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PARTS:
American Gaming
and Electronics (AG&E)
Wells Gardner D9200 VGA Arcade Monitor |
| AG&E is a
division of Wells
Gardner. They carry several of the same monitors
available at Wells Gardner, including the D9200. I bought
my monitor through them instead of Wells Gardner because
they had them on sale for $65.00 less with very cheap
shipping ($30.00 to ship an 80 pound monitor by freight from
Chicago to Massachusetts). |
Emdkay.net
Marquee/Banner |
| They
printed my Marquee (the banner/sign that's on the top of my
cabinet naming it "CHRO-MAME") at 300dpi for about $25.00.
It was printed on a semi-thick glossy paper. Very good
quality and highly recommended. As with all marquee's, you
will need to sandwich it between two pieces of
glass/Lexan. Light shines through it nicely. |
HappControls.com
Joysticks, Trackballs, Buttons, Monitor Bezel, Coin Door
& Coin Mechs |
| If you
want authentic arcade parts, then there is no place like
HappControls. Their selection of parts is massive. Their
prices are as low as they get due to the fact that they
manufacture virtually all of their parts themselves.
Note: I had one item damaged
during shipping (two long plastic marquee holders).
HappControls easily replaced them for free with a phone
call; I didn't even have to ship them back! |
OscarControls.com
Spinner/Rotary Controllers |
| CHRO-MAME
uses two Oscar Pro Spinners (as far as I know, these
are no longer sold which is a pity since they're fantastic
spinners). They have large wheel's so kickback/lag during
intensive spinning is VERY rare. These weighted spinners
feel like the real thing and easily interface with the
Ultimarc Opti-Pac. |
T-Molding.com
T-Molding |
| This
pushes into the edges of arcade cabinets after you cut a
groove for it. I have reflective chrome/silver colored
t-molding on my unit. You can buy it in a number of
different colors. Note:
Cutting a groove for t-molding requires a wood router and a
t-molding bit (picture). That bit assembly is sold in
two different pieces. The round yellow cutter and the
ball-bearing steel shaft are sold separately. There's a
bolt hidden underneath which lets you take the assembly
apart. It took me two months to find this bit. The
Woodworkers
Warehouse had them, but they went out of business in
December of 2003. Don't expect to find these at Home Depot;
only specialty wood shops carry these bits. Home Depot does
carry other router bits, but not this one. It's a carbide
tipped bit. |
Ultimarc.com
Interface Cards (I-PAC 4 & Opti-PAC) |
| My entire
control panel and coin door interface through these cards.
Wiring is rather simple. Think of it like wiring a stereo
system that has 100 speakers (or 50 if your control panel
doesn't have many buttons). Not very tough, but very time
consuming. I-Pac 4: Used
to wire joysticks, buttons, and the coin door (the switched
that the quarters trip when they fly by use a very similar
switch that the buttons/joysticks use, so wiring them is
just as easy as everything else).
Opti-PAC: Used to wire the
trackballs and rotary/spinner controllers. It also is
wired up to four different buttons (two of the left
trackball, two for the right trackball). This treats
your trackballs and rotary controllers just like mice
(although the rotary controllers only move "left-right" or
"up-down" depending on how you wire them).
Note: My
original I-PAC 4 was faulty. Apparently there was a bad
batch of them made during late 2002/early 2003. I happened
to get one of those cards. The solder on some of the
connections wasn't applied correctly. After I wired it up
the Player 1 and 2 controls worked fine, but the Player 3
and Player 4 controls didn't work (or would work for a few
minutes and then cut out). I wrote Andy at Ultimarc about
this seven months after I had purchased the cards (I
ordered the cards before I finished the control panel), and
he sent me a replacement I-PAC 4 for free. Top guy! Now
everything works perfectly. Thanks Andy! |

ARCADE CABINETS:
Jubei: Rob's MAME Cabinet
This one started it all |
| Board one
day on Slashdot, I
started clicking static links listed and came across this.
I never heard of an arcade cabinet before I saw this. About
four weeks later I was starting construction on my own. |
Neil's
MAME Cabinet
4-Players, 2-Trackballs, 27" Arcade Monitor |
| This is
probably the only other arcade cabinet in existence that's
larger than mine. It's because of this cabinet that my
control panel has such an array of buttons, trackballs, and
spinner controllers. |

RESOURCES:
ArcadeControls.com
Control Panel, Cabinet, and Tons of Other Advice |
| I came up
with many ideas because of examples listed on this site.
Their
forums are especially helpful. |
Easy MAMECab
Monitor, Sound Card, Video Card, DOS, and Software
Information |
| This site
is the reason why I bought my monitor, sound card and video
card. Want to know how to set up your Wells Gardner D9200
monitor for 15Hz play? Want to know exactly how a CRT
arcade monitor works? Look here. What a resource! |
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