Customized Dream Arcades Cocktail MAME Cabinet

On January 4th 2005, I purchased a 3-sided MAME cocktail from Dream Arcades. For more information on this, check out the reviews on RetroBlast

• review of Dream Arcades head-to-head cocktail cabinet
• review of Dream Arcades side-to-side cocktail cabinet

This is a the three-sided model, incorporating all the features of both of the reviewed models. Cocktail cabinets are an unusual choice for a MAME cabinet. Most people build uprights. There are pros and cons for each layout, of course, but the specific reason I chose a cocktail layout is because they are a bit more space efficient. And, in a pinch, you can throw a tablecloth over it. If you're going to build a cocktail, I definitely think a three-sided cocktail is the way to go . That's the primary strength of the cocktail layout-- the choice of horizontal or vertical screen orientation!

I received the Dream Arcades 3-sided cabinet on January 17th. It's a great cabinet for the price, and I definitely recommend it to anyone thinking of building a MAME cocktail cabinet. However, I wanted my cocktail to be a bit more "arcade authentic", so I customized it. This page documents my customizations.

1. Lighting
   
   The plexiglass on top of the cabinet looks great, but it's highly reflective. You'll want it dark when you're playing games if you want to see anything on the screen. And it's better for arcade gaming in general, anyway-- when was the last time you were in a well-lit arcade? My plan was to put lighting over each of the player positions, and to light the coin door return buttons.

   To light the player controls, I used commonly available PC cold cathode lights. I got my white "Flexiglow" brand cold cathodes from Directron. I mounted them on the top, eg, they light downwards like you would expect on a real arcade cocktail unit. I used the dual 6" white cold cathode kit on the head to head controls. They fit perfectly and there are two ports on the provided inverter so it works out very nicely, P1 and P2 off a single inverter. Since I have a 3-way, I also used the 12" white cold cathode over the side-to-side controls. You really cannot go wrong with the cold cathodes. They look great! And it's so easy, just a little bit of cable routing and a bit of velcro and you're set.

   To light the coin door, I used two of these red LEDs. They are very bright!
   
   

2. Wireless keyboard
   
   I thought I could tough it out with a wired keyboard, but it's just too inconvenient in practice. You need a wireless keyboard. You have to go RF (radio frequency) because infrared won't work inside a cabinet. The only decent small RF keyboard I could find is the Gyration. All I needed was the keyboard, but it was hard/expensive to buy that seperately. I ended up buying a refurbished Ultra GT Compact Keyboard Suite combo direct from Gyration for $69 (it says $75 but if you add to basket it's $69). The gyro mouse is very cool but I don't need it. The ps/2 trackball already performs mouse functions admirably. And I'm planning to add another trackball on the side-by-side panel, to complement the existing trackball in the p1 head to head positon. I'm selling the gyromouse on eBay to recoup maybe $30 of the cost; that puts the keyboard at a semi-reasonable $40.
   
   
3. Coin Door
   
   The coin door was a bit more work. I cleaned and stripped down the used arcade door I bought on eBay to the bare minumum. I used a hot glue gun to mount the LEDs, and route the power cables on the back. I then cut a hole the correct size opposite the side to side controls. This does eat up some of the higher monitor mounting holes, but I still have 3 positions to choose from for my 19" monitor.

   I removed all the "guts" of the functioning coin door to make it as slim as possible. After all, it's just for looks. However, it does open and the key works-- and there's enough room inside the coin door to put the Gyration compact wireless keyboard for storage. A nice bonus!

   I needed some way to power the PC on and off from outside the case. Sometimes you can get mouse or keyboard events to automatically power on the PC, but the mobo I used didn't seem to support this. All I did was hot glue the reset switch from the motherboard in the right place behind the coin return, and it works like a champ. I really like using a coin return press as the power button.
   
   

4. Speakers
   
   These Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 speakers are perfect for MAME cabinets, because
   1. They're inexpensive. $44 at newegg, I got them at circuit city for $29 after $20 rebate.
   2. They have a subwoofer. This makes a huge difference! Not that you need it loud and boomy, but it sounds a lot more like a real game with some low end. Giant improvement over just the 4" happs by themselves. I can't emphasize this enough: get a subwoofer for your cabinet.
   3. They have a really nice wired remote, with seperate bass and volume dial controls, and even a headphone jack so you can play without disturbing the family. Just cut a hole for the remote wire in a stealth location (I did it under the Player 1 head to head), route it through, then velcro the remote wherever you like.

