If this was for personal use I'd say just make a MAME arcade and slap in any games you want, but if your intentions involve setting this cabinet in the lunchroom/hallway/commons room and letting anybody mess around with it there's bound to be some spoilsport that could go tattling to a higher authority about unauthorized use and whatnot.
Anyway, having halfway built/halfway bought a MAME arcade earlier this year, I figured I'd share a few tips. Some of them are probably common sense, but whatever.
1. Try craigslist first for EVERYTHING. Unless you live out in the boonies, chances are there's someone out there with an old arcade junking up their garage that they're selling for parts. I've seen gutted frames of the cabinet go for anywhere from $20 to $100, and unlike ebay, there's no shipping fee. Or, find some plans online and make your own cab. I live in a tiny one-room apartment with no garage, so that wasn't an option for me, but if you have some space I'd definitely consider it.
2. Try to find a multicade board. The thing about having only one game in your cab is that, well, you've only got that one game. There are PCB boards out there that have several games in one on them, which allows for a lot of variety. (Example) As it's been said before, if you purchase the physical board you shouldn't have to fear any sort of licensing issue.
3. Using authentic arcade monitors is awesome, but terrifying. Jeff an Vinny's fears from the Bombcast are no lie, a classic Wells-Gardner monitor can hold a charge for days. They're also really heavy and fairly expensive. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the super clear definition of a LCD monitor is off-putting and I consider getting an ancient CRT one, but the whole "Do this EXACTLY right when repairing lest you GET ELECTROCUTED AND DIE" thing is a smidge of a turnoff.
4. Your arcade will break because people are uncaring jerks. Thirteen hours after setting my MAME arcade up in it's spot and showing it off, one of my friends got a little too excited while playing Marvel vs Capcom and broke the player 1 stick. It was an easy fix, but if you're setting this up in a school where any ham-fisted jock can mangle your control panel, it's just something to think about. The more people play your arcade, the more often you should have some sort of routine maintenance.
Any Street Fighter game ever. On the plus side, being as bad as I am makes every little thing a major accomplishment. I pulled off a shoryuken the other day and felt like THE KING OF THE WORLD.
I'm thoroughly convinced that one day, people will come to accept Majora's Mask as a great game, if not better than Ocarina of Time. It's the Empire Strikes Back of Nintendo 64 Zelda games.
I'm a receptionist at an busy insurance office. My only job 8 hours a day 5 days a week is to answer the phone. Sometimes the phone will only ring a few times an hour, other times it's off the hook with irate customers complaining about worker's compensation or policies or claims. It's thankless and pretty bleak, but the Bombcast and Behind the Screened Door keep me laughing. I'd say that's worth $50.
I made a little text adventure game when I was in programming class, it's not hard to make a string of code that tells the game to differentiate between plural and singular.
Zack & Wiki is an awesome point and click puzzle/adventure game. I haven't seen too many copies in stores lately, though, so you might have to hit ebay for that.
Log in to comment