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Written by row1   
Saturday, 03 February 2007
I have pretty much finished my arcade machine :D
Since I have this blog why not post about it?

The Plan

The plan (dream) was to build an arcade machine. The machine would be a dual system. The primary system would be a PC running MAME. The secondary system would be a Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was chosen since is has VGA output, lots of arcade game ports (beat 'em ups, shooters and light guns); also I happened to have one lying about. Luckily a while ago I was given a PC which was more than suitable for this project.

The PC
P4 2.4 GHZ
512 MB RAM
60 GB hard drive
ATI Radeon 9000 64 MB

The PC is running Windows XP home. I have chosen to use GameEX as the front end since it has approximately ten thousand features and operates in a very nice kiosk mode. It's on a wireless network and using TightVNC to remotely administer it. A wireless mouse also makes things a bit easier.

Materials

Costs are shown in New Zealand dollars - at the time of writing 1 NZD = 0.68 USD.

Brought

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This old thing came with it

Arcade cabinet $100, cabinet was empty and only came with the screen glass and basic controllers
Wood $20, used for mounting screen, keyboard sliding shelf, and control deck
Paint $30, undercoat
Painter roller $7
Screws $7
VGA Y splitter $12, so can have both Dreamcast and PC plugged into screen
2M 3.5mm Extension Cable $6.50, audio cable extension
X-Arcade Two Player Arcade Joystick $285, the ultimate arcade joystick (currently borrowing this but will be buying one very shortly)
X-Arcade Dreamcast Adapter $16, can use the X-Arcade controller on the Dreamcast as well
17" Dell flat screen CRT Monitor $35, brought this but didn't end up using it

Already Had
PC
Dreamcast
17" Philips LCD

The Controls

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The cabinet came with some basic controls. I wired up a sidewinder control to it using some of the best drunken soldering ever ... but it turns the PC didn't have a gameport! So I ended up using a dual X-Arcade stick setup. Unfortunately using the X-Arcade means that it is not possible to use a wireless keyboard.
I mounted a piece of bench top custom board for the control deck.

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The gap between the control deck and base

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The Screen

As most games are low resolution (640 x 480 and 320x200) I was looking at using a 17" CRT monitor as they display it better than a LCD. Using a CRT monitor will also allow the Dreamcast lightguns to be used. The CRT was too bulky to easily fit into the cabinet without some major alterations so for now I just cut a gap into some custom board to mount the LCD. Image
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Fitting

Everthing fitted very nicely. I left the front bottom panel off so can easily change Dreamcast games.
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Capcom Vs. SNK on DC

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Ouch looks like I will not be making much consumer use of Capcom Dreamcast games outside of Japan.

Left Overs

There is a few small things left to do. The whole cabinet needs a paint job. The control deck needs some rubber edging and a beer holder. The sliding keyboard shelf needs to be fitted under the control deck. It will eventually need the LCD replaced with the CRT, in the meanwhile I will have to resort to The Typing of the Dead instead of The house of the Dead 2.
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Final Thoughts

While the cabinet does not look the best, it is totally awesome to use and suitable for wasting many hours with some friends, for some reason standing up just makes it way more enjoyable.
It just a shame that the Capcom Dreamcast games look rubbish using the VGA box. Their backgrounds and menus look great, but the sprites are very pixelated and show how lazy Capcom is by recycling all their sprites from 10 year old games... At least Guilty Gear X and Soul Calibur look great!


Last Updated ( Saturday, 03 February 2007 )
 
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