My Insane Arcade System Build (Part 1)

I am a child of  the 80s and 90s.   When I was young, there was very little in the world better than spending an insane amount of time playing video games.   The grocery stores near my house had a hand full of different game systems that I would save my quarters to go play.   I had my favorites, but in general I was a huge fan of having a hand full of change and landing in an arcade full of cabinets.   The more games the better.

I remember distinctly thinking to myself, "When I am old enough to own a house, the whole basement will be decked out with every game I can get my hands on!"   My basement would rival the arcades I grew up with.

Unfortunately, like many childhood dreams, I didn't end up becoming filthy rich enough to own the 10,000+ sq.ft. house I would need to store all of those systems, let alone have enough cash to buy them all.   I did, however amass a large collection of home video game systems and games that I plan to have in a prominent place once I finish my basement.

Which brings me to the fun part.  I must have talked about my arcade dream enough, that my wife picked up on how much I would love to own a cabinet.   When it came time to finish the basement, I started looking in to what it would cost to have one, and promptly told her it was just too much money.  She insisted that it was something I get because I have dreamed of it for so long.   So, I started looking.  While I would love to have a JAMMA cabinet and start to collect boards, I figured I would start with a MAME cabinet that I could easily rewire to support JAMMA boards in the future.

And thus began my hunt for the ultimate home arcade system.   The first thing I needed to do was figure out the parameters for the system I wanted.   My wife started by telling me what she would require to allow me to display the cabinet in the basement once it was finished :

1. It can't look like a crappy home built system made from parts found at the hardware store.  --   While there are lots of folks on the Internet that have the skills to build something that looks great using parts from the hardware store, I know I am not one of them.   So, reality dictates that I start to look at what I could buy pre-made.

2. It *HAS* to play light gun games.  --  While dating, and even on our honeymoon, my wife and I loved to play games like House of the Dead and Area 51.  If she is going to let me build this, she insisted that her favorite games be playable.

Simple enough, right?   I figured I would just buy a pre-made system and then tweak it for my own needs.  I was aware of the X-Arcade systems, so I figured I would start there.   This looked like a nice system, and having tried out the X-Arcade controller at Fry's years ago, it seemed like it would be a great first system.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted a 4 player system.   So, I started to look around at other places such as Dream Arcades, and North Coast Custom Arcades.

I loved the North Coast Ultimate Arcade II cabinet with the 4 player controls.   Even more, I loved the pictures of that system using the RGB LED lighted buttons and sticks.   But, my concern was how hard it was going to be to move a fully assembled system down in to my basement, along with the cost of buying that unit outright.   So, I decided to purchase the various parts, and put it together myself.   It should be much easier to move individual pieces of the system in to the basement.   In addition, I could order the control panel now and start to put it together while I wait for the basement work to be finished.   When the basement is nearly done, I can order the main cabinet along with the other large and heavy pieces like the monitor.

Pretty simple, right?