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A little more info. If you're looking at building your own arcade cabinet with light guns, then ultimarc has the Aimtrak. I picked up a couple guns and the IR sensor bar for my cabinet, basically it's just like the WII with an IR sensor bar mounted either above or below the screen, and each gun appears as a mouse to the computer. The actually work pretty well for games like Area 51.

Note that is for the "free-standing" guns that are tethered with a cable. Games like RevolutionX and Terminator 2 have hard-mounted guns on a swivel. Those are joysticks in disguise.

I can't believe no one has suggested one of the many MAME interface boards. Arcade enthusiasts have a myriad of inexpensive interfaces for connecting custom controls to a computer. They are cheap and easy to use:
http://www.ultimarc.com/ (follow U-HID links, or the I-PAC, Opti-PAC, etc links)
http://groovygamegear.com/ (follow the controls interfaces link)

Buttons, spinners, joysticks (optical, microswitch, etc), and analog controls - there is almost certainly an off the shelf interface for any kind of basic control like that. Beyond that a microcontroller kit (arduino or other) could fill in anything more exotic. I'm going a similar route to this for a custom CNC control panel I'm building, fun stuff.

I have an X-arcade, and it's great for mid level arcade gaming. It works great for my purposes. However, people who compete in Street Fighter tournaments and go for high scores in Cave shmups complain about a small amount of lag, and difficulty hitting diagonals. The sticks aren't authentic arcade parts, and who knows what the PCB is doing. If I didn't find the X-arcade for real cheap, I would have built my own stick from Happ parts and an I-Pac. I don't think these issues affect play at my level, but it would be nice for peace of mind to know for sure they are not.

Get a USB Arcade Controller and go to Happ Controls. For a total of about $60 in parts you can build any arcade control design you want. These are real arcade buttons and joysticks so they will last.

If you're looking for plug and play, this, or similar fight sticks, could work nicely as they are plug and play with Windows: http://www.amazon.com/Xbox360-Fighting-Stick-EX-Xbox-360/dp/B000V02P6Q
If you're wanting a bit more genuine experience, though, and are willing to put some time in to build your own panel (it's easier than it sounds), Ultimarc makes some of the nicest controls around. The owner, Andy, is one of the greatest guys to deal with when it comes to support, as well.

~Someone whose built his own arcade specifically for the purpose of reliving the classic.

Because HTPCs are noisy, expensive, difficult to set up and use, prone to crashing, breaking, and just not working right.

They're no worse than a certain media center extender device made by Microsoft that has a "red ring" failure mode.

That said in Europe

My comments refer to the United States market because I live in the United States, as do the editors of Slashdot and the executives of SourceForge Inc., Slashdot's parent company. In North America, the closest thing we have to SCART is YPbPrLR component over five RCA cables, and the video side of that is not electrically compatible with VGA.

All you need is a custom modeline

But will the average Windows driver support a custom modeline?

and the right kind of video card.

You mean ArcadeVGA? Most people don't even know it exists, just like the VGA-to-composite adapter I linked. And unless the Intel GMA series is likewise a "right kind", people who didn't buy a video card for their PC won't be able to use it.

I agree ... Plus if you (or the wife) is handy with very simple electronics, you can build your own controller for an "arcade" like experience, especially if you use the MAME emulator. That is, if you're looking for arcade type games...

"well, consoles are getting pretty darn similar to PCs these days"

Yup. Similar in usability and price.

I'm a HUGE GTA fan and when San Andreas came out I bought a PS2 just for that game. I think I paid around $200 CAD for both the game and the system.

GTA 4 comes out later this month and with the PS3 and XBox 360 at $400 + there is simply no freakin' way I can justify shelling out the cash, and I'm heart broken because I've been looking forward to it since like 2004 after I finished San Andreas.

On the other hand, my PC is a great gaming machine and I have a lot of PC games that I love to play. If GTA 4 were available on the 29th for the PC then I would consider buying it. Although I found that San Andreas was much more enjoyable on the PS2 so I'm afraid that the same may be true for GTA 4.

