Multi-Game People Please Chime In!

rainman154

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For years I have been planning on building a multi-game like a XXXXXXXXXXXXX in 1 system etc. Reason? I will never have a space big enough to fill all the games I want. So this system is going to be next to my other dedicated games.
Here is my questions...

I know I need a 6 button JAMMA set up, 2 player. Something from like a Street Fighter cab.

What about the monitor size?
Would 19" be the way to go?? Bigger? If I went to something like a 25", would I be giving up graphic quality/ compatibility???

Can anyone who has done work with these chime in please?
 
I really like a 25" monitor in the Dynamo 60/1 I build. If I was to ever keep one that would be it. But in a classic cab leave it a 19" in case someone ever wanted to deconvert it. The graphics doesn't change just pacman gets a lot cooler and bigger.
 
If you want 6 buttons per player, you are probably going to play fighters, and I think all or most of those used a 25" monitor. A 25" horizontally mounted monitor is also great for playing vertical games that used a 19" monitor. The height is almost the same, so it looks normal when playing.
 
Interesting about the monitor size.
I actually do not like the fighter games much at all... see the games I own below.
However, I would play a few games of Mortal Kombat.
I think the 6 buttons is just so I have the option to play.

Hmmm... the cab I was looking at is a Street Fighter II cab with a 19". Wonder if I should hold off for a 25".

So for games like Ghouls N Ghosts or Haunted Castle, having a 25" doesn't take away from the quality? Like I would not want a 25" for Donkey Kong... you know?

Oh, and I would not want a "Classic" cab for this. Something newer.
 
I've built two Blue Elf jamma setups. One was in a standard 19" dynamo, the other was in a 25" z-back. Although I was unimpressed with the boards, I almost preferred the 19" monitor because it shrank alot of the major graphic flaws those boards had.
 
I've built two Blue Elf jamma setups. One was in a standard 19" dynamo, the other was in a 25" z-back. Although I was unimpressed with the boards, I almost preferred the 19" monitor because it shrank alot of the major graphic flaws those boards had.

This is good info. See, that is what I was worried about. I was thinking about the Red Box set up. You say you did not like boards? Why?
 
Look for my Blue Elf jamma review on youtube. It explains why I gave it a "meh". I'm gozer5454 over there too. Havent used the other horizontal multis yet.
 
I used to have a Gamebox (Redbox) 450-in-1 in a Dynamo cut corner cab. 25" monitor. The graphics looked fantastic. I do miss that game and will probably build another sometime in the future.
 
Gozer, GREAT review man.
Anyone that wants to see it check it out here..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvjPJQv9g1Y

You answered a lot of my questions and I was happy to see you put on Ghouls N Ghosts as that is one game I really want to play on this. Games like Ghouls N Ghosts, Haunted Castle, Night Striker etc.

Although, I was not considering the Blue Elf, more the Red Box. You mentioned at the end that you really should have gotten the 450 in 1. Why is that?
Do the games run better the higher up you go?? Say if I got the Games Family Killer Edition 1315 in 1?? Looks like the load time might be much better on the 1315 in 1.
 
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Thanks my man. I've heard better things from people about the gamebox. I was trying to go cheap with the Blue Elf (it also had enough games on it to keep me happy) so I didnt bother getting the higher end one. The thing that pissed me off the most with the Blue Elf was the system16 games all failing. I really really really wanted Altered Beast, so it bothered my that in 2011 they havent figured out how to emulate such a simple game.
 
Interesting. Anyone else with the Red Box or the XXXX in 1?
Now I am kind of leaning towards Games Family Killer Edition 1315 in 1.
 
I'll chime in if you don't mind.

After seeing Gozer's Elf board, I'm glad I never seen or purchased that junk.
In fact I never liked any multi boards because they are too limited and seem to be shit from china. If you are going to do it, do it big. Considering the prices and such, you would want to, and avoid all the other trash out there.

I have a blue xxxx-in-1 board that is basically a PC with a Jamma board converter on it. Yes it's made in china, but it's one of the few parts that come from there worth owning. And there is an actual small community for the xxxxx-in-1 that help run this board into a good direction. Another thing, with this you can add as many games as your HD can fit, and I have about close to 3,000 games. You can also modify the PC to run a 2.8 ghz so games like MK2 and such can run smoothly. (It's a mamed PC, that is all it is) and you can mess with the configuration to set all types of resolutions, scan lines, blazy blazy. For newer games, most of the games are emulated with no difference from the original hardware. There isn't major loading time, glitches, or discoloration that I seen in the video.

