Can you get an arcade machine/cabinet to play MAME games?

[OldSchoolGamer]

Is it possible to buy an arcade machine/cabinet and to make it play pratically any MAME ROMS you want? Is it possible to buy an arcade machine/cabinet and to download MAME/Arcade ROMS and somehow transfer those ROMS to the arcade machine so you can play whatever games you want on the arcade machine?

If so, how much would an arcade machine that is able to do that cost?

[rimsky82]

There are many plans you can get all over the 'net, as well as parts... but I believe they are more for electronics enthusiasts that can build their own cabinet and wire the controls themselves, and use a microcontroller to interface it to the computer. There are controls you can purchase for a cabinet that just plug in the usb port, but they are very expensive compared to building your own.

You can buy pre-made cabinets, but they are expensive. They also make pinball tables using pinmame and large tv screens.

Check out this link, this guy has a hyperpin table and mame cab right next to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGUC9...eature=related

[OldSchoolGamer]

that gameroom he has is awesome. Yea it looks like he's got his Arcade Cabinet hooked up where he can play pratically any arcade game. Unfortuanetly I don't know how to build my own cabinet and wire controlls etc., so I would have to buy a pre-made cabinet. I'm sure they are expensive but I'm curious about how much a pre-made cabinet would cost that could interface to a computer?

[rimsky82]

It is awesome, I am quite jealous. He doesn't just have mame on that machine, but in another one of his vides you can see he has the hyperspin frontend, so he's got all kinds of emulators on there.

Google is your friend.
http://www.google.com/search?q=mame+cabinet

The third link down, http://mameroom.com , builds some pretty awesome cabinets with tricked out controls with leds and the works.

[BigBossman]

It can be done, because I've seen videos posted on Youtube. Personally, I would still prefer to have the arcade games on my TV. However, I understand about having "the feel" that the classic arcade game provided. I personally like the nostalga factor.

[OldSchoolGamer]

that mameroom website you suggested that builds customized arcade cabinets looks awesome. They seem to run around $3,500 for your own customized arcade cabinet. At some point in my life, I definitely plan on buying one of these. The time when I'm ready and able to buy one of these (a couple years), technology will be alot more advanced and the arcade cabinet's computer will probably allow me to play every arcade game ever made. Because I read their specifics and their computers inside the cabinet are only Intel Pentium 4 with 2.8 ghz.

[Helder]

A friend of mine has an xbox not the 360 hooked up to an old japanese fighting game cabinet and we run emulators off of that with some odd ball hookup from the xbox controller port to the control sticks and buttons. Another friend of mine found the plans to build your own plus he does auto painting so we can customize that bad boy, and with the xbox 360 or ps3 Fight sticks relatively cheap and both have a usb connection you could use those to control the emulators. I plan on making one in the near future and will post the pics here and or videos.

[BigBossman]

My brother bought an Xbox for $75.00 that has a massive amount of classic arcade perfect games. I'm envious. I have tried to see about getting someone to downlaod the same thing to my Xbox, but so far I haven't been able to find anyone that can do it so far. One person said he could do it, but he said I needed to get a flash drive. I'm sure what kind of flash drive I'd need to get. I did a search on Ebay & Amazon & was only able to find flash drives for cameras & USB drives. I'm not sure which kind of flash drive I need, but if I had the same type of soft modded Xbox, I would be so satisfied.

I'm tempted to offer him twice or three times what he paid for it & see if he accepts my offer.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Is it difficult to build your own cabinet?
Would a person that knows nothing about how to do it, beable to learn easily how to do it?
How much would it cost to build your own?
How long would it take to build?

Because in theory, isn't those pre-made arcade cabinets that go for around $3,500 just a computer and a LCD/LED flatscreen monitor in a wooden box/frame with a control panel (joystick & buttons) connected to it?

The computer that mameroom uses for their cabinets to function is a REFURBISHED Dell, Intel Pentium 4 with 2.8 ghz. That computer is outdated by around 10 years. That computer can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. And then all you would have to do is buy a nice LCD monitor, a control panel, and build a wooden box (the cabinet). So basically everything you need and all the supplies needed to build your own arcade cabinet would definetly cost well under $1,000. Therefore those companies that sell pre-made arcade cabinets that cost atleast $3,500, is make atleast $2,500 profit off of you.

[Helder]

I have a computer I rebuilt for about $60, some jerk off owed me money for fixing his business computers and gave me this other pc with a dead mobo so since he didnt pay me I kept the pc and fixed it up. As for the cabinet you will need a tape measure and some thick plywood and some wood working tools. I will try to get that site and post it here so you can see whats needed to build your own.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Yea BigBossMan, that XBox your brother has is pretty cool. I think he means you need one of those storage devices that XBox's use. I have a CD for Sega Dreamcast that holds practically every U.S. Nintendo game ever made. It was given to me many years ago and I just stumbled across it.