Anyway my point is, while everyone keeps saying "consoles are just as powerful as PCs these days so why not game on your console ?" my answer is "because I already paid $400 + for a PC and I don't feel like I should have to shell out my hard earned cash for another one that can only play games (well besides surfing the net and playing DVDs but my PC and DVD player do those just fine too tyvm)".

The attractiveness of consoles (to me anyway) were their relatively low price (compared to a computer) and the better gaming experience offered by controllers as oppose to keyboards / joysticks / mice etc. But you can get gamepads for the PC (hell using an I-PAC you can even build an arcade control panel for your PC for about 1/5 the price the console will cost you) and now they're just as expensive as entry level PCs. Assuming you already have a PC for work / internet etc. you can add a decent video card and up your RAM and CPU (if necessary) for cheaper than the PS3 or Xbox 360.

I'd recommend the A-PAC as this uses the USB gamepads as the discrete controllers to program. This is much simpler to set up and you don't have to worry about ghosting keys. Its also good if you don't want the arcade machine and you make a desktop arcade box, you can use it for other PC games that use gamepads.

If you want to convert an old cabinet, there are much easier solutions. Ultimarc, for example, produces several products that convert standard JAMMA interfaces to PC keyboard and video connections...Ultimarc's products, though, appear to allow for the joystick and buttons on a JAMMA cabinet to connect to a PS/2 interface and for the video connector to hook to VGA (refresh and resolutions on arcade machines are different from standard computer modes). They even sell an AGP or PCIe video card that appears to have a special RAMDAC so that you don't have to screw around with getting the weird video modes working....I've never used Ultimarc's stuff, so I have no idea how well it would work. Assuming it's decent, the formula would be pretty simple:

It all works very well indeed. I have an IPAC interface, an ArcadeVGA card, a video amplifier and an UltraStick 360 (USB arcade-style joystick mappable to analogue). This went into a two-player six button Electrocoin cabinet along with a P800, speakers and a wireless adapter for remote admin. The ArcadeVGA allows direct connection to a 15Khz monitor such as the Hanterax 9000 that came with my Electrocoin - no messing around. Resoldering the buttons to connect to the IPAC was easy, and the default IPAC controls map to the default MAME key configurations as well. Top it all off with a MAMEWah front end and my home arcade machine is doing very well for itself.

My only gripe isn't with Ultimarc, it's with the speakers I chose. They have excellent sound quality, no problem there, but they need switching by pressing two buttons simultaneously. I'd like to find some good speakers that can be left in an on position constantly, and will just react to whether power is being supplied or not. All suggestions welcome.

The other thing I'd like is a driver for the ArcadeVGA under Linux. At the moment my home arcade is based on Windows 2000 - the only install of Windows in the house, bar a virtual one I use for running Quicken. I'd like to move over to a Linux solution, but I've read mixed things about the ArcadeVGA under Linux. It works, but there appears to be an amount of faff getting the right resolutions recognised and avoiding that is exactly why I bought an ArcadeVGA in the first place.

All in all though - Ultimarc make excellent products which make refitting a cabinet into a MAME box an entirely straight forward affair. The owner has also been helpful advising me on a few things too. No connection, just a satisfied customer.

Cheers,
Ian

If you want to convert an old cabinet, there are much easier solutions. Ultimarc, for example, produces several products that convert standard JAMMA interfaces to PC keyboard and video connections...Ultimarc's products, though, appear to allow for the joystick and buttons on a JAMMA cabinet to connect to a PS/2 interface and for the video connector to hook to VGA (refresh and resolutions on arcade machines are different from standard computer modes). They even sell an AGP or PCIe video card that appears to have a special RAMDAC so that you don't have to screw around with getting the weird video modes working....I've never used Ultimarc's stuff, so I have no idea how well it would work. Assuming it's decent, the formula would be pretty simple:

It all works very well indeed. I have an IPAC interface, an ArcadeVGA card, a video amplifier and an UltraStick 360 (USB arcade-style joystick mappable to analogue). This went into a two-player six button Electrocoin cabinet along with a P800, speakers and a wireless adapter for remote admin. The ArcadeVGA allows direct connection to a 15Khz monitor such as the Hanterax 9000 that came with my Electrocoin - no messing around. Resoldering the buttons to connect to the IPAC was easy, and the default IPAC controls map to the default MAME key configurations as well. Top it all off with a MAMEWah front end and my home arcade machine is doing very well for itself.

