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Emulation (Games) Classic Games (Games)

Build Your Own Arcade Kit 115

Posted by CmdrTaco from the its-good-old-fashioned-fun dept.
Shawn Walters writes "Xgaming, Inc., has announced availability of the new X-Arcade BYO Arcade KIT, a $60 solution designed to allow users to create an authentic arcade machine in their home powered by any PC, Mac or game console, no advanced technical skills required." Heck of a lot easier than building your own.
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Build Your Own Arcade Kit More

Build Your Own Arcade Kit

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  • Umm, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 28, 2004 @11:59AM (#10937260)
    so building your own is a heck of a lot easier than building your own?
    • Sure, if you pay 60 bucks.
    • I did the whole cabinet thing, threw in an LCD panel for flatness, and I've loved it. Next though? Why limit yourself to a small screen (or even 27" or 32") when you can play a pacman big enough to eat your head? http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index. html I figure an old cheap pc, overhead projector, discount 15" LCD, controller (x-arcade or slickstick) and a custom case and you have the ultimate Mame machine.

  • You'll also need ArcadeVGA (Score:5, Informative)

    by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepplesNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:01PM (#10937272) Homepage Journal

    If you're trying to convert a standard JAMMA cabinet or a Dance Dance Revolution cabinet for use with a PC, notice that Most VGA cards can't easily output video at horizontal scan rates below 31 kHz, the scan rate of a 480p monitor. However, arcade monitors that follow the JAMMA standard expect RGB video at 15.7 kHz, the same as 240p or 480i TV. You'll need a special video card to handle this, namely Ultimarc's ArcadeVGA [ultimarc.com].

    • Re:You'll also need ArcadeVGA (Score:5, Informative)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:44PM (#10937459) Journal
      Most ATI cards can, especially older ones based on Rage3D or early Radeons.

      Luckily, these are the ATI cards that work well with linux. I'd suggest running linux with advanceMAME, or even X Windows with some custom modelines, because that way you can be sure that Windows won't accidentally try to set it to some bad resolution and as-plode your monitor.

      Of course, every modern card comes with TV out, and for a homebuild cabinet, an $20 27" TV from the Sally Ann is as good a choice as a $900 27" monitor. If you have SVideo input, the picture will be just as good.

      Frankly, I'd rather rebuild arcade cabinets as they are than shove a MAME box into one. It's just not the same. I'd rather have my dedicated Bad Dudes vs Dragonninja cabinet than something jammed with 2000000 mahjong variants. But then, I'd rather collect SNES carts than download roms. I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to retro-gaming.

      • Frankly, I'd rather rebuild arcade cabinets as they are than shove a MAME box into one.

        I'm with you part-way - I'd rather have an actual arcade cab than a MAME cab. Something about having the original side art, dents, etc.

        That being said, I wrote a script to remove all the mahjong and solitaire variants - pretty easy, actually. The key, naturally, is to figure out what you want to do - personally, I'd rather have a simple cab than one with 200 buttons, so that everything would work. (though I do dig t
    • Is there any reason you can't use a card with TV out? I've thought about perhaps setting something like this up, but using a VGA monitor doesn't really appeal to me - yet no one seems to bring up the TV out aspect so apparently I'm missing something?

      • Depends on the card (Score:5, Informative)

        by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepplesNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:49PM (#10937485) Homepage Journal

        Some older VGA cards will clock the RGB output down to TV rate (which is what you want) in TV-out mode because they're running both the TV output and the VGA output off one RAMDAC. However, newer VGA cards with TV-out have dual RAMDACs, which scan the screen at two different rates. The VGA signal is too fast, and the TV signal is composite or S-video, which will only look black-and-white because most arcade monitors don't have a decoder.

        Or you could get an actual TV and connect it to the TV-out, but then either you miss what's in the overscan portion of the display, or more commonly the video card shrinks and blurs the display to fit within the overscan.

