the MAME Cabinet Files

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Ice Cream Jonsey
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the MAME Cabinet Files

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

It begins! I bought an empty Egg Venture cabinet from a guy today, at the Pinball Showdown. The cabinet is in the garage, awaiting... its transformation.

Pics of the process when the camera comes back. This week, I hope.
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Sorry - this is just a note to myself.

Control panels I am attempting to support:


Asteroids

Stargate (really Defender, but Stargate is a superset of Defender)

Mortal Kombat II

Discs of Tron

Marble Madness (really, trackball games)

And there is a guy who sells a stencil for the Burgertime "Pepper" button. Excellent.

The big hole(s) are racing games and a yoke for Star Wars. I really don't play racing games or rail shooters, so it's OK. There are enough Pole Positions, Turbos and Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart cabs floating around, anyway.
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AArdvark
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Post by AArdvark »

Post pix of other, completed cabinets so you have a goal to work towards. Then when yours is in a state that you want to photograph, replace the exising pix with yours.


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Post by bruce »

Here's something to shoot for:

http://www.fsf.net/~adam/mamecabcomic

Bruce

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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

bruce wrote:Here's something to shoot for:

http://www.fsf.net/~adam/mamecabcomic

Bruce
It is a beautiful cabinet.

I don't really have scads of people over, so I am not going to worry about the four player features. This also lets me consider a Gauntlet II machine some day, ha ha.

I think I can export a bitmap of the current design I'm thinking of. It'll support two players, but only because of Robotron's requirements.
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Image

Okay, the blue thing towards the top is the trackball.

The red things are the Robotron joysticks. (8-way)

The blue thing beneath the trackball is the spinner. Man, the top down view kind of sucks.

The black things to the side are the joysticks. The white buttons along the bottom are for Asteroids, and the buttons to the right of the left joystick (and left of the right joystick) are for MK2.

Not depicted is the trigger gun I'll have to install for Discs of Tron or the two buttons on the side for pinball games.

Bruce, I am very jealous of the fact that you got Visual PinMame working. I've had shit luck for years. I can't find tables and ROMs together.
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Post by AArdvark »

Damn! That thing'll have more controls than a Senate Majority Leader!

I bet it's gonna be way cool when it's done tho.


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Ice Cream Jonsey
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

My question is: should I have the Asteroids row on top (meaning one would have to lean over the trackball to use them) or have the trackball where it is (meaning all the trackball games require you to lean over the Asteroids buttons and possibly joysticks)?

I think I should move the trackball down. Everyone else seems to have their front and center.
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Post by AArdvark »

Trackball on right side, or whatever hand you use to control it. Make the machine to your personal configuration as to maximize your scores.


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Post by pinback »

How about

Image
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Post by AArdvark »

Hahahahahahahahahahaa!

THAT WAS FUNNY!! I laughed out loud when I saw that!



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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

HAY BRUCE, did you have to order a mounting plate for your trackball, or did it come with it?
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Post by AArdvark »

Just looked at that picture again and it still gave me hiccups. I guess I'm easily amused.



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Post by bruce »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:HAY BRUCE, did you have to order a mounting plate for your trackball, or did it come with it?
I, uh, cheated and bought a Slikstik control board, because I SUCK ASS at jigsaw work.

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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Bruce, it's OK, we can still exchange warm, manly high fives when I one day visit you and we play "M.U.L.E." together on it.
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

The update for today is that I got the marquee lit. I don't have a marquee for it, but the lamp is lit. That's what I meant.

The lamp that came with it was showing off light on the sides, but not the middle. Through Spy Hunter experience, I knew that it was the starter. And luckily, when I bought a starter last time they gave me two! banana!

They also sell black lights at Wal-Mart. Who knew? For like six bucks, too. So my MAME cabinet now has a black fluorescent light lighting the to-be-designed marquee.

Next up! I am going to buy primer for the sides of the cabinet and design the marquee. Well, get the marquee, which already exists on the Internet, in a good form for http://mamemarquees.com .
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

I did end up priming and painting the cabinet.

I need to paint the top of Gyruss as well, but I don't know how excited I am to bring paint in the house, and moving Gyruss, Christ, moving any of them up the stairs is not exactly an option.

The cab has basically been in a state of nothingness, as I haven't had the spare cash to get the parts I needed to finish the thing. I finally made the decision to get the remaining parts from the Real Bob Roberts and those should show up Wednesday. I am also going to dis-assemble the joystick box I made last year. I can't justify having it around when the MAME cab will be within 10 feet of it. Also, the cats have managed to destroy the box. Also, it doesn't fit on anything. Also, the spinner in it is bad and my brother got me a better one. Also, I don't want to buy a second keyboard encoder.

So I purchased everything except the trackball. It was really just a couple red ball joysticks and some buttons, real cheap. (Oh, I also got ten lamps for $1.50, which Spy Hunter and CC need -- the machine guns lamp died on SH over the weekend. The coin lamp had died weeks ago and I could live with that. The second player trackball light died on CC years ago and I could live with that. But I need to see my machine guns light, and both games took the same lamp, so there ya go.)

But yes! For the trackball, I am going to try to pick one up at the CGE and save some money. I seem to recall that people were selling one of every item in the universe at the 2004 CGE, so I feel confident that a trackball will be there. If not, someone can buy everything present up and make a Dyson sphere. I'd like a trackball which is the same size as the one in the cabaret version of Centipede. (I think that's a 2 1/4" inch trackball.)

Additionally, the diagram I did up above will not work, as nobody wants to reach over all those buttons to use the trackball. I'm going to have the trackball on the right side and the spinner on the left, instead of both of them in the center. This should hopefully satisfy Centipede fans (Dayna) and Discs of Tron fans (er, me).

So from here, I need to:

- finish painting the front of the cab, the coin area, just some touch-up stuff
- get stickers made for the sides. I want it to say (spoiler) "Polybius" on the sides.
- a sticker on the front, below the coin slot, that says, "PROPERTY OF US GOVERNMENT" in that army stencil font.
- if the coin mechs are working, it'd be nice to set that up to the IPAC.
- Oh yeah, build the control panel. I want it to be hinged like it currently is, so I need to see how I take the Egg Venture CP off.

OK, that's the bulk of it. Another exciting chapter awaits!
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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

OK, time to ramp up on this again.

I got the existing Egg Venture control panel off recently. I am going to build a wooden object that can go in its place.

I decided to not put a trackball in it, however. I already own my favorite trackball game and I doubt, highly, that Dayna (who loves Centipede) is going to feel that the thing matches real Centipede all that much. Plus, there is a Centipede game in Lyons, CO that we play fairly often. (There is also a Missile Command there.)

That basically has me putting a trackball on the thing for Quantum and Marble Madness, and I don't quite dig either game... although I know that MM is brilliant.

That being said, I am going to put a roller on it for Major Havoc. MH is like a $2500 game if you can even find one. Nobody is ever going to put one on route and I love the game, so there ya go.

OK, time to find some quality wood and start cutting it.
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Post by pinbacker »

Image
That's the wrong video, by the way.

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Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Yes! Haha, very funny. We got it the first time.

If you had added the Major Havoc roller to that picture it would have been a worthy addition into your comedy library. Instead you look like someone either being really mean, or someone who has decided to run his little MAME joke into the ground.
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