My only gripe isn't with Ultimarc, it's with the speakers I chose. They have excellent sound quality, no problem there, but they need switching by pressing two buttons simultaneously. I'd like to find some good speakers that can be left in an on position constantly, and will just react to whether power is being supplied or not. All suggestions welcome.

The other thing I'd like is a driver for the ArcadeVGA under Linux. At the moment my home arcade is based on Windows 2000 - the only install of Windows in the house, bar a virtual one I use for running Quicken. I'd like to move over to a Linux solution, but I've read mixed things about the ArcadeVGA under Linux. It works, but there appears to be an amount of faff getting the right resolutions recognised and avoiding that is exactly why I bought an ArcadeVGA in the first place.

All in all though - Ultimarc make excellent products which make refitting a cabinet into a MAME box an entirely straight forward affair. The owner has also been helpful advising me on a few things too. No connection, just a satisfied customer.

Cheers,
Ian

If you want to convert an old cabinet, there are much easier solutions. Ultimarc, for example, produces several products that convert standard JAMMA interfaces to PC keyboard and video connections...Ultimarc's products, though, appear to allow for the joystick and buttons on a JAMMA cabinet to connect to a PS/2 interface and for the video connector to hook to VGA (refresh and resolutions on arcade machines are different from standard computer modes). They even sell an AGP or PCIe video card that appears to have a special RAMDAC so that you don't have to screw around with getting the weird video modes working....I've never used Ultimarc's stuff, so I have no idea how well it would work. Assuming it's decent, the formula would be pretty simple:

It all works very well indeed. I have an IPAC interface, an ArcadeVGA card, a video amplifier and an UltraStick 360 (USB arcade-style joystick mappable to analogue). This went into a two-player six button Electrocoin cabinet along with a P800, speakers and a wireless adapter for remote admin. The ArcadeVGA allows direct connection to a 15Khz monitor such as the Hanterax 9000 that came with my Electrocoin - no messing around. Resoldering the buttons to connect to the IPAC was easy, and the default IPAC controls map to the default MAME key configurations as well. Top it all off with a MAMEWah front end and my home arcade machine is doing very well for itself.

My only gripe isn't with Ultimarc, it's with the speakers I chose. They have excellent sound quality, no problem there, but they need switching by pressing two buttons simultaneously. I'd like to find some good speakers that can be left in an on position constantly, and will just react to whether power is being supplied or not. All suggestions welcome.

The other thing I'd like is a driver for the ArcadeVGA under Linux. At the moment my home arcade is based on Windows 2000 - the only install of Windows in the house, bar a virtual one I use for running Quicken. I'd like to move over to a Linux solution, but I've read mixed things about the ArcadeVGA under Linux. It works, but there appears to be an amount of faff getting the right resolutions recognised and avoiding that is exactly why I bought an ArcadeVGA in the first place.

All in all though - Ultimarc make excellent products which make refitting a cabinet into a MAME box an entirely straight forward affair. The owner has also been helpful advising me on a few things too. No connection, just a satisfied customer.

Cheers,
Ian

The author of this review asks, "What if you just want to convert an old (non-working, I hope) cabinet into a MAME arcade cabinet? Lots of information is out there, but where do you start?" Based on the review, the book seems to focus a lot on making your own replica cabinet from scratch.

If you want to build a cabinet from scratch, it sounds like this would be a fine book. If you want to convert an old cabinet, there are much easier solutions. Ultimarc, for example, produces several products that convert standard JAMMA interfaces to PC keyboard and video connections. JAMMA is the standard that arose to allow for easily changing games out in arcade cabinets.

