[Cool Face]

K I'm 5% into building an arcade cabinet (mini tabletop single-player). I'm acquiring components for the PC build, have the monitor, have the MDF boards, about to order the joystick and buttons but Im confused about how the joystick and buttons will "talk" with the PC. any help?

 

[DaveFi]

Unfortunately you're not going to get much help here. Luckily there are a few forums that deal specifically with MAME cabinet setups. Those would be your best bet.

 

[WiseGuy2k7]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Cool Face /forum/post/20882877


K I'm 5% into building an arcade cabinet (mini tabletop single-player). I'm acquiring components for the PC build, have the monitor, have the MDF boards, about to order the joystick and buttons but Im confused about how the joystick and buttons will "talk" with the PC. any help?

You need a arcade keyboard encoder board http://www.u-hid.com/home/index.php This will make the arcade stick and button movements correspond into keyboard commands. I personally am on the tail end of my arcade upright mini cab project. It was alot of pain staking gutting the old cab I bought. Then getting mame and the arcade frontend to work to my liking. It looks sweet though and well worth the sleepless nights

 

[Rx8Doc]

 http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=84548.0


simple way

 

[Osirus23]

I use I-PACs from Ultimarc, it's not the cheapest method but its probably the 'cleanest.'

 

[Cool Face]

Thanks for the input guys. I've seen the ipacs before but was hoping to find a cheaper route. Then I've read about keyboard hacking and soldering. The uhid nano seems to be what I'm looking for. Need to get some more information though. I would run a happ 4/8 way joystick, 6 buttons, 1 player start button. Separately run would be an audio on/off switch with analog audio dial, marquee light on/off switch.


This project being a mini cab wouldn't need a coin slot. Also I do plan on running MAME on it but it won't be the only things. Plan on running NES, Master System, Atari, Commadore, TG-16, Genesis, and SNES. hence the 6 buttons for the last 2 systems.


I made measurements of the donor monitor last night (without it's shell) and looked at Tiny Arcade UK for inspiration on the cabs final design. The monitor is a 4:3 so I may have some smaller images when MAME'ing the "tall" arcade games such as Donkey Kong or burgertime but it's a concession I can live with

 

[Cool Face]

I guess I also need some recommendations for the front end. I'll do some MAME but will do some home consoles

 

[chepin]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Cool Face /forum/post/20885165


I guess I also need some recommendations for the front end. I'll do some MAME but will do some home consoles

IMHO, there's nothing better than Hyperspin. It's very slick with all of the flash animations. It is very time consuming getting it setup correctly though. I have it setup with MAME, SNES, NES, and Genesis.

 

[Cool Face]

O lordy! Hyperspin looks amazing! Downloading now!