Cocktail Arcade cabinet - Help Required

[hilly]

Hi To All,
 
Well, i have to admit this is the new one for me. i have never posted on these sort of sites or asked a question.
 
About a year and a bit ago i purchased an arcade game (cocktail cabinet) off the net. Brilliant! loads of those not so old 80's retro games i use to play when i was 16 - 20 in the chippie, NAFFI and pub. Pushing 10p's in like it was going out of fashion.
 
Blimey got lost in the past then.  Forward wind 25 yrs to present day. Here i am with my 10 year old son, finally beating him on games called Galaxian.... Donkey kong... Defender..... Asteroids.
 
All was going well, my mates thought the thing was cool; the wife was not a happy person she could never work out pacman.
 
So one day my lad and his mate were playing on the game, and shoved 10p pieces through the money slot, why i do not know! kids. Now here lies the problem. It did not need money, the slot just looked good. Something went wrong and now said machine will not work.
 
This wrecks my fun, as i now have to get whupped by a 10 year old on the Wii / xbox, because there is to many buttons for my old fingers to press and its far to technical
 
Since the demise of this arcade game i am now stuck with a very retro looking coffee table....
 
 
People on this Arcade Controls forum - I need some assistance!
 
I have opened the cabinet it is just a PC and a horizontal monitor, i recognise the bits, i suppose that's a start
 
When i switch on, the machine auto loads to the menu screen where i can use the joystick to scroll down to one of the 800+ games.
 
When i go select the screen goes blank as if loading said game but then resets back to the menu screen.
 
Ok, i thought Its a PC lets pull the bulk of it out put it into a monitor and connect a keyboard. This is where my knowledge crashes like a zx spectrum. (I knew in my youth i have should learnt more about computers at school but there is only so many squares you can blank out on a piece of card)

So what have i done
 
i tried to contact the guy i bought it off but all the contact info i had for him were lost when my home computer went poof! pretty unlucky, me.
 
I e-mailed a shop but they said it was home made and they stock commercial units.
 
So for the last month i have trawled the web and found numerous links, but could not figure my problem out or find a link in this forum on what to do.
 
So present day now...My coffee table wants to become a game again, so i can play when coronation street is on. But how? my software knowledge is sort of poor. I could really do with some guidance on what to do. I now reside in Portsmouth area. and need a big nudge in the right direction.
 
This forum seemed the logical choice as it has so many links and posts.
 
Please. can any one out there assist or point me in the right direction. Do not let me have to lose on the xbox Christmas day to a 10 year old and his new games.
 

Sorry to burble on and write so much.
If  you can assist that would be great.
Thanks
Hilly

[BobA]

We will probably need more info from you to be able to help.   Since you did not build the unit this is going to be a learning experience for you.  At the end of it you will hopefully be able to setup and configure your own MAME setup on a computer.

You said they put money in the coin slot.  Was it originally set up to need coins to play?  Is a 10p coin the proper coin to put into your coin mech?  Sorry I don't know GB coins.   In US and Canada we usually setup for $0.25 otherwise known as a quarter.

When you scroll down thru your gamelist do you know what frontend is being used for MAME?   If not the name can you show us what it looks like?   Can you get a picture of it?

You may have to run MAME without the frontend.  Are you PC literate enough to go to the mame directory and run mame so you know what version of mame you are using?  

Lots more questions if you provide us with info.

We will get it going if you can work with us.  

Where in GB are you located maybe there is someone close that can assist.

[BobA]

You might get more response if you can get the MODs to move this to the main forum.   Just a thought.

[hilly]

To BobA,

Thanks for replying back.
I have had a mad crazy time at work, this is the first time i have had to sit down and log back on. So i do apologise for not submitting a reply before now.

I'm impressed with the confidence you have in me. I tried to fix a laminating machine the other day when the laminate got stuck in the rollers. Guess what? they have had to go an buy a new one something small and plastic snapped off. Whoops

The coin slot was just for show but still had the slotted hole in it. When you open the hinged door it supplies access to a chip / micro switch and the wire connections from the PC to the controllers.

When i switch on, the PC loads and the screen shot says Mame but quickly disappears to the game menu. 

