Constructing a MAME Arcade Machine

I have been a rabid arcade game fan for over 25 years, and I have always wanted to recapture the experience of playing full sized arcade games at home. About a year ago I decided to construct a MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) (http://www.mame.net/) machine to play virtually every classic arcade game in one unit. MAME is a free emulator that can emulate thousands of classic arcade games authentically, using the original ROMS from the games. It can be run on virtually any PC and there is a vast community of programmers constantly working to improve it and add even more games. Obtaining the ROMS is easy and configuring MAME using a GUI front end like MAME32 is a snap. You can visit Mameworld.net for more information on front ends and other useful MAME resources. Once you have MAME and the ROMS, you can play the games using a keyboard and mouse, but who wants to do that. I wanted the real experience of a stand up arcade game, so I could play the games the way they were meant to be played. I am not an authority, but I would be happy to walk you through some of my experiences in attaining that goal.

Part I The Cabinet

There are basically three ways to get and configure a cabinet for a MAME machine.

1. Buy an old arcade machine at a local or online auction, or classic arcade retailer. Clean it, gut it, fix it up, and add your own PC, monitor, and joystick.

Advantages:

• Inexpensive
• Minimal technical setup
• Minimal technical configuration

Disadvantages:

• May run into space issues inside
• Usually entails a major cleaning effort
• May entail some additional construction on the interior to mount the monitor and PC.

Parts Required:

• Arcade cabinet ($100 and up)
• PC Monitor ($90 and up)
• PC (1Ghz or faster) ($350 and up)
• Sound System ($50 and up)
• Joystick panel ($99 and up)
• Cleaning and restoration materials (ie.. Paint, decals, marquee, monitor bezel, T-molding, etc..) ($100 and up)
• Cost Estimate ($800+)

2. Buy an old JAMMA (common connector used in many classic arcade games) arcade machine. Clean it and use a variety of adapters and tools to allow you to connect a PC to the existing arcade monitor and joystick.

Advantages:

• Inexpensive
• Authentic joystick and monitor
• Less interior configuration issues

Disadvantages:

• May still run into space issues
• Usually entails a major cleaning effort
• Requires special additional adapters to connect the PC to existing parts.
• Requires more technical expertise in configuring the adapters.
• May limit you to MAME only games, due to a special non 3D Arcade VGA video card.

Parts Required:

• Arcade cabinet with a good existing control panel and 15Khz Monitor. ($100 and up)
• PC (1Ghz or faster) ($350 and up)
• Ultimarc.com adapters – J-Pac, I-Pac, Opti-Pac, Arcade VGA Card, and cables ($250)
• Cleaning and restoration materials (ie.. Paint, decals, marquee, monitor bezel, T-molding, etc..) ($100 and up)
• Cost Estimate ($800+)

3. Buy a prefab new arcade cabinet from a variety of retailers ($500-1000) and add your own PC, monitor, and joystick. Or purchase a fully constructed kit that comes with the PC, monitor, and joystick ($2500 – $5000).

Advantages:

• Clean unit
• Space provided for PC and Monitor, and easy access hatches

Disadvantages:

