Linking two cabs together?

[DaOld Man]

Ok, I know this has probably been discussed before, but my search function must be sick, cause I cant find it.
Has anyone connected two cabs together to play 4 player games? (IE Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles)
I would like to be able to connect two cabs together via a cord, then when the cord is plugged in, one of the cabs becomes the master, with game selection control and P1 and P2 starts and coins, and the second cab becomes the slave, with P3 and P4 starts and coins.
When the cord is unplugged, both machines revert to normal 2 player cab operation.
Any ideas?

[kuchta]

I'm planning on doing something like this with 2 bartops, but I haven't even gotten all of my parts yet, so I don't know how successful I'll be. I'm going to have 2 1-player bartops that when linked will allow the second bartop to act as player 2. My plan is to set-up a KVM in the player 2 bartop with a button that switches between the 1 player setup (keyboard, video, and audio come from bartop B) and making it a 2 player setup (keyboard from bartop B becomes player 2 on bartop A, video and audio comes from bartop A). On bartop A, I'll use a VGA amplifier to split the signal into 2 signals for when bartop B is hooked up to bartop A. I'm just going to have 1 USB cable (for the player 2 encoder), 1 3.5mm audio cable, and 1 VGA cable connecting the 2 together when you want to link them together, but I suppose they could all be merged into 1 cable.

I'm going to be using 2 KADE encoders, but I don't have them yet to test. They are configurable though, which may be necessary so that you can assign different keystrokes to both bartops so they have unique key presses. I guess you could also split the controls in bartop B before it reaches the first encoder if you had enough inputs on bartop A (which the KADEs do not).

I hope I'm explaining this well. I don't have anything drawn up yet, so this is all coming from my head. I'm thinking this should work and hopefully won't cause too much input lag when linked together. Let me know if I need to clarify anything that I'm saying. I hope to explain this much better once I get my parts and start my own project thread.

[BadMouth]

No experience with it, but I'll throw in my $.02 anyway.
I'm thinking usb KVM switch and a simple VGA splitter on the master cab.

Utilize the encoder in the slave cab so you only have to run VGA and USB between them.
PS2 keyboard encoders wouldn't cut it, as they'd have to be plugged in before startup.

I'd use encoders that show up as usb gamepads and use Dr. Venture's joystick ID utility to keep the joystick IDs straight.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108767.msg1154628.html#msg1154628

Having it switch automatically when a cable is connected.....
Well that sounds like a job for DaOld Man. 

Maybe run everything through a DB25 connector and have two of the unused pins connected in one of the cabs.
That could complete a circuit in the other cab when the cable is present.

[ed12]

simple
02 here also
look into crusing usa
they run multi link cab's
maybe u can grab a few idea's from them

ed

[SavannahLion]

Idea 1:
   Short patch cable loop in slave. Unplug one end and run cable from Master.

Idea 2:
   Use some CBT3244 or MC14503B

Idea 3:
   Slave Cab uses wireless receivers. Install in a "common" cartridge and swap carts. Slave cart contains control receivers, Master cart contains Video receiver.

Idea 4:
   See if Kaillera can run on a LAN.

[Yenome]

far as i know kaillera is your best bet for cab linking. i dont see any reason why two pc cant be networked together and kail to be told that cab 1 is only connected to cab 2. doing it this way you could set up one cab and just clone everything to the second and change only the connection setting for kaillera. I would also suggest you set this all up in a VM before doing it with two full machines. heck with it ill try that now. VMs here i come.

[MonMotha]

If you don't mind having to change stuff between being in "linked mode" vs "standalone mode", it seems most foolproof to just have a separate encoder in each cabinet.  Program them to use different keycodes (you can configure the emu on the "slave" one to compensate when it's in standalone - just use the MAME standard 3/4P keycodes or whatever).  When you want to play 4P linked, just move the USB cable over to the "master" PC and also use a VGA splitter/amp to duplicate the video.  Done.  No lag, no fuss.  It's two cables, but it's easy and has almost no room for problems.

If you actually want to take advantage of the link functionality in some games e.g. fighters where each player gets a dedicated view, then that's a different story of course and requires emulator support (or use the real gameboards).

[CoryBee]

I haven't done it either but have researched it a bunch. Looked into kaillera and I would think a physical connection would be best, plus no input lag over network (I know it is unlikely over LAN). I am super tired but shouldn't be too hard to have a switch or two that disconnects the mother board+monitor from the Slave cab and a connection be made with a DB25 connector to the Master. Master would obviously be cloning screen and like badmouth said have a way to keep track of Joystick IDs. Dr. Venture's or Joytokey, I prefer Joytokey as I can treat gamepads as keyboard inputs.

