DS on a cabinet

[mh12]

hello,
i thought i should contribute a little something more around here. and maybe annoy some of the purists while i'm at it 

has anyone else tried DS games on their cabinet? i don't own a DS, but I've been playing so much "Retro Game Challenge" i went out and bought two copies of the game (1 to gift). NO$GBA with NO$Zoomer runs this stuff great. you can map any key to do whatever emulator function you like, so most of the time I'm playing with the game screen on all 27" of my monitor (and use another button to switch back to dual screen). it's just like NES games. Now I'm also checking out Tetris DS (it's mainly non-touch, but I can play the Touch mode with an Autohotkey script I modified to move the mouse with the second joystick), Contra 4, and both Space Invaders Extreme games, which I can't imagine I'd be very good at with a D-pad. It's great stuff.

[Turnarcades]

The DS is great and one of the few platforms left in the modern era that does try to keep things simple (the complexity of 6th-gen + consoles are what put me off adding them to a retro cabinet), however even those excellent re-imaginings like Tetris and Mario Kart require too much touch interaction at some point during play and creating scripts and the like can be a chore, so I'd prefer to keep it out for now. Maybe if the emulation and game support improves on the emulators as well as improved 'cab-friendly' features, I think it woul be a good addition.

[shateredsoul]

I think this is a great idea.  I wish there was an option to have the DS screens take up the entire space vertically (one screen on top of each other) and with black borders on the side.  Not sure why they haven't thought of this for any of the emulators, but to me this would be the best solution.  If you have a vertical monitor setup.. I imagine you don't need side borders.

I've heard a lot about autohotkey (i.e. using it to skip straight to the game for street fighter IV), do you know of a thread that explains what it is? Can you share the script you've configured for your pc? 

Some other games I think would work well on an arcade cab

-New Super Mario Bros
-Contra 4
-Sonic Games

Can't think of more at the moment but I could swear there's plenty more

I have noticed some people add a 2nd touch screen on their arcade setup, has anyone seen one of these setup to play nintendo DS (using the two screens)?

I just had an awesome Idea, what if the touch screen was integrated into the panel? The trackball can be above it, but this would make it really easy to use for Nintendo DS games, displaying your controller configurations when launching games, and configuring windows. I couldn't find a CP where they already did exactly what I'm imaginging, but I did find this http://arcadeheroes.com/2009/08/01/update-on-dark-presence-now-with-touch-screens-on-the-panel/

[Gorotsuki]

I want to emulate the DS
on my arcade but my PC
is too slow, especially for the
DeSmuMe emulator.
Going to see if the No$Zoomer
really does full screen now.
The last time I tried
something similar it didn't work out.

[shateredsoul]

thanks for sharing that! I looked up no$zoomer.. directed it to no$gba and it quit on me.. (i'm using 64 bit windows 7), i launched no zoomer again and launched a game and it worked great! Full screen and all, tested on bubble bobble and new super mario bros.

[shateredsoul]

I did a bit more research, and found out that desmume can do fullscreen on svn release

http://cid-ec92aae47a89073b.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Emulation/Desmume?view=details

It's not in the options, but if you press alt+enter it goes full screen, apparently no$gba is better for less powerful systems but desmume can run all games perfectly given your system is powerful enough (haven't confirmed yet)

[mh12]

however even those excellent re-imaginings like Tetris and Mario Kart require too much touch interaction at some point during play

won't be touching Mario Kart.. but I play some Tetris DS and surprisingly there is only ONE mode (of the.. 6?) that uses the stylus at all. and having to use my second stick as the stylus isn't the only reason i suck at it. Also, it's the only game I've seen that doesn't even have a gap between the screens in the playfield - it's a continuous vertical screen. in that way, you're better off with an emulator. Anyway, it's a great title and i would buy it if i could find it anywhere! it's actually geared toward 'retro gamers'

and creating scripts and the like can be a chore, so I'd prefer to keep it out for now. Maybe if the emulation and game support improves on the emulators as well as improved 'cab-friendly' features, I think it woul be a good addition.

You're right that this is a total hack job. I have a unique Autohotkey script for each game I run (i switch the screens for some... some have separators... Contra 4's controls had to be totally remapped... New SMB needs some utility run after it loads to fix the sound...)

I've found the emulation to be great though (besides the SMB sound issue); what problems did you have?

I was seriously considering a DS XL, and then right before the launch they go and announce this!: http://www.slipperybrick.com/2010/03/nintendo-3ds-additional-details/

I'll start collecting games at least. Nothing I've seen my friends playing on a DS ever grabbed me, so it was great to try out this handful on my cab.

