Who wants a Driving/Racing forum?

[BadMouth]

Hope I'm going about this the right way.  It says in Forum Discussion to create a poll, but didn't say where.
More people will see it here.

Here is what I'm thinking........

-Stickied threads with instructions on how to set up MAME, M2, Vivanonno, Demul, Supermodel, etc for driving games.
-Replies to the MAME setup thread could include the tricks needed to set up specific games (like the shifter in Hard Drivin).
  An alphabetized list with links could be maintained in the first post.

-Lap time competitions similar to the high score competitions in the Main Forum.

-General discussion of arcade driving games, racing anime, movies, etc.

-The driving cab projects should stay in Project Announcements, but a directory could be created in a thread in the Driving Cab forum.

Not sure what I would call it.

Ideas/comments?

[brad808]

In my opinion it's a good idea... but I also have a driving cabinet. With that being said I would understand why people without a driving cabinet wouldn't want one.

The biggest reason people without driving cabinets should be interested in this is because there is a ton of information which can lead to lots of posts about specific driving games that won't affect the majority of people with MAME cabinets. MAME cabinets are easy in the sense that you get a joystick, 6 buttons, a keyboard encoder and you can play 4000 games no problem. Driving games from what I've seen have a bunch of different emulators (each with their own problem), a ton of different ways to handle inputs, different ways to handle force feedback, different shifters, pedals, donor wheels etc. For that reason it would be nice to keep the ton of "crap" posts (looks like there is a bunch more driving cabinets on the horizon) out of way because 95% of MAME cabinet builders won't be needing the information or care to see it because it will all be irrelevant for their setup.

From the perspective of a person with a driving cabinet I would love to see a separate forum for the obvious reason that all the information will be contained and easy to find. I see threads show up that are a year or two old with awesome information regarding driving games or cabs that get lost with the exact problems I'm trying to troubleshoot.
 
I didn't even know racing anime existed until I just searched on youtube. Not something that I would personally be interested in.

High score lap times and overall race times would be sweet. That could be lots of fun. I would think because there are less racing games that there couldn't be a high score competition like in the main thread every week but maybe a "wall of fame" type idea where there is a fastest lap champion and if you get a better lap then submit it and take it over. Same idea for the overall race times. Have a master list with each game and the track such as:

Daytona - Easy
Fastest Lap: 0:1.00 (Brad 808)
Fastest Race: 1:0.00 (BadMouth)
 
Daytona - Medium
Fastest Lap:
Fastest Race:

Daytona - Hard
Fastest Lap:
Fastest Race:

Scud Race - Beginner
Fastest Lap:
Fastest Race:

Etc.

Come to think about it if the idea of a separate driving/racing forum isn't brought to fruition we should still create a High Score driving thread.

Edit: Absolute worst case scenario we should at least have a high score thread for Cuis'n USA/ Cruis'n World  (Let the haters hate)

[leapinlew]

I think what we have works fine. When I built my driving cabinet, I needed help and I doubt the people would have helped me in a sub forum simply because they wouldn't have seen it.

Here is my cab:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54588.0

Here are the links I needed help with:
Best mouse to use for steering
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54515.0

Debating on buying a driving cab, posted in the main forum and I got no responses
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52180.0

How to get a pole position wheel to work with a mame
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=52577.0

Encoder wheel/mouse hack
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54685.0

All in all, it was a fun project. I think an Xbox cabinet might have been better than a Mame driving cab. The end result was a cab that only played a few games well, and most of the games were a compromise due to steering wheel differences (360vs270), pedal differences (Microswitch vs Pot & Gas vs Gas/Brake), screen orientation (Horizontal vs Vertical, and the shifter manual vs automatic, return to center. I think a dedicated forum would get very little action, but it would have been nice to see everyones driving cabs. 

[isamu]

I'm all for it dude.  Not sure if all the community is though

[RamjetR]

Dedicated section for Driving Cabs? hmmmm I just don't think there is enough traffic on that subject to warrant it?