      • Re:You'll also need ArcadeVGA (Score:4, Informative)

        by enrico_suave ( 179651 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @01:20PM (#10937638) Homepage
        you can use a TV out card with a Tv in your cabinet.

        You'll probably want to go with svideo (as opposed to composite or coax *shudder*) connection to the TV.

        If you want to use the original arcade monitor (which is similiar to a tunerless TV, with dangerous exposed innards --- except it uses RGB and sync connections) you can use an ArcadeVGA, an older card that'll clock down to 15khz and a VGA hack, or use ultimarcs J-pac jamma ready/capable encoder which slides into an arcade cabinets (well Jamma cabinets) jamma socket and again presuming a video card that'll clock down get you going with an existing cabinet/arcade monitor.

        "Building" a Mame cabinet is no where as hard as it used to be because there's been great advancements in the mame cabinet building community, and a ton of support "niche" market providers to create products that make it really easy to convert an existing cabinet (or build your own)... hell there's even a book on the topic to step you throuh the process.

        Project Arcade [projectarcade.com] Amazon link with author's referral id [amazon.com]

        what was the question again? =)

        e.

        • Re:You'll also need ArcadeVGA (Score:4, Informative)

          by prockcore ( 543967 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @03:05PM (#10938118)
          "Building" a Mame cabinet is no where as hard as it used to be because there's been great advancements in the mame cabinet building community, and a ton of support "niche" market providers to create products that make it really easy to convert an existing cabinet (or build your own)... hell there's even a book on the topic to step you throuh the process.

          Yeah, it's not hard. I picked up Project Arcade from Barnes and Noble on a whim and then decided to build my own cocktail arcade. It wasn't that difficult. I spent $370 total.

          Here's a couple of tips, first, using a keyboard controller for your input is neat, but very difficult to work with. Most newer PS2 keyboard "fix" the ghosting problem by failing to report the 3rd key in alignment. That means instead of ghost keys, you'll have keys that just don't show up.

          Second, I had the idea, like many others I'm sure, to use a compactflash card instead of a harddrive. This was a bad idea, compactflash is just too slow. Advmame is 70 megs, it takes forever just to load that 70 megs into ram.

          Third, for the love of god, use CAT5 for your wiring. At first glance you don't realize that each joystick is going to use 8 wires, and each button uses 2, and when all is said and done, you're going to have a clump of 80 wires that are difficult to manage.

          Here's a nice little pricelist [azstarnet.com] I compiled of my mame cabinet.

          Finally, work out exactly how much of everything you'll need. It's pretty annoying to have to go to the store and pick up something you missed. You'll notice from my pricelist, there's the littlest things listed. I had to go to the store 3 times to pick up different sized wood screws, or a set of corner braces, etc.
          • "Third, for the love of god, use CAT5 for your wiring. At first glance you don't realize that each joystick is going to use 8 wires, and each button uses 2, and when all is said and done, you're going to have a clump of 80 wires that are difficult to manage."

            Actually, talk to your local telcom worker or someone who works in the "voice" arena. They'll probably have some spare 26 pair lying around, and once you get the color coding down, it's much easier to manipulate and make look nice in the cabinet....
        • "Building" a Mame cabinet is no where as hard as it used to be because there's been great advancements in the mame cabinet building community, and a ton of support "niche" market providers to create products that make it really easy to convert an existing cabinet (or build your own)...

          Since I am more comfortable with a soldering iron and a screwdriver then I am with a measuring tape and table saw I tried to find an old arcade cabinet to convert in to my own modded XBOX cabinet.

          After lots of looking

          • I have not seen them up there recently, but here is the link to their site: http://www.kozango.com/

            Who will pick up a cabinet in Canada and re-ship it to the United States of America? Or which other firm should I try?

  • Still Need a Cabinet (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cylix ( 55374 ) * on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:05PM (#10937285) Homepage Journal
    I have no problem putting together a controller or ordering piece online, but I have some difficulty in obtaining an actual arcade cabinet.

