Cabinets and HTPC Setups Running GameEx

[jyturbo]

Here is my first build! Very excited with it although I have many ideas to do things different/better on my next build.

GameEx is great. Keep up the fine work. YouTube link below:

My MAME

[T-Jay]

Well, after a lot of thought, drooling etc (over 7 years of thought and drolling!) and installing/uninstalling/re-installing Game Ex on my HTPC, last month I plunged myself into my first cabinet.

I would like to say thanks to Tom and Headkaze for their software (that is Game Ex, instantsheller and Mamecompiler64)that has made the cab look FANTASTIC!!!!

Still to buy though, stickers for the side art, a marquee light, Control panel overlay, and moniter bezel. It is running on a mini-ITX board, with a notebook hard drive (specs escape me at the moment!) a mini-ipac (thanks Andy!). I did however buy the cab in flatpack form from Tiny Arcades.

This is probably what everyone else went through with thier first cab - my friends called me mad when I started the project, now they are asking 'Have you got XXX Game?!!' and spend over an hour or four before coming off it!!

[Adultery]

Funny how that works isn't it? You just never realized how popular you are until word gets out! Lol!

I would love a bar top! If I decide to do another one someday, thats totally the route I wanna take. I'm super impressed with your first build! Mine was a total mess!

Great job!

[T-Jay]

Well, the flatpack two player bartop, (just the shell) comes from Tiny Arcade (http://tinyarcade.co.uk) and is a mere snip at £149.

I am super imressed with it, normally flatpack and T-Jay shouldn't be in the same sentence!

Many thanks for your comments too

[needlefluff]

Its about time I got my pics on. Its a re-hashed 1992 Street fighter 2 supreme Video Jamma cab. I have totaly gutted it and had my brother make the chequer plates for me. I have replaced the monitor with a multi frequency one, as the original exploded! I have had it a few years but has been sat in the garage for most of that time. I decided it deserved more, so Everything you see on it and in it is new. Just recieved all these stickers in the post today. Amazing quality! I am happy with the outcome of the pacman stickers around the joysticks, i have positioned them so they look like arrow pointers. Probably has been done before, but i have not seen them. Not decided what to do with the marquee yet, quite like this one but i want a bespoke one putting together. let me know what you think.

[Adultery]

I gotta tell ya, I really like the front panel illumination! That looks really sick! Is that cold cathode lighting?

Very cool! My keychain is a Yoshi. Haha!

[needlefluff]

I gotta tell ya, I really like the front panel illumination! That looks really sick! Is that cold cathode lighting?

Very cool! My keychain is a Yoshi. Haha!

Hey thanks! Yeah it is cathode lighting. £8 ebay special. I wasn't too sure about them at first, but the more positive feedback i get makes me like them more. I am also thinking of a set of small led's in the same colour under the marquee where the speaker slots are.

[Adultery]

I actually used LED cooling fans under the speaker grates and it not only looks fabulous but it provides a nice breeze for the marathon game sessions (not to mention diverting some heat).

I use cold cathode lighting (UV) around the monitor and I also was skeptical at first. It does look nice though.

[needlefluff]

Awsome, I will probably give it a go.

Yeah, I have recently installed a large cooling fan and drilled several venting holes in the base of the cabinet. It was getting mega hot! I had to keep the coin door open. No problems now. She is as cool as..... Cool beans!

[T-Jay]

Hi all, today I have 'finished' my first cab

In a previous post I mentioned that my cat is my coin mech when I play games - I have to feed her cat treats to get her off the cab stool, well, either the US don't have letterboxes, or my cat has spoken to parcelforce - my bezel was posted through the cat flap!

So, after 3 attempts on lighting the marquee, 2 broken socket backplates and a knackered microswitch it has took me three months!

I have posted before and after pics here for all to look at. The marquee & bezel I knida designed (saw some lomesome pngs and game them a home!) and got Game On Grafix to print the bezel/control panel, while my marquee was printed at Jessops.