• Can be expensive
• Usually requires assembly of the cabinet

Each of these has their advantages and disadvantages; I chose the first option because I already had an old arcade cabinet. It was JAMMA, but had some screen burn on the monitor and there was only one joystick with two buttons. I wanted at least 2 joysticks and 6-8 buttons for each player. If it had have had a good screen and a robust control panel, I may have opted to use the Ultimarc (http://www.ultimarc.com) adapters that let you connect a JAMMA connector to a PC. I did some research at Mameworld.net to see parts were available and I checked out Retroblast.com for reviews and tips about the parts. I gutted and cleaned the cabinet; you would be surprised just how grubby the inside of an old arcade cabinet can get. I fixed up the outside, painted it and got some great MAME decals for the side and the marquee. They sell a lot of this stuff on ebay.com, and there are a few arcade restoration websites that deal in custom artwork. I used an old 20-inch PC monitor that fit the cabinet pretty well, and I was able to reuse the existing monitor bezel. I also bought a new custom cut piece of Plexiglass for the screen for around $20. However because arcade monitors are usually bare inside I had to cut an area off the back of the cabinet for some of the monitor to poke through, and construct a shelf inside for the monitor to rest on. I would not recommend using an LCD monitor. Thought it is easier to fit it in and work with, they just don’t have the response time of a CRT. Furthermore, many of the MAME games run in their native resolution, which is usually pretty low. Since LCDs are locked into a resolution anywhere from 800x600 to 1280x1024, anything other than the LCD panel’s native resolution can look pretty crappy due to interpolation. I tried one at first, and after seeing some of the pixilation and choppy side scrolling, I went with the CRT. I also added some USB powered LEDs for the coin doors, and mounted an old TRON black light assembly on the front to match my TRON arcade game. I also added some aftermarket fold-up car cup holders to the sides of the cabinet for the massive amounts of Diet Coke I drink.

Sound is also an important part of the arcade experience; I was able to reuse the existing stereo speakers in the cabinet by adding a Creative Inspire 2.1 amplifier. This unit is great for stereo amplification, and comes with a subwoofer. I ended up leaving the subwoofer outside the cabinet for the full effect. The other huge advantage to the Creative Labs unit is its cheap (found it for $30) and has a separate volume control knob I mounted under the controller. It only involved minimum wiring for the speakers and it packs enough punch to make your chest vibrate. There was a full article about it at Retroblast.com (http://www.retroblast.com/articles/speakers.html), which also describes how to use it with car speakers, if your cabinet speakers stink.

I then started looking into Joystick options; there are a few companies that make arcade authentic joystick assemblies that you can just plug into your PC. After looking at the specs for a few including SlikStik (http://www.slikstik.com), HotRod (http://www.hanaho.com), and X-Arcade (http://www.x-arcade.com), I chose an X-Arcade for a variety of reasons. It was the right dimensions, it was programmable (you can set any button to be any key and its stored in non-volatile memory), it was well built, well reviewed, and had a number of adaptors available for other platforms including the PS2 and Xbox. It was around $130, which was more than the HotRod ($99) but much less than the SlikStick. SlikStiks can be made to order but they can run from $200-600. The HotRod is a solid unit and almost identical to the X-Arcade, but it’s purple, non-programmable, and has no adaptors for any other platforms. My only issue with the X-Arcade was that the buttons response time was initially pretty bad, and they would sometimes double tap. When I called there support it turned out the PS2 connector on the PC was not powerful enough for it, and I ended up having to purchase the optional USB adaptor for an additional $30. I got that mounted using some L brackets and moved on to the PC. You can also purchase the buttons, joysticks, and interface from X-Arcade.com or Ultimarc.com, if you are handy enough to construct your own custom controller panel.

I built a mid-range PC with a 2 Ghz processor, 512MB of RAM, 120GB HDs, an Nvidia 256MB graphic card, DVD drive, LED laser mouse, and wireless keyboard. You don’t need an incredibly powerful PC for MAME, 90% can run fine with a 1Ghz or higher PC. You should use a DVD-Rom and have a good-sized Hard Drive, the MAME ROMS usually come on DVDs and a full set is around 50GB. I used a full tower case that I was able to lay horizontally in the bottom of the cabinet. If space is an issue inside a cabinet, you can also look into spacewalker units and mini-tower cases. I hooked up the X-Arcade, configured the keys (the default is already set to the standard MAME keys, but I wanted a few changes), and got playing. I had to do some adjustments for individual games for my display and button preferences, but I will get into that in Part II : Configuring the PC and MAME.

Some other helpful resources and retailers…

http://www.mame.net/ http://www.mameworld.net/ http://www.retroblast.com/ http://www.ultimarc.com http://www.slikstik.com http://www.x-arcade.com http://www.hanaho.com http://www.arcadegames4u.com http://www.lunacade.com http://www.mameroom.com http://www.classicarcadegrafix.com