I ultimately ended up with a HotRodSE connected to a home theater computer because I didn't have the space for a dedicated cabinet. Ultimarc's products, though, appear to allow for the joystick and buttons on a JAMMA cabinet to connect to a PS/2 interface and for the video connector to hook to VGA (refresh and resolutions on arcade machines are different from standard computer modes). They even sell an AGP or PCIe video card that appears to have a special RAMDAC so that you don't have to screw around with getting the weird video modes working.

I've never used Ultimarc's stuff, so I have no idea how well it would work. Assuming it's decent, the formula would be pretty simple: find an older Street Fighter cabinet in decent shape (functioning buttons and non-burned screen). They have six-button configs, which seems to be the most buttons used for the majority of games, thus saving you from having to cut holes for new buttons. Street Fighter was also ridiculously common but is old enough that you should be able to get the cabinet for a few hundred dollars if you're in/near a big city. Pull the board, plop in a computer, wire a couple of adapters, spend some time on a nice front end, and it shouldn't be too much work to have a functional MAME cabinet.

The I-Pac from Ultimarc is a really nice screw-terminal-to-keyboard interface board, and the one I've used in my own arcade console. Its biggest benefit over a hacked-up keyboard is that it uses discrete I/O for all of its inputs, rather than matrix scanning like a keyboard does, so there's absolutely no limit to the number of simultaneous keypresses it can process.

I'd also like to recommend the Opti-Pac to connect trackballs, spinners, or optical joysticks that don't have built-in USB or PS/2 mouse interfaces.

And while I'm on the subject of spinners, the SlikStik Tornado Spinner is really nice.

The I-Pac from Ultimarc is a really nice screw-terminal-to-keyboard interface board, and the one I've used in my own arcade console. Its biggest benefit over a hacked-up keyboard is that it uses discrete I/O for all of its inputs, rather than matrix scanning like a keyboard does, so there's absolutely no limit to the number of simultaneous keypresses it can process.

I'd also like to recommend the Opti-Pac to connect trackballs, spinners, or optical joysticks that don't have built-in USB or PS/2 mouse interfaces.

And while I'm on the subject of spinners, the SlikStik Tornado Spinner is really nice.

He generally wins with around 60,000 pts but it's very good fun.

I got 20,000 on my first try on the real thing in years at the Science Museum. That was the high score of the day, and I can feel the twelve-year old me staring in utter contempt (I'm 35 - asteroids was already not that new when I started playing).

If you run it under Mame you can simulate the flicker, blur, and intensity of the original vector hardware very well. Turn the screen brightness right up and you get a very similar effect to the original with trails and burning phosphor 'bullets'. Cranking up the sound on big speakers helps as well.

Oh, I do and I agree with you completely. I have a MAME cabinet and an ArcadeVGA so that I can use proper arcade screens with corrected brightnesses instead of computer screens. But even so, games like Asteroids and Star Wars are never quite the same. They had a sit-down Star Wars (vector) machine at the exhibition - now that was some fairly intense action, much more so than when just trying the same game on a raster CRT or normal LCD.

Cheers,
Ian

If you want to go an easier and far more flexible route, just do like I did and pick up a keyboard interface from Ultimarc Their I-PAC keyboard encoders are pretty much specifically designed for DIY controllers. They can be easily programmed too, with nothing more than a text editor.

Buy a working JAMMA cabnet (on ebay) without a game in it. Then buy a JPAC this nifty device plugs directly into the JAMMA interface like a game board would. It converts your PC Monitor and Soundcard signals to something the monitor and speaker can play and converts your joystick movements into keyboard presses.

It is a great piece of hardware and is very little fuss.

I can pimp my cab/site without having to somehow turn the trying to turn the conversation in that direction ;)

The one I built is a Time Bandits themed gaming cabinet (mame, nintendo emulators, ddr via stepmania, and a handful of arcade control-friendly pc games). I built the cabinet, built (as in assembled) the pc to power it, drilled a control panel for controls. As far as hacks go, enough people are making similar systems now to warrant commercial interest, and most of what's needed has become commercially available (not talking about pre-built control panels etc, but instead things like ready-to-use arcade-friendly keyboard encoders and such).