Good luck, would love to see it implemented.

[Nephasth]

I would run a Lono² in your master unit. This way you'll have 4 "always on" game pads on the master. Have headers 1 and 2 wired to P1's and P2's controls in the master. Wire headers 3 and 4 to some type of connector(s) (like Molex or DBx). Also have a VGA splitter in your master. In your slave you can run whatever other encoder you want (it will only be running (on) when the cab is in stand alone mode) and wire your controls with a Y harness with one end running to the cab's encoder and the other running to the mating connector(s) to plug into the master unit's Lono² connectors. When you want to run linked, the master unit will be running as usual, on the slave you would just plug in the Lono² connectors and VGA cable, and have to power on the monitor only. Could do something similar with lit controls as well, just requires more wiring.

[CoryBee]

I would run a Lono² in your master unit. This way you'll have 4 "always on" game pads on the master. Have headers 1 and 2 wired to P1's and P2's controls in the master. Wire headers 3 and 4 to some type of connector(s) (like Molex or DBx). Also have a VGA splitter in your master. In your slave you can run whatever other encoder you want (it will only be running (on) when the cab is in stand alone mode) and wire your controls with a Y harness with one end running to the cab's encoder and the other running to the mating connector(s) to plug into the master unit's Lono² connectors. When you want to run linked, the master unit will be running as usual, on the slave you would just plug in the Lono² connectors and VGA cable, and have to power on the monitor only. Could do something similar with lit controls as well, just requires more wiring.

[Nephasth]

If you actually want to take advantage of the link functionality in some games e.g. fighters where each player gets a dedicated view, then that's a different story of course and requires emulator support (or use the real gameboards).

This would be easy to do. It's pretty much just like the Beast, but in two cabs. If you wanted to do this, you could do the wiring the same as I explained before, it's just a matter of mapping MAME's inputs appropriately. The only problem then would be playing those same 2 player games in stand alone mode. To overcome this, you could run two different instances of MAME from your frontend in the master unit, one instance (list) for linked mode, and the other for stand alone mode.

Edit: If you're talking about games that had two seperate views on two different monitors, apparently this can be done as well. It requires a video card that can support 2 or more monitors. Link with vague info coming...

Edit II: Well crap, can't find the thread now. But it was the build thread for that skinny dual screen machine that never got finished, where the monitors were back to back if anyone else wants to find it.

Edit III: Found the thread. Had to search "trash talk"... http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108974.msg1242177.html#msg1242177
This isn't exactly what I was thinking of though.

Edit IV: Here's the post I was looking for... http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,121395.msg1287813.html#msg1287813

[PL1]

Has anyone connected two cabs together to play 4 player games? (IE Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles)
I would like to be able to connect two cabs together via a cord, then when the cord is plugged in, one of the cabs becomes the master, with game selection control and P1 and P2 starts and coins, and the second cab becomes the slave, with P3 and P4 starts and coins.
When the cord is unplugged, both machines revert to normal 2 player cab operation.
Any ideas?

You were probably thinking about how Unstupid linked 2 single player Neo Geo bartops here.

I would put a rocker switch on the back of the 2nd cab tied to the HWB (KADE) or Shazaam input (Keywiz) to switch the encoder from P1/P2 keymap of normal functions (standalone play) to P3/P4 keymap of shifted functions. (linked play)

Build a KVM switch into the 2nd cab.

In the diagram below, the video connects to the KVM normally, selecting which video to send to the cab 2 screen.

The encoder connects to the KVM backward -- in thru the "out" port and out through the selected "in" port to the desired computer.

The 2 cabs can be connected at all times -- Use the KVM switch and the rocker switch to select the desired mode. (standalone or linked play)


Scott

[Ozzy_98]

The way I planned on doing it was to get a frame buffer\VGA splitter, and run it's pinouts plus a USB cable lines to a 66 block (Networking block) mounted inside the parent cab.  I was going to have an amphenol plug mounted to the back of the cab.  The secondary cab would also have the 66/amphonal, and a USB hub for the joysticks\controls, and besides the USB, it would have nothing else but a monitor.  If you wanted to use this on the secondary, but also wanted it to work "like normal", a KVM switch in the secondary would be great, but may give you issues at the OS level with switching.

No idea how well the VGA would travel over the 66 block though.  Should be fine, no cross-talk, but I can't be sure. This means I'd just have one cable between the two cabs.

[Brian74]