Run MAME on a Beach Head 2000 machine??

john2654

Well-known member

Donor 3 years: 2011, 2020, 2024
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Messages
6,426
Reaction score
1,272
Location
Rhinelander, Wisconsin
I have a Beach Head 2000 machine. I'm not sure if there is a lot of love for this title.

Was wondering, since there is a PC inside that is running XP, can one install MAME to also play other trackball games? Or would the USB to trackball/ button device differ from MAME controls?
 
Maybe. Depends if you can get to xp or if the machine isn't locked down to that hard disk. If it isn't I'd try a hard drive switcher or build one yourself(look online) and load windows or linux on a second drive and not mess with the first. That way you could boot it up to the mame drive or the beach head one.
 
Not sure what the headset is. You mean the monitor. Then yes, you can see it boot up and then there must be an autorun command to run Beach Head. If I control alt delete I can end the task and return to Windows.

Was just wondering if the buttons were able to be configured for fire buttons in MAME. Guess I will just have to play around with it.
 
Oh, the helmet versions of that were in the 2002 and later versions:
beachhead.jpg



This is mine:
attachment.php
 
Last edited:
Can you restart the beachhead game once you kill the process? If so, you could probably install mame and use a front end like MALA to switch between the native game and mame. Be ready to figure out how to set native resolutions for all the mame games if you want the best quality. Does the trackball act as a mouse when you kill beachhead?
 
Yeah, it acts like a mouse in Windows.
And I am able to restart Beach Head from within Windows.
 
Then you can just setup mame with all the track ball games and then run mala front end and set Beachhead to run as a separate emulator. How does the system shut down? Does the toggle just pull power from the PC or is there some sort of shutdown process the computer does?
 
There isn't any kind of shutdown switch, so it is just a hard power off. Probably not the best.
 
There was an Operation Blockade at the bowling alley I used to work at. It was a hell of a lot of fun but it was set for a buck a play. The game was new at the time. I looked in the cabinet just to see what was in there. It was just the PC with XP and some USB "key" for copy protection. Great game to play but it was kind of crazy to watch people play it. Another wierd thing about it was that the monitor was for attraction purposes and all. With the helmet, the monitor is not necessary to play the game. Same thing with Silent Scope.
 
Back
Top Bottom