Greetings everyone,

As you may or may not know, I'm Richard Ragon, CEO of HotRod Joystick, producer of the Arcade
Joystick Control Unit that plugs into your PC.

A few things have crossed my desk here lately, and I'd like to run it by everyone here for your opinion.

Recently over the last few weeks, I've received a rash of e-mail stating people wanting to see USB support within the HotRod Joystick. Now this is very understandable for people with iMacs, however a lot of the people out there are asking (or waiting) for HotRod USB support for their PC's. The first thing that goes though my mind is, "if something works perfectly now, why wait" At first I just thought there are just going to be people out there that are just a little unconventional. However I'm starting to receive more and more
e-mail regarding this... and like any CEO, I'm interested in what makes the consumer tick, so I decided to go probing around and maybe ask a few questions.. The following is just an overview of what the questions and answers are like..

Mr.X: "Do you have USB model?"
HR: "Not at this time, but we are working on that.. Do you have a Mac?"
Mr.X: "Well.. no, I just wanted a USB version"
HR: "Why, do you have a hardware problem, space problem, conflict, or to many peripherals hooked up to your PC?"
Mr.X:"No"
HR: "Do you have a USB hub or any USB devises now"
Mr.X:"No"
HR:"Then why do you want a USB version?"
Mr.X:"Oh, I just heard it's better to go USB..."

Now.. I've got tons of peripherals, zip drives, scanners, speakers. I don't have any conflicts in anything? Nor have I had any conflicts since the early days of mapping out your IRQ's?? If I upgraded every single item to a USB device, I really do not think if my computers performance will gain one single bit.. So why are there so many people out there that don't have a single USB device suddenly overwhelmingly convinced that
USB is the greatest thing to every hit the computer age since coffee!!

The only thing that I can come up with is "marketing"... Think about it. Your a manufacture, and USB comes along that enables you to sell your hardware to not only the PC people, but to Mac people too.. of course your going to push it as if it was the greatest invention of all time.. but think about it from a consumers point of view, if what you got right now works, let it! :)

Don't get me wrong though.. We are absolutely going to bring out a USB version of the HotRod Joystick, because it makes since as a manufacture to do this in cross platform. But listen everyone, don't get caught up in hype, and think about who's pushing it, and what they have to gain by it..

Your comments are always welcome everyone! Thanks.

-Richard Ragon/CEO HotRod Joystick

People have been told the USB is the way to go because the bandwidth is "10 times faster than a printer port" and you can hook up an "endless number of devices ....just like SCSI."

The reason for the quotes is I have a friend who works at Best Buy and this is what they tell you. Yes i know that you can have only 7 devices with SCSI.

People are brainwashed into thinking that anything that hooks into a Comport/Keyboard/Mouse or Printer Port is going to be obsolete. They are told that these ports wont be on later Pentiums and that USB is the new standard.

I for one am with you in saying that I have a shitload of stuff in my machine and hooked up to the ports and I dont use USB or see any need for it. Now if Microsofts new "ball-less" mouse is USB I might have to add a USB device. Also, USB makes sense for Scanners since the bandwidth is actually a plus. But for a Joystick......naw.
My 3 cents.

Killraven

I am not all that impressed with the USB Human Interface Device standard that comes with Win98 and such. I have a USB joystick (MS Sidewinder Pro). It has no problems in Windows, but DOS is a pain to deal with. I know that DOS is a Dinosaur, but it is still with us. Especially in the emulator scene. I know that you can get decent drivers for DOS, but it is still a pain.

I like the keyboard interface.

I have a zip drive plugged into my lpt port, a scanner plugged into the zip drive, and a printer plugged into the scanner in this obscene daisy-chain - and it works perfectly. Scanner scans, printer prints, zip zips... Only reason I'd demand a USB version of a product would be one of two reasons - USB allowing daisy chaining/hot swapping that wasn't available otherwise (not the case in HotRod) or a speed issue (not an issue with HotRod)... It's all marketing hype methinks. Now, I wouldn't have a computer *without* a USB port, as sooner or later a good application will come along, and/or I'll want to add yet another device and I don't think I'm going to daisy chain another device off the lpt port.

--- saint

Which paint are most black cabinets painted with?
Flat black or semi-gloss black?

Sears Satin Flat Black is what the thread on page over agreed on. You might want to scroll to the bottom of this page and hit the little number 2. There is a thread entitled "paint" and it is a good one.

Killraven

I misread. Satin Gloss apparently appears more like the actual arcade machines. Just not gloss because it will be to shiny.

Sorry for the confusion.
KR

Hi,
Im working on keyboard encoder using a cheap micro processor, scanning a 5*4 matrix.

I have a working prototype with 2 joysticks,8 buttons,2 player buttons and 2 coin buttons that works just perfect with the micro processor on a lab board.
I am planning to do it on a professionally made circuit board, but it has a high initial cost.

So Im wondering if anyone is intrested in using this key encoder instead of hagstroem or a keyboard hack?
If a lot of people is interested the price would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $25.

Happy gaming

// Thomas

That old keyboard I hacked cost me more than that.
:)

Look at these

http://www.suncominc.com/sfxplus.html


Has anyone tried to use them in a conversion?
Any opinions on doing a conversion with them?


Later,
dabone

When I try to upload a configuration from my PC
to the KE24 I get the error message :
ERROR 57 AT PGM-CTR: 4285
can anybody please help what I'm doing wrong to get this message !

thanks

Carl

Sorry, I cant help you with your error...
I've never had any problems myself :-)

But I would just call Hagstrom
1 888 690-9080
I'm sure they could help you.

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

I've heard some people say they could only program the encoder in DOS mode and not within Windows, though that is not supposed to be how it works. I'd be very interested to see what Hagstrom tells you about it. Please let us know?

--- saint

My project is called breaktime.
Its a NEO GEO MVS cabinet converted to a ArcadePC.

Dont have my web page up yet but when I do I'll post it.
I want feedback and ideas from you guys.

Killraven

Finally :) I'm looking forward to seeing it And I just updated my lame site-

http://home.sprintmail.com/~voodoochile/radical.htm

It doesnt on mine. Any NEO GEO game that needs depth=16 wont work unless I set it to depth=8.
Limitation of the monitor I assume.

I hope this helps some people but I'm sure some of you know this already. I posted a message at retrogames on NEOGEO games running very slow on my P2 Celeron 454 and had a few people agreed but had no answers.

NOTE: These tips assume you are running DOS. Doesnt matter what version of DOS....just not dos in a win box.

1) Do NOT load Himem or Emm386. These for some reason actually slow things down. Dont worry about having 600K convertional and all your drivers loaded high. It doesnt matter. You can have 400K conv. and Mame will run great.

2)If you have a Celeron or P2 processor the best thing you can do is download fastvid. This program will enable write posting and frame buffer as well as a few other enhancements which are disabled by default on P2's and celery's. Fastvid will up your frames per seconds by at least 20% and maybe as much as 40%. Its free also!!

