Here's another fantastic, Robotron-like, Mutant Storm-like game... Grid Wars 2 by Mark Incitti. A dual joystick setup or joystick + 4 fire buttons is ideal.

This game takes you by surprise because of it's unique mix of old skool and modern graphics and physics. It looks rather plain, and it is for the most part. But there are certain moments in the game that will evoke the occasional "Woah!" and "Wow!" and "HOLY JESUS CRAP!".

There are these circle things that sort of act like black holes, capturing particles and swirling them around their center. They can grow and grow unless you blast them. If you let them grow too large, they will start to pull you in and bend your shots. Very, very cool stuff.

Grid Wars 2 excels at being incredibly configurable. You can change a lot about how the game looks, sounds, and plays. And once again, the whole thing is controllable via keyboard and/or mouse... therefore perfect for a MAME cabinet.

Grid Wars 2 is not available on the original author's website, but you can still download it with a little persistent Googling.

5 stars from Ooine.com

I've recently discovered a number of excellent PC games that play beautifully on a MAME arcade cabinet. I loaded them onto my Aladdin's Castle and they are absolutely brilliant.

Mutant Storm by PomPom

One of my favorite old-skool games is Robotron by Williams. I love the two-joystick action or running and firing in two different directions at the same time. This allows for massive onscreen mayhem. Mutant Storm is Robotron for today's PC. Actually, it's an "old" game, so it plays well on pretty much any PC.

The graphics are constantly moving and the action never stops.

89 levels of frantic action. Two player mode is fantastic. The entire game can be controlled via keyboard, which makes it absolutely perfect for a MAME cabinet.

5 stars from Ooine.com and only $10 to download the full version from PomPom. Go get it.

You may know that I built my own MAME arcade cabinet in 2005 (see link above).

Well earlier this year (2007), the Happ trackball on my control panel started to fail.  It would no longer track vertically, and this functionality died over a period of days.  My control panel is a SlikStik Classic, purchased from SlikStik.com in September of 2005.

Good news!  I emailed SlikStik and they told me that Happ was issuing a replacement optical board for their trackballs.  The peeps at SlikStik sent me one at no charge.  I installed it in about 5 minutes and the trackball is as good as new!  There are no instructions necessary, once you see the underside of your trackball, you will understand how the replacement board installs.

The Aladdin's Castle Arcade Machine is still going strong!

I received an email about my Aladdin's Castle MAME cabinet recently.  My reply was so thoughful and amazingly detailed that I figured I should use it as cheap content for Ooine.  So here we go:

The email:

I was just reading your blog on your cabinet and
really liked how it turned out. 

I've just started building/refurbishing one myself and
had a few questions. 

I'm at the point where i need a monitor for the PC
running MAME. I have an arcade cabinet w/ a 25" arcade
monitor  that I need to replace. But, I'm not sure
whats my best choice. 

I had one person on mameworld.net reply to  my post
saying a arcade monitor is the best choice, but this
is a very expensive one. And, I want a monitor that is
25" so PC crts are out.  

I noticed you are using a standard TV for yours. How
are you interfacing the PC w/the TV? The only way I
know of is  with the s-video out, but the quality is
horrible this way (from what i remember). 

I read on your blog that you said that there is a
almost no difference between a TV and a arcade monitor
but the price. I'm thinking I want to go the same
route you did but i'm  just  not  sure about the
interface... 

thx for any help you can provide!

Mike

And my reply:

I'm sure you already know, but just in case, this is THE RESOURCE for all
MAME cabinet questions:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php

To answer your question directly... this is always a tricky point in
building a cabinet.  It's hard to know exactly what to choose for your
display.  You have to juggle 3 distinct variables:

1) price
2) quality of video display
3) availability of the exact component you need in the right size

Undoubtedly, TVs are cheaper than both arcade monitors and PC monitors. 
If I could have gotten a large enough PC monitor at a cheap price I would
have gone with that due to ease of setup and picture quality.  And from
everything I've read, arcade monitors are barely any better than your
average TV.

I opted for a specific TV that happened to have many desirable features. 
Not all TVs are suitable for a cabinet.  The particular TV I was able to
find had everything desirable to be used in a cabinet.  The size was
perfect, the display was tweakable via a hidden service menu, and the TV
returns to the exact settings it was last using whenever you turn it on.

