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4 Player Pedestal Arcade Cabinet For MAME
4 Player Pedestal Arcade Cabinet For MAME
by severdhed
This will show you how I constructed my 4 player MAME pedestal cabinet. There are a lot of things you may want
to customize to your liking. I will show you how i made mine, you can feel free to tweak it to your liking. This
houses a standard windows PC to run the MAME arcade emulator, and outputs to a 42" LCD TV.
Supplies:
3/4" MDF or plywood ( i used 6 pre-cut 2ftx4ft sheets of MDF, it is a little more expensive, but easier
to transport and work with)
T-Molding: 30ft
30" piano hinge
small chain or rope ( to support lid when open, 2 ft should be plenty)
screw in leg levelers
TOOLS:
circular saw
jig saw
Router with straight bit, v-groove bit, flush trim bit, and 1/16" slot cutter
drill with 1 1/8" Forstner bit, various small drill bits for bolt holes.
3" hole saw
various clamps
screw driver
measuring tape
straight edge
square
pencils/marker
ratcheting wire crimpers (don't bother with the non ratcheting kind, you will be doing a lot of
crimping, spend the $15 on a ratcheting crimper from harbor freight, your hands will thank you)
wire strippers
OTHER:
I designed this cabinet build around simplicity. I didn't be able to play. I personally wanted a 3" trackball for
want to try to haul full sheets of MDF in my minivan centipede and millipede, as well as bowling/golf
by myself, so I used pre-cut 2ft x 4ft pieces of MDF games. If you are just using MAME, you only need a
for the construction. This means that no panel is max of 4 buttons per player for 4 player games, but
larger than 2ft x 4ft. also, this prevented me from some of the 1 and 2 player games need more (mostly
having to cut a bunch of long straight cuts. the front, fighting games) i opted for 4 buttons for players 3 and
back and both sides are 24" wide, so there was very 4, and 7 buttons for players 1 and 2. (player 3 and 4
little cutting involved. I started off using Google are off to the sides because they aren't used as
SketchUp to design the unit, then tweaked it until it much, leaving players 1 and 2 in the center of the
looked right. I was going for simple. I've included a panel. Most fighting games only use 6 buttons, but
diagram with the dimensions of the boars you will the 7th button comes in handy. This way i have 4
need to make it like mine. buttons on the top row to simulate the Neo Geo
layout. I also have a few none mame games that i
You also need to plan out what type of controls you play on here through steam, including Mortal Kombat
wish to have, and how many buttons per player. This 9, Injustice, and Street Fighter 4.
can vary based on which types of games you want to
Start by building a rectangular base for the cabinet out of 2x4s. Tt needs to be 24" wide x 21.5" deep. I used wood
glue and some screws to hold it together.
Draw out the shape of your first side onto one of the 2ftx4ft sheets of MDF. Once you are happy with it, cut it out
using your circular saw.
Take your first side that you cut out, clamp it to an other sheet of MDF, then use the router with a flush trim bit to
cut out the second side, this way they will be identical.
cut some 1x2 pine boards into strips and screw/glue the screws aren't too long, or they will break through
them to the sides for bracing. they should be flush the sides.
with the top edge, and set back 1.25" from the front
and back edges. also stop about 4" from the bottom Do this for both sides, making sure you flip one so
to allow room for the base you built earlier. I attached that these strips end up on the inside of the cabinet.
these with short wood screws and glue. (make sure
First you will want to round over both of the bottom corners of your side boards to create a smooth transition for
your molding, i used a jigsaw.
Before assembling the cabinet, now would be a good time to cut the slots for the T molding. Use your router with a
1/16" slot cutter bit for this, make sure it is centered in the MDF. I cut the slot along the front, bottom and back
sides, it is not necessary on the top.
build a top brace out of 1x2 boards, 24" wide by 10.5" deep. this will be the brace for the top.
once this is done, using wood glue and screws, attach the 2x4 base and the top brace to one of the sides of the
cabinet.
as you can see, i also mounted some leg levelers to the bottom 2x4 base using t-nuts. These are simply threaded
into the t-nuts and can be adjusted to keep the cabinet level.
Repeat the last step for the other side, attach it with glue and screws. At this point, you can then stand your
cabinet upright.