3)load smartdrive and give it a cache size of 4048. This seems to be "the number".

Post a message if you have anything to add.
KR

I was wondering if it is possible to setup an arcade cabinet to not only play off of a JAMMA board, but also through MAME and the other various emulators. I have read some of the PC2JAMMA site, but it doesn't create a very clear picture (in my mind atleast). Below is a list of the parts in my cabinet. If this is possible, I plan on buying a Simpsons 2P JAMMA board so I can enjoy it since it is not emulated yet. Thanks for any help!

ARCADE PARTS:

Wells Gardner 19" VGA/SVGA Monitor
Hagstrom LP-24 Keyboard Encoder
Soundblaster 16 (+ PC Speakers)
P2-464 Celeron
2 Joysticks, 6 Buttons, Trackball, Etc

If you have any questions, email or post here. Thanks again!

I was considering painting both sides of the large sheets of particle board I am buying for my cabinet project. That way I could just cut, and assemble them, without having to worry about painting awkward situations and such.
Has anyone tried this? Is it a good idea?
I was hoping someone with a bit more carpentry knowledge than myself could give me some advice.
Thank you,
-mis

I scratch the hell out of the wood during
construction, plus I tend to use alot of lines
as guides. I would assemble, and paint just
before putting the buttons/js in.

des

I have never replaced T-Molding. I just got some new stuff from Happ controls to replace a piece on my control panel. Are there any special techniques that I should know about for removing the old T-Molding and putting in the new?

Thx,

CJ

As far as I know it's just held down by pressure - I've pulled molding off and put it back on as needed on the arcade cabs I own with no special technique at all. Now, I wouldn't do it too often, but when needed I don't think it's a big deal.

--- saint

Hi guys, hopefully someone can help me out. I have a viper 550 video card from diamond and hooked my computer up to my tv set. I want to be able to boot up to the tv without the monitor but every time the computer is turned on you need to select the tv out option. Does anyone know how to turn on the tv out and leave it on. Or does anyone have a handy dandy utility that will do the selection for me. Also, I have been having probs with mame on the tv. It looks fine on the monitor but when I switch to tv out it goes screwy on me. Any suggestions or settings I should mess with to get nice display on a tv.

Thanks in advance,

Jim

In MAME turn scanlines off in the .ini, the reason for this is scanlines give your mon. the look of an arcade mon., which is just like a TV tube. So, that's not needed and messes up your TV by trying to make it look like a TV. ;)

Hi
I just finished my arcade stick.
It has 2 joysticks, 4 buttons each, and 2 buttons for player selection, and I use a keyboard hack.

Now, I have problem with 2 keys 'masking' a third. (I didn't know key masking also occured with 2 keys..)
These keys are B N F
That is: I can't press these 3 keys at the same time, the third is not detected (it raises a beep from the pc).
I use an old compaq keyboard, but I also tried on my new gateway keyboard, and the same thing appears.
Does anybody confirm this problem ?
Please, tell me a solution exist. Should I hack another keyboard?

some details:

here is the keyboard matrix for these keys:

4 5 (-)
+---
6|F
8|B N
(+)

For example, under keyscan, I press B and N, and when I press F, nothing happend !

Does anybody have met such problems?

Eric Bole-Feysot
ebolefeysot@bigfoot.com

Hey everyone, I'm about to buy this today from my local Comp USA. I'll let you know how it is after I try it at home.

They are selling a CLEAR trackball, with a clear case, for $19.99. The ball is supposed to glow.

It's pretty flat, and I think it was serial, and PS/2. The ball is a 2 inch ball. Not quite arcade spec, but for $19.99 who can complain.

Plus it will look odd. I'm not sure if I'll like it, but a glowing track ball right in the middle of my console. Odd...

More details to come this weekend...

JR

Opps. I meant it to say "Trackball" not mouse.

This is the trackball that I and I think Ray (VoodooChile) are using. I haven't got mine in a cabinet yet, but my daughter is using it (not even 3 years old and she's got Windoze down) quite happily. Not as much "spin" as I'd like when you try to whack it across the screen, but very nice control and acceptable play I think. We'll see when it's actually mounted. When I bought mine, I had to have it special ordered. Now they have several dozen at my local CompUSA.

Do let us know how you like it :)

--- saint

I love it...It mounted up easily enough and well there is no real substitute for the 'REAL' thing, I think it works great. Hey I still Haven't lost at centipede yet.

By the way for my TB I made a template that allowed me to mount it with little to no trouble if any one would like the templete and some easy to follow instructions let me know.....

Ray

Fire it my way? :)

--- saint

(btw - no baby yet!)

It isn't due till Sunday 2pm PST.

i'll send it all w/ the care package..on monday:>)

I thought I'd just post and tell you all what's going on, it's been hit hectic of late..

I ended up joining MAMEDEV, which means there won't be any more updates to cabMAME -
all 'cabMAME' updates from now on will just end up in MAME

I've yet to do anything on the site and take cabMAME down - as I haven't found time to finish the next version of ArcadeOS (hopefully this weekend)

The current ArcadeOS doesn't have the new -monitor switch in it, so it works with cabMAME arcade monitor modes, but not MAME RC1 ones

So I didn't want to take cabMAME down, until I had ArcadeOS working with RC1.

Thanks for the status update, Brian. I'm not using a standard arcade monitor, but my Well-Gardner SVGA monitor is mounted vertically and I really like the fact that I can use the ArcadeOS frontend without having to tilt my head to read the list of games. :)

Thanks for all the hard work that you have and will put into it. It's certainly appreciated by alot of people.

Minke

I am thinking a about buying a JAMMA Cabinet so I can build the PC2JAMMA project http://www.vti.ie/~blewis/pc_arc1.html
What is the quality like using CabMAME and a real arcade monitor, also would you recommend this over using a PC monitor

You can get a computer monitor made for an arcade cabinet from Happ Controls:

http://www.happcontrols.com/index.html

Then you can also play any games you want on it and not need a special frontend.
This is your best bet.

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

this sort of thing really depends on what you want

in a side-by-side comparison test with the real arcade game -
MAME running on a 15.75Khz arcade monitor looks identical ,
MAME running on a SVGA/VGA arcade monitor doesn't

- if the original monitor is already sat in the cabinet and it works, don't throw it away !

using a SVGA/VGA monitor makes life easier - as long as you never want to put anything else in your cabinet (like real arcade boards) - but it is less accurate.

If you want to use the original arcade monitor without having to use a special frontend or be limited to only Mame I suggest using a scan convertor.

I have been using arcadeos and cabmame but have recently purchased an Avermedia Imicro which sells for around 80 bucks. It has svideo,composite, and more importantly scart rgb output. The connector for the scart output is the same as a 15pin vga connector.

I used the same hacked cable I was using with cabmame and it works great, compatible with all the emulators I've tried so far. It supports resolutions up to 1024x768 but realistically I wouldn't try any higher than 640x480 or maybe 800x600 on an arcade monitor.

