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MY MAME
(Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)

Updated July 2, 2009 3:52 PM

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Between R&D, design, construction, and debugging, this project took roughly 4 months to complete, and there are still some bugs to fix and planned improvements. 

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rear view, during construction		discarded marquee, during construction	Pole Position pedal, before refurbishing & custom casing	under control panel, keyboard extended
inside control panel	from rear of cabinet, looking at rear of control panel	steering wheel in place		access door.  See keyboard in resting place
		keyboard extended	keyboard extended

KEY POINTS:

• Plays over 4000 classic arcade games - not recreations, the real thing
• Plays every Atari 2600 home console game
• Also plays some of the old laserdisc-based games (which look like cartoons), such as Space Ace & Dragons Lair
• Multiple, redundant controls for side-by-side playing, right or left-handed players
• Removable steering wheel
• Entire control panel is removable for maintenance
• Restrictor plates to limit motion of joystick to whatever the original arcade game allowed
• Keyboard swings into function for maintenance
• Non-functional change door provides access to CPU
• Pause button
• Volume control
• Stereo speakers
• Extra polyurethane coating on flat top, above marquee to resist moisture from beverages
• Back-lit trackball, marquee, and faux money insert slots.
• Hidden power switch only turns off lights, sound, & monitor, not CPU.  Allows quick start-up to play.
• A wife who doesn't complain too much when I'm in the workshop

CONTROLS:

• Player 1 joystick with 6 discrete buttons
• Player 2 joystick with 6 discrete buttons (example: Mortal Combat)
• Happ translucent blue trackball (example: Centipede)
• Spinner (example: Tempest)
• Player 1 tulip joystick (with top fire button) (example: Tron)
• Foot Pedal (example: Pole Position)
• 360 degree steering wheel (example: Spy Hunter)

HARDWARE:

• 3/4" MDO plywood (visible surfaces)
• 1/8" clear acrylic
• 21" VGA monitor
• Rustoleum Hammertite black paint
• 3/4" yellow T-molding
• 1/2" black T-molding
• Joystick mounting plate
• 4-way restrictor plate
• 2-way restrictor plate (horizontal or vertical)
• Diagonal restrictor plate
• Ultimarc I-PAC 32 circuit board
  • integrates joysticks and butons
• Ultimarc Opti-PAC circuit board
  • integrates spinner and trackball
• 18" fluorescent fixture (marquee)
• Hacked Microsoft Sidewinder Dual Strike game controller
  • integrates foot pedal
• Original Pole Position foot pedal (replaced 5k ohm potentiometer)
• 4" rear wheels
• 170 degree full overlay hinges for keyboard
• 4" plastic ventilation grill (on top)
• 2.4 GHz Pentium IV processor
• Wireless 802.11b networking for upgrades & maintenance
• ATI 9200 video card
• DPDT 120V toggle switch - controls 1 of 2 power outlets inside cabinet
• Had originally placed cooling fan to ventilate cabinet, but was too noisy & unnecessary
• Power strip plugged into switched internal outlet

SOFTWARE:

• Mala Frontend
• MAME emulator
• I-PAC conifguation utility
• Daphne emulator
• Z26 emulator

COMPLICATIONS, GOALS, CRITIQUES:

• The method for securing the removable control panel is not practical b/c access is from rear of cabinet - may revise
• Was very difficult to get foot pedal to work accurately b/c little room for error in calibration, but eventually got it right
• Would have liked instruction card to display when viewing game preview, in game menu
  • Very difficult to edit the .mng video file required forma
• Made player 1 start & player 2 start buttons dual function with left & right mouse-clicks
  • Creates difficulty when editing text configuation files.  Should have made discrete mouse buttons.

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