Cabinets and HTPC Setups Running GameEx

[Draco1962]

I hope you meant mollified... LOL! Nullified would mean she ceases to exist or null has some 'splainin' to do!

[nullPointer]

I hope you meant mollified... LOL! Nullified would mean she ceases to exist or null has some 'splainin' to do!

LOL! phew ... that cracked me up But ah ... no. Much respect Venomuse, much love!

I do have a new catchphrase now though, so that's a net gain? And for the record ... You've all just been nullified. Yeah.

[KRC]

I did often wonder where nullPointer actually came from but only 10 minutes I had an error Java.nullpointer.index, dont know what the error was but it hasnt shown up again (Sorry if this is a little off topic)

[nullPointer]

See, it's just like I said ... nullified. Yeah. But quite right; a null pointer is what they call it in Java when an object reference has not been set to an instance of an object (i.e. there's a pointer in memory but it hasn't been initialized to a specific value). In the error above it sounds like someone wasn't keeping an eye on the index bounds of their array/collection.

Any hoo, yeah ... How 'bout them cabinets running GameEx?

[helpman]

Hi there!

I became unemployed in september, and while my economic situation is not good at all right now, my spare time grew considerably, so I convinced my wife (ok, she said no-way, but I pretended I didn't hear her LOL) to build my own arcade at the lowest possible cost.

I found a spanish forum, zonaarcade, where I got some ideas and checked the average price of a full cabinet. And I got frightened with the prices...

Then I though on building the cabinet myself... and my wood cutting skills told me to change my mind on that.

I wanted an upright cabinet, but finally found an old table arcade, something like a half-cocktail.

No glass, no controls... just the cabinet and the old arcade monitor.

I just had no clue how to use that old arcade monitor, and went for an easier setup. (anyway, I had no way of connecting it to my computer without buying some expensive adapters and didn't know if it had all the pieces, how to connect it... and found at least 2 wires unsoldered without clue about where to solder them...) So I removed it, and added a 21'' crt screen. It didn't fit, so I removed the hard plastic cover... and the day after I needed to remove it from the frame and broke it. Anyway, didn't allow enought space on the inside to fit the computer so... bought another screen, this time 17''.

Bought some joystick, buttons, arcade-2-usb interface, got another control board from scrapped material, painted it all, removed the inside of the coin slots as I needed all the inside to be free so I could fit an old computer there...

So I bough an old dell optiplex gx280, a memory upgrade, a video card... changed the hard drive (80gb) to one I had at home of 1tb...

added speakers from an old 5.1 sound system I had at home (4 speakers and the subwoofer, but I damaged 2 of the paper membranes and finally I only used 2 and the subwoofer...

bought some cheap laptop coolers so I could use the usb connectors of the computer to power them and help cooling down the cabinet...

and here's how it looks like now

now I just need to add the vinyl stickers

This is how Gameex looks on mine... using custom menu and modifying the theme arcade84

cabinet: 45 euros

crt 21'' screen: 5 euros. (I broke this one )

crt 17'' screen: 7 euros.

5.1 sound system (only 2 speakers and subwoofer working): free (lying around at home, got 5 speakers, but damaged 2 of them)

2 black mate spray paint: 4 euros.

2 black shiny spray paint: 4 euros.

smoked glass top 0,5cm thick: 28 euros.

black rubber thing for the top of the cabinet where the glass is supported: 10 euros.

2 keylocks for front and back doors: 9 euros.

lots of round head bolts (can't remember how many lol) about 10 euros.

usb to arcade controller + 2 joysticks + 22 buttons 65 euros.

new cp wood panel: free (from a scrapped wood plank)

computer dell optiplex gx280 (2.8ghz pentium IV, 1gb ddr2 ram, integrated graphic card): 50 euros.

4gb ddr2 ram: 27 euros.

ati x1300 128mb low profile video card: 17 euros.

1 big laptop cooling usb fan: 3,5 euros.

2 small laptop cooling usb fans with 4 port usb hub: 12 euros.

vinyl decals for control panel (still waiting for them!) 43 euros.

2 nice pneumatic chromed stools with leather tops: 60 euros.

Total cost: more or less 400 euros (about 520 usd)

Buying everything from ebay, used items ads from online newspapers...

Oh, well... and this is me LOL

[hansolo77]

WOW! Not bad. Nice what a little paint can do to fix up the cab. I really REALLY want one of my own. I'll just stick with good old desktop mode for right now though. My first thing I'm gonna get is a pinball cabinet.

[helpman]

this is what I used before building my cabinet.

About 20 years ago I bought an old control panel, soldered all the connections to a usb microsoft gamepad and... I've been using it since them... now it's partially disasembled and waiting for a future project I have 2 cheap gamepads I plan to rip open and build 2 small 1 player-4 button controllers

[Draco1962]

Would make for a nice bartop MAME rig. I applaud anyone that can hack & solder without burning themselves or the house!

[KRC]

Nice Work helpman

[Draco1962]

Since there are a fair number running GameEx in some form or fashion on HTPC setups, I have expanded this thread to be inclusive of them as well.

[helpman]

I just finished applying the new arts for my Arcade Classics

[KRC]

That's very nice! Great work

[ClassicGMR]

Nice looking cabinet!

[Leonblaster]

Here is my cab that has now been used at the holbeach youth group they love it!