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Living room arcade cab
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║ ─[ Living room arcade cab ]─ ║
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║ Release ....: Arcade.2P.IDOSTUFF.REPACK ║
║ Title ......: Living room arcade cab ║
║ Date .......: 2025-12-20 ║
║ Supplier ...: an arcade parts shop and b&q ║
║ Platform ...: Ultimarc encoder / MAME ║
║ Protection .: none ║
║ Parts ......: two sticks, sixteen buttons, encoders, odds and ends ║
║ ║
╠══════════════════════════▓▒░ RELEASE NOTES ░▒▓═══════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ I bought an xxxx-in-1 arcade cabinet from a local, only slightly ║
║ dodgy, pawn shop. It followed the usual for-profit tech recycling ║
║ style that Chinese-made cabs made for europe tend to have. ║
║ ║
║ This had a very hacked-together setup inside: ║
║ ║
║ ■ A bizarre JAMMA board being used as basically just an encoder for ║
║ the buttons and sticks. It appeared to have once upon a time been a ║
║ Pandoras Box, but had it's board markings scratched off, and a ║
║ crude cut half way down the board, removing many of the components. ║
║ ║
║ ■ What looked like an old office PC, but the motherboard was very ║
║ abnormal, even by old office PC standards. The storage on this ║
║ board was a PCI RAID controller with a single SATA flash storage ║
║ device attached to it. ║
║ ║
║ ■ The storage device itself had some sort of odd protection on it to ║
║ rewrite the filesystem from the content of a "hidden" partition on ║
║ boot. I imagine this was the reason for the RAID controller, albeit ║
║ still and odd usage of one. ║
║ ║
║ ■ Evidence of an attempted addition of a coin acceptor. It was wired ║
║ up wrong and had an internal short, causing coin to be "pressed" at ║
║ unexpected times during arcade usage. ║
║ ║
║ ■ On the storage itself, driving the cab, was an odd modified version ║
║ of Windows XP. It feels like some sort of WinME/2000 and XP hybrid, ║
║ with a whole bunch of chinese-software malarkey mixed in. ║
║ ║
║ Initially, I wanted to just repair it and add a few upgrades, but ║
║ after fighting the odd OS and software setup for a while and cutting ║
║ myself on the sharp metal edges of the haphazardly cut PC case inside ║
║ it, I decided instead to rip out its guts and rebuild the fucker. ║
║ ║
║ Starting at just replacing the main computer, my "repair" quickly ║
║ escalated into me replacing the screen, glass, button panel, marquee, ║
║ buttons, encoders (although this was very needed), sticks, coin ║
║ acceptor, power supply and speakers. Basically, I just built a new ║
║ cabinet inside the MDF case of the original one. Oh and I replaced the ║
║ artwork with new vinyl on each side. ║
║ ║
║ The new control scheme is 2p, with a stick and eight buttons each (ten ║
║ if you include start/select), wired to an Ultimarc PAC encoder which ║
║ shows up as a keyboard for arcade emulation, but can also emulate an ║
║ xinput device to enable more modern games which work nicely on a cab, ║
║ too. ║
║ ║
║ The sticks were from ebay, but the buttons were also bought from ║
║ Ultimarc. ║
║ ║
║ Wiring 20 LED buttons and two sticks into encoders was a massive pain ║
║ in the arse, but also an enjoyable experience. ║
║ ║
╠══════════════════════════▓▒░ INSTALL NOTES ░▒▓═══════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ 1. Buy an xxxx-in-1 cab from pawn shop, ensure the shop is only as ║
║ dodgy as you can ethically justify. As we're in the UK, cashies ║
║ wont have this sort of fun. ║
║ ║
║ 2. Try to repair it, indirectly fight the chinese-factory engineers ║
║ who built this originally, cut yourself on metal inside it, give ║
║ up and rip its guts out. ║
║ ║
║ 3. Replace the PC, screen, glass, marquee, power supply, speakers, ║
║ coin acceptor and put new vinyl on the ugly bits. ║
║ ║
║ 4. Measure and draw layout of buttons and sticks on a new piece of ║
║ mdf for a new panel. Drill and get it all wrong. Find a different ║
║ cab panel layout to use and pretend it was intentional. ║
║ ║
║ 5. Wire 20 LED buttons and two sticks into the encoders, with the ║
║ grounds together. Swear at it. Enjoy it anyway. ║
║ ║
║ 6. Map the keys, start MAME or bazzite. ║
║ ║
║ 7. ??? ║
║ ║
║ 8. Profit! ║
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╠══════════════════════════════▓▒░ GREETZ ░▒▓══════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ Aussie arcade ║
║ Ultimarc ║
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╠════════════════════════════▓▒░ GROUP NEWS ░▒▓════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ IDOSTUFF is looking for: strange hardware, invasive smart tech, cheap ║
║ boards with no documentation, more sources of chinese landfill tech. ║
║ Email us: hello@idostuff.uk. ║
║ ║
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║ -= idostuff.uk =- · nfo updated 2026-10-12 ║
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