[trip]

Lets see if I can keep this short

A little background: I've been involved with MAME since the 90s, and am pretty stinking familiar with all the ins and out on all ends hardware and software wise.

There is a great piece of software to emulate an old fashioned jukebox. I've also played with that many times since (I guess) the 90s.

I've wanted to use that jukebox software in a big way, but never really found a good way to pull it off. Even though it was kind of designed to complement a MAME cabinet, I would never do that - My MAME boxes are 100% MAME for a reason.

The other night my wife and I were talking about the old diner booth jukeboxes. Aside from the nostalgia part of the conversation, it got technical with how they tied into the one main jukebox in the diner.


Anyway...I think I have my plan. I'm posting this in case anyone here would like me to document it along the way so that they can make their own.
Here is a really rough price breakdown (USD).
-A cheap ass old computer that you may already have lying around. No sh*t - It can be like a PentiumII and you'd be fine.
-$30 for a keyboard interpreter.
-Some sort of stereo receiver to plug it into(chances are you already have a stereo with a few extra aux inputs)
-$20 - $100 for an original diner booth jukebox fixture.

I'm looking at this one.


In the end it will operate just as it did in the 50s/60s/70s/80s. Drop a quarter in and you get to select as many songs as it is set up to play for a quarter. Flip through the selection cards and punch in the corresponding numbers for the songs you want to play.

I can tell you from experience that novelty crap like this really works well as a piggy bank. I once bough a motorcycle with $650 that was saved up by me having to put a quarter into my MAME boxes to play games like Donkey Kong and Ms Pac-Man.






*I just ran the whole deal by my wife and got the green light. I'm going to start ordering up the necessities tomorrow.

[bammargera]

Sounds like a great idea (see what I did there). Keep us posted with the progress!

[OnePiece]

Have you got pics of your MAME cabient? Ive always wanted to build one but dont even know where to start.

[bammargera]

QUOTE (OnePiece @ Saturday, Jun 23 2012, 09:50)

Have you got pics of your MAME cabient? Ive always wanted to build one but dont even know where to start.

Good place to start: http://www.arcadecab.com/

[trip]

QUOTE (OnePiece @ Saturday, Jun 23 2012, 04:50)

Have you got pics of your MAME cabient? Ive always wanted to build one but dont even know where to start.

Sure. These shots are from when I replaced the internals a few years back, so they are powered down. I built my first one in 2000

living room:


dining room:


kitchen:



Edit:
@OnePiece. Start at ultimarc.com and http://na.suzohapp.com/ - I'm a lucky man with a great connection for the cabinets, so you are kind of on your own for that part unless you want to swing by here and pick up the Juno First cabinet I haven't used yet.

This post has been edited by trip on Saturday, Jun 23 2012, 12:49

[OnePiece]

Those look sick, Im planning on scratch building the whole thing and painting it myself. A coin operated thing would be a cool idea but its really the most expensive part so Ill probably pass on that. I'm pretty confident about everything except for the parts for the buttons/joystick. Do yours have a neon light in that top bit where the name is?

[trip]

QUOTE (OnePiece @ Saturday, Jun 23 2012, 09:48)

Those look sick, Im planning on scratch building the whole thing and painting it myself. A coin operated thing would be a cool idea but its really the most expensive part so Ill probably pass on that. I'm pretty confident about everything except for the parts for the buttons/joystick. Do yours have a neon light in that top bit where the name is?

All of the lighting is fluorescent tubes. Xevious is cool because it also has lighting by the controls.

Get a used coin box. Really - i can't stress having the boxes coin-op enough. I've never paid over $100 for any of my cabinets and they all came with working coin boxes. I've had to replace a few coin mechs but my connection just gives me those.

[trip]

Double posting to try and steer away from MAME talk and back to the original project. Don't get me started talking about MAME .


I just picked this up for $100

*purchased at Ebay.

I also picked up the $30 controller I will need to interface the buttons and coin mech to my software.