Easier to collate information perhaps, but really... If people just linked their projects or interesting threads in the bottom of their signature like you do BadMouth. Then I think the information gets around quite easily enough.

I click on links in Sig's much more often than going looking for a particular thread. Your sticky thread in Driving Cabs has pretty much become the definitive noobs resource for information. Other than that, people cruise the project channel and the main channel.

Ramjet

[Hoopz]

I voted yes.  If people don't know about a particular thread and it's not on the first page, I doubt they'll easily find it.  Even those who search, may not find BadMouth's original thread.  Having it stickied in a deadicated sub-forum is a great idea.

Its easy to do it and see if it has value.  If not, it's easy to change it back.  Why not give it a shot to see if people think there is value in it?

Based on the activity in a number of other sub-boards (software, misc arcade, pinball etc) it's pretty clear that if Saint builds it, people will post there.

[Generic Eric]

I say yes.  A dedicated sub forum for driving cabs would be great. 

[Jollywest]

Its a Yes from me too, but I can see where people are coming from about not getting enough traffic to it 
Being in the midst of converting a cab to a SM2/SM3 emu driver tho, it would be easier for me to get all the info from one place 

[darthpaul]

In my future I see a dedicated driving cabinet, so yes, I would like a separate driving forum.

[wp34]

I'd like to build one someday.  I think having a separate forum would help generate interest actually.

A friend of mine is building a simulator for iRacing.  This one is NOT his but he sent me the link as an example of a 5 screen setup.  Pretty impressive.

[ark_ader]

If X Gaming ever made a wheel (hint hint Craig) then I would be interested.

[Paul Olson]

I voted yes since it would be nice to have all of the info in one place. It would be important to make sure it is always monitored though. I think 1 or 2 knowledgeable moderators that were dedicated enough to check it regularly would be plenty to make sure questions get answered quickly. Without that, I think there would probably not be enough regular traffic to ensure that new users can find answers.

[gbeef]

Im down for a separate section for sure.

[bkenobi]

My vote would be no simply because I don't frequent the other sub-forums.  If this type of discussion were moved, I'd probably not follow it.  It would be nice to have an area where all the info is held, but isn't that what the wiki is for?

[Vigo]

Sorry, a no vote from me. Not that I don't like your idea either, it's just currently the ways the boards are set-up, it just doesn't seem geared toward having a 1 genre board lumped in on the side. I do agree, it can be hard to racing cab threads on demand.

What would pique my interest more if there was a "Specialty and Racing Cab" section that would cover the technical end of nonstandard cabs (most especially racing cabs), and those other special types of cabs we built. (e.g.: How to make an arcade dance pad, or the art of setting up a dual screen cab). It could also serve as a mutt home for stuff like pachinko or crane machines.

Then as far as the games, competitions, non-technical talk. I think it would be cool if we had a more encompassing "gamers louge" area. We could merge in discussions from the consoles section, give a better home to our high-score competitions and allow us a place to discuss specific games, so we could have a thread on Marble Madness for example. I think it would also give a nice home to all the people who want to talk fighter games as well as racing games. We seem to have a huge fighter game crowd here as well.

[BadMouth]

Sorry, a no vote from me. Not that I don't like your idea either, it's just currently the ways the boards are set-up, it just doesn't seem geared toward having a 1 genre board lumped in on the side. I do agree, it can be hard to racing cab threads on demand.

What would pique my interest more if there was a "Specialty and Racing Cab" section that would cover the technical end of nonstandard cabs (most especially racing cabs), and those other special types of cabs we built. (e.g.: How to make an arcade dance pad, or the art of setting up a dual screen cab). It could also serve as a mutt home for stuff like pachinko or crane machines.

Then as far as the games, competitions, non-technical talk. I think it would be cool if we had a more encompassing "gamers louge" area. We could merge in discussions from the consoles section, give a better home to our high-score competitions and allow us a place to discuss specific games, so we could have a thread on Marble Madness for example. I think it would also give a nice home to all the people who want to talk fighter games as well as racing games. We seem to have a huge fighter game crowd here as well.

Sounds messy...and complicated....and difficult to keep track of due to overlap with current forums.
Having a "mutt" would defeat the purpose in my mind.

What prompted me to post a poll was that there are a lot of people into arcade racing games over on the Supermodel forums, but that forum is limited to talking about one emulator.  I've also seen posts on MAMEworld where someone wanted to get nostalgic about racing games and it didn't really fit with that forum either.

I think there will only be a half dozen to a dozen people who will post regularly, but google would bring a lot of outside traffic coming for the organized information.
Then they'd join so they could ask questions.  Might even get sim guys in here looking to play something else on their setups.

I think it would be a good idea, but I'm not hung up on it.

[Gray_Area]

It seems some folks missed these salient features:

-Lap time competitions similar to the high score competitions in the Main Forum.

-General discussion of arcade driving games, racing anime, movies, etc.

-The driving cab projects should stay in Project Announcements, but a directory could be created in a thread in the Driving Cab forum.

[Vigo]

Sorry, a no vote from me. Not that I don't like your idea either, it's just currently the ways the boards are set-up, it just doesn't seem geared toward having a 1 genre board lumped in on the side. I do agree, it can be hard to racing cab threads on demand.

What would pique my interest more if there was a "Specialty and Racing Cab" section that would cover the technical end of nonstandard cabs (most especially racing cabs), and those other special types of cabs we built. (e.g.: How to make an arcade dance pad, or the art of setting up a dual screen cab). It could also serve as a mutt home for stuff like pachinko or crane machines.

Then as far as the games, competitions, non-technical talk. I think it would be cool if we had a more encompassing "gamers louge" area. We could merge in discussions from the consoles section, give a better home to our high-score competitions and allow us a place to discuss specific games, so we could have a thread on Marble Madness for example. I think it would also give a nice home to all the people who want to talk fighter games as well as racing games. We seem to have a huge fighter game crowd here as well.

Sounds messy...and complicated....and difficult to keep track of due to overlap with current forums.
Having a "mutt" would defeat the purpose in my mind.

What prompted me to post a poll was that there are a lot of people into arcade racing games over on the Supermodel forums, but that forum is limited to talking about one emulator.  I've also seen posts on MAMEworld where someone wanted to get nostalgic about racing games and it didn't really fit with that forum either.

I think there will only be a half dozen to a dozen people who will post regularly, but google would bring a lot of outside traffic coming for the organized information.
Then they'd join so they could ask questions.  Might even get sim guys in here looking to play something else on their setups.

I think it would be a good idea, but I'm not hung up on it.

Well, I completely know where you are coming from. My big issue is that the Main board is one big giant mutt board, so we are talking about messy and difficult to begin with. I am looking at from the perspective of a way of cleaning up the forums on a whole, and while making a racing cab only board might have more of a clear definition to racing topics, I think there are a lot of arcade topics left in the dust without a home. I am trying to come up with a solution to acknowledge that issue, at least one that does not involve making a dozen micro boards that will get zero attention.

Looking at a "Racing and Specialty Cab" board, I would say that 85% of it would be racing related shop-talk. How many common specialty cab genres are there? Dancing/music games, Mahjong, simulator stuff...the random guy wanting to add paperboy handles on his frankenpanel. Mameing a taxidermied goat?!? However, a lot of interesting ideas do get lost in the mix without a clear board to go to. If you look at the reality of it, racing cab topics would dominate the thread talk. I only mentioned it as being a mutt home for other random stuff, because I think the occasional crane game topic would inevitability end up migrating in there as well. We don't get a whole lot of those though.

With the lounge idea, I think there there is no really good place for anyone to talk about any genre of games here. We just kind fit it in where ever it feels the best. We have stuff spattered on the Main board, Everything else, Consoles, Arcade Misc., and occasionally crammed into software and reviews. I think there should be a place for people to talk racing games, but I also think there should be a place for people to talk fighters, shooters, that old commodore game they used to love, etc. Also, the current high-score competitions feel totally lost on the main board. It seems more beneficial to put these things together. Two birds, one stone, ya know? I would be down for a child board on that to talk racing only, but I don't know how much traffic it would get.