    Anywhere to get one of these online...

    And I hate eBay... an old saying comes to mind... "A wretched hive of scum and villainy"

    • Re:Still Need a Cabinet (Score:3, Informative)

      by Cymage ( 612344 )
      If you are looking for just a cabinet then you should go to your local arcade auction...I got mine at an auction here in Atlanta run by super auctions [superauctions.com].

      Speaking of eBay, I will be putting my completed mame box up for auction later this week. If you are interested, let me know and I will send the eBay link to you. (If you don't want to go through eBay, I can send pics of the box and sell it direct).

    • Re:Still Need a Cabinet (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      http://www.arcadeshopper.com/emulation/ [arcadeshopper.com] for cabinet kits
    • Try USAmmusement [usamusement.com]. That's where I got mine [amdpower.com]. I ended up picking up a cabinet for around $300.00. It was a working NBA Jam unit. I pretty much gutted it though as the monitor was really burnt. The traveling auction comes around to many larger cities. I purchased mine in Columbus, Ohio. You can get on their mailing list and they will email you when they are coming to your area.
      • Ouch, $300 for just the cabinet? I hope you eBayed the extra parts. I used to hit the auctions all the time. I wish I hadn't passed on that $300 Afterburner sitdown a while back....

        I built my own cocktail cabinet. $100 for a glass, a full sheet of MDF (this thing is heavy), and some miscellaneous hardware. I used the I-Paq controllers though.

        But I also have a wide body pinball cab that I bought a couple years ago ($25 or $50). I might have to look into an X-Arcade controller for it. Now if I could just

  • Easier than building? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Murphy Murph ( 833008 ) <sealab.murphy@gmail.com> on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:06PM (#10937289) Journal
    Kit?
    This appears to be nothing more than an arcade controller interface. This is nothing more than 1 part that you need to build your own.

    The "arcade parts bundle" at the bottom of the article really scares me and is probably quite telling. $19.95 for 20 arcade-style buttone AND 2 arcade-style joysticks? Quality.
    • Actually, if it's the same bits used in the X-Arcade joystick proper then the quality is great - there must be something missing though, because the full joystick sells for a lot more than $20
      • I noticed that also.
        If it's the same bits that means they are selling you a fancy case with the words "X-Arcade" painted on it for $90.50. The bare joystick cost $5.50 (a two-pack costs $11) and the 8 buttons are worth $4. (a twenty-pack costs $10)

        From Happcontrols.com I can't find a bare arcade joystick for under $14.

        The again Xgaming does say about their X-Arcade Solo:
        "Measuring in at 11 inches from side to side and built with 12 LBS of industrial grade materials...
        They must mean 1 pound of particle
        • I believe they discount deeper than Happ. I got a couple of their sticks and buttons for a machine I'm building (around an IPAC, similar circuit board to this). They are identical in quality to the OEM sticks that came in the cabinet I'm converting. Same stuff that goes into the XArcade unit.

          I have one of the original X-arcades. Great piece of equipment. I imagine the difference in price would account for "assembly, testing, etc" in addition to the nice logo.

          As to the weight of the solo unit, MDF is prett

    • Re:Easier than building? (Score:5, Informative)

      by shoolz ( 752000 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:32PM (#10937422) Homepage
      What they are selling is essentially a 2 player X-Arcade joystick, minus the wood box to hold all the components together.

      Board 59.95 + Joysticks/Buttons 19.95 + PC Adapter 19.95 = $99.85 VS. Buying it pre-assembled and paying $149.95

      And as for quality... I have an X-Arcade and I have beaten the stuffings out of playing SF-style games and Metal Slug 1-5, and all the components still work perfectly after a year of abuse.
      When I originally bought it, I had concerns about quality and switch life, so I ordered 20 extra buttons and 2 extra joysticks... and they all sit in their unopened packages because I haven't had to replace one yet.

