Marvel Vs. Capcom: Revolution version 2.0

[Maximus]

Hi everyone, it's been a long time. 

Over the passed year I have been taking a break from building and focusing on collecting and refurbishing classic arcade games. It's been a lot of fun and I've built up a pretty nice little home 'Garcade' in our new house with a total of 13 vids and 2 pinball machines.

During that time I've been exposed to a lot of different styles of cabinets and layouts, learned to rebuild monitors and even done some of my own game board repair. Having that kind of exposure changed my view on what I wanted my Mame machine to do and slowly but surely the little bits and pieces added up enough for me to decide to return to MvC:R and make some significant upgrades.

So, it's time to tear the beast all the way down to it's skeleton and start pursuing version #2.0

[rablack97]

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! I thought you deserted us.......Welcome back man....

[Generic Eric]

Where is the best place to watch this going to be?  Here or Facebook?  Do you have a flickr stream? imgur?

[Maximus]

Where is the best place to watch this going to be?  Here or Facebook?  Do you have a flickr stream? imgur?

I'm going to make this the proper documented build thread.

[jayfrost]

Wow....Just the other day I was thinking about your machine...Told the wife I was going to reach out and try to buy it from you!  Guess thats done.  Good luck on the new build.  Looking very forward to seeing your progress.

[Maximus]

The rotating monitor system has worked well for the last 18 months or so since I completed the build, but I was never very happy with the screen size, it seems a bit lost in the large cabinet. Also games that used the larger 25" and 27"+ screens would always look kinda silly on that smaller screen.

Also MAME's awesome bezel support really opened the door to get creative, what if I could replace the entire bezel and screen area with one edge-to-edge screen and be able to transform the whole visible area? That would give a much deeper level of immersion in emulating the different games. Also if the screen is big enough then the need for rotation is completely null.

So the goal was to get an edge to edge screen, big enough to give me a 25"x25" area that can display bezels and 19" monitors in landscape and portrait, but also be able to display up to 27" in either orientation without the bezel for the BIG Capcom style shooters and fighters.

When I killed my VPin project, I had a beautiful 51" Samsung Plasma screen that I had bought which was super thin, pretty light and had a very very small bezel. I measured it's vertical height and found that it was exactly the same as the interior width of the MvC:R cabinet, so, I just had to go ahead and get that MoFo in there...

[Nephasth]

The Sheppard has returned to his flock. What was once lost, now is found!

[yotsuya]

Any plans to redo the CP?

[Maximus]

To control the viewable area I created a custom resolution in windows using the NVidia control panel. I made my desktop a square 1080x1080p resolution and rotated it 90 degrees. This works really well as the square image just shows centered on the full size panel and allows me to control the size of my full screen apps.

Here's some shots of Hyperspin and a few games running with Bezels turned on in MAME.

[Maximus]

Any plans to redo the CP?

Hey Buddy!! Yep the CP is going to get a lot of attention, mainly 4 players, leaf conversion for all sticks and buttons and hopefully some kind of auto switching/profiling of 2/4/8 way controls for P1 and P2.

[Maximus]

Currently the image is lower on the screen than I would like it to be. I've shifted it as far up as I can using the menu options in the TV but it's still a little too low for my liking.

So my options are...

- Physically move the screen up higher > I don't really want to do this as it will cause me structural headaches at the top of the cabinet, the way it is set up now allows me to stay inside all of the original dimensions of the cabinet and I would like to keep it that way.

- Work out a way to run everything in borderless windows and make the desktop area taller, this way I just show everything at the top of the desktop. It's a nice idea in theory but I fear it will cause me all kinds of software/focus  headaches jumping between emulators and Hyperspin.

- Move from using HDMI and switch to VGA. The TV doesn't have a VGA in (which I was quite shocked to find), but it has component inputs, so I can easily get a VGA to Component cable and try that. The reason to switch from digital to analog signal allows me to utilize NVidias 'Desktop Position' option in the video drivers which allows me to shift the screen image up, down, left or right, hopefully this will give me the flexibility I need to position the square desktop exactly where I want it on the large plasma panel.

