Building an arcade machine from scratch
 

So a friend and I had this crazy idea to build arcade machines from scratch. As it stands right now I am a little over $700 invested in it and still have about another $280 to go before it is complete. In total I will have just under a grand into this thing :eek: but it will be capable of playing over 6000 games ranging from Atari and old school arcade games up to playstation 3 games :tup: (may need to upgrade the computer later to pull off ps3 games)


I have attached a .pdf that includes all the parts I purchased and plan to purchase, as well as quantities, prices and links to where I purchased them.

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...uild-plan.jpeg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...-side-cut.jpeg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...sides-cut.jpeg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...rt-boards.jpeg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...le-top-cut.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...ting-there.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...lmost-done.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...ser-warmer.jpg

I have already ordered the vinyl that I designed in Photoshop as the artwork to wrap the machine and I will pick it up today when I leave work. I have yet to build the controller deck and drill the holes for the buttons. I will continue to post pictures of the build if you all are interested.

that's cool.

so is someone going to sit inside the screen with puppets or something or?


;)

For now it will be powered by a Dell OptiPlex 330 with a GeForce 210 video card. Nothing fancy but it will work.

What software are you using?

Fuckin hell... Make me one too!!!

I will be using Hyperspin as a front end loader to all my emulators. I will be using MAME for the arcade emulation and various other emulators for different platforms.

if there ends up being a serious demand for this I maybe able to work something out. I can legally build the machine and get you the emulators but the games themselves I cannot legally put on the machine. with that being said....google is your friend.

It will not be cheap to build or ship these things as they are big and heavy as hell. A ton of the cost that I have in this machine can be trimmed significantly. the vinyl graphics do not need to be done for the sides, it can be done a cheaper route, also putting a 28" LED TV in there can be slimmed down to a 22" or whatever. Tons of ways to cut corners....

I picked up my vinyls last night after work and applied the marquee as well as the monitor cover for a test fit. My last name is "Kleman" in case you were wondering what that means :p

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...eally-nice.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...-installed.jpg

Great project :tup:

Thank you! it has been very fun and expensive so far :rofl2:
I cannot wait to get the rest of the vinyl's applied, it will really make the machine look "store bought"

Awesome project dude! Can't wait to see the final results

Hey, the plans are more than adequate! Keep up the good work!

Thank you Sir! :tup: I got the general shape and height off of this guys build ArcadeCab- MAME cabinet plans and related information and the rest of it I have been designing as I go. I changed the whole marquee display area and I also added a retractable tray for the keyboard and mouse under where the controller deck will be. I play on making the controller deck hinged so I can access the underside for repairs and to control the computer if I need to change any settings or whatnot.

Looking good.

I played around with MAME/emulators/ROM images/&c many years back and was amazed at how well it worked and how many of the old games were available. I didn't go to the trouble of building controllers and some of the games were all but impossible to play with mouse and keyboard. It was fun seeing some of the games of yore.

Edit: For those that might be interested in a project like this, there are LOTS of old game ROMs freely available on the Web. If a title is still being sold, you may not be able to get it but very few of the old, 8-/16-bit games are still in production.

Very true, there are thousands of games available. I would be more than happy to give any advise on a build if anyone wanted to start one.

I have some cool game o n emulator. I only went as far as buying a "Fight Stick" to play them.

Made a little progress today on the controller deck :tup: just need to order 2 buttons that will be the "escape" and "pause" buttons. hence the empty holes. now that i have the controller deck built i can measure it to create a vinyl for it in photoshop

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...ks-mounted.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...ns-mounted.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...t-ready-go.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...ready-go-2.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...use-button.jpg

Last night I did most of the wiring for the buttons and LEDs. All the buttons and LEDs worked first try which was AWESOME, I hate troubleshooting......

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...681-test-1.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...680-test-2.jpg

Very cool!! :tup:

Sub'd for final results.

A sure sign of impending catastrophe. :)

wolf- nice, it's coming along! :tup:

ummm.. you're not going to plasti-shittt the housing later right? :ugh2:

That is awesome -- love it!

You should see if you can get that Mugen software -- then you can have also have games where Super Mario can fight Homer Simpson and the like :tup:

God, I hope I didn't jynx myself :ughdance:

The whole machine will eventually be wrapped in vinyl that I made in photoshop. I did not make the images themselves but I did scale/fade/adjust them to what I like. I will post the .jpeg's of the vinyls when I get a chance. They are already printed and chilling in my garage waiting for the rest of the machine to be finished before I apply them.

I will look into that

nice~! :tup:

scratch the posting of the .jpeg's...they are like 30mb a piece because of the resolution and I don't have photoshop on my work pc to scale them down

Using Windows? Try the resize function in mspaint if it will open them.

ya, I am using windows but paint won't open them I am assuming due to the size of the files. The two sides are 11550x21900 pixels at 300 dpi with a file size of 31.7mb lol

Haha yeah... I wondered if that might be a problem. Sounds like you'll just have to use more sophisticated software.

once I get home I can scale them down in photoshop but while I'm at work it's a no go :mad:

So......last night I had time to put my other buttons in and finish the rest of the wiring for the controller deck. The deck took about 35 feet of 22 gauge ground wire, about 45 feet of power wire, and 80 wire crimps. ALL MY BUTTONS WORK AND LIGHT UP! :excited: After I got it all wired up and made sure the buttons were programmed correctly I cracked open a corona (with lime) :yum: and the wife cracked open a wine cooler (sissy drink) :gtfo2: we decided to duke it out in some Street Fighter II :rofl2:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...gauge-wire.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...hhh-pretty.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wolfe...35-testing.jpg

The boards holding the controller deck in place are temporary so the deck didn't slide around when we played.

So who won the fight?

I did but not by much, we were both kind of button mashing haha
I played as Ryu and she used Blanka

that needs mugen so badly. nice work, very clean box.

...i didn't know we had PS3 emulators that ran smoothly...

I loved Blanka. I used to just electrocute everyone and everything :icon17: until you come up against someone that actually knows moves that beat it :ugh:

that's how she beat me a couple rounds, using that lighting crap :mad:

I haven't got to far into the software and emulators yet since I am still working on the hardware and the cabinet itself. I have read and watched youtube videos of people rocking ps3 games on their MAME cabinets. I went to school for computer programming so I am pretty sure that I can get it to work :ugh2:

You are the second person to tell me that I need to use mugen. I guess I will be doing some more research soon and look into that.

BTW thank you! It has been a ton of work and there is still a ton to be completed. My goal with this thing is to make it look store bought by the time I am done with it. I cannot wait to apply the vinyls I have sitting in the garage :excited:

Subd. This is freaking awesome!!

they have nekked female fighters in mugen too :icon17: