Main > Project Announcements
The Yahrrcade (Pirate Themed Showcase Cabinet)
dermoerder:
<update>
Intro Video!
<update>
Built!
<update>Went with a pirate theme and I'm calling it the Yahrrrcade! More posts about that are below.
<original post>
So I've been compiling the games, tweaking emulators, writing scripts, taking screen-shots and organizing things for months whenever I've had the time. I've finally come up with a model that I'm pretty happy with, started to cut some wood and concluded that it was finally time for my project thread. When I first got the idea (from Sasquatch! on the SA Forums. Thanks if you're reading this) I thought it would be a simple thing to throw an old system in a box with an X-Arcade and call it a day but I don't seem to be capable of half-assing projects like this. Now I have a 4 player showcase cab with as-complete-as-possible collections of every console and arcade system I care to play up to PSX/Dreamcast spread across a couple of terabyte drives, that is going to take up half of the living room. No turning back now!
The marquee is just one I shoved in there to hold the place, so don't mind that, and Baseball Stars 2 happens to be a game I really like :). The color scheme will be red on black to match all of my buttons. That's a 36" CRT VGA monitor in there that I managed to find on Craigslist for cheap from a guy who just wanted to get the damned huge thing out of his house. Once that made it home(with me pressed up against the windshield in order to fit it in my car) it became clear that a showcase-style cab would suit the huge screen better and I redesigned what I had. It's for the better anyway. The normal upright cab was starting to look like an airplane with the size of the panel compared to monitor I was using.
Really the most difficult part of all this was doing all the grunt work of getting each game to work for the newer consoles and putting together screenshots for all of these things. Now I just have to figure out how to use a circular saw without cutting off any fingers and I'm set. ;)
Thanks to everyone here for contributing to such a great resource, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without you guys. Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish the control panel if not the entire podium, so I'll be back with my pictures. If this goes well I'll probably want to bang out a simpler MAME system for some friends later on. Fingers crossed.
</original post>
shateredsoul:
please update as you build, I'm looking forward to building mine too.. I also have terabytes of games. I'd like to hear more about how you setup the software side (which frontend are you using? do you have the full psx collection? saturn?)
I always wondered if I should just go through my ps1, saturn, and dreamcast games to remove the ones I don't want (i.e. Barbie, Sesame Street, etc..).
Also, I was considering having some systems setup to play with an xbox 360 controller (ps1, n64, dreamcast, saturn, ps2, wii, gamecube), are you setting up all of these for your joysticks?
dermoerder:
OS
Windows XP - As much as I'd rather not even run Windows, there was no way I was going to get all of these emulators working on Linux. Not only are the Linux versions generally really unstable but half of them just straight up don't exist. I would certainly stick with Linux for a MAME-only system if possible.
Pereipherals
Lightguns - I looked at the EMS Topguns for a while... but with GlovePIE as mature as it is, Wiimotes have become a really good way to play the gun games. Once you put one inside a Buckshot you can't even tell it's a Wiimote! I picked up a wireless Wii sensor bar which, once I build the cab, I will split into to halves to be placed in the middle of the screen on either side and wire it to run off an AC adapter. I'm also trying to write a GlovePIE script to allow me to use these guys for Dreamcast's Samba di Amigo but it's proving difficult so if anyone has something along those lines...
Gamepads - I had four original XBox controllers which happen to be plain old USB with a proprietary plug on the end so I hacked those off and put USB plugs on the end. The control panel top opens on a hinge and has plenty of room underneath to store the controllers. These are necessary for Dreamcast, N64, etc. Unfortunately since they lack four shoulder buttons it will be difficult to pull off PSX on these so I've been looking at the P2900 and P990. These guys have both the six face buttons necessary for N64 and the four shoulder buttons for PSX and should be just great if not for all the negative reviews online. I may just get one to see if it's workable but for now the XBox controllers will do.
Rock Band Things - I'll put a couple of guitar hooks on the side of the cabinet housing the monitor for the guitars(wireless PS2 through a PS2->USB adapter). The microphone(USB) can live in the control panel and the disassembled drums(USB) can live inside the podium which has a door for storing things.
Dance Pads - Mounted on wood.