The only compatibiliy problems I've found is with mame's tweaked modes which use weird refresh rates otherwise, everything worked without a hitch.

How's the quality of the display? What color depth will it support?

The quality of the rgb output to an arcade monitor is very good. Although, cabmame gives a slightly better picture due to the fact that there is no scan rate conversion going on. It supports up to 1024x768 at 16.8 million colours.

For fun I hooked it up to my 27inch Panasonic Superflat tv through the svideo input. I wasn't terribly impressed with the result, it was about on par with the tv-out of ATI cards.

If I use an arcade monitor in my Joust/Mame cabinet, what game resolution will I be limited to? All I really want to play on it is the Williams 80's games (Defender,Joust,Robotron) and possibly some earlier Nintendo titles(DK,Popeye) Will these work on and original arcade screen? Will it look OK? Will verticle games look stupid on my horizontal mount screen?

Thanks for responding!

The new version of mame (as of right now 35rc1) incorporated cabmames video routines for an arcade montior. Brian Lewis (A great guy in my opinion) wrote 19 modes that work on an arcade monitor. The modes are really close to what the games look like.

For instance. I have a Wells Gardner 19 inch monitor that came in my NEO GEO cabinet. I found out that using a special version of mame (at that time....cabmame) I could use this arcade monitor. I was just going to put a 14 or 15 inch monitor in the machine. I was not expecting much. I'm telling you....bad dudes and neogeo games etc look absolutly wonderful to me. I have people come over and I have to explain to them that this is not a real arcade machine.
Galaga and pacman are just crunched at tom and bottom. You can adjust your monitors vert sync to get a good compromise between black top and bottom on horizontal games like bad dudes and clipped top and bottom on vertical games like galaga and pacman.

If you want it all....Do like some are suggesting a get one of the arcade monitors that support pc resolutions.

I dont think you will be disappointed..if you have patience.

OK..it looks like a 15" PC monitor just won't cut it. If I go with a standard horizontal arcade cabinet, will my 'verticle' games such as Pacman, etc look like hell? Will any of the play area be clipped off?

No they wont look bad at all.

They wont be "acuarate" because they will be "smooshed". They will not however be clipped. If some of the top and bottom is clipped then you will want to adjust the vertical size on the back of the monitor to make it not clipped. You will however have a little black on the left and right sides of the monitor.
Its hard to explain but dont worry. I will look good. If you dont like it you can always sell your arcade monitor to me and put a 19inch pc monitor in its place :)

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there are more games that use a spinner other than tron, tempest, arkanoid, and omega race. I was thinking of adding a spinner to my control panel, but it's going to be hard for me to drill into the nice finished panel to install a spinner if only three games use it and I could use the joystick for most of those. Any comments? Should I install a spinner or not?

Build a spinner- Super sprint uses it and there are a couple of more I cn't remember off hand. If you like ANY of the spinner games (Tron, Disk-o-Tron,Tempest) than the game enhansment that you can get only from a spinner is worth the effort...and a spinner spawns other possibiliities like a detachable steering wheel (soon to be unveiled on my web site).

Really lets face it a spinner is not critical but one of the reason most of us built a cabinet is because we didn't want to half ass the arcade experiance. So why not if nothing else get a molex connector and build a seperate panel for the spinner and a 4 way joystick.

Just my opinion.

Ray

Is anyone going to install a Sega Dreamcast in a cabinet?
I am thinking about doing this.
I am going to install a tv in the cabinet also.
I don't want to use a PC in a cabinet.
I just can't see using my PC in a cabinet.

Anyone already doing this with a Playstation and a TV?

MadMaxx did it.

http://www.mindspring.com/~madmaxx/psx.htm

:)

--- saint

It will have a PSX (playstation), a SS (sega saturn), and a DC (dremacast) for sure, I might put a Neo Geo gold into it, but probably not.
I will let you know how it goes.
-mis

I was thinking about getting a Hotrod joystick, but I'm still suffering from sticker shock. It's 200 dollars?! I might get it but I'd like any reviews from people who didn't get one as a *freebee*. Also, if anyone out there ordered one, did they encounter some "funny business" with the secure web page for ordering? I keep getting a message that it's uncertified. No offence intended, but Mr. Ragon hasn't answered any my recent emails addressing my concerns.

If price is your concern you might go with the vstick.
$79.95 I don't know if it will support all the game you want to play.
You might also email them and ask when will they be taking orders.
Their website is http://www.v-stick.com/

You know I wanted one of these inn the worst way...yes I know I have a cabinet, but that is really beside the point. I can't really justify to the wife the price even though in HOTROD's defense the idea of Capcom licenced ROMs is cool as hell. I hope these sticks are wildly popular so the price comes down. (I guess I am confused about the price I thouht with the manufacturing mechanisism already in place that was going to be what kept the price down?) Anyway there is no denying that the HotRod would appear to be a quality product and Richard is a big time contributer to this board so something tells me he's not going to release crap.

Ray

After seriously thinking about parting with $200 to get one, I got the nerve to *try* to order one. Instead, I got one of those "Security Certificate" notices. Undaunted, I read through the procedure to convince myself that it was OK. Guess what...the security certificate was signed by...SNAKE OIL, UNLIMITED! Located in the great state of...XY! What's with that?!

Please let me address the SSL server for HotRod ordering. Netscape and or IE will pause and check out the certificate of authority due to our "temporary" certificate until we received our true certificate in which we should have this going on any time now. I'll have to call my SSL person and find out what is going on with this, but either way your browser will verify for you that you are indeed engaged in a secure site.

Please accept my sincerest apologies, and feel free to email me at borg@mail.aceisp.net anytime!

-Richard Ragon/HotRod Joystick

My monitor is so big that I need to lower that monitor platform on my Williams cabinet. It fits in there now but I will have to cut the bezel down in order to make the bezal fit.
Should keep that same angle as the platform is now or make it flat (level)and just tilt the monitor from the stand? Does it matter?

The angle of the monitor is purly for viewing pleasure. They are usually mounted in an upward angle, so that it will match the angle of your eyesight.

If you were standing above your monitor, and had to look downward to see it...thats fine - if the angle is the same as your eyesight... BUT, if the angle is flat, your eyes will eventually strain and you may get a headache ! :)

As for the monitor itself, it wont hurt it. As long as the angles arnt too steep, it should be fine.

Peace,
:)

I once gave it a thought to mount my monitor on a flat shelf. After a bit of testing, I realized I would've need to add another foot to the bottom of my machine to bring it to eye level. I've grown to appreciate the almost 45 degree angle the monitor is mounted on. It gives it more of a 'retro' feel. Plus, if you work with computers all day, it's nice to look at a monitor from another angle when you come home.

You may also want to take a better look at how your current monitor shelf is mounted. Mine ended up being a main support -- It is actually glued and tacked into grooves cut into the sides. I would actually have to cut the shelf in half to remove it. It would've done quite a bit of harm to the structural stability of the machine.