I cut my bottom panel from some scrap OSB i had 8" high and 24" wide. I used a 3" hole saw to make a
lying around. If I had it to do over again, i'd use MDF. hole. This hole is for the power/video cables. This
i cut it to fit inside the bottom of the cabinet, and panel is attached only using wood glue. the top edge
screwed it to the 2x4 base. I used a 1" spade bit to of this board is beveled to match the angle of the
drill some air vents in the bottom. back panel. this way the back door panel can sit flush
on top of it.
I also cut the bottom rear panel and attached it. It is
cut the front panel to size and attach it using wood glue.
The top rear panel is 24 x 5.75" with a hole in the center for a standard PC fan. I used a hole saw for this, i beleive
3" as well. This is glued in place.
the back door is cut to size, and just sits in place. It is held in by gravity. I ended up installing a barrel lock at the
top to keep it shut.
Using some 1x4 pine boards and the measurements form the included diagram, build a base for the control panel
and glue it together. it should be slightly smaller than the top of the panel so that there will be some overhang. The
bottom of mine is made from OSB again, but it would be better with MDF. Once the box is complete, screw or bolt
it to the base.
Cut out the shape of your control panel, making sure do it right. I used a drill guide i picked up at harbor
there is an overhang over your box you just built. freight to keep the drill at a right angle to the wood.
Mark the locations of your controls. Take lots of time
planning this, you will be stuck with it for a while. I Also, using a 3" hole saw, drill out the hole for your
drilled small pilot holes at each button/joystick trackball.
location. Then drill out all button holes and joystick
holes with a 1 1/8" Forstner bit. Take your time and
I wanted to mount my joysticks from below, with no visible bolts. I used some japanese sticks (Sanwa JLW)
because they can easily be switched from 8 way to 4 way mode. (i didn't want the clutter of a dedicated 4 way
stick). when undermounted on a 3/4" panel, the sticks were just too short. To fix this, i used the router to recess a
pocket for the joysticks to sit in. i routed away about half the thickness of the panel in these areas.
I didn't want any visible bolts in the panel, so i had to by clamping the plexiglass to the panel so that there
use a trackball mounting plate. I also didn't want this was a small overlap on all sides. then using the 3"
to be visible. It will be flush mounted under the hole as a template, i used the router with a flush trim
plexiglass and artwork. Before i could do that, i had to bit to cut the 3" hole in the plexiglass.
cut the trackball hole in the plexiglass. This was done
now that the plexiglass is cut, remove it and set it using your jigsaw, cut out the hole large enough for
aside for later. now lining up the hole in the trackball the trackball assembly to fit through.
plate with the hole in the wood, trace around the
trackball mounting plate...and remove it. then insert the final part of this step is to use the router to create
the trackball in the hole, upside down, and trace a recessed area for the plate to fit in, so that it sits
around it's footprint....then remove it flush with the surface of the wood.
the plate will have 4 bolts welded onto it, mark their
locations as well, and drill ou the holes for the bolts.
using the base of your joystick as a template, line it mount them. use a spade bit to create a recess for
up with the joystick holes you drilled and mark the each of the t-nuts so that they sit flush with the top of
locations of the bolt holes. drill these out with the the panel.
appropriate size drill bit.
then insert your t-nuts and trackball mounting plate.
once again, we dont want any mounting hardware
visible through the panel, so we are using T-nuts to
Place your plexiglass back onto your panel, being (make sure you wear safetly glasses, it will
sure to line up the trackball hole and making sure through little pieces everywhere)
there is an overlap on all sides, then clamp it in place.
i placed my hole saw in the hole just to help keep it once you have your pilot holes, switch to the flush
lined up. trim bit in your router. the bearing will roll around the
button hole, making perfect holes in your plexiglass.
This part requires patience, take your time so you you can insert a few pushbuttons in the holes to help
don't crack your plexiglass. I do this in two parts. the keep everything from sliding around.
first part is to create a pilot hole. i use a V-groove bit
and slowly lower it down into each of the button you can then remove the plexiglass and set it aside.
holes. take your time and it will cut through the
plexiglass like a hot knife through butter.
now you will cut the slot for your t-molding. Standard molding is 3/4" thick, the same as your MDF. However you
want the molding to sit flush with the plexiglass. To do this, you need to offset your slot by the thickness of your
plexiglass. This will mean that some of the MDF will stick out below the molding, to eliminate that, i used a
roundover bit on the bottom side of the panel, which hides the excess.
