From left to right, here's what everything is...
orange - start button (as mentioned in the last post, each player's panel is the same)
yellow - exit button (to quit the current game and go back to the menu)
red - joystick
green - button A
blue - button B
red - button C
There is at least one game where a fourth button is required, and in that case, the orange start button will also serve as an action button. I'm not really in love with the somewhat sloppy button placement, but I'm just dealing with the holes that were already there, so it'll have to do.
There are other functions that need to be available, like the credit switch I mentioned before, a reset button of some sort, and some controls to adjust speaker volume and other basic settings. The more I think about it, the credit switch really should be accessible with the coin box in place, because I really wouldn't want to leave it out all the time. As I had intended originally, it looks like the credit switch will have to be underneath the machine, behind a "bulge" in the bottom of the cabinet where the coin meter (digital counter showing how many coins had been inserted) was originally mounted. I'll definitely have to look into getting a new coin meter for the machine, but since I'd say 99% of the time it's going to be the credit switch rather than coins being inserted, a coin meter would just be a novelty.
Rather than having a single "reset" button on the cabinet that might be accidentally pressed during gameplay, I'm probably going to configure the controls so that holding down "START" and then pressing "EXIT" will reset the current game. There will also be a button to reset the internal PC mounted next to the power switch at one end of the cabinet. Inside the cabinet will be an assortment of buttons to control the built-in "service mode" of each game. Some games have only a single service switch, whereas others have a more sophisticated system of menus that require different buttons to put the game into service mode as well as moving through the various menus. I will also include the capability to change basic MAME settings. What form this array of switches will take hasn't been decided yet, but I'm going to do some thinking about what the best approach might be. A lot of people simply have a standard PC keyboard hidden away inside their MAME cabinet (sometimes not so well hidden), but to me that really ruins the appearance of this kind of project. With that said, I probably will give in to temptation and buy one of those cute little "mini-keyboards" for calibration and testing purposes.
The major question mark at this point is the sound system. I have the speakers, I just need to figure out how to power them. I don't think the motherboard I plan to use has the "speaker out" port that older sound cards used to have, although I guess "headphone out" would do if it's available. The speakers shouldn't need a lot of power, but as reluctant as I am to "crack" parts for this project out of existing devices, I just might have to use the amplifier from a set of old PC speakers I have. The biggest issue is going to be finding a discreet place to mount a volume control. I could just use any old switches as up/down volume buttons controlling the output from MAME, but I'm really thinking that a knob would be the most intuitive way to turn the sound up during the day and turn it down at night, or even to balance out the sound between louder games and quieter ones. It's details like this that just aren't an issue in a real arcade... most operators set each game and forget it, and each machine usually just plays a single game at a set volume level. I really want to add a headphone jack as well, if only on a cable that can hang out from inside the cabinet and be hidden away when it's not needed.
Another issue dealing with the speakers is that the actual mounting points for the speakers are MUCH smaller than the holes in the speakers I ordered. I don't recall exactly what the original mounting hardware was, or even where it is anymore, but as long as the speakers don't move, I'll be happy. They're certainly not high fidelity, but that's just the point. A lot of cabinet projects I've seen use car stereo speakers or desktop PC speaker systems complete with subwoofers, but to me that just wouldn't sound authentic. Granted, the speakers I chose probably sound better than any of the speakers in the original cabinets of the games emulated, but they should still have the utilitarian "full-range" sound of those old arcade cabinet speakers. They also have paper cones, which should give them just the right sound. Normally I'd prefer polypropylene speaker cones because I like the way they sound, but for the sake of authenticity, paper is best for this project.
The next big hurdle will be getting the monitor mounted. I've purchased a monitor bezel that should be perfect, but obviously it's designed to go right up against the CRT tube rather than in front of a monitor that's already inside a plastic housing. As much as I'd like to get the monitor's innards out and mounted in the cabinet like they were built for it, the best option for many reasons is going to be keeping it intact. I'll just have to figure out a way to immobilize it inside the cabinet and hide the "double bezel" as much as possible. Once the monitor is mounted, the rest should all fall into place. I still haven't bought a single PC component for this project, and that needs to be done soon, but I really want to make sure the cabinet is ready for use by the time I put together the "brain" of the machine.
Thanks for reading, and perhaps next time I'll have some real progress to report.