One last thing -- Why not recreate the bezel w/ some poster board? It's not very hard. If interested I could tell you how I did it.

Take care,
Mike

Here's a link that I found deep in the annals of this message board. It has a step-by-step (with pictures) instruction for re-building a bezel if yours is in a dilapidated state. Some of it might be of use.

Last time I looked, Saint hadn't linked to it, but it may be somewhere that I didn't look:

http://gameroom.godfrey.com/bezel.cfm

Minke

I was thinking about getting a Hotrod joystick, but I'm still suffering from sticker shock. It's 200 dollars?! I might get it but I'd like any reviews from people who didn't get one as a *freebee*. Also, if anyone out there ordered one, did they encounter some "funny business" with the secure web page for ordering? I keep getting a message that it's uncertified. No offence intended, but Mr. Ragon hasn't answered any my recent emails addressing my concerns.

I'm sorry If I didn't answer your email. I had about 30+ some messages, when my hard drive failed on my personal computer for email! As fate would have it, I was just about to do a computer upgrade, and I failed to back up some resent data files that I had, and as a result I lost everything!!

Also, please let me address the SSL server for HotRod ordering. Netscape and or IE will pause and check out the certificate of authority due to our "temporary" certificate until we received our true certificate in which we should have this going on any time now. I'll have to call my SSL person and find out what is going on with this, but either way your browser will verify for you that you are indeed engaged in a secure site.

Please accept my sincerest apologies, and feel free to email me at borg@mail.aceisp.net anytime!

-Richard Ragon/HotRod Joystick

I know some people emailed me earler about this, but I lost their address....does anyone know a place that sells yellow 3/4" t-moulding???? I need it to go along with the theme of my arcade cabinet. If you want more info, check out http://www.netexp.net/~thompson. I will be posting more info as the project continues...

Try Mazzco...they have many colors but I am not sure about yellow.

anyway, there URL:

http://www.mazzco.com/

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

Hey I emailed Mazzco and they said they cannot sell to me since I am not a business...it seems they do not deal with the public. Do you have any other ideas?

I check with them to see if they have yellow and it they do just let me know how much you need and I will order it and sell it to you at my cost.

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

Thanks...I apprechiate it!

Try Mazzco...they have many colors but I am not sure about yellow.

anyway, there URL:

http://www.mazzco.com/

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

I tried to visit Stephan Hans' Hardware Tricks page at this adress http://www.st-hans.de/tricks.htm
but is doesn't seem to be there any more. Anyone know what happened or is my stupid browser just playing up again?

here is a link I found:
http://home.t-online.de/home/stephan.hans/tricks.htm

This is a little off topic but since you were there at E3...I read that they had Tron for the Playstation running there? is this true did you see it anyway..just wondering thanxs, now back to our regularly sceduled program.....


Ray

No, can't say that I saw anything like that there.. It was a pretty big play though.. could have been there, and I didn't see it...

One of my friends said, "Sensory overload", which I thought that was a pretty good discription of the whole E3 show!

Some neat things that I saw (relating to the classics) were a 3D space invaders from Activison, and 3d Missle Command from Hasbro! Both had the play just like a classic, but done up in new graphics! My hat goes off too both of these companies as they did a good job on recreating the experience again!

-Richard Ragon/HotRod Joystick

I have partially wired my control panel to my keyboard hack. I couldn't wait to try it out, so I hooked it up to give it a try. Player 1 moves fine in all directions, and also CTRL and ALT. Here is the problem...when I choose a game from my DOS menu, it takes forever (1 min) for the game to actually start. When I was configuring the PC with a different keyboard, everything seemed to work well. Since I connected the PC to the cabinet, SLOOOOOOOW!! Any ideas? It is a P166 with 16 meg of ram. What could be causing this?

Thanks!

OK lets go over this a little more slowly
So things work great when your PC is out of the cabinet and you have a normal keyboard attached, yep.
Now when you put your PC into the cabinet and plug in your hacked keyboard things don't work so well.
From this is conclude that their is a evil spirit haunting your arcade cabinet, a ghost in the machine, if you like. Could be the lost soul of a 12 your old who spent weeks pumping quarters into it 5 years ago and is now doomed to haunt it for all eternity.

or possibly not

On a more serious note, I sugest you unplug your keyboard hack and jusy plug in a normal keyboard, if this fixes the problem you may have a crossed wire somewhere or a short circut filling up the buffer and slowing things down (though you should hear a beeping if this happens). Other things I can think of is that your version of mame may not like the monitor your cabinet has in it. Actualy I can't think of anything else right now. Check out that ghost thing, won't you :-)

Installed the DOS version of Dragon's Lair to be played alongside my Mame games. The install program for it played around with the emm386 settings in my config.sys file. After i put this back to 'normal' all was well again! Now, all I have to do is find some *@#!%$ t-moulding!

It is not a Mame arcade cabinet because it can play different emulators. And Emulator cabinet sounds so stupid. The word emulator itself is goofy. It is not a arcade machine, that is too broad.
I am coining a new term for this thing we are building, PCArcade. It is like hotrods machine he sells called ArcadePC. I cann't be a total copycat, but he is now the right track.
Any thoughts?

In our shop here, we go by ArcadePC, and sometimes the ArcadePC mini cabinet. ..Or APC for short.

If you have a all around, can be used for anything cabinet, sounds like ArcadePC is the ticket, however if you have a dedicated MAME cabinet, we go by MAME machine. :)

-Richard Ragon/HotRod

Call me lazy, but I don't feel like doing any woodwork in order to get nice arcade style controls working for MAME and my old Jamma PCBs.
Seeing as most people would like to kill two birds with one stone, it would be nice to be able to use the HotRod arcade controls with Jamma PCBs. Does anyone know of any way to make an adapter or some modification to the HotRod joysticks that allow them to connect to Jamma PCBs?
I know it should be able to be done. Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Thanks guys.

-J35u5

is anyone else having trouble with posting on Daves' boards? I keep getting 500 internal server error when I try to post.

Please tell me if you have or haven't been able to post there.


Thanks

They've been down for days.

--- saint

I'm thinking about repainting my machine but dont wanna loose the neogeo side stickers. Anyone know where I can buy these?

Two possibilities: One, instead of painting over your side stickers, why don't you mask them? If they're not in great shape then you could consider replacing them, but I've not found side art to be cheap to get.

If you need to replace them, look on rec.games.video.arcade.marketplace, and/or post a message asking if anyone has it for sale. Best source I've found for side art . . .

--- saint

Now im even more confused because I posted this message ...it was on the board...I refreshed and it was gone.
hummm....

Well, in the mame 35 rc1 whatsnew it talks about incorperating some of cabmames video routines.

I dont understand, should we use mame 35 rc1 for our arcade machines or do we still use cabmame?

From whatsnew in the new mame 35 rc1 it mentions encorperating cabmame videomodes.

What does this mean?
Is cabmame now obsolete and the regular version of mame is what we use for our arcade machines?
Please clarify.

Thanks.

