a ( perhaps blasphemous) question about steam platform from a new guy

[braidsrx]

Hello everyone, having restored one old cab into a MAME machine, and building my own Q*bert cabinet from scratch , I am looking for a new project.  I have always dreamed of owning a Dragon's Lair cab, or trying to build one, but the Daphne route is a tough sell, I can't seem to configure it correctly, PC is old and without necessary specs, etc.  I certainly don't have $2500 either..... but a friend uses Steam to run many PC games and I see they sell a version of DL that claims to be "arcade worthy".  Does anyone know how feasible it would be to build a cab using an Ipac to map out necessary keyboard commands to load and run steam games?  Seems to easy to be true or worth pursuing.....the Ipac was so AMAZING and easy to set up for my previous cabs I wonder if it would fly....the steam forums crowd complains that the games do not support console controllers....any thoughts?? Thanks in advance for any answers/opinions.

[Slippyblade]

Nothing wrong with doing what you are planning.  The catch comes in when you factor in Steam itself.  Steam has become more and more obnoxious over time.  What with it's constant updates, needing to re-login what seems every other day, and the stupid "authorize this machine" codes through email.  Using Steam on a cab means you will need pretty much constant access to a keyboard/mouse.

If your build has those easily accessible at all times, go for it.  Otherwise, not so much.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah steam is a mess... avoid it like the plague.

Also their version isn't arcade accurate at all.  The only way to get that is to control the footage via the original roms, which means daphne or mame.  Daphne doesn't require a fast pc btw... it hasn't been upgraded significantly in years.  You need something that'll run mpeg2 video smoothly, that's all.  It isn't hard to setup either, rather it appears that way due to the convoluted framefile system.  You need the videos, the roms (which are freely available from d-l-p.com) and framefiles, which can often generated via daphne itself. 

In terms of configuring everything, you do it in the loader and check the "show command line" option once you have everything setup properly.  This is the command line you get your front-end of choice to use.... easy as pie.

[BadMouth]

Like Howard said, the requirements for Daphne are pretty low.
It's doubtful that the steam version would run any better.


To answer your questions about Steam though;

Steam is just the DRM.  Individual games are still individual games and the controls are set in those.  They vary from one game to the next.
I imagine dragons lair would have keyboard support, but I haven't played it.  Most times you can find a workaround using autohotkey or something else.

You don't need any special commands to load and run a steam game.  By default, the game folders are located at
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common

Navigate there, find the game folder, find the game exe and create a shortcut to it.  Then point your front-end at the shortcut (this way the front-end can look for all pc game shortcuts in one folder)
Some games require that steam already be running in the background, while others will start it when the exe is clicked.
I prefer to start steam when the PC is started up so you're not stuck waiting for updates to install when you launch a game from the front end.

The command line I use to start steam with windows is:
START Steam.exe -login username password -silent
(substitute your username and password, put a shortcut to this in the windows startup folder)
How your front-end handles being delayed by steam updating depends on your front-end.

I haven't found a way to silently launch offline mode, which would be more ideal for cab use.

[edekoning]

Using steam in big picture mode on a Cab will work just fine, even without a network connection. Just make sure you configure steam to remember your login details, and run it as "Steam.exe -bigpicture -offline". Big picture mode can be controlled using a controller or using the keyboard. For navigating the interface and launching games you only need the arrow keys, ESC, and Enter. Individual games may or may not have controller support. But there are software solution for treating a gamepad as keyboard and vice versa. If you have no active internet connection, than steam will ask if you would like to go offline. There is no way to avoid this question. However, when using big picture mode, this question will be asked when already inside big picture mode. With this I mean that you can just select 'go offline' by using the arrow keys and hit enter to confirm.

Whether dragon's lair is any good on steam, I do not know, but steam is a viable option for a dedicated cab.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah if you want a windows interface like steam to navigate through.  Also half of the games on steam require an internet connection to load. 

I think what you are forgetting is that most people don't want to launch games from steam, they want to launch them from their front-end of choice. 

[adder]

maybe this is worth a look, i havnt tried it myself though so read reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Lair-20th-Anniversary-Edition-PC/dp/B0002MHEZU

[Howard_Casto]

It's not even close.  That's been out for years and it's actually one of the reasons why Daphne was created.  Don't get me wrong, not everyone is going to notice the difference, but I wouldn't recommend plug-n-play tv games over mame either. 

[Fursphere]

Nothing wrong with doing what you are planning.  The catch comes in when you factor in Steam itself.  Steam has become more and more obnoxious over time.  What with it's constant updates, needing to re-login what seems every other day, and the stupid "authorize this machine" codes through email.  Using Steam on a cab means you will need pretty much constant access to a keyboard/mouse.