I decided to mount my controls and make sure everything felt right before installing the artwork.
I mounted a standard pc case fan in the back to blow hot air out of the case. I used a barrel lock to keep the door
in place. You just need to drill the appropriate holes in the back panels
I mounted my coin buttons in the box under the panel. mounted so that it is hanging straight down in it's
this keeps the panel less cluttered. simply decide resting state, when you turn the key, the lock portion
where you would like them and drill out the holes with activates a microswitch which is wired to the PC
your 1 1/8" forstner bit. power button. this step is not necessary, but makes
for a nice way to turn the cabinet on.
i also mounted a barrel lock in the front center. this is
The next step is to prime and paint. i used some Kilz 2 latex primer, followed by some Behr black semigloss with a
roller.
install the piano hinge on the panel so that it is fastened at the rear. as you can see, i was running low on paint so i
didn't pain the inside of the control panel box, i wish i would have though.
I designed the control panel artwork in photoshop. thing, some that will even print on adhesive vinyl)
Take your time and make sure it looks good when
viewing it at full size. I made that image at 48 x 20" at Once you have your artwork, place it on the control
300dpi...it was a huge file. I had a photographer friend panel and line it up perfectly. I placed a bright light
print it off on his big awesome printer on premium under the panel so i could see where the button holes
lustre photo paper. You will want to make sure the were through the paper. then clamp it in place and cut
artwork is slightly larger than your panel so you don't out each of the button, joystick and trackball holes
have to worry about the edges. (If you dont' have with an x-acto knife. take your time. I placed buttons
access to a large format printer, staples can do it, or in the holes as I went, just to keep it from moving.
there are places online that specialize this this kind of
Re-install the plexiglass and install the controls. using your x-acto knife, trim around the outside of your panel to
remove excess paper. once that is cleaned up, install your t-molding around the panel.
This is self explanatory. Install the T molding on the base of the cabinet.
Mount your trackball into the mounting plate and connect it to your usb mouse interface. The one i used also has
LED lighting that needs to be connected to a 5v and ground. The Optiwiz that came with my trackball provides this.
This part is so difficult to document because each x4 machine with 8gb of ram, running windows 7 x64. I
person's needs are different. don't plan on going into great detail on setting up the
PC, there are many other sources for this info. This
I mounted a 42" LCD tv on the wall for my display. instructable was for building the cabinet. If you need
more inspiration or assistance, check out the forums
There is planty of space inside the base of the at arcadecontrols.com
cabinet to store a PC. I used an older AMD phenom II
If you followed the instructions, you should end up with an awesome 4 player pedestal cabinet. Here you can see
the final product, with the original sketchup render.
i did not cut the top brace at an angle, it is just a basic rectangle.
Made a couple mistakes along the way, but it still turned out pretty good! Thanks very much for the
howto severdhed!
i'm pretty sure it is 18" front to back, but it has been so many years since i built this, i don't
remember exactly. I'll do my best to remember to measure it tonight when i get home.
Thanks much! I was thinking it might be 20 inches because that is how big your image was?
Thanks for checking? I am curious about how big the lip or overhang is on the front too. Probably
1-2 inches...
The overhang at the front is about ¾". On the angled parts it is 1¾"
The bottom of the control panel box is screwed in to the top supports in the base with 6 screws..
I’ve built this and am now getting my tail kicked and hitting my head on the wall trying to figure out
the programming part. I can get things to work one way then the rest fall apart. Do you have any
guidance. At this point I’ll pay someone to set it up.
i'll try to help out if I can. The reason i didn't include that is that there are so many variables
between different computer hardware, operating systems, front ends, mame versions, controller
interfaces...it's hard to make a good general guide. Tell me about your setup and what kind of
problem you are having and i'll try to help. the forums at arcadecontrols.com are a great source of
information and assistance, if you aren't already a member there, i highly recommend it.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/
I’ll check it out as well.
So my set up is yours to a T. (At first). I have rocket launcher and hyper spin on a desktop
computer. And I finally got that working but for some reason the roms I have and rocketlauncher
don’t always want to launch even though they are good roms, and they show green on
rocketlauncher in audit.
