Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets
Were there ever any 3-screen arcade racing games?
Fursphere:
--- Quote from: ant2 on October 25, 2013, 08:38:27 pm ---my cabinet runs 3x 24" monitors
It uses an ATI card, so I run eyefinity to combine all 3 monitors in to one big monitor.
I couldnt get model2 to display properly with my set up (it looked stretched) but model3 and the dolphin emulator work perfect.
If you like playing racing sim type games too (pc based= then 3X monitors IMHO is the way to go, you get a much better sensation of speed.
any questions let me know.
--- End quote ---
The angles of the "outside" monitors looks pretty "steep" - does the tweaked graphics bother you much? (the lines from the center monitor drastically changing when it jumps to the next monitor?)
I was originally looking at building a 3-screen cabinet, but the bezels the distortion killed the idea for me. I've seen guys with 3x projects and a cured screen setups - but thats a lot of money and real estate for that kind of rig.
Xiaou2:
--- Quote ---Here comes Xiaou2 to complain how he donated money and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- to MAME and the 3 to 5 screens in Race Driving arent emulated.
--- End quote ---
You Obviously lack Reading skill.
The one who was complaining, was Jeff Anderson, who runs Videotopia. He graciously dumped and sent the roms to the Mame team... and years later, had not a single response or shred of progress.
I only know this, because I had him help me dump a few TX-1 roms from my machine, for the Mame team... to which he grumbled about it. I decided to sell the machine to him, because I lacked the time and money to repair it + mod it for easier transport (was going to rebuild with detachable monitors, and mount PCBs under a raised seat).
Its main assembly doesnt break down past a certain point only the seat and top seat connector lightbox comes apart) ... so you need wide doors, and cant make any tight corners.
Jeff is a nice guy, with an amazing collection of authentic machines. Videotopia is also a great idea, and was an awesome experience. All of his machines were running real hardware, and he maintained them himself... as well as had custom displays that showed off internal controllers, and custom programmed quiz kiosks - that dispensed token awards for 100% correctly answered quizzes.
Jeff stated, as far as my understanding goes, that there was no need to emulate all the PCB boards of a Race Driven for the extra monitors in the Panorama version. The only board utilized in those was just used for passing a video signal to the monitor.
He stated you could plug in as many monitors as you wanted (If memory serves correct. He had tested 5 monitors working with it) ... and that you could specify each monitors 3d position (camera), where you wanted that monitor to display. Which included above the car... or even facing away from it. You could actually make a full sphere display, if you had enough monitors.
Panorama also has an extra track. I think its a stock car oval. I think I remember another collector friend tell me that you could set like +30 laps, and have a seriously awesome linked race with that setup.
Xiaou2:
http://arcarc.xmission.com/Web%20Archives/Jeff%20Andersen%20%28Sep%2027%202003%29/rdp/default.htm
1st Link = Jeff's info on Panorama.
http://arcarc.xmission.com/Web%20Archives/Jeff%20Andersen%20%28Sep%2027%202003%29/rdp/s4.jpg
And below from: http://www.jmargolin.com/patents/vgame.htm
-----
Race Drivin' came with the ability to link two games together. All you have to do is connect them together with a Null modem Cable and make the appropriate selection in the Operator Screens in Self-Test. (Some early production Race Drivin's don't have the link capability; they would just need a few EPROMs in order to link.)
Race Drivin' Panorama came out around 1991. It had three displays to present the player with a wrap-around view. This was done by using three hardware sets. The Center Hardware simply used the game link to tell the two side displays where to look.
-----
Another 3 monitor Arcade game is a version of Buggy Boy.
Xiaou2:
The complaint I had, was to due mainly to due with the many inadequacies of Mame to run games like TX-1 properly.
1) Mame does not have a single switch shifter option. So, no high - low gear shifter can be used correctly.
2) Mame did not at that time, output more than 2 speakers. (have not checked to confirm if that was fixed recently or not) TX-1 uses 4 speakers, and they help to convey the feeling of 3d space. When you pass cars for example, the sounds of that car pass to the rear speaker.
3) As far as I know, Mame cant connect to Optical pedals? ... such as the ones used by TX-1, as well as Sega's Turbo. This makes it so that If you had an existing game, or found a broken one cheap... where the PCBs were mission & or fried... you couldnt power it with Mame to get it functional. (until such time as you may be able to afford repairs and or find functional parts.. if they even exist)
So...
Yes, you can get the monitors to display... and the wheel to operate. But you cant use the shifter without a custom build, nor can you use the original pedals. And... you dont get the true 4 speaker output, which is totally lame.
(even Sega Turbo has 3 speakers, the larger speaker being a Sub, which plays the engine noises and tunnel amped effect)
So.. what do most people end up doing? Selling off the original parts, and Butchering an original machine... even IF they wanted to try to maintain its original purpose (with addition to being able to play a few more games on it). Such changes will be so radical, that they are not really reversible anymore. And most will choose the most drastic changes, because they figure its impossible to resurrect anyways. Where as, if the ease of conversion was possible... they may often choose that route instead, which is fully reversible. (PCBs and wire harnesses, as well as original controllers.. all left inside the original cab)
ant2:
fursphere: that video was shortly after I first built the cabinet. I adjusted the screens several times since then. The video also recorded at some strange aspect ration, it was recorded using my girlfriends point and shoot camera in video mode. so it makes the angle look even worse.
With the monitors angled as per my video it was a bit more "car" like in that they were like your side windows. But they work better with less of an angle and thats how I have them now. Alot of people actually have them pretty much straight but because of the way I have the cabinet built I cant physically do that so i was unable to see if this worked any better.
The lines match up better now, although they are not perfect this is mainly because the monitor mounts I have used are not able to get the monitors completely level with each other. so they are out by a few mms in level as they sag slightly because of the amount of extra metal mount connectors I have had to use to get them to be a lot higher than they are supposed to be, to match the center screen. I could probably get another monitor mount to fit in my cabinet if I wanted to blow another 300 plus quid, but it wouldnt be worth the money or an extra 5 hours to try and fit it all in. I am a bit of a perfectionist and it does annoy you when you actively look at the lines and they are out by a few mm, even after the bezel compensation has been adjusted but you really do not notice it when you are playing anything.
I play sega rally and daytona on 1 screen (as it doesnt stretch properly on all 3) and you certainly miss the other 2, problem is you do need a beefy GFX card to drive the crazy resolution and obviously 3x monitors are not cheap (although they are going down in price every day)
Now that I have finished rebuilding\fixing up my games room I can finally play on it a bit more (although I want to spend a few more weekends adding a lot more games plus pscx2 support and then after this I want to build my second rig for LAN play) but after this ill do another video just shifting through all the games set up, LAN play and it will show the monitors less angled.
Alot of the sim racers spend some SERIOUS cash on their set ups, hell even mine cost well over 1000. I am very happy with it though and its nice to be able to play sim games evey now and then, yet still be able to play all the cool arcade games perfectly too.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version