MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) - lets you play a few thousand classic arcade games. Mine has a lighted marquee, 21" monitor and a slide out keyboard tray. You don't actually need the keyboard to play the games. Each player has 7 buttons and a joystick and there is also a spinner in the middle for games like tempest. I've ordered a wireless trackball for trackball games. It has a stereo sound system with two overhead speakers and a woofer in the base.
Here's a picture of the finished "Galaga" artwork on the MAME cabinet. I had the artwork professionally printed, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out! The pictures don't really do justice to the lighted marquee which is quite bright and clean!
Here's another picture of the finished cabinet - the MAMEWAH front end actually lets you navigate and select games without needing a keyboard, but I built a keyboard tray in anyways. The object between the joysticks is a wireless trackball which works well for missile command, centipede and most of the other games. The keyboard rolls inside and a door covers the front.
Step 1 is to cut the sides from two sheets of 3/4" MDF. I did this freehand with a jigsaw and then cleaned it up a bit with the sander. It does not need to be perfect since you will cover the edges with molding. Use one side as a template for the second one.
Next install the battens. These were glued and screwed in from the outside. I counter-sunk all the holes so I could fill them in and paint over them later.
Here's the cabinet standing. I used 2 foot wide precut 1/2" MDF for the front and back since it reduced the amount of cutting to do. The cabinet is just over 24" wide.
This is the progress from the long weekend - before this all I had was a few pieces of plywood. Note that at this point the entire frame has 3/4" rounded molding on it which gives it a very clean finish and covers up my many mistakes.
Framed cabinet almost ready to paint. The only major parts remaining include framing the plexiglass in front of the screen and placing light pressboard over the back of the cabinet. The marquee trim will be added after it is painted.
The hole in the front is for the woofer speaker. There are also two stereo speakers in the overhead ledge. The opening on the top is for a lighted marquee. Plexiglass will cover the main opening over the monitor with a decorated bezel. Also I have a small sheet of formica to go over the control panel after the joysticks and buttons are installed.
The main control panel will have two joysticks and 7 buttons per player plus pause and quit. Coin and player 1-2 buttons will go on the small bezel below the screen. In addition there will be side buttons and a front plunger button for playing pinball with Pinmame.
A door in the front drops down - a slide out keyboard tray will go here so you can use the computer to browse the internet or configure games.
Here's a detailed picture of the drop down door.
Next I installed the keyboard tray and molding around the screen and marquee. I also drilled holes for the pinball flippers and other buttons I wanted mounted on the cabinet. The blue film is a protective film over the Plexiglas. I highly recommend you leave it in place as long as possible because the plexiglas is very easy to scratch.
Here's the last picture before painting. All the holes were filled and then I used two coats of Glidden Gripper primer (the MDF really absorbs a lot of paint) followed by two coats of black semigloss.
Here's the control panel before wiring. The board near the front is the IPAC-2 keyboard controller and the grey object in the rear is the oscar spinner. You can also see the two joysticks and all of the buttons (7 per player!).
Below is a picture after the wiring is complete. Wiring was actually pretty easy - each button gets a ground wire and a signal wire and all the connections are quick crimp connectors. I finished all the wiring in one night.
