Might Make A Mame Cabinet... What Software?

[dnlgreenwood]

 Me and a friend were talking about MAME cabinets, and I think it might be fun to make one. I thought of gutting out an existing arcade cabinet and replacing it with a computer, and wiring the controls to a USB gamepad or two, intead of buying a whole controller. I have an old Sony Vaio PCG-R505GL that I do not use, so I thought that it might be perfect. I ran a lot of emulators on it, including ePSXe, ZSNES, Nestopia, NullDC, and PJ64 on it without any problems, as well as Halo, so I know it would work. Since then, I have removed the 80GB hard disk to use on my Wii, so I either need to get a new one or boot off of USB... I am planning on running various backups, DOS discs, ps1 discs and ps2 discs in its dvd drive, so I can't boot from the dvd drive, unless the whole thing runs from RAM like DSL, but DSL does not work properly on my computer.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any idea as to what linux distro I should use for it. I just want it to boot into a menu to select emulators, like an aplication launcher or something... kinda like that thing that the Pandora has.

I might also need some guidance as to what emulators I should use. I'm not too familiar with what emulators work best for linux, but I am planning to add emulators for:

• MAME
• Genesis, Master System, 32x, Sega CD, etc (I'm thinking of using Kega-Fusion. Its pretty much the only emulator I have used in linux, besides zsnes)
• SNES (I'm thinking of using ZSNES)
• NES
• DOS (I'm thinking DOSbox, because I've used it before)
• Playstation or maybe PS2...
• Atari 2600
• Neo Geo
• PC Engine
• Anything else you recommend...

Okay so its Puppy Arcade I might use.




More info on my computer: source: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/PCGR505GLspec.pdf

Spoiler

Model
PCG-R505GL
Processor
Mobile Intel® Pentium® III processor 1.20GHz
supports enhanced Intel® SpeedStep™ technology
Cache Memory
32KB integrated on-die level 1
512K integrated on-die level 2
Bus Speed
133 MHz
LCD
12.1" XGA (1024x768) TFT display     //not there anymore, broken.
Graphics
Intel® 830MG graphic chip with up to 32 MB Video SDRAM utilizing
Intel® Dynamic Video Memory technology
(Expandable to 48 MB if main memory is upgraded)
Standard RAM
256MB SDRAM     //this is what I have
Maximum RAM
384MB SDRAM
Open Slot
0: SO-DIMM
Hard Drive
30 GB3 hard drive     //gone, replaced with 80GB ATA, thats gone... its on my wii
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive
CD-RW/DVD combo drive on SlimDock™ docking station //I have the docking station
(CD-R 16x; CD-RW 10x; CD 24x; DVD-read 8x)
Floppy Drive
1.44 MB, 3.5" floppy drive on SlimDock™ docking station
Memory Stick® Media Slot
Supports optional Memory Stick® or MagicGate™ Memory Stick®
media
Modem
Integrated V.90 modem
Ethernet
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Ethernet with RJ-45 interface
Pointing Device
Center Jog Dial™ control     //didn't work after I installed windows... can't find drivers... not working in linux... help?!
Electro-Static touch pad
Estimated Battery Life5
Lithium-ion battery
2.0-4.5 hours with standard battery
PC Card Slots
Supports one type II card
CardBus support
Audio
Windows® sound system compatible with 3D surround
Built-in stereo speakers; microphone jack
Other Interfaces
i.LINK® (IEEE 1394) interface4, 2 USB, RJ-11 modem jack, RJ-45
Ethernet, Memory Stick® media slot, VGA output, headphone
(stereo), mic-in, DC-in
Power Requirements
80 watts maximum (19.5V / AC100-240V)
Energy Star® compliant
Advanced power management - APM-ACPI compatible
Size (H x W x D)
1.16"-1.33" X 11.0" X 9.4"
Weight
4.30 lbs. with standard battery
6.68 lbs. with docking station
Supplied Accessories
Lithium-ion battery, power cord, AC adapter, //battery runs 8 minutes if you're lucky. worn out. could replace cells, but darned thing wont open.
and SlimDock™ docking station
Included Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition //gone, first hard drive failed

 

[b._.o._.b]

