Building an Arcade Machine

[Desslok]

Yo guys, I'm just getting started with this, but I wanted to share because I'm so excited about it. My dad and I are going to be building an arcade cabinet for the ole' game room now that we're all moved.

It's going to be powered by one of our old tvs to keep that old arcade monitor feel, and our old PS2, since we've been collecting many arcade compilations over the years for that system.

Our arcade pads:


And one of these to correctly mimic my dad's old favorite, "OutRun."



We've got Namco Museum vols 1-3, the Sega Classics Collection, Namco Museum (PS2), Midway Arcade Treasures and X-Men Mutant Academy 2 all lined up so far, with some random other games we may throw in. I'd like to get some Tekken action for sure, lol.

OH, and the best news of all, I just ordered "TMNT: Battle Nexus 2" because it has an unlockable "TMNT: The Arcade Game!" I'll finally be able to relive my childhood playing TMNT at Chuck E Cheese with my dad, only it will be in a garage...

COWABUNGA!!!!!!!!

[Scruffyhyphen]

...I am SO jealous! Dude! I want an arcade machine so bad! :< I may save up for one eventually... >.>

But it does sound exciting :3 Have fun dude!

[Desslok]

It's something we've always wanted to do, so I'm sure it we'll have fun doing it.

I'm going to be getting a marquee here: www.gameongrafix.com/index.php, they have a lot of cool stuff, you can even customize if you feel like it.

[Scruffyhyphen]

So how's it going Dess? I've been reading up on building my own. In fact I just texted my dad asking if he'd want to, since I have NO knowledge of woodworking, lol. Just waiting on a response from him. This'll be one of the few times we actually do something like this together. I really hope he wants to. And I have a sneaking suspicion he will. We might even end up making two, so he has one at his place. I'd feel bad if I got to keep it and he didnt have anything, heh.

I'm currently planning on saving up about $2000 over the next few months before I decide to build it. Would you say that's a reasonable amount? For a computer (to run an emulator), materials, and for set-backs when we make a mistake during the building?

[Desslok]

I would think so.

Our arcade contruction has fallen a bit behind schedule, though I do have some materials that I was able to get on clearance from Home Depot, I still need quite a bit more for the cabinet. A pretty big development that's come up this past month is that we decided to go with a MAME emulator, ckily we had an old computer sitting around that we were able to upgrade fairly easily. I've been learning a lot about MAME lately, so if you have any questions or need to know where to get some good ones I can help.

Also I picked up an X Arcade dual joystick Fry's Electronics two weeks ago:




This thing is AMAZING, heavy duty and the most authentic arcade controller I've ever seen. I highly recommend it.