Anyone turned a racing cabinet into an emulation racing cabinet?

[purbeast]

Turning my light gun cabinet into a light gun emulation machine has now kind of intrigued me to possibly doing the same with my Rush 2049 cabinets, or at least looking into it for one of them and experimenting with it. They hardly get any play right now from me or my kids but if I turned them into a multi-racer cabinet with modern racers as well, I could see that changing, especially if I had games on there they see in Dave and Busters.

My buddy pointed me to this thread here on reddit

Apparently there is this PWM2M2 board that can be used in tandem with the real arcade hardware, to interface with a PC. It looks a bit involved to make it work but it could also be super clean if it interfaces with a PC with factory controls. What I would have to do at this point though, which hurts, is put an LCD in there. However I would be sure IF i went that route, that I could go back to all original hardware if I wanted to. But if I was able to get modern racers working on there, then I would need a higher res than what I have in there right now anyways, and those games are meant for 16:9 HD monitors anyways.

So just curious - has anyone gone this route before? If so, did you like the project and how did it turn out? Did you use original hardware or did you just get a PC wheel/pedals and go with that?

 

[FrizzleFried]

There is a whole subforum over at BYOAC. I thought about it (I have a NFS cabinet which brings me even closer) but after reading the headaches involved... I passed.

 

[purbeast]

Oh I've had quite some headaches with my light gun cabinet, but that is also part of the fun lol.

 

[jcar302]

There always seems to be plenty of broken driving sitdown cabs out there. I can't see the point in messing with one that works. I've even turned them down for free.
With that said, I've always wondered how well a Sim rig could be done as an emulation arcade driver.

 

[dee2eR]

There always seems to be plenty of broken driving sitdown cabs out there. I can't see the point in messing with one that works. I've even turned them down for free.
With that said, I've always wondered how well a Sim rig could be done as an emulation arcade driver.

It would work better emulating arcade games on a sim rig than trying to play Assetto Corsa on an arcade setup. Much easier to turn a 'realistic' feeling sim setup in to an arcadey one (by limiting steering rotation) than the other way round.

 

[purbeast]

Yeah I personally have absolutely no interest in sim racing so I don't really have to worry about that lol.

 

[purbeast]

So here is a board that basically makes my cabinet "plug and play" to interface with a PC.

I am starting to get very tempted to do this. I don't know the costs of this yet though, and I will also need this add on that will allow me to use the Happ FFB motor in my cabinet already, with this board, as a plug and play solution.

You will probably have to turn on auto generated english subtitles to understand it, unless you speak french.

 

[Pondscum]

I have been working on a multiracer in a Sega Power Drift. This is 100% reversible, no holes were drilled, no wires were cut (except for splicing a electric outlet into the power cord).
I made the interface to connect the pc to a cheap usb encoder. If there is interest I can upload more pictures or start a thread.

 

[purbeast]

I have been working on a multiracer in a Sega Power Drift. This is 100% reversible, no holes were drilled, no wires were cut (except for splicing a electric outlet into the power cord).
I made the interface to connect the pc to a cheap usb encoder. If there is interest I can upload more pictures or start a thread.

I can't really tell what all is going on other than seeing that board there.

I was talking to the guy who makes the Universal Force Feedback board yesterday and the developer that works with him and I am probably going that route. It is a plug and play solution.

I will need that board, and then there is are 2 addon boards that I need with it.

One is the PWM2HAPP which basically allows me to plug in the Happ motor in the Rush 2049 cabinet directly to the board, and then a specific Rush 2049 adapter that will allow me to plug all of the Rush 2049 cables directly to the board. The price of all this is $230, which seems pretty fair to me.

Then on top of that I'll need a PC and an LCD monitor if I want to run modern games, which I am going to do.

I priced everything out and it'll be around $700ish for everything, per cabinet if I do both of em, which if I got one running I'd do the other for sure.

Here is the board:



That taller part on the right side is the PWM2HAPP add on that will allow my motor to be plug/play. Then where you see the "Speed Up" thing on the top left, that is the "add on" board specific to that game that allows for plug/play for it, and they make a specific one for Rush 2049 as well.

 

[FrizzleFried]

I have a spare Immersion PCB that I was going to use (I have another in my NFS cabinet) on the project. From what I've read, it's the easiest way to get the PC to see a wheel... but I only went down the hole a little...

 

[purbeast]

I have a spare Immersion PCB that I was going to use (I have another in my NFS cabinet) on the project. From what I've read, it's the easiest way to get the PC to see a wheel... but I only went down the hole a little...

To me personally, I wouldn't even bother with this project if I couldn't get force feedback. Without that, racing games on wheels aren't that fun.

When you say "to see a wheel" does that include FFB as well?

 

[FrizzleFried]

I do believe so... again... I've not dived very far in to it once I realized just how much of a pain in the ass it would be. Plus, my NFS is running all 3 version s of NFS so I'm good with it now. Maybe one day when it dies I'll start toying with it... maybe.