I have tried an older version of Puppy Arcade and worked great, but it was not really cabinet friendly. Seems to be improved for this purpose as well. The guy creating it is very responsive to questions (on the Puppy Linux board) and is quite helpful when you have any requests.

http://scottjarvis.com/page105.htm

Not sure if this will give you the best cabinet frontend, but Puppy is the fastest and greatest live distro I know. Very small and works great from USB.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

I have tried an older version of Puppy Arcade and worked great, but it was not really cabinet friendly. Seems to be improved for this purpose as well. The guy creating it is very responsive to questions (on the Puppy Linux board) and is quite helpful when you have any requests.

http://scottjarvis.com/page105.htm

Not sure if this will give you the best cabinet frontend, but Puppy is the fastest and greatest live distro I know. Very small and works great from USB.

yeah, I think I remember running puppy on it before, but the video lagged (0.1 frames per second) on some displays, which is extremely odd. some screens work fine, but others are abysmal. I wonder whats up with that... anyway I should go out and find a cheap hard drive if i can find the ribbon cable... I would much prefer to run it from the hard drive.

I might test out puppy arcade next month... the display I have during my summer holiday is one of those screens I mentioned... well, its actually an LCD television. It doesn't lag on anything but puppy.

Edit:

Puppy Arcade is EXACTLY what I need! Thanks! I'm loading it onto a USB drive with unetbootin right now.

 

[klikklak]

I couldn't recommend a distro, but take a look at Wahcade. It's a multi-emu frontend optimized for cabinet controls. A linux version of mamewah (which I haven't used). Regarding emus, for the random emus try Mednafen. It does a lot of systems and works from the command line/with a frontend.

 

[b1ueskycomp1ex]

To be honest you should think about getting a fast SSD drive for better boot times.

 

[gruso]

I thought of gutting out an existing arcade cabinet and replacing it with a computer, and wiring the controls to a USB gamepad or two, intead of buying a whole controller.

Even better, use one of these to interface the existing controls:

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

Do you still have those Atari paddle controllers? Perfect opportunity to put one to use.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

I couldn't recommend a distro, but take a look at Wahcade.  It's a multi-emu frontend optimized for cabinet controls. A linux version of mamewah (which I haven't used). Regarding emus, for the random emus try Mednafen.  It does a lot of systems and works from the command line/with a frontend.

I will look into it... see what works.

To be honest you should think about getting a fast SSD drive for better boot times.

Unfortunately, I don't really have deep pockets at the moment...

I thought of gutting out an existing arcade cabinet and replacing it with a computer, and wiring the controls to a USB gamepad or two, intead of buying a whole controller.

Even better, use one of these to interface the existing controls:

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html

Do you still have those Atari paddle controllers? Perfect opportunity to put one to use.

actually, I do! as well as an atari joystick... nice, how much would it cost? I dont have time to look it up atm.

 

[gruso]

http://www.ultimarc.com/JShopServer/section.php?xSec=2

$39 to $65 depending on the type of interface. I think the basic $39 one would suit your needs. Those boards don't seem to cater for analogue spinners though. If you wanted to include an Atari paddle control, this might be the best way: http://www.stelladaptor.com/

Ultimarc also sell dedicated USB spinner controls, but they're in the $80 ballpark alone.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Im using it now, and it doesnt have that display problem. great! I havent tested out any of the emulators yet, though. I'm going to dedicate a 15GB flash drive for puppy (using ext3 filesystem... I have linux on my new computer so no problem if i need to copy backups onto it) 




anyway, need I have to worry about a swap partition? the RAM is 512MB, so the swap needn't be much more than that.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Ultimarc also sell dedicated USB spinner controls, but they're in the $80 ballpark alone.

The Opti-pac board will do spinners/trackballs... it's $39 too.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Anyone have a joystick preference? I'm used to the ball type, so I don't know about the other ones.

http://www.ultimarc.com/controls.html

 

[___]

I like the ball type joysticks too. If you are looking for cheap push buttons and joysticks, check ebay! There are always a couple of auctions for replacement kits.

Post pictures as soon as you have something to show for! I would love to build my own cabinet but neither have the space nor the money to actually aquire a cabinet.

