Q*bert MAME

koolmoecraig

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A lot of people have been bagging on MAME set-ups recently. I built mine a few years ago but I wanted to show what tasteful MAMEing looks like. It uses the Ultimarc Ultrastik which shifts programs depending on which games are loaded(2-way, 4-way, 8-way, Diagonal, Analog, 49-way)


The machine can be swapped back to stock in about 20 minutes.

QBERT002.jpg


QBERT004.jpg


QBERTpanel2.jpg


 
Looks nice. I was just talking in another thread how even a stock Q*Bert panel will make a decent little mame setup.

Are those horizontal titles I see on the menu?
 
PERFECT.

You didnt ruin it, can be easily swapped back, i love it. We hate mame because of all the idiots screwing on 8 foot control panels and shit. Well done on this one. I dig the qbert front end ro whatever you call it there. Nicely done. Never thought id say that about a mame setuup.
 
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Looks nice. I was just talking in another thread how even a stock Q*Bert panel will make a decent little mame setup.

Are those horizontal titles I see on the menu?

Yeah, a few horizontal titles adjust and play perfectly vertically - Moon Patrol, Mario Bros., City Connection, Pepper II, Jungle Hunt to name a few. It's 99% vertical only though. That's the key, accepting the limitations of your set up and optimizing it for whichever screen orientation and panel space that you have. For instance, there isn't any game that I could find that uses more than 3 buttons that I give a crap about.
 
Love City Connection. Last time I checked I owned the only known full machine in the world.

Yeah, a few horizontal titles adjust and play perfectly vertically - Moon Patrol, Mario Bros., City Connection, Pepper II, Jungle Hunt to name a few. It's 99% vertical only though. That's the key, accepting the limitations of your set up and optimizing it for whichever screen orientation and panel space that you have. For instance, there isn't any game that I could find that uses more than 3 buttons that I give a crap about.
 
Love City Connection. Last time I checked I owned the only known full machine in the world.

I always thought it was just a kit?

Definitely one of my all-time favorite games.

That game is a perfect argument for having a MAME machine. Such a wonderful game and only a handful of people have experienced it outside of MAME.
 
Oh, it IS a kit, but as far as I know I am the only one who actually has a kit installed in a machine. Everyone else just has loose boards.
 
That's the key, accepting the limitations of your set up and optimizing it for whichever screen orientation and panel space that you have.

Nail, meet hammer... This is what sets apart a tasteful, fantastic looking semi-stealth Mame cabinet from the craptastic monstrosities with the surfboard control panels that most people associate with Mame. Beautiful job, very well done sir. I also use the Ultimarc Ultrastik in my DK Mame cab, it's awesome.

One question, I can tell from your video that you're running Mala (the "Starting..." window gave it away;)) but your pics show what looks like Hyperspin, but I didn't think that was able to do vertical. It's been awhile since I've been active with anything Mame related, though.
 
How does Pac-Man play with the Ultimarc Ultrastick? How does Mame handle it?
 
How does Pac-Man play with the Ultimarc Ultrastick? How does Mame handle it?

The ultimarc Ultrastik 360 is automatically set to 4 way when pacman is selected.
At least it is when your frontend is compatable with it.
I use Mala and a small program called ultrastik mapper available for it that will switch the joystick ON THE FLY to whatever the game is designed to use. 2 way for Defender, 4 way for pacman, 8 way for Robotron, Diagnals for Qbert...etc.

Awesome joystick. I make sure to get the heavy duty spring.
 
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Looks great! I did the same thing.

Here's my MAME cab:

39.jpg

That's not bad John but myself, I prefer to use a cabinet that doesn't need any modded control panel. I picked a Time Pilot 84 cab that has 1 joystick and 2 fire buttons...plus the 1 and 2 player start buttons of course.
That way, the cabinet looks completely stock and will play most of the vertical games I'm interested in. I don't add spinners or anything to take away the stock look and that way, you don't know it's a mame cab from the outside when looking at it.
 
A lot of people have been bagging on MAME set-ups recently. I built mine a few years ago but I wanted to show what tasteful MAMEing looks like. It uses the Ultimarc Ultrastik which shifts programs depending on which games are loaded(2-way, 4-way, 8-way, Diagonal, Analog, 49-way)

The machine can be swapped back to stock in about 20 minutes.
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That looks fantastic. I'm restoring a Q*Bert that had been converted into a 1942 and am going to do something similar. I don't have any of the electronics and they are a little too expensive to replace right now. The best I can do for now is make it look 96.7% like a stock Q*Bert. Glad to see yours for inspiration.
 
That looks fantastic. I'm restoring a Q*Bert that had been converted into a 1942 and am going to do something similar. I don't have any of the electronics and they are a little too expensive to replace right now. The best I can do for now is make it look 96.7% like a stock Q*Bert. Glad to see yours for inspiration.

Bear Down!
 
Nail, meet hammer... This is what sets apart a tasteful, fantastic looking semi-stealth Mame cabinet from the craptastic monstrosities with the surfboard control panels that most people associate with Mame. Beautiful job, very well done sir. I also use the Ultimarc Ultrastik in my DK Mame cab, it's awesome.

One question, I can tell from your video that you're running Mala (the "Starting..." window gave it away;)) but your pics show what looks like Hyperspin, but I didn't think that was able to do vertical. It's been awhile since I've been active with anything Mame related, though.

The Hyperspin frontend was early in the build. It was really wonky and they dropped support. I use Mala now and it works great.
 
That's not bad John but myself, I prefer to use a cabinet that doesn't need any modded control panel. I picked a Time Pilot 84 cab that has 1 joystick and 2 fire buttons...plus the 1 and 2 player start buttons of course.
That way, the cabinet looks completely stock and will play most of the vertical games I'm interested in. I don't add spinners or anything to take away the stock look and that way, you don't know it's a mame cab from the outside when looking at it.

I actually bought a repro control panel that had the two button holes on it. The original CP is tucked away. It still looks stealthy stock. :)
 
The ultimarc Ultrastik 360 is automatically set to 4 way when pacman is selected.
At least it is when your frontend is compatable with it.
I use Mala and a small program called ultrastik mapper available for it that will switch the joystick ON THE FLY to whatever the game is designed to use. 2 way for Defender, 4 way for pacman, 8 way for Robotron, Diagnals for Qbert...etc.

Awesome joystick. I make sure to get the heavy duty spring.

It doesn't have physical restriction though does it?

How hard is it to set up the stick to automatically switch like that? I might have to bite the bullet for a Mame cab I am working on.
 
They do have some sticks out there now with physical restriction that changes between 4-way and 8-way per game selection.
 
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