After month or two with that I have a friend that created a pi for his arcade. And works and runs
great. But now only reads my ipac4 as a keyboard and doesn’t recognize the tracker ball.
So seems if I get one thing working the rest doesn’t and when I solve the other problem another
comes up.
I've never even heard of rocket launcher, so I won't be much help there.. I did try hyperspin when it
first came out, i always preferred to use MaLa for my front end. For your roms not launching, do
they work if you launch them from the command prompt? Are they matched to the version of mame
you are using?
as for it not recognizing your controls...unless they have changed a lot since i bought mine, the
ipac 4 is only ever detected as a keyboard. If you exit your front end back to the windows desktop
(assuming you are running windows on your desktop computer, does moving the trackball move
your mouse cursor?
Rocketlauncher is the new backend that goes with hyperspin. Yes I can play the roms outside of
rocketlauncher. I think I’m going to stick with the pi just need to figure out how to reconfigure pi to
read as a 4 player keyboard like I could with hyperspin
Made some changes to the basic design, Raspberry Pi internals, but space for all my old consoles
below it. The top sheet is actually custom direct printed .20 acrylic. Left enough space to add a
trackball if I want.
would you be willing to share that image? would love to use on the one im building
Attached to this -Not sure if they downsample though. - Two images - Board area, and layout
template. I used . added a PDF of the hole cut pattern for the buttons/joystick.
4-Player Pedestal Arcade Cabinet for MAME: Page 28
The buttons/Joystick holes were made for the following - The red area for the joysticks are full cuts,
the grey is only 1/16"contersink.
https://www.amazon.com/Easyget-LED-DIY-Joystick-Il...
awesome, i like it
Just wrapped up the project, a big thank you to severehed! Went with an X-Men theme to rekindle
my inner 90s spirit.
I highly recommend not adding buttons for administrative fictions. Sure, it will be fine if you are the
only one using it, but i guarantee that as soon as you have something like that mapped to a button,
or even a button combination, someone will press it and screw everything up. That is what people
do. I have 4 children. I can go and play on this thing for hours without a single issue.... if one of
them is sitting there for 2 minutes, suddenly nothing works. Once things are setup properly, you
shouldn't need to access the mame config. I suggest keeping a wireless keyboard and mouse
under the top panel and pull it out when you need to make changes...you will thank me later.
Has anyone come up with an easy way to switch between the emulator front end and say steam
os? I'd like to use this for things like Towerfall or Brawhalla as well(or any fighting games on steam
such as killer instinct etc).
Many Frontends are able to have Steam Games in their collection, or one can use programs that
add Emulation games into Steam's Big Picture mode.
Also, you could set hotkey combos with an app like joytokey to close or open applications. Set
different key profiles when specific apps are in focus.
You could probably add a shortcut to the frontend for steam via a batch file. Getting full screen and
refocusing the frontend on exit is my problem, but i know it can be done. Perhaps closing the
frontend when steam opens and reopening it when it exits. Command line arguments should do the
trick. Im currently running Emulationstation (Portable) in win10. It always leaves a command
prompt window open in the background. Anything outside of Retroarch fails to refocus the frontend
on exit. Would love the see the shutdown command work too. It works fine on the rpi version. Herb
did us a favor making a windows portable version, but some of the commands didnt get changed
for the difference in OS. Im not a programmer, else id compile a fixed version myself.
I have multiple steam games on mine, but i'm not using steam OS. I use the MaLa frontend
launcher for my emulators. You can have a folder full of batch files that launch PC games and
MaLa will treat them like roms. I use this to launch several steam games, including:
Mortal Kombat 9
Mortal Kombat 10
Street Fighter iV
Injustice: Gods among us
I am making this project and noticed that you have 6 buttons for players 3 & 4. Is there a reason to
have that many buttons for those players? Everything I’ve read indicates you only need 4 buttons
for players 3 & 4.
I did not really think about it when I built it. I based by panel off the north coast custom arcades
panel. They actually have more buttons per player. For the arcade games that I have played you
would be fine with 4 buttons on player 3 and 4. It would allow you a little more room on the panel.
