Convenience mods to your cabinet?

[galaxypenguin]

I'd like to start a thread about the things you're doing with your cabinet that makes it easy for all to use. I could call it how is your cab child-proof but the reality is probably how have you made it usable by drunken party'ers?

For instance, how do you power on the cabinet? Have you installed an external power button or does your rig come on when it detects power to the power strip?

How is your control panel set up, do you have an exit/back button programmed in?

Etc etc etc...

Nerdy technical descriptions welcome.

[Brian Hoffman]

DeepFreeze by faronics... This way your configs will never get jacked up.

Emulator exit button combo... Id hate while dirnking with buddys to close a game by accidently pressing a single exit button.

An arcade button wired to MB for power on.. Located in back

Coin in buttons on Cpanel.

[chriss]

i'm also using two buttons to exit an emulator... but i live with roomates and a lot of people who play on the cab get confused about how to exit an emulator and so i made a little instruction card. if somebody wants to use it as a template, just mail me and i send you the illustrator file (it's all in german though)...

i still have a massive heating problem ith my cabinet since the whole pc is built over the monitor '(Which makes it also quite niosy) i will install a new fan in the next couple of days... and when i have some money i will replace the noisy parts with quiet ones...

[lingpanda]

I'd like to start a thread about the things you're doing with your cabinet that makes it easy for all to use. I could call it how is your cab child-proof but the reality is probably how have you made it usable by drunken party'ers?

For instance, how do you power on the cabinet? Have you installed an external power button or does your rig come on when it detects power to the power strip?

How is your control panel set up, do you have an exit/back button programmed in?

Etc etc etc...

Nerdy technical descriptions welcome.

I've added playstaion ports(See Tekken 5 Arcade machine). That way if people don't like the control panel. They can just plug a psx controller and play any game they like with it. Works with all the emu's.

[gryhnd]

My cab powers on with a momentary toggle switch at the back that is connected to the MB (IOW, acts like the power switch on the CPU itself). Once the CPU fires up, a Smart Strip power strip turns on everything else automatically.

Below the monitor and above the CP I've installed a 4 port USB hub (for different non-MAME controllers, and also for my Griffin Powermate I use as a spinner), a USB CD/DVD drive (for PC games, watching movies, etc), and two illuminated LED buttons. One pauses MAME, the other will exit it.

I also have a switch wired in to the coin door so that I can make it free play or pay-to-play.