Quote:
Originally Posted by cKy
That's awesome. You still have the plans/blueprint for that? What was your final total $$ ?
I have wanted to build one for years.
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I don't have plans, but plans are available at
www.mameroom.com (edited in, the company is still in business. You can bittorrent them for free, but don't)
I'd suggest starting where I did,
www.byoac.com. You can also check out the book "Project Arcade" which is a complete manual on how to do it from scratch.
I didn't do mine from scratch, in particular, the control panel was made for me. But you can even just buy the control panel "blank" with the holes in it (helpful if you live in a condo like me and don't have a woodshop to work in), and then buy the controls from Happs,
www.ultimarc.com or
www.groovygamegear.com. You'd need joysticks, buttons, a keyboard encoder, and a little bit of know-how and it isn't hard to do.
If you want to go all out on the controls (my two left hand sticks have rotary upgrades for games like Ikari Warriors) it can get expensive, but you could build a basic MAME cabinet for less than $1K if you want to. The system I have has every possible option available at the time (real Happ trackball, rotary upgrades, spinner, 5 joysticks, real coin door that works, pinball buttons, actual 27" arcade monitor), and I probably have north of $5K into it. I did it before it became popular and now I think you can buy the parts cheaper.
LATE DISCOVERY: The place you used to be able to buy the plans from is up again, it is
www.mameroom.com. They sell blanks and completed systems.