I can't really take credit for most of what's there, hack-wise. I built a playstation to parallel port adapter for the dance pad, but it's based on somebody's plans for exactly that. My spinner is wired up to a pre-made mouse hack, the joysticks and buttons and coin mechs to an ipac. N64 to USB adapters for external gamepads, a smartstrip to control power to the components (tv, lights, sound). The closest I've come to a real hack was smooshing a bit of metal into the TV's power button so that it would turn on automagically when it received power.

Most of the good pictures are on this page if you'd rather not bother going through the site, otherwise almost every step of the process is chronicled on the site in one way or another.

I bought two pre-gutted cabinets (Please never gut a working cabinet for MAME, it makes me cry)
took an old compaq PC I bought off a friend for $20, Its a P3, I cant even rember how ast it is and I dont care, it plays every classic game Id ever want it to.
I mounted the motherboard on one side of the cabinet, the HDD on the other side (near the door opposit the coin door so I could change the HDD with out taking the back off the cabinet if need be)
Purchased one iPac, the best priced keyboard encoder around, and buttons from some local supplier
Cut a custom button layout from MDF, wire everything


Thats the basics. The thing everyone should do is add there own touches so none of our MAME cabs look the same.
I for one added the following:
Added white LEDs behind the coin slots, so they look like they should
Glued micro switches to the coin return system so when you push coin return it gives you a credit in the game(wired thru the ipac)
Original TMNT marquee



Monitor is from an older bartop breakout type thing with a touch screen.

i bought the cabinet, and built the insides. the monitor board and monitor were included, but it didn't have any joysticks, buttons, or coin acceptor.

i put a pc in, bought a j-pac from http://www.ultimarc.com/ and loaded up my mame dvds. it was done in a day, but i still had an amazing feeling of accomplishment.

http://psg.com/~jjohnson/arcade.html

This is basically the exact same thing as an I-PAC, which is made by Ultimarc. It's a bit cheaper too. Besides, building the cabinet is the most fun part. I spent a good bit of my summer doing it: pictures here and here.

First of this is not a cabinet kit, this doesn't even include buttons or a stick! You would have to buy them from Happ Control. And this is nothing new, Ultimarc has been making these boards for years, they have some really great plug and play PCBs. Ultimarc's 28 input PCB is only $40, for years X-Arcade has been known for ripping off people that just didn't know better, nothing has changed. They didn't really used to hurt companies like Ultimarc, though now they will be edging into the PCB-only market, not to mention getting a sh1tload of hits from posts like this.

A while ago I built a pretty cheap JAMMA/Xbox/PS1/PS2/Dreamcast [link]. It was pretty cheap, but not $60.

I suggest Ultimarc's ipac encoder or groovy game gears Key Wiz which is what I used in my mame cabinet, fwiw.

and you'll want the obligatory (and sadly missing from the main post) link to Build Your own arcade controls site and very helpful forum/community

Although I used x-arcade parts on my cabinet, I think you'll be happier in the long run if you order from happs directly or buy happs parts from bob roberts.

e.

If you're trying to convert a standard JAMMA cabinet or a Dance Dance Revolution cabinet for use with a PC, notice that Most VGA cards can't easily output video at horizontal scan rates below 31 kHz, the scan rate of a 480p monitor. However, arcade monitors that follow the JAMMA standard expect RGB video at 15.7 kHz, the same as 240p or 480i TV. You'll need a special video card to handle this, namely Ultimarc's ArcadeVGA.

....is more JOYPAD support in linux.

We need a way to plug and play standard youypads in Linux AND a uniform method for programs to interface with them. Till then, emulation, as well as gaming in general will lag behind in linux.

Huh? So what is it about the Joystick/Joypad interface or unified Input layer that doesn't satisfy that?

How can you play Street Fighter II on a keyboard. It's inhuman I tell you!

An I-Pac controller from Ultimarc along with some arcade controls, quite easily.

