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Dream features for a new PCI-e card for arcade games?
emphatic:
Sounds great! Oh, another thing I want for the card itself is two banks of DIP switches for game settings and a TEST switch. Most older games used DIP switches to control credits, difficulty, screen flipping etc. Newer games use a TEST menu that either use the cabinets TEST switch (on the JAMMA) or an on-board test button. I think there are a couple of arcade systems that use more than 2 banks (of 10 switches), but I don't know how common they are.
John Blund:
--- Quote from: emphatic on July 22, 2012, 07:33:05 am ---Sounds great! Oh, another thing I want for the card itself is two banks of DIP switches for game settings and a TEST switch. Most older games used DIP switches to control credits, difficulty, screen flipping etc. Newer games use a TEST menu that either use the cabinets TEST switch (on the JAMMA) or an on-board test button. I think there are a couple of arcade systems that use more than 2 banks (of 10 switches), but I don't know how common they are.
--- End quote ---
Well that would be an idea, if someone only want to put one ROM the SD card. That could be used to start games as on the original game cards, without any extra configuring. But i think it might be confusing if you want to have many ROM sets on the SD card. Any thoughts about that?
emphatic:
Well, unless you want to program in a software emulator for the hardware DIPs, I don't see how configuring a game would be possible? But if some kind of frontend is made for the board, it could of course have a DIP switch tab or something for each game. Or if the scenario would play out like this:
Example game Flying Shark:
1. Press TEST button in cabinet (JAMMA)
2. Your game card opens up a dynamic menu saying:
--- Code: ---THIS GAME USES DIP SWITCHES FOR GAME SETTINGS - USE P1 JOYSTICK AND P1 BUTTON1 TO ENABLE/DISABLE SWITCHES
BANK1 - SW01 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW02 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW03 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW04 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW05 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW06 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW07 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW08 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW09 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW10 - OFF (DEFAULT)
TO SHOW BANK2, PRESS P1 BUTTON2
TO EXIT BACK INTO GAME PRESS P1 START OR TEST BUTTON
--- End code ---
3. Game is restarted with the new settings.
This might be better than DIP switches, especially if the switches' functions would be mapped out so the user don't need a manual to figure out the settings, just like how it is in MAME. :cheers:
John Blund:
--- Quote from: emphatic on July 22, 2012, 08:03:52 am ---Well, unless you want to program in a software emulator for the hardware DIPs, I don't see how configuring a game would be possible? But if some kind of frontend is made for the board, it could of course have a DIP switch tab or something for each game. Or if the scenario would play out like this:
Example game Flying Shark:
1. Press TEST button in cabinet (JAMMA)
2. Your game card opens up a dynamic menu saying:
--- Code: ---THIS GAME USES DIP SWITCHES FOR GAME SETTINGS - USE P1 JOYSTICK AND P1 BUTTON1 TO ENABLE/DISABLE SWITCHES
BANK1 - SW01 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW02 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW03 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW04 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW05 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW06 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW07 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW08 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW09 - OFF (DEFAULT)
BANK1 - SW10 - OFF (DEFAULT)
TO SHOW BANK2, PRESS P1 BUTTON2
TO EXIT BACK INTO GAME PRESS P1 START OR TEST BUTTON
--- End code ---
3. Game is restarted with the new settings.
This might be better than DIP switches, especially if the switches' functions would be mapped out so the user don't need a manual to figure out the settings, just like how it is in MAME. :cheers:
--- End quote ---
Well you can have (something like BIOS for PC) that could be used for "DIP switch" settings. Well, maybe it could be frustrating to have the cab open for changing those DIP switches, and also to remember what the switches does.
Another issue is how to change games. And settings for that, could also be set in "BIOS". This "BIOS" could also be used for testing the connected hardware like joysticks and other things. And some compliment with a LED for indicating...
1) board power
2) game running
3) BIOS running
4) "short circuit detected" indication.
emphatic:
Yes, some sort of SETTINGS or SETUP-like thing would be good, I just don't want to see this thing end up without access to per-game settings, especially when settings are originally only available from DIPs. Even as it will need a BIOS of sorts. Are you familiar with NEO-GEO Universal BIOS? http://unibios.free.fr/
Oh, and it would be cool to have some DSP effects to put into the sound output, like STEREO WIDENER for MONO games to take advantage of the RCA ports?
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