Forget XXX-in-1, Give me MAME!!!!

[Tonym]

can original spinners/track balls be made to work with a pc?

 

[smalltownguy2]

I've got a Happ Trackball and a Turbo Twist 2 spinner mounted on my MAME cab. The trackball works great. It gets a lot of use with the Golden Tee family, as well as Centipede.

The spinner is used mainly for Arkanoid at the moment, but I will be getting a weight for the bottom of it (for extended spin time - think tempest) and Groovy Game Gear makes a steering wheel that drops on top of it which will allow me to get my driving fix when I need it.

I've got an Aimtrak light gun on it too, so I can shoot stuff

My MAME cab gets the most game play now, but that's b/c my Ms Pac cab is under restoration. 90% of my game play on that cab is Ms Pac.

I have a love/hate affair with my MAME cab. It's never done. Ever. I'm constantly fiddling with menus, front ends, game lists, game control setups, etc.

Then my buddy will come over and say, "Do you have <insert game here>?

So we launch it in MAME and of course it's never been run before, so none of the controls are configured or mapped correctly. So I bring up the configuration men, start mapping controls......and my buddy's lost interst. He's already playing Arkanoid or Double Dragon on my JAMMA cabs.

So yes, there's a lot of allure with MAME. But I'd guess that 90% of folks who are using it don't have it in cabs that would be considered 'complete' by an average dedicated player; meaning they could walk up, turn it on, coin up, and just start playing.

EDIT: found an older pic of my workshop. You can just see part of the control panel on my Rolling Thunder MAME cab. 2 sticks, 6 buttons per stick, trackball. My spinner is mounted where the right side red button is in the pic now:

 

[Paul Olson]

The optical board on the Tron spinner is not compatible. There are tutorials online to hack it, but I wouldn't bother. There is a guy on BYOAC that sells optical boards pretty cheap. You can hook up any optical device to an Optipac from Ultimarc, or a few other options (the optipac is the only one I know for sure will do both active high and active low device).

The Tempest spinner will work as is with the Optipac, but you will have to adjust the sensitivity settings since it used a really large encoder disk.

Any Trackball will work with the optipac.

 

[PrairieDillo]

Then what are you doing here?

You should feel right at home over at:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php

Ken has spoke.... +1

I don't mine MAME as a side project but nothing has perfected the beauty of a dedicated. It's about the cab and the art and the experience.

Arcade Shop multi boards are still ok in my book. I try not to overload it with games or put in stuff there that doesn't fit the control panel.

 

[DanoND]

http://www.tiptonware.com

Boot PC, plug in drive, play MAME. No more front end crap, no more configs, all the games. Saves a ton of time.

I love/hate my MAME cab, too. It gets most of the play, but I'd sell it in a heartbeat compared to my restored classics.

 

[nesjess]

http://www.tiptonware.com

Boot PC, plug in drive, play MAME. No more front end crap, no more configs, all the games. Saves a ton of time.

I love/hate my MAME cab, too. It gets most of the play, but I'd sell it in a heartbeat compared to my restored classics.

Interesting. I know some guys bank off of selling MAME rom set hard drives, but this guy is banking off of Hyperspin? That's kind of jacked. Haha.

 

[cleverlyj]

Then what are you doing here?

You should feel right at home over at:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php

agreed. personally, i don't really care for the 60-1 or mame, either way. mame was great to play on my pc back in the 90's when i wasn't living on my own and didn't have the cash or the realization that you could own games. i do have mame on my laptop these days, but only really use it for checking for possible problems with roms when i see something funky in one of my games.

 

[Scotty]

Ken has spoke.... +1

I don't mine MAME as a side project but nothing has perfected the beauty of a dedicated. It's about the cab and the art and the experience.

Arcade Shop multi boards are still ok in my book. I try not to overload it with games or put in stuff there that doesn't fit the control panel.

Once again.....

*** I DO NOT OWN A MAME CABINET!!! I OWN A MS. PAC-MAN, A DUAL MONITOR PLAYCHOICE 10, AND A FINAL BLOW. ALL IN DEDICATED CABINETS!!! ***

Nor do I own a 60-in-1.

But my conclusion after playing both, is *** WHY WOULD SOMEONE USE A 60-IN-1 WITH ALL THE PROBLEMS IT HAS, AND NOT USE MAME *** ?????

 

[FrizzleFried]

The quick and easy answer: Simplicity

 

[Tonym]

If your mapping controlls for every game then your not doing it right. Yes you can make your own map for every game but you can also make one controll map for every game all at once. I have a default setting for up down left right buttons 1-6 start select and coin1 and the same for player 2.

 

[cadillacman]

mame is cool. It really is. Its a neat way to play some rare titles that we will never get out hands on.

However, this is why we HATE mame here..

http://wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/1.html

 

[2600]

mame is cool. It really is. Its a neat way to play some rare titles that we will never get out hands on.

However, this is why we HATE mame here..

http://wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/1.html

I'll see your crapmame and raise you T&F Guy

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=161061
http://cgi.ebay.com/PUNCH-OUT-MAME-PC-MULTI-ARCADE-MACHINE-/320629011371?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aa6fa73ab

Those aren't MAMEs fault though. Dumb and lazy individuals are on both sides of the fence.

I vote for Frizz's response for 75% of the people, but would add cost in as well. Add a dash of lazy and pinch of people who have trouble with computers and the percentage will rise to about 95%.

 

[smalltownguy2]

If your mapping controlls for every game then your not doing it right. Yes you can make your own map for every game but you can also make one controll map for every game all at once. I have a default setting for up down left right buttons 1-6 start select and coin1 and the same for player 2.

I am using the standard 1-6 layout. Unfortunately many games do not use button layouts that are conducive to the 'japanese fighter style' layout I used. For example, Mortal Kombat, a 5 button game, doesn't map correctly, since it just uses buttons 1-5. But on my layout:

1-2-3
4-5-6

I want high/low punch to be buttons 3 and 6, and high/low kick to be buttons 1 and 4. Buttons 2 and 5 can both be mapped to 'block.'

In MAME, buttons 1 and 2 are punch, button 3 is block, and buttons 4 and 5 are kick. Totally doesn't make any sense for the layout that is correct to the original arcade layout.

I could go on, but I think the point is made. (Crazy Climber)

 

[joeycuda]

Here's my thinking-

I'd like to do a Taito cabinet, with ALL of the classic Taito games, so not so sure about a multi-board, because it doesn't contain the odd ones like Alpine Ski, etc..and doesn't give me as many game-setup options.

With MAME, I could just have just the Taito games in a classic Taito cabinet, but then seems pointless to have MAME in a cabinet, but not every single game available.

So, if I was to do a MAME cabinet, I'd want the 25", 4 joysticks, etc...why not?

With all of that, I sit and do nothing. I may build a MAME next day, but I think the strength of emulation might be having an original cabinet, but emulating an expensive/hard to find/or hard to keep working boardset out of necessity or parts obsolescence.

 

[jehuie]

Here's my thinking-

I'd like to do a Taito cabinet, with ALL of the classic Taito games, so not so sure about a multi-board, because it doesn't contain the odd ones like Alpine Ski, etc..and doesn't give me as many game-setup options.

With MAME, I could just have just the Taito games in a classic Taito cabinet, but then seems pointless to have MAME in a cabinet, but not every single game available.

So, if I was to do a MAME cabinet, I'd want the 25", 4 joysticks, etc...why not?

With all of that, I sit and do nothing. I may build a MAME next day, but I think the strength of emulation might be having an original cabinet, but emulating an expensive/hard to find/or hard to keep working boardset out of necessity or parts obsolescence.

You could put all the games in your Taito cab but restrict the default list to just the Taito games. And then when nobody is looking you can switch over to the full game menu to play other fun games too.

 

[joeycuda]

You could put all the games in your Taito cab but restrict the default list to just the Taito games. And then when nobody is looking you can switch over to the full game menu to play other fun games too.

I could actually see doing that. I think I'd like to build a new classic Taito cab out of MDF, put MAME in it, limit the games like you said, and print up some generic Taito style bezel and cp artwork. Probably throw a Jungle King or something marquee in it. I bet it would take me months to get r done, so I don't see it happening soon.

 

[Paul Olson]

I am using the standard 1-6 layout. Unfortunately many games do not use button layouts that are conducive to the 'japanese fighter style' layout I used. For example, Mortal Kombat, a 5 button game, doesn't map correctly, since it just uses buttons 1-5. But on my layout:

1-2-3
4-5-6

I want high/low punch to be buttons 3 and 6, and high/low kick to be buttons 1 and 4. Buttons 2 and 5 can both be mapped to 'block.'

In MAME, buttons 1 and 2 are punch, button 3 is block, and buttons 4 and 5 are kick. Totally doesn't make any sense for the layout that is correct to the original arcade layout.

I could go on, but I think the point is made. (Crazy Climber)

Start Mortal Kombat, then hit tab. Select Input (This Game). Highlight the button you want to remap, then hit enter. Then hit the button you want to use for that input. Once they are all mapped, escape out of the tab menu, and enjoy!

 

[Token420]

Start Mortal Kombat, then hit tab. Select Input (This Game). Highlight the button you want to remap, then hit enter. Then hit the button you want to use for that input. Once they are all mapped, escape out of the tab menu, and enjoy!

Whoa! That's way too much work to configure and enjoy a game.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Start Mortal Kombat, then hit tab. Select Input (This Game). Highlight the button you want to remap, then hit enter. Then hit the button you want to use for that input. Once they are all mapped, escape out of the tab menu, and enjoy!

Oh, I'm pretty familiar with how to remap controls.

Here's the problem:

In the controls menu in MAME, you get to choose between 'P1 button1' and P1 button2, and 'P1 button3' etc etc

So while I KNOW how to remap the controls, sometimes it's tough to determine what P1 button1 actually DOES in the game itself. It requires that I map it, exit, test, and potentially remap. Sure the whole process only takes about 1-2 minutes, but that's an eternity when your buddy is waiting to play a game. Like I said, he's moved on to my dedicated machines.

Once I get a game mapped the way I want, I move it to my personal game list. That way I can leave a list on my front end knowing that it can just be run without issue. Now, when someone asks me if I have <insert game here> I say, "yes I do, but since I've never run it before it may take a few minutes to program the controls to my layout - you wanna wait?"

 

[2600]

Oh, I'm pretty familiar with how to remap controls.

Here's the problem:

In the controls menu in MAME, you get to choose between 'P1 button1' and P1 button2, and 'P1 button3' etc etc

So while I KNOW how to remap the controls, sometimes it's tough to determine what P1 button1 actually DOES in the game itself. It requires that I map it, exit, test, and potentially remap. Sure the whole process only takes about 1-2 minutes, but that's an eternity when your buddy is waiting to play a game. Like I said, he's moved on to my dedicated machines.

Do you have a default map setup that would cover most of the games in addition to the mapping per game? Or do you just map per game?