Mame supported cocktail games.

[jukingeo]

Hello All,

I have a bunch of MAME arcade stuff I have been going through the past few days and I am deciding what parts I am going to get rid of and what I am going to keep.

Given this day and age it seems like the trend is towards using LCD TVs and monitors as they are naturally much lighter.   However, I have found that the viewing angle on some of these LCD units isn't as good as a traditional CRT type monitor.

I do have a nice 14" RGB Sony monitor of which I was saving for a possible cocktail project.   Given it is a traditional CRT, I know it would be good for such a project.  

What I had thought of doing was creating a 3 sided table which would have alternating controls on the vertical side and set of standard controls for the horizontal side.   Naturally the reasoning for this setup is that you don't have to do anything to change from vertical to horizontal games except to get up and change to the long side of the table.

Ok, lately I have been second guessing a cocktail project as I have heard that only a handful of Cocktail games are actually fully supported.

I looked on line to see what types of games had a cocktail version and this is what I came up with:

      1942
      Arkanoid
      Astro Invader
      Baby Pac Man
      Burger Time
      Centipede
      Crush
      Dig Dug
      Donkey Kong
      Donkey Kong Jr
      Donkey Kong 3
      Frogger
      Galaga
      Galaga 3
      Galaxian
      Gorf
      Gunsmoke
      Gyruss
      Ladybug
      Mappy
      Millipede
      Missle Command
      Mr Do
      Mr. Do's Castle
      Ms Pacman
      New Rally X
      Pacman
      Pacman JR
      Pengo
      Pheonix
      Qix
      Robotron
      Scramble
      Space Invaders
      Super Breakout
      Super Cobra
      Super Pac Man
      Tempest
      Tank Battalion
      Time Pilot
      Xevious
      Zaxxon

Overall that isn't a very large list and further, I probably will not have ALL the games listed above (e.g I will not have a trackball, so there goes Centipede, Millipede, and Missile Command right off the bat).   But the main question is which games does MAME support screen/control flipping?

Thank You,

Geo

[abispac]

I constructed a coktail cab, and most vertical games have cocktail support, also all of the horizontal games can be played on a cocktail cab with the cocktail double screen feature that mame has, so that eliminates the need for a 3rd side control wich for me makes cocktail cabs look ugly.You would only need a nice video card as simple games like popeye  need more power if you use them like that.

[popsicle]

I second abispac's point about clunky looking 3-sided cocktails.  If you use a decent 4:3 lcd (one with a decent viewing angle - plenty of posts about specific ones if you poke around) you can use Mame's built in cocktail video mode, and the players can still play horizontal games from the vertical ends.  A 14" crt would be pretty small to do this though.  I also like the look of a crt better overall, but fitting it into a cocktail cabinet comes with extra space and heat problems.   

Try using Romlister to find all the vertical cocktail dipswitch setting games.  There's way more than what you listed.
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

Also, you may consider a spinner (or two) for Tempest, Arkanoid, Warlords, Two Tigers, and most driving games.  They take up so little space and are great for cocktail cabs. 

[jukingeo]

I second abispac's point about clunky looking 3-sided cocktails.

Ok, point made, constructing just two sets of controls would be nicer (and less costly) than making three.

  If you use a decent 4:3 lcd (one with a decent viewing angle - plenty of posts about specific ones if you poke around) you can use Mame's built in cocktail video mode, and the players can still play horizontal games from the vertical ends.

In what version of MAME was this support started. 

  A 14" crt would be pretty small to do this though.  I also like the look of a crt better overall, but fitting it into a cocktail cabinet comes with extra space and heat problems. 

Well, I am aware of the heat and weight problems of large CRT's.   I came across the 14" Sony and I figured it's smaller size would create less heat than trying to jam a huge 19" or 25" tube into a cocktail.    Now, in terms of going with a large LCD monitor...it is very hard to find a large one in 4:3 format now a days.   It seems 4:3 was kind of phased out when LCD's were around 21".

   

Try using Romlister to find all the vertical cocktail dipswitch setting games.  There's way more than what you listed.
http://www.waste.org/~winkles/ROMLister/

Yes, I have used Romlister in the past.  I just don't have a Mame machine set up at the moment to go through that route.

Also, you may consider a spinner (or two) for Tempest, Arkanoid, Warlords, Two Tigers, and most driving games.  They take up so little space and are great for cocktail cabs. 

Oh, most definitely.   When I was doing some work figuring out space constraints when designing a bartop cabinet, I did take a spinner into consideration over a trackball.   I also figured that it was mostly interested in the early 80's 4 way games and would sacrifice some 8 way games in order to use a true 4 way joystick.

I also did some research and found there are a great many games that specify an 8 way joystick in use, but the game itself doesn't necessarily have to have one.

I was going to think of using the same 4 way joystick, spinner, 3 button setup initially planned for the bartop  system on the cocktail ends.   However, now learning of this horizontal split screen mode has my gears turning for a more elaborate cocktail based on an LCD (if I can find a big one in 4:3).

Thanx for the info,

Geo

[popsicle]

In what version of MAME was this support started. 

 
Hmmm... that I don't know.  I'm using .140 but I know it's been in there for a while.  Surely someone here knows?

Also, know that there are a handful of horizontal games that play just fine un-rotated with both players looking from the sides (Gauntlet, Hat Trick, Armor Attack, Demon, Sprint, Offroad, etc.).  You just have to remap the joysticks for these few.

[jukingeo]

 
Hmmm... that I don't know.  I'm using .140 but I know it's been in there for a while.  Surely someone here knows?

I stopped at about .123 because I had grown tired of constantly updating the roms with a significant Mame upgrade. 

Also, know that there are a handful of horizontal games that play just fine un-rotated with both players looking from the sides (Gauntlet, Hat Trick, Armor Attack, Demon, Sprint, Offroad, etc.).  You just have to remap the joysticks for these few.

Yes, I guess you can, but you have to crane your neck around to view the scores and such.  I always liked "Hat Trick", though.  It is one of the better hockey games out there.   However, that name is sure weird. 

Geo

[yotsuya]

Geo-

'Hat Trick' is a hockey term.

[Turvey]

Hat Trick:-The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls.

[wweumina]

Hat Trick:-The term was first used in 1858 in cricket to describe HH Stephenson's feat of taking three wickets in three balls.

Congrats on the first cricket reference I've seen on BYOAC. For the benefit of americans, it's like baseball but u wouldn't understand it.

Hat trick is a term used by a lot of sports, inc football (you might call it soccer).

Don't forget windjammers as a game that plays great in vertical with the controls remapped.

[Turvey]

Congrats on the first cricket reference I've seen on BYOAC. For the benefit of americans, it's like baseball but u wouldn't understand it.

Hey, I was born in Kent and have lived in Britain all my life and I don't understand cricket  How can you play a game for 3 days and still draw? 

But I digress, apologies to the OP.

[Trap]

If you use a widescreen lcd you can also play FS Visual Pinball tables.  It's what gets the most game play on my machine when friends come by these days.