MAME cabs - anyone know about them?

I've always wanted to build one, I'm confident I can do the woodwork, setup the PC etc..., but the thing I don't know about is what controls you use and how you set them up, and where to buy them from (in the UK).

I would only be looking for a simple setup - probably a single joystick, a few fire buttons and perhaps a player start button.

Anyone built their own cabinet or know anything about arcade controls on a MAME PC?

Aha, just found this place in Lancashire, which sells this complete Mame/Jamma kit apparently with all the parts needed for a PC MAME cab:

http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/products/ultmamecabkit.htm

If you're going to build a MAME cabinet, you should probably include a trackball, click wheel controller, and all the rest. Why go to all the trouble of building a cabinet and dedicating a computer to it, then limiting yourself to only being able to a play a subset of your MAME games?

Anyway, here are some decent MAME cabinet links (not necessarily in order of usefulness, check them out and decide for yourself):
http://www.mameworld.net/ (Good forums, lots of information on cabinet parts)
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm ("Cabinets" on the left)
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_cabinet_plans.shtml (Great links)
http://www.theshitfactory.org/eve/(No plans, but a neat cabinet, and they'll build one for you)
http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/ (Step-by-step, including a sweet bar-top model)
http://chris.polymathic.net/cabinet/part1.shtml (Another decent step-by-step)
http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/plans.html (Good information and excellent links)
http://au.retro.ign.com/articles/867/867066p1.html?RSSwhen2008-04-16_135600&RSSid=867066 (So-so resource, but has a nice little blueprint)
http://www.mrsalty.net/links2.shtml (Lots of good links)
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/tardis/ (Dr. Who + MAME, need I say more?)
http://www.arcadecab.com/ (Plans and good information)
http://home.earthlink.net/~wgoodhart/cabinet/ (Illustrated cabinet build)

SpaceAce

Thanks! Lots of reading material there!

Get your joystick and buttons from Happ Controls (or a reseller). For buttons (and this may come down to preference, but) get the concave ones, rather than convex.

I bought a bunch of Happ stuff some years ago and it really was very high quality. Hooked up to a hacked keyboard controller (had fun mapping the keyboard matrix) and I was ready to rock and roll :)

Didn't build a full cab, but I had something I could play Street Fighter with. Ended up that the controller stayed with a mate (a complicated deal involving an LCD TV and a fridge).

The arcadecontrols.com website listed above has got tons of resources. Mine is in the projects there somewhere. I also sell custom vinyl stickers for the buttons if you need any of those. (In the buy/sell section of that webpage, or just contact me)

I am still in the process of building my cab, but I've got everything up and running. If you look here http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=80705#908465 you will see a picture of my early test control panel. I have since added a Spinner and 3 inch Happs trackball. I got an actual arcade cabinet for free last fall,... it was in nearly new condition. The guy had about 20 for me to choose between,... he was just gutting the electronics from them and trashing the cabinet, so it was a pretty good find. My next step is to design the control panel into the existing cabinet. In the mean time though, my temp CP will allow me to get everything working.

I bought all my stuff through http://www.ultimarc.com/ except for the trackball and spinner. They sell a device called an i-pac that is a keyboard controller. It allows you to wire everything up with no mess and no soldering. I'd highly recommend it.

The trackball I picked up off the web used, and the spinner I got from http://groovygamegear.com/

Good luck, and have fun!

Thanks guys, now for the hard part - persuading the better-half that a large wooden noisy structure would look great in the lounge!!!