[PL1]

Welcome back, Joel.

First Cory, now you -- the prodigal sons return.   

Looking forward to seeing how well this update turns out.


Scott

[rablack97]

Where's Cory, he's returned as well?

[Maximus]

the prodigal sons return.   

He he, I hadn't really gone anywhere, just been kinda busy with this...

[rablack97]

ok that is just insane....

[Brian74]

You said plasma? I thought you couldnt lay them like that.

[Slippyblade]

Wow.  That's is some serious garage porn there.  I'm a little jealous. 

[Maximus]

You said plasma? I thought you couldnt lay them like that.

So far I haven't seen any of the issues that used to plague older style plasma screens. I think Samsung really did a great job of handling many of those issues with their new plasma tech, all a bit too late of course as people have moved on to LCD, LED and Soon OLED. It's a shame because the color depth and blacks on this thing are noticeably deeper and richer than any LCD I have seen, the only picture I have seen better has been on an OLED screen. I guess only time will be the real test of how well this thing holds up in this application.

[jdbailey1206]

The Sheppard has returned to his flock. What was once lost, now is found!

 

[ChanceKJ]

Where's Cory, he's returned as well?

Yeah, he poked his head up in LT's Mario build.

Welcome back!  It's really strange seeing this cab gutted to the bones.

[CoryBee]

He he, I hadn't really gone anywhere, just been kinda busy with this...

Sweet Turkey Tits that's cool 

[Maximus]

Before I can move any further with this I need to solve my screen position issue.

I've done quite a lot with custom resolutions in the past but this one is a really advanced problem. I need to find a way to get my custom 1080x1080p resolution desktop to show on the left hand side of my 1920x1080 screen. Currently I can only get the desktop to show horizontally centered using HDMI. Nvidia does provide a 'desktop position' option in it's drivers but I think it's only for analog links, and I am not sure how far it will push the image in any one direction.

I'd like to avoid having to use an analog connection if possible. Is anyone enough of an expert on custom resolution timings, front porch, sync width, polarity etc to tell me if I can force the active desktop pixels to display left justified rather than centered on the screen??

[welash]

Not sure how well this would work, but I think they have a free trial:
http://www.ishadow.com/vdm-configuration/?doing_wp_cron=1402451044.7447049617767333984375

[Maximus]

Not sure how well this would work, but I think they have a free trial:
http://www.ishadow.com/vdm-configuration/?doing_wp_cron=1402451044.7447049617767333984375

Thanks I will check it out. I have tried a few virtual monitor packages but none of them so far have really fooled the computer into thinking there are really two monitors instead of one.

[Generic Eric]

Why are you calling this version 2?  Is it going to rotate?  How about "Super Vert!"

[Maximus]

While waiting for my VGA to Component cable to arrive I decided to push on with the marquee conversion.

Made a mounting plate for the new marquee, nothing special here, just some MDF with a few holes and brackets that will bolt onto the existing structure (I used a piece of scrap so please excuse the ghetto shredded holes from whatever this was used for prior to this)




Mounted up on the cab




And now to mount the second major update to this built, a 29" Dell Ultrawide edge-to-edge monitor. The top, left and right bezel on this thing is about 2mm, it's crazy how close to the edge of the casing the panel goes.

[Maximus]

So what does it look like??? Prepare for photo spew....

[SpaceHedgehog]

Very nice Maximus. What's the quality of the marquee images like? Is it pixelated at all or have you enhanced them in any way?

[Generic Eric]

Nice.  I wonder if there ever will be a custom 21:9 Marquee pack?

It wouldn't seem out of reach to fill the rest of the Simpsons Marquee with light blue. Or make the rest of the space on Galaxian white.

This definitely makes the bezel work compelling!

[scoodidabop]

Whoa thats really nice!  At first I was thinking it was a shame to waste so much of the display area on that 51" LCD but with this kind of result I think you can do whatever the heck you want!  Good work!

