FrontEnd for Dual Machine

[yo1dog]

This is the Front End I have been working on. It is made to work with my Planet Arcade cabinet which allows two games to be played at once. It has an iPod-like interface. Still in dev.

video

[Space Fractal]

this cant been practical get a good performents at all running 2 games on the same PC, unless you do somewhere networking between two PC. Howover its a cool idea network with same FE that way and a cool idea and get it launch the game to the other PC.

Nice Interface

[Howard_Casto]

Hmm let's find out.....


Currently running sfII and baddudes on my pc at the same time.  Processor widget says that I'm only using 14% of my processing power and both are running at full fps.  Mind you this is a pretty high-end pc... I just paid 1000 bucks for it, but it is possible apparently. 

Definately not practical though... it doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.  The whole point of making a cab with seperate screens and controls for each player is so players have a more comfortable experince playing the SAME GAME in multiplayer.  (See the nintendo "VS" system xmen 6p and virtually any japanese fighting game setup.)  While it's amaizngly cool that we are at the point to where this is possible and the front-end looks nice, I don't see this sort of idea catching on.  As I said, generally this sort of setup is designed for a mirrored display in mind and you save a ton of processing power by just using a simply "y" cable and outputting the same display for both players.

[yo1dog]

Hmm let's find out.....


Currently running sfII and baddudes on my pc at the same time.  Processor widget says that I'm only using 14% of my processing power and both are running at full fps.  Mind you this is a pretty high-end pc... I just paid 1000 bucks for it, but it is possible apparently. 

Definately not practical though... it doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.  The whole point of making a cab with seperate screens and controls for each player is so players have a more comfortable experince playing the SAME GAME in multiplayer.  (See the nintendo "VS" system xmen 6p and virtually any japanese fighting game setup.)  While it's amaizngly cool that we are at the point to where this is possible and the front-end looks nice, I don't see this sort of idea catching on.  As I said, generally this sort of setup is designed for a mirrored display in mind and you save a ton of processing power by just using a simply "y" cable and outputting the same display for both players.

If you read the thread from my cabinet you will know that you have the option of playing either two 2 player games or a single 4 player game.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah, I get that, but 4 players can easily stand around a single 25 inch monitor.  And if we are going to get into that, the way the machine is laid out, it'll be a tad bit cramped for fighting games, you have far too many controls, the trackball and spinner are in akward positions, we've seen "dual tier" control panels in the past and they've turned out to be uncomfortable, ect..... 


But I didn't want to comment on the cabinet, but rather the merits of a fe designed for playing two games at once. 


I'm glad you are happy with the design and the fe looks very nice so lets leave it at that.   

BUT, if you haven't actually built this machine and you are still in the planning stage I would seriously consider taking a second look at some of the design elements. 

[drventure]

Nice layout. Just curious. What'd you write it in?

[yo1dog]

C#, with DirectX