My only minor complaints about my panel are that the player 2 joystick is a little close to the
trackball. But I couldnt put it much further away. If you only had 4 buttons on player 4 you could
move it out a bit. My player 3 joystick (one on the left) is difficult for me to use because of the angle
you have to place your wrist. Most sites recommend placing you joystick so that up is always
toward the screen. I did this and it is fine for player 4 (one on right) but your wrist is at an odd angle
for player 3. I find myself not always going the direction I want. Less buttons may help a little. In
reality though for the games that you play 4 player on it doesnt really matter. Most 4 player games
are beatem up type games and precision does not make that much of a difference. Having more
buttons would be helpful if you plan on having console games or steam games on the cabinet.
Long story short I just went loosely off someone elses panel and I liked the symmetry. By the way
sorry my apostroph button doesnt work.
Sure, here you go. It is a very large file, about 1gb zipped. It is the photoshop PSD file designed at
300dpi at 48"x18". I tried to keep it fairly organized with the layers and folders and such, there are
some layers in there that were experimental stuff i was trying out. Help yourself.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Avg_9cabCZ9NkFzrLxqp5VpBzf-g
severdhed, thanks for all your instructions and artwork, they are great! Would you also be willing to
share the dimensions on the control where you mounted all the buttons, joystics and trackball?
I never documented the button hole locations, i didn't have a template for them when i installed
them. I'll try to take a few measurements and post them over the next day or so.
Wow, that's awesome thanks! Looks much nicer than my own very poor attempt at coming up with
something Gauntlet branded.
Thanks very much Severdhed for sharing your build. We used your instructions to build an Arcade
for the local Rec Center in Locust Point, Baltimore, MD. It's an over-clocked Raspberry Pi 3 with
mini heat sinks/fan running Retropie with a Comic Book Theme. We couldn't figure out how to
configure within emulation station/retroarch a single exit button for ease of use, so we used diodes
connected from our intended exit button to the hotkey & start buttons to trick a two button press
with one and we used a toddler's magnetic lock for the top cabinet. Kids & adults are loving it!
Thanks! We also added a 7-day power timer to turn on/off the cabinet/Raspberry Pi and a Arduino
microcontroller/Uno with IR LED to send the IR signal to power on the TV after decoding the IR
hexadecimal code, IR protocol and bit length replay using IR library example code and code from
circuitbasics.com.
Thanks again Severdhed!
Off to pick up my vinyl top sheet to go under the acrylic on friday! currently a raspberry pi Retropie
arcade, but with plans to use an AMD Phenom II x6 with a GTX 970 and 16gb ram in the near
future. December will bring some Ultimarc light guns to the project!
awesome. I've been tempted to pick up some of those ultimarc guns for a while now. Nice build.
Thanks. I used your template and stretched the dimensions a hair. top sheet is 2' x 4'. i think it sits
a inch or 2 taller. Finally complete. although, i think rom organization is going to take the rest of my
life... I started some Perler Art to theme out the room. another tedious endeavor. I can already tell
that the raspberry pi isn't going to cut it for 4 player 64.
I noticed you angled the forward direction for players 3 and 4. From severdhed's design, it doesn't
look like he angled player 3 and player 4's joysticks. Does your player 3 and 4 setup work well? I'm
thinking of doing it the same way.
Do you offer the plans for this cabinet?
This instructable is pretty much the plans for the cabinet. If you look at it, there is a diagram with
dimensions of the pieces, and a guide on how i built it. What more do you need?
thought there might be a image file of the control layout to print
I'm planning on building the control panel from this cab to use with a RetroPie. I've never done
anything like this before, so it'll be a great experience, ha... The polish on yours looks fantastic, the
details like the "correct" colors for the arcade sticks and buttons, and even the rings around your
player buttons look great. Did you go out of your way to piece that stuff together? I've been looking
at Ultimarc's site pricing out the sticks and I can't seem to find an orange ball top listed anywhere!
Did you actually buy 4 red j-sticks and then just swap out 3 of the ball tops? I know you did this a
long time ago, so maybe there product line has changed, but I just can't seem to find it.
I think I just realized you used the coin button housing as the player buttons up top, which was a
very clever thing to do.
I did buy the balltop Jsticks from ultimarc, and then purchased four Hand Candy balltops from
groovygamegear.com. They arent a 100% perfect color match for the happ buttons, but they are
pretty close.
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=368
Be sure to add Broforce to your library if you havent already. We've had countless hours for 4
player fun!