no news = good news

just slogging away through the games. I ran the rom splitter and ended up with about 200+ games in the list ... only half of which actually work .. same problem as before.

I think I need to locate an older mame version, and figure out how to run a rom check that will tell me what will work with the exe I'm running. I know that exists out there somewhere, but cant seem to locate it right away.

the other possiblity is just to go back to running mame32 (v.9x) instead of the command line mame (v.117).. but that has the added gui overhead associated with it, and I'm a bit short on the memory in the cab. I need at least another 128mb in there to really run things smoothly.

oh well, back to work now.

clean now, back to work

got the junk cleaned off and the scanners running now. downloaded some new games and only one interesting/good one in the bunch. .. forget what its called now, but it's a frisbee game. pretty fun, pretty hard to beat, too

havent figured it all out yet, but i've got plenty of time.

need to start deleting all of the crap off the game list that does't work, or figure out a way to make it work.

i've also been tweaking the trackball settings in shufflepuck cafe so tht works a lot better now... more tweaking to go, but its now possible to spin the ball between a short shot and a long shot with a noticible difference in effort.

virused :(

Caught a virus last night by mistake. I was updating/adding some roms ... and accidentally clicked an ad link on one of the rom sites.

the system immediately started downloading and installing a bunch of crap.

no, i didn't have a virus scanner running at the time (yes, yes, slap me now)

there is now avg spyware and virus scan running, but the virus/trojans are still there.

I'll have to clean them out in admin mode tonite, then I'm just going to disable IE cause I don't use it anyway. (all browsing is done via firefox).

I love computers, but I hate what some people do with them, especially when they do it to mine.

success

The arcade and party was a success.

Picture of my friend Jon playing world class bowling. Big hits of the day: the tempest tournament (had to quit using the front end to get it to work), shufflepuck cafe and world class bowling.

All in all it was great fun.

This is Volunteer Jon testing out World Class Bowling.

party time

Time is here ... party day

Mostly done i guess. Still lots of other stuff to take care of. I need a marquee.. I just covered the hole with black cloth til I can get something figured out. The speakers are up there and there's no holes for the sound yet. So, if the cabinet gets closed up, and plex over the marquee ... there's nothing but muffled sound. Have to think this one through before I do anything.

Good enough for now.

I can run galaga and tempest in Mame32 directly.. but they dont run through the front end. Tried pointing the fe to mame32 and it seemed a bit slow, just barely noticable.

I will probably go that route for the day, just so I have some of the stuff up and running. The Mame32 is version 9x something, the command line is version 117, so there's probably a difference in the way things are handled.

There's a pic of the FE through the smoked plex, I've got dogs, buns, a tank of gas, a new burner in the grill, ice in the fridge, and spanish coffee in hand.

Party on, dude!

side art

Conch and Steve kept working after I went to bed, so woke up this morning to a nice surprise .. side art all done.

art for industry

A picture of Steve and Conch working on the cabinet. Arting some cool space babes in galactic action. Should be pretty awesome when it's finished. These guys are great.

specs

So, the hardcore, final specs of the arcade machine in its current state:

AMD 1.6 Ghz
328MB RAM
20GB HD
GeForce4 128MB Nvidia graphics
CD-RW
802.11g wireless
Sony 21" monitor
Altec speakers and subwoofer
4-usb ports -- all used:
1 for control panel keyboard encoder
1 for trackball
1 for spinner
1 for wireless internet connector

OS, primary software:
Windows XP SP1
GameEx Front End
MAME v. 117

I got GAME, again

fixed.

$1 at norvac.. a little bit of soldering, and I'm gaming again.

Trying to figure out why a few games won't work, and discovered I may need some giant compressed files (multi-MB!!)

I'm happy now. all working again, good enough for the weekend.

Just gave Conch a call about doing some side art, hopefully he can come up with somethign cool and keep it in my budget.

updated pic

i wanna cry

Got everything mounted in the cabinet last night. Spent today waiting for a plumber, and while I was doing that I got (most) of the software configurations figured out.

the machine works. in its own cabinet. cool. and its got wireless net connection.

Here's the shopping list from today: plastic for marquee, florescent bulb, coin door lock, usb wireless connector, usb hub, offset hinges for control panel, power strip.

I played some games, i finally figured out what was wrong with the gameex config and got the trackball working for missle command and centipede.

this evening I was making a few tweaks, i was trying to put the hinges on the control panel so it just flips up and i don't have to hold it ... and it slipped .. and ripped the ps2 port off of the encoder board. :(( ... i wanted to cry. I had everything going.

so, I took some time, unsoldered the old port.. and thought about ripping one off of one of the old pc boards, but it was such a bitch to get unsoldered, if I try to pull one of those others off I'll probably tear it up.

I'll wait til tomorrow and hit radio shack, and if they don't have one, I'll hit norvac on monday.

Anyway.. just made me wanna cry. .. i was there. .. victory was within reach, it was all working .... and now it wont work til I get a keyboard plug back on the board.

I got DEADLINES

The system worked, so I invited a bunch of friends over to play/test the arcade. I gave myself a deadline -- I have til the 22nd to get it all together, self-contained and playable.

It's the only way I'll ever get it out of my computer room. ;)

Working so far: MAME, Jukebox, Internet Radio (but doubt if I'll have an internet connection to the cabinet), C64 emulator (without controls).

NOT Working: Visual Pinball, Amiga, key mapping for the C64. GALAGA .. for some reason, can't get Galaga to work. This really sucks cause its one of my favorite games.

To do list:
* mount speakers (high)
* wire pinball buttons (high)
* locate and install offset hinge for cp top. (low low)
* build restrictor/re-wire 4-way stick - it's 90 degree off (high)
* stabilize monitor on shelf -- it shakes around too much. (high)
* install smoke plex front (med)
* mount PC in cabinet (high)
* put latch on coin door (low)
* buy fluorescent light for marquee (low)
* put in some kind of marquee cover (high)
* install single power switch for system (low)
* set up PC to boot directly into arcade wrapper (low)

we got GAME

oh ya... July 9, 2007 ... the front end worked (GameEx) .. the game worked.
I went back to the default keymap and then just made a few tweaks in the gameex config and we're off and running.

Next up ... I already trashed teh MameWah .. it was some new version, files were missing, everything all out of whack.. finally figured that out after going thru the byoac msgs. .. BLEH.. I'd spent hours on that thing.

Anyway, gone now.

Mala won't load the theme correctly.

AtomicFE ... still functional but eats too much resources.. and ever since I installed the plug n play modules, I'm completely lost how to set it up.

Maximus Arcade ... will play pinball .. but GameEx wont(at this point).. I'm going to try and steal the config.

so.. it's gameex for now..and see if I can get a few more better games loaded, map the c64/amiga setups, and tweak the vpinball. Then we oughta be good to go

Cool.. and it looks like I'll be out $30 for the reg fee. Well worth it.

going crazy

I have several different front ends I'm trying.. but I'm going crazy trying to get the key config set up so it works.

I keep trying it on different FE's to see if it makes any difference. I re-programmed the CP to match a slikstik, cause there was already a drop-in cfg file for that, but can't get MAME or anything else to recognize it correctly. I know I'm missing something someplace on the ini or cfg files somewhere, but not having any luck.

I did have one bit of luck... found the 'plug n play' modules for Atomic FE.. drop in pre-configured setups for amiga, c64, and a bunch of other emulators. Nice. that stuff was driving me crazy too. The c64 started right up no problems, the amiga is a but fussy.

Had to re-program the system again just so I've got all the function keys available. Kind of useless to have a C64 setup without those.