MAME: At long last, a cabinet update

So I ended up doing a bunch of work on the arcade cabinet last summer, and have *finally* gotten around to writing a post and uploading the photos. First thing was the painting. I went with a solid black overall, combined primer and paint.

Next up were the speakers. I took a set of old Altec Lansing desktop speakers I had. I popped the grilles off, taped over the Altec symbol and spray-painted the grilles and frames black. I mounted the actual speakers on the inside of the cutouts, screwing them into the MDF. The frames and grilles mounted on the outside, giving a nice finished look to the speaker arrangement. The main speaker/subwoofer sits in the bottom of the cabinet.

Next up was the marquee. I used Richard Kirk's excellent MAME marquee and got it printed at Staples. They were able to print it exactly the size I wanted and laminate it, all for about $7. Here it is installed. Not the best picture, as I was trying to show it all lit up.

Then the coin door. I'm still using the Happ Controls (now Suzo-Happ) over-under mini-door system for the coin door and it went it without a hitch.

Finally, I installed some custom-sized side-art from Game On Grafix. That was a bit pricey, but the overall effect is more than worth it. I don't have the skills to stencil or paint on a nice logo, so this is the easiest way. It adhered quite easily, and is still sticking firmly 7 months later.
Getting the TV in was a bit of a struggle, as this cabinet was planned around the 27" Sony, which is long gone. I got the TV all in there and then turned it on and realized it was set to cable input, not the video-in, and of course the remote sensor and buttons were now wedged up against the inside of the cabinet and the TV anchored in place. Fortunately, the remote worked to flip it to the video input.

One final look at the front:

So the whole thing is largely finished now, but I haven't gotten around to uploading the photos yet. The sensing power bar works well--you open the front, flip the PC on, and everything else in the cabinet comes to life--TV, lights, speakers, coin door lights...
About the only thing left to make it fully complete is a bezel around the TV. Coming soon...

MAME cabinet non-update

A brief update on the MAME cabinet is probably in order after all these years.

Short story--it remains stalled pending basement development. I put it on hold a number of years ago until I had more of the basement finished.

Actually, we now have our combined media room + playroom area finished in the basement, and after I install the baseboard trim in there, finishing up the MAME cabinet is probably next on the agenda.

It's a good time to tackle that--with the new TV downstairs, that frees up the 27" Toshiba that I bought for the cabinet to actually be used for the cabinet.

All that's really left is installing the TV, the fans, painting it, and then installing the marquee and display plastic (already cut and fitted). Oh, I also still have the coin door to slap in there. So there's not really a lot of work to do, and now that I have the media room done, there's a corner to stick the cabinet in all ready and waiting.

Pictures will, of course, follow once this stage is reached.