I ain't looking on my bank statement as I don't want to know how much this project cost - I don't wanna put myself off my next cab!

[Draco1962]

Hi all, today I have 'finished' my first cab

In a previous post I mentioned that my cat is my coin mech when I play games - I have to feed her cat treats to get her off the cab stool, well, either the US don't have letterboxes, or my cat has spoken to parcelforce - my bezel was posted through the cat flap!

So, after 3 attempts on lighting the marquee, 2 broken socket backplates and a knackered microswitch it has took me three months!

I have posted before and after pics here for all to look at. The marquee & bezel I knida designed (saw some lomesome pngs and game them a home!) and got Game On Grafix to print the bezel/control panel, while my marquee was printed at Jessops.

I ain't looking on my bank statement as I don't want to know how much this project cost - I don't wanna put myself off my next cab!

Sweet bartop, T-Jay! As much as it might pain you to look at what you spent, etc. it would be nice if you wouldn't mind outlining what parts you purchased or put into your machine, any troubles, tricks or tips for your build, etc.

P.S. I moved your post to the pinned topic so that others new to the forums can find another great example easily!

[T-Jay]

OK, here goes -

Parts I had sitting around at home: 19" LCD Moniter, keyboard and mouse a 2TB HDD, and a technet account!

The Bartop was a flatpack from Tiny Arcadeswhich was £149

The buttons and joysticks was a bundle from Ultracabs which were £19.99, the ball-tops were £7 for the two. The Arcade stickers were from Arcade Stickers which came to £15.09. Black Sticky back plastic from Homebase which was £7.49. The motherboard was an Asus Mini ITX Bundle which included 2GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, 1 Slim DVDRW (unused)the itx board has an Intel Atom D410 Processor whiohwas £60. The backpanel was all bought from ebay, which cost no more than a tenner. The back has an ethernet socket, a power switch (PC boots straight on!)and a USB socket, the ethernet/usb I felt was a neccesity, as I can network drives so I can update roms/music etc. The usb for maintenance and other controllers. I also installed on the back PSX to USB controller sockets for console games.(Sat on the back, glued in means that the front still looks like a cab, without PSX controller sockets intruding) Marquee light were cold cathode tubes (ebay as well) for £6. The Marquee was printed by Jessops on poster paper for £8, while the control panel overlay and moniter bezel came from Game on Grafix. (£90 including shipping.

Oh, and lastly the minipac (£49ish)

It runs Game Ex obviously, I have been using this software since 2007 on my HTPC, and for the jukebox I use DWJukebox, which I have skinned and set up for different genres. It is using Adultery's Megamame 2.2 which compliments the cab really well. The marquee/bezel I 'designed' in Adobe Illistrator.

The grand total of the cab was (gets calcalator out) £575.45! Ok,it was £75 over budget but what the heck! It has took me 3 months to build, with all my friends saying, 'your spending too much on ya cab' before they go off and play pac-man...hmmm

I think what has made it for me was the 7 years of loitering around the internet before plungingt in, as I was able to see some great looking cabs and err...some not so great looking cabs.

I went down the flatpack route as I am utterly crap at woodwork, but thinking about my next cab, it's probably going to be a jamma conversion (from a generic cab) full sized upright. So I guess the tip/trick is don't build a cab because all it's going to do is set you on a downward slant to making more cabs!

But it's been great fun and challenging - not only that, but when you have finished certain parts of it...you can play games

[Draco1962]

You mean to tell me there are games to be played when all is said and done?

[Adultery]

Wait... what? Lol!

Nice looking barrio tjay! Mind if I borrow it? Lol!

[needlefluff]

Congratulations on completing your cab!

I have no idea what mine cost. I keep changing stuff. I did save a lot of money by trading the computer components for an annual service on my friends car! And I only paid £50 for the original cab with jamma pcb still installed, which I sold for £30, so the cab only cost £20! I also raided my friends arcade storage unit and had my brother make the stainless panels.