      • Re:Easier than building? (Score:4, Informative)

        by enrico_suave ( 179651 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @01:08PM (#10937584) Homepage
        the quality isn't quite as good as happs stuff.

        They use cheaper generic microswitches wich are clickier/louder and perhaps feel "different" in both their joysticks and buttons (as opposed to the cherry "nike" of microswitches).

        The plastic on the buttons is thinner/cheaper.

        They function the same, and are "arcade quality" but when I play something demanding like "track and field" on my cabinet, I kinda wish I upgraded to happs buttons. (or swap in some better microswitches)

        Of course, for true nostalgic action (Dependingo n your age) you'll want only leaf switch joysticks/buttons that require periodic adjustment and contact cleaning =)

        *Shrug* ymmv

        rampy

  • Still gotta build it... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Asmor ( 775910 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:07PM (#10937294) Homepage
    All this is is a PCI card, from what I understand. I'm guessing it lets you wire the buttons and such to your PC and treat them as a game controller. Still gotta own or build a cabinet, which is either really expensive or really time consuming.
    • Or write a cool application that lets you cheat by doing stuff that a normal human won't be able to :).....

      HIGH SCORE !!

    • Re:Still gotta build it... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Jeff DeMaagd ( 2015 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:32PM (#10937418) Homepage Journal
      It doesn't look like a PCI card. It looks like a signal interface or controller interface board.

    • Re:Still gotta build it... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Please mod parent as wrong, wrong, wrong. Its a small board that has a ps2 port and serial connection on one end, and a bunch of screw terminals on the other to connect to a swath of buttons. At least read the pdf on the site. How this got 5, Informative destroys what little faith I had left in Slashdot.

      The interface I used for my panel was a pair of 5 dollar 10 button USB joysticks. Rip out the usb interface, solder away. That's 10 bucks for 20 non-ghosting, plug and play buttons. Want another? Bust ano
      • "The only thing I think that is remotely interesting about X-Arcade sticks is their modular interface to other consoles."

        I've got a modular interface to all of my platforms. It's called molex. You can crimp wires from the joysticks and buttons onto a molex connector and then on the other side of the connector crimp wires running to your gamepad/encoder of choice. So far, I've got a Dreamcast, NES, SNES, PSX/PS2, Saturn, and a TG16 all wired up for play from a single controller through the wonders of mol
  • nice.. they have a kit that include Marvell Vs. Capcom ? I can play it all day long. btw, PC-based wont work fine can you imagine when you are finishing the game and you get a nice BSD from windows ? hehe
  • Kit not cabinet, i got all excited a "kit" for $60 i knew i was dreaming.

    • Re:Build Your Own Arcade Kit (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      i got all excited a "kit" for $60 i knew i was dreaming

      Punctuation for only $60 available at a grammar store near you no really I kid you not

  • Slashdot: Advertising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sokk ( 691010 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:28PM (#10937402)
    I'm getting tired of these advertisements disguised as "news". The story was even submitted by an employee of the business in focus...

    Slow news day or what?

    • Please mod parent up (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:36PM (#10937436)
      Either Taco is getting some cash under the table or he's too oblivious to see that the story submitter is pimping his own site. If it's the former than slashdot should at least show some ethics and say this is a paid submission.
    • Agreed.

      News for nerds? I'd just settle for something that matters at this stage...
    • The OSDN folks have loudly and widely announced that some of their stories are "slashvertisements." I think it was originally stated that they'd put about one such story up per day. I don't know if that's still accurate but it's part of the business model that keeps them alive. Get over it.

      • Re:Slashdot: Advertising (Score:4, Informative)

        by OldMiner ( 589872 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @02:01PM (#10937802) Journal

        This gentleman is a troll [slashdot.org]. He's referencing an April Fools' story from a couple years back [slashdot.org], intended to be ridiculous and poke fun at such buffoonery. Any time a product is mentioned in a /. story, there are boobs accusing the editors of accepting paid advertisement. Let's face it: almost any news story is going to be potentially beneficial to some businesses. Sometimes, more than others.