[Vigo]

I just also wanted to add that inviting other specialty cabs into the board would probably do a lot to alleviate the worries about not enough traffic going to the board. The same could be said about doing a complete gamer's lounge rather than just racing game talk.

[BadMouth]

mahjong and driving cabs?

[Vigo]

Well, yeah. 

I don't think little old Mahjong is gonna ruin all the racing fun. He just wants to tag along to be a part of the group.   

[Crazy Cooter]

Yes vote from me.  I'd like to get some of the racing sim guys over here.  They have some incredible ideas that could make things easier for those looking to make a driving cabinet.  When looking for driving stuff, I usually find myself on those other boards.  It would be nice to take that knowledge, combine it with an arcade perspective, and see what comes out of it (cough) 6-speed +reverse shifter that can run PC games and integrate with MAME (cough).

[yotsuya]

Actually, when I visit this site I come in under the "Show unread posts from the last visit" link, so I generally don't miss anything.

[Gray_Area]

Well, I completely know where you are coming from. My big issue is that the Main board is one big giant mutt board, so we are talking about messy and difficult to begin with.

What, you aren't one of those people who can pick which point in a million was removed in the second sheet of paper?

(I actually do move through the site by categories in the list above, but maybe I should follow yotsuya's example.)

[yotsuya]

When I first started readin this site, I would do it by category, but I've since found that nothing beats 'Unread Posts'. I even got the politics stuff when it was open.

[isamu]

Badmouth did we ever get this sub-forum? If so, I don't see it?

[BadMouth]

Badmouth did we ever get this sub-forum? If so, I don't see it?

Nope.  Never happened. 

[sharpfork]

Mameing a taxidermied goat

I vote for a goat forum!

I do think that small forums with less traffic are not as interesting day to day.   Over time, they can help folks research topics and become a repository of focused info. The console forum is kind of like this.
I say let's have some sort of driving (maybe + other specialty) forum.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[yotsuya]

I'd combine DOS/Wincab with Audio/Jukebox/MP3 myself, if you wanted to create a Driving Cab forum.

[Brian74]

I voted yes. I also have a driving cabinet, I dont have a touchscreen or anything that. That dont mean they shouldnt have a spot on the boards.

[Dekieon]

I would like to see that driving racing forum area. Additionally a flight sim area as well.

[ant2]

Id be for a driving forum too. But alas.

Any one here playing daytona usa online using hamachi or similar?

I like viewing others cabs.so we could post links here.

Mine tried to cater for sims and arcade games. So i wanted 3 monitors so i made my own.

Www.youtube.com/aletchet

[rockyrocket]

Voted "yes" also, mostly as my next cab is a driver  .

[Malenko]

yet we have a barely used touchscreen forum, yay!

[saint]

yet we have a barely used touchscreen forum, yay!

Dude, should I just give you the keys to the forum? What the frack?

The reason we don't have a driving forum is it fell off my radar. Badmouth if you still want it I'll be happy to set it up.

[BadMouth]

Badmouth if you still want it I'll be happy to set it up.

Lets go for it.  I'll start putting together a list of threads to move there.
I think the level of traffic will suprise people.

Might be time to bump PowerMAME off the main boards list.

EDIT: list of threads from main forum attached.  Important ones are first if you don't want to move them all.  I can move them if given the power.

[cammada]

i voted yes because i am planning to build driving cab in future.


Sent from Commodore 64 using Tapatalk software.

[saint]

Done! BadMouth, I set you up as the moderator for the forum unless you don't want it.

[Malenko]

yet we have a barely used touchscreen forum, yay!

Dude, should I just give you the keys to the forum? What the frack?

Oh hell no, its YOUR JOB to deal with Driverman, its my job to ---smurfette--- and moan =)

[saint]

yet we have a barely used touchscreen forum, yay!

Dude, should I just give you the keys to the forum? What the frack?

Oh hell no, its YOUR JOB to deal with Driverman, its my job to ---smurfette--- and moan =)

Rofl. Dude... Sorry I was touchy earlier.