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

[channelmaniac]

                                 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.

I've made many purchases from Andrew and have never had a problem with the product or with the company. They are A+ in my book.

RJ

[waynelk]

Bunker did you get your mame running yet? I have been looking into this. Can't you simply run the mame on your computer? I downloaded VPINMAME version 2.1 for windows for running pinball games. They also have a VPMAME forum. If I keep this up I am not going to have a life left?
   Wayne

[stayouttadabunker]

LOL...Wayne, I used to introduce all newbies with the saying...
"Welcome to NLG! You can stay but you may never leave..."

As far as the mame...I was never really interested in it....
I ended putting the touchscreen aside for now and
I am almost done building a game I've never seen on NLG.
I'm waiting for a 22" touchscreen sheet to come in the mail.
It's a surprise...

[jay]

Mame runs just fine on a PC.
However if you try and play games like street fighter you use 6 buttons for various kicks and punches.
Once you get good you then start to use two buttons at one time for advanced moves.
2 buttons pressed ont a keyboard == prolonged and annoying BEEP.

Even a simple game like galaga where you need to move out of the way and shoot a rocket at the same time beeps. This is a real challenge to avoid after level 8.

2 player games.... are pretty impossible to play for the same reason.

This is where a keyboard interface emulator and competition buttons (rated for 100,000,000 presses) come into play.......

[modman]

                                         Yesterday I finally got my Frogger cocktail machine converted to the 60 in one Jamma board. There are three types of 60 in one board I recently noticed. The one I got doesn't have the large chip or the bunch of squares on one plastic cover. Anyway I did play some of the games and most are identical to the real deal and some slightly off, especially the sound. Millipede sound is off compared to the original one and the movement is not as fluid as the original. I can only compare to the games I have or know about. Donkey Kong, Frogger,  and Space Invaders are identical to the original, the others besides Millipede, I'm not so sure about as I have not played the originals. Mostly the sound is slightly off on some of the games. Still though it was worth the conversion. I picked up a Donkey Kong stand up machine and I'm going to do the conversion on that as well. I'll probably sell the original Frogger and Donkey Kong boards on Ebay.

[channelmaniac]

The sound is a simple stereo DAC that is directly driven by the CPU. That's why it's a little off. It's not a true sound chip like the Yamaha or GI chips used by so many arcade games.

[modman]

                                                  I listened carefully and noticed that on some games, it's identical and on some, it's off by a lot and perhaps by what you said in regards to a different sound chip. But! I do notice on some of the games, new sounds are created that are not even on the original version, how is that explained?. For example Frogger, I hear added sounds and music, nothing wrong and I actually like the new version sound better. Anyway it was well worth the conversion as not only the machine is lighter but you can play more games and not get bored fast.