        • Re:Slashdot: Advertising (Score:1, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward
          there are boobs accusing the editors of accepting paid advertisement.

          Then why don't the editors have the sack to come out and post an official Slashdot guideline on such posts? This story's submitter represents the freakin' site! If there is any sort of agreement with this site's staff and a linked site via a story submission then it should be mentioned in the write-up. It's basic "journalistic" ethics.

          • Anonymous Coward wrote:
            (WTF do you want to be AC for this sort of stuff? The purpose of AC is (1) to make comments that might be sensitive if traced back to you and (2) trolling. It sure doesn't look like you're after (1), so...why?)

            Then why don't the editors have the sack to come out and post an official Slashdot guideline on such posts? This story's submitter represents the freakin' site! If there is any sort of agreement with this site's staff and a linked site via a story submission then it should

        • WHAT is news about this? Happ and others have sold pre-assembled controller interfaces (USB based mostly, some encode to PS2) for YEARS now. They are much higher quality than these known dubious x-arcade sticks and buttons.

          It's an advertisement, plain and simple, what can YOU not understand about that?

          The best part is that even though that article was april fools, slashdot can use it as having informed the public ;)
        • there are boobs accusing the editors of accepting paid advertisement.

          Talking boobs ?! Wow, I'd pay money to see that! ;)

      • Yes, and AC's aren't allowed to post anymore according to the same story you reference.
    • At least they made the advertising blatantly obvious this time.
    • So don't read it. It's not that hard.
    • Who cares if it's an advert?
      If it interests you then you'd read it whether it was or not, and if it doesn't interest you then you just have to do the mammoth task of scrolling past it.
    • I'm also curious how much a full-page ad^G^G "story" on Slashdot costs...

  • *shakes head* (Score:5, Informative)

    by enrico_suave ( 179651 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:33PM (#10937428) Homepage
    I suggest Ultimarc's ipac encoder [ultimarc.com] or groovy game gears Key Wiz [groovygamegear.com] which is what I used in my mame cabinet [randomdrivel.com], fwiw.

    and you'll want the obligatory (and sadly missing from the main post) link to Build Your own arcade controls [arcadecontrols.com] site and very helpful forum/community [arcadecontrols.com]

    Although I used x-arcade parts on my cabinet, I think you'll be happier in the long run if you order from happs directly or buy happs parts from bob roberts.

    e.

  • This does not belong here... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anubis333 ( 103791 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:44PM (#10937462) Homepage
    First of this is not a cabinet kit, this doesn't even include buttons or a stick! You would have to buy them from Happ Control [happcontrols.com]. And this is nothing new, Ultimarc [ultimarc.com] has been making these boards for years, they have some really great plug and play PCBs. Ultimarc's 28 input PCB is only $40, for years X-Arcade has been known for ripping off people that just didn't know better, nothing has changed. They didn't really used to hurt companies like Ultimarc, though now they will be edging into the PCB-only market, not to mention getting a sh1tload of hits from posts like this.

    A while ago I built a pretty cheap JAMMA/Xbox/PS1/PS2/Dreamcast [link [chrisevans3d.com]]. It was pretty cheap, but not $60.

  • Holy self-absorbed Taco (Score:4, Insightful)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @12:56PM (#10937515) Journal
    Wow, a keyboard encoder. Those have been around for what, decades?

    Admit it, you posted this just for the sake of linking to your goofy homemade MAME cabinet.

    BTW, there are many, many, many better homebuilt cabinets out there than yours. Why not throw a few more links in?

  • The game matters (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Uukrul ( 835197 )
    I can't understand why a lot of people loved this Arcade cabinet [arcadecontrols.com] stuff.
    I began playing old & "free" N.E.S. [nintendo.com] games. May be some real-like arcade machines [penny-arcade.com] may be funny. But I never liked to pay for a noisy and expensive machine.

