Does anyone have any idea how to go about building custom arcade cabinets for PC versions of fighting games? Killer Instinct, Tekken 7, Street Fighter 5; I feel like all these can have a dedicated cabinet and use the Windows/Steam version of the game. I have experience with pre-cut cabinets with the art and all that. I just don’t know how to set it up so when I turn on the power switch it boots right into the game. I know I’ll need a decent motherboard, graphics card, power supply (all the PC components) and if I want to get crazy, a 4K monitor. I would love to have a small corner with a few custom dedicated machines. I like the bartop styles.
I own copies of Tekken 7 and Street Fighter 5 on Steam and Killer Instinct for Windows 10.
The basics on mine is I went through www.recroommasters.com for the cabinet and artwork and use an X arcade Tankstick for the controller. With mine the idea was more for a Mame cabinet with enough horsepower to play modern games as well, but modern stuff was mostly an afterthought. As such the tankstick isn’t really the best option for KI as the PC sees it as a keyboard, and KI gets wonky on key commands when switching to 2-player…single player works well enough though, so if you’re ok with coming up with something else for a second player, It’ll work well enough. Would probably recommend something designed for fightsticks if you’re wanting to do strictly fighting games though.
As far as having the game start up when you flip a switch…honestly I would think adding the game to the computer’s start tasks would accomplish that rather well. I personally use a front-end program for mine, though I don’t have it start up when the PC does anymore…Launch Box/Big Box is a really good front-end app…not too convoluded, pretty straight-forward in how it works…not free though, it was like $30 I think for a lifetime liscense. But you can use it on multiple systems no issue.
For the PC…I just tried to keep it simple, so it uses an Alienware Alpha R2 with an i7 processor and GTX 960 card…nothing too fancy but it gets the job done.
If you want to take a look, like Seraphs said I have a thread already here:
I am also looking into Hyperspin which is pretty extensive but can be a great front end for everything (Steam, Windows Games).
I already did a Retropie bartop cabinet with a fully functional 2 player joystick/6 button. I’m thinking Hyperspin might be an easier solution and also more affordable considering it will play all 3 of the games I mentioned. I just really want to make my own Killer Instinct 2013 marquee and side art etc. Now that arcade cabinets are more practical with the bartop design I am closer to my dream of having a couple on display.
I also bought a stand from recroommasters. I really use it with consoles and a retropie. Setting it up as a true arcade experience wasn’t so important to me and actually I use the setup mostly to okay muktiplayer Xbox gamesnwith my son these days.
Good luck though. These types of projects are awesome and I love that we live in a world where people can realistically build these things.