I was wondering the same. So far no word from Brian as to whether or not he will continue cabMAME . . .

A while back I brians site I think I saw something to the effect of "I have submitted (all the cool stuff in cabmame) to the mame team, if they include it in their next realease then cabMame will no longer be needed"

Weather this means he will stop working on it or keep improving it for future versions I do not know. Either way with arcade monitor compatibility going "mainstream" we may have lots of new faces showing up around here soon.

(nope, I still can't spell)

I refurbished my cabinet from old Joust machine. I know that some feel that is sacireligious to convert a classic machine like that to mame, but if I started over again I would probable done the same thing. (Actually I would have use an old Space Ace cabinet instead, Sweet looking.)
Changing the control panel around was a little tricky, but overall I think I got away alot cheaper than building from scratch. The cabinet was only $50 which included the marque and bezel art.

Is refurbishing is a better way to go? Also, what is the best cabinet to convert? For some sick reason, I want to dump mine and build a better one. I have a funnier time building it than playing it.

Yeah, I just noticed that I am not even finished totally with my current project, I keep thinking about the next one. There shouldn't be a next one, but my mind keeps reflecting back to the perfect cabinet project. :)

Comming Soon !!! :)

After too many hours too recall... I think ive finally came up with the perfect design :)

Most likly, I will post it soon as I get the wiring design down pat...

(And maybe a donation ot 2 so I can actually build it :)

Later
:)

I know just how you feel. I build the damn thing (control panel in my case not a whole cabinet) play it for about 1/2 an hour to make sure it works properly and never use again unless I have guests. Now my thoughts are focused on the SuperDooperPooperScooper stick mark 3 (needs a better name as well)

I found some guy selling 20" monitors for $200, Used of course. I am picking up one on Monday. I think he has 75 coming, 2 in the warehouse.
This is the last piece I need to complete the cabinet. I am so pumped! I will let ya'll know how the picture is. It is a DEC monitor made by Phillips. Anyone know anything about it?

You will want to check to make sure that your new 20" monitor will not be a fixed frequency monitor. If it is, you will need a proprietary video card for that monitor. Due to the fact that the monitor is a DEC monitor, and considering the price, I bet that it is a fixed frequency monitor. The old alpha workstations, SGI workstations and many of the SUN workstations use these kinds of monitors instead of the typical multisync monitors that PCs use.

Fixed frequency is not necessarily a bad thing but it can cause problems with programs that try to change your sync mode. (like most direct-x cards try to do.) Another thing is that in many cases direct-x will not be supported by the proprietary video card that comes with the monitor. In a lot of cases, you only get one or two graphic modes 1280 x 1024 and 800 x 600.

Well, I hope that helps a little. I hope that the monitor is a standard ol' 20". In that case, $200 is a good deal. $200 is not that great of a deal for a fixed frequency 20". I have seen the SGI ones go for about 150 or so.

Cameron.

I would have never none that. I will definitely find out before I make any purchase.

My computer expert friend bought one and it is not a fixed frequency monitor. He said it had a great picture and was digital. It has a ldc panel in the front- whatever that means. I know nothing about computers; so I sent him to check it out.

I am picking up mine tommorrow. This guy has 75 left. A monitor for everyone!!!!

Sound like a great deal. It doesn't even have to be the ultimate best quality monitor for emulation stuff!

Is the guy willing to ship those monitors? I know of a few people who might be interested.

CJ

I got one for $200. We went back today to buy two more and the guy said "No way." He would not sell the other one he had for 300 bones. He is either playing hard ball or made a bad mistake. He is trying to get access to 75 more. If things change I will keep everyone posted. Sorry to get everyone excited. My friend had the chance for the other one for $200 and past it up because it had a little line in the picture. He is kicking himself now.

Now that I have a moderately working control panel, it has become very difficult to finish my work. It is way too tempting to just play a game or two. :)

I figure that I will finish most things up in the next week or two anyway, so I might as well enjoy.

Has anyone been able to generate a new gamelist for using Raine through ArcadeOS??? For some reason mine will not and I can only play the original 84 games...if you know how or have one you could send me, please let me know! I have been debating on whether or not to use A@H or ArcadeOS, and I'm leaning towards ArcadeOS simply for the fact that it likes multiple emulators. Please let me know if you can help!

Pre-dates Arcade@Home, similar look I think, and supports multiple emulators. My front end of choice. www.dnai.com/~paulreid/arcademu/index.html --- saint

No, but I just d/led it and I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

I finally solved my whole 4-player control panel mounting problem.

I now have another problem. The reason I had to scrap my first panel was due to too much space between buttons (It was impossible to hit all three top or bottom buttons at the same time without severely injuring fingers! :P ), so I need to figure out what the ideal button spacing is. Something like on a street fighter control panel. (Richard, maybe YOU can help me out with this... without divulging proprietary info about the SE)! :P

Anyone know the ideal spacing? (I need to know how far apart each button should be horizontally, and how far each row should be apart vertically).

--Intensify
(http://barcade.home.dhs.org)

I personally can't get the buttons close enough, but that's just me - I have small hands. My point is that it should feel good to you. I spaced my buttons out according to how my fingers layed on the table. (the pinky button is a bit low in hindsight) All of my buttons are either touching or within a few mm.

Sorry if this doesn't help.

Des

Can someone tell me what kind of 3/4 trim is used on a VF1 and VF2 cabinet with
a 25" monitor?
I know it has some kind of silver stuff glued to the t molding.
I have seen a VF1 and VF2 in person.
It seems like the t-molding is either white or clear underneath the silver
stuff.

we have a Virtua Fighter authentic cabinet in the arcade I work in, its a 25" monitor, and has that neaty shiny T-molding.
I will scratch off some in the back to see if it is painted silver or if it is a plastic silver dye. If it is painted, it is porbably some serious industrial stuff, theres no way it can be normal spray paint, and any airbrushed paintjob would be too fragile without a ton of sealer, so I let you know more when I do.
Im interested in ths myself, as I thought of using silver T-molding, Im not sure if Mazzco has it, but Richard Ragon of Hotrod Joysticks might have some as well....
-mis

Has anyone ever installed a tv (for game console use) in an arcade cabinet?
If so, did you remove the tv from it's cabinet?
How did you mount the tv in the cabinet?
How did you get the tv to remain steady?

I bought the expertplay tv out card and I am not happy. I am currently looking for a 19" monitor. The problem is it is really fuzzy. It is hard to read words. Another problem is you have to buy a converter device to go from the computer video output to the tv. Most tvs now have only a cable input. I had to go from the computer to a vcr then to the tv.
I could have bought the converter thing but it cost 40 bucks at radio shack. A used 19" monitor goes for $200-260. It is crisper and easier to jack with.
Later

I know all the benefits of RGB, but right now this is more cost efficient, and it wont be using anything other than home consoles, so a normal TV is the road Im taking.
Any one know how to mount one better than just setting it ona flat surface and making a bezel?
thank,
-mis

I am trying to get a feel for the interest in making mame cabinets or/ owning one. I know that there are alot of people in the UK that makes them. At this point I am the only Texan along with my buddies.

