Mario vs Donkey Kong MAME Cabinet (Nintendo Reproduction Cabinet)

[RetroBorg]

Hi guys, I've been a long time lurker here but this is my first post.

I've recently purchased a reproduction Nintendo cabinet from Troy at http://www.arcadeworx.com.au/ in Australia.

Rather than do a Donkey Kong or Mario Bros or something I decided to go with Mario vs Donkey Kong as I really liked the artwork from the GBA game of the same name.

As I don't have lots of room at home for lots of cabs I'm going for a control panel that has two joysticks, 6 buttons each plus squeeze in a trackball and spinner.

Any way here some of the artwork I'm going to use.

Marquee



Bezel



Side Art



Control Panel



Render



The cabinet arrived Ikea style.



Putting it together.



Half way there.



Two hours later, finished.



Once finished this is where it's going to sit.



Then I decided I would pull it apart to paint it, should have done this before I put it together the first time.

First coat of primer MDF primer going on.

[ataritoobin]

Welcome over to the DLF

Great looking project!

[level42]

Not to bomb your expectations but that left joystick is going to be unplayable. The left joystick on my Mario Bros. is already hard to play without hitting the left side of the cab, but yours seems to be extremely to the left.

I can see you want as many games playable as possible but I fear there is oo much stuff on that panel IMHO.

Still, welcome here and the cab looks very well repro'd.

[slowcade]

I love the artwork! Looking forward to seeing this all done and finished.

[PunkRockCaveman]

Hi and welcome!

The cab indeed looks very well made. The panel layout however is horrible. The button layout will make you hands itch n minutes, not to mention that it will be almost impossible to get the combos for the fighting games done with that spacing of the buttons. The trackball is way to much also on that panel. Most people who squeeze a trackball in, forget that you need a lot of space to operate it. In your layout you wont have much fun playing Centipede with hitting the right Stick and the spinner all the time. Same with the spinner. No space to rest your hand to get the full controll feeling.

But you are lucky. The panel is just a plank. It will be very easy to build separate panels for different kind of games. I would suggest three or four different panels. Trackball and maybe spinner need a separate one, one for old school arcade games with max. four buttons and a decent joystick for those classics and one extra panel for the fighting games with the right button layout and the new school Japan sticks. Then you are perfect.

[RetroBorg]

Thanks for warm everyone's welcome!  

Welcome over to the DLF

Great looking project!

Thanks ataritoobin

Not to bomb your expectations but that left joystick is going to be unplayable. The left joystick on my Mario Bros. is already hard to play without hitting the left side of the cab, but yours seems to be extremely to the left.

I can see you want as many games playable as possible but I fear there is oo much stuff on that panel IMHO.

Still, welcome here and the cab looks very well repro'd.

Yeah I know what your saying but there's very few two player games I play, if the cab was all about me it would be just single player, it's more about my nieces and nephews they like to play games that are two play simultaneous.

I love the artwork! Looking forward to seeing this all done and finished.

Thanks slowcade.

Hi and welcome!

The cab indeed looks very well made. The panel layout however is horrible. The button layout will make you hands itch n minutes, not to mention that it will be almost impossible to get the combos for the fighting games done with that spacing of the buttons. The trackball is way to much also on that panel. Most people who squeeze a trackball in, forget that you need a lot of space to operate it. In your layout you wont have much fun playing Centipede with hitting the right Stick and the spinner all the time. Same with the spinner. No space to rest your hand to get the full controll feeling.

But you are lucky. The panel is just a plank. It will be very easy to build separate panels for different kind of games. I would suggest three or four different panels. Trackball and maybe spinner need a separate one, one for old school arcade games with max. four buttons and a decent joystick for those classics and one extra panel for the fighting games with the right button layout and the new school Japan sticks. Then you are perfect.

The cab is very well made, certainly recommend ArcadeWorx cabs to any Aussies out there.

I don't play fighting games, in fact I have never performed a combo so buttons won't be an issue for me.

The trackball does concern me, I'm hoping it will be okay for Centipede and Missile Command which is why it's there, I think it would be unplayable for golf and bowling games though.

The spinner also concerns me but I guess I'm about to find out the hard way.

I'm going to use the ServoSticks from Ultimarc.

[McVenco]

Welcome 

Did you design that artwork yourself? That looks pretty awesome!

[jinxz]

Looks great!

[RetroBorg]

Welcome 

Did you design that artwork yourself? That looks pretty awesome!

I cut and paste the artwork from the following games and the various promo wallpapers found on the net.

[Etienne MacGyver]

Cool project !, and welcome

I would also create multiple CP's

And install ofcourse an emulator to actually play M vs DK

Its a great game, i bought my GBA for that 

[gyruss]

i agree with the other guys, the control panel is a bit too crowded for my taste..

but nice project, good luck and have fun!

[Q*ris]

Wouldn't these kits be perfect for your Walt Disney project, Jinxz? i guess shipping would probably kill the deal  
...and welcome here by the way, RetroBorg !!!!!

[jinxz]

Wouldn't these kits be perfect for your Walt Disney project, Jinxz? i guess shipping would probably kill the deal  
...and welcome here by the way, RetroBorg !!!!!

Yeah indeed Those kits are great. I mean building a DK cab like an Ikea would safe me hours of time. Although the wood that was CNC'd for me was primed in the factory. That also saves some time

Great project RetroBorg!

[DarthNuno]

Great project! ...and great choice of color for this project : RED! The sexiest color for a Nintendo cabinet 

Welcome to this board, RetroBorg! 

[level42]

Since its a MAME cab I think it is great you went with a non-original, yet tastefully chosen theme. Really like what you did with the artwork. Maybe it will be a good idea to make the right joystick the P1 joystick. This way you will have plent of space when doing single player gaming.