Trying to figure out how to switch multiple cab monitors and controls

[billpa]

Last night I picked up a couple of empty cabs. They are identical...originally poker machines that never made it past the empty shell phase...look kind of like a lowboy ie you sit down to play.

There is only enough room for one person on each cab. However, my plan is to set them up side by side and have the option of being able to play one game co-op or two games separately.

So basically two cabs, each with their own pc and monitor...flip a switch and cab #2 is now mirroring cab#1's monitor and cab#2's controls are now switched to cab#1's pc. Would also like the option to turn off controls to pc #2 in this mode so you cannot accidentally launch a game on pc#2.

How can I accomplish this? Ultimately I would like a single switch to make the transition.

[Turnarcades]

It would likely be a custom physical switch you'd need to build. A simple in-line connector that cuts the circuit to the second cabinet's controls would work for the controls, whilst with regards to the monitor I'd advise caution trying to change displays 'on the fly' if they are arcade monitors, as they may not stand up well to such cut-ins and outs. If you used TV's or a PC monitor with muliple inputs it could be feasible though.

[equlizer]

ohh i would love to add an Xbox 360 to my bartop but never figured out how.  Looks like a thread ill be following 

[HanoiBoi]

billpa,

I haven’t actually done this, but I too have pondered this in the past as I’ve considered making a dual cab, with back-to-back setups, with the ability to work together as well.

I’m pretty sure this can be accomplished by adding a KVM switch and a Monitor Splitter cable.  You'd also need your 2 Monitors, 2 PCs (each running their own MAME), 2 IPACs and 2 Control Panels.

In my thinking, the key would be to wire your 2nd PCs Control Panel to the Player 2 inputs on its IPAC.  On the same 2nd PC, you would need to configure MAME to recognize those inputs as Player 1 controls, rather than Player 2 controls.  When this IPAC (2nd) is connected to the 1st PC (via KVM), the controls will be recognized as Player 2.  At the same time,  the 1st PCs IPAC, wired for Player 1 will be directly connected to PC1 which would give you your 2 player simultaneous scenario.

I’ll try to add some detail later, but that’s something for you to chew on.

[eds1275]

I think you would need 2 switches, one for the monitor select and another for controls. You could side 1 to it's own interface, and side 2 to an interface on both sides. Then, have the grounds of all P2's controls go to the switch - one direction grounds to one ipac/keywiz and the other direction grounds to the other.