MAME for driving games?

coinopper

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It doesn't seem MAME is very driver-friendly. Most of the newer games still aren't emulated, and even with older games like Pole Position and Hard Drivin there doesn't seem to be any way to properly configure the gear shifter. I know there's several different alternate MAME programs out there, but is there one specifically for driving games?
 
Xbox has tons of driving games on disc that are emulated very well. If you were to adapt one of these for a cabinet, then you'd be set. Someone here has a modded Xbox in a driving cockpit that they love. I think it's Gozer but I'm not sure.
 
minwah over at byoac put together a driver mame a while back. It is compiled with the pole position shifter support enabled. He also tweaked the settings a bit so the driving games play a little better. I think the main limit on the newer games is cpu speed. I have seen a coupe videos of sf rush running pretty well, but I think they were running on a pc overclocked to around 4.5GHz, and even with that, it took a lot of tweaking.

There is also the problem of needing different steering wheels. Pole Position and a lot of the older ones are basically just a spinner. The 3d games are usually analog and restricted to 270 degrees.

It is pretty difficult to get a cab set up to play them all. Also, the mame team will not add a game that is still making money in the arcades, so that will also limit the newer ones added. The racers seem to have a much longer profit life than the other games.
 
Xbox has tons of driving games on disc that are emulated very well. If you were to adapt one of these for a cabinet, then you'd be set. Someone here has a modded Xbox in a driving cockpit that they love. I think it's Gozer but I'm not sure.
This^ Running an XBOX in a cab with Midway Arcade Treasures 3.

Here's Gozer's setup, it's freaking sweet.

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 has these driving games on it.

Badlands
Off Road Thunder
Race Drivin'
San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition
S.T.U.N. Runner
Super Off Road (and its upgrade, Super Off Road Track Pack)
Hydro Thunder
San Francisco Rush 2049
 
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Midway Arcade Treasures 3 has these driving games on it.

Badlands
Off Road Thunder
Race Drivin'
San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition
S.T.U.N. Runner
Super Off Road (and its upgrade, Super Off Road Track Pack)
Hydro Thunder
San Francisco Rush 2049


I bought this for the PS2 for my wife (who loves Hydro Thunder) and picked up a PS2 steering/gas setup. then i found out the games don't allow you to use a steering wheel with it...
 
I bought this for the PS2 for my wife (who loves Hydro Thunder) and picked up a PS2 steering/gas setup. then i found out the games don't allow you to use a steering wheel with it...
Wow that blows. At least there's still the Need for Speed games.
 
I bought this for the PS2 for my wife (who loves Hydro Thunder) and picked up a PS2 steering/gas setup. then i found out the games don't allow you to use a steering wheel with it...

I've got it running on XBOX. I can get all but The Race Driven to work perfectly with the Madcatz MC2. Which steering setup are you using?

Hydro Thunder is a blast to play with the steering setup!
 
I've got it running on XBOX. I can get all but The Race Driven to work perfectly with the Madcatz MC2. Which steering setup are you using?

Hydro Thunder is a blast to play with the steering setup!
I just noticed he got it on the PS2. That may be the issue. I ♥ XBOX.
 
I just noticed he got it on the PS2. That may be the issue. I ♥ XBOX.

XBOX is the way to go, for sure. MC2 supports PS2, XBOX, and Gamecube. That's just the way to go, hands down. Steering calibration is necessary on this disc, as Hydro Thunder will require a nice tight band range while Rush should be a little looser.
 
minwah over at byoac put together a driver mame a while back. It is compiled with the pole position shifter support enabled. He also tweaked the settings a bit so the driving games play a little better. I think the main limit on the newer games is cpu speed. I have seen a coupe videos of sf rush running pretty well, but I think they were running on a pc overclocked to around 4.5GHz, and even with that, it took a lot of tweaking.

There is also the problem of needing different steering wheels. Pole Position and a lot of the older ones are basically just a spinner. The 3d games are usually analog and restricted to 270 degrees.

It is pretty difficult to get a cab set up to play them all. Also, the mame team will not add a game that is still making money in the arcades, so that will also limit the newer ones added. The racers seem to have a much longer profit life than the other games.

Sounds like XBOX is the way to go for newer driving games, but there's a lot of racing games, going all the way back to the early black&white games by Atari. According to the info here on KLOV, there's 332 different driving and racing games, between 1974 and 2006. I was hoping to build an all-in-one cabinet but I guess that's pretty much impossible, so I'd like to focus on all the games that aren't supported on XBOX, esp those that use a spinner-type wheel. I found a program called Mame Compiler 64 that supposedly will let you reconfigure MAME but not being a programmer, I have no idea how to go about modifying MAME to "fix" the driving controls. I'll try contacting minwah about his MAME driver, thanks!
 
Sounds like XBOX is the way to go for newer driving games, but there's a lot of racing games, going all the way back to the early black&white games by Atari. According to the info here on KLOV, there's 332 different driving and racing games, between 1974 and 2006. I was hoping to build an all-in-one cabinet but I guess that's pretty much impossible, so I'd like to focus on all the games that aren't supported on XBOX, esp those that use a spinner-type wheel. I found a program called Mame Compiler 64 that supposedly will let you reconfigure MAME but not being a programmer, I have no idea how to go about modifying MAME to "fix" the driving controls. I'll try contacting minwah about his MAME driver, thanks!

Very, very, very tough thing to configure a cabinet to play every kind of driving/ racing game. Some games use different steering. Some games use different style shifters. Some games use more than two pedals and use more than one start button.

I'd say your best bet is to nail down which driving games you like the best, then try to arrange a nice cabinet to work best for the majority of the games you like. If you start building an all encompassing cabinet, you end up with this:
http://unclet.arcadecontrols.com/MomsArcade/MomsArcadeMain.html
 
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