If I wanted to play Marvel vs Capcom 2...

[Mikezilla]

..what would be the best route, put a dreamcast into my cab and hack the controls (thats possible right), or just use a DC Emulator? If I went the latter, what type of PC would I need in order to run it correctly? Also, if I went the former, how hard is it to make the dreamcast use arcade controls?! Thanks for the input guys!

BTW I also tried to seach for topics in the forums but I didnt really get a straight answer. Thanks! 

[HaRuMaN]

Modded DC controls are readily available    You just gotta ask.   

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Pad hacks are pretty easy. Have you wired up arcade controls before, or are you completely new? Dreamcast setup would be cheap ($30 for system, you can burn DC games for free, and you can hookup straight into a normal TV).  I would definitley say dreamcast.

[Jack Burton]

Alternative:

1.  Put a PS3  in your cab.

2.  Use Cthulhu, Dual Strike, or PS360 boards for controls.

3.  Depending on your display use a SCART cable to connect to an arcade monitor, or just hook it up to the TV if that's what you have in your cab.  

4.  Purchase and download the PS3 version of MVC2.

With the PS3 you will have online play!  And of course the ability to play a lot of other cool fighting games like SSFIV, HD Remix, VF5, and Tekken 6.

[amendonz]

yeah and mvc3, oh and mk9 if your that way inclined. When they come out.

[Mikezilla]

Pad hacks are pretty easy. Have you wired up arcade controls before, or are you completely new? Dreamcast setup would be cheap ($30 for system, you can burn DC games for free, and you can hookup straight into a normal TV).  I would definitley say dreamcast.

Im still really NEW, the extent of my knowledge consists of wiring up a JAMMA harness to a JPAC lol. I have a system already, and I burned a copy of it back in the day, and Im using a TV for my set up. My issue is wiring the controls. What is the process, is it hard?

[javeryh]

What about NullDC?  Couldn't you just set up the emulator to run in your cab like MAME?

[isucamper]

I've got it running on the makaron naomi emulator.  Need a little juice to get it going but it plays great.  Just have fun pressing the credit button 30000 times to unlock all the characters.

[Jack Burton]

For something like a fighting game a console port is preferable to an emulator.  

Fighting game players care a lot about playing to a "standard" and usually the only accepted ones are arcade pcb's and console ports.  

The use of an emulator for this kind of game has a lot of unknown factors that would hurt the nature of competitive play.  You never know what sort of glitches, slowdown, input loss, or input delay could be involved.  

The DC version of Marvel is essential the golden standard and is the prime means of competitive play in the US, ahead of even the original NAOMI pcb.  

The PS3 version is also considered extremely good, and is used in the national championship.  


There are a few ways to connect your controls to a dreamcast.  You can of course hack a dreamcast pad.  It's not really very hard at all.  Just make sure that you read  up about the input delay caused by the dreamcast triggers and wire accordingly.  If you prefer not to do it there are members on this forum and other are happy to do it for a small fee.  

The second way and the one I recommend is to purchase a MC Cthulhu board and wire it up with a dreamcast cable.  With this you'll have a set of controls in your cab that can work on PC, PS3, and Dreamcast.  

[Mikezilla]

What about NullDC?  Couldn't you just set up the emulator to run in your cab like MAME?

I thought of that, but I dont think the computer I have in there will run it ok considering it has stupid 3d graphics in the background. 

For something like a fighting game a console port is preferable to an emulator. 

Fighting game players care a lot about playing to a "standard" and usually the only accepted ones are arcade pcb's and console ports. 

The use of an emulator for this kind of game has a lot of unknown factors that would hurt the nature of competitive play.  You never know what sort of glitches, slowdown, input loss, or input delay could be involved. 

The DC version of Marvel is essential the golden standard and is the prime means of competitive play in the US, ahead of even the original NAOMI pcb. 
 
The second way and the one I recommend is to purchase a MC Cthulhu board and wire it up with a dreamcast cable.  With this you'll have a set of controls in your cab that can work on PC, PS3, and Dreamcast. 

So would this MC cthulhu board interfere with my JPAC and existing controls? Or is it just some kind of adapter that ill have to switch everytime I want to go from MAME to DC?

[DirtyDachshunds]

What about NullDC?  Couldn't you just set up the emulator to run in your cab like MAME?

That's exactly what I'm doing.  My computer was good 2 years ago, but is average by today's standards, and it plays all DC games great!

I honestly think this is the easiest route.  Just try to play it with NullDC...if it is slow go another route.

...or upgrade your PC on the cheap

[Jack Burton]

For something like a fighting game a console port is preferable to an emulator. 

Fighting game players care a lot about playing to a "standard" and usually the only accepted ones are arcade pcb's and console ports. 

The use of an emulator for this kind of game has a lot of unknown factors that would hurt the nature of competitive play.  You never know what sort of glitches, slowdown, input loss, or input delay could be involved. 

