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Build Your Own Arcade Kit
Shawn Walters writes "Xgaming, Inc., has announced availability of the new X-Arcade BYO Arcade KIT, a $60 solution designed to allow users to create an authentic arcade machine in their home powered by any PC, Mac or game console, no advanced technical skills required." Heck of a lot easier than building your own.
so building your own is a heck of a lot easier than building your own?
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.
I have no problem putting together a controller or ordering piece online, but I have some difficulty in obtaining an actual arcade cabinet.
Anywhere to get one of these online...
And I hate eBay... an old saying comes to mind... "A wretched hive of scum and villainy"
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Kit?
This appears to be nothing more than an arcade controller interface. This is nothing more than 1 part that you need to build your own.
The "arcade parts bundle" at the bottom of the article really scares me and is probably quite telling. $19.95 for 20 arcade-style buttone AND 2 arcade-style joysticks? Quality.
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
All this is is a PCI card, from what I understand. I'm guessing it lets you wire the buttons and such to your PC and treat them as a game controller. Still gotta own or build a cabinet, which is either really expensive or really time consuming.
nice.. they have a kit that include Marvell Vs. Capcom ? I can play it all day long. btw, PC-based wont work fine can you imagine when you are finishing the game and you get a nice BSD from windows ? hehe
Kit not cabinet, i got all excited a "kit" for $60 i knew i was dreaming.
I'm getting tired of these advertisements disguised as "news". The story was even submitted by an employee of the business in focus...
Slow news day or what?
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.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Either Taco is getting some cash under the table or he's too oblivious to see that the story submitter is pimping his own site. If it's the former than slashdot should at least show some ethics and say this is a paid submission.
I noticed that also.
If it's the same bits that means they are selling you a fancy case with the words "X-Arcade" painted on it for $90.50. The bare joystick cost $5.50 (a two-pack costs $11) and the 8 buttons are worth $4. (a twenty-pack costs $10)
From Happcontrols.com I can't find a bare arcade joystick for under $14.
The again Xgaming does say about their X-Arcade Solo:
"Measuring in at 11 inches from side to side and built with 12 LBS of industrial grade materials...
They must mean 1 pound of particleboard and 11 pounds of lead weights on the bottom.
I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
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.
Some older VGA cards will clock the RGB output down to TV rate (which is what you want) in TV-out mode because they're running both the TV output and the VGA output off one RAMDAC. However, newer VGA cards with TV-out have dual RAMDACs, which scan the screen at two different rates. The VGA signal is too fast, and the TV signal is composite or S-video, which will only look black-and-white because most arcade monitors don't have a decoder.
Or you could get an actual TV and connect it to the TV-out, but then either you miss what's in the overscan portion of the display, or more commonly the video card shrinks and blurs the display to fit within the overscan.
Wow, a keyboard encoder. Those have been around for what, decades?
Admit it, you posted this just for the sake of linking to your goofy homemade MAME cabinet.
BTW, there are many, many, many better homebuilt cabinets out there than yours. Why not throw a few more links in?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I can't understand why a lot of people loved this Arcade cabinet stuff.
I began playing old & "free" N.E.S. games. May be some real-like arcade machines may be funny. But I never liked to pay for a noisy and expensive machine.
My city: Barcelona.
...only to discover your back hurts after standing for hours on end.
I remember as a kid getting an old "Depthcharge" cabinet with all of the parts sitting on the bottom. They lug the thing to my house I start modding the thing to work with my NES so it will feel a little more like the "arcade version" (and to impress my friends...wait I did not have any friends).
After three days of working on the thing with no technical knowledge, I wound up with a broken NES and a broken heart. The cabinet wound up outside with all the other junk.
Moral of the story? Do not make your own. Buy an X-Arcade!
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
Look at it again. It's a lot more than just what you see.
It also brings your control panel compatability
with
Playstation One or Playstation Two
Xbox
Gamecube
Dreamcast
Apple
and your PC
A normal key encoder can't do this from what I have read.
I'm building one from "scratch" - although I did cheat and buy Xarcade controllers.
...so I'm not sure how this do-dad would help me.
Cocktail MAME Cab
...18...19...20 Submit
ummm yeah there is...
keanmarine.com
The I-PAC interface from Ultimarc has been the long-time favorite of builders of MAME cabinets. They offer a 28-input interface for $40 and a 56-input interface for $65. That saves you $20 on what looks like is the exact same thing. Although, I had considered buying one of the X-Arcade two-player setups, because my soldering/electronical skills aren't great. If anyone can find a cheaper or more authentic one that can hook up to the PC easily, direct me to it.