 

[equlizer]

Make sure you get a good stick and buttons for your cabinet. I'd recommend Sanwa for your buttons and JLF for your stick. You can either choose 24mm or 30mm buttons. (I use 30mm) and use the 24's for other options. You can even pickup player 1 and 2 buttons for authenticity. Trust me on this if you want it lasting a long time. Check out lizardlick.com for the parts. PM me if you need more help.

Maximus arcade is what ive been using and its great!

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Puppy wont load my saved settings (yes i set it to back up....) each time i run it it asks me to select my mouse keyboard and x server settings. it doesnt remember any changes I made. I checked on my drive and I can see the backup files. I don't know why its not loading any of them. do i need to rename my drive or something?



Here are some images of my setup so far!


sorry its a little dark

comparing it to my SNES 2

comparing my screenless (broken) computer with my SNES 2

for some reason this picture is mirrored. damn irc soft.

mirrored again... all the rest are mirrored. must have pressed one of the function keys by accident.

the screen

this is the joystick im used to. this TV game has a bunch of games (space invaders, qix, phoenix, lunar landar, some other game)
I don't want to dissect it for parts because I didn't buy it, someone else did... so its not really mine.

Super Mario World 3 for the NES.

this one isnt mirrored, and i dont think the rest are... strange.

at the bottom right, that shiny thing is my USB 2.0 hub... for controllers. I only have three working USB ports on the computer, and this expands it to 6 working ports.

one of my crappy controllers. they feel really cheap and they are uncomfortable. I got them for free.

USB hub again... nice yellow flash drive on it I removed the enclosure and wrapped it with electrical tape. less bulky now.

this one has better buttons, but I am not so fond of that joystick... (yes, I said JOYSTICK!)

My computer does NOT support booting from USB, so I burned plop boot manager on a DVD with img burn.

sideview. two usb drives in the back, along with printer, serial, and ethernet ports. I cant find my long audio cable... but I have some cool speakers that have excellent sound.

at the right of the screen you can see an audio/video hub.




I have another LCD monitor I can use in the cabinet... I dont have a CRT, so it will be a little less authentic. anyway, this display is buggy and sucks. it makes games a little unplayable (choppy display) and it cuts off the edges... when i go into the tv settings to fix it, it only gets worse. i cant wait until i get back home! Im staying over with family for the summer... but I brought my computers.




a history of my computer:

My grandmother gave it to me after she bought a new computer. before that it belonged to my aunt. before that, my uncle. after about a year the screen just wouldn't work... it went blank once while using it. the same thing happened to my last computer before that one, an IBM thinkpad that took a beating before I received it. anyway, i opened the thing up and didnt see anything wrong with the connections... a small component must have burned out or something. I got an LCD monitor from my aunt, who had two... I had trouble viewing the LCD monitor, so I removed the entire top section of the laptop. good riddance; the thing is big enough already! its like an inch and a half thick... and the battery lasts 8 minutes if you are lucky. once the power went out and I almost freaked out because the LCD monitor went out with it, but my computer wasnt running, so I had no way of saving my work. thank god for the win+u shortcut and microsoft sam (narrator)! anyway, with the original display, the laptop's integrated video card used to freak out and crash whenever something strenuous happened, like a youtube video. the screen would then freeze and cloud over, (it REALLY looked like clouds... at first I thought it was condensation) and when it was mostly covered, it would then go into 640x480 mode with 16 colours. i fixed it by choosing a lower setting for hardware acceleration. it doesnt do that with a monitor though... i think.
again, I used to emulate almost everything on it, from nes to dreamcast. i used to play shenmue... but i lost all my game progress when the hard drive failed... permanently. good riddance, that 20GB hard drive split into two partitions, one 6GB with the XP home OS. I got a new ATA hard drive, an 80GB one for around $80 (lowest value of space we could find, lowest price for that value.) and it worked well... then i got a new computer, and removed the hard drive from my old laptop. i then used it on my wii to play backups after the DVD drive broke... someone inserted four too many discs into it! (yes i said 4)


then i installed puppy arcade on a flash drive on it, and used plop boot manager to run it.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

Make sure you get a good stick and buttons for your cabinet.  I'd recommend Sanwa for your buttons and JLF for your stick. You can either choose 24mm or 30mm buttons. (I use 30mm) and use the 24's for other options.  You can even pickup player 1 and 2 buttons for authenticity.  Trust me on this if you want it lasting a long time.  Check out lizardlick.com for the parts.  PM me if you need more help.

