http://lifehacker.com/5345982/build-a-n ... ol-game-on


This is pretty cool too.

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Well you put the pics ass backwards then, causing a pime taradox and all that.

That is awesome though. How does he do the software stuff, though? Does he use a NES? Can it play just one game or is it an emulator with everything you want?

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PC with emulators installed.

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

Hence the hidden keyboard.

I'm probably, no, definitely not going to have a keyboard onboard. I may choose to have a wireless keyboard and mouse at some stage but to start with the machine will be controlled by the joysticks and buttons.
The Frontends for Mame are great at allowing control via joystick so I will choose one (MAMEFE, GameEX or Maximus Arcade) and go with that.

But yes, it's all going to be PC based.

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Bit of an update.


The Marquee (top sign), bezel (Screen sticker) and CPO (control panel overlay) arrived yesterday from www.mamemarquees.com - Excellent service with about a 3 week turnaround!!

However I've notices that the Marquee has a problem with the colouring inside the B of bomb and the A of jack - My fault totally as I didn't fill them in correctly. The CPO in particular looks fantastic. Pictures to come.
I may go back to my original idea of using 18mm MDF for the control panel as I think the vinyl will be hard wearing. The designs came in a sturdy tube so they need to be flattened out for a while - That will have to be at work cos I can't do it here with the kids around.

Next job - Order perspex!

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Keep us posted with nice pictures and details of the budget and stuff. I'd do something like this, if I wasn't a complete mong when it comes to DIY.

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

I haven't really set a budget limit (bad move) but expense so far


8' x 4' sheet MDF 18mm - £14.00
2 lengths 1" x 1" softwood - £8.00
X-arcade controller - £75.00
Graphics (inc postage) £96.00
PC - £40.00

Total £223.00 so far.


To buy -
*Additional buttons (will use the standard X-arcade ones for now but will look to get HAPP ones in time)
*Light for Marquee
*Contactor to power system on
*Perspex



Loads to do yet.

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What graphics card did you get?

Price seems disproportionate in comparison to the PC. Was it one of those special ones, which displays the actual arcade resolutions?

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

I think when he's talking about graphics, he means the actual plastic bits with the Bomb Jack logo on them.

That'd make more sense I suppose.

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Prime Directives : Prosecute those who steal memes from other forums.

Did a bit on the control panel tonight. Basically I need to cut the MDF 2mm smaller than the overlay all around and I've marked out the button/joystick positions. I've also marked 4 (well 3 actually but only because my photocopy of the CPO is too dark) position which I will drill out at 6mm. In these postions I'll be fitting LEDs. Positions are both eyes on Bombjack and the bomb he is looking at and the fuse of the bomb in the bombjack title.

Got my dimensions for the perspex, will order tomorrow. I've gone with 18mm MDF for the CPO rather than the original 12mm MDF + 2 x 3mm Perspex, mainly because it would be difficult to do without the risk of scratching but the price for machined perspex was prohibitive.

Must post some pics soon.

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This is awesome. I am useless at making things but love seeing other peoples projects.

Hope it all goes smoothly for you Trin.

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This sounds amazing. The sort of thing I want to do

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Look into arcade stick building, if you haven't already. Custom stick builders use perspex all the time, and they probably wouldn't if there wasn't a way to get it done cheaply.

Yeah, I have done but the artwork is on high quality Vinyl so it's designed for the wear and tear of being on the surface. It will all come down to how good a finish I get when I shape the mdf/perspex/perspex. If it looks good, I'll use it.

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Probably a daft question but are you essentially going to have a mini PC inside the cabinet to run the games or is there some technical witchcraft going on?

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No, it's a full sized PC stripped down (won't need a dvd/cd unit and I will try to get as much of the case out as possible to keep the weight down).

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You could probably just mount the PC board to the case itself. Isn't that how real arcade machines work?

Indeed, I wonder what the practical minimum PC spec is for this kind of thing? Surely there must be a Linux distribution dedicated to arcade machine emulation? *investigates*

AdvanceMAME: http://advancemame.sourceforge.net/cd-readme.html

It seems you could even boot AdvanceMAME from a USB key, so a hard drive isn't even nessecary, and it would make getting new games onto the system reasonably practical. You could literally just open it up, unplug the key, plug it into another PC, copy the game across and put it back.

Ideally it will boot straight into the frontend of mame rather than flapping about with the windows logo etc.


I was tempted to go down the Supergun route but disliked the limited number of games available at any one time. My new monitor appearred today too - 19" instead of the 17" one I had. This makes up nicely for my cock up on the bezel.

The one things I haven't got at the moment is time to work on it.

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