Well, if you are ENTIRELY Building it from scratch, not from an old blank cabinet, you'd need:
*Wood and concept design (The shell of your arcade, how it looks from the outside) - Make sure it has enough space to fit your monitor, and coin mechs, and MVS board, but also enough space to be stable, but not Bulky, but thats still up to you.
*The Manual - You can find a manual and stuff which will help you later in the wiring for your specific board at
www.hardmvs.com Great site.
*The MVS Board (Well duh) Either you have one, or can find one on Ebay or whatever, its the most important part pretty much. Its what makes it a neo cabinet.
*Monitor - Newish/used ones COULD run you for 150-200$, but if you search around, you can find em for 60. Evay has a lot of them if you don't mind the risk or the shipping. And depending on the monitor, you might need an isolation transformer for the power.
*Power Supply - it supplies all of the 5 and 12 volts on those wires you see farting around your Jamma, THIS might be the most ESSENTIAL part, but the Board is the most important. lol. You can find these at
www.therealbobroberts.com , he has them for 25.
*Jamma Harness - This baby is the clip with all the wires that goes into your MVS Board, anywhere from 8-20$ depending on where you look.
*Sticks, buttons - These can come in a bundle from ebay for 30-40$ but don't expect a nice color variation, and for the MVS board, make sure when you wire them, that they are to the proper spots on the Jamma Harness. Bob Roberts has more quality buttons and sticks in any color and style, the price difference is worth it.
*Coin door and mech - The whole thing can go up to 80 or more BRAND new, but it varies used, or you can barter with a local arcade. Kind of the key portion to it being an ARCADE, other than that, its just a fancy controller. You'll probably want the most common Over-Under Coindoor.
*Speakers - With the Headphone jack on some of the MVS's, its really easy to just secure cheap speakers into your cabinet, but the Jamma also provides a wire to connect to the spearkers... Shouldn't need to pay more than 20$ for both. Doesn't need to be too fancy.
*Marquee - This may or may not have came with your board, but if you want to make your own, have it screened or something at Kinkos on Lucite or Plexiglass, some cheap stuff. Same with the Overlay for the joystick, either make your own, or get it screened.
*Lighting - Also optional, light up the Marquee to attract the crowd.
*Plexiglass - A little protective layer in front of the monitor couldn't hurt. As well as protecting your optional overlay.
The rest is all icing, hell, I actually mentioned a lot of extras, but I think thats what you need to have a good Cabinet. These things don't run too hot, but a little venting couldn't hurt. The hardest part in my opinion is Cabinet Concept. Being original is tough, but copying is also tough if you don't have the right tools. And certain wood may run you quite a pretty penny.
Good luck with this, post more questions if you need to.
Mulletron.
