Questions regarding MAME cab

[PieOrDie]

well I bought myself a old arcade machine, I am pretty sure it was for street fighter. I got it cheap but I have some questions.

#1. I am going to be buying http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813135096
as my motherboard. I have 4 gigs of DDR2 800 ram lying around and I am going to use a old hard drive,

I am concerned that it might not come with a fan or heat sink based on reviews, and I was wondering what you guys use to cool your mame cab computers.

#2. I've built a few computers but I have always used a case. My concern is turning it on, how do you guys turn your mame cab's on. I do have a few cases lying around and I could just put it in there, but i figured that might look stupid.

#3. I am planning on using the control panel built into the cabinet already, will this work? http://www.ultimarc.com/ipacve.html

#4. I am also planning on buying a coin door since the guy I bought the arcade from took it out. Will the coin door on
http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html#cabparts
work fine? scroll down until you see the coin door

and last question doesn't have to deal with hardware but I mind as well not make a second topic.

#5. What are all the Shmup games you can think of for Mame
Specifically your top 5 or 10 favorite


-edit-
#6 What do you think the best frontend for a mame cab is.

Thanks a lot
~PoD

[croikle]

#5: http://www.mameworld.net/maws/srch.php?type=1&cat=104 is a list of everything in MAWS under the "Shooter/Flying Vertical" category, showing only parent romsets. http://www.mameworld.net/maws/srch.php?type=1&cat=102 is the same for horizontal.

[emphatic]

If the monitor + controls are already working and wired to the JAMMA standard you should use a J-Pac. If not, I can recommend the A-Pac or the I-Pac. The A-Pac has 1 USB cord to your computer and will show up in windows as two game pads. This is much more compatible with most windows games you want to play besides MAME or other emu's. (For example, Shikigami No Shiro III doesn't like when you use a keyboard emulator, and if other great games such as Virtua Tennis/Top Spin will not allow more than one player to use the keyboard.)

Best frontend for MAME is GameEx.

Most people wire a fire button to the computer's power switch and place it either on top of the cabinet or on the front somewhere. Then there are powerstrips that has master/slave capabilities (if the first socket draws power from the strip i.e. when the computer is powered on, the rest gets power as well -> 2.1 sound system -> monitor/arcade PSU). Voilá! One button power "on".

Good luck!
Emph

[dpful]

if you want to use anything besides mame in the cab, buy the next level of jpac- the one that saves your settings after power off.

On my mame cabs, I set the bios to "power on after AC power loss", and then use a power switch or powerstrip to turn the whole thing off and on. I keep the mame stuff in the start menu, and the whole thing boots up right to the games.
---I'm no computer wiz, but if I put these two things in the windows START folder- entire mame folder, plus a single shortcut to the meme exe, it loads up with my settings.

[PieOrDie]

Code: Select all

#1.

#2. Emphatic suggests to wire a button to power, or use a powerstrip
Dpful suggests powerstrip with bios instructions

#3. emphatic suggests A-pac or I-pac
Dpful suggests I-pac

#4. 

#5. Croikle linked to MAWS
(I probably should have ask what your favorite shmup games for mame are)

#6 Emphatic Suggests GameEx

Thanks everyone, but there are still a few questions left unanswered.

[emphatic]

Best MAME shmups: http://www.mameworld.net/maws/srch.php? ... order=desc

Emph

[PieOrDie]

thanks again emphatic

[dpful]

That coin door looks small to me- either from a cocktail table or some strange cab. You should measure the hole in your cab and check the measurements of the new one. It would suck to have it not fit just right. There are a few sizes, although the most common are a tall rectangular one and a big square one (for full size cabs).

[PieOrDie]

its definitely smaller than my hole, I've known that. I have a wooden board thats covering the hole now and I am planning on putting it inside of that board.

I just don't know if it works like it says it does, ex: I could make it accept pennies or nickels

I was just seeing if anyone has bought it or heard anything about it

[elvis]

I have 4 gigs of DDR2 800 ram lying around

512MB is plenty for a MAME cabinet. Unless you run Vista, of course.

[PieOrDie]

yeah I guess 4 gigs is probably a bit over the top, plus it would just make more heat

Ill try just 1-2 gigs


Sidenote, how should I print out marquee's

I made this:

(its a thumbnail, just click it)

cant really decide what I want in the background though

maybe this?



I know its not hardware related but if someone could figure out what i should put in the background or how to print them that would help out a lot too.

[emphatic]

Sidenote, how should I print out marquee's

I made this:

(its a thumbnail, just click it)

cant really decide what I want in the background though

maybe this?



I know its not hardware related but if someone could figure out what i should put in the background or how to print them that would help out a lot too.

http://www.mamemarquees.com

High quality, great service.
Emph

[PieOrDie]

thanks again emphatic.

Hey I heard kinko's was good too?

can anyone else confirm this or should i just use that website

[jonny5]

kinkos should be ok....just dont go at night......shitty staff at night

as for the RAM...i wouldnt go less than 1 gig on newer versions of mame......

JPAC is probably your best option if the cab has working jamma wiring already....otherwise go the IPAC route......

i would recommend mGalaxy as a frontend...its easy to use and even old people can figure it out

for the power switch just take a power switch line from an old tower and hack it to a standard arcade button.....then you can turn the PC on and off with one button....just mount it somewhere on the cab...easily done on a woodie

as for the front end loading on startup....no need to put the whole folder in the startup folder.....just the exe. for your frontend and it will load right into it on startup......

and for the games i would suggest just grabbing the entire romset somewhere.....get the newest version......torrent sites are your friend for this.....should be around 20 gigs if you dont need the CHD files....which you more than likely wont......

and if you are worried about how to add coins without a coinmech its the same connections as a button....just put a button somewhere (like the under side of the CP) and connect the coin lines to it

easy peezy

[PieOrDie]

Thanks jonny.
I had already downloaded a somewhat recent romset which is almost 20 gigs.

It had the jamma wiring but the guy I bought it from stripped it out at the last minute, but I'm not complaining, I got the whole thing for 50 bucks.

and I wasn't worried about not being able to add coins, I am buying a few extra buttons, I am just planning on making it somewhat realistic by charging nickels which it seems the coin mech on that site will let me do

my biggest concern now is mostly about cooling,
If anyone can post how they cool their MB in there that would be nice.


I know I just keep adding on, but does anyone know a way that the high scores will save when you exit? That would be amazing but I doubt possible


Thanks everyone,
~PoD

[jonny5]

as long as you have a CPU fan it will be fine....its not enclosed....and its not going to be running very intensive stuff.....

and its mostly the CPU that generates heat anyway...and the powersupply....

it wont overheat......fans in towers are meant to cool things down because in an enclosed space the heat builds up and cant readily escape....

loose in a cab there wont be this problem

worry not

[dpful]

as for the front end loading on startup....no need to put the whole folder in the startup folder.....just the exe. for your frontend and it will load right into it on startup......

It seems like when I tried that it wouldn't use the config file (started with a fresh default config every time) and I had to Keep everything in the same file tree to save all my settings- even the shortcut (I now it seems wierd). Maybe I should try it again.