Mame Arcade Machine - Phase 1
August 2003

Page 1: Mame Arcade Machine - Phase 1
Page 2: Mame Arcade Machine - Phase 2

Introduction

In May 2003 I was out looking at Garage Sales and came to a huge Beechwood neighbourhood sale. At one of the sales (coincidentally the sale of my friend Brendan), there was an arcade machine (asking $150). I debated buying it but decided not to. I remembered reading on the internet about some guy who bought a cocktail sytle arcade machine and put a computer inside. I thought maybe I'd do the same thing. About an hour later I changed my mind and returned to purchase it, but it was already gone.

From that point on, I started looking for arcade machines and almost travelled to Montreal to get one. I started e-mailing people on ebay selling arcade related products and got in contact with a guy named Jordon in Toronto. I agreed to puchase a Street Fighter 2 Jamma cabinet he had (with 19" Electrohome GO7 monitor) for $250. I travelled to Toronto, picked up the machine and the rest is history.

Control Panel

I knew that I would have to replace the control panel to suit my needs. The control panel in place had 2 bad joysticks and only 3 buttons / player. I cut a piece of metal at school to replace it, filed it down to size and drilled 14 1&1-1/8" holes with a wood space bit =) using a neighbour's drill press. I drilled right through the aluminum and it turned out pretty well.

This is a prototype control panel I made out of wood. Very cheap wood that's wet tends to fall apart =) but the control panel turned out alright and it's the same design used for the final aluminum version.

I had ordered some miscelanous buttons and joystick through ebay and I'm currently trying to assemble 2 descent joysticks to use. Thanks to Joff Brown, the man who bought my Space Invaders - I now have all of the buttons I need.

Monitor

The cabinet was a working SF2 cabinet when I bought it. He had an identical cabinet with a blown monitor that I wasn't interested in because of the dead monitor. About a month after having my cabinet, the Electrohome GO7's flyback transformer (most dangerous part of the monitor) blew. There was a great deal of smell and smoke. What's left is a flyback with black stuff oozing out the side (see below).

This is the SF2 Jamma board that came with the cabinet. It's 100% working and FOR SALE if anyone's interested.

Busted Flyback transformer on 19" Electrohome GO7 arcade monitor.

I was then faced with the choice of either repairing the arcade monitor ($28US + Shipping) with which I'd already been having resolution problems with or of replacing it with a monitor of similar size. 21" computer monitors new are over $300. On ebay, I found a 20" Mitsubishi in Marham, Ontario up for auction. I bid and won it for $51cdn. Shipping would be around $100US, so I decided to pick it up =). On July 23 '03 (the day I got my drivers licsence: Woot!) we stopped in Marham on the way back from Orangeville to pick up the monitor. The store was FILLED from Top to bottom and down the hall and every room was pilled high with monitors. He had to move some out of the way to be able to walk down the hall. The problem with this monitor is that it only had BNC connections, no VGA. The man in the store tried to sell me a cable for $25, I've seen them locally for $35. I ordered on on ebay for $4US.

BNC Monitor Connections

20" Mitsubishi Monitor mounted where the old Electrohome died.

Back of the cabinet. Open with the monitor chasis on the shelf and the original arcade power supply on the left.

The mess of wires I needed to rig up to put the monitor chasis on the sheft. Worked out quite well and I'm acutally suprised I didn't damage or render useless the monitor in some way. The flyback transformer of this monitor is on top of the piece of paper in the picture. Trust me: you don't want to accidentally short 30,000V to the monitor chasis and destroy the monitor.

Things Left To Do

This project is only about 1/2 completed but it WILL be done by the end of the summer.

	Install a lock into the coin door and rig up lights behind the 25c signs to make them glow.
Control Panel - No Pic	Need to obtain 2 descent joysticks for the project. Get 1 more red button. Install control panel into the cabinet. Done! See Update
	Keyboard Hack: I need to solder 2 wires directly to the keyboard for every button. This will be approx 40 wires in total. So far I've done 8. Done! See Update
Marquee:	This is where the marquee will go. I've obtained some cheap Plexiglass from KW Surplus and will order a custom marquee from EMDKAY. I'll put a floroescent light behind it and it'll look great.
Audio - No Pic	Need to install a stereo into the machine to applify output from the computer's sound card. I plan to install 2 speakers near the bottom. Currently there is only 1 speaker in the marquee section.
	This is a PIII 525Mhz PC that is currently out beside the arcade machine. I have an unused Duron 850 computer (bought for this project) that I will be installing directly into the arcade machine without a case.
	Change the way the monitor is mounted. Right now, even with the chasis removed, it still sticks out the back of the cabinet a bit. The old monitor was at a ridiculously low angle so that it would fit in. I'll have to move the mounting bracket to get it in.

Summary

There's still alot to do but it'll all be worth it in the end. I've also completed alot. My goal is to have it completed before the summer is over and moved out of the garage and into the basement where it will take up permanent residence.

Page 1: Mame Arcade Machine - Phase 1
Page 2: Mame Arcade Machine - Phase 2