn't matter. Some games like Defender can be played in coctail mode and would want a 8way joystick but honestly for Defender you want the side ways screen as it gives you more time to react. Even Donkey kong uses 4way joysticks.

On the side controls I installed the 8ways as Joust, defender and Streetfighter depend on that type of control. One of my other buddies created an upright style cabinet and he put on 2 joysticks for each player so he can play crazyclimber. Since the side controls on mine had 2 joysticks (1 for each player) you can program custom controls on a per game basis. The spacing is just a bit wide for the serious crazy climber enthuasiast.

Buttons are next. Each end of my coctail table has 6 play buttons in the Jama format. I also have a credit button and a 1 player and 2 player button.
In building this all over again I would also add in a second fire button on the opposite side of my joystick as I sometimes find myself crossing hands to fire when playing galaga. I like using my right hand to beat on the fire button while using my left for motion control. You can get away with putting just 1 set of the Credit buttons and 1&2 the player on the machine. I have 3 sets, one on each end plus one down the side. Some people skip the credit button and buy the coin-op insert for the door. However same people end up leaving it open so they can press the button for free credits or install a credit button anyways.

I have also added in a few extra buttons. TAB (used to get into game setup mode), Enter (used from the mame console to start the game), ESC (to get out of the game). I have added 2 buttons on the side of the cabinet. For left and right mouse clicks, unlike the other buttons these 2 get wired to the track ball (and the track ball is USB connected to the PC). I have finally added a monitor power button on the side and soldered that to the TV's momentary on/off button.

There is also a separate program called PINMAME which emulates pinball machines. The best format for this is length wise to mimic the play field of a pinball machine. If you do this you will want to add 2 buttons for flippers on each side of the cabinet. Although I have not added it to mine you can get a motion switch so you can nudge the table as this is supported by pinmame.
I own a williams diner pinball machine, and the emulation of this from Pinmame is 100%.

Lastly since I used a TV which has a decent amplication system I used the sound card out to the audio in on the TV and mounted some decent speakers in the base of my cabinet. I should note if you go this way and have an exposed tube in the back of your monitor you need to use sheilded speakers otherwise the big magnets in the speakers will affect the colors of your TV.

I did go over the top a bit on this and had a nice piece of custom glass cut to fit the unit as well as buying T moulding for all of the edges to make it look just like a real arcade machine.

Incidently I am about to give away my mame system to a buddy (due to space constraints) and rebuld this using a coffee table since it is much lower profile. I will be using a 19" LCD monitor and a laptop from another friend that has a broken screen. Both of which I can mount to the bottom of the coffee table and have hidden.

[modman]

                                             I don't want to add a computer and keyboard setup but rather adding a PC board and not deal with a hard drive. I took a look at the website for that board and that looks like what I'm looking for. The only thing is I don't know about what type of harness I need or if they supply it and the main power supply needed for it. If there is a company in the us that sells something like this I'd rather go that route. I haven't spent much time searching as I thought it would be faster finding the answers here.

[stormrider]

                                             I don't want to add a computer and keyboard setup but rather adding a PC board and not deal with a hard drive. I took a look at the website for that board and that looks like what I'm looking for. The only thing is I don't know about what type of harness I need or if they supply it and the main power supply needed for it. If there is a company in the us that sells something like this I'd rather go that route. I haven't spent much time searching as I thought it would be faster finding the answers here.

I built a mame setup with pc inside a missile command cab 5000+ games all based on roms
but if your looking not to go the rom and pc route you might check into a multicade board
there was a thread here sometime ago about such a board has like 60 of the top games on it
once you get over a 1000 games most are knock offs or clones anyway wish I could find that old thread
anyway here is a quick shot of the board and games it has .
The games that are included are: 

    * 1942
    * 1943
    * Amidar
    * Arkanoid
    * Bomb Jack
    * Burger Time
    * Centipede
    * Crush Roller
    * Dig Dug
    * Dig Dug 2
    * Donkey Kong
    * Donkey Kong 3
    * Donkey Kong Junior
    * Frogger
    * Galaga
    * Galaga 3
    * Galaxian
    * Gyruss
    * Hustler
    * Jr. Pac-Man
    * Juno First
    * King & Balloon
    * Ladybug
    * Mappy
    * Millipede
    * Moon Cresta
    * Mr Do's Castle
    * Mr. Do!
    * Ms. Pac-Man
    * New Rally X
    * Pac-Man
    * Pac-Man Plus
    * Pengo
    * Phoenix
    * Pinball Action
    * Qix
    * Scramble
    * Shao-Lin's Road
    * Space Invaders
    * Space Panic
    * Super Breakout
    * Super Cobra
    * Super Pacman
    * Tank Battalion
    * Time Pilot
    * Van-Van Car
    * Xevious
    * Zaxxon
    * Pooyan
    * Pleiads
    * Gunsmoke
    * 1943 Kai
    * Congo Bongo
    * Jumping Jack
    * Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-up version)
    * Galaga (Speed-up version)
    * Pac-Man (Speed-up version)
    * Jr. Pac-Man (Speed-up version)
    * Pac-Man Plus (Speed-up version)

Boardset includes a manual which covers changing global settings as well as game specific settings and has a wiring pinout.

