Below are some of the more popular questions I get in emails each week.
Why did you move from using the X-arcade™ to a custom
controller?
The X-arcade™ is an excellent controller. When I first
built the cabinet, I had no idea what games I would end up playing. I also
knew that if I took the time to design a controller I would be happy using,
it would end up taking me several more months to get my cabinet into
operation. After using the X-arcade™, I discovered that I missed a trackball,
and other players missed a spinner. I initially considered swapping the
X-arcade™ and a controller with just a trackball and spinner but decided that
was silly and went with a standalone, all-in-one solution.
Can your design hold a 27” TV?
This is another
popular question. My plans were designed for a 19- (or 21-) inch PC monitor.
The interior width is just 20”. However, if you adjust the interior board
widths, it could fit a 27” TV. Just increase all boards’ widths other than
the two sides accordingly.
Can you interface a Dreamcast (or PS2 or Xbox) into your design?
You can design in anything you can think of. Personally, I don’t have a
gaming console so I have never given any design considerations to this.
However, there are a number of persons who have. Check out Build your Own Arcade Controls
and look for console examples. This is a fantastic site for getting
excellent ideas.
How much PC do you need to play MAME? Dragon’s Lair?
This question
is tough to be exact on. If you want to play every MAME game that it offers
at top speed, you need a top of the line PC with at least 512MB RAM and a
nice size HD. Some of the newer games are real resource hogs. However, if
you plan to mainly play the classics (Pac-man, Dig Dug, Robotron) a simple
500Mhz machine with 256MB RAM will be sufficient. I run with a 1.8Ghz,
512Ram and 40 Gig HD and have no complaints.
Dragon’s Lair plays perfectly on my machine. The only lower-powered machine
I have tested it on was a 350Mhz and it was not playable. So that is the
only answer I can give to that question.
Where did you get your MAME Roms?
I have used
several individuals. The site that I send people to these days is
Monstarcade.
Jeff is a great guy and very helpful. He also has the Dragon's Lair
roms.
Where did you get your Dragon’s Lair game?
The site that I send
people to these days is
Monstarcade
(see above).
Do you make any money from the X-arcade™ links on the site?
As of February 2013, the answer is now no. They decided to eliminate
their affiliate program (and not contact their affiliates nor respond to
inquiries but that is another story). Although I still feel their products are very
nice, I have eliminated the free banner adds and most of the direct links
from my site as it would be 100% free advertising for them.
How much did you cabinet cost?
Look at the material page and add
it up. I believe I spent about $2300 for my current cabinet, not counting
any tools that were purchased. However, a good percentage of that cost
was the new PC that was added in. Note that this was in 2002.
Do you accept donations?
After some coercing and a lot of years, I finally added a
donation button to a couple of the pages (as well as right here).
There is absolutely no obligation at all. It is just there if you have an overriding desire to donate to help with the annual website fees.
Can you build me one?
No, I do not build these for sale, but
there should be plenty of resources on this site to help you build your own.
I don't understand how to set up Mamewah. Can you walk me through
it?
The best I will do for vague questions like that is to refer you
to my Mamewah page.
I'm sorry but that is why I put the page out there. If you start a
question with "I'm PC stupid but can you tell me step-by-step how to install
17 different emulators, find all the Roms, screenshots, etc AND explain how
to rename a PC file", you can guess my reply. If any. I will
do my best to answer specific questions or, at least, point you to the right
resources.