*purchased at Ultimarc

I will be using an old Pentium4 I have around so the total investment so far is $130(more like $165 when you factor in shipping)






Unfortunately, Ultimarc is on vacation and won't be shipping until late next month . That's okay though, it will give me time to pop the lock on the jukebox since there is no key. I don't mind that - the box is complete and was just removed from a diner.

Edit(because I'm excited):
Here is a better shot of the one I bought today.


I also realized that I'm going to have to write my own software. Easy enough....

Folks, I can't tell you how excited I am for this little project.

-Since the jukebox supports 200 selections it will be set up to play full albums.
-I'll have just enough input options to offer random or straight play.
-It already has working speakers, but I'm still going to wire it to the main house amp as an added option. That way it can be totally stand alone or it can be played through the house amp.

This thing is going to be totally f*cking bad ass cool.

This post has been edited by trip on Sunday, Jun 24 2012, 04:34

[trip]

Look... I'm sorry. I'm going to be double, triple, and maybe even quadruple posting during this project (for bump update reason).

The jukebox was delivered today. Here it is on my dining room table.


It came with no key, but it was unlocked - I guess they wanted to rape the quarters that were in it.

-Everything is cleaner and nicer than I had anticipated - both inside and out.
-The coin mech is ultra clean and in smooth working order.
-Since I don't have a key, I'll have to replace the lock. I just so happen to have a bunch of those locks(w/keys) thanks to my work with MAME boxes.

I have the next 5 days off from work. I also happened to have an extra keyboard interpreter around. Expect some fast progress on this project and thread.

Can ya tell I'm excited? The bonus is my wife is equally excited.

[illegal_luggage]

Not trying to be ignorant but what is that?

[trip]

QUOTE (illegal_luggage @ Tuesday, Jul 3 2012, 21:13)

Not trying to be ignorant but what is that?

A little slice of nostalgia for people like me.

Show this pic to your parents and I bet ya they can tell you all about diner booth jukeboxes.

If you don't care for the history, just watch my progress. I'm going to document it with pics and include a video demo upon completion. It is going to be bad ass even if you didn't grow up with diner booth jukeboxes. You will want one

[nightwalker83]

QUOTE (trip @ Wednesday, Jul 4 2012, 12:36)

QUOTE (illegal_luggage @ Tuesday, Jul 3 2012, 21:13) Not trying to be ignorant but what is that? A little slice of nostalgia for people like me. Show this pic to your parents and I bet ya they can tell you all about diner booth jukeboxes. If you don't care for the history, just watch my progress. I'm going to document it with pics and include a video demo upon completion. It is going to be bad ass even if you didn't grow up with diner booth jukeboxes. You will want one

I've seen it before but can't remember which year it was! Which year was it?

[trip]

QUOTE (nightwalker83 @ Wednesday, Jul 4 2012, 03:04)

QUOTE (trip @ Wednesday, Jul 4 2012, 12:36) QUOTE (illegal_luggage @ Tuesday, Jul 3 2012, 21:13) Not trying to be ignorant but what is that? A little slice of nostalgia for people like me. Show this pic to your parents and I bet ya they can tell you all about diner booth jukeboxes. If you don't care for the history, just watch my progress. I'm going to document it with pics and include a video demo upon completion. It is going to be bad ass even if you didn't grow up with diner booth jukeboxes. You will want one I've seen it before but can't remember which year it was! Which year was it?

Kind of hard to track down the exact year of this one. Late 70s very early 80s is the best I can find for a date.


I have some good and bad news about the project.

The bad news:
-It isn't as cut and dry easy as I thought it was going to be.
-2 wires control everything...all of the communication. So it isn't like I can just map buttons to key strokes - it is all done through pulses.
-I don't posses any hardware to read and interpret the pulses.


The good news:
-$12 for a little transformer from RadioShack*
-$100 for PC PlayBox 2 and my project will be 100% complete.



I feel like an ass having to use someone else's home made equipment and software, but it acts exactly the same as the software and setup I was going to write. I'll be ordering the PC Play Box this friday.


