Salut les mecs!

Check out this cool project! (in french) http://mamenetbook.blogspot.com/

Long overdue!

Sorry, for being absent so long. The Mamebook project has been dormant for a while due to a crashed hard drive... Anyways, in the meantime I thought I'd answer some of your questions:

Q: I purchased a Ramvik after reading your blog and I put it together. Now that I see the table all together, I am wondering how your drawer is sliding in-out so easily without bumping into the laptop mounted underneath? Did you cut the back of the drawer out to make room?

A: Yes, that's correct, You have to cut away the back of the drawer to allow it to slide out properly.

Q: As I'm still in the planning fase advice and suggestions are most welcome! One question: what's the size of your macbook screen?

A: The MacBook screen is 15".

Q: I would love to post you Mamebook on http://www.wawerko.de, a german DIY-Website. It definitely rocks! May I?


A: Go ahead!

I've gotten an amazing response for this project, thanks everone!

FAQ

Q: Do you have more information on the joystick you are using? And how you hacked it to work?
Thanks. Darthdaddy.

A: Since the Mamebook was done on a whim, I only used stuff I got at home that required little or no hacking. I didn't want to bother with I-pac and wiring so I decided to use one of my old Namco Arcade Sticks and a simple PSX-USB adapter. I also used USB Overdrive to sort out the mapping. Piece of cake!

Control panel

Well, this setup is NOT recommended. I like the look of it but the ergonomics are crap. Back to the drawing board...

Mamebook featured on Ikeahacker!

Check it out here!

Control Panel construction (cont)

Mounting the Namco joystick onto the drawer has one drawback, I'm loosing four buttons. I set them up to handle coin and P1 start as well as ESC (to exit back to the front end) and TAB (to make changes inside MAME OSX. I have a few options here, the first is to drill holes in the drawer and just add ordinary pushbuttons to replace them but I'm not to fond of that idea. Instead I've been looking at some other options. 

1) Navimec navigation buttons:

I really like this one for frontend navigation but it doesn't make sense in-game where I need insert credit and start buttons. 

2) Art Lebedev's Optimus Mini Three:

This is more interesting but also more expensive. Since the keys are actually tiny monitors the images inside the buttons can change. This means I can have up, down and select buttons for the front end and Insert credit, start and ESC buttons for MAME. Also, it will probably look amazing with some nice artwork. The downside is that I need to add a USB hub and, of course, the price...

Time out

Coffee break at work. When we move to our new location we will have a dedicated game room, between us we have a Naomi SD, Astro City, Egret II, Defender, Donkey Kong JR and a Star Wars pinball. Can you spot the Mamebook in the picture?