   Of course I tossed the satellites, because I already had the 4" happs shielded speakers and grilles mounted to the cabinet under the side-to-side controls. I stripped the creative speaker terminal wires and hooked them to the Happs shielded speakers I had already mounted.
   
   

5. Miscellaneous stuff
   
   In this particular cabinet, the monitor is held in place by gravity. You need a monitor with a flat "back" for this to work. You'll probably want an ultra-thin vga cable for monitors like mine where the vga cable protrudes really far from the back. You'll probably want a right angle power cord as well. It really depends on your monitor. In order to maximize space, I also removed most of my monitor's case, including the front bezel.

   No self-respecting MAME cabinet can be built without the classic smart strip power strip LCG1 of RetroBlast fame ! With this amazing little unit, the monitor and speakers (and whatever else you have inside the cabinet) automatically power off and on with the computer.

   I also needed two player seating to complement the cocktail cabinet. After extensive searching, I settled on these hydraulic mechanic stools . They actually look really cool (IMHO) and are ideal, because

   1. They have casters so you can switch between side-to-side and head-to-head by just rolling your seat over
   2. Hydraulic height adjustable between 12" and 20". This helps for taller and shorter players. You can also make them really short and slide them directly under the p1 and p2 player controls for minimum footprint storage.
   3. No arms or back, so you can sit as close as possible to the machine. This is critical for a cocktail because of angle visibility issues -- most cocktail cabinets are really short for a reason..
   4. They're surprisingly comfortable
   5. They're inexpensive at around $30 each, including shipping

Here are pictures of the (mostly) finished cabinet:

Parts used in the construction of this MAME cocktail cabinet:

A) Core PC parts

Item	Price	Comments
Sony Multiscan 420 GS 19" monitor	$150*	Discontinued. Relatively flat 1998 vintage trinitron. If I had to buy a new monitor for this cabinet, I'd look at 19" true flat-face CRTs with very short, flat backs. I don't think LCDs will work due to the extreme viewing angle inherent to the cocktail layout.
MSI K7N420 Pro motherboard	$70*	Discontinued. This is an old nVidia nForce mobo, but it's perfect for this application: integrated nForce audio, integrated GeForce2MX video, and multiple USB ports via the included D-Bracket. No PCI or AGP expansion card needed!  Just add DDR memory (I had 1gb of DDR in this system already, but 512mb is probably more than enough). I highly recommend going the integrated sound/video route for MAME cabinets! Current equivalent would be any nForce2 motherboard with onboard video and sound.
Forton power supply with 120mm fan	$40*	Power supplies with 120mm fans generally provide greater airflow with less noise. Fortron is one of the highest quality inexpensive brands. Recommended.
Athlon XP 2400+	$70*	Discontinued. Current equivalent is AMD Sempron.
Thermaltake Silent Boost Heatsink/fan	$27*	All copper, thin fin, relatively quiet fan. Excellent price/performance for aftermaket heatsink. You'll still want a fanmate to modulate the fan speed.
Zalman Fanmate	$4*	Makes any 3-pin fan speed (and noise) adjustable. Used on CPU fan only.
SmartDrive 2002	$50*	Hard drive sound isolation box. I happened to have an extra one from another project I was working on. It's pricey, but incredibly effective-- that noisy WD hard drive is barely audible even with the cabinet door open! For new projects, I would recommend starting with a quieter drive, such as the Samsung Spinpoint, and decouple mounting it using some kind of suspension (sorbothane, foam, etc).
Western Digital "special edition" 80gb Hard Drive	$60*	I do recommend at least an 80gb hard drive for a complete set of MAME ROMs. You may want as much as 160gb depending on how many emulators (and other games) you have installed. I like Samsung Spinpoint drives because they're cheap and quiet. Beware, because most major manufacturer hard drives are NOT quiet!
Combo DVD/CD drive	$32*	Nothing special. Just something to read DVDs and CDs, for loading games and ROMs.

* Current pricing is shown for reference only; I bought these items a while back for other PC projects, so I had them on hand for use with the cabinet.

B) Cabinet-specific parts