Dude, what are you thinking? (and what the hell is MAME?)
If you're not familiar with what's going on here, MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and it uses your PC to emulate many types of arcade manufacturers hardware. If you're totally new to MAME, check out the homepage at www.mame.net for info. If you don't want any background or "build vs. salvage" cabinet opinion, please skip right to the build info... (This guy sucks! show me the cabinet already!)
I discovered MAME at version .36 while searching the net for info on old arcade games. I was in the mood for reading about the history of some 80's games I loved like Gyruss, Xevious and Robotron. Finding MAME was completely unexpected. Not only had I found info about the games I'd pissed away my teenage years playing, now I had a chance to piss away my adult years on them too! Understand that with MAME, you're not playing a game with similar play style and different graphics, not some other programmers interpretation of how the game should play, you're playing the actual ROM image of the real game.
It was like looking in an old jacket pocket for change and finding $100. I played around with MAME on and off for years, trying games I remembered, finding hidden treasures I didn't know about, and getting better at the one's I got sick of throwing money at when I was sixteen. Since I loved arcade games so much, the idea of putting a computer in a cabinet was buzzing in my head 3 minutes into that first game of Gyruss. I was living in a third floor one bedroom apartment at the time, and it just wasn't realistic. Only later did I discover a multitude of people had the same strange idea.
Choosing a cab...
After truly deciding to go through with the idea of building a
cabinet, I had to make the decision of building from scratch or obtaining an old
arcade game for the conversion. Plans are available to scratchbuild on the net,
and some of them are very nice. After adding up material costs and results, I
decided to go with the conversion of an existing cab.
This topic is not without controversy! Many arcade purists don't like the idea
of gutting an irreplaceable 20 year old arcade game for the purpose of sticking
a computer inside. I have mixed feelings on the issue. I could not bring myself
to tear into a rare or classic working game for a cabinet. I would not have
chosen a nice Space Invaders, Defender, Robotron, Galaxian, Pac Man or other
prized Golden Era cab for a project.
This issue is made even more complex by another circumstance... Many of those classic games were already modified by arcade operators 15 years ago when their novelty had worn off, but before they were regarded as classics. Think of all the Pac Man machines that were around in the early 80's. Most bars and convenience stores in nearly every town had one. When they stopped making money, many were gutted and stuffed with Namco's Galaga, others underwent more invasive "upgrades" into a hybrid of completely different manufacturers. If you start to pay attention and learn the cabinets, you'll begin to look at all the dedicated Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Galaxian and Donkey Kong machines on EBay and realize that's not what they really are.
When I went to the warehouse to choose my game, I had intended to pick a JAMMA cabinet. JAMMA is a newer standard that allows easier switching of arcade machine electronics and appearance parts to make the previously mentioned conversions very easy for the arcade operator. When a game stops making money, a small investment in cash and time is all that's required to turn the machine into a brand new money-maker. There are some interface options available that make using a JAMMA cabinet even easier for a MAME cabinet because they allow you to use much of the original machines existing wiring. In the end, I couldn't find a JAMMA I was happy with and opted to get an older cab and do all the wiring myself.
My machine is (was?) a Bally Midway Power Drive. Electrically it was in pretty rough condition. The monitor had been removed, the power cord had been cut right were it entered the cabinet, the large buttons for all three players were beat to hell (this is a game that used a "slapping" style of play for speed, like Track & Field). The cabinet itself was solid, with no water damage, and fortunately the marquee and bezel were in excellent shape. Power Drive was wasn't really a huge hit, and I actually didn't even remember what it was when I saw the machine sitting in the warehouse.
Basically Power Drive is a derivative of the Track & Field play mechanic, substituting monster trucks for Decathletes.
mame cab (victim?) right after being dropped from my beater S-10
As I got into the project, I decided that even though I don't consider Power Drive a "classic" I wouldn't do anything that would permanently keep the machine from being converted back to original status. The original control panel was simply removed and used for templates to make a new one, all the wiring was removed without being cut, cabinet art was preserved and all the boards and hardware that I didn't need are in storage.