StarchyPizza Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 I saw a hak5 episode where they made a MAME arcade for under $100. Now I have a few questions, Did they use a PC that they had lying around and put MAME on it? Where can I find a cheap PC because that is all I need besides the wood and such. I have a monitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curbob Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 I walked into a local computer store and told them I was looking for an older machine to put linux on, they sold me a P3 1.2G for 50.00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nophix Posted November 10, 2008 Share Posted November 10, 2008 Check Craigslist for your area, and local classifieds. Throw up a classified ad stating that you will pick up unwanted computers for free, and you WILL get calls, believe me! Computers to the general public are considered disposable, so when the new one comes, and they find out they have to pay to get rid of the old one, they are usually more than happy to let you take it. Even if you get a bunch of non-working systems, you'll find the parts are quite valuable. I built a whole computer lab for a boys home this way. Threw Ubuntu on all of them, got them all connected to a switch I picked up in a data center auction for like $5, and some bulk cable from the same auction. Most of the systems were P3, 800mhz or higher. Plenty to run MAME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarchyPizza Posted November 11, 2008 Author Share Posted November 11, 2008 yeah that seems reasonable. So basically all I need to accomplish this is -Simple computer and put linux on it and run MAME -The wood and paint to make it look pretty -The controller board which I heard is like 20-30 dollars -and a place to put the machine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nophix Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 I know when Wes built their cab, he used an old USB controller for the controls, and it worked great. You can pick them up in second hand stores for around $5. I run MAME on mine in Windows 98. Seems to wok fine. I worked for an arcade in Tomah part time and learned a lot of how the machines and what not operated. doing repair work for them, I learned a lot about where to go to buy parts, and what worked. So, I did some shopping for mine, and found 2 sets of controls for around $30 shipped. I used an old table top cabinet, and built everything into it myself, since I am not a wood working kind of guy. It worked out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarchyPizza Posted November 12, 2008 Author Share Posted November 12, 2008 Thats cool, I am tearing apart an old desk and using the wood and cutting about an inch off of it and making a huge wrap around desk for a nice workspace so whatever left over wood I have i can just use that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erroneous Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 If you are any good at tearing up old electronics and tinkering then you could always take an Xbox controller (original, dunno about 360 ones), mod a usb plug for it (the controller works out of the box in the couple Linux distros I used, but you'll need whatever xf86-input-joystick package installed). If you want it to be all prettified then simply wire up the arcade buttons to the connects for the xbox controller. I believe this is about what they did on Hak.5 only with a PS2 controller if I remember correctly. Also, if you want you could easily do a soft mod on the original xbox, throw xmame on there, and go to town. I did that and I know you can get xbox's for like $50 at most these days. If you want more than 12 GB then you'll want to go through the lengthy and painful process of swapping out the xbox hard drive with an IDE one. Hard mods often make that part easy though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarchyPizza Posted November 12, 2008 Author Share Posted November 12, 2008 well now that you brought that up, i already made the controller to usb plug thing so i dont need to buy actin replay and i have an old xbox laying around because i have a 360 and a bunch of old controllers.....so now i think i might softmod that and make an arcade setting around it... can you mod the xbox 1 controllers to make them into an actual game pad or maybe i could use the money i saved on the xbox to find an xbox game pad if i can find it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimmer Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 For an actual MAME cabinet check out Systm revision3.com/systm and also maybe it was because I didn't experiance that era, but I was always fine with just playing with MAME on a regular Comp. Just my thoughts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarchyPizza Posted November 12, 2008 Author Share Posted November 12, 2008 well its not like it was an era, but you go to places like bowling alleys and aracades now and you have to pay to play every time now i can add one more entertainment item for less than a 100 dollars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erroneous Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Yeah I'm pretty sure you can mod an xbox controller to be more like an arcade joystick/buttons. But then again, since the 360 is out it might be a hell of a lot easier and pretty cheap to buy one made for the xbox, though if memory serves me it would have a different device code when you plug it in via usb and you might have to tell Linux to load the driver for it. So the question then becomes whether you want to do more work on hardware or software. A quick Google search did reveal this. Also, I did the Mech Assault mod and it cost me about $7 plus a few phone calls to various retailers to get the right disc. You can also check the versions of it at your local Blockbuster since you only need to do it once. You'll also need one of those memory cards for the Xbox and connect a USB controller to the PC and use Action Replay to load the save file to it. Alternatively you could rewire the controller to have a USB port to plug in one of the right kind of thumb drives. There are plenty of guides for that stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarchyPizza Posted November 13, 2008 Author Share Posted November 13, 2008 Yeah you can download the AR software from various sites, and the xbox has to reformat the flash drive to make it xbox compatible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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