John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

What do you do when you really want that classic arcade feel but are shy on space?  Mini-MAME is one...or how about a real old school miniature arcade machine.  Complete with two players and coin-op capability!

Inspiration:  I was originally inspired to do this by Ben Heck's mini build. https://youtu.be/wp1rcVwrrO0 part 1, https://youtu.be/RwcxoEP5ZTM part 2.  I'm familiar enough with electronics that I'm sure I could do that part, my main learning process will be the cabinet since I'm building from scratch and have done little wood working.  Looking up how to cut a groove for t-molding is actually how I found John's channel. :)

Idea:  After being inspired by the idea, I decided to expand upon it while still trying to keep the machine portable and table-top.  The design will be kept as tight as possible, the only issue is fitting two players and two coin mechs into the design without making the machine too large, but I do have a rough drawing of my idea so far.  I'll have to scan it in sometime, it's hard to explain but follows the same basic gist of Ben's but two player.

Basic parts list:

CRT monitor with analog RGB.  I'm thinking a 13" sized Sony Trinitron PVM monitor or equivalent.  I know Olympus made some models that were basically PVMs in Olympus shells.  I'm watching a few on eBay.  13" "super fine pitch" models with RGB.  The ones with the better screens usually either say "super fine pitch" near the Trinitron logo or say "HR Trinitron" on the case.  You can also search for the manuals and look up which model numbers have what features.
NeoGeo single horizontal slot board.  Comparing the various options on http://www.hardmvs.com/html/PCBcompare.htm I'm thinking MV-1A isn't a bad choice.  Small, socketed BIOS so it can easily be switched if I wanted to, etc.  They turn up for reasonable money on eBay pretty often.
JAMMA harness of reasonable quality.  Bob Roberts might be the go to choice here.  http://www.therealbobroberts.net/harn.html
HAPP buttons and competition joysticks.  Some eBay sellers have decent pricing on genuine HAPP, but you have to be careful.  These may come from an arcade supplier just to be sure.
Speakers.  Even though this will be wired mono, I may run two speakers for more "full" sound.  The internal amp is probably rated for 8 ohm and wouldn't like 4 ohm with the speakers in parallel, so I'll have to run them in series at 16 ohm.  Will just make the amp work a little harder, but the amp should be capable of plenty of volume.  I have two 3" or so shielded speakers out of an old PC speaker set that will work perfectly.
Power supply.  Probably a HAPP or HAPP style arcade supply, but I like Ben's idea of using a thin rack server unit.  Might actually take up less space, and with such short wiring and low current I don't think I'll need the adjustable 5 volts.  I will verify it's clean and appropriately close to 5 volts via a multimeter, though.
Power switch/filter/fuse assembly.  Again, arcade supplier most likely.
Reasonable grade plywood for the cabinet.  Easily sourced locally, probably using 1/2".
T-molding.  tmolding.com has black and white down to 1/2", hence my idea for the plywood.  I'll probably do red paint and some sort of NeoGeo graphic and black t-molding.  Like a miniature MVS cabinet.

That's the basic idea, I can add as I go along.  I'll likely work out the cabinet design using a cheaper prototyping material and then do the final cut on the plywood, since it's more expensive.  I'll also need a router and the bit for the t-molding groove cut.  There should be a jigsaw laying around for hole cutting and such, but if not they aren't too hard to find cheap.  Let me know what you guys think, and as I get to gathering parts and such I'll update.

If it's not original.


It's not for me.

NOT ORIGINAL

Unfortunately for me, space is an issue.  So a cabinet with a real RGB CRT/JAMMA board/arcade buttons is as close as I'll get.  Perhaps in a few years I'll have the space to grab a real MVS 4 slot or something, you never know.  They're still fairly reasonable in price.  I'll actually have more in this little thing than buying a real MVS cabinet, looks like...haha.

So, you do this?

I haven't begun to gather parts yet, but it's on the project list.  I'm a slow mover.

Hi kenny I know a guy here in Atlanta who has two real and vintage Neo Geo Minis.  They are rare, about four feet tall and pretty narrow.  I don't know if that's what you are going for but I kinda prefer original hardware myself.  If I had the money I would have bought his extra already and started playing Neo Geo while sitting on the floor but we'll see...

Interesting, I didn't know such a thing existed.  I probably couldn't budget that in, unless it was a really good price.  I still want to build one, really.  I think it'll be a great project.  I'm about to start gathering parts, finally.  I never go about these things quickly. ::)

EDIT:

Oh, wait.  I bet you're referring to the "candy cabs", sit down Japanese style ones.  I've seen those around, they are pretty neat.  There were a few at the place I went to in Cinci, OH called Arcade Legacy.  They had a nice range of machines.

NOT ORIGINAL

(http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/64589555.jpg)

Uhh no.  Here's the one from the Southern Fried Gameroom expo:

(http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n604/darkcat12/neo%20geo%20mini_zpsc0s42mx0.jpg) (http://s1142.photobucket.com/user/darkcat12/media/neo%20geo%20mini_zpsc0s42mx0.jpg.html)

Holy crap, that is pretty cool.  I'm still planning on building one though, my offer got accepted so now I wait on the delivery of my partial working Olympus branded Sony PVM.  I do believe a cap kit will fix it.  I'll update further once it arrives.  I'm still mulling over the design, I'll have to work on more sketches and upload something.  SOON.  Heh.

Check out this mini Neo Geo this guy built. You can link two of them up.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eU68CEYQsY

Those are neat bartop setups.  I'm going to design mine so it's 2 player from the start, but I like the way the control panel folds down.  I had thought about doing like Ben Heck did and having a removable panel below the controls for wiring, but a fold down CP would be much better.  I'm also going to put the PCB on a sliding tray, so I can unplug it and slide it out of the machine if need be.  Also I imagine with the way it's going to be packaged near the CRT parts, sliding the PCB back some will make inserting and removing carts easier. So, I guess I'll give some extra wire to slide it some without unplugging.

I haven't figured out my PVM horizontal issue as of yet, haven't had much more time to dig.  I'm sure this is the size I'm going to use, and I'll likely replace it with the exact same model if I have to replace it, so I might use it to start more detailed design work.  I'll at least want the PCB/cart first and perhaps whatever coin door I'm going to use.  Mine will be setup so I can coin op or free play it, because I want to for no good reason. :)

I have a Neo Geo 1 slot that you can plug in Neo Geo Joysticks into (extra ports, not connected throu jamma), i dont know if its for AES Joysticks, anyway. If you bought one of those, you could do the "Ben heck" build and not have a "cramped for space" control Panel. But i guess thats not the setup you are going for?