[Maximus]

Very nice Maximus. What's the quality of the marquee images like? Is it pixelated at all or have you enhanced them in any way?

Yeah some of the marquees are quite low res so they are pixelated when scaled up, but I guess later on I could at least go back to all of my favorites and crack out Photoshop to make new ones of higher res that fit properly.

Seeing the Marquees and bezels come together so well has me thinking that I will go back to black T-Molding on the side panels to be more generic for all themes. Also I think I will be dropping the heavy MvC theming on the control panel and trying to go with something a little more generic for the same reason.

[yotsuya]

Also I think I will be dropping the heavy MvC theming on the control panel and trying to go with something a little more generic for the same reason.

You could still use the name Revolution, but I'm all for dropping the MvC.

[PL1]

Very nice Maximus. What's the quality of the marquee images like? Is it pixelated at all or have you enhanced them in any way?

Yeah some of the marquees are quite low res so they are pixelated when scaled up, but I guess later on I could at least go back to all of my favorites and crack out Photoshop to make new ones of higher res that fit properly.

Several sources for fairly-high res marquees:

  MAMELayPlus has a number of them here.

  Arcade Artwork has some here -- not as many, but higher res than MAMELayPlus.


Scott

[Maximus]

Several sources for fairly-high res marquees:

  MAMELayPlus has a number of them here.

  Arcade Artwork has some here -- not sure how much overlap there is with MAMELayPlus.   


Scott

Sweet thanks Scott, that should take care of that issue, or a least a chunk of it

[lamprey]

There is also http://www.coinopart.com/

It requires a donation, but I think it's worth it.

[Connorsdad]

I was obsessed with your MvC cab to the point where I had to build my own variation, at last I could sleep again.

And now this....

[wirenut]

I was obsessed with your MvC cab to the point where I had to build my own variation, at last I could sleep again.

And now this....

Don't you do it.  Bad boy! Sit!   

Now there will still be a MvC 1.0 still in the wild......

[Le Chuck]

Out your way there's a guy who has a LCD cutting machine.  He probably would charge an arm and a leg to hack down the marquee but you could get it sized if you wanted to really tweak it.  I was researching custom displays for a while and found him through one of our defense contractors.  I can try and hunt the contact down again if interested.  You can't cut the plasma of course, but they can do really spectacular things with LCD and custom shapes now.  Something as simple as a marquee sized one would be a snap.  Either that or break out one of those short throw PJs, a mirror, and that lycra again 

BTW, I think this is the way to go, why rotate when you can just max out the size.  I hate to say it but PBJ actually predicted this as the way forward a few years ago.   

[Generic Eric]

...predicted this as the way forward a few years ago.   

that's galactic dancing!

I gotta sharing my ideas to maintain my date of claim

[mattgold]

That DELL Marquee looks good...

...tooooo good.   

[Maximus]

Got a few hours to work on this over the weekend.

Despite my best efforts to manipulate the position of the custom resolution on the physical panel, I just couldn't get it to do what I wanted, so I bit the bullet and chopped the top of the cab to accommodate the correct screen position.



Much better


One side panel back in place to measure it's relationship to the screen


While I was in woodworking mode I built a new base and casters for the cab, the old design was too weak and after a house move and being slammed up and down on a lift-gate the struts that housed the wheels had split.

[Maximus]

The cab floats above the ground more now, but at least it's clear of damage from being moved around, and as it's in the garage near the door it will be far away from any potential water damage in an emergency.


Re-engineering the top of the cab and the marquee wasn't too painful after all, so moving the main screen was the right decision in the end.


Now the sides are back on, the real impact of the large screen is starting to shine. Scrolling through Hyperspin on this thing looks just amazing

[Maximus]

Watching the cab transform from one game to the next is a  lot of fun, the need to make the T-molding and the control panel more generic is becoming more and more obvious, this will let those glorious screens have the limelight and drive the whole look of the cab from one game to the next.

[Malenko]

Im jelly.