    • Re:The game matters (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Horse Rotorvator JAD ( 834524 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @04:59PM (#10938636)
      I can't understand why a lot of people loved this Arcade cabinet [arcadecontrols.com] stuff.

      One word, nostalgia. The first video game that I ever played was at a corner pizza place in the late 1970's and I spent my entire 1980's youth in arcades playing video games. So for me, although the games are important, it is about more than just the games.

      Asking why someone would build a cabinet when they can just use an emulator is kind of like asking why someone would restore an old classic car when they could just buy a new car.
      • Its not so much nostalgia, as it is the feel of the game. I'd much rather use the arcade buttons than a keyboard or joypad. It's like the Sega arcade stick for the Genesis. Sure, you could use the standard Genesis gamepad, but the arcade stick that sold for it was way better and a lot more responsive.

  • ...only to discover your back hurts after standing for hours on end.

    I remember as a kid getting an old "Depthcharge" cabinet with all of the parts sitting on the bottom. They lug the thing to my house I start modding the thing to work with my NES so it will feel a little more like the "arcade version" (and to impress my friends...wait I did not have any friends).

    After three days of working on the thing with no technical knowledge, I wound up with a broken NES and a broken heart. The cabinet wound up outsi
    • I'm sorry for your experience but I disagree completely. When I first took apart my parents' Pentium 60 WAAAY back in the day, I definitely didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. However, after taking the thing apart, trying to find out how to put it back together, and then having to give up and admit defeat. I was motivated by my defeat to find out how the hell you DO put a computer back together properly. As a result, today I can definitely put a computer together with quite a bit of ease. Theref
      • Read between the lines. It was meant to be sarcastic.

        In seriousness, this idea of making your PC/Console/whatever is a pretty neat idea until you realize it is much easier to just sit down in front of your television/monitor and play the thing.

        While the Depthcharge story is true and is probably still sitting in my mom's shed, I realized it was a waste of time. Yes, it looks cool at first, but think about it. Why are you really doing it?

  • Ok now read it again (Score:4, Informative)

    by portwojc ( 201398 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @01:33PM (#10937686) Homepage
    Look at it again. It's a lot more than just what you see.

    It also brings your control panel compatability
    with

    Playstation One or Playstation Two
    Xbox
    Gamecube
    Dreamcast
    Apple

    and your PC

    A normal key encoder can't do this from what I have read.

  • I'm building one from "scratch" - although I did cheat and buy Xarcade controllers.

    Cocktail MAME Cab [jaxed.com] ...so I'm not sure how this do-dad would help me.

  • I-PAC Anyone? (Score:3, Informative)

    by TekMonkey ( 649444 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @02:00PM (#10937796)
    The I-PAC interface from Ultimarc has been the long-time favorite of builders of MAME cabinets. They offer a 28-input interface for $40 and a 56-input interface for $65. That saves you $20 on what looks like is the exact same thing. Although, I had considered buying one of the X-Arcade two-player setups, because my soldering/electronical skills aren't great. If anyone can find a cheaper or more authentic one that can hook up to the PC easily, direct me to it.
  • Looks like just a game card (joystick support) plus MAME software. The joysticks are extra. So is the PC and monitor. And the cabinet.
  • ...is: Why don't they move to a USB interface? Or is there really that much money to be made selling adapters?

  • I actually bought the $20 sticks-n-switches bundle a while ago, and while it's not the REAL real thing, they are decent reproductions, with decent microswitches. The springs in the sticks are a little tight in my opinion, and they have very narrow "diagonal" ranges, but they still play like champs and feel very solid.

