What do you do when you really want that classic arcade feel but are shy on space? Mini-MAME is one...or how about a real old school miniature arcade machine. Complete with two players and coin-op capability!
Inspiration: I was originally inspired to do this by Ben Heck's mini build.
https://youtu.be/wp1rcVwrrO0 part 1,
https://youtu.be/RwcxoEP5ZTM part 2. I'm familiar enough with electronics that I'm sure I could do that part, my main learning process will be the cabinet since I'm building from scratch and have done little wood working. Looking up how to cut a groove for t-molding is actually how I found John's channel.
Idea: After being inspired by the idea, I decided to expand upon it while still trying to keep the machine portable and table-top. The design will be kept as tight as possible, the only issue is fitting two players and two coin mechs into the design without making the machine too large, but I do have a rough drawing of my idea so far. I'll have to scan it in sometime, it's hard to explain but follows the same basic gist of Ben's but two player.
Basic parts list:
CRT monitor with analog RGB. I'm thinking a 13" sized Sony Trinitron PVM monitor or equivalent. I know Olympus made some models that were basically PVMs in Olympus shells. I'm watching a few on eBay. 13" "super fine pitch" models with RGB. The ones with the better screens usually either say "super fine pitch" near the Trinitron logo or say "HR Trinitron" on the case. You can also search for the manuals and look up which model numbers have what features.
NeoGeo single horizontal slot board. Comparing the various options on
http://www.hardmvs.com/html/PCBcompare.htm I'm thinking MV-1A isn't a bad choice. Small, socketed BIOS so it can easily be switched if I wanted to, etc. They turn up for reasonable money on eBay pretty often.
JAMMA harness of reasonable quality. Bob Roberts might be the go to choice here.
http://www.therealbobroberts.net/harn.htmlHAPP buttons and competition joysticks. Some eBay sellers have decent pricing on genuine HAPP, but you have to be careful. These may come from an arcade supplier just to be sure.
Speakers. Even though this will be wired mono, I may run two speakers for more "full" sound. The internal amp is probably rated for 8 ohm and wouldn't like 4 ohm with the speakers in parallel, so I'll have to run them in series at 16 ohm. Will just make the amp work a little harder, but the amp should be capable of plenty of volume. I have two 3" or so shielded speakers out of an old PC speaker set that will work perfectly.
Power supply. Probably a HAPP or HAPP style arcade supply, but I like Ben's idea of using a thin rack server unit. Might actually take up less space, and with such short wiring and low current I don't think I'll need the adjustable 5 volts. I will verify it's clean and appropriately close to 5 volts via a multimeter, though.
Power switch/filter/fuse assembly. Again, arcade supplier most likely.
Reasonable grade plywood for the cabinet. Easily sourced locally, probably using 1/2".
T-molding. tmolding.com has black and white down to 1/2", hence my idea for the plywood. I'll probably do red paint and some sort of NeoGeo graphic and black t-molding. Like a miniature MVS cabinet.
That's the basic idea, I can add as I go along. I'll likely work out the cabinet design using a cheaper prototyping material and then do the final cut on the plywood, since it's more expensive. I'll also need a router and the bit for the t-molding groove cut. There should be a jigsaw laying around for hole cutting and such, but if not they aren't too hard to find cheap. Let me know what you guys think, and as I get to gathering parts and such I'll update.
