Afternoon

[Whoopty]

Hey guys,

Just saying hi. Looking to pick up a few tips as doing research for my first MAME cab build at the moment.

Managed to recruit the carpenter brother-in-law to help me with the woodworking - though will get the panels CNC'd most likely. Internally I should be alright as I've been building PCs for years.

 

[BristolMartin]

Welcome. I have a showcase Cab Ive built from scratch and absolutely love it. My advice - first stop Ultimarc!

Build everything out of the cab first, its the software that takes ages and like you I've been in Software for over 20 years!

Build a 7 button control panel for each player that caters for all player types.

Led buttons are great as they color code to the game perfectly.

Its a never ending task...... trust me.....

 

[Fuzzy]

Hello and welcome.

 

[Guests]

Welcome to UKVAC Whoopty! PAC-MAN2013-06-11 15:22:09

 

[Alpha1]

Welcome to UKVAC dude!

 

[ZedEx48K]

Howdoo

No to player buttons that light up unless they are the P1 & P2 buttons, it's horrible bling and blinding at times (I had to fix one once with them on), no to extra buttons either they're not needed, nor is a draw with a KB/mouse in it these are all rookie/lets make it look sh*t hot drunken/toke moments reproduction or refined is the way to go, will look much better for it. Setting up WinXP/MAME/frontend is pretty painless though and doesn't take too long unless you start venturing into the bloated world of Hyperspin.

If you need help just ask though, I've set up plenty in my time.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Howdy mate, welcome to the site

 

[Whoopty]

Thanks for the kind words guys and loving the conflicting advice, always good to see there's no right way to do things.

I've been doing some mock ups of the eventual design and from reading I've done, the current plan is to go ahead with a mouse/keyboard drawer - making it easier to do something else on the system if I want, or play anything a little more modern.

Button wise I'm thinking of doing six per player, plus a 1 + 2 player button and a couple of centrally located ones for Esc and Pause functions.

Not sure about button choice yet. The cab is going to be yellow and black, so buttons will most likely be yellow, though I'm undecided on whether to use chrome surrounds or not. I'll probably order one of each and see how they look before going all out.

 

[ZedEx48K]

Just put a USB port on the back for KB/mouse use.

Esc pause, enter etc buttons aren't needed, get an i-pac and use the shift button feature (or just set up combos with the ingame mame menu and use a generic controller) , for example hold P1 start and press button 6 to pause, P1 & B5 to bring up the mame menu, P1 & P2 to esc

 

[trm]

Hi Whoopty (great name btw!)

Welcome to UKVAC and congrats on your self-build. You'll notice that every collector has their own idea about how to do stuff - my thought on the matter is that it's your machine and it should look exactly how you want

You're the one who'll be playing it, so go for what you like!

cheers

tim

 

[Whoopty]

One thing I definitely do need to stick on the back is a headphone jack. This is going in the living room and no way I can concentrate with the Mrs' programming on!

Thanks for the compliment, it comes from an old game of CnC with a Polish guy who was trouncing me, "Who is the whoopty now?!"

So I stole it.

 

[ZedEx48K]

my thought on the matter is that it's your machine and it should look exactly how you want

You're the one who'll be playing it, so go for what you like!

True, however it is good to heed warning and take advice, otherwise you could end up with crap like this, http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/1.html

 

[BristolMartin]

Im not a subscriber to the multi button escape as it can be accidentally pressed when playing with friends like the other day on level 12 of 1944 - Escape, all over... Mine is now well out of the way.BristolMartin2013-06-12 13:52:31

 

[cools]

Change your MAME config to require exit confirmation. Problem solved.

 

[ZedEx48K]

Im not a subscriber to the multi button escape as it can be accidentally pressed when playing with friends like the other day on level 12 of 1944 - Escape, all over... Mine is now well out of the way.

True, but if you pic the right buttons it should never really be an issue, 1P & 2P was the easiest example but prob the easiest to accidentally quit too, you can set delays with some frontends too solving that problem.

 

[BristolMartin]

Change your MAME config to require exit confirmation. Problem solved.

Good idea.