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Hey Evil Ryu asked me about making a Wooden frame with which to make a Arcade Unit, and put a PC inside (with which to use Multiple Arcade Machine Emulation through Mame). I'm posting it here in case anyone else is considering this cool project. Imagine all those classics in a playble unit in your bedroom or lounge

OK so this is a VERY rough picture but its in scale with itself, I measured against one of my standard multi arcade units.

The reason I have not added measurements to the picture is because the screen on my unit was 20" which is not a very standard PC Monitor size. However if the PC unit you are using has a TV out-put I guess you could use a 20" set, but personally I prefer the clarity of a monitor. Obviously if you are going to use a 18", 17" or even smaller monitor, you would scale the unit smaller. Also dependent on your personal height, you'll want to adjust the height of the control console and screen. On a standard Arcade unit the control console is about 1 metre off the ground, and the top of the unit is about 1.75m high.

I have included two front views, both of which are common in arcade machine design. Personally I prefer the slimmer design - however the stereo sound is more accurate in the wider unit, and there's more space for two player games.

Obviously the screen should be about and inch back from the front of the unit, and a perspecs screen placed in front, to catch dust and just make it look more authentic

You'll notice that the PC is facing backwards – this is so you can either have a hollow back or have a hole in the back to turn it on or off. You'll also see I have left the Controls out, it is up to you whether you find an old scrap unit and rewire the controls to read as keyboard input, or use a PC control arcade style stick or a PS arcade stick with adapter. Obviously they are placed where its marked red.

The green ellipses are speakers, either place either side of the monitor, or above it on the angled panel. Obviously in your design you could drill many small holes in the wood as units often have, and place the speakers behind, or just cut holes to accommodate the speakers.

The purple Panel often is perspecs with a cardboard logo stuck on the back, and two crude light bulbs placed behind to illuminate it

The grey panel shows where the player 1 and 2 start buttons are held (1 and 2 in Mame). You could make these by hacking a keyboard. Here might also be a convenient place to have a hole where you could put your hand in to use the mouse, and load or configure the games.

The blue panel shows the coin insert. Here you could have a hacked keyboard link to the 5 and 6 buttons, credit buttons in Mame.

Of course, if you don't know where to start with hacking a keyboard, or want a simple solution, you could make a big hole in the unit anywhere (it would look neatest at the back, and you could use an angled mirror at the side of the moitor to read it - OR just turn it round ) with a shelf holding the mouse and keyboard, and simply use the Game or USB port for the actual top controls. This would be the easiest route.

These pictures aren't a large, detailed plan, as I don't have time, and users would probably tailor it to their own needs anyway. Its just here to show the basic shape and layout. Like I said, its in scale with itself, so you can use it as a guide for your own ideas

Hope this has given you a few ideas to get started with

well if you think about it you can edit WinXP or Win9x to boot straight into MAME, then have a large Microsoft Trackball mouse build into the machine just abother the joystick controller.

and if the needs arrise have a keyboard on a retractable draw just below ... if you put the towercase in facing one of the sides you can cut a hole for it to fit.

i mean its all just an idea for you to toy with, because i'm not sure how much your making - just the actual framework for a generic set of things or a complete machine including system - because there is alot more you can standardise and setup if its including

Its not me whos making it, Ryu wants one. But its a good idea what you said about a trackball and putting Mame in the Start-up folder. I think he wants to build it excluisively for use so therefore could happily box the pc in and just use a trackball Nice 1

Don't use a Microsoft OS in it. To many bluescreens of death

I would use Linux, it is a bit more stable and you can emulate any console with it

you'd have to get a machine specifically designed for use with Linux with drivers developed for such use because MAME is very picky about that kind of thing.

My suggestion would be get someone who knows about Windows Kernels and get them to recode a bootup OS (isn't that hard once you get rid of all the messy UI stuff) that way it could literally be a single bootup machine.

bu y a second hand one with a rom board in it.

then either take out the original game and or put the pc in there also with a video switch.

u can then put old boards that will fit into it and have a real retro quality with the games u own the boards for,

I own many old arcade units However in Sweden where Ryu lives they aren't easily available so he wants to build one himself.

As for the whole OS Problem, if you were running 98SE or XP It would hardly ever crash if you were only using Mame. I have an old 400Mhz Machine with only 32Mb RAM which I use specifically for Emulation of older machines and its running SE2 and I don't think its EVER crashed. I only use Mame and various 8/16bit emus on it and it seems very stable. Windows only starts getting pissy when you try and do a lot, have multiple programs running at once, or as soon as you join to the Net (In my experience anyway, others may find different, but I have had over 20 pcs in the last ten years and I always try and push them too hard ) However I've never managed to get ME or 2000 running to what I'd consider to be acceptable stability Of course it does come down to the individula components of the PC too.

Thanks a lot my friend Kangaroo2, I know how much work u had doing it... thanks man .
Thanks everyone trying to help too with new ideas, I really apprecitated them all. The track ball is excellent .
I have not tested yet Mame for DOS... if it's relativily good and fast I was planning to use only DOS, so should be that easy to make it boot directly into Mame ^_^.
What I was also planning is to have multiples control panels in the future, like there're games which has no buttons, only two sticks and games which has only buttons, or the use of trackballs . As it's a computer inside, the netplay would be still available, which is far foward of the machine I've played b4 .
If I will use DOS, I will need to hack the keyboard and the mouse, ratter then use USB which run only with Windows . But I really think it's worthy the work... wonder how is to have a party home with somes of those baby machines here .

I can also see many is entrested in the idea of having an Arcade Machine here ^_^. Kangaroo2 was right .
I've found some useful links about this subject on the net. It involves from hacking an old keyboard up to design of the machine. Check this out :

http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

http://www.basementarcade.com/

I've been looking on the net as well about Arcade Machines in Sweden, to purchase controls and everything, but it's just that hard to find... so I'm importing the controls from another country ^_^.
If someday I get my arcade machine done, I will put a picture of her ( yeah, she is a woman..gheheh ) here for u my fellows

thanks once again for all tips .

P.S: Sam, I'm using ur gif from ur server for a while man, thanks for that ^_^. I will get a server asap Alex

Oh yeah, about the multiple control panels I meant that u can easitly switch the hole control board panel to another... so it would have just the necessary buttons to the right games, bringing the arcade retro feeling as indi said

No problem man, I don't mind you using my webspace for your gifs, they hardly eat bandwidth

I'm sure you can still get trackballs that work in DOS, I used to have one years ago on an old 486. They usually don't need anything other than drivers, and I think a standard mouse one will do

Glad the pic was of some help - no biggy sorry I didn't have enough time to do something more detailed, but I'm sure you've got plenty of ideas of your own