PC Configuration

Having trouble setting up the PC you plan to put into your Arcade Cabinet or Virtual Pinball machine?

Don’t know enough about computers to have a go at it yourself?

Or do you simply not have the time to get it all up and running the way you want?

Let us help you out.

We have plenty of experience setting up PCs for ourselves as well as customers, so we know that it can be daunting prospect, especially if you’re not that familiar with PC hardware and software.

Save yourself from a mountain of time and frustration – send your PC to us.


What do we offer with this service?

Through a lot of trial and error we have come up with several software configurations that are very reliable, appealing and easy to use. These “templates” are used as a starting point on all PCs and then various software modifications are made to take into account different Video Cards, Sound Cards etc.

We understand that not everyone wants the same thing, so firstly we discuss your requirements (preferably by phone) to work out the best setup for you, based on the following:

  • the type of games you like playing
  • the configuration of your cabinet
  • the spec of your PC

The last point is probably the most important, as we need to make sure your PC has sufficient power to play all the games you need it to. Once that is sorted out, we can provide you with an estimate of how long it will take to configure your PC and whether you might need a replacement Video or Sound Card, which we can provide at extra cost.


How much will it cost?

The charge varies depending on the type of setup you’re looking for – contact us if you are interested and we provide you with a quote.

Most “spare” PCs provided to us these days have pretty good specs and don’t need anything added to get the most out of them. If any additional/replacement components are required we will discuss these up front, so you’ll know exactly what the cost will be.

Note that our setups are designed to be run on PC monitors or LCD/LED TVs ONLY – we do not provide PC setups for Arcade Monitors as we find they are all different and require individual tweaking once connected which makes support very difficult.


What software do we use?

We require that PCs provided to us have a legal installation of Windows XP or Windows 7, which we find the easiest to work with. We make some alterations to the operating system to make it run more efficiently, then configure the relevant game software (ie emulators) along with a frontend menu program (HyperSpin or PinballX depending on your cabinet). These are set up ready to play whatever supported games you wish.

There are 3 basic configurations that we provide:

  • Vertical Cocktail – this is our specialty and as the name suggests it’s perfectly suited to cocktail cabinets. It supports all the “old school” classic games such as Donkey Kong, PacMan, Galaga etc and flips the screen 180 degrees when playing 2 players.
  • Horizontal Upright – leaves the monitor in its ‘normal’ orientation and is optimised to play 2 player simultaneous games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat along with many other horizontal games. Support for many of the classic vertical games remains as we couldn’t imagine leaving them out!
  • 3 Screen Virtual Pinball – a rather complex setup that has the main monitor rotated to run the pinball playfield, as well as backglass monitor and DMD monitor in their normal orientation. All required provisions are added so you can run a large number of excellent pinball tables in both Future Pinball and Visual Pinball.

We are happy to provide you with a custom configuration, but keep in mind that it will take us longer to do and therefore cost a bit more.

–IMPORTANT NOTE–

We DO NOT charge for any software that is used in our setups – we only charge for the time taken to configure the PC to run the relevant software.
All PC apps and programs we use are provided to the Home Arcade community free of charge and we wish to point out that under no circumstances should you ever pay anyone for a “copy” as they are not for sale!

Where to from here?

Drop us an email or phone us with any questions you may have about our PC Configuration service and we will be happy to oblige.