Arcade Machine Parts List

Required:
Building material for cabinet/control panel - I used 1/2" MDF... a lot of people use 3/4" but I already had a couple sheets of 1/2" so...

Controls:
Buttons - I used different colors to differentiate between players. I bought an extra button in each color in case one went bad/broke. The buttons I used were from HAPP and used horizontal micro switches.

Joysticks - Also from HAPP. I chose 8 -way joysticks for the 4 players which allows for diagonals. The other joystick is a dedicated 4-way stick for games like Pacman and Donkey Kong which will not register the switches if a diagonal is pressed.

Computer - I had a PC I wasnt using for anything so this saved me a ton of money. The specs are a Pentium 4 3.0 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. It does not take much to run these games but my front-end is a little more intensive.

Software - MAME, other emulators for playing NES, SNES, Genesis, Dreamcast, and N64. My front-end (graphical interface that ties all these emulators together allowing for easy launching of games) is Hyperspin. Hyperspin is amazing... both in looks and in function, its also really easy to set up and time is money.

Encoder - To interface all these buttons/joysticks to the computer I used a keyboard encoder that connects to USB. Once wired it registers each button press as a key on the keyboard. I got mine from Ultimarc.

Misc - 22 gauge wire for wiring the buttons to the encoder. Paint... black of course. I had most of the tools i needed but they include several basic hand tools and saws (circular, jig, hand).