[reeferaddict]

I'm in the final stages of wiring my home theater. I will at some point also have a MAME arcade cabinet. My wife thought it would be cool if we could simultaneously display MAME in the cabinet and from our nearby projector. Sounds cool.


My question now is what wires should I run from my MAME cabinet location to my central distribution point. Has anyone done a similar setup?


Thanks,

Terry

 

[RhinoDude]

There are several ways you could do this and you won't have a problem pulling it off as long as you keep it in mind when component shopping. It really depends on three factors:


- what kind of video card outputs are on the MAME PC

- what kind of inputs are on the display in the MAME cabinet

- what kind of inputs are on the projector


You can easily find a video card that has both outputs for S-video and either RGB DB15 (or DVI). Most allow them to be used simultaneously.


There are also lots of cards that have "multimon" support and have two video outputs, but in most cases you can not send the same signal out both. I do seem to recall a while back seeing a Maxtrox dual head card which had two DVI outputs where you could send the same display to both as long as it wasn't graphically accelerated.


- Rhino

 

[P.Milnes]

It would seem to me that the best/easiest way to accomplish this would be to have the MAME run off of a PC that has a dual-head video card. I have a Radeon 9000pro in my HTPC that has dual head output, and I use it to send the display to the monitor in my rack, and to my projector. Very similar to what you will be doing (the monitor will be in the MAME cabinet.)


With this card I have the option to have the exact same display going out of both monitor ports. That's not specifically how I use it, but that is what you would do in order to play a mame game on the arcade machine, and have others watch it on the screen. Quite a cool idea!


LET US KNOW HOW IT TURNS OUT!


Paul

 

[zipbags]

Forgive my ignorance. But, what is a MAME cabinet??

 

[pcdoctor]

Multiple arcade machine emulator.


Basically, play the old retro games using a pc in a real arcade cabinet with real joysticks and buttons.

http://www.mame.net/

http://www.arcadecontrols.com/

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=10

http://www.hanaho.com/products/Arcad...uxe/index.html

http://www.hanaho.com/products/HotRo.../overview.html

http://www.slikstik.com/

http://www.slikstik.com/sscab.htm

http://www.oscarcontrols.com/controlpanels.htm

 

[zipbags]

That's pretty cool. I never heard of it. It is seems expensive, if you are not handy.

 

[dennisgg]

Hi zipbags,




You can use a standard PC and connect it to the projector or screen. The games are available for download or there are sources that sell disks with the games burned on CDR or DVDR's (thousands of games available burned for cheap money - I got a set for under $50 for 18GB of games - awe-yeeah!!). You can It is easy to install (the CD has a file/folder structure - you put the files in the same structure on your PC and run it). It wouldn't be expensive unless you do your own cabinet or custom arcade controls (you can get a nice full size single user joystick with buttons - same materials as that are on a coinop arcade maching for $99, or $149 for 2 player - www.x-arcade.com ). The games are very cool. You can simply run them on your existing Windows PC, setup a PC that boots to a custom user interface for the games - no Windows, or go full boat with a MAME cabinet (alot of them are people buy a used arcade machine that doesn't work and gut it, putting in a PC, monitor and doing the controls).






Enjoy!



Dennis

 

[Jeff Kyle]

Note that "buying" the ROMs on a CD or DVD is almost certainly VERY illegal. Well, the selling is, the buying may not be.


With a little snooping, it shouldn't be too difficult to find any of the ROMs you need. I have a big problem with the sellers who take stuff that is more or less freely available then resell it - making a (substantial, if you're paying nearly $50 for a few DVD-Rs) profit off someone else's work. And, the nature of MAME is that there are many changes with each new release, so some of your games that work with one version might not work with the next one.


Getting truly legal copies is a bit tricky - officially, you need to own the actual arcade circuit board for most games. Some can be had legally when sold in various official compilations. (For example, the new Atari Classics CD has about 20 arcade games, presumably emulated.)


I would say, do a little snooping, and if you can't find what you're looking for, ask some friends if they use it or know someone who might - chances are you can find someone or at least someone who can point you in the right direction.


As for the original question, most video cards with multiple outputs (which is most of them nowadays) should be able to easily send the video to multiple outputs... certainly the Radeon cards can, I believe nVidias can... Just go into the Advanced section of the display properties and you should have a tab for turning on and off specific outputs. If you don't see it, you might be running the default Windows driver - go to the manufacturer and download and install the latest driver.

 

[reeferaddict]

Thanks for the feedback, I ended up running an extra VGA cable and an extra set of component cables to the cabinet location. Each will run to my equipment closet so I think I'll be set one way or another. I'm also running a couple more runs of RG6 between the two for cable tv and digital audio if the need arises.


As for MAME orders, I read in the past the full MAME set runs around five full DVDs. The word was you could get someone to burn them and ship them to you for around $25. I believe as you approach $50 you are spanning many more DVDs including old Nintendo, Amiga or other content.


The discs are supposedly sent from enthusiast that are recovering their costs. At $25 for the materials, effort and shipping I wouldn't think there is a significant profit margin or motive. The effort of spending days or weeks finding downloads vs. minutes of effort to place an order for the net cost of materials and shipping is probably an easy choice for many.

 

[SpAwN666]

Building my Mame Cabinet was more fun then building my home theater


I'd be happy to help anyone looking into building one.


While it would be cool to put the game on your projector, I don't

see the need. Just get a good Arcade Monitor and you'll be very happy.


http://www.tammyandchris.com/mame/P1010006_2.jpg

http://www.tammyandchris.com/mame/P1010008.jpg

 

[RhinoDude]

Spawn, did you make that control panel or buy it? If bought how much was it? I like the layout a bit better than the Slik Stik Quad I've been considering.


Also, which display is that?


Oh, and if hadn't guessed yet, I'm planning on one of these going in my lobby when it's finished.


- Rhino

 

[SpAwN666]

I built the control panel. I believe it cost me close to $400 in parts (with interface boards - iPac and Optipac). It was fun to build it but the SlikStick gives you everything ready to go.


I used a Wells Gardner D9200, its hands down the best option for a Mame cab. It does 15, 25 and 32 Hz. Everything looks amazing on it. You can use a 27" tv which will look almost as good, but the WG D9200 is the ultimate.


I used plans from www.mameroom.com to build my cab.


I have this in my lobby, nothing like a few games of Ms. Pacman and Tempest before going in to see a movie.

 

[RhinoDude]

Yeah, I thought from your pics that those were the mameroom.com cabinet plans. I also thought it was the D9200 but wasn't 100% sure.


My plan is to go with almost exactly your setup but with the slikstik. If it cost you almost $400 in parts, I'll gladly pay the extra $225 to have them build it for me.


- Rhino

 

[Tedd]

There was an excellent article "Build Your Own Arcade Machine" in the Special Issue Winter 2004 of PC HOW-TO put out by Maximum PC. It is loaded with information for anyone wanting a primer on building an arcade machine. They restored a used cabinet as a start but did a custoom control panel.