[mh12]

I wish there was an option to have the DS screens take up the entire space vertically (one screen on top of each other) and with black borders on the side.  Not sure why they haven't thought of this for any of the emulators, but to me this would be the best solution.

that's what i'm doing

I've heard a lot about autohotkey (i.e. using it to skip straight to the game for street fighter IV), do you know of a thread that explains what it is? Can you share the script you've configured for your pc?

i heard about AHK here.. but i don't recall a thread that explains much about it. the documentation that comes with it is very good, and you can find loads of examples and help for every command on the web. i'm still not very good at it though - basically trial and error. there's a script that comes with it to control the mouse with the keyboard, so i remapped that to be my second stick's "keys" (jpac) for the games that need it. Contra 4 is one that doesn't use the touchscreen at all. Here's my script for that:

FileCopy, G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.si, G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.ini, 1
Run G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.exe "G:\nds\roms\Contra 4.nds"

z::a
return
x::z
return
c::s
return
d::c
return
s::x
return
a::d
return

esc::
SendInput !{F4}
FileCopy, G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.good, G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.ini, 1
ExitApp

the bit with all the colons tells my buttons to act as other keypresses ("Z" turns to A, etc.). Esc sends Alt-F4.. and all that FileCopy stuff is to load up the correct configuration ("touch" screen on the bottom, and a black line between screens.. since this game has a gap you disappear into often) and then on exit sets the configuration back to my default.

I have noticed some people add a 2nd touch screen on their arcade setup, has anyone seen one of these setup to play nintendo DS (using the two screens)?

I just had an awesome Idea, what if the touch screen was integrated into the panel? The trackball can be above it, but this would make it really easy to use for Nintendo DS games, displaying your controller configurations when launching games, and configuring windows.

now that is too much messing around for me! anyway, do you mean the monitor would only be the top screen? that wouldn't be good since the touch screen is the main screen for a lot of games.

[bkenobi]

Doesn't your script mean that when you press 's' it will send 'a' (s->x->z->a)?  I can't remember if remapping buttons will send something the script will see as a different key press.  I thought it did though...

EDIT:  Nope, just tried it and it works great.  Huh, I relearned something.   

[shateredsoul]

Wow man.. that is crazy hacking.. I had enough trouble getting autohotkey to pres "alt+enter" for me after launching an emulator, I do have a autohotkey question though.

I noticed that the autohotkey ahk gets saved in my documents.. fine, I can edit that done.  What if I want a second script? The one I already have is for pcsx2, is there a way to do a new .exe for another auto hotkey script for nintendo ds? or do I have to somehow work that in to that one .ahk file (maybe by specifying specific emulators.

Does this line (underneath) mean that the changed keys are only active when this program launches?

FileCopy, G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.si, G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.ini, 1
Run G:\nds\NO$Zoomer.exe "G:\nds\roms\Contra 4.nds"

I was able to get the screens to separate.  This was easy, but there's no way to hide the second screen.  So, I made the second screen tiny and put it in the black border on the left.  So when in fullscreen,Every-time I break the screens apart nowthe top screen takes up the the whole screen vertically, and the bottom on goes into the left black border on the left.  Pretty nice! I just realized I need to add a button that would allow you to switch screens (sometimes the gameplay is on the bottoms screen). So I can either mess with autohotkey or use the trackball to play.

Next step: Try hacking up Maximus Arcade to add this system

by the way the sound in new super mario bros does sound grainy... hopefully that gets fixed in the next release

[Gorotsuki]

by the way the sound in new super mario bros does sound grainy... hopefully that gets fixed in the next release

This supposedly fixes the crappy sound in New Super Mario Bros.
http://windspro-en.blogspot.com/2009/01/download.html
I haven't tried it yet but I'm fixing to.

[mh12]

ss, they're just text files. create/edit them in notepad. make a million...

'hiding' a screen isn't worded like that.. it's something like screen ratio.. based on upper or lower screen.. you can make it 0% or 100%.. whichever it's based on. sorry my cab's not on right now.

so i set up the emulator for a specific game, then exit it, then go to the emulator's directory and rename the .ini file to be .gamename (or whatever) instead (after already having copied my 'default' .ini to another file). the lines you quoted is just to manage that. before i run the emu with Contra, i'm copying its config file to be the one the emu's going to look at (.ini). and then when i exit i change the default one (.good) back to the .ini (a few games use this default, thus have no FileCopy lines). the "1" forces an overwrite believe. if you just google   autohotkey filecopy  you'll find a full explanation of the command, and probably a lot of forums with people messing with it.

if i knew i'd be helping people with this, i'd have set it up a little neater. anyway, it works

[lilshawn]

i was considering a giant DS, using a 19 inch touchscreen for the bottom and another 19 for the top, but was concerned with using a dual monitor setup and if any programs supported it, ended up using the monitor for something else before i even researched the prospect.

iv'e since scrapped the other project, now this post has rekindled my idea.

any emus able to run ds dual screen?!

