thinkin about makin a drivin mame

nuckinfuts68

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ok, first off i hate mame's just as much as the next guy here.... but, space is a bit limited so here is the deal.

been toyin with the idea of turning my Crazy Taxi into a drivin mame. love Crazy Taxi but would love to have more driving games like daytona and such but as most will agree these sitdown drivers take up alot of room. anyway, i know they have opti-pacs for trackballs and spinners and j-pacs and i-pacs for joysticks and such but what the heck do i need for a driving set-up?? thnx in advance for any help.
 
I've pondered the same myself a few times, how to have a multi driver.. My thoughts have drifted towards using a Dreamcast, but I'm almost too much of a purist to do it... It's just not the same. No coin up :(
 
What kind of steering wheel does crazy taxi use?

If it is a pot based one (like Outrun), you could use a sound card with a game port for the two pedals and the steering wheel, (axis 1/2/3 of a joystick). If you didn't want to use a game port, ultimarc has the U-HID that you can use to control up to 8 axes of analog values.

If it is an optical wheel (like Ivan Stewart or a tackball), you can use an opti-pac from Ultimarc or an Opti-Wiz from groovygamegear. I have been really happy with the Opti-wiz myself.

I suspect that it is pot based, but it would be easy enough to check.

Either way, your computer thinks you have connected a 3 axis mouse or a 3 axis joystick (depending on your config), and you just tell mame which axis to map to which analog channel for the games.

Really easy either way.
 
use an xbox homie! that way you can play updated, newer titles as well as emulated games.

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ok, first off i hate mame's just as much as the next guy here.... but, space is a bit limited so here is the deal.

been toyin with the idea of turning my Crazy Taxi into a drivin mame. love Crazy Taxi but would love to have more driving games like daytona and such but as most will agree these sitdown drivers take up alot of room. anyway, i know they have opti-pacs for trackballs and spinners and j-pacs and i-pacs for joysticks and such but what the heck do i need for a driving set-up?? thnx in advance for any help.

Depends on how realistic you like your driving games..... I bought a final lap twin a few years ago to do a dual mame driver and then found out that for the most part, mame driving games pretty much suck.

I setup all the software on two computers, networked them , and then basically loaded up all the cool PC driving games out there. After playing that for awhile, I realized I was playing by myself most of the time and it wasnt that fun.

I got rid of that setup and ended up buying a twin Daytona. If I sell the twin Daytona, the way to go would be a high end steering wheel and pedal set (Force feedback, clutch, etc.) and my PS3.... Console racing is the best way to go IMHO....

You could probably setup a nice original Xbox racer cabinet fairly cheap and be very happy with it...
 
I think because of the variety of wheels in arcade games, driving games are kind of MAME's weak spot. I'd personally run a powerful PC and run stuff like Outrun 2006, Need for Speed: Shift, Dirt2 & Grid. You could still run the MAME stuff too, but wouldn't be crippled by it.
 
the xbox driving cab is an idea i've been thinking about for awhile too. mame and newer race games all in one.
 
I was looking into doing that - how about a writeup an what you did, how it works, etc?

I didn't make much of a journal on it, just a couple pages of wiring notes and such. I snapped some pictures of the cab as it was being gutted and fit back together. I slapped those together on a youtube slideshow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjvqYsa2fTw

I've got several videos showing the game being put to use, here's a good one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTM9GbqvEnA

Now, I used old-ass original XBOX's to keep the costs down, but there's no reason why someone couldn't throw 360's in there.
 
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