Saint how many hits do you get a day?

And other than this web board, Daves web board, and a few randonm questions in the newsgroups. This is it. Are there any other discussion groups discussing the subject? I have a strange feeling there is web board in Japanese discussing the same subject out there. Any thoughts?

I average 150 hits a day, spiking up to 300-500 whenever I get a mention on one of the emulation news sites. The only other board I know dedicated to this topic is at Arcade@Home's forum section :)

--- saint

I must be a freak....


Ray

I think you may actually check it more often than I and I wasn't sure that was possible :)

I always look when I check my e-mail and I'm usaully checking on the new site I just put up for work...Hell I guess I'm surfin alot

Ray

;)

After much reading and researching I'm finally beginning to build my cabinet. To connect all the buttons to the KE24 I need to know what each keystroke means in MAME and other emulators. Is there any webpage that has this listed?

Also what games use which buttons? Is there a list of that anywhere? Or do I need to look at it game by game?

Hit <tab> in MAME and it will tell you what each button does.

Make sure you map the self destruct button last :)

Looks like Act labs are devloping a light gun system for the PC. Only problem is that it seems the software has to be specialy written for each game, if this sort of thing could be implemented in mame.........

if you want to check it out try here
http://www.actlab.com/news/ACT%20LABS%20GS.htm
or here
www.actlab.com

matt(v)

What can I use the space for? I seems like a waste of space. I have a Williams cabinet and a keyboard or computer will not fit down there.
Should I cut the box out and build a base for the computer to sit on? Advice.

look, EVERYONE knows the spare tyre goes in the coin box and the powertools go in the bathtub, what were you thinking?
:-)

Seriously though you may want to put a fan in there, most cabnets are not at all well ventilated and Computer + monitor in that kind of confined space could cause heat problems.

Seal the bottom to make it water tight.
Fill half way with ice and then you have
room for about 8 beers in there....saves
time of running to the fridge when you have
a kick-ass game of Galaga going!!!!

OR...you can make it operational so that
when you insert a coin it activates your
credit button on the computer.
This adds to arcade realism....this is how
I build mine, anyway.
This is an easy way to save up a few bucks to!
But make sure you empty the quarters often or
there wont be room for the beer!!

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

Now that is a hell of an idea Andy. All this hi tech junk and nobody has thought of installing a cooler in their cabinet. I have one of those little cube refrig's for dorm rooms. How cool (pun intended) would that be to be able to grab a beer between levels. Lets face it.... these games are great alone.. but they rock in a party. All this talk of realism... hell it ain't real unless you got two guys haning on your machine watching you play with quarters lining the bezel...hehehe

Lets all mount frig's in our cabinets...

DEATH TO THE PAUSE BUTTON!!!! :)

HEHEHEH

Jim

In the old Joust machine I have two openings. I am using the top to have access to the computer. I did the insert credit idea by pushing the coin return.
The bottom opening is where the coins used to drop into. I think I am going to put a cooler in there. I will have the cooler slide out like a kitchen drawer. The trick is to find a cooler to fit in there. It is not tall. I don't think I will have it permantly in there. It will just set there.
Thanks for the idea. Paul

Just make sure you guys are just thinking of the standard 'Fill it with ice' type plastic cooler, and not one you plug in. The heat of those units would probably end up being far worse than a 21" monitor and computer put together!

We already have the games, we're just about to add the beer.. Is there a way I can cram some women in my machine? :)

I removed the coin box and rejectors from the coin-door frame. That allowed me to slide my PC case right up to the front of the machine and I have easy access to the power and reset switches, floppy, and CD-ROM drive by opening the coin box door. I fastened the coin return switches and return slot swinging flaps directly to the coin door so that nothing looks different from the outside.

Can someone PLEASE take a look at my cab (http://barcade.home.dhs.org)
and help me figure out HOW i can mount my 3 foot wide by 1.5 foot deep control panel to my cab, WITHOUT using legs or anything cheezy like that, WITHOUT blocking the coin door, and with some sort of stability.

I'm starting to give up hope :(

--Intensify
(http://barcade.home.dhs.org)

I assuming that your cp has 4 joysticks at is octangle looking. I see your problem; It is hugh.
Here is my idea; you will not like it.
Push the coin door out creating a box on the front of your machine. Then use the top of the coin door box to hold up the cp. On the sides and bottom of the coin door box run plywood to the front of the machine creating a 45 degree angle slant. It will go with the octangle look.
Good Luck

As far as I can tell from your pictures
1) that thing is gonna be damn cool
2) you are going to have to make some pretty major changes to mount your monstrosity of a control panel.

Looks to me like the place where the panel normaly rests so not long enough to take the weight of the panel (only the back 10 inches would be supported and the front is where all the weight will be anyway)
if i got the above wrong the what I'm about to say will make no sens

The only solution I can think of would be to cut a slit wide enough for the control panel in each side of the cabnet so you can slide the panel further up. This would reduce the overhang at the front, provide much better support and provide some downward presure at the back when you were having a 4 player thrash-a-thon.
Of course there may be small problems like the monitor not fitting any more but you can't have it all your own way you know :-)
You might also consider cutting all that empty wood off the back of the control panel to reduce its depth, this would provide much better support without the need to cut up your cabnet

If you don't understand me I'll mail you a picture but seeing as you are on a university account I thought I'd better ask first.

I think I know what I'm going to do.. I am either going to:

A.) Build a more skinny (front to back) control panel that is shaped more like an oval, and has all 4 controllers either closer together or angled in such a way that everyone can still comfortably see the screen.

B.) Mount some sort of molex connector coming out the side of the machine, put some hooks and supportive devices on this thing, and just make the 3 and 4 player controllers DETACHABLE. You just slide them onto the side of the machine, connect the molex connectors, and PLAY! :P

(I think I'm going to go with choice "B"). This way, I can hook up the main control panel w/ the 2 controllers and the trackball, and actually get to PLAY this goddamn thing I've spent so much money on. Then I can worry about building the other portable controls later :)

Any ideas/comments/suggestions?

--Intensify

Damn, this is when I really wish I had pics of my cab up already...

Although my cp isn't quite as large as yours, it does extend 6 inches on each side, and is about 14` wide.

First off, I was able to 'push' the cp a lot closer by cutting the sides of my cabinet a bit.
At first I was going to 'notch' it as others suggested, but I realized that the angled side going 'into' the control panel took up quite a bit of precious real estate. It's hard to picture, but if you look at the side of a cab, it usually has a slant to it in the front.. Sort of like: /
I measured about 3" deep, drew a straight vertical line, and cut straight down with a sabre saw. The end result was something like:

\
|

To keep it secure enough for people to lean on, I hammered a few pieces of particle to the cab to make a frame. I started by hammering a 9"x4" piece of wood to each side of where the control panel would be. This gave me a good foundation to hammer the other pieces of wood. I then hammered a 6"x4" piece to the back edge of those pieces. You now have an 'L' shaped addition to each side of the cab. The next pieces would be about 8", and create the sides of the CP base. The final piece, ended up some 37" long. Hammer that to the front, and you now have a real nice support base for an extended control panel.

