Introduction
In an old episode on Hak5, Wess Tobler (@Dankiswess) did segment on making a MAME bar top arcade cabinet. This segment inspired me to make my own MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) arcade cabinet, so I began doing research on different MAME cabinet designs. Bartop Arcade had many different designs and templates for bar top arcades. Below is the design and template that I based my MAME cabinet off of.
Build Phase
Items need for the build phase:
- 1 – 4’x8’x5/8″ MDF sheet
- Box of screws
- LCD Monitor (I used a 19″ LCD that I had lying around)
- Two Player Complete Do It Yourself Arcade Kit from X-Arcade
- A computer (I choose to use my existing Windows 7 tower)
- Table saw
- Drill with a 1 1/2″ drill bit.
For the build phase I used the template that I found from Bartop Arcade and cut out each piece. I decided against having a slide out drawer, so I had to make some slight modifications. Below is a picture of the cabinet about 90% into the build phase.
After cutting and assembling the exterior of the cabinet, I had to wire all the buttons. Once that was done it was onto the software configuration.
Software Configuration
A lot of research went into deciding exactly how the software side of this project would be configured. I was initially set on using MALA as my front-end, but then I found Hyperspin.
Not only was Hyperspin a superior looking front-end, it would allow me to run many different emulators including a NES and SNES emulator. Hyperspin does most of its configuration through GUIs and XML files. Below is a image of the cabinet 90% complete running PAC-MAN.
Hyperspin also allowed for configuring other applications to open from within it. I configured it to run Aussie Juke as one of the emulators. Also, after reading a comment by Moonlit on episode five of TheNewTech.tv, I decided to modify the registry entry for explorer.exe to boot to Hyperspin.
HKEY_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
Final Thoughts
There are several things I have to do to complete this project. First, I need to finish the marquee. The marquee will end up being a cylon eye covered by a tinted plexiglass. Second, I need to mount the pc hardware inside the cabinet. I currently have it connected to PC tower.