Ideal Videogame Cabinet(s)

[jollyrancher]

I was just thinking about how inexpensive (although difficult) it would be to make 2 arcade cabinets that could play MAME, N64, PSX, SNES, Sega and maybe a few others (Zinc or something). I think two would be ideal because some screens are rotated like PacMan, Centipede, and vertical shooters.

So I think one cabinet, the one with the vertical screen, would be a basic one, that would have X-Arcade type controls, plus a trackball. It would only play the vertical MAME games. They're a bunch of MAMEish sites where people create basic ones that play exclusively MAME games and this would fit that bill.

The second would be much more difficult because I would want it to play several systems and have analog control. So that's really the question here... I've been looking but haven't seen any examples of cabinets that have X-Arcade style controls (no trackball on this one) plus a second set of normal analog PC controllers (Psx-style) that you could bust out to play Psx/N64 games. And it might be uncomfortable using the controllers standing up... how would you design this... can you get decent analog controls off a standard joystick?

An on a sidenote, what pisses me off about the MAME cabinet sites is how they're all about sanding down the cabinet, polishing the original Defender logo, etc... screw it, get a $150 used arkanoid cabinet, gut it out, spend 90% of the time on installing the numerous electronic adapters, duct tape the CPU in there and go with it. To me it's not about the retro factor, it's about functionality.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Xbox will play everything you mentioned, and its cheap.

 

[jollyrancher]

Little off-topic??? Borderline SPAM??? Xbox? Don't they have Dragon's Lair 3D, Minority Report, Shrek, Monopoly Party???? Anyway no disrespect if you can help me with analog for the possiblility of incorporating an XBox in the future... controls are the hardware and it should have some support for analog. The controller device should be something like Gravis where you can specify analog or directional for each program.

P.S., I'll still play Galaga or Centipede over Matrix for whatever system anyday.

 

[Davemc]

Alpha is right. (For once) h34r:

 

[DuDe]

Little off-topic??? Borderline SPAM??? Xbox? Don't they have Dragon's Lair 3D, Minority Report, Shrek, Monopoly Party???? Anyway no disrespect if you can help me with analog for the possiblility of incorporating an XBox in the future... controls are the hardware and it should have some support for analog. The controller device should be something like Gravis where you can specify analog or directional for each program.

P.S., I'll still play Galaga or Centipede over Matrix for whatever system anyday.

Yes, XBox. Emulators, you know.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Little off-topic??? Borderline SPAM??? Xbox? Don't they have Dragon's Lair 3D, Minority Report, Shrek, Monopoly Party???? Anyway no disrespect if you can help me with analog for the possiblility of incorporating an XBox in the future... controls are the hardware and it should have some support for analog. The controller device should be something like Gravis where you can specify analog or directional for each program.

P.S., I'll still play Galaga or Centipede over Matrix for whatever system anyday.

Well, in case you haven't noticed, you can play all of those games on the same system, as emulating other platforms on the xbox is pretty big. And I don't see how this can be considered spam either, since microsoft loses money whenever people do this.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/software/software.php?page=emulators

BTW, so far as analog is concerned, I can only name one control device for xbox that isn't analog, which would be the DVD remote.

 

[Hexidecimal]

If you have 3000 dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you could go to www.custom-arcade.com and get one of their dealies, you can trick out the control panel however you want, and there a slide out droor for keyboard/mouse for the PC you could keep N64/PSX controllers on.

 

[jollyrancher]

Xbox will play everything you mentioned, and its cheap.

This really isn't the point, unfortunately.... I call this crap SPAM 'cause I could say "go buy yourself a YoYO brand popsicle and lick it silly...." The topic is Arcade Cabinets.... wtf this have to do with XBox?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Did I say that I'm thinking about thinking about XBox? No.... Am I debating the merits of GCube VS Xbox? No... Psx2 VS Xbox? No... Please stay on topic.... P.S.... what's that in your sig about "click here for you ROM and WAREZ needs"?? You might want to read the rules.

 

[DuDe]

OK, first thing, chill the hell out. Second thing : what AlphaWolf said is 100% right. A moded XBox can play shitloads of arcade games via XMame, KawaX, and all sorts of NES/SNES/SMS etc emulators. And it costs 150 bucks, unlike an arcade cabinet, which will cost you 3000 bucks, as Hexadecimal pointed.

 

[jollyrancher]

Yeah I was just slightly ticked I agree.... it's just somehow turning into a XBox forum, don't know how... everyone agreeing... just got to me.

Second thing : what AlphaWolf said is 100% right. A moded XBox...

I've heard different...
"Xbox mods are not supported by Microsoft and are illegal under the DMCA. If you mod your Xbox, you are willingly voiding the warranty and breaking the law."

Don't know who to believe anymore... should be a new topic... sure it's subject to greater analysis... still wondering what's with the XBox fans... I mean it's ok...

And it [Xbox] costs 150 bucks, unlike an arcade cabinet, which will cost you 3000 bucks

now we're back on topic!!!! I've seen quite a few working arcade cabinets for under $200... yeah, the electronics will set you back a couple hundred more depending on who you know... just trying to put together the system... as I said, it might be nice to have analog for N64/PSX controllers and the possiblility for future XBox use. Anyone know something about this?

Click HERE for all your ROM and WAREZ needs!!!!

 

[Trotterwatch]

P.S.... what's that in your sig about "click here for you ROM and WAREZ needs"?? You might want to read the rules.

You may want to check out his sig before you said that, as it is you look like an arse.... lol

As for Alphawolfs comment, he simply meant you could use an Xbox as the main part of one of your cabinets, as it is more than able to play most of the systems near perfectly. Cheaper than buying a second PC for the job?

Regardless, don't attack people for no reason

 

[jollyrancher]

As for Alphawolfs comment, he simply meant you could use an Xbox as the main part of one of your cabinets, as it is more than able to play most of the systems near perfectly. Cheaper than buying a second PC for the job?

That's cool... just misunderstood... thought they meant I should get an XBox instead of trying to put together an Arcade cabinet.... anyway, I've already got the PC's so it's no problem.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Yeah I was just slightly ticked I agree.... it's just somehow turning into a XBox forum, don't know how... everyone agreeing... just got to me.

Did you forget to take your fluphenazine again?

 

[Hexidecimal]

jollyrancher, before you close your mind off any further, your wisest choice IS to buy an xbox and some plywood, find the arcade plans online, and build your own cabnet, and there isnt a mod chip out there approved by xbox, ALL OF THEM ARE ILLEGAL.

 

[AlphaWolf]

jollyrancher, before you close your mind off any further, your wisest choice IS to buy an xbox and some plywood, find the arcade plans online, and build your own cabnet, and there isnt a mod chip out there approved by xbox, ALL OF THEM ARE ILLEGAL.

Well, you don't even need a modchip realy.

 

[Hexidecimal]

Erm? You Dont? Care to AIM me with a way to not use a mod chip? I've got a box i cant mod, (parents) and itd be a hell of a lot better then playin SNES on Dreamcast because its SLOW.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Erm? You Dont? Care to AIM me with a way to not use a mod chip? I've got a box i cant mod, (parents) and itd be a hell of a lot better then playin SNES on Dreamcast because its SLOW.

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tutorials.php?t=0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

Unless 8 gigs of HDD storage isn't enough for you, there is no need to even dissassemble your xbox. Burning roms, emulators, etc, on optical disks works too, the only thing is you can't use CD-R (every type of writable DVD except DVD-RAM works, CD-RW works too). Add to that, some emulators (PCSXBOX is one) will work off of SMB mounts (e.g. windows file sharing, linux samba) over a network.