I'm setting out to build a Mame Gaming Arcade Console. The intent is to have it loaded with a bunch of old school arcade games. My son in law has access to some arcade gaming cabinets at a local vending company. I'd rather refurbish one of these cabinets vice building a cabinet from scratch. Carpentry is not exactly my cup of tea.
I have a number of questions before jumping into this project.
1. Recommendations for a suitable computer. I've read that older hardware works better. The oldest thing I have laying around is a P4 2.8 Ghz box. Will it do it? If not, what would be better?
2. Recommendation for a monitor? The Consoles are cut out to house a 27' CRT monitor. If need be, a panel can be made to size it to another monitor, but the idea of a 27" is appealing. I have a 27" CRT TV with composite video input. Would a video card with composite video out do the trick with it?
3. Mame software. I know there are a number of emulators out there for various operating systems. I like the idea of running some flavor of linux, but if a package for windows would work better I could do it that way. It is my understanding that there are some linux distro's that are built around the Mame emulator Any recommendations on this?
Ultimately I want it set up to where my young Grandchildren can hit a power button and it will boot into the Mame GUI where they can select the game they want. I'm sure someone on this forum has built a similar machine. I've been building computer projects for longer than I care to remember, but never anything like this. So it's going to be a good learning experience.