[JCHusky77]

Love this cab! Do you have your design plans mapped out for others to make?

[Maximus]

Love this cab! Do you have your design plans mapped out for others to make?

No not for this one, it was very much a build-as-I-go type of project

[markc74]

That looks pretty awesome. Loving the approach and how it totally transforms the cab.   

Agree on the generic artwork - with the changing bezels and marquees it does clash a bit with what you already have there.

[Generic Eric]

That looks pretty awesome. Loving the approach and how it totally transforms the cab.   

Agree on the generic artwork - with the changing bezels and marquees it does clash a bit with what you already have there.

Version 3 will have conversion kit styled side art on vertically oriented 27" monitors on each side.

[Locke141]

Now the sides are back on, the real impact of the large screen is starting to shine. Scrolling through Hyperspin on this thing looks just amazing

Would love to see a video of this if you get a chance.

[Generic Eric]

Now the sides are back on, the real impact of the large screen is starting to shine. Scrolling through Hyperspin on this thing looks just amazing

Would love to see a video of this if you get a chance.

I haven't seen the marquees for root beer tapper,  tapper and the Simpsons hack, but I'd like to think the only thing that would change would be logo on the beer mug.

[johnndeanna]

Do you feel that a smaller LCD would be better? That beast seems really big but looking at the pics everything seems very readable and clear and not over exaggerated. In my build I am getting suggestions to use a 32" LCD TV but worry that the games will be too large. Looking at this they may be just right.

[SpaceHedgehog]

Love this cab! Do you have your design plans mapped out for others to make?

No not for this one, it was very much a build-as-I-go type of project

Sounds like my kind of project. Looking most excellent 

[Maximus]

Do you feel that a smaller LCD would be better? That beast seems really big but looking at the pics everything seems very readable and clear and not over exaggerated. In my build I am getting suggestions to use a 32" LCD TV but worry that the games will be too large. Looking at this they may be just right.

Depends how you decide to use the screen. I'm only using the screen area that you would have seen in the original machines for the gaming area, 19", 25" and some up to 29". Also I'm using a lot of HLSL software filters on my game renderings to make them much closer to the type of image you would see on an older CRT. End of the day it's personal choice, the only way to know is to experiment and find out what YOU like, don't let anyone tell you what is right and wrong in your build.

[BadMouth]

I always wanted to try to do a build this way.
kudos for actually making it a reality! 

[rockyrocket]

I always wanted to try to do a build this way.
kudos for actually making it a reality! 

+1 well done!.
I had a 36" screen going spare, and thought about having a big vertical screen and using mamelayplus to have a mame/vert pincab mash up.
In my mind it would of had the base of the screen dropping behind the CP a bit, much like your pic below.
Glad the screen got to be used after all.

[BadMouth]

I'm assuming the viewing angle you are showing is from the top of the screen.
How's the viewing angle from the other side and P1's perspective?

My monitor rotates the other way.  When the screen is in the vertical position, it appears pretty dark from P2's vantage point.
BTW, most vertical games that run on emulators other than MAME require the monitor be rotated the other way.

[Superfrog]

Is it possible to use the upper space of the big screen for display the marquee pictures, so you don't have to use a second monitor for that?

When I was testing my pinball machine layout, I got some screen overlapping from my second screen to the main screen, so it can be with some tweaks here and there   
I read something about some software here on the fora ..

Nice 2.0 version 

[Martijn]

WOW Maximus , very inventive  Love the 4:3 lcd idea. I might steal that 

[jackiabu]

what amazing idea    great job

[Maximus]

Thanks fellas, it's coming along slowly.

Spent a few hours on this last night, but mainly just software tweaks, downloading the higher res Marquees (Thanks Scott) and generally making sure the emulators i am using are working as they should. Current systems on the first wheel of Hyperspin are...

• MAME
• NEO GEO (Via MAME)
• NES
• SNES
• DAPHNE (Dragon's Lair etc)
• DREAMCAST

This morning I modified the existing speaker panel and put it in place, this also forms the top mask for the main screen. (Excuse all the dusty fingerprints)

[Maximus]

I'm assuming the viewing angle you are showing is from the top of the screen.
How's the viewing angle from the other side and P1's perspective?