I JUST CANT STOP! Help me.....

[T-Jay]

I am now wondering whether this is a forum for game-ex or a support group for people with arcade cabinet addiction!!! Maybe Tom should stick a warning on the homepage of this site saying 'Building cabs seriously damages your wallet!'

needlenuff, I know what you mean regarding changing stuff, is it part of the building process that one must change thier mind at least 6 times before it is 'completed' - I know that mine is finished, but you can almost bet your ass that something else will be added/changed in oh....a weeks time

What I am thinking of doing is build a controller with a 4 way joystick and trackball with a fire button and player button which would connect by the usb at the back, also on the controller list is a light gun.

Going back to the build, the software side along with Game Ex, I use Headkaze's Mame Compiler (no nag screens YAY!) Tom's Instant sheller (XP is the best operating system to use on a cab, small footprint, easy to shell) and the custom menu editor. For DWJukebox - I connected it to my Hi-fi, which is a 1980's stacked unit comlete with recrod player and tape deck, with one of those new fangled cd players. (they won't catch on as we cannot copy our record collection onto them - damn! I am showing my age )

So yeah...more cool stuff to do on it, along with the next cab to build

[Adultery]

Yeah I got two Technic 1200's in the lab myself with a Gemini mixer and a Kaoss pad in between (I used to rock a lot of house music gigs back in the day)... Nothing beats that warm sound of a piece of fresh vinyl! I got a Core 2 Duo laying around and a nice 4:3 monitor that was donated to me also, which can only mean it's time to build my own jukebox to house all my 60's through 80's 45s rips (I have a sh*t load of records thanks to garage sales and Goodwills). When I get to the juke eventually, I'll be using DWJukebox also... It's a nice piece of software and it looks 'authentic' for people like me that prefer 'singles mode'.

I hear ya on never really being done... Once you run out of money you'll turn to skinning, then you'll resort to tweaking... It's a vicious cycle my friend!

[T-Jay]

I have 8 DWJukebox setups on my cab, all different genres, pop are in both singles and album mode, again friends say, 'why do you wanna do that' then promptly go onto pop singles mode and play Chirpy chirpy cheap cheap! Methinks there is a bit of jealosy going on whith all our friends

'Once you run out of money you'll turn to skinning, then you'll resort to tweaking... It's a vicious cycle my friend'

Tell me about it - in between buying and waitng for parts I have done that already, it's the same with an HTPC!! I think the only computer in my flat that hasn't been tweaked to death is the bedroom desktop, probably coz it runs boring sh*t like outlook and Word!

[Chazz]

Here's a video of my bar and my cab running GameEx.

[Adultery]

Went nuts with the LED signage huh? I was thinking about adding an LED strip tothe top of my cab. Any advice on where to buy?

[Krakerman]

I got a multi-color dioder down at IKEA. Gonna attach it to the back of my HDTV on Christmas.

[deadboy]

Pretty much finished with my cabinet. Bought an old Silver Strike Bowling cabinet and redid the control box and panel to be a 4 player set up. Also expanded the hole for the display on top to be able to add a 19" LCD.

[Adultery]

Wow that's a s**t ton of buttons!

I smiled when I saw your marquee, and I like the cpanel image. It genuinely feels like a real SFII-CE machine.

[deadboy]

Yeah, I went bug nutty with the buttons. When I first converted it I only did 2 players with 6 buttons each. Then I started running SF IV arcade edition on it and didn't NEED 8 buttons per player but...

[Adultery]

I'm all for your method of thinking.

I figure it's my cab and I'll put whatever the hell I want on it. Screw the haters that talk smack because (insert whiny voice here) "your cab is based on a console game instead of a MAME game" or "you wasted the cpanel space with a 2nd monitor and use a joystick? WTF?"

I personally love my cab.