A "J-Pac" is already something we use for building arcade machines.

Good point...

I've tried that route.. using a VGA cable hack and advancemame (and arcadeOS, ArcMon Sys TRS drivers in DOS, etc) and nearly lost my mind (although it was a site to behold when it actually worked!)

Although not cheaper, it's much easier to use an ArcadeVGA card from ultimarc (who has great customer service!) and you can use whatever flavor of mame you want with a real arcade monitor... you can even get windoze to display (interlaced mode) on your arcade monitor (so you can play dragons lair in daphne =).

*shrug* just giving another option, but yeah you're right you can go on the cheap the way you outlined...

e.

The parent, by the way, has either a bizarre sense of humour or a bizarre sense of "simple"; this can be much more easily done with a PC, MAME and a keyboard encoder. Just wire the buttons up to the terminals on the keyboard encoder, use the programming software (for Windows, Mac and Linux, on the I-PAC, Windows only on the one I use) and you're set! Much more customizable, although it does cost more than $20.

Actually, you probably want to use this link...

For the extremely lazy, the X-Arcade folks are taking preorders on their trackball unit, which I believe includes a 3" trackball. They have not traditionally used happ buttons and joysticks in the past, so it's doubtful this ball will have the same feel as the happ balls on most golden tee machines.

If you do want the "real deal" you can get a 3" trackball from Happ Controls and to interface it you can buy an OptiPAC from Ultimarc, a usb interface from happ (a bit more expensive, though it supports 3 buttons unlike the OptiPAC) or you can even hack apart an old ball mouse and interface through that. Personally, I am using the Ultimarc OptiPAC with a Happ 3" ball on my own cabinet.

Incredible Technologies (makers of Golden Tee Golf arcade machines) used to publish a version of Golden Tee for the PC, though they themselves do not sell it anymore. You can get a copy from ebay for about 3-5 bucks, and there are some addon courses for sale also. The courses are from the arcade games Golden Tee 3D Golf and (the addons) Golden Tee Golf '97. The game supports network, modem, and internet play.

Though it's dated and the graphics are not as good as some of the newer titles, the price is right, and the experience is as close as you can get to the arcade if you want to practice your Golden Tee at home. I bought golden tee pc from ebay last week and have been having a lot of fun with it on the cabinet.

Built in winter 1999-2000 and since parted out:

Video Invasion caberet

Yeah, it's pretty ugly, but I got to test the incredible I-Pac control panel interface. The I-Pac in my cab is the prototype for the 6-input model.

Since (sort of) getting out of the coin-op amusements business, I've been giving away free cabinets for MAME projects as I get them in, in the hopes that old, dead, "undesirable" machines get a second life as a living, breathing MAME machine.

And with some carpentry skills, some basic soldering skills, and an I-PAC, and some parts you can have a very authentic feeling cabinet to play them in. Fun!

Oh yeah, make sure to finish like a piece of furniture (use expensive lumber) so your wife lets you keep it in the house...

I'm with you on him 'doing wrong' and being punished for it, but prosecuting him under the DMCA fucked us all. Now there's a documented case of manufacturer vs. distributor of 'hardware modification' equipment, and the manufacturer winning outright.

I'm starting to fear for my new arcade hobby. What if I get a JAMMA adapter that allows my JAMMA cabinet to play Galaga? Is Namco going to come after me?

Or better, what If I wanted to hook my PC to my JAMMA cabinet with a J-PAC? Sure, a lot of people use it to play MAME (which is illegal if you don't own the board), but you're not restricted to MAME games. Put on a trackball, and it could be a 'web browser arcade cabinet'.

hey,

i built it using an mk2 cab i purchased off a friend for $300, a pc w/ a duron 1300, 512mb ram, and a trident blade t64 video card. interfacing between the pc's ps2 port and vga out with the joysticks, buttons, and arcade monitor done largely with the help of andy warne's j-pac.

all games run perfectly, with the exception of newer 3d additions to mame, such as cruis'n world. i've done a/b comparisons between mk2 running off the actual game board and emulated with MAME, and i cannot tell the difference.