[shateredsoul]

hmm no$zoomer may.. I know it can seperate the screen so You may be able to fullscreen the top screen and resize the bottom screen on the 2nd monitor to be mostly fullscreen(you can even remove the borders around the 2nd screen.. which would make it look mostly fullscreen)

[shateredsoul]

I don't have a cab yet (plan to work on it this summer)

but made this vid to show how easy it would be to include. I have 2 keys on they keyboard, one to break the screens appart.. which makes one screen fullscreen.  You then press the same key again to put them back on top of each other. And another key that switches they screens around (useful when the top screen is not the main screen)

So in your cab you'd have 2 keys for the screen (or can just leave them stacked vertically to not confuse guests)

and 8 buttons (abxyLR and select and start) for playing

I made a short video.. it's not the best but you get the point of the concept

[mh12]

i was considering a giant DS, using a 19 inch touchscreen for the bottom and another 19 for the top, but was concerned with using a dual monitor setup and if any programs supported it, ended up using the monitor for something else before i even researched the prospect.

iv'e since scrapped the other project, now this post has rekindled my idea.

any emus able to run ds dual screen?!

oooo k i'm done here.
good work, ss

[Gorotsuki]

To fix the scratchy sound in New Super Mario Bros.
Using No$GBA Press "Ctrl R" in game.

[Turnarcades]

Nah, still not convinced yet I do have a touch-screen jukebox in production I could upgrade to run it, but maybe not yet.

[Dizzle]

I tried a couple of these emulators a few months ago and was surprised at how good they ran on my laptop.  Still wasn't enough to keep my coming back.  But I might try running some of the games with the zoomer on my mini pincab.  The computer is a lot faster and a widescreen monitor in portrait mode would probably work out well.

[Red]

What exactly does the Zoomer do?  Is it an Add-On for existing emulators or is it a full fledged emulator like No$GBA?

[nickynooch]

Can you post a step by step on how you got it running in Maximus Arcade?

I'm dying to have Contra 4 on my cab!!!!!!

A video "how to" would be amazing too.  I noticed you used the spectrum section (which is free on my maximus arcade).  Can you post what settings you used?

I'm stoked to see this is actually possible!  Now if I can get a simple "how to" on it in maximus arcade, I'd be even more stoked.

Thanks for your help!

[shateredsoul]

Hey nickynooch... so I might not have time to do that this weekend.  But honestly, I just set it up like any other emulator. 

But first you have to setup no$zoomer and no$gba outside of maximus arcade.  Work on that first and then within no$zoomer you can set the options of no$zoomer  you can assign certain buttons on your cab do do the screen mainpultions.. ( I would do 2 buttons, one to break the screens, one to switch the screens apart, if you have some games that require the DS being rotated you can add 2  buttons more (for a total of 4) one to rotate the screen 270 degrees and one to change it back to the original orientation (0 degrees)

I'll see if I can do  a guide later on next week, I would also recommend changing the art with the theme editor so that instead of seeing the sinclair you see a DS image and logo

-SS

[nickynooch]

Thanks shattered! I'm gonna try to get it working on my cab this weekend.  If I get any good graphics done I'll post here or the maximus arcade forums.

I tried in the past to do it but it didn't work for some reason, so a tutorial would be greatly helpful!!! If I didn't see the video I wouldn't think it to be possible.

[Space Fractal]

Why bother to get DS installed on the cab, due unique hardware DS hardware have? The Touchscreen is the major problem, if you don't have trackball and many games actually use that? DS is still in market fully and think its easier that way and DS emulators is still  far from perfection.

For extractly DS, its much more fun to playing games on the real hardware using a homebrew card and is easy to get these.

I did that, due I have created music for 3 homebrew DS games and hence was beta tester(Warhawk DS, Manic Miner DS and The Detective Game), so nothing piracy here, even most cards support commerciel games. The all use both screens and should not been been played on one screen at same time. None of these games do use the touch screen at all and hence I think they is very cab friendly.

Also Warhawk DS does not use gap, but Contra 4 does. Just bear that in mind, because it might look odd on some emulator, due gap between screen.