PC Literate??? Ah! i usually play with the end product. I will have a look tomorrow at the MAME load screen to see if i can spot the version.

I have a couple of photos of the i can attach. If that will hope.

I did try the other day to press the micro switch that took me into the game menu to see if i could reset all but no joy.

I take it the term Mods is the people that administrator / manage the forum. If this is correct i will try to request a transfer of the post.

Many Thanks for your assistance so far.
Hilly




For Info: A ten pence (10p) coin is a little bigger than a 25c one and it probably buys about the same.

[javeryh]

WTH is the iPac doing mounted inside of the coin door???  At least we know it is a MAME set up and your problem should be easy to fix (famous last words).  First thing I would do is find another spot for the iPac.  The next thing I would do is google for instructions on how to set up MAME.  It is super easy and I'm sure someone here will chime in with links and what not.  I'd also start reading a ton of threads in Project Announcements to get an idea on how these things are put together.

On first read it sounds like something is not right with MAME when you try and launch a game because your front end is loading and you are able to select a game from the list.  Try reinstalling MAME.  Also, what is the front end you are using? 

Also, more pics would really help - inside, outside - everything.   

[Popcorrin]

It looks like their is a microswitch glued to the chip on the ipac! 
Plus the monitor seems to be flush against the side of the cabinet?

More pics would be good.  How do you access the inside of the cocktail?

Cab seems like a slight bit of a hack job based off the looks of the coin door/ipac and the positioning of the monitor.

[BobA]

Pictures of the startup screen may give us and idea of what frontend is in use.   The switch on the ipac is wired to Player 2 switch 8 so that is a starting point depending on how your mame and frontend are setup.

[BobA]

If that is the pic of your coin door then the slot for the coins looks like it is right above the ipac.  A coin could have shorted out the ipac on its way by.

[hilly]

To All,
Blimey i have just realised that the last time i actually logged on to this forum was dec 10.   Ouch ---- where does the time go.

I will explain what i have been up to then try to answer the questions people have put on the replies i have seen.

WORK - this seemed to rule the life which is very sad.

Arcade game - Went back to it with good intentions switched it on. On comes the PSU, fans a rotating, hard drive seemed to make a noise. Monitor displayed absolutely nothing.

My theory of leave it for a couple of weeks and it will get better and miraculously fix itself did not seem to work. Odd that! So PC part of cabinet went in the garage.

I sourced another old computer from a mate of mine and learnt quite a bit on how to install sound card format and load windows so i was a bit impressed with myself. But being impatient thought it would be more fun to make it into a juke box. as this seemed easier than the arcade game. it was easier and i ended up using 'album Player', i just can not afford the touchscreen monitor.

Back to the arcade game - i obtained another PC, took out the hard drive and placed it in an external box. and actually accessed the info on the hard drive through my home PC, the only one folder i had heard of is MAME. I found the games and they seem to be all zipped and present

I formatted the PC and inserted XP and that's as far as i have got. I have tried to understand the MAME through the web but i don't'  seem to make it work like the instructions or you tube commentary.

[hilly]

Whoops i forgot to add comments from other peoples posts.

javerh - IPac, i take it this is the micro chip on the small circuit board. i suppose this is the interface from jotsticks and buttons to PC. Yep your right there is a micro switch glued to the front of it. When the red micro switch was pressed this would take me into the individual game menus where i could change things like arcade to cocktail; increase the amount of lives i had.

Why its glued to the IPac i have not got a clue i suppose the builder placed it here for ease of access to the game menus.

front end.....since i started looking on line again about this i have seen the term but know next to nothing about it. is it someting like MAME 32 / MAMEUI and is the interface between Mame and the games? i have looked on the original hard drive but can not see anything like mame32..


Popcurrin - More pics i can do. i will upload when i have taken some clear ones. Access to the PC is through a draw that slots out with all of the internals on it except for the monitor that is wedged inside the machine.


Boba - The start up screen is now a now go as nothing happens, i sort of remember last time it did anything it came up very brief with a message like mame 91 fault/error?

thanks Again     to everyone that has posted so far. i will crack this or start again