My Reproduction Mario Bros. Arcade Cabinet

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February 8th, 2008

I’ve never shared this on 2P START!, but a couple of years ago I decided to build from scratch a MAME arcade machine that was a reproduction of the 1983 Mario Bros. arcade game. It was a ton of work but it now sits proudly in my home as a testament to my accomplishment. Thanks to the wonders of eBay, I was able to secure an original Mario Bros. marquee, bezel, and coin door salvaged off an original arcade machine, as well as some reproduction side art that looks really sharp. The only departure from the original is the control panel which I modified for 2 players with a 6-button layout instead of the original 1 button. This allows for greater flexibility in playing other games. Check out the early entries in the blog to see each step of the process or just check out the final pics. There are also pictures of my brother’s Donkey Kong 3 cabinet which I helped him build once he saw how awesome mine was.

Tags: general

9 Responses to “My Reproduction Mario Bros. Arcade Cabinet”

Dj75728

Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

That’s awesome man! Hey do you have the instructions somewhere? I really wanna build a MAME arcade machine after I start college and get my own place.

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2

Noodle93

Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

Tim: Instructables.com

Please.

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Andrew

Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

Wow. That is awesome.

Seriously.

Take everything I strikethroughed about you in that other post and double it.

What was the total cost? Please say this is affordable.

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Tim

Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 11:14 pm

Author Comment

I will see if I can do an instructable for you Noodle, that’s a great idea.

Andrew, the cabinet cost approximately $508.64. Keep in mind that I had a computer already that I used as a MAME box and had an old 17″ CRT monitor to use as well. It doesn’t have to cost that much to make one, but I wanted mine to be perfect so I’d be proud of it forever. It took LOTS of time to do, but it was fun work and I don’t regret any of the time or money I put into it.

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Matthew

Posted: Feb 9th, 2008 at 10:18 am

That is f-ing great, I’d love to build an arcade machine myself, but it would have to be multi game… containing some of those all time favourites I have.
What’s on the inside? Just a normal computer running a MAME emulator?

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Tim

Posted: Feb 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am

Author Comment

Matthew, yes there’s just a PC in there with MAME on it. The buttons get wired to a device that acts as a keyboard, so it maps each button push to a keyboard letter that MAME recognizes. The machine will play any game I load up on it, not just Mario Bros., so I do have many favorites I can go back to and play.

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M. Kava

Posted: Feb 10th, 2008 at 1:04 am

I’ve been wanting to make my own arcade cabinet for a few years and never really know where to start for the production. I knew I’d never make the cabinet myself (I have a friend who’s dad owns a cabinet shop so commissioning an arcade cabinet with plans shouldn’t be too hard) but I knew I’d need to do all the wiring myself. Now I see I can actually do that. Thanks for putting this up.

Also, excellent work. Very nicely done and is purely awesome for how great it looks. The only thing I can think of changing is having 4 sticks for games like the Konami Simpsons game and other games like that. Other than that, excellent job. Jealous be I.