Isn't the monitor supposed to be the other way around for cocktail style games? hehe, I'm sorry to tell you that after you've already got it in there.
Looks like just a game card (joystick support) plus MAME software. The joysticks are extra. So is the PC and monitor. And the cabinet.
...is: Why don't they move to a USB interface? Or is there really that much money to be made selling adapters?
Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
I actually bought the $20 sticks-n-switches bundle a while ago, and while it's not the REAL real thing, they are decent reproductions, with decent microswitches. The springs in the sticks are a little tight in my opinion, and they have very narrow "diagonal" ranges, but they still play like champs and feel very solid.
I just finished coding my own xmame front-end, check it out here: http://woz.gs/gorf/ There are pics of the $20 bundle in there :)
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.
You uhh... You just slashdotted cmdrtaco.net
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Yea, go ahead and stick a Mame machine or any console in a park without the proper licenses. Even if you don't ask for any money, you still might get in trouble. Don't forget about the cafe that got sued by valve because they were using a retail copy.
I decided not to use a keyboard, or keyboard equivilent in my current cabinet because after building my first cabinet, I found that "I, Robot", one of the greatest arcade games of all time has a control bug that makes it impossible to play with a keyboard. It seems to be something to do with keyboard polling because when you press a button, it holds longer than the button is pushed.
Anyway, all games I have tried worked great with the gravis game pads I have rewired to the controls. The key with the Gravis pads is that they have software (unfortuanly only for windows) that will map any button push to a keyboard key, or macro on a program by program basis. This allows me to still use the front ends that only support keyboard presses, while using the native joystick support within Mame.
I returned the X-Arcade two-player controller that I purchased. The joysticks are very low quality. They advertise that they're 4/8-way switchable (you NEED a 4-way joystick to play PacMan or ladder-type games like Donkey Kong or Burger Time) and I found the response of the 4-way mode far less than ideal.
As others have pointed out, Ultimarc is the place to buy the I-Pac to interface to your computer. The joysticks that Ultimarc sells are much higher quality (and the E-stick is high quality and super easy to install to boot!).
I honestly wouldn't buy anything from X-Arcade again. I thought their quality was very low.
I'm a big tall mofo.
Interesting artcile. but Taco, your own site is slower than molases. I'd expect better from one of the slashdot creators :-)
There is a new product for sale in the malls around here. It's 100+ old style arcade games built into one small game controller that just plugs into the RCA jacs on your TV (if you have those). It's pretty cool to see Donkey Kong, Super Mario, and Pac Man again. But they left out Star Wars (remember the Vector version?).
Oh well...
-- DuckWing
Since this whole article is nothing more then a plug I might as well post my site. I'm not selling anything. It's just a how-to on making your own arcade controls.
http://nuclearplayground.com/joysticks/
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned, but if you long for a home arcade cabinet that is bound to be better than almost any that you are likely to be able to make at home (unless you have extensive manufacturing experience) then you really need to look at SlikStik. They have everything from the simple to the elaborate, and most anything in between. You have to put it together, of course, and there is still some work to do, but most of the hardest work (esspecially for the tech-savvy) will be in the cabinet construction itself.
That having been said, SlikStik handles all of that by providing a cabinet that is arcade quality, easy to assemble, and though somewhat pricey, probably the best you're going to be able to find. They can even provide functional coin doors.
Here soon I plan on buying a 33 inch cabinet with the quad controller.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
I have not seen them up there recently, but here is the link to their site: http://www.kozango.com/
Who will pick up a cabinet in Canada and re-ship it to the United States of America? Or which other firm should I try?
I did the whole cabinet thing, threw in an LCD panel for flatness, and I've loved it. Next though? Why limit yourself to a small screen (or even 27" or 32") when you can play a pacman big enough to eat your head? http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index. html
I figure an old cheap pc, overhead projector, discount 15" LCD, controller (x-arcade or slickstick) and a custom case and you have the ultimate Mame machine.
I took a look at CmdrTaco's Jubei cabinet and got nostalgic and envious at the same time. I also did a quick check for the parts list and apparently all of the parts can be found at your local hardware store except for the rubber T-molding (I do some woodworking on the side and know this after having spent wasted hours at the hardware store). I know of t-molding.com, but anyone out there know where I can get it cheaper than $0.50 a foot?
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