 

[Pondscum]

Power drift UR doesn't have ffb, so I just needed to connect the three axis pots for steering, brake, and gas.

 

[Bobwiley]

Whats great about rush 2049 is it has the 4 speed shifter, gas, break, clutch, reverse button, abort and view buttons. So pretty much any game could fit for controls.

I thought about this as well. I agree about the force feedback. Without that, it's disappointing. Also, rush 2049 is sooo good in terms of handling and gameplay, lots of other games pale in comparison (looking at yiu Raw Thrills!). I really wanted a Pixar Cars. FINALLY played one two weeks ago... what a let down! No one in in the family wanted to play it again and everyone loves the Cars movie/franchise. The modern Cruisn is also sort of similar, its very chaotic, but gameplay pales in comparison to Rush.

I guess for me I need a list of games that would be compatible with features, linkable, be repeatable long term in the cabinet, and better than/more fun than a console version (thinking Mario Kart here. Would two player Mario kart be more fun than 4 player on a home system like Wii?).

I guess in my head candidates would be the earlier Rush games, earlier cruisin games, Initial D, and maybe Daytona USA or something...

I vote do it it terms of fun to tackle a project. But for practicality, I would need the other stuff. I've seriously wanted to/considered going down the rabbit hole, but my time is so limited these days. But if yours goes smoothly (and I get my SGS project done) I'd consider following your journey myself!


What would be great is if we could MAKE custom cars for Rush 2049. That's what I would kill for. Give me the cars in other games and let me cruise around on the Rush 2049 tracks. Seriously. Imagine if we could put a Delorean or the car in your garage in the game. Even the original cars in Rush. I would spend the time in Microsoft Paint if someone could make new car models in Rush. I would play Rush 2049 with the car from Outrun.

if someone could let us edit the buildings, I would make a whole new facade for one of the tracks. Would be sooooooo amazing!

Good luck going down the rabbit hole!

 

[purbeast]

Whats great about rush 2049 is it has the 4 speed shifter, gas, break, clutch, reverse button, abort and view buttons. So pretty much any game could fit for controls.

I thought about this as well. I agree about the force feedback. Without that, it's disappointing. Also, rush 2049 is sooo good in terms of handling and gameplay, lots of other games pale in comparison (looking at yiu Raw Thrills!). I really wanted a Pixar Cars. FINALLY played one two weeks ago... what a let down! No one in in the family wanted to play it again and everyone loves the Cars movie/franchise. The modern Cruisn is also sort of similar, its very chaotic, but gameplay pales in comparison to Rush.

I guess for me I need a list of games that would be compatible with features, linkable, be repeatable long term in the cabinet, and better than/more fun than a console version (thinking Mario Kart here. Would two player Mario kart be more fun than 4 player on a home system like Wii?).

I guess in my head candidates would be the earlier Rush games, earlier cruisin games, Initial D, and maybe Daytona USA or something...

I vote do it it terms of fun to tackle a project. But for practicality, I would need the other stuff. I've seriously wanted to/considered going down the rabbit hole, but my time is so limited these days. But if yours goes smoothly (and I get my SGS project done) I'd consider following your journey myself!


What would be great is if we could MAKE custom cars for Rush 2049. That's what I would kill for. Give me the cars in other games and let me cruise around on the Rush 2049 tracks. Seriously. Imagine if we could put a Delorean or the car in your garage in the game. Even the original cars in Rush. I would spend the time in Microsoft Paint if someone could make new car models in Rush. I would play Rush 2049 with the car from Outrun.

if someone could let us edit the buildings, I would make a whole new facade for one of the tracks. Would be sooooooo amazing!

Good luck going down the rabbit hole!

I will definitely post a log on here if I go down this route, similar to how I did with my Maximum Force multi JAMMA light gun cab and have kind of done with turning that into the light gun emulation cabinet now.

My 4 year old LOVES Pixar Cars and that is one game I am wondering if it can be emulated. Both of my kids like playing Mario Kart when we go to D&B so I could see it being fun to be able to play that at home, especially if linked together. I do know that the software to link machines together is all there too. The guys who created this stuff showed me a few videos, one was a 6 way linked Daytona 2 setup, all running linked together but running PCs inside of em. It's pretty damn cool.

One thing I forgot to mention is that those guys already have orders out to July. So at the earliest, if I ordered the boards today, I would get them at some point probably late July at the earliest.

I am putting up a few of my gun PCBs for sale on here and if I can get those sold within a couple weeks I will use that to fund this project. I also have some more rare light gun boards that I am going to be putting up as well but I want to be sure I can get those running flawlessly in my emulation cabinet before doing so. Like Carnevil stutters in the sound a bit on MAME for me but I heard it's because it is CPU intense, and my buddy is sending me an upgraded CPU/RAM I just haven't gotten it yet to test out. Once I can verify that works, I can put that board up for sale.

 

[Bobwiley]

For Pixar Cars the two the things lacking we noticed was there was no force feedback and my wife said it felt like the computer did most of the driving (I think it's because it's closed track vs. more open world environment of Rush 2049). Those might be settings or a malfunction of the arcade though. Maybe the force feedback motor (if it has it as an option) wasn't working. Perhaps the difficulty level can be changed for cars as well to match more of the "realistic" feel of Rush.

