My first MAME arcade cabinet project using an xbox

[Californiadad]

Hello Everybody!! First off just want to say I have been reading thru the forums here, and all you guys and gals are amazing on the things you can hack, rip, burn, and build!!!!

The things you can do with these game consoles are down right CRAZY!!

 

Well on too my story, I just picked up 5 full-size arcade games.

1) Turkey hunt USA (works perfect)

2) Sharpshooter (needs 2 new guns)

3) Martial Champions (works perfect)

4) Asteroids 1979 all original unmolested condition (needs power supply)

5) Gauntlet Legends 4 player (flawless condition)

 

Sooooooooo......I was thinking about turning the martial champion’s cabinet into a MAME and using the Xbox to drive it.

I'm looking to make it look and feel just like and original arcade. I plan to take 2 x-box controllers and direct wire them to a new dual 10 button 8 way joystick panel (that I plan on building). I’m also going to replace the old 25” tube monitor with a fresh 27” color TV. My first question is what arcade emulator has the most arcade style games on it.

I have a bone stock x-box, so what’s my next step? Also have a fresh 40GB hard drive i would like to install in it as well.

Don’t think the old 8GB is going to cut it. So what are my first steps I need to take?

 

Thanks guys and gals!!

 

Will standby for answers

CaliforniaDad

[dcm2284]

CoinOPs Showcase is king in my book. It is by far the most stylish and sleek set up of the MAME emulators out there but if you're going to be upgrading the hard drive, you have space for options and picking one that suits you.

 

If you're starting from scratch then here are a few general steps you need to take.

 

1. Consider how you're going to mod the console soft vs hard.

2. Decide on how big of an IDE harddrive you're going to need (if its just MAME you would be fine with 100gb or so)

3. Pick a dashboard to run everything from (I like XBMC)

4. Install the emulators you would like (check the stickied message from fumachu for a list of emulators)

5. Start looking for ROMs to play

 

This community is a great resource.

[letmealone]

First you have to mod the console. The easier way is softmod, it is plenty of tutorials around. The stock Xbox usually has a 10 Gb hard disk, enough for a Mame based emulator as Reignite and a thousand and more of games with screenshots.

[Californiadad]

Thanks guys!

So would my first step be installing the new 40GB hard drive into the xbox?

Then doing the softmod to it?

What is the differance between (hard-soft) mod?

[Californiadad]

First you have to mod the console. The easier way is softmod, it is plenty of tutorials around. The stock Xbox usually has a 10 Gb hard disk, enough for a Mame based emulator as Reignite and a thousand and more of games with screenshots.

 

So I could run the "Reignite" on the xbox's factory 10gb hard drive? Is there a step by step on how to load that to the xbox?

[letmealone]

The hard mod needs a modchip and some solderings (difficult) on the motherboard of the console. A soft mod can be done easily, being only software based. Changing the hdd can be done only after modding the console, and it is easier with a hard mod (you can just put a new hdd, with the softmod you have also to generate a special code to lock the hdd. anything is explained in softmod tutorials). So, the easier way would be softmodding and keeping the original hdd, it has enough space for Reignite, the games, the games screenshots for the menu. The video previews need a lot of space and arent strictly necessary, even if they look great.

[Californiadad]

The hard mod needs a modchip and some solderings (difficult) on the motherboard of the console. A soft mod can be done easily, being only software based. Changing the hdd can be done only after modding the console, and it is easier with a hard mod (you can just put a new hdd, with the softmod you have also to generate a special code to lock the hdd. anything is explained in softmod tutorials). So, the easier way would be softmodding and keeping the original hdd, it has enough space for Reignite, the games, the games screenshots for the menu. The video previews need a lot of space and arent strictly necessary, even if they look great.

 

Well I already have the harddrive, So I might as well use it. Can you point me at the easy soft mod and hard drive replacment?

[letmealone]

You can check the tutorials section in xbox-scene dot com, under Exploits/Softmod Guides. The easiest method is a xbox memory card where you put a special game save (you need a friend with an already modded xbox to copy the gamesave on it) and an original game disk of Mechassault, or Splinter Cell or 007: Agent Under Fire. Without the memory card you can copy directly the game save into the xbox hdd with the hot swap method, connecting the xbox hdd to an ide cable of a pc. Better you begin to check those tutorials, anyway all the possible methods are always a bit tricky and cant be called 'easy', at least they cant be explained quickly in few lines.

[bulge2]

you can check my build thread for xbox cabinet conversion

[fumanchu]

if your putting in a 40gig hdd then this is what you need for arcade emulation.

 

coinops reignite r3 for all your mame needs.

final burn 1.1-this emulates all those sega games which arent emulated in coinops like powerdrift,galaxy force,turbo outrun..

Ki XXX1.0-the only emulator for xbox which emulates killer instinct 1and2 arcade.

cpx3-this emualtes streetfighter 3 third strike,streetfighter3 second impact,joos bizarre adventure...

 

once you have those on your xbox then you are still going to have lots of space,i would recommend you looking into console emulation nes,snes,genesis,gba......

 

when you get your xbox modded let me know via pm i can help you out with this stuff.

 

edit/one more thing when you softmod your xbox and you want to install a main dashboard go with one which has a file explorer,either unleashx or xbox media centre i would recommend.

[RedCapsMan]

Here are some other resources you'll need.

 

First is http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/

 

Then you'll need these guys:

 

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/ for buttons and joysticks and

http://www.ultimarc.com/xba.php for the monitor adapter and ipac controller