*There is a RadioShack 3 blocks from my house and I checked - they have the needed transformer in stock. I'll pick one up this friday.

[trip]

Double post for update excitement.

I purchased and wired up the transformer.



Everything is working great and here she is all lit up.



Now I just have to wait a few days for the PC PlayBox to arrive and I should be all done.

Edit:
Also just ordered up replacement bulbs. A few bulbs are out, so I might as well replace all of them with fresh clean ones. Sucks balls because normally I have a bunch of those bulbs around(thanks to MAME boxes and the coindoor lights).





Once again this thing is going to be kick ass. Even without playing music yet, it is fun to f*ck around with all the internal settings. Just dropping a quarter in and using up the credits hitting random selections is rewarding for now.


This post has been edited by trip on Friday, Jul 6 2012, 21:28

[trip]

Excitement bump. Sorry for all the posts and not edits.

Here is a video example of my progress. Last thing left to do is wire up the speakers(for now I have a small set of pc speakers), and a few other small details for the final wiring harness.

[Markwey]

Lovin' the jukebox, Trip
When I have the money to buy one, I'm gonna.
In a restaurant, that my friend's mom owns and works at has a Rock-Ola jukebox.
This thread reminded me about picking up some of my records and start playin' them again, heh. Been a while, I guess.
I need to buy a new vinyl player someday... it's working alright occasionally, but I think that there's something wrong with the belt,
since it keeps playing the records at the wrong speed, either too fast or too slow, even though I adjust it right. Or that's what I atleast think!
Real sensitive player... needs the speed to be adjusted JUST RIGHT and let it stay that way.

Anyways, nice video with the process, Trip and do post more when you got the Jukebox all ready and done.
Heh, just came to my mind, that you should add the 'Jukebox Hero' by Foreigner to there.

[trip]

QUOTE (Markwey @ Wednesday, Jul 11 2012, 17:19)

Heh, just came to my mind, that you should add the 'Jukebox Hero' by Foreigner to there.

Already on it.

We are going to start with period'esq kind of music just for fun. 50s,60s,70s,80s. In time we will switch out the music for 200 full albums from our regular library. Aside from the whole nostalgia novelty aspect, it is actually going to be a super convenient way to play the sh*t we always listen to. Instead of digging out a disc or what-have-ya - simply pop a quarter in and punch in the selection number.

Since the software is controlled via remote desktop it is super easy to change out songs. I also wrote a little program to do the labels.

If all goes well the project will be wrapped up 100% and mounted in the kitchen sometime this weekend. Until then, I am having way too much fun with it up here.

[trip]

Bump for completion!!!!

I had to wait until this weekend to mount the jukebox. It was just too stinking hot last weekend.

Here is the finial project completed, and mounted in the kitchen.





I need to take a break, but I will edit this post with a video that shows how it was made(along with references for parts), as well as show off exactly how cool this thing is.


Currently it is set up in a very tradition style. 200 single selections - all hits from the 60s/70s/80s. 1 quarter lets you select 2 songs.


Edit:
Video example of the final product.


This post has been edited by trip on Monday, Jul 23 2012, 19:47

[trip]

I'm multiposting and bumping this. Still Love ya'll...

To all of you who are under 20, show the video to your parents and I'd be more then willing to give them all the resources and info needed to make one.

I'm also excited to announce that I'm impressed with how much my wife likes and uses it. Apparently it is perfect to satisfy the need for a song or two while whipping up a sandwich or other kitchen activities. I had no idea she uses it as much as she does. I checked the coin box today and there had to be close to $40 in quarters. That amount will go up too because this weekend she plans on changing up some of the available songs; It pretty much still just has the first 200 I randomly put on just to get it going.



Sorry for all the posting. I should be done with this thread now unless anyone has any questions.



Edit:
Thanks to the arcade cabinets, we have been talking about getting a dollar changer for year. Now that the jukebox is up and my wife uses it all the time we decided to pull the trigger.

I have permission to buy this...

This post has been edited by trip on Friday, Jul 27 2012, 19:13