Where the cons come in? Many old schoolers will complain about how many of the old games are not emulated properly for lots of different reasons. They are right. At first I really didn't see any difference other than maybe the way it looked. However after aquireing an original classic game, I found out some issues of the emulation not being 100% accurate.

I learned by playing the mame version of Wizard of Wor compared to my original mini. Some of the sounds are not emulated into the game, the wizard is missing a lot of dialog that is in the original game. Plus the music is a bit off, and the graphics look a tad worse/choppy. However that may be from me using a 24 or 25 inch monitor. Some have even complained that the sync of the controls are not 100% accurate. Tron on my SF2 cab will not surfice the original controls.

Other than that, the xxxx-in-1 offers alot, and to me the best multi-board IMHO. Now if you do get a xxxx-in-1 board, stay away from the K7000 monitors because they are very fussy with things like this. I had to get rid of mine and replaced it with a 24" computer monitor. I then went in and tweaked the setting for scan lines and resolutions and made the color settings original. Just as mame is, I have high-score saves, and a save state feature allows me to save hidden characters in UMK3. You may have to juggle some configurations on some games for the controls. That would be the final issue.
 
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Interesting. Anyone else with the Red Box or the XXXX in 1?
Now I am kind of leaning towards Games Family Killer Edition 1315 in 1.

I loved the Redbox. A great list of games and you can turn off the games you don't want. Everything seemed to run pretty much up to speed. Like I said, I would love to build another one of these at some point.
 
For years I have been planning on building a multi-game like a XXXXXXXXXXXXX in 1 system etc. Reason? I will never have a space big enough to fill all the games I want. So this system is going to be next to my other dedicated games.
Here is my questions...

I know I need a 6 button JAMMA set up, 2 player. Something from like a Street Fighter cab.

What about the monitor size?
Would 19" be the way to go?? Bigger? If I went to something like a 25", would I be giving up graphic quality/ compatibility???

Can anyone who has done work with these chime in please?

I say just go with MAME. Get a 25" monitor and you can do both vertical and horizontal games on the same machine. The vert games will be smaller, naturally, but the bigger monitor helps.

Its a little more work getting your ROM's and setting up the front end, but you'll have a pretty much unlimited game selection and a newer version of MAME with better emulation/colors/sound.
 
I have a 2477 in 1 from Paradise Acade in Hawaii and it works great. I am using a 21" 4:3 resolution monitor(hard to find and expensive) and the system works great. Paradise Arcade has made a lot of mods to the orginal system, like fixing the resolution of all the vertical games so they do not stretch, in game menu shutdown, and they have added an extra 1100 games. There maybe a some minor flaws in the emulation, but I could not pick out any. Bottom line great system from Paradise Acrade!
 
I say just go with MAME. Get a 25" monitor and you can do both vertical and horizontal games on the same machine. The vert games will be smaller, naturally, but the bigger monitor helps.

Its a little more work getting your ROM's and setting up the front end, but you'll have a pretty much unlimited game selection and a newer version of MAME with better emulation/colors/sound.

I keep hearing this one. Just build a Mame. So how do you build a MAME that boots up when you power on? Does the gamebox do this? How about the xxxx-in-1? I am tinkering with MAME for the first time and it really seems like a P.I.T.A. I don't want to mess with a keyboard or windows every time I want to play. Please tell me there is a way to do this and how :)
 
I keep hearing this one. Just build a Mame. So how do you build a MAME that boots up when you power on? Does the gamebox do this? How about the xxxx-in-1? I am tinkering with MAME for the first time and it really seems like a P.I.T.A. I don't want to mess with a keyboard or windows every time I want to play. Please tell me there is a way to do this and how :)


www.arcadecontrols.com


Start there.
 

Yeah I have been looking there, as well as Mamedev and others. It seems as though all of them run on Windows. And those running on DOS are not supported. I have a PC to donate to this, but it seems like you have to Start windows and the launch the Mame. I have been tooling around with MameUI32 and that is out of date. The new one requires .net4 and I have yet to install it. My main thing is booting to the games without dealing with a computer. I suppose you could run at windows launch but I want to avoid widows all together as it is a resource hog that seems redundant. How are you running it? Is the Gamebox and xxxx-in-1 running Linux, or ?????
 
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