[stormrider]

Just one of the places that has multicade

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=52&products_id=177


Multicade also works on cocktail and flips the screen for you
here is an ebay link for more info

http://cgi.ebay.com/60-in-1-Icade-Classicade-Multicade-jamma-arcade-board_W0QQitemZ230407266305QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a557e001

[jay]

I think what you are looking for is called Multicade - NOT MAME.

MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

It is a program that runs on a PC and uses copies of the orginal EPROM binaries to emulate all of the orginal arcade games/

Multicade is a hardware adaptaion and has like 33 in 1. Unlike Mame you can't just add another Binary ROM file as they come available.

[stayouttadabunker]

I think BOTH ideas are pretty cool!

[modman]

              Now on the multicade, are the roms identical to the original? They need to play the same and not a generic copy of the original.

[modman]

Just one of the places that has multicade

http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=52&products_id=177


                   I saw the one on Ebay and I think that is what I'd like to buy. Now I don't know is this will truly be a plug and play on my existing Frogger machine. Now on Twisted Quarters website, how come the 60 in one is less than the 19 in one?

Multicade also works on cocktail and flips the screen for you
here is an ebay link for more info

http://cgi.ebay.com/60-in-1-Icade-Classicade-Multicade-jamma-arcade-board_W0QQitemZ230407266305QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a557e001

[stormrider]

              Now on the multicade, are the roms identical to the original? They need to play the same and not a generic copy of the original.

Modman,

I can't answer that I personally don't have that setup (multicade)
you should contact some of the places that sell them and find out the scoop
I was only pointing out some options for you that might work.

Thanks. Tim

[modman]

                          I got a hold of that person selling on Ebay and he said they are exactly like the original but that's for me to find out. For the price I can take the chance to try it out. The person told me he has all the adaptors needed to convert over so we'll see how it goes...

[PWRSTROKE]

They play the same and are identical as far as I could tell.  I have a friend that has/had/and still does a huge viedo game/pinball warehouse etc. Anyway He loved these thing when they came out.  He had so many cabinets to use for them it was ridculous.  They were kinda pricey about a year and half ago but worth the money for what you get when done.  Just my experience and 2-cents-Thanks B.

[stormrider]

                          I got a hold of that person selling on Ebay and he said they are exactly like the original but that's for me to find out. For the price I can take the chance to try it out. The person told me he has all the adaptors needed to convert over so we'll see how it goes...

Glad to hear let us know how you make out with it
and post some pictures.

Tim

[modman]

                                 Thanks guys for all your help, for sure I'll post pics when I get done. I'm really anxious to try this out.

[stayouttadabunker]

I just bought the 60-1 multicade board...
Can't wait to try it out!
I already have the joysticks and trackballs...
I've always been interested in the boards.

[Thor777]

I just bought the 60-1 multicade board...
Can't wait to try it out!
I already have the joysticks and trackballs...
I've always been interested in the boards.

Please keep us posted as to how you interface it to the rest of the world... 

[stayouttadabunker]

Since I will be playing with a multicade board....
I figured...let's go"multi-display" as well on this puppy!
coupled with a 1x2 progressive display

and of course...the exploding confetti cannon! LOL

[modman]

                           Cool, yeah I'd like to see how this turns out and if I have any questions, at least I know who else has the same board. Did you get the one off of Ebay? The person selling it, his name is Tony. I'm also getting a Jamma adaptor for plug and play with the board. The only thing I have to do is add additional buttons as the Frogger machine only has a joystick.

[stayouttadabunker]

I didn't happen to see who was selling it because I was only interested in the board really...
if Santa Claus or Tiger Woods was selling it - that would be fine with me too!   
we'll see what happens...

[jay]

Likely Tiger..... it sounds like he might need the money soon...... 

[modman]

                               In regards to the harness, will any jamma harness work? I see quite a few of those sold on Ebay as well. I have an extra 26" monitor and plan to build a cabinet to fit it so would need the harness to wire up buttons, joystick, trackball, etc.

[stayouttadabunker]

I think so, but you need the specific cable they sell to attach a trackball for the multicade board.
There's some documentation that gos along with the multicade board that should help you more.
Not all Jamma cables are exactly alike from what I've read.

[modman]

                                 I'm learning more on this. There is a harness called a superharness for cocktail tables as they have two sets of controllers. I was going to buy the one on Ebay listed for $115 but I talked to Andrew at Twisted Quarters and convinced me to buy from him because of 1 year warranty and he mentioned that it is not a cheap copy from China? at least that's what he said. But to me the main thing is he is in the states and the other seller is in Canada so shipping would take longer and putting those into factor I made my decision to buy from T.Q. I've purchased through T.Q. before and the service has been good.

[stayouttadabunker]

I think you've made a good choice!