Now let's say you find a TV with these qualities.. how do you hook it up? 
You are correct, there are two acceptable methods:

1) S-Video - Very easy.  Not the best quality.
2) Component Video - Difficult.  Great quality.  Flickering

As with most things, it comes down to trade-offs.  S-Video is soooo easy. 
You just plug in the cable and you are done.  Component video requires
that your TV output Component Video, and that you obtain a DVI to
Component Video dongle that can interface with your video card.  It
converts the DVI output of your video card to Component Video input that
your TV can understand.  I found mine for $12 on eBay (search for "DVI
component video").

The trade-off with Component Video is that you get great picture quality,
but you also get interlaced video flickering, which can be annoying. 
However, the flickering does "go away" while you are actually playing
games.

I posted a comparison of S-Video and Component video with pictures here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43408.0

The difference in quality might not be enough to justify the hassle in
setting it up.  It's been a year since I built my cabinet and I've stuck
with the Component Video.

Hope this helps!

I love cheap content.

Got my marquee from mamemarquees.com (thanks Scott) and it was quite beautiful.  Extremely deep, vibrant colors on what appeared to be something like photographic paper.

So I visited my cabinet and installed that baby between the plexiglass.  Immediately I noticed that the colors get a bit washed out.  But not too badly.  And I can also see that my wimpy fluorescent light will be just fine.  Here are a couple of pics...






With marquee and HAPP bezel installed.  This is essentially the finished product.  The only other possible things I would add is some side art (not sure what, though) and a glass monitor faceplate.

10/1/2005

This was a big day because everything came together to form a complete, working cabinet.  While not 100% finished, we are getting very close.  I'm almost feeling a sense of disappointment with the completion.  The journey is really what it's all about.

I fired everything up and it was very cool to see all the bits and pieces working together.  I am VERY pleased the the SmartStrip functionality.  I'm not sure why a lot of people bother installing and wiring Power buttons on their cabinets.  Mine is set to look for a password from the keyboard for computer power-on.  This is available in all modern BIOS installations.

Basically you walk up to the cabinet and touch the Player1 Start and Player2 Start buttons in quick succession and everything comes to life.  When you are done playing you exit MAMEWah and shut down Windows normally.  When the PC turns off, everything else goes dark.




I got the plexi-glass from Home Depot for my marquee.  I went for the middle-of-the-road quality stuff.  I'm not sure why everyone seems to go for the expensive Lexan.  The marquee isn't going to be exposed to the elements and certainly doesn't require UV coating.  Hmmm...

And by the way... THIS is the best way to cut plexi-glass.  I've read a number of "best" ways including using a Dremel, a router, etc.  Well this is the best way.  See that little green-handled tool?  That's all you need.  It's a $3 plexi-glass cutter.  You pull it across the plexi to score it.  Do this about 8 times and then simply crack the plexi in half.  It splits cleanly and perfectly.




Here's the glowing marque with retainers (from Happ) installed along with the still-wrapped-in-protective-coating plexi.  I definitely need a new marquee light.  The little one that I have isn't cutting it.  I'm going to take it back to Home Depot.




Here are the innards of my SlikStik Classic.  They did a great wiring job.  Everything is to clean and carefully routed.




Here I'm wiring up the coin door functions.  I've got red, superbright LEDS hooked into my PC power supply.  And I wired the coin microswitches directly into the I-Pac Coin1 and Coin2 terminals.




This is pretty close to the complete, finished cabinet.  It needs a marquee, a monitor bezel (which I have, but have not yet cut), possibly some smoked plexi, and possibly some side-art.




Here's the cab if I were to re-paint the coin door black.  I'm thinking about doing this.




Loading up MAMEWah to play my first game on the cabinet.  Pac-Man, what else?




The first, official quarter going through the mechs.  I wired them up to register credits, of course.  Soooooo friggin' cool to drop in quarters and get credits.




I am VERY seriously considering bringing Aladdin's Castle to work and placing it in my office for a few months.  I have the green light to do so.  If I do this, I'm pretty sure we will be playing a LOT of this game... Golden Tee.

Woohoo!  Yesterday I received my SlikStik control panel.  It works perfectly.