Maximus arcade is what ive been using and its great!

wow... this stuff is kind of expensive! It would feel more DIY if I just salvaged some parts from other things, but I will look into buying some controls once I get a cabinet... or make one. I have used a hand saw, band saw before in a couple of project for my electronics class. I had to build a chassis and controller for an RC car (but it didnt do so well, the teacher ordered cheap motors and the chassis was too heavy. it moved but the motors would burn out. i was one of the few to get theirs working) so I used a band saw for that. for another project I had to build a wall (or a mini-wall... without the outsides) and wire some light bulbs, outlets and switches. this, I used the hand saw and it went really well. I have also used soldering irons (obviously) and stripped wire... I have also used drills and dremels. (drills with wood and dremels on PCBs) we had to etch our own PCBs by marking them with a permanent marker and putting them in an etching tank. I don't really have access to any equipment at home, except a drill, a hand saw, a soldering iron, a standard toolbox, and at least one sheet of 220 grit sand paper. I might add a trackball if my budget permits it, or just hook up a mouse and keyboard that can slide out... hey, I can do my homework on this thing!

I might go look at junk with my dad... and frequent the free section of craigslist. my dad buys and sells cement plants, parts, and equipment, and is into antiques, so I guess that wouldn't be too hard for him. I could also salvage parts from TV games if I see any... or maybe some controllers. 

I am thinking of at least six buttons per player, eight to if I can get away with it. I also want to use it with a PS1 or PS2 pinball arcade collection game, so I want to put buttons on the bottom corners of the front panel where the controls are, and some buttons to operate the tilt controls. I have some flip switches I can use to toggle input from one of the player controls by the joystick to the pinball controls.

Games that I am into: fighting games and pinball are GREAT. I also like racing games, like outrun... I also like older games like Mappy and Lunar Lander. Oh, and tetris and columns are a must. Zombies Ate MY Neihbours is an AWESOME 2-player game. Mortal kombat and Killer Instinct are also mandatory. I have a lot of more games I'm interested in implementing... 

Next time I edit this post i'll include a diagram of my um... future arcade cabinet!

edit: here!
I think it might be overkill on the buttons though...

I added some more info on my computer that i'll be using in the first post!

 

[klikklak]

I think the sticks that are recommended are Seimitsu for shooters and Sanwa for fighters. Not that I know, since I've never had the money to build a cabinet and the arcades never had the name of the stick on display :rolleyes:

 

[dnlgreenwood]

I think the sticks that are recommended are Seimitsu for shooters and Sanwa for fighters.  Not that I know, since I've never had the money to build a cabinet and the arcades never had the name of the stick on display   :rolleyes:

I think Iém more into fighters... but shooters are okay... I might get one of each... but the cabinet might look funny... what do you thinkÉ ¸I donòt really know.

 

[klikklak]

They look the same, both being japanese style. You might also want to think about the guide and what style you prefer. Guide is the thing that locks diagonals, japanese style is square and americans used octagonal if I remember correctly.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

They look the same, both being japanese style.  You might also want to think about the guide and what style you prefer. Guide is the thing that locks diagonals, japanese style is square and americans used octagonal if I remember correctly.

I actually have an analog wireless joystick that has a square guide... but I am unwilling to dissect it or anything. its also not suitable for an arcade cabinet; its better for flight sims or shooters.

 

[equlizer]

If you want the true arcade style buttons and stick, go with HAPP! The stick is a round gate and the buttons are clickity click loud The happ stick has more depth do it but im sure that wont matter if its in a cabinet. With HAPP you can replace the switches in the stick and buttons if they die (thats a bonus) Happ sticks are also bat-top compared to ball-top on the other 2 choices i told you about. Its all really personal preference. I have a MAME stick i built with 2 happ sticks and 6 buttons and i built another one for my xbox 360 with sanwa stick and 6 buttons + 2 for start/select. I also made a clear plexiglass arcade stick. Ill post pics if you want and what it looks like inside?