/diy/ - Do It Yourself

i did build a Mame cabinet, and had the same idea as you
in the end i used windows 7 anyways
removed the startup sound,logos, background, and it boots straight into an arcade frontend named Arcade Maximus

I have a KeyWiz, so the arcade controls control themoney frontend
there is even a nice shortcut that you can shut down the whole pc with a push of button in the front end
no fucking around with a keyboard at all

>i'm going to do an extreamly difficult task
>i'm also going to use a compleatly different operating system i also have no experiance with debian
>which there is very little support for without fat unix nerds belittling you at every step of the way of your opening the home directory to flying the space shuttle

I'd go with what >>205492 did. I assume the 1 program you're talking about is Wine, if so, you should be warned that Wine isn't guaranteed to run every Windows program, it's known to be missing comparability with a lot of games. If you're just planning to run an emu program made for linux and only play old games, then you might want to go with a very very small linux distro but distros other than Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS ARE very reliant on command lines, so if you were to use one of those without streamlining it to run automatically, it might take a lot of getting used to. Good luck!

>>205492
I was planning on using an I-pac or something similar for the controls.

>>205499
the only reason i bought the keywiz over the ipac (both work identical) was I was ordering t-molding and omni-2 joysticks from groovygamegear already, so i didnt want seperate orders

ive not heard anything bad about either, and my keywiz works perfectly

>>205497
Aren't there builds of MAME that work for Linux?

>>205504
Yeah there is, I got too frustrated trying to learn linux to even get that far

Here is a really bad picture taken on my phone of the cabinet I made. Its a bartop with the keyboard tray, its on this website

http://bartoparcade.katorlegaz.com/

(that pic is before I painted all the metal pieces black, and bad picture makes bezel look weird etc)

>>205504
Yeah, I addressed that in the post, that'd be fine for any old games I think, but new games are mostly designed for windows and consoles.

>>205521
Mame is an arcade machine emulator

a "newer" arcade game runs whats called a .CHD (which is just a hard drive image) as some arcade machines had 1-2gb hard drives in them
Its still running through the same program Mame

You wont be playing anything other than arcade games, so that isnt really relevant

I've done a project like this, never finished it tho.
Bought an ultimate mortal combat 3 machine off craigslist for 80 bucks (jamma cabnet) so i bought a j-pac to interface with the buttons, Made my own button panel, used an rf modulator connected to an old gutted tv I mounted in the cabnet. Never really finished it and made it nice tho...

>>205604
Finish that shit bro

>>205764

Seconded. You should totally finish that sucker. Post pics when you're done!

Linux guy here, yes Ubuntu supports MAME, you can download it from Synaptic package manager, or the Ubuntu software center.

Or in command terminal:
sudo apt-get install gmameui

After updating repository info, it'll ask for permission to reinstall 3 or 4 dependencies (pic related) just put y, it'll install, then you should (never tinkered with this particular software package) have a gui shortcut in you main menu under the applications->games section

Ubuntu is one of the easier distro's for linux newbies to use, just run a live version off CD/flash drive first to ensure hardware compatibility, if everything works fine, go for it.

*Disclaimer* Live CD/Drive is slower than molasses running uphill in winter, end performance will be many times better once it's installed.

>>206027
Update after reviewing the terminal output.

sudo apt-get install gmameui joystick mame-tools

But just in case I have some packages installed that are recommended, check recommended install files before accepting the download, and write down any it suggests, then just do another sudo apt-get install with whatever packages it recommends.

Hey guys, new to /diy/ but I remembered a project someone did a few years back. He build his own Viewlix style cabinet and put up what he used for everything. Here's his site: www.donovanmyers.com/category/personal/projects/

I believe he used a PS3 as the main comp, but I'm sure you can switch it out with the system you want.

>>205503

Only significant difference I found is that the ipac saves custom keymappings to EEPROM so you don't have to re-load them on each startup.

Which isn't really a big deal when you can just permanently remap keys in MAME to match the default, or run the mapping software on boot.

I just can't get over the $60 price tag for what is essentially a $2 keyboard controller with some diodes and input headers.

What I wound up doing for this one budget build was to run wires directly into a cheap keyboard we got from a thrift store. The keyboard itself still worked so it could still be used whenever we opened up the cab.

In most cases the controller inside a cheapy 104-key can actually handle 108 inputs (9 row, 12 col). Some can even do 128 when not constrained by their firmware (8bit register, 2 scancodes per "key"). Just make sure to wire some diodes to your button/stick switches to prevent input ghosting/blocking on the controller. This is vital if you intend to have more than two 4-ways with 2 buttons each.

Thoughts on using Hyperspin as a front-end?

I dont know if you already check this from the sticky,

-Arcade and videogames

http://arcadecontrols.com/ to make your own arcade
http://mameworld.info/
http://www.tmsoft.com/article-arcade.htm
http://slagcoin.com

If there was a problem
Yo, I'll solve it!
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it

I want to have all kinds of games in an arcade cabinet, but the challenge for me isn't software related at all.

I just can't figure out how I can elegantly incorporate so many different controls into one cab.

It's one thing to cram four button clusters on there for 4P games, but what about rollerballs, light guns, steering wheels and pedals?

>>207167
Make interchangeable modules. The only way to do it without everything looking crowded and messy.

>>207177

That really looks like the only way.

I suppose I could put some rails on the cab with a lock and then make different control panels that attach that way.

I'll need to put the button controller inside the cab and make a wiring harness for each control panel... Hell, if my rails are tight enough I can line up the connectors and then sliding in the panel will be all it takes to connect them.

Long wires means attenuation and crosstalk, though...

Anyone else here having difficulties getting Maximus Arcade to recognise Mame Plus + at all? This version seems to run games which dont run on Mame 0.145 but the front end just wont let it load. What is everyone else using?

>>207485

Are the binaries named differently from the mainline MAME? They should take the same parameters.

>>207485

Make sure your games run under the emulator without the front-end first. MAME on the whole is a real bitch about changing romsets between releases.

>What's that? Somebody found a way to extract data from a previously unknown IC on the original board? Well we require that data now so your old romset no longer works.

Using mame 0.145 under Hyperspin here. Haven't run into incompatibilities in the games I want to run, but when I do I'll consider alternate emulators. I'm actually considering contributing to HS and Emumovies to get FTP access to HD art/videos for everything, but they're not getting shit from me until they finish HS 2.0. I mean seriously, the fuck is this flv shit?

bump?