mGalaxy frontend does both, and is free.....

Build or buy a controller. Use an old pc to drive it. Emu anything you want. I personally did a 4 player arcade controller with ball and spinners. I then hooked it to a older 42 in tv mounted to the wall. I have the controller on a stand so that it is at a normal comfy playing height. This made it much easier for me than building a cab. Load up your emulators and use Hyperspin as your main launcher.
Some good sites
https://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm
https://hyperspin-fe.com/

Tons of youtube vids out there too.

Something I always wanted. Rick Schieve made them years ago. Everything on it.

Hyperspin is worth it, but I would pay for the forum use - it makes it much easier to get tools and downloads. It is *very* cumbersome and intimidating but once it's done, it's done.

I've built 3 or 4 MAME cabinets and the frontend I use is Kymaera which allows you to switch between as many emulators that you install.

It's easier to restore a used cabinet instead of making your own from scratch. 3 of my cabinets I bought from Todd Tuckey. They were empty cabs he wanted to get rid of. Sometimes you can find them on Craigslist.

Keyboard encoders: https://www.hagstromelectronics.com/

Encoder for buttons, trackballs, spinners, joystick https://www.ultimarc.com/minipac.html

Buttons, joysticks and other parts http://mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl

LCD Monitors (and other arcade parts) https://na.suzohapp.com/wp/search.p?Q=lcd+monitor

Arcade artwork, control panels, coin doors etc https://quarterarcade.com/

I went with Atomic Front End in my MAME cabinet.The only problem I had is my setup is a cocktail cabinet and the CPU I used has on board video and the version of open GL will not support the screen rotation for Daphne. I used a fairly old CPU when I made mine. Other than that it works great!

Ehhh I'm not so sure anymore. This would have been true about 5 years ago because it was so far ahead visually. The truth is that Hyperspin is a mega pain in the ass and there are much easier front ends out there these days that look just as good.

Make sure it's not taking up pinball space.
Skip the knob, a trackball will work
The problem with 20k+ games is you have 20k+ games. Even with favorites folders it can be too much and daunting for guests.

Playing Tempest with a trackball??

I do. It's not bad.

It works and you get used to it....i think for streamlining the look and layout space it just isn't worth it. Sure if it's your no 1 game maybe... But I got used to playing arknoid

I have played one with a trackball, and PacMan with one as well. Total turn off, but like you said overtime one may get used to it.

I don't trust Hyperspin much these days. While I purchased all the material. I really get Paranoid with the tools you need to install it.

I wish there was more information on Virtual Pinball Here.

I made an initial effort but it was a major PITA.

I've been wanting to build a mame cab but my main worry is how to enable so many different control panel configurations in one setup. I happen to like so many different types of games having grown up playing them as they came out.

That's why you see some people have a coffee table for a control panel LOL.

That's not my cup of tea...

go with GameEX
and for visual pinball go with pinballx
much easier to use and a lot more options to tailor.
think it's like 10 bucks a year, but it's worth every penny.

as far as VP, they make it super easy now.. everything is setup and run through an executable file.
unlike a couple years ago, where you needed to download, run and setup like 10 different things.
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=11573

They just released TNA, pretty cool. A little buggy though.
scratch that looks like it got taken off the site.
https://vpinball.com/VPBdownloads/categories/vpx-tables/

The control panel is a tricky one, I just went with a two player 6 button setup plus a spinner. I would have liked a track ball but its just to big and I wanted a small cabinet. If you go with analog joysticks you can play most track ball game and its reasonable. The most important thing for me was a rotatable 4x3 screen.

Do a raspberry pi with HyperPie 2 installed easiest way plus looks great.

Agree, same here. would have to be some sort of interchangable panels. No coffee table panel for me.

Everything you could possibly ask is here:

arcadecontrols.com

That's where I spent a number of years before I got into pinball....

I've used Mala in the past. Free.

I've also found an SD card for Raspberry Pi 3 running Retropi. I'm just using an X-Arcade dual tankstick for that at the moment.

