Cabinet Plans And Links

So the previous image is the design or look and feel that I am going for. However, I need a good set of construction plans to use. I found some here, and I have an old 27" TV that will fit perfectly in this cabinet. No modifications will be necessary (Actually, I had to trim off a few inches on the width to fit this through my doorways). Besides the plans there is a lot of other good information and pictures on that website about building an arcade cabinet that should be useful to anyone interested in building one. Other good links include ...

Build Your Own Arcade Controls

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php - BYOAC or Build Your Own Arcade Controls has been the first and last word on anything concerning building your own arcade cabinet for years. This should be the first place you look for advice when you start thinking of doing something like this. LOTs and LOTs of great stuff here.

Happ

http://www.happcontrols.com/ - Happ has been an industry standard in arcade controls and equipment for years.

Ultimarc

http://www.ultimarc.com/ - Ultimarc also makes arcade controls. I will be buying my keyboard emulator from here.

LizardLick

http://www.lizardlickamusements.com/ - A reseller of arcade controls. I will be buying my buttons and joysticks from here since they are cheaper than going through Happ direct.

GroovyGameGear

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index - Another choice for arcade gear. They make a popular keyboard emulator as well.

T-Molding

http://t-molding.com - T-molding covers up the ends of your plywood. This site has every color and style you could want as well as tools to make it easy to install.

MAME Links

Here are some links for the MAME system that runs the software that makes it all work.

http://www.anti-particle.com/wahcade.shtml - Here is the frontend I am using.

http://www.progettoemma.net/history/catlist.php - You can get a catver.ini file here.

http://www.arcade-history.com/ - You can find a mamehistory.dat file here.

http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork_frontend.html - You can find pictures of original control panels, marquees, and cabinets here.

http://arcade.hofle.com/ - I found some great ambient sounds here to use as the background music for the frontend.

http://www.cinemarcade.com/movies.html - There are some good movies here you can play when your system starts up. If anyone knows of some better, more recent ones please let me know.

http://www.thesourceshow.org/misc/Mame_background.jpg - Here is the background I am using on my desktop (1024x768).

http://www.thesourceshow.org/misc/start-wahcade.sh - Here is a VERY simple startup script I use to launch the intro video and then the frontend. You can put other commands to run in here and then have it start automatically by going to System, Preferences, Sessions under a Gnome desktop.

http://www.thesourceshow.org/misc/MAMEGDM.tar.gz - I made this GDM theme to be used as the login screen if I ever need it (the system does an auto login on boot up).

http://www.thesourceshow.org/misc/control_panel_psd.zip - This is a template I used to help design my 4 player control panel. My dimensions were different but it was a good place to start. Keep in mind that if it was not for Gauntlet and Rampage I would only have a 2 player CP since there are not very many games that are 3 and 4 player.

Other Video Tutorials

After I started my project I realized that Systm had also done a series of video podcasts on building a MAME cabinet. Check them out!
http://revision3.com/systm/mamecase
http://revision3.com/systm/mamecase2
http://revision3.com/systm/buttons
http://revision3.com/systm/software
http://revision3.com/systm/itsover

Here is a good video tutorial of wiring up the control panel. It is similar to what I am going to be doing.