The screen looks perfect from every angle, no change or fade at all, looks perfect no matter where you stand.

[Maximus]

Is it possible to use the upper space of the big screen for display the marquee pictures, so you don't have to use a second monitor for that?

It depends how much of a software Ninja you are. I had issues with focus and using full screen for apps etc, so although it may be possible I think it would be a major headache, which is why I went with two physical screens. Also I think it would look a bit too 'flat' from a structure point of view.

[zanna5910]

that lcd idea is the cats meow.  Very awesome.  Its sad to see all that wasted space, but the end result is pretty sweet when it gets blocked off.

[Rick]

that lcd idea is the cats meow.  Very awesome.  Its sad to see all that wasted space, but the end result is pretty sweet when it gets blocked off.

This is exactly the case. It's beautiful, amazing and Maximus is (once again) pioneering a new trail. It's a shame that we don't have technology available we could just 'trim down' the top and bottom for a perfectly sized LCD. This, however, is just 200% awesome.

[ChanceKJ]

...It's a shame that we don't have technology available we could just 'trim down' the top and bottom for a perfectly sized LCD. This, however, is just 200% awesome.

Well, i mean you still could. It just wouldn't work after that. 

[JCHusky77]

What do you have for the marquee when you are playing like an NES game? Are there marquee files for those too or you just put up a Nintendo Logo? Just curious!

[Le Chuck]

...It's a shame that we don't have technology available we could just 'trim down' the top and bottom for a perfectly sized LCD. This, however, is just 200% awesome.

Well, i mean you still could. It just wouldn't work after that. 

Sure it would if you use the right tool set.  LCD resizing is a very real very niche very expensive thing

http://www.tannas.com/

[Rick]

Sure it would if you use the right tool set.  LCD resizing is a very real very niche very expensive thing

So. Are you saying we have a trimmed down marquee to look forward to in your build? If you say no, you're really opening yourself up to ridicule here...

[ChanceKJ]

Then this happened: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/18/sharp-free-form-displays/

[Rick]

Then this happened: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/18/sharp-free-form-displays/

Maximus' responsibilities just got a whole buttload cooler.

[Maximus]

Man that looks expensive lol

[Rick]

Man that looks expensive lol

[TKW4rr10r]

 
Life kept me away from this place for awhile and this is what I come back to, amazing!

What's the model of that Samsung panel. btw? Also, are you finding most marquees fitting the dell panel OK or a lot of black borders happening?

Awesome rebuild can't wait to see how this progresses.

[Maximus]

I keep getting pulled away from this with other restorations, just finished up Tapper and Punch-Out so now I have some time to get back to this.

Nothing too exciting to see, just been whacking some bugs with the resolutions, monitor connections and some basic software configuration but I'm back on track now. I'm finishing up the area around the monitor, making brackets to mount the glass, doing some bezel masking etc just to keep it all clean and tidy.

Hard to get a photo of the glass, but you can see it well enough in these shots, it floats about 7 inches in front of the plasma screen to give some depth and follows the lines of the original cab.





Second picture is a little dark, but you can see even from these sharp viewing angles the screen colors and image are perfect.

[markc74]

Watching the cab transform from one game to the next is a  lot of fun, the need to make the T-molding and the control panel more generic is becoming more and more obvious, this will let those glorious screens have the limelight and drive the whole look of the cab

Exact same issue I had. Think this looks amazing though. The bezel art really adds to it.

Just a shame there isn't a centralised repository for high resolution artwork...

[PL1]

Just a shame there isn't a centralised repository for high resolution artwork...

See this post from earlier in the thread for several sources.   


Scott

[DGP]

I admit I got a little sick to my stomach seeing the bare frame of MvC:R sitting there but this new build is so over the top that I cannot wait to see where it goes. 

Simply awesome!