I suggest using Liquid Nails, or some other type of glue to keep everything tight -- Never trust nails alone. Also, when you layout your CP, you will notice that some of this new base will get in the way of some controls. I'm talking about the 'old' wall of the cabinet, and the first piece of wood you hammered to each side. That's about 1 1/2" of wood -- Precious real estate. I just took a sabre saw to cut out enough of that wood so everything could sit smoothly. I still have enough wood supporting it, but w/ the size of your CP, you may need to add a few reinforcements, like brackets or bolts (All hidden, of course!).

I hope this helps. I know a freakin picture would be worth a thousand words and the 15 minutes I took typing this... One of thse days...

Take care,
Mike

Does anyone know where to purchase white t molding?
Happs and Wico don't carry it.

Dont worry Richard, I will still probably get it from you, I just want to know in case there's certain color restrictions or anything. (plus you never know when you could find a deal!)
-mis

Here is their URL

http://www.mazzco.com/

I'm not 100% sure if they have white but they have about 10 different colors.

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

As I have mentioned in a thread earlier, this problem is becoming more inconsistent as the days go by.

I have a feeling that the only way to find the cause of this problem is to document everything, not just joystick model. How hard would it be to tally the following: Joystick Type, Interface type (KB Hack, Encoder, gamepad, etc?), Processor Type/Motherboard, Do you suffer from poor diagnals?, and Do you suffer from poor 4-Way response?

Saint -- Maybe we can work out a survey?


Here are a few theories kicking around in my head:

--Since all KB's aren't made alike, it could be possible that some are inferior to others.

--This could be a branch off of the old ghosting/shadowing problem.

--Certain motherboards may be inferior to others when interpreting these strange keypresses. Face it, this really isn't what PCs were built for. :)


Any other ideas/comments?

-Mike

keyboard encoder is the only way to fly in my book. no headaches,no hassles just great game play. or you could always get one of thoses HODROD joysticks. Either way its gonna cost a little but hey there's less down time and more playing.

I think a keyboard hack would be ok if you where only gonna play one player games...but how much fun is that.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Ray Iddings

I agree. I tried the KB hack and I ruined two keyboards. The encoder is the only way to go. The program function is makes it so damn flexible.
Now as for the preformance on a KB hack, I have no idea.

My control panel has been made with a keyboard hack and it works great. I play 2 player games with it all the time without problems. Nothing bonds a father/son relationship like some quality 2-player gaming!

I think that you have more of the exeption than the rule though. I mean lets face most of the guys buillding these things are like me with NO Electronics Experiance, so that make the chances that a hack is going to work for us real low. I don't care how much info on the subject there is, nothing beats experiance, so with no experiance an encoder rocks and you are right nothing drives a wedge in a marrige like one of these arcade machines..:-)

Ray

I did a keyboard hack, and use it for all out of game controls. For everything else, I use the encoder. If you are just going to set up a 1 player cp, or 2 player, with only 3 buttons each, it's probably not that hard to get a kb hack working good. You still won't get the performance of the encoder, but it should work.

All it took to change my mind was looking at all of the wires involved, and thinking of how much time it would take to solder a diode to each wire... Well worth the $90, especially when you factor in how many hours I tried 'perfecting' my matrix map, only to find out that it was mathematically impossible to get the setup I needed w/o ghosting.

Save some time, guys, and get better performance!!

-Mike

I am using a keyboard hack and am playing 2 players with 4 buttons each. I never see any ghosting. The performance is great. What are you doing to get ghosting?
I soldered wires directly to each side of each key on the keyboard. My letters are hardcoded but most emus allow you to set keys. Are you guys that are getting ghosting soldering to the keyboard controller chip...I dont understand.

Eric

I was wondering if anyone else has considered using a couple of Sidewinder joysticks instead of a keyboard hack?

In my test setup, I have two Sidewinder joysticks, $30 a piece at Comp USA, that I have configured for Mame. For those of you that don't know about these joysticks, if you use the sidewinder software, Mame won't recognize the joysticks as anything but dual joysticks.

However with the software you can map every button, even the directional pad itself, to any key on the keyboard. Since you are using a virtual keyboard, no ghosting problem! The joystick has 9 buttons on each pad. And a shift button that gives you 9 more buttons. With this configuration I can create 36 possible keys available with two joysticks. More than enough for Mame.

My setup will require 20 buttons, two joysticks, and a trackball. The only wiring I will have to do is between the joysticks, and buttons, to the game pads.

Since the Sidewinders are 4 directional joysticks, they will work with any 4 directional joysticks.

All of the connectors are clearly labeled on the board.

So for $60 you need a keyboard splitter or anything fancy. In fact because you can reconfigure any button, you can easily change your configuration at any time. No reboot needed.

Better still, you can have multiple configurations. Want you joysticks to work for Robotron, you can. Change to a different configuration and now your set for Battlezone, or whatever? Want to play Callus instead of Mame, switch software configuration in a second.

Beats the hell of out a keyboard hack, splitters, whatever. And a hell of a lot cheaper.

What do you think? I'll post more as I build my cabinet.

One last thing, if you leave the joystick port open to the outside, you can hook up two more sidewinders for the those four player gauntlet games!

JR

And you don't have any problems in DOS??

At one point I considered using Sidewinders in my joysticks but when I tried one out I noticed a few problems. Here are two examples:

1. I tried it in Robotron and noticed that besides the somewhat jerky game play that I could not run and fire at the same time....something very important if you are to do well in this game.

2. After that I tried a little experiment. When I test my controllers (which use a Hagstrom keyboard encoder) one of the things that I do is boot up notepad and make sure each pushbutton and joystick performs their desired keystroke. I can press the buttons and top speed with 2 hands and every letter appears on my screen as fast as I enter them. When I tried this with my Sidewinder it could not even come close to keeping up with me.

Has anyone else experienced these problems?
Is there something I dont know about configuring the Sidewinder?

BTW: I have the latest driver for the MS.

-Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

I tried with robotron using two game pads. Ok it wasn't easy with one hand on one, and one hand on the other, but I didn't see a problem. I'll know more when I hack it with real joysticks in a couple of weeks.

I'm not at home right now. But the newest Profile manager for supports two different modes for the buttons to respond. One is keystrokes, and the other is "macros" or some such thing. One mode worked much faster than the previous version.

I did not have any problems using both joysticks at the same time mapped to the standard keys for mame.

JR

Maybe that will work for me.
When I tried mine I only used one controller with the buttons programmed for all the controls. I'll give it a shot using 2 and see what happens.
But, even if that solves the Robotron problem that wont do anything about the response time that I had tested with Notepad....the Sidewinder just can not keep up with how fast I can push the buttons. Any ideas on this one?

