Progress on the MAME arcade cabinet

I've had successes and failures.
First, I could not interface the arcade monitor to the computer that I have. I've tried two video boards and disabling the video on the mother board...no luck. So I punted and bought a nice 19 inch rectangular LCD monitor. I noticed, in a movie theater, that older games tend to have the monitor set up in "portrait" mode. And I learned that MAME will play the games in portrait mode. But Windows will not play that way. Since everything will be all closed up it would be impossible to rotate the monitor at will.

So I did some research and found a "front end" program called "MaLa". It will display in portrait mode and it will kick off the games in portrait mode as well. If I put this into the Windows Startup folder then one will see some sideways Windows stuff UNTIL Mala gets going. This will only be if the machine is ever turned off. But booting in this manner is hands free anyway, so it is not even a problem. Once MaLa is going, operation is done using a joystick to select a game from a menu and then the player 1 start button to load it. To run, one then will put in a token, then press player 1 start again. Pretty simple.

Was having difficulty with some of the games regarding sound and video, but I found out that I was using TOO current of a version of MAME. The current versions rely on newer and better hardware. When I installed an older version all of the problems went away, except for one game, Joust 2. I will keep my eyes and ears open for a newer FREE computer to swap out in the future. Swapping out should be pretty simple if and when the time comes.

On top of the cabinet is a toggle switch for the OLD arcade system. I would like to utilize that for a 6 outlet power strip that will have all the plugs for the new hardware...computer, speakers, monitor, marquee light. I thought about it a little and figured that I could wire the switch in SERIES with the switch that is ALREADY on the power strip. The power strip will be permanently enclosed in the cabinet and will always be set to ON. So the toggle switch, in series will interrupt the power going to the power strip. But I looked and the old toggle switch is only rated for 3 amps (it was connected to a transformer). I need to get a new toggle switch rated for 15 amps because that is what the power strip needs. Also I need to get a length of wire that is good for 15 amps in order to hook it up.

I removed the old arcade monitor and cut a piece of plywood to match the space. Next I will mount the new monitor to that plywood and can actually put all the computer hardware in the cabinet at that point. It will be a self contained, playable system at that point, but will still need a control panel to replace the keyboard. Then several touchups.

Pictures once I get the monitor mounted.