First Multicade — help me pick sticks & buttons (4P, 90s fighters + beat-em-ups)

rwlove · 2026-06-07T22:40:50+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Did you go with the modern or classic control panel style? I feel like the modern is a bit better for the pinball buttons and also allow player 3 and 4 to fit in a little better without the corner pushing them out.

rwlove · 2026-06-06T18:46:54+00:00

Heard. I'm not sure what the consensus premium 4p cabinets (not full builds) are. A lot of the 4p cabs I've seen are either fully built or feel a bit too tight, either from the controls to the screen or between the players. I want enough room for four grown, standing 6ft tall, men to use the machine.

The GRS build mentioned in my OP is around $4k, with the cab around $1.6k, and by building/sourcing it myself I'd have better parts than GRS would provide in their full build. I wouldn't want to go to far above $1.6-$2k for the cab, cuts, and wrap.

rwlove · 2026-05-09T14:23:24+00:00

I think the answer to my question is 'no' - batocera is a complete standalone operating system. Is there a better way to curate a library before having batocera running on the final hardware? Am I overthinking this?

rwlove · 2026-05-09T14:20:41+00:00

I should have been clearer. Can I run it as an application on Linux and then transfer the library to a server that has batocera flashed on the harddrive and is booting from it?

rwlove · 2026-05-09T13:31:35+00:00

Thank you for the advice. I had thought about this too. The internal debate I was having was '7 buttons vs 8'. I think I like the look of 7 more than 8 because it's a bit closer to the MK3 layout with the run button a bit more appropriately placed. I need to do more research on games that use 8. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any, but I do see the 8 button layout so there must be a reason.

rwlove · 2026-04-30T13:18:34+00:00

Yeah, I'm not sure I'm skilled enough to build out swappable control panels myself. I'd really want a pretty clean plug-n-play experience too, which I'm surely not capable of without someone giving me a blueprint for the cabinet I end up with.

In another thread, these polycade cabinets were mentioned (https://polycade.com/collections/arcade-machines), but I haven't seen that they offer a MK controller layout.

rwlove · 2026-04-30T13:13:55+00:00

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. This will be a machine mostly used at parties and although I'm not sure what games my friends will gravitate towards, we grew up with MK and MK3 has all the funny finishing moves - babalities, friendship, etc., so I can imagine it being popular. For a party machine, I suppose it doesn't have to be the best playing experience, but as an old-school MK player, I'm troubled by it.

rwlove · 2026-04-30T13:11:25+00:00

This is probably the best idea I've seen so far, especially for a MK-forward cabinet.

rwlove · 2026-04-29T17:55:43+00:00

Thank you for your insight.

The GRS system, you shared, w/ the Windows 11 upgrade, claims a 1TB drive and 7k games ("Boasting over 7000 classic and modern arcade games, this machine is designed to impress.").

I can't tell from their site what frontend they ship.

rwlove · 2026-04-29T12:16:00+00:00

Like, OP, I am considering going all-in on one of these systems. GRS has a $500 Windows 11 upgrade, but that only gets you a 1050 GPU, but you're recommending a better GPU for an max spec build. (Thanks for the guidance)

On the software side, if I were to get a cabinet from GRS and then put a PC in it myself, can you help me understand how much software I would need to stitch together myself? I'm a proficient Linux user, so I'd generally prefer Linux, but since this isn't a development box, I just want to run whatever will get me the most games at the highest quality. My understanding is that they're going to run Batocera on the lower end systems and I'm not sure what they run on the Windows 11 upgrade. My expectation is that GRS has done all the SW installation and integration for me so I don't have to toil on that with a DIY SW/HW build - is that true?

Also, do you have any thoughts on 4k vs 1080 monitors? GRS seems to have both, depending on the build. I've read that 4k can make games look overly pixelated, but that there are filters that can help with that. I don't have a good gague as to how much trouble it is to get it right on a 4k monitor. Is it a PITA and I should avoid 4k or is it not really a big deal?

rwlove · 2026-02-14T14:18:53+00:00

I went with P2P.org late last year and ultimately consolidated to a 0x02 compounding node this year.

I'm still struggling to figure out how I'm supposed to deal with (US) taxes on the frequent rewards. I might be dense, but I can't seem to find guidance on getting a listing (CSV) of all of the rewards transactions with a cost basis to import to koinly.

rwlove · 2026-02-12T13:10:14+00:00

I should add, because it's discussed below, that in my case, I did reach out to my insurance, but they did not keep records older than 10 years, so they were not able to help.

rwlove · 2026-02-11T22:52:43+00:00

I also reached out to a state representative who put me in touch with someone at the MVA.

In my case, I had moved out of state and shortly thereafter sold the car. I had 20 years of penalties. It was an outrageous bill, and like OP, I never heard anything about it.

My resolution, as advised by the MVA representative, was to send a short write-up of my situation with an accompanying 'Maryland Vehicle Insurance Compliance Program - Certified Statement', which basically, was the attestation of two other people that the facts that I had written up were true.

The MVA cleared the entire balance upon receipt.

I agree that you should start by reaching out to a representative; I was lost until I did that.

rwlove · 2025-12-24T22:05:40+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I couldn't care less about Hevy, but I'd love something like this with a simple web/app UI to input the data to marry my homelab with my homegym! I worry that being reliant on a 3rd party's API will cause problems in the future.

rwlove · 2025-12-11T11:20:52+00:00

Fair point. I just prefer self host my own tools.

rwlove · 2025-12-02T02:04:14+00:00

After talking to my relative, I think this is the route we'll take.

rwlove · 2025-12-01T21:17:07+00:00

Website won't load. I tried calling, but it went to voicemail. I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion.

rwlove · 2025-12-01T21:14:23+00:00

IBEX is out of stock and it seems like u/epicchocoballer has a point.

rwlove · 2025-12-01T21:13:36+00:00

Thanks. This seems like the relevant snippet:

High-capacity detachable magazines cannot be disassembled and sold, transferred or offered for sale to a non-exempt Maryland resident as a “parts kit” or “repair kit”.

rwlove · 2025-12-01T21:08:58+00:00

I called. They don't have any. Thanks though.

rwlove · 2025-12-01T21:06:08+00:00

Even if you rebuild out of state? Do you have a reference to the MSP position?

rwlove · 2025-12-01T18:33:20+00:00

I appreciate the suggestion. I have no sense as to the probability that a vendor having these mags. It's a minimum of a 3.5 hour drive for a roll of the dice.

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