I was actually amazed at what it could accomplish.  My wife came to take a look and ended up playing Ms. Pac-Man like crazy.  She was so into it... screaming and everything when the ghosts were about to get her.  Sooo... funny.  I even got her to play Mortal Kombat II with me.  She always picks Kitana.

Here are some pics:


Very big box!



Packaged well enough.  I was a little disappointed that no printed instructions are provided.  And you can't even read the instructions off of the enclosed CD without installing a program that set up a little front end.  At least they could have thrown the manuals into a /manuals directory off of the CD root.




Overview.



Logan likes what he sees.  He's obviously a future gamer... and a future motorcyclist.



Another shot.  I wanted a really colorful button layout.



Notice the pinball buttons.  Not sure how much use they will actually get though.



Here's my basement, pre-cabinet set-up.  My cabinet is currently being built in a different location.  Tonight I will probably bring the CP over to my cabinet.



Glowing trackball!

9/27/2005

Parts installation, t-molding, cabinet door installation, coin door, painting touch-ups.

I had asked in another thread whether or not I should apply some sort of clear coat to the interior latex enamel paint that I used to paint the cabinet.  A few people said yes and a few people said no.  Well, it turns out that I'm not patient enough anyway.  Today I went ahead and started to install the pieces.

I'm also having a similar problem as that guy in another thread who says his paint is not drying.  The cabinet sides are still extremely soft and tacky-feeling.  If you leave your hand on the surface for more than a few seconds you get fingerprints and a sticky feeling when you remove your hand.  Considering I painted my house with this stuff, I fully expect the paint to dry.  It may take a few weeks though to cure fully.  And I'm sure that it would cure faster if I could get it out of the basement or at least get a lot of air circulation down there.



Installed the speakers and marquee light.  Yes, I'm disappointed with the way that the speaker grills look.  I'm going to replace them with the grills used on the Project Arcade cabinet as soon as I can.  I'm also extrememly disappointed with this GE light fixture that I bought at Home Depot for like $35!!!  I couldnt' believe it when I ripped open the package and found this thin little flourescent tube.  What a wimpy little light.  I may have to replace it.



Installed the cabinet door, coin door, and the bottom t-molding.



Here's that wimpy little light glowing.  Do you think it will be enough to power a dark marquee?



Technique used to install t-molding on an INSIDE curve.  You also get a good feel for the texture of the painted surface.  Sort of a natural, leather texture has emerged.  I really like it.



Technique used to install t-molding on an OUTSIDE curve.



Getting closer and closer to a real, completed cabinet!



And one from the back, too.   :)

I've been finding Arabian Knights-type art very difficult to find on the net.  I have no idea what I'm going to do for side art, but I figured I should at least be able to pull a marquee together.

This is my first try:



The actual file is 26 inches wide, 11 inches high at 200 DPI.  The file size is 27 Megs.

9/25/2005

Painting final colors.

I am envisioning a cabinet with a black, purple, reddish theme to go with my memories of Aladdin's Castle.  I'm pretty sure that the logo was in red and that the place was very dark with red and/or purple neon.  I was debating really whether or not to paint the cabinet sides purple or not.  I woke up today and decided to go get a quart of purple paint and give it a shot.

So I bought my purple paint and headed to the workshop.  Once I got there and cracked the can open I saw that the purple I had chosen was very intense.  It just didn't feel right.  So I decided to mix my own color by adding a bunch of my leftover black.  I wanted to dull the color down and I succeeded.

After saying "here goes nothing" I started to roll on the color.  After I had done both cabinet sides I was REALLY, REALLY happy.  Suddenly the cabinet looked very "arcadey" to me.  It started to look like a "real" cabinet.



The cabinet starts to look real to me.



Just to prove that I didn't photoshop my cabinet sides.  :)  No, but seriously, I wanted to make sure that I captured the color that I was using.  Funny, but on my camera and in my image browsing software, this color looks like striking pure blue.  It's not.  It's definitely purple.



I wasn't sure if I should have painted the door or not.  It might have been cool to leave it black and then surround the coin door with some sort of art.  Hmmm...



And the other side of the cabinet.

By the way, I have dark red t-molding that I will be using for this cabinet.  I intend the marquee and side art to be mostly purple, red, and possibly yellow or sand colored.  I've got to get to work on that art!