![]() ![]() So if you decide to convert rather than building from scratch a cabinet, choose it wisely ! That means choose a generic cabinet instead of a dedicated cabinet. Let me tell you there is a controversy within the arcade community with converting a cabinet rather than building one from scratch, because some old cabinets may be very rare and unique (think about an original Space Invaders or Pac-Man game Cabinet!) by converting a cabinet rather than restoring it to it's original state, it would only accentuate the rarity trend, and most of all destroy a piece of history that just needed some TLC instead. However you can easily find many information on the Internet about how to built your own enclosure cabinet from scratch. Of course, you can build a MAME cabinet from scratch but this is beyond the scope of my Instrucable. Since I wanted something as close to the original, I started with an old cabinet that I have then converted. When you run a game with MAME for the first time, MAME display a reminder of this type,see attached screen shot. I wanted the hardware being as much as integrated as possible that means:Ĭoncerning the software, I wanted something robust, low tech and low cost that simply allow from booting up, to select a game, play it before finally turning everything off.īefore continuing further I'd also like to point out while you may find most arcade games easily out of the Internet, you must (on a legal standpoint) own the original game before you can run it with MAME. Keeping the originals pushbuttons and joysticks. Keeping the original display monitor (in no way I wanted to use a PC screen, LCD screen or even a TV). Indeed, I wanted my cabinet to look as close to the exact thing as the original and by seeing it from the outside I wanted it in a way that no one could tell if it's a regular Arcade Cabinet or a MAME Cabinet. The way I did it is not the way, however this is the way that fitted my specifications the most. First of all, I'd like to point out there are many different ways of converting an Arcade Cabinet into a MAME Cabinet. This is what I detail here in this Instructable. Interfacing it (display, controls, sound etc.) Removing the original proprietary electronic game board (PCB) inside a cabinet, but by simply playing it on a desktop computer, even though the games are exactly the same as their arcade counterparts, it lacks the look & feel of the original arcade (see attached picture of a desktop PC running.Metal Slug with MAME).Īn Arcade Cabinet conversion into a MAME Cabinet consists of: MAME can run on many different platforms such as Windows, Unix, OS X etc. But since we're at it, why not replacing all the proprietary hardware with a computer running MAME? Arcade cabinet and MAME MAME which stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is a software that allows to run and emulate approximately 3700 different arcade games such as, among the most famous ones Ms Pac Man, Metal Slug, Street Fighter II, Galaga etc. If you want to run another game on it, you'll have to change the proprietary hardware inside. ![]() I'm simplifying, but by definition you can run only one game at a time into an arcade cabinet. Per Wikipedia, an " arcade cabinet, also known as an video arcade machine or video coin-op, is the housing within which an video arcade game's hardware resides." It is more a guideline because there are many different type of Arcade Cabinets, with different setup and hardware. It is about converting - rather than building from scratch - an Arcade Cabinet into a MAME Cabinet. This Instructable is more like a guideline than a true step by step Instructable. ![]()
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