Do you know if you could keep the 4:3 monitors? I think the original Mario Kart had a crt... but don't quote me on that. I don't know if there are newer racing games past the CRT era I would need to have If I did the swap... Probably the newer Initial D games, but I've never played any of those.

I might be game for partnering up and doing a conversion with ya' in Fall/Winter, assuming I get my other projects done first! But yeah, I don't want to really ditch the CRTs... I'd really have to be sold on it.

Do you have 2 cabinets?

It's really great you found some good info on conversions! Super excited for ya!

P.s. saw your for sale post on the Time Crisis, nice job on the Jamma conversion!

 

[purbeast]

For Pixar Cars the two the things lacking we noticed was there was no force feedback and my wife said it felt like the computer did most of the driving (I think it's because it's closed track vs. more open world environment of Rush 2049). Those might be settings or a malfunction of the arcade though. Maybe the force feedback motor (if it has it as an option) wasn't working. Perhaps the difficulty level can be changed for cars as well to match more of the "realistic" feel of Rush.

Do you know if you could keep the 4:3 monitors? I think the original Mario Kart had a crt... but don't quote me on that. I don't know if there are newer racing games past the CRT era I would need to have If I did the swap... Probably the newer Initial D games, but I've never played any of those.

I might be game for partnering up and doing a conversion with ya' in Fall/Winter, assuming I get my other projects done first! But yeah, I don't want to really ditch the CRTs... I'd really have to be sold on it.

Do you have 2 cabinets?

It's really great you found some good info on conversions! Super excited for ya!

P.s. saw your for sale post on the Time Crisis, nice job on the Jamma conversion!

I plan on getting LCD's and replacing the CRTs with them unfortunately. All of the modern games are on LCD in HD and 16:9 so I want to be compatible with those and will have to go to the darkside in that aspect.

I do own 2 cabinets. My plan was to try this on one and if I get it going, then I'll do the other one. However I may just do them in tandem because right now the wait on parts is at least 2 months for those boards, so I might just get 2 sets of parts at once and go from there.

Thanks about the Time Crisis conversion. That was a fun project but in all honesty, it was pretty damn simple. It was really my first time looking and paying attention at schematics, and it was just finding out where all the pins on the JAMMA harness fall onto the pinout of Time Crisis. They are kind of all over the place and required some specific molex connectors but it worked out pretty well and nice I also did the same on Friction which I am going to be putting up for sale at some point shortly as well.

 

[Asteroids]

Turning my light gun cabinet into a light gun emulation machine has now kind of intrigued me to possibly doing the same with my Rush 2049 cabinets, or at least looking into it for one of them and experimenting with it. They hardly get any play right now from me or my kids but if I turned them into a multi-racer cabinet with modern racers as well, I could see that changing, especially if I had games on there they see in Dave and Busters.

My buddy pointed me to this thread here on reddit

Apparently there is this PWM2M2 board that can be used in tandem with the real arcade hardware, to interface with a PC. It looks a bit involved to make it work but it could also be super clean if it interfaces with a PC with factory controls. What I would have to do at this point though, which hurts, is put an LCD in there. However I would be sure IF i went that route, that I could go back to all original hardware if I wanted to. But if I was able to get modern racers working on there, then I would need a higher res than what I have in there right now anyways, and those games are meant for 16:9 HD monitors anyways.

So just curious - has anyone gone this route before? If so, did you like the project and how did it turn out? Did you use original hardware or did you just get a PC wheel/pedals and go with that?

I did with a empty california speed cab, I just used a thrustmaster wheel and pedals to a PC , put a 33" lcd, I used that craft black foam board to surround the monitor , then had smoke glass cut for the front, all you see is the display and everything is blacked out..
for the wheel I used some 3/4 ply and made a mount for the wheel

 

[purbeast]

I did with a empty california speed cab, I just used a thrustmaster wheel and pedals to a PC , put a 33" lcd, I used that craft black foam board to surround the monitor , then had smoke glass cut for the front, all you see is the display and everything is blacked out..
for the wheel I used some 3/4 ply and made a mount for the wheel

Do you have any pics with the monitor turned on? And do you have a link to that foam board stuff you used? That is something that concerns me to be honest - how it looks with the LCD in there. I saw a post on here where someone added plexi to the bezel to give it a curved look for the glass and protection of the LCD which looked decent but yours also looks nice.

How did you fit a 33" LCD in there? Was it originally a 27" CRT in there?

 

[jcar302]

While maybe not apples to apples since i don't know the size of other racing games, I installed an lcd in my crusin, it was a 31.5 (i looked up it up on my ebay purchases) and i had to remove the case, cut it back on both sides and then reinstall the case.
If you reinstall the plastic monitor bezel, honestly it looks just fine.

I would have preferred to keep the crt, but it was necked before i owned it and i wasn't investing that kind of time and money on it.