* And on that note I just realized the 25" 21:9 (2.35:1) LG LCD is only 24" wide and will fit just within my cab sides. 

.... I also just realized that I passed a mint open box one a few weeks back for $230. Found refurb'd 25's for $270 but think I can find a better deal.

Sorry to mimic those of you doing this but the video marquee is just too damn cool and I must have it. 

Jason

[Maximus]

More distractions, but I have the screen, bezel/masking and glass all finished. Here's video of things in action so you can see the overall effect....

[zanna5910]

No HLSL?!  Just kidding, looking awesome.  Such a great idea.

[Maximus]

No HLSL?!  Just kidding, looking awesome.  Such a great idea.

Yep HLSL is creating all the video filtering effects that I pointed out in the video. 

[SpaceHedgehog]

This really is looking rather lovely and a very informative video to boot 

[zanna5910]

No HLSL?!  Just kidding, looking awesome.  Such a great idea.

Yep HLSL is creating all the video filtering effects that I pointed out in the video. 

That's what I get for scan watching the video without sound at work 

[DGP]

Was already working on getting the ultra-wide 25" video marquee and now I'm trying to measure to see how large I can go vertical, damn this forum. 


Awesome work as usual Maximus, can't wait to see it finished. 


An issue with plasma position is the weight of their own glass, I'm sure you have taken structural precautions but be careful moving the cab as flexing the plasma will likely not end well (maybe rubber grommets at the mounting locations?). So while the plasma is the more risky display tech for a project like this it will also offer a much more crt like experience. I wish those 32" plasma's were still being produced.

Jason

[Maximus]

Started into the new CP layout.

Went backwards and forwards on this for a while and in the end settled on trying to keep as much of the original as possible. I was going to shave the CP down to 2-player and have it be the width of the cabinet to make it easier to put in a line of cabs, but due to it's depth the cab doesn't really sit nicely in a lineup anyway. So I decided to create a compact 4-player setup and keep the original CP size.

Also I had played around with the idea of making the CP art more generic, but as the side art is so visually strong and I have now decided to set space aside for the cab to be out on it's own and have standing room for 4 people, then I knew that I had to have the CP still match the rest of the cab.



So this is more of a 'turbo-charging' of the original design. I've tried to make the 4-player setup as compact as possible, I know it may feel cramped for some of you, but the cab will rarely see full 4-player action, and when it does hopefully everyone will already be drunk enough to not mind a bit of shoulder rubbing and elbow poking while screaming at each other playing TNMT or NBA Jam.

[Superfrog]

And if you move the trackball to the top, so the player 1 and 2 can positioned more to the middle ?

[Maximus]

And if you move the trackball to the top, so the player 1 and 2 can positioned more to the middle ?

I don't like the idea of reaching past the buttons and sticks to get to the trackball, I think it's more of a personal preference than a scientific reason. Also I lilke the ball at the front to keep as much distance between the glass and those over-enthusiastic spinners driving the ball up the fairway when playing Golden Tee 

It is a good idea though, let me chew on it a bit.

[BadMouth]

I don't like the idea of reaching past the buttons and sticks to get to the trackball, I think it's more of a personal preference than a scientific reason. Also I lilke the ball at the front to keep as much distance between the glass and those over-enthusiastic spinners driving the ball up the fairway when playing Golden Tee 

It is a good idea though, let me chew on it a bit.

IMO, having more distance between the trackball and glass is more important.
You also don't have to worry about avoiding the joysticks when coming in at an angle.

[mkarabinus]

Amazing work...

How long do you think it will be before those custom cut LCDs bring out the capability to have a dynamic control panel as well?  (automatically changes so the theme is always linked to bezel and marquee)

You know it will happen.  It's just a matter of time... and money.

[Maximus]

Thanks for the reply, I actually realized I completely forgot to update the thread with all the work I did last week.

Soo.......

Time to build the new CP



Check for fit on the original base and cab.