A thought on trackball /knob: make a retractable unit for the limited times you'll use it.

I've used Mala and MAMEWAH, both free. I eventually wound up writing my own FE in Visual Basic.

For hardware, I got a SlikStik full-sized cab, before they stopped making them, with their Quad controller panel. It's been modified a few times since, and currently sports 4 of Ultimarc's UltraStiks and a few dozen of their ClassicRGB buttons.

+1 for MGalaxy. http://www.mgalaxy.com

I have set up three multi-emulator systems, and only discovered MGalaxy during the most recent build. To me, its ease of setup felt like a revelation compared with the endless tweaking that Hyperspin and Maximus seemed to require. Everything is GUI-based and the tedious stuff like fetching artwork, gameplay videos, and game history is automated. The frontend screens look great, and the paid version (worth the $$) adds lots of neat themes and unlocks some useful database customization options.

If you want a more turnkey option for cabinets and control panels, check out Rec Room Masters. They make several different cabinets and control panels (one with a trackball, spinner, and separate 4 and 8-way joysticks), so all that is needed is a PC/Pi/game console and display. They also make cabinets which are customized for the X-arcade control panel. Not as cheap as DIY, but look and feel “professional” and save a LOT of time versus scratch-building or cleaning/modifying an old cab.

This is what got me into pinball - built a mame cabinet and started doing virtual pins to see what rulesets I liked. Recently cranked one up with a raspberry pi without a cab just for shits and grins. Current project is a simulator for about 15 rail gun games to be a dedicated setup in the game room with 2 guns. had a nice 47" tv to play with, used my old computer and bought two lightguns. Almost there....

Built the original cab using a dig dug - redecaled it as centipede. about 12 years ago - holy crap

I always used this stuff
https://www.ultimarc.com/index.php

Check out 'X arcade' controllers. Plug into pc via USB port ..

IMG_20181013_001734347 (resized).jpg

The Ultimarc sticks are USB devices. The buttons (through an Ultimarc interface) are seen by the computer as a USB keyboard. Trackballs and spinners are seen as mice.

This is what I used in mine as well, super happy with them. They are a bit on the higher end but totally worth it.

Alot of different brands of controller input available but they all plug in usb to comp

I built this MAME cabinet from a broken and water damaged Defender Cabinet years ago..

Pictures:
http://www.pinballsupernova.com/mame%20cabinet%20collection.html

No one using Launchbox/Bigbox here as frontend?

My brother bought an arcade from dreamarcades.com. $$$$. but if you want something that works with minimal effort it's pretty cool.

If you want authenticity build your own with a CRT and the appropriate 4 way and/or 8 way joysticks for the games you want to play.

I ran dragons lair on my mame machine as a pc game.

All of the information from this book is probably available on BYOAC.com (great site), but I found this book super helpful for my first build.

https://www.amazon.com/Project-Arcade-Build-Your-Machine/dp/047089153X/ref=sr_1_1

The biggest mistake I see people make is cramming too much on the control panel.

BigBox/Launchbox is amazing and well worth the money. I think it's what Hyperspin tried to do, but never quite pulled off.

If you wanted a complete full size MAME with a real medium res CRT monitor all configured, I've been considering downsizing mine. No idea on a price. I'd have to think about it.

FYI, Mala used to also sell "MaLa Hardware", a USB control board that would drive 32 LEDs. Back when I used two of those, this video of my CP (from 2012) was on Mala's website:

http://web.archive.org/web/20121126154210/http://malafe.net/videos/AttractMode2.avi

I've been using Launchbox and some Bigbox for a game-dedicated PC for some time. I tried Hyperspin for a while and found it to be an absolute horrowshow for getting set up. LB is much easier to set up and configure.

I'm slow-working a project to make a Mame machine if some kind, the controls are the next step. A number of arcade games play pretty well with the typical wireless Xbox game controller, but this is not good for many games and proper joysticks, trackball, buttons etc are needed.

