Well, I've come up with a solution (finally) for some Tate shmuppery: I'm gonna build a mini Bartop style cabinet. I just have a few monitor questions, as I plan on using a proper arcade monitor.
How are monitors mounted in Japanese cabs for easy Tateability? Do they have some sort of frame that hold the monitor and allows it to rotate? Or do these cabs use special monitors that are made to be easily rotated? From what I understand (on some cabs), it's just a case of opening the front of the cab, removing 2 bolts and flipping the monitor. How do they do this?
The monitor I was thinking of using is this one from Happ or something similar. I assume I need this as opposed to a shelfmount one if I want to Tate it?
And finally, to save me spending rediculous amounts on shipping, does anyone know any decent arcade suppliers in the UK please?
Cheers
TATE Monitor Questions
Some of the crazy MAME cab kids build their monitors on a rotating dolly. Think a circular piece of wood with some wheels around the edges that spins like your average "lazy susan". Any time they want to rotate they simply give it a spin and the whole thing travels through 180 degrees (tate left, through yoko, through to tate right, and back again). Obviously you DO NOT want it to rotate a full 360 degrees!
Things to watch if you take this approach are how all of your cables hang inside the cab. You don't want to damage your monitor, chassis or connected gaming system with an overzealous spin. The advantage is of course that you can slap any game you can think of inside the unit and not need to worry about which way it orients in tate mode.
It certainly takes more effort to build, but could represent much less effort in the long run. I'll try to find some examples and link them here.
[edit]
Here's a cocktail cab:
http://www.jarabeck.com/content/view/21/93/
And another more sophisitcated one:
http://web.archive.org/web/200210161130 ... AMECAB.htm
Still trying to find some upright ones...
[edit2]
Well holy shit if there isn't a whole bloody section dedicated to rotating monitor cabs:
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_rotate.shtml
Enjoy!
Things to watch if you take this approach are how all of your cables hang inside the cab. You don't want to damage your monitor, chassis or connected gaming system with an overzealous spin. The advantage is of course that you can slap any game you can think of inside the unit and not need to worry about which way it orients in tate mode.
It certainly takes more effort to build, but could represent much less effort in the long run. I'll try to find some examples and link them here.
[edit]
Here's a cocktail cab:
http://www.jarabeck.com/content/view/21/93/
And another more sophisitcated one:
http://web.archive.org/web/200210161130 ... AMECAB.htm
Still trying to find some upright ones...
[edit2]
Well holy shit if there isn't a whole bloody section dedicated to rotating monitor cabs:
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_rotate.shtml
Enjoy!
That first cocktail cab is featured on Crap Mame Cabs btw, maybe not the best example. 
Just when I think this shit can't get any wackier, some guy goes and cuts a giant hole in the middle of a kids gradeschool desk.
Drill a few holes in a table top, screw in a few buttons, color the front of a small monitor black with some sharpies, put up a little BILLBOARD sign (!?), tack on a freaking touch pad. And you're JOE COOL ARCADEMASTER.
The monitor also TURNS so that vertically oriented games can be enjoyed much more than they would otherwise, on this crazy piece of crap with the monitor stuffed up into your face out of the surface of the table.
The external HD he's got there is pretty bitchin' too.
Can't even really call this a MAME cabinet, more like a MAME TV Tray. Fire up a HUNGRY MAN, SOLID GOLD IS ON and I'm gonna play GALS PANIC in the livin' room!
I wasn't insisting anyone take the overall design as something to emulate, that's for sure. It is one ugly mother of a cab.CIT wrote:That first cocktail cab is featured on Crap Mame Cabs btw, maybe not the best example.
It was merely linked as an example of how to build a rotating monitor. Even then it's pretty piss-poor (block of wood on cheap castors!). The other links are much better examples of what can be acheived.
yeah, the key is to not make it look like ass.
i dont know if theres a way to do it thats better than what taito has done with the egret series:
egret 1: http://www.solvalou.com/arcade_egret.php
2: http://www.zax.com.au/egret2.html
i dont know if theres a way to do it thats better than what taito has done with the egret series:
egret 1: http://www.solvalou.com/arcade_egret.php
2: http://www.zax.com.au/egret2.html