Time to get drillin'


Flush trim dat acrylic


Yay it fits the art

[Maximus]

Old and new side by side


Routing out the mounting plate for the trackball (getting better at freehand)


Nice and flush


Art trimmed to the acrylic


Coming together nicely. The T-mold isn't wide enough, I'm going to have to buy some more to do the job properly


Starting into the wiring. Waiting on my servo-controlled sticks to arrive from Andy for P1 and P2, also some other random buttons and pieces

[yotsuya]

Glad you got that hole for the tablet out of there. 

[Maximus]

Glad you got that hole for the tablet out of there. 

Yeah that thing never really worked the way I wanted so I just ditched it

[mkarabinus]

I saw that tablet idea a while back too. 

Great concept, but it works just as well with the Unified Remote software running through my Android phone...and the coolness factor of wipping out my cell phone and taking over admin stuff on the cabinet is nice too!

[yotsuya]

Great concept, but it works just as well with the Unified Remote software running through my Android phone...and the coolness factor of wipping out my cell phone and taking over admin stuff on the cabinet is nice too!

What do you do that you would need that functionality? It has never ONCE occurred to me in the 4 years I've had a MAME cab that I thought "Man, I wish I had some way of controlling Hyperspin/MAME remotely."

[Maximus]

Also, the role of my MAME cabinet is much different than it was two years ago. I've built up a decent collection of classic dedicated machines that I play a lot. Now MAME is a place for me to go and try out a game I may be thinking about buying/trading, or just firing up something someone may ask for when they come over to hang out. So with that in mind, the way I approached this rebuild is much different than my original motivations.

Here's a walk-thru for those of you that like Arcade Pron...

[yotsuya]

Also, the role of my MAME cabinet is much different than it was two years ago. I've built up a decent collection of classic dedicated machines that I play a lot. Now MAME is a place for me to go and try out a game I may be thinking about buying/trading, or just firing up something someone may ask for when they come over to hang out. So with that in mind, the way I approached this rebuild is much different than my original motivations.

Yeah, definitely. It's cool how these things evolve. My first cab was going to be one of those "It has a trackball and spinner and plays Atari and NES and SNES and everything...." cabs, but it eventually settled in nicely to a "primarily horizontal 8 way games only" setup. Gone are the trackball and spinner (sold off the TB, kept the spinner), took off everything but MAME and Daphne, and I couldn't be happier with it.

[mkarabinus]

Great concept, but it works just as well with the Unified Remote software running through my Android phone...and the coolness factor of wipping out my cell phone and taking over admin stuff on the cabinet is nice too!

What do you do that you would need that functionality? It has never ONCE occurred to me in the 4 years I've had a MAME cab that I thought "Man, I wish I had some way of controlling Hyperspin/MAME remotely."

This is my first setup, so as I come across a game that needs control buttons tweeked, its easier to use the keyboard on my phone to hit tab and set the buttons for it.   When my kids are pounding on the buttons and somehow trigger a combination that sends it to minimize MAME, it is easier to use the mouse function through my phone. 

Maybe I won't need it once all the little bugs are worked out...but it comes in handy as of now!

[griffindodd]

That's a brilliant use, just goes to show an unorthodox approach can reap unexpected benefits

[Maximus]

Made some great progress over the holiday weekend...

My ServoSticks arrived from Andy and they look great


Buttons, Sticks, Trackball and RGB Wiring in place


Switch wiring finished, I'm using an IPAC2 for P3 and P4 + admin buttons, a KADE for the P1 & P2 control. I'm not going to win any awards for wiring ninja skills, but it's clean and tidy enough


Thankfully it all squeezes onto the original base no problem. I have to order a few extra black buttons and four matching balltops.

[Maximus]

A few hours of re-configuring everything to get the two encoders to play nice together, updating LEDBlinky and setting up 4-player button lighting, also after figuring out what was wrong with my controls.ini file the sticks now auto configure for 4-way and 8-way games.


Once the Buttons were all torqued down properly the acrylic sits well on the CP, so I can get away with not having to change out the T-Molding and have the added advantage of that nice edge lit effect from the buttons. I just need to smooth the very top edge as it is a little too harsh.