The DC version of Marvel is essential the golden standard and is the prime means of competitive play in the US, ahead of even the original NAOMI pcb. 
 
The second way and the one I recommend is to purchase a MC Cthulhu board and wire it up with a dreamcast cable.  With this you'll have a set of controls in your cab that can work on PC, PS3, and Dreamcast. 

So would this MC cthulhu board interfere with my JPAC and existing controls? Or is it just some kind of adapter that ill have to switch everytime I want to go from MAME to DC?

If all you want to do with your cab is play consoles and use MAME on a PC then the Cthulhu can replace the controls portion of your J-pac and you will still have all your old functionality without having to rewire controls.  The only thing you will have to do to MAME is remap the buttons to the inputs that will be used by the Cthulhu board.

If you want to preserve the ability of the J-pac to connect to a PCB then you could connect your controls to D-sub connectors, and put ends on both the J-pac end and the Cthulhu end.  When you want to switch you will only need to unplug the D-sub from one set of controls to the other.  There will be no need for rewiring.

This would also apply to your dreamcast controller PCB if you choose to do that.  You can use the DC pcb's and the J-pac together via the use of D-subs. 

[shateredsoul]

I've got it running on the makaron naomi emulator.  Need a little juice to get it going but it plays great.  Just have fun pressing the credit button 30000 times to unlock all the characters.

yup! it works on demul too!

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Yeah, I forgot about about PS3, it would allow MVSC2 plus some other good fighters, and you can use a Cthulhu PC/PS3 (which I have myself, and can recommend), which doesn't recquire soldering.

Or you can do the Multi Console Cthulhu (PS3/PS2/PC/Dreamcast through a PS2 to Dreamcast adapter, which I used aslo). Multi console is a little more complicated if you want to do something with quick connect rj-45 plugs for various system controls through one stick.

If this is your first time ever I suggest just buying the Multi Cthulhu and wiring it up for just PC/PS3 and you can always worry about the extra consoles later.

A quick rundown of wiring up controls:

each button and direction on a stick is connected to a microswitch. The miscroswitch has 3 prongs. One is GND/COMMON and one is for Normally Open (NO) and the last is for Normally Closed (NC). You will want your switches to be NO, so ignore the NC prongs, they will all be labeled. The Cthulhu board will come with screw connectors which will eliminate the need for soldering, and the pins will be documented in a seperate sheet of paper that comes with the unit (you can buy it from LizardLick.com).

Buy some femal quick connectors that will fit the size of the miscroswitch prongs, use these to connect all your wire to the microswithces. Connect all of the GND prongs on all the switches to EACHOTHER, then run one wire from any of the GND prongs to the gnd pin on the Cthulhu (or if you're doing a pad hack opend the plastic case and expose just the printed circuit board (PCB). you can see all the leads that make the buttons work. for each button there are two exposed metal leads that are seperated. when you press a button it connects the two leads and sends a signal to the game. For each button, one side is GND and one is the signal lead. you can tell which is GND becase it will be connected to all the other GNDS of the other buttons. just try to follow the leads... solder the GND wire to any GND on the pad, assuming you have a common GND pad. If you solder USE FLUX, or you will not get the wire to make a good connection to the pad. I know from experience.). Now run one wire from each other switche's NO prong to the appropriate pin on the Cthulhu (or pad). Remember that on a stick when you move it in the up direction you are actually pressing the down microswitch, and when you move left you are pressing the right microswitch etc... So reverse up/down and left/right.

If this doesn't make sense there are plenty of tutorials online with pics and stuff. But if you can understand this you should be able to get it done.

[Mikezilla]

Thanks so much for the help BKD, everyone else too. Yeah, I understand that stuff pretty well. I wish I would have heard of this MC Cthulhu board before I got the JPAC, seems like it is a little more dynamic and can run more things. Oh well. I think Ill try to run the NullDC emulator(Im really only doing it for one game anyway) and see if my comp can handle it. If not, then I guess Ill get the Cthulhu board and try that out. Thanks for the input guys! 

[racecar]

has anyone here got MvC2 running nice on a pc???

[ahofle]

You don't need a really nice PC to run nullDC and MVC2.  It runs 100% on a 3Ghz P4.

[racecar]

oh k sweet 

i only want to be able to run

MvC2
Street fighter 2 & 3
NBA Jam
Metal slug games

all these games work without slow down??

[DirtyDachshunds]

Yes, I have all of those games running nicely, no slowdown whatsoever.

[Mikezilla]

You don't need a really nice PC to run nullDC and MVC2.  It runs 100% on a 3Ghz P4.

Sweet, cause thats what Im running in my cab. 

Now I just need to get nullDC to work. Well, figure it out anyway.

