Ubuntu time

A few months ago I got talking to a guy on a football (soccer) message board I frequent who wouldn't shut up about this thing called "Ubuntu". I really knew next to nothing about it, but this guy insisted it was the answer to a problem I was having with my missus' laptop - namely how slow it ran under Vista. So I bit the bullet and installed the Ubuntu operating system. Low and behold it worked and Ubuntu had another fan in internet nerd-ville.

I set to installing Ubuntu onto my MAME computer which took a little longer than expected. Being an old computer it wouldn't boot from the USB stick I had put the Ubuntu installer on. One burnt installer CD later and we had Ubuntu up and running.

Getting the computer working

The computer will be the basis of the MAME cabinet - running and storing the games as well as outputting the sounds/music and linking up the joysticks, buttons and trackerball. Therefore unless I could get my old computer working the project would be halted before it ever really got going.

On opening up the computer case some memories came back to me - when the power supply blew in our main computer I borrowed the PSU out of this old one while waiting for a new unit to be delivered. I had put the borrowed PSU back into the case once finished with, but hadn't bothered plugging it all back in.

After a bit of a faff (which included me forgetting to power the motherboard and wondering why it still wouldn't turn on) it came to life.

Windows 2000 booted up (that is how old this system is) so I had a bit of a look round. This system started out as our everyday PC, but then got turned into a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) so we could replace our old VHS recorder (this was before DVD recorders really got going). In converting it to a PVR I had upgraded the RAM to 1gb and added a new HDD (bringing total storage to 70gb). These upgrades would help it to run MAME, but the rest of the system was pretty out of date - an AMD athlon 1800+ CPU and Nvidea 5200 graphics card.

Windows 2000 was also totally out of date, but rather than upgrade to XP, or even Seven, I decided to go a different route.

Crap in the attic

If I was going to meet my 300 quid budget it would be important to make use of stuff that I already own. So with this in mind I ventured into the attic to have a root around. The first thing that I noticed was that I really need to tidy up the attic, as there is crap everywhere. More usefully, the second thing I noticed was an old computer system I'd built a few years ago that become superceeded by new stuff and so dumped in the attic. However, I'd read that MAME can run on quite old systems, so I brought it down.

Hoping for an easy ride, but suspecting the worse, I plugged it into a monitor and fired it up....or not, as nothing happened. I opened it up and was greeted by my first hurdle, my rather suspect wiring

The challenge

I could just buy an arcade machine and be playing it in a few days time. But where is the fun in that? Also, I am fairly tight so given that a decent home system can cost almost three grand it wasn't an option I considered for very long. In fact, I was fairly confident that I could build a system for closer to 300 quid - just 10% of the cost of a professionally built system, bargain!!

So that's the challenge - to build a fully functional MAME arcade system for £300. I am, however, allowed to recycle stuff I already own.

In terms of my own skills, I would say that's I'm not a complete beginner, but no way an expert. I like messing around with computers and I like woodwork, but excel at neither. I'm going to learn a lot in the coming weeks I reckon!

The plan

Hello and welcome to my blog recording my attempts to build a full size arcade cabinet running MAME and other emulators. My desire to do this stems from happy memories of spending a small fortune in pocket money at various dingy arcades and holiday results. During the 80's 90's and 00's I've racked up a fair few hours (days? months?!) playing hundreds of games. However, a 30 something man tends to stand out a little in today's arcades (if you can find a local arcade at all that is) plus I don't have as much spare time as I used to. So therefore what would be better than my very own arcade system in the comfort of my own home??!

Now, I've always been a little wary of people with blogs - are their lives really THAT interesting to merit telling the world about?? So it's fair to say that I do feel a little dirty writing this. However, without the internet and the wealth of information it contains I would never be able to even contemplate my arcade project. Therefore I figured that other people with similar ideas might somehow stumble onto my blog and find something useful here.