Mac MAME cabinets

posted Sep 15th 2005 9:30am by Eliot Phillips
filed under: macs hacks

mac mame

[calhoun] has been scratch building some great mac based MAME cabinets. His first one was a cocktail (pictured above) built from a Powerbook and using an I-PAC to interface with the arcade controls. The motherboard and hard drive are mounted to a fold down plexiglass tray. The speakers come from the Apple “globe” speakers. This is just the first model, he’s built several bar-top cabinets and is constantly trying to improve the design.

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Comments [12]

Reader Comments

Why is there no details of hardware? You can tell which os each b0x is from the pics, looks like this guy has too many macs and too much free time!

Posted at 10:00 am on Sep 15th, 2005 by dan

I’m pretty sure a Mac zealot would tell you there’s no such thing as too many Macs.

Personally i like the look of the glass mac.

Posted at 10:11 am on Sep 15th, 2005 by billytheimpaler

The pictures on this site are not step by step and very small so we can only guess how he does most of the construction.

Posted at 10:16 am on Sep 15th, 2005 by Old Number 7

http://www.arcadecontrols.com for more on mame cabinets.

Posted at 12:12 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by carpespasm

i would like to know more about hw too! it looks like he has no problem seperating the lcd from the motherboard. in most pc laptops i have seen, you are constrained by those damn ribbon cables.

Posted at 12:38 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by bodiby

If you read all his articles, he mentions problems with the lcd’s flex-cables. He also mentions one time (that I saw) that he dumpster-dives. Not that there’s anything wrong with Dad dumpster-diving. It’s in Proto-Mame #5 “The speakers, again, came out of a dumpster. ”
Cool guy though. I have a feeling I will be “him” in a few years.

Posted at 2:11 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by Nick T

Call me strange but I don’t get why this is a new thing. Does it really matter if your cabinet is a G3 or x86? I run mame on my DreamCast, on top of which I can run some pretty fine versions of top modern arcade games like Virtua Tennis and Soul Calibur. The DC Arcade Sticks are the same as the ones on the Model 2 hardware used in Sega arcade machines, and fit into a cabinet just fine, but I don’t really see this as anything new.

Sorry if I sound like an idiot, Just my 2p worth – possibly less depending on your viewpoint ;)

Posted at 2:20 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by snakeoil steve

Looks good, but need more info, and directions. as well as who to contact.

Posted at 3:06 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by jimbo

“Calhoun” in this case is John Calhoun, writer of the highly addictive Glider. John also works for Apple. These machines are made out of ex-prototype Macs. Most of them are electrical prototypes only – ie, no cases. After the machines they are prototypes of are released, there’s no need to keep them, so he’s recycled them into MAME boxes.

Posted at 6:11 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by Alex Dawson

All that guy’s stuff is pretty impressive and cool…. I’m not such a fan of mac’s but he had some good ideas there… and yes, I agree, too many mac’s too much time. haha :)

Posted at 6:35 pm on Sep 15th, 2005 by waylow

I like the look of the glass mac too.

Posted at 2:48 pm on Jun 22nd, 2006 by Ricky74

I like the look of the glass mac too.

Posted at 2:51 pm on Jun 22nd, 2006 by Ricky74