Mame do-it-yourself kits?

a friend of mine bought a cocktail DIY kit of ebay I think.

here is another site,
http://www.monsterarcades.com/diy-kits

I don't think most DIY kits come with monitors or games. you probably wouldn't want them to. they have 60 in 1, 300 in 1 or even over 3000 games in 1 kit.

you can just go MAME and install only the games you want, but that would mean you would have to buy a cheap computer. I was able to find street fighter 5 for the arcade on an emulator. pretty soon there will be ps3 games and others that will be able to be emulated.
Which is another pro to getting your own computer. a lot of those 60 in 1 kits only have old games.

I didn't build my cabinet, but I wired it up with RGB buttons and joystick and dual game switch. took the better part of two weeks, fun project. Don't think I would do RGB's again though, holy crap that was a pain in the ass. I had to re pin every wire and there were a bunch. I'm about to update the games via a MAME crediting system I built. All I need now is time to implement it. I went with ultracade for now since its pretty much the only commercially licensed old game front end/emulator. It's basically arcade legends 3 but with a lot more games, minus golden tee complete.

mycade (resized).png

mycade2 (resized).png

No cabinet here but looks like everything else.

https://shop.xgaming.com/products/two-player-complete-do-it-yourself-arcade-kit?utm_campaign=Lumber+1899+%28Mc6wLF%29&utm_medium=email&_ke=a3Vlc3RlcmFsQHlhaG9vLmNvbQ%3D%3D&utm_source=All+Minus+Arcade+Purchases

So, I'm pretty certain a Raspberry Pi3 will gave you every game ever made, and you could "probably" just buy the SD card off of ebay, completely loaded, with a front end. My guess would be $25 for the card, $35 for the Pi3, you do the rest. Might be cheaper than a larger computer.

Just a thought.

I bought my 4p kit from monster arcades because he's local to me. Great craftsmanship and service.

There's also lots of CHEAP kits on AliExpress. You can get a Pandora's box with lots of preloaded games. Or a blue elf kit (virtually the same games, different menus). RaspberryPi is a good choice for most arcade games, although it will have difficulty running N64 and PS1 games properly. A full PC build is the most complex but you will be able to do more.

For good quality parts I usually order ultimarc.com stuff, they have great trackballs, spinners, lightguns ect. You can really do it all for a couple hundred dollars or if you max out your build it could take a couple grand.

Be careful with cabinet plans. Some are for arcade monitors. (4x3 size and about $500). Some are designed for 16x9 LCD screens, although that streches the picture. You might also have to de-case the LCD tv so you might want to look for a second hand TV that's cheap. No sense pulling apart a brand new tv, unless that's what your into. I've done it a couple times to get a nice clean look for your arcade.

pm sent.

I need to find a SD Card/Hard Drive/Download etc that I can put on my old computer. (anyone know where to get one!?)
My main goal is to be able to play the classic Vertical Games like Pacman, Galaga, DK,

I'm building my own cabinet and will probably use a 19" computer LED monitor?

I think the control kit I'll go with is this, but with a trackball:
https://shop.xgaming.com/products/two-player-complete-do-it-yourself-arcade-kit?utm_campaign=Lumber+1899+%28Mc6wLF%29&utm_medium=email&_ke=a3Vlc3RlcmFsQHlhaG9vLmNvbQ%3D%3D&utm_source=All+Minus+Arcade+Purchases

Ebay?

I guess I just don't know what to look for? I'm not sure what's crap and what's quality.
I'm hoping that someone here knows a good one.

I have a box of IDE drives with vertical games on them. Send me a PM and I'll send you one.

I've used there guys before for loaded hard drives. http://www.romcollector.com/

If you send them an internal hard drive you don't get a windows OS right? Just the folders and GUI to run under any OS? What if you need horizontal instead of vertical? Easy to change those settings?

Correct, you don't get a Windows OS. Although you do get a drive fully loaded with hyper spin and all emulators and roms. I think that it needs to be run on a windows machine for hyperspin to work, but the rom files will work with any emulator that you have. If you have a raspberry pi, you will need to have retropi installed for the roms to work.

Hyperspin is a little complicated to initially set up, but if you get a pre loaded drive then it is fairly easy to change your layout to suit your needs. If you just order the rom files, then I'd suggest a different front end like Maximus arcade it's easier to setup the emulators for the first time. Hyperspin needs everything named the exact same (game name, rom location, wheel picture, fonts, ect). I've heard that Maximus is more forgiving when you install new games.

I've run Mala front end years ago. It was free and fairly easy to get the hang of. That was a Windows XP machine, so any old computer lying around should work.

If you end up going with a Raspberry Pi just buy the completely loaded SD card. Plug and play.

IMO, findeed a loaded USB or drive so you don't have to mess with set up. One little error and you're frustrated. Also, within the first week, back it up or clone it. Trust me on that front.

I picked up the rom collector and it’s great. Question on how to back up menus when you drill down into the emulators. Can’t find a consistent way to go back to the main hyper spin menu.