Emus
Frontend
Maximus Arcade - I think I would actually like to use Hyperspin but the 4ghz Pentium 3 in there can't seem to keep up since Hyperspin does not yet take advantage of hardware acceleration. Still, MaxArcade is really smooth and is easy to set up.
Arcade
Makaron - This seemed to have the highest compatibility for Sega Naomi.
Sega Model 2 Emulator - Pretty self explanatory.
Mame - Of course.
Zinc - Street Fighter etc.
Atari
Jaguar - Project Tempest seems to do fine.
Older Ataris - I haven't gotten around to this yet but the older Ataris seem really well emulated so I don't think it will take much effort once I do.
Nintendo
Gameboy - Desmume
NES - Nestopia
SNES - Snes9x
N64 - Project64 1.6
Sega
Master System - Kega Fusion
Genesis - Gens
Saturn - I decided that there was nothing worthwhile on this system, except maybe Bomberman, but I couldn't get that to work so I ditched this system.
Dreamcast - nulldc 1.6. Very time consuming going through and removing the non-working games.
Other
Sony PSX - ePSXe. Haven't gotten my hands on all of this yet so I haven't had the pleasure of sitting down and taking title shots. Really looking forward to it though... :(
NeoGeo CD - Nebula. There's like 4 exclusives on this system that weren't on the AES/MVS so might as well.
PC Games
Stepmania - It was probably around 8 years ago that I mounted two dance pads for this... and they're still in working order, so I'll just shove the pads behind the cab when not in use.
FoFix - Rock Band/Guitar Hero. I hope the next version has better pitch detection because the vocal stuff is unusable. The rest is spot-on though.
Armagetron Advanced - Have to have Tron.
Ascii Portal - Fun platformer.
Bionic Commando Rearmed - Really badass revamp of Bionic Commando. Everyone should get this.
Nation Red - Zombie killing madness, playable on gamepad, going to look into playing double-joy-style like SmashTV.
Oni - Old beat-em-up game.
Ultrastar - Where FoFix lacks good vocal support, Ultrastar is perfect.
VVVVVV - A very creative little platformer, look it up.
River City Hacky Sack - An old flash game I had lying around.
Flash shooting games - Going to try to get a handful of flash shooting games working on here to use with the wiimote lightguns.
I'll have more specific software and scripting info later on.
shateredsoul:
I noticed you're using nulldc 1.6, would you be willing to share your list?
Why did you ditch the Saturn? Astal? Panzer Dragon? Bug? Fighter's Megamix.. it doesn't have the greatest games, but you should at least try. I have it running through Maximus Arcade.
Also..
can your system handle the dolphin emulator? pcsx2? Nintendo DS isn't too painful to add either (quite a few wortwhile games on there too)
dermoerder:
--- Quote from: shateredsoul on March 31, 2010, 11:47:48 pm ---I noticed you're using nulldc 1.6, would you be willing to share your list?
Why did you ditch the Saturn? Astal? Panzer Dragon? Bug? Fighter's Megamix.. it doesn't have the greatest games, but you should at least try. I have it running through Maximus Arcade.
Also..
can your system handle the dolphin emulator? pcsx2? Nintendo DS isn't too painful to add either (quite a few wortwhile games on there too)
--- End quote ---
List? You mean my compatibility list?
I got about halfway through testing the Saturn games and taking title shots before deciding I just didn't care. I never had a Saturn and have no attachment to it so I just decided to save myself the trouble.
As for Dolphin and Pcsx2, not even close :(. The Pentium 4 just lacks the features that these newer emulators need to operate at full speed. This actually got me thinking that I should, whenever I eventually get some deal on a newer badass multicore system, build a "MegaConsole" system and just not worry about shoving all that crap into the cabinet. That sort of thing would really do much better on my HDTV than the giant CRT anyway.
Nintendo DS: I considered hacking my old wacom tablet or a usb touchpad into the control panel to accommodate the need for a mouse on the DS but including mouse stuff seemed to be crossing a line into what I think should be another project. I know I could include just those games that don't need touch input but I don't think I feel motivated to do so. Scribblenauts is fun though, just not on the cab.
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