Arcade Cabinet modding

[sTyLeS]

Anyone into creating custom arcade cabinets?
I guess it is a form of case modding. Everything is typically custom made. Some people gut old arcade cabinets, but it's much more rewarding to create one from scratch. And then all the computer parts are mounted right inside...plenty of room.
A 27" TV is used for the display, a keyboard encoder is used to connect the controls and buttons up to the PC.
It was so much fun making, and even more fun playing.
Here's a link to the project website: http://www.monkeysigns.com/dragoncade

Let me know what you think...

 

[Veeb0rg]

i've been collecting parts for my "mame" box for a while.. I got a free Atari Space Duel Cab, and i've collected all the parts cept the jamma to pc converter and the vga-arcade card.. real acade monitor for me, that way i can run real arcade boards too..

 

[sTyLeS]

Yeah, mine is a straight MAME cab. Would be nice to be able to hook up JAMMA boards too, but wasn't in the budget.
Again, to keep costs down I went with the TV instead of arcade monitor. It definately gives a more authentic look at least than a computer monitor would. Plus, with the smoked plexi in front of the TV, it really makes the colors vibrant and hides the TV casing.

 

[Veeb0rg]

yeah.. well total cost of the project so far has been like 30 bucks.. i snaked the cab, the monitors, marquee, glass and 2 over-under coin doors free..

i bought a new jamma harness, and some buttons.. thats been it for expeniture so far..

just need to buy the jpac and the arcade vga card..

 

[sTyLeS]

Do you frequent http://www.arcadecontrols.com at all? That's really the all in one centralized resource for building a MAME cabinet. Lots of good info and ideas to be had from there.
I used the IPac as my interface since it was a straight MAME cab...pretty darn expensive, though.

 

[JediKnight0]

Have you seen my MAME box? Click on the picture to see more...

 

[Scorpionjwp]

I just saw a website about a person who built one in his house.
http://www.ugiansky.com/arcade/default.htm

May I present you the cardboard arcade box.
Go ahead and laugh, I did.
http://www.ugiansky.com/trashcade/trashcade-3.htm

scroll down to the bottom of the page, these two are built by the same person.

 

[Lite_User]

hey Styles

it's nice to now people still build these arcade-cabinets.

My dream is building a cabinet for two people,to simulate a racegame.
With raceseats, steering, pedals,..., beamer
Maybe some sort of shaking-mechanism, would be cool.

But anyways, nice

Grtz

 

[sTyLeS]

Thanks.
I can't tell you how much fun I had building this. Although it did take a while...probably about 4 months.
You can see that mine is just a two person stand-up, but there are some who have attempted the racing simulators, or 4-person stand-ups, or even the large projection showcase games. You can see many of those different styles if you browse around the examples at http://www.arcadecontrols.com

 

[sarconus]