Vector Mame... the project begins.

[armi0024]

I have a extra color Vector monitor, a gutted Firefox(not gutted by me) that is a spotless cabinet with a brand new yoke that I picked up at auction.... I think it may be time to pick up a ZVG and do a Vector Multi.  I just thought I would post for thoughts, opinions, the bull build thread will be in the project start section...

This is not my cabinet but an example:

[Havok]

Better pick up a ZVG quick, they supposedly only have a few left...

[yotsuya]

I have a extra color Vector monitor, a gutted Firefox(not gutted by me) that is a spotless cabinet with a brand new yoke that I picked up at auction.... I think it may be time to pick up a ZVG and do a Vector Multi.  I just thought I would post for thoughts, opinions, the bull build thread will be in the project start section...

This is not my cabinet but an example:

I would love to find a gutted Firefox.

[armi0024]

Got a few cabinets, most were not working, at first... See the thread here

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=206541

It was an unreal auction.  

Now I said FIREfox, so let's light that gutted fox on fire!

[yotsuya]

I think that's going to get a very strange angle to get a useable control panel on this cabinet...

Did you miss the part where he stated he had a yoke?

[armi0024]

Ordered the ZVG vector card.... I am on my way!

[Gray_Area]

See the thread here

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=206541

It was an unreal auction. 

Hot damn. A lot of rare to pretty rare goodies - though that Duramold Blaster probably takes the cake...um, post 1980 anyways. A lot of great pins, too.

[taylormadelv]

Good luck, Bryan, you will need it!
ZVG is not a turnkey situation, in fact "vectormame" is an extremely complicated and involved, ongoing, unfinished project. Have have basically begged STEVEJ to release the code written for vmame32 but he just continues to blank me, so you have the choice of building a ZVG rig on DOS, LINUX or the Windows Beta that will not turn vertical games, will not allow Sega vector games into the game list and has serious frame rate issues.
Ironically, Star wars is basically unplayable on the rigs that I have tried and I've tried a few setups now. Some games that require more CPU/graphics power really bog down when running them to ZVG output. So even though a P4 2.4 rig will play Major Havoc just fine without ZVG output, it will drop below 30 fps when the ZVG output is turned ON and causing all kinds of nasty frame skip issues. If you don't throttle framerates, video will play too fast, so it's a struggle to get games to play real smooth with ZVG on.
The fact that vmame32 a command line mame severely limits the video tweaking abilities to play around with framerates, so unless you have a super juiced graphics card, I am skeptical that you will get Star Wars/ESB to play at a constant, smooth framerate. If you can get it to run smooth, please post a video and share how you accomplished this.
The fact that the Sega games won't play in vmame32 just drives me nuts, this project will take a few more years or maybe never to get all hammered out....
Good luck!

[Gray_Area]

Maybe Clay Cowgill would be interested in helping out?

[taylormadelv]

Don't count on it! Until I or someone else tries ZVG with a really nice, juiced up graphics card, I do not think there is going to be any definitive frame rate solution or resolve for the ZVG. There is a strong possibility that the ZVG card itself has serious limitations due to its' design and data protocol. Some games may never run perfectly smooth with zvg on. Shillmover on klov says he can run MH and SW smooth in Dosmame but I do not belive him, since he never posted a video and I have never seen those games run perfectly smooth on a ZVG anywhere. The best vector game emulator is an old version of macmame 0.66 I think, running natively on OS9 on a G4. Every vector game plays absolutley perfectly with this setup and I have it running to a super duper bright Gateway VX900 19" CRT. I actually really like the way zvg looks on a Vectrex! Red Baron looks pretty cool on a vectrex!

[armi0024]

Maybe we could get Xray involved, he has a soft spot for vectors

[taylormadelv]

Well, getting STEVEJ to actually POST THE CODE for the Windows VMAME32 beta would really help!It is now understood that mame is something to be done in "public", where willing participants who want to help the mame project get to work on the previous work of others and continue to move the mame project foward. This appears lost on SteveJ, sorry Steve, but at this point, it's pretty obvious you have blanked us all on this one and the zvg project is stalled in part due to a lack of any progress on vmame32. I wish I had the ability to work directly on the mame/zvg code but that is beyond my current abilities. There are some very talented and generous members here that I know can help with but it is unrealistic to expect anyone to write all the code from scratch. So even though I have asked STEVEJ over and over and over and over for MONTHS AND MONTHS in several different threads and in PM's, he just blanks me over and over. Gotten kinda old, really. You can buy ZVG cards less than MSRP on the klov sales forums now because peeps have just given up hope or began to realize that this was a bit beyond their scope of expertise. Almost no "arcade" stuff going on here, mostly computer programming and the actual mame code tweaking. I do not belive that SW plays on ANY rig perfectly smooth with zvg on. If someone wants to dispute this; post a video please.