it took a lot of work to get it right, but it was definately a labour of love. the hardest part was getting my video card to output at low horizontal refresh rates and resolutions that are compatible with both the monitor and various games - but you can now bypass all this hassle by purchasing andy warne's new arcadeVGA, a new radeon-based video card made for outputting video compatible with 15khz arcade monitors! no special software or configuration, you just pop this into your pc and you're all set. i wish this card was available 4 months ago when i got started.

good starting points:

Build Your Own Arcade Controls
J-Pac and ArcadeVGA
Happ Controls (however you can save some $$$ by not getting it from their online store, and finding a local distributor)

good luck!

hey,

i built it using an mk2 cab i purchased off a friend for $300, a pc w/ a duron 1300, 512mb ram, and a trident blade t64 video card. interfacing between the pc's ps2 port and vga out with the joysticks, buttons, and arcade monitor done largely with the help of andy warne's j-pac.

all games run perfectly, with the exception of newer 3d additions to mame, such as cruis'n world. i've done a/b comparisons between mk2 running off the actual game board and emulated with MAME, and i cannot tell the difference.

it took a lot of work to get it right, but it was definately a labour of love. the hardest part was getting my video card to output at low horizontal refresh rates and resolutions that are compatible with both the monitor and various games - but you can now bypass all this hassle by purchasing andy warne's new arcadeVGA, a new radeon-based video card made for outputting video compatible with 15khz arcade monitors! no special software or configuration, you just pop this into your pc and you're all set. i wish this card was available 4 months ago when i got started.

good starting points:

Build Your Own Arcade Controls
J-Pac and ArcadeVGA
Happ Controls (however you can save some $$$ by not getting it from their online store, and finding a local distributor)

good luck!

How about making a PS/2 conversion of a Stenotype but drop in a PIC like the BS2-IC (if your lame like me) that will convert the shorthand to all the words... using an I-PAC triggered by the BS2 to actually send the data to the keyboard port. Muhaha.. Muhahaha!!!

Wow, that's messed up.. seriously, I was just thinking about that like a week ago.. by thinking about I mean just that, I had no intention to actually do it, but if I did, I think I would have picked up one of these instead of ripping apart an existing keyboard. The I-PACs are used mainly in building MAME cabinets, but can obviously be used for other things.

For those of you looking to build your own cabinets or consoles like the one shown Ultimarc is a great company thats makes the keyboard interface used in the Arcade in a box. They also mak emayn other very nice products.

Want authentic? Do what I do, buy arcade cabinets (real ones) and put games in them (real games). OR do Mame the "Right way". Read on...

Mame is great, and mame is an arcade emulator, however, most people who run mame in an arcade cabinet run it on a PC monitor which is the absolute laziest way of doing it, not to mention the ugliest. If you're not afraid of DOS you can make your DOS mame display on an arcade monitor, which is both authentic and prettier. I mean who has a 38" computer monitor?

Home made cabinets are ASS unless they're designed (DESIGNED, not "based") on real cabinets. Control panels are often too big, monitors are too small. A lot of money went in to the design of the real arcade cabinets, finding out exactly which height was most comfortable (and therefore profitable), which you just can't duplicate with a homemade cabinet unless you use antoher cabinet as a guide. and if you have another cabinet, why build your own.

Buying cabinets is also much cheaper than building them, and much less of a pain in the ass. Arcade Infinity has lots of cabinets that are less than $600. (look for Jamma cabinets in the gallery)

If you're going to do it, do it right. get a J-Pac (www.ultimarc.com), use a computer for the sole purpose of sitting in your mame cabinet, and for God's Sake, please don't build your own cabinet unless you want to watch your friends wince at your effort when you have finished it.

Selecting from a menu with a joystick is lame. A knob would be much better. I'm surprised that he didn't use a knob, after going to all that trouble to build a control panel.

If you're going to go all the way, go with force feedback knob. It's more intutive than visual feedback, and thus better for kiosk systems. You can make the detents and limits feelable.