The other iCade (mini-cabinet), does anyone have one?

turtle7

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The other iCade (mini-cabinet), does anyone have one?

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Does anyone have one? Is it good for kids?

How does it play considering it's probably very light?
 

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I have the one pictured on the right, i use it often and it works great, keeps me from trying to buy more cabs....:p

I would like to swap out the micro switches for leafs though.

Oh I'll add that my 13 yr old plays it a bunch, not sure if it would be good for small children as the iPad is just resting in there and not tightly secured, if you were to secure it someway I think it would work for smaller kids fine as it pretty durable (the icade itself).
 
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I have the one on the right from last year's BB&B post-XMas sale.

Still haven't bothered to get an iPad to play with it. :p

But it does seem to be very well constructed. If nothing else it is the ultimate charging cradle for the arcade fanboy. :D

EDIT: Hmm wait... come to think of it I forget if the controls are wireless and connect to 110VAC, or if they're wired and the 110VAC is for charging...
 
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xxstatic, thank you. That's enough for me to go and make one. I'll be making it for Android though.

Hope you don't mind answering some more questions...


Connection with the joystick and buttons, is wired or wireless?

Anything you wish it was there, do you see a way to improve it?

Is joystick USB device, could you plug mouse or keyboard instead?

You have support for tilt sensor (accelerometer) in that MAME build?

Is there TV-OUT on your tablet, digital or analog via 3.5mm audio jack?



P.S.
Perhaps you could add some clips on the top lid to secure the tablet, a clip that would grab the tablet when you close the lid, and possibly some springs on the lid to keep pulling it down and in the same time keep pressing the tablet to the bottom, or something.
 
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If nothing else it is the ultimate charging cradle for the arcade fanboy. :D

Exactly, I though even if it doesn't play well I'd make one just for decoration and charging station, since I always walk over my stuff laying around the floor while charging.


Can you look through its bottom to see what kind of connection is it? Joystick is regular arcade stick, plugged in some type of adapter I guess?

The controls panel, can it be opened up? How easy would it be to re-wire that thing, change the joystick or buttons?
 
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xxstatic, thank you. That's enough for me to go and make one. I'll be making it for Android though.

Hope you don't mind answering some more questions...


Connection with the joystick and buttons, is wired or wireless?

Anything you wish it was there, do you see a way to improve it?

Is joystick USB device, could you plug mouse or keyboard instead?

You have support for tilt sensor (accelerometer) in that MAME build?

Is there TV-OUT on your tablet, digital or analog via 3.5mm audio jack?



P.S.
Perhaps you could add some clips on the top lid to secure the tablet, a clip that would grab the tablet when you close the lid, and possibly some springs on the lid to keep pulling it down and in the same time keep pressing the tablet to the bottom, or something.

The control panel is Bluetooth connected to the iPad, adding keyboards and such through Bluetooth can be done if needed. It would have been nice if it were truly "dock able" to the icade, it pretty much just sits in it at an angle with nothing holding the iPad in place, horizontally it sits in a rail on the front edge but is just held in place by gravity.
I have a power cable that can be ran up through the slot in it when it sits in its vertical position, horizontally its not hidden while plugged in.
I think anything that can hold the tablet in place without looking like its being held (like exposed straps and clips) would be a huge improvement.
The Bluetooth controls work great and have been happy with them so far.

I can do tv out with a rgb cable I have for the iPad, not aware if imame4all supports the tilt sensor, could be but I haven't noticed a setting for it.
 
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I'm glad to hear you see no problems with Bluetooth connection, it's the simplest way to connect various controllers on Android devices as well.

So, with TV-OUT port, have you thought of trying that tablet in a full-size arcade cabinet? That's what I'm working on right now since I already have big ones, then I'll just scale everything down for the "mini-me" version of it.


You say "RGB" cable, I think you meant composite "RCA" (yellow, red, white), for use with ordinary TVs. Sure it would be cool if it was RGB and if you could plug it directly into arcade monitor!!! In any case, have you tried any arcade games with that cable on whatever type of CRT display, and what would you say about the picture quality, colors and scroll smoothness?
 
I'm glad to hear you see no problems with Bluetooth connection, it's the simplest way to connect various controllers on Android devices as well.

So, with TV-OUT port, have you thought of trying that tablet in a full-size arcade cabinet? That's what I'm working on right now since I already have big ones, then I'll just scale everything down for the "mini-me" version of it.


You say "RGB" cable, I think you meant composite "RCA" (yellow, red, white), for use with ordinary TVs. Sure it would be cool if it was RGB and if you could plug it directly into arcade monitor!!! In any case, have you tried any arcade games with that cable on whatever type of CRT display, and what would you say about the picture quality, colors and scroll smoothness?

The cable I have is RGB and RCA combined, I use the RGB when I do,The ipads can do wireless "mirroring" via an Apple tv box but I'm not quite there yet, there also is an HDMI adapter if you want to go that route.

Never thought of running a cabinet from it but from the looks of it its quite doable.

Wrong forum asshat

Wrong site non-asshat.
 
The control panel is Bluetooth connected to the iPad, adding keyboards and such through Bluetooth can be done if needed.

I can do tv out with a rgb cable I have for the iPad, not aware if imame4all supports the tilt sensor, could be but I haven't noticed a setting for it.

If you have the 3rd generation iPad, it can run mame4ios which runs a version of mame 0.139 targeted for the faster processor which is a lot more recent than the code used in imame4all.
 
why would you want to stick a tablet with a vga out into an arcade cabinet.. The average tablet worth a damn is more expensive than a repurposed pc setup already.
 
Wrong forum asshat

Sir, you insult me, I challenge you to a duel!! Pistols at dawn?


Why wrong forum? It's the same thing as putting 60-in-1 in a cabinet: same MAME build, same hardware architecture, only different video and input connectors. So, just because you need to use adapter you think it does not qualify as "arcade game" PCB?
 
why would you want to stick a tablet with a vga out into an arcade cabinet.. The average tablet worth a damn is more expensive than a repurposed pc setup already.

Good question. Some Android devices like Samsung Galaxy S have video out function via 3.5mm audio jack to composite RCA that can be plugged in any CRT. Since I already have Samsung Galaxy S and I already have empty cabinets with busted monitors I only had to buy an ordinary CRT-TV for $5 bucks to make a cabinet operational again, while otherwise I'd have to buy arcade monitor+multigame PCB. So, I just saved around $300, right? What I get compared to, say 60-in-1 is more games, better sound and online world wide scoreboard.

Time flies my friend, you'd be right about the price if you said it only a year ago, but today... Chinese Android tablet with 1GHz CPU + PowerVR GPU = $140 USD NEW! http://www.thedeal.co.nz/7-capaciti...tdTmoGagA=&cid=j1EI11jqjgk=&rcid=hUqK3AAUS7c= -- This thing is as good as my desktop computer few years back, and with double its power it would be good enough to replace my current desktop computer.


So, to answer your question fully, it's not only the price is low and getting lower, but everyone will have these devices anyway, sooner or later, and lots of people already have them. Sure, you will always be able to make it cheaper with a PC, but you don't get to use a PC outside the cabinet, you don't get online world wide scoreboard, and PC MAME sucks. See this to see how fun is to play arcade games on Android outside the cabinet with sensor controls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv0ri_CI-R0
 
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