I finally had a chance to start working on the MAME Arcade system I am building. It’s a small profile arcade machine that will fit on or next to my desk in my game room. I originally started designing it back when I lived in an apartment and didn’t have the room for a full sized cabinet. I finally bought my first house this time last year, but still really wanted to build the mini arcade system.

My original plan was to build a true “miniature” arcade machine, but do to budget and availability of parts I had to put the Mini Arcade on hold.

While the system will be setup like a full fledged Arcade Machine running MAME, it will also support console play with the ability to hookup to a TV for all the classic console goodness. Here are a couple pics of the progress so far.











I will hopefully be getting some more work done on it this weekend. I posted an article with all the pictures of the construction so far, along with details on the build in my latest blog post.

Pictures – DIY ROM Arcade Machine Construction – Part 01

I still need to order a couple more parts from Amazon and finalize a design for the controller. The picture of the cabinet with the controller piece in place is just a place holder until I have worked out a design. Once I am finished it should be able to play pretty much any Arcade or Console game.

One other thing I need to do is find a good place online that sells controller parts so I can get that all squared away. If anyone has any recommendations for that I would appreciate the help!

What you are building is called a "Bartop", looks good so far.

As for controls, what exactly do you have in mind for your needs?

Only going to play some older MAME titles? A standard 8 way will do, maybe a small trackball if you need it.

Going to run other emulators? If you plan on this standard 8 ways will do, but if you plan to run N64 or Playstation emulators you may want to look into an analog stick like the Ultrastik 360 from Ultimarc. They're pricey, but they are so awesome.

Lay out your plans on what you will run on the machine, and I can better point you in the right direction.