[javeryh]

You don't need a really nice PC to run nullDC and MVC2.  It runs 100% on a 3Ghz P4.

Sweet, cause thats what Im running in my cab. 

Now I just need to get nullDC to work. Well, figure it out anyway.

Let us know if you get it working.... I really wish someone would take the time to explain how to set everything up, including how to get it working with MaLa so when you boot up the computer everything is seamless...

[Mikezilla]

You don't need a really nice PC to run nullDC and MVC2.  It runs 100% on a 3Ghz P4.

Sweet, cause thats what Im running in my cab. 

Now I just need to get nullDC to work. Well, figure it out anyway.

Let us know if you get it working.... I really wish someone would take the time to explain how to set everything up, including how to get it working with MaLa so when you boot up the computer everything is seamless...

Sure thing. Yeah that would be awesome, I read a thread before that someone tried to do that regarding dreamcast games, but I guess the desire for that fizzled out. Im running hyperspin, how is MaLa? I was also thinking of trying out GameEx after I got all my ROMS together. I think I messed up the XML files or something for HS because now whenever I try to run MAME thru HS, none of the games I have come up. If I have to start from scratch with a new FE, I might try a different one.

I know the seamless route you have to use something called "Instant Sheller". I havent done it yet myself, because I want to get my ROMS in order before I do.

[DirtyDachshunds]

I have NullDC working and booting from Hyperspin.  I played MvC2 yesterday 

It took awhile to figure everything out, but I can post my nullDC config file as well as the hyperlaunch script when I get home to try to save you some of the pain.

[Mikezilla]

I have NullDC working and booting from Hyperspin.  I played MvC2 yesterday 

It took awhile to figure everything out, but I can post my nullDC config file as well as the hyperlaunch script when I get home to try to save you some of the pain.

See, that sounds awesome, but I wouldnt know what to do with that... 

[DirtyDachshunds]

Search the Hyperspin forums.  Lot of good information there.

[racecar]

Yes, I have all of those games running nicely, no slowdown whatsoever.

thanks for that! im def going to look into putting a pc in mine, i love fighting games 

what pc rig do you have?

[Donkbaca]

I am using Gameex, not as flashy as hyperspin, but I am not sure how much hyperspin uses in resources to get it to look all that fancy.  Gameex is super easy to set up and easy to make it look like you want.

[BadMouth]

I really wish someone would take the time to explain how to set everything up, including how to get it working with MaLa so when you boot up the computer everything is seamless...

What issues are you having with NullDC and MALA? I don't remember having any issues or having to do anything special to get it working.

[ahofle]

Not to hijack this thread, but has anyone gotten the MAME default keys to work correctly with nullDC?  Ctrl, Alt, Shift etc don't work.

[DirtyDachshunds]

Not to hijack this thread, but has anyone gotten the MAME default keys to work correctly with nullDC?  Ctrl, Alt, Shift etc don't work.

Nope.  I had the same problem.  Had to change MAME default keys to all qwerty keys so they would work in nullDC as well.

[Donkbaca]

couldn't you also use autohotkey?

[fallacy]

Xbox 360 has the new HD marvel vs Capcom 2 on xboxlive. Plus when marvel vs Capcom 3 comes out you will be able to play that to.

[Mikezilla]

Yeah, I played that, the one on Xbox live. It wasnt bad, but I was playing it on a damn Xbox controller, so things just felt awkward. I was thinking about putting the xbox in the cab but I would essentially only want to play one game for it (MVC3) so I dont think its worth it. My GF is getting a new job and apparantly she is going to make a ton of money(emphasis on apparently) so maybe she will buy me another one and she will be elevated to "sugah mama" status. 

[racecar]

fingers crossed lol

so has anyone here got marvel vs capcom 2 running at full speed on mame?

if not how does the dreamcast emulator play on pc which that game?

worst case ill put a console in my arcade cabnet

[DirtyDachshunds]

MAME currently does not support MvC2

NullDC plays the game just fine.

[Trebeck]

I've got it running on the makaron naomi emulator.  Need a little juice to get it going but it plays great.  Just have fun pressing the credit button 30000 times to unlock all the characters.

Thats how it's done?  Oh god......
Quick!  Who has a batch file?

[Jack Burton]

The dreamcast version of Marvel is emulated more accurately I think.  I would stick to that since it is 99.9% identical to the arcade.

Also, the DC version is the tournament standard along with the PS3 version.

You can download a patched version for DC with all the characters already unlocked.

[Mikezilla]

Oh man you can?! Thats awesome. I think Im going to have to do that. I need to get nullDC working though. Still havent figured that one out yet.

[shateredsoul]

you can also really easily find a save file with all the characters unlocked. That's what I did.

Also I love street fighter alpha 3 for dreamcast, so many characters. It was working in a previous version of nulldc, but not in the current one, it will probalby be fixed in the next release.