    I just finished coding my own xmame front-end, check it out here: http://woz.gs/gorf/ [woz.gs] There are pics of the $20 bundle in there :)

  • This is basically the exact same thing as an I-PAC, which is made by Ultimarc [ultimarc.com]. It's a bit cheaper too. Besides, building the cabinet is the most fun part. I spent a good bit of my summer doing it: pictures here [trumlaut.com] and here [trumlaut.com].

  • Uhh.. Hey Taco? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mr. Flibble ( 12943 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @03:01PM (#10938106) Homepage
    You uhh... You just slashdotted cmdrtaco.net

  • "Design Commercial Grade Interactive Exhibits For Museums Or Amusement Parks Powered By PC/Game Console Requiring Industrial Style Input Devices"

    Yea, go ahead and stick a Mame machine or any console in a park without the proper licenses. Even if you don't ask for any money, you still might get in trouble. Don't forget about the cafe that got sued by valve because they were using a retail copy.

    • Who said anything about MAME? Many museums these days have custom-built interactive exhibits; there needs to be some way to control them. As you can probably imagine, regular PC keyboards and mice won't last a day in a high-traffic environment, particularly one involving excited kids pounding the heck out of them. Arcade controls tend to be built to survive just that, and will last for a good long time against whatever combination of excited and even malicious kids you might wish to throw at them.
      • "Who said anything about MAME?" - PurpleFloyd

        The article did, actually...

        "Convert Or Refurbish An Existing Arcade Machine Into A MAME Machine"

  • I decided not to use a keyboard, or keyboard equivilent in my current cabinet because after building my first cabinet, I found that "I, Robot", one of the greatest arcade games of all time has a control bug that makes it impossible to play with a keyboard. It seems to be something to do with keyboard polling because when you press a button, it holds longer than the button is pushed.

    Anyway, all games I have tried worked great with the gravis game pads I have rewired to the controls. The key with the G
  • I returned the X-Arcade two-player controller that I purchased. The joysticks are very low quality. They advertise that they're 4/8-way switchable (you NEED a 4-way joystick to play PacMan or ladder-type games like Donkey Kong or Burger Time) and I found the response of the 4-way mode far less than ideal.

    As others have pointed out, Ultimarc is the place to buy the I-Pac to interface to your computer. The joysticks that Ultimarc sells are much higher quality (and the E-stick is high quality and super ea
  • Interesting artcile. but Taco, your own site is slower than molases. I'd expect better from one of the slashdot creators :-)

    There is a new product for sale in the malls around here. It's 100+ old style arcade games built into one small game controller that just plugs into the RCA jacs on your TV (if you have those). It's pretty cool to see Donkey Kong, Super Mario, and Pac Man again. But they left out Star Wars (remember the Vector version?).

    Oh well...

  • Shameless Plugging (Score:4, Funny)

    by LBt1st ( 709520 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @05:51PM (#10938892)
    Since this whole article is nothing more then a plug I might as well post my site. I'm not selling anything. It's just a how-to on making your own arcade controls.

    http://nuclearplayground.com/joysticks/ [nuclearplayground.com]

  • Even cheaper than $60! (Score:3, Funny)

    by autophile ( 640621 ) on Sunday November 28, 2004 @09:33PM (#10939903)
    All you need is a cardboard refigerator box and some colorful markers!

    --Rob

  • I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned, but if you long for a home arcade cabinet that is bound to be better than almost any that you are likely to be able to make at home (unless you have extensive manufacturing experience) then you really need to look at SlikStik [slikstik.com]. They have everything from the simple to the elaborate, and most anything in between. You have to put it together, of course, and there is still some work to do, but most of the hardest work (esspecially for the tech-savvy) will be in the
  • I took a look at CmdrTaco's Jubei cabinet and got nostalgic and envious at the same time. I also did a quick check for the parts list and apparently all of the parts can be found at your local hardware store except for the rubber T-molding (I do some woodworking on the side and know this after having spent wasted hours at the hardware store). I know of t-molding.com, but anyone out there know where I can get it cheaper than $0.50 a foot?

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