I bought the book after seeing it recommended on an series of Systm episodes about building your own MAME cabinet. I read the first few chapters of the book and used the plans off the included CD-ROM to start building.
However, the plans are a bit flawed - something not mentioned in the book. If you build your cabinet based off the recommended plans, your cabinet will be exactly 7'6", which is more than a little too tall. I thought I had simply measured wrong, but after re-measuring a dozen times and comparing my measurements to the plans, I realized the plans were just wrong. This is also the case with the cabinet that was built in the Systm episodes; if you watch the final episodes, you'll realize they have a frankencabinet because they followed the plans to the T, just as I did.
That said, the book is a great reference if you have other plans to follow. Construction tips and suggestions and innumerable references and hacks make the book well worthwhile. I find myself going back to the book for things like t-molding vendors, trackball hacks and the like. Of course, all this information (and more) can be located on the internet, but it's helpful to have it in one place to flip through. If you are actually going to build a MAME cab, you'll have more than enough time to go through the book *and* all the internet sites detailing this process. This isn't your one-weekend project. Count on several weekends as well as several trips to Home Depot or Lowes.
Definitely get the book, but don't follow it word-for-word. Use it as a reference guide. Don't be afraid to go off the reservation with your cabinet build if you have a good idea (I built a keyboard drawer in mine, for example) - sandpaper and wood putty will fix some pretty major mistakes. :)
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