I am running a Compaq 400MHZ P2 with 65 meg ram.

Thanks,
Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions

Although I haven't hacked my sidewinders I have experienced slow down with them. It seems that sidewinder performance is related to your game interface (sound card or game card) and your processor speed. In my machine, I have a soundblaster live and a celeron 300a overclocked to 500. I have no problems even with 4 sidewinders (FIFA 99 with 4 players rock!). Anyway one day we decided to play at a buddies house on an p5 166 and the sidewinder performance was unacceptable. The response was so bad we couldn't play. Even with only two hooked up the respnse of the second player was definately a major disadvantage. I also don't remember what sound card we were using here (it was compaq machine so maybe an el cheapo crystal audio?). I don't know the technical reasons behind my observations but I know the sidewinders seem to be picky on slower machines.

Jim

I never thought about the CPU having an affect. I have been using a P200 over clocked to 225, and a P233 overclocked to 266. I used to have a SB 16, but for the moment on my test machine I have a SB Live with my Microsoft Force Feedback, and a Kraft Game card also. It's an ISA card, and my Sidewinders are plugged into both.

(Before you ask, no I can used all joystick ports at the same time. But all I have to do is go into Device manager disable one port, and enable the other. I don't have to reboot for the change to take affect. Much better than changing plugs, rebooting, etc.)

I'm not having any slow down problems so far. But I'll test it tonight.

JR

I never thought about the CPU having an affect. I have been using a P200 over clocked to 225, and a P233 overclocked to 266. I used to have a SB 16, but for the moment on my test machine I have a SB Live with my Microsoft Force Feedback, and a Kraft Game card also. It's an ISA card, and my Sidewinders are plugged into both.

(Before you ask, no I can used all joystick ports at the same time. But all I have to do is go into Device manager disable one port, and enable the other. I don't have to reboot for the change to take affect. Much better than changing plugs, rebooting, etc.)

I'm not having any slow down problems so far. But I'll test it tonight.

JR

I used to have a TSR program that let you use your sidewinder in pure DOS and it worked like a dream (couldn't daisychain them however).
You could even make a sidewinder work on a system without windows 95, I still have my old dos box for keyboard splitter testing duty :-)

Anyway I can't seem to find it anywhere now, no mention of it on microsoft's site ("dos? dos? dos is the bastard son, we haven't seen his sort in years") any everyone else seems to think im in some sort old OS dreamland. If anyone has this program or knows where I can get it from please let me know

I'll look around I know I've seen it. If you find it first, send it my way and I'll put it on the downloads page?

--- saint

There's a TSR that works with *some* games in DOS. I don't have a Sidewinder so can't test it. Would be interested to hear of your results. It's on my site now, at http://www.arcadecontrols.speedhost.com/files/Drivers/sidewtsr.zip

The home page for the driver is http://www.vt.edu:10021/R/rogrubb3/sidewind.htm

I also have read but not confirmed that SNESkey and DirectPadPro both will perform this function.

Let me know if it works! Not yet linked on download page.

--- saint

Unfortunately the only sidewinder software I have seen to date only works in Windows 95 or 98. However MAME for dos works just fine on my system with the buttons configured for mame in Windows 95.

JR

OK, so I finally got my KE24 and now I need to connect it. As I understand it if I want to use it in discrete mode (each pin to a single input) I need to use one wire to connect ALL the buttons and joysticks and then connect that wire to the ground in the KE24. Is that correct?

If I want to use it in matrix mode I need to define the rows and columns (using the utility included) and connect each button or joystick to a row and column. That means that if I use a 2x22 matrix the two pins that are the rows will have 22 wires connected to each. Is this correct? And if so what's the best way to connect all those wires together? Soldering them? Or just tying them together with electric tape and makin one single connection to the controller?

Finally, any suggestions on the best way to map the inputs to minimize ghosting?

I set my LP24 in a 2x22 matrix. I assume the KE24 is similar. Mine is like the one on saint's page for the 2x22 matrix. Basically it goes like this.

On one ground you connect all the switches together except for the player 1 and 2 down and right; tab; enter; esc; and F3 (I use). On those wires you attach them together using the second ground. (On the switch the ground connection is the on the top.) So now you have two wires attached to all buttons. My grounds were mapped to M and N on the encoder.
Then you run a the second wire from each switch to the encoder. Here is where it gets tricky, to elimate ghosting you want to attach the up and down of player one together and the same for right and left. (The theory is you cannot hit the up and down at the same time or right and left) You do the same for player 2.
My player one (up and down) went to A on the encoder, Right and left went to B, so on. That page on saint's input method helps big time.
I connect my wires with female quick disconnects; my friend solder them together. Different strokes for different fokes. Good Luck. Read archives for more info. I asked the same questions.

OK I have a Hagstrom KE24 Keyboard encoder. I have finally hooked up all of my switches (buttons joysticks etc...) to my encoder. Everything checks out well. I go into notepad and everything works fine, but when I go into an emulator, mame32 or callus95, the up down left and right seem to be acting really strangly! For example, pacman does not want to go left ever. I know that the switch is working because it works in notepad. This does not make any sense to me. Do any of you guys have a clue??

One other thing, I went in the cfg program for the encoder and when I tried pushed u to get what was in the encoder, it said that it couldn't talk to the card.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mine did the same thing. Did you launch the encoder program through dos? That is where I screwed up. See posting.

Yeah, I had windows restart in MSDOS mode. That is the closest that machine gets to dos.

Hopefully the Hagstrom guy will call me back soon.

This seems to be the new "In" thing so I want it too!

I'm thinking of putting my monitor in a box of some kind which would be attached to a 12" lazy susan I bought at Home Depot. The lazy susan is rated up to 1000lbs on compression (presasure from the top if it lays horizontally) which, according to a friend of mine, means it should support 100 lbs of shear pressure (when the discs are mounted vertically). I want to be safe so I want the front end to rest on some rollers gyrating on its base of the lazy susan. What can I use for the rollers? Anybody know of a better rotating discs for the base of the box? Any ideas/suggestions are welcome.

I am going to try to rotate my monitor also...
I plan to use rollerblade wheels and bearing for
support. I have heard of others doing that too.
This should provide smooth turning. Hope that helps!!

How do you connect them? Any details welcome.

I got these pics a while back.
They are of someones rotating monitor cab.
I do not remember who made this or anything else about it but I still had the pics so I added them to my site for all to see.
Maybe they can give you some ideas.

http://members.home.net:80/hutt1/rotate1.htm
http://members.home.net:80/hutt1/rotate2.htm
http://members.home.net:80/hutt1/rotate3.htm
http://members.home.net:80/hutt1/rotate4.htm

Andy Desak
Arcade Solutions
http://members.home.net:80/hutt1/home.htm

They appear to be pictures of Mark Jenison's arcade cabinet - you can find more at Wiretap at http://www.spies.com/arcade/photos/index2.html --- keep your pictures available though because it looks like Wiretap is missing some now :)

--- saint