If your build has those easily accessible at all times, go for it.  Otherwise, not so much.

Do you rebuild your cabinet OS everyday?  Because the "authorize this machine" is a one time thing.  And my steam auto-logs in without fail every reboot.  I don't have to mess with it.  (updates a little much - but if you turn off beta client, its not nearly as bad).  Have it launch in "big picture" mode and its basically a console system at that point.

Most of your reason for "don't use steam" don't really make any sense to me. 

Just to make sure Steam hasn't changed recently, I just put Steam in "offline mode" then unplugged my NIC.   Launched a bunch of games - no issues.  Rebooted, Steam asked to "go online" or "stay offline" - I clicked stay offline (I'm sure an Autohotkey script out be written to click this button for you with a little work) and then played some more games offline.  No prompt for username / password.

The only issue I had was with games that require Games for Windows Live.  That thing just sucks.  (not Steam's fault).   

So, you could easily leave your PC plugged into the network. Or get a wireless NIC for the cab.  Or put Steam in offline mode. 

[edekoning]

Yeah if you want a windows interface like steam to navigate through.  Also half of the games on steam require an internet connection to load. 

I think what you are forgetting is that most people don't want to launch games from steam, they want to launch them from their front-end of choice.

Big picture mode was designed as a TV interface, so its more like a console interface. It just shows me an image grid of games to choose from. For me personally, I run steam on my cab, but don't play the games on my Cab. Instead the audio/video is send through HDMI to my TV, so I can play the games from my couch using a controller. For that purpose big picture mode is ideal.

[BadMouth]

And my steam auto-logs in without fail every reboot.

I take it you don't have it installed and play the games on a different computer?

Anytime I've played on a different computer, it makes me manually enter my password again even though it is set to remember the password and sign in automatically.  I don't even have the same games installed on the different PCs.  It's just the fact that I signed into Steam.
That is, until I started using the command line that I posted above.

If there were a way to do away with that "are you sure you want to start in offline mode?" box, everything would be peachy.
I started to make an autohotkey script to click past it, but it couldn't be done simply.  I don't doubt that it can be done, just not simply.
The main thing would be finding the dialog box title and making sure it is active before clicking.  I couldn't get it to work consistently with a simple timer.

The way I have it now, signing in via command line works until there is an update.  When there is an update, Steam steals focus back from my front-end and I have to mouse click somewhere on the front-end to restore focus.  I need to figure out how to determine when the steam update has finished and not launch the front-end until after it.  Might be able to get away with just forcing focus back to the front-end while steam is updating.  I'll get it worked out eventually.


I really like having Steam on my cab. 
When I finish hacking xbox360 pads to replace the keyboard encoder, I'm going to add steam games more often.

[pbj]

Hasn't Steam DRM been completely cracked?

[Fursphere]

And my steam auto-logs in without fail every reboot.

I take it you don't have it installed and play the games on a different computer?

Actually I do.

I'm in the "friends and family SHARING beta" (I think its going live soon)...  so I just use the sharing feature 99% of the time because two accounts I own.  I know, that's cheating. 

But I've also purchased some cabinet specific games I wanted on the secondary account as well.  (humble bundle type deals...)

[BadMouth]

Hasn't Steam DRM been completely cracked?

The cracked versions of the games usually show up a few days after release.  IMO, Steam has made the games so cheap to buy and easy to install that the hassle and risk of finding and downloading a cracked version isn't worth it.  If you have a cab that is never going to connect to the internet, a cracked version is the way to go.

I'm in the "friends and family SHARING beta" (I think its going live soon)...  so I just use the sharing feature 99% of the time because two accounts I own.  I know, that's cheating. 

I was planning to check into that when (if?) the driving cabs are up and running.
It would be nice to have the same games installed on both cabs and run different games on each without having to buy another copy.
I'd still plan to buy two copies of the games where you can race each other.

[Fursphere]

It works for everything except games that require external keys (games for windows live being one of the problem children).

Its a neat concept, but to "share" with someone in your "friends in family" circle you have to:
1) log into THERE computer with YOUR account and "authorize" it
2) authorize THERE account to play YOUR games (full library or only specific games)
3) only 10 of each of those can be done

If if you play a game (any game) it kicks them off after 5 minutes of you player.  So it has some pretty hard limitations. 

[Slippyblade]

Oh man, I hope they go live with this soon.  My kids will LOVE that.  Currently they log on with my account to play a lot of games, this would solve a lot of issues.

[pbj]

1) log into THERE computer with YOUR account and "authorize" it
2) authorize THERE account to play YOUR games (full library or only specific games)

Congrats. 

 

This is the dumbest post I've read since my return.

 

 Despite my resistance, it's time to dust off the block list. 

 

Adios.