MAME arcade cabinet

MAME arcade cabinets are meant to provide the experience of an entire video arcade in one unit. The name MAME cabinet refers to the emulation software MAME, the software used in such a cabinet.

Cabinet design

There are two common cabinet designs that tend to choose when building their arcade machine: the upright machine, and the cocktail cabinet.

There are three options for the cabinet. Building one from scratch, obtaining a donor cabinet, or buying a kit.

Building an arcade cabinet from scratch can very time consuming and may often cost much more than the other options because of all the parts and tools needed. However, building your own cabinet gives you total control over the design.

Obtaining a donor cabinet is often a less expensive option. This involves finding a pre-existing arcade cabinet. However, often it takes time to rehabilitate the more derelict cabinets, and your options for customization are less, as the cabinet's basic form is already set.

The third option it to buy a MAME arcade kit. These kits are available as simple pre-cut wood panels or as complete pre-wired and ready-to-assemble kits. These kits can simplify the process of building a MAME cabient, especially when purchasing a complete kit. While this option can cost more than using a donor cabinet, prices have dropped in recent years due to competition from multiple vendors.

Panel design

When designing the front panel of the MAME arcade cabinet, one needs to take into account the position and quantity of buttons, as well as how the buttons will interface with the computer.

Arcade controls

While finding the right buttons and joysticks is crucial for personal enjoyment, choosing the right layout can be more difficult. First you need to account for the total number of players. Afterwards, you have to figure out which games you plan on playing on the unit. Different games require different quantities of buttons. Typically a six button layout will cater to almost every game. Other buttons generally included on a panel include 'Start' buttons for each player and an optional coin button. The coin buttons emulates the action of dropping a coin into a coin mechanism, which is generally not required in a home environment.

There are three main kinds of arcade joysticks widely available to choose from.

4-way The joystick is able to move in 4 directions: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT
8-way The Joystick can move in 4-way as well as: UP-LEFT, UP-RIGHT, DOWN-LEFT, DOWN-RIGHT
all motion. The Joystick can move in a free circular motion

When designing a machine to fit into a certain vintage, joystick choice becomes important. Many older machines had 4-way while newer ones use all motion-style joysticks. Despite the extra functionality, an 8-way joystick can not always replace a 4-way joystick. For example, for a game that uses a 4-way joystick where the game character can jump (or move vertical after a horizontal move like in Pacman), it is often intuitive for players to move the joystick diagonally. However, if the game was not designed for an 8-way joystick, no direction is detected and instead of moving the game character will stay put - rendering the game less playable. Some joysticks are able to switch between 4-way and 8-way modes via a restrictor plate that limits the joystick's range of motion.

Control panel interfaces

Interfacing a computer with arcade controls is generally done in one of two ways: the "keyboard hack", and through the use of a keyboard encoder.

Keyboard Hack

The Keyboard Hack requires the extraction of the control board of a keyboard and then the soldering of the arcade buttons to the actual solder points of individual keys on the keyboard. Therefore, one may solder a blue arcade button to the connection point of the 'b' key. Please see "How to hack a keyboard for use in MAME" in the external links section for an indepth reference.

Custom interface boards

An easy alternative to the classic "keyboard hack" is an interface board that is detected by the computer as a standard PS/2 or USB keyboard. The two most popular units are the iPac by Ultimarc and the KeyWiz by Groovy Game Gear. A newcomer, ThrustVector Controls, produces an interface with such innovative features as variable rate autofire and macros with adjustable delay between each keystroke.

Monitors

There are three different types of displays used in MAME arcade cabinets: Computer Monitors, Arcade Monitors, and Televisions, each having specific advantages and requirements.

Computer monitors

A Computer Monitor is the least-troublesome way to go. Although more common sizes are normally less expensive than an arcade monitor, monitors that approach the size of arcade monitors are relatively rare and expensive. Computer monitors are also not designed for being mounted inside of a cabinet, so the construction of a custom mount is normally required. Using a computer monitor has a specific advantage in that you will be able to run an operating system as computer monitors can handle the full resolution some modern operating systems require.

Arcade monitors

If one is performing a conversion on an existing cabinet, it may already have an arcade monitor. An arcade monitor allows games to be played on a monitor that displays the original resolution the game was designed for. Arcade monitors pose a specific challenge in interfacing with a computer, as the frequency output by modern video cards (31kHz) is different from the frequency used by arcade monitors (15kHz). Using a video card designed for use with an arcade monitor can help with this problem.

Television Sets

Using a TV set as the display device for the cabinet is a compromise between the Computer and Arcade monitors. Large televisions are easier to find than large computer monitors or arcade monitors, and many computer graphics cards support output to TV. Due to the lower resolution, televisions also feel a lot more like an arcade display than a computer monitor, and can be much less expensive than one at sizes bigger than 20".

Customization

This is the final point of construction. There are many things one can do at this point like changing the t-molding, re-enamaling the metal exterior parts, changing the marquee, or general painting. This really just has to do with personalization.

Marquee The Marquee is the backlit banner above the monitor. In commercial arcade machines, this normally shows the name of the game within the cabinet.
T-molding The basic molding that is seen on more classic machines.
Painting/enameling Allows for color changes/restoration or even just a bit of personalization

External links

Arcade emulators

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