I made my mame so long ago it has no frontend, just an old pc and the windows mame version.
(Put a subwoofer in it for sure!)
Been working great for 15+ years.

8FFCCFB6-1771-40D8-825F-EBEA44CBF6D0 (resized).jpeg

I’ve been looking a little lately and found this company in Wisconsin. http://www.dreamhomearcades.com/home.aspx
An owner’s review:

I still love Hyperspin. People say there are other front ends that are easier frontends that look just as good. They might be easier, but I haven't found a frontends that looks just as good.

My advice is to keep it simple. Do you really need 1000s of games for a bunch of systems. On my personal system I have about 500 games total. Same thing for controllers. When I started I wanted it all...trackballs, spinners, 4-way joystick, 8-way joysticks, and buttons, buttons, buttons. Now, I have a two player system with 8-way joystick, six buttons, start, coin, and escape. I find it's much more accessible for visitors.

I second Reyropi. I built a bartop so it didn't take a pin space and I can easily move it if needed. Found this article on installing Daphne in retropi, but I haven't tried it.

https://gameroomsolutions.com/setup-daphne-raspberry-pi-3-retropie/

Does the 8-way joystick work OK for PacMan and the like? I haven't tried it, but have always read that it can be an issue getting to the correct corners quickly.

There are some that let you switch between 4-way and 8-way with varying degrees of ease.

Also it seems that you need a 4-way that is rotated 45 degrees if you want to play Qbert, otherwise you are doomed to keep falling off forever (unless you can master the angle on a standard one which I have never been able to do). Not sure if any other games are set up like that.

EDIT - Just realized that Zaxxon also needs the offset 4-way action like Qbert, that is critical as I like to play Zaxxon!

Does nobody use Mala anymore? I used it for my Mame build because I just want a simple list of games to choose from. You can still spruce it up with custom backgrounds and screenshots but it's very simple which is why I chose it. I also only have about 60 of my favorite games loaded instead of putting thousands on there. It's nice to have a Hyperspin setup with thousands of games across multiple arcade or console platforms, but it can become a chore to decide on one especially if you have guests over that want to look through everything.

I feel the 8-way works fine, but I'm sure a purist will tell you it's not perfect. I guess for me it's emulation. You're never going to have one machine that plays everything perfectly. I don't notice a huge change in my scores when playing on a 4-way vs 8-way, but I'm also not a top tier players. If Q-Bert or Defender are your all time favorite game, maybe it's worth it to you to install a setup specifically for those games. I value simplicity over that, but it's a choice. Plus now when I'm playing games in the wild, I seek out games with those unique controller layouts.

I used to use Mala in my previous builds. It's fine, but once it's setup the game specific themes and video snaps on Hyperspin is my favorite. It's just so pretty.

PS: This thread inspired me to work on Daphne again. I can get Dragon's Lair working on my laptop, but when I transfer it to my PC (running Hyperspin) it has to reload things from the internet. Because that PC isn't connected to the internet that prevents me from loading the game. I may pull it out and get it working eventually, but I'm afraid when I connect the PC to the internet it's going to mess something else up. Old technology seems to work perfectly well, until it is forced to "update".

I was doing a little reading on joysticks and came across some information about "original" PacMan joysticks. Apparently these were custom-made for that machine and "it is said" that no modern joystick will behave exactly like them. I had no idea they looked like this until I saw these pics. These use leaf switches and this should look very familiar to anyone who works on pinball machines!

pacman joystick 1 (resized).jpg

pacman joystick 3 (resized).jpg

Concerning Dragon's Lair, GOG recently put that up for sale here. I don't know anything about the GOG version beyond what you can read there, but generally all their games are made to play as simply as possible on a PC system and I have had a lot of luck with them. I have this one on my wishlist, I'll just hang around and wait for it to come on sale. GOG has the habit of having random sales that come and go and when they come you can get cool stuff for really great prices. If you wishlist it you will get an email when it comes on sale.

https://www.gog.com/game/dragons_lair_trilogy