What would I need to Mame a driving cab?

[councilface]

Specifically an SCI. I have no idea what ultimarc contraption I would need to let the steering wheel talk to the PC. Before anyone starts - I would keep the cab in original working order...

[Havok]

I believe that's a 360 degree wheel, so your best bet would be to use a GroovyGameGear spinner with wheel attachment if I'm correct. Or, you could figure out a way to attach the current wheel assembly to it. Here's the link:

GGG Spinner

** Edit **

Added direct link to spinner

[councilface]

What would I need to mame a Sega Rally? I believe that has a more complicated gear shift.

[Havok]

I believe that one is a 270 degree analog control. If that is the case, then Ultimarc's U-Hid or U-Hid Nano would be a good choice:

http://www.u-hid.com/home/index.php

You really want to look at what games you want to emulate; there are differences between the steering wheels. Some are 360 degree, (usually mouse emulated) some are 270 degree (usually analog interface required)

Not all steering wheel controls will be the same, and you will have varying amounts of success using the wrong controller (i.e. trying to get them all to work with one interface).

Best thing to do is try and lump all the games of the same interface type and choose your favorites, assigning a priority to each as far as what ones you want perfect and what ones you just want to work ok.

Or, build a cab that has two wheels on it with both interfaces and use the correct one for each particular game. You could go with a front end that can give you lists and put them there.

And AtomicFE is of course the best possible choice for a driving cab. Here's two great layouts for driving games:



or this one:

[92greenyj]

Haven't had to tear into my Sega Rally 3 units yet thankfully, but I do know my Nicktoons Nitro units use Potentiometers on the steering wheels to translate the steering wheel input to something the computer can recognize. Happ sells them pretty cheap. the replacement I had to order was like 20 bucks as I recall. Not sure what you would need to do to make the potentiometer talk to the computer though

[Havok]

That's what the U-Hid does; it interfaces a potentiometer via USB.

(And so much more!)

[92greenyj]

Ya know, considering most of my modern games in here run on PCs, i really have to wonder if any of them utilize the same stuff we do on our MAME cabinets at home. Maybe if i get bored one of these days I'll pop one open and see if theres an iPac inside of them. I know the rifles for my Big Buck Safari are staight up USB light guns.

[leapinlew]

Don't forget the pedals too. Some games use microswitch pedals and others use pots. I built a driving Mame cabinet and once it was all said and done it played a half dozen or less games faithfully and all other games were a compromise.

I ended up selling it.

[mark shaker]

Here is a write-up I did (years ago) on interfacing a Happ Active Steering Wheel to a PC and PS2. See the "Tech" link near the bottom of the page.

http://www.marksarcade.com/

   - Mark

P.S. Man I gota update that website one of these days. Talk about fugly!