[rablack97]

man when you come back to work you come back lethal.....nice job man...

[Maximus]

man when you come back to work you come back lethal.....nice job man...

Hey buddy, was wondering where you were. I'm trying to cram this project in and get it finished in the next week or two, we are just over a month out from baby #2 arriving so after that I have a feeling the whole hobby will go into shutdown for quite a while.

[rablack97]

sounds like OND....

congrats on the future family member man.....

Hopefully you'll get inpsired again amongst being a proud poppa again...

[Maximus]

Hyperspin now showing marquees dynamically in the menus and not just on launching games.



Planning on adding a DMD style ticker in the top area of the marquee with game info, high scores that type of thing, still working out the details on that.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Outstanding all around!   

D

[pbj]

*soft fap*

But for gods sake get a no nag version of mame

[rablack97]

*soft fap*

But for gods sake get a no nag version of mame

I was just about to say the same thing, you have this greatness and you still have the nag screen man.....

 

[Maximus]

If one of you gentlemen could hook me up with a link to a pre-compiled non-nag and high score save version of MAME64 0.153 that would be a big help, I seem to suck at finding these.

[rablack97]

If one of you gentlemen could hook me up with a link to a pre-compiled non-nag and high score save version of MAME64 0.153 that would be a big help, I seem to suck at finding these.

This is a start, i compiled mine ages ago, wasnt that hard.  There tut's on how to do it.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,64298.0.html

[Maximus]

and that's why I don't have it

[Rick]

and that's why I don't have it

I've done it before, so it's definitely not impossible.

[Maximus]

Here's a nice resource for compiling and pre-compiled versions....

http://www.systempixel.fr/

[yotsuya]

and that's why I don't have it

Dude, if you can build a cab, you can roll your own MAME. 

[tkropp17]

Just curious, have you done any corner to corner measurements since loading the games live? I see you have the Simpsons going, did that end up being a 27" screen? What size did your screens turn out to be when Bezels are on? Really liking this build! Hope you don't mind the questions.

[Yenome]

I admit I got a little sick to my stomach seeing the bare frame of MvC:R sitting there but this new build is so over the top that I cannot wait to see where it goes. 

Simply awesome!



* And on that note I just realized the 25" 21:9 (2.35:1) LG LCD is only 24" wide and will fit just within my cab sides. 

.... I also just realized that I passed a mint open box one a few weeks back for $230. Found refurb'd 25's for $270 but think I can find a better deal.

Sorry to mimic those of you doing this but the video marquee is just too damn cool and I must have it. 

Jason

Just found this thread. its my dream come true. also for those who want a ultra wide 25" newegg has em new $250 lg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005626

also does mameplus not have no nag built in I know it has hi score if you just get the .dat file for it.

[dkersten]

If you want it, I have a .153 I compiled with the nags off and hiscore diff, I could shoot just he .exe over to you, just PM me.  I also have .154 done the same way.

[yotsuya]

Just found this thread. its my dream come true. also for those who want a ultra wide 25" newegg has em new $250 lg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005626

I wish these were available in the size used for Blip!. These screens are a tad too tall for my liking.

[Rick]

If you want it, I have a .153 I compiled with the nags off and hiscore diff, I could shoot just he .exe over to you, just PM me.  I also have .154 done the same way.

You doing this is awesome. I've 'settled' with rolling my own anytime I've updated my settings (0.143 -> 0.152 was the last time) and I've never been 100% certain what I've done has been "perfect". (High scores, for example, seem to be hit or miss.) I really wish there was a simple solution to this, like if the MAMEDev's (or other parties) released a couple of different flavours each time an update came around.

[Gilrock]

Great cab Maximus and thanks for the ideas.  I didn't know about this forum till recently.  I was a member of the Hyperspin forum and saw the Grounds4Divorce cabinet and in his thread he linked one of your videos.  So from that I discovered this forum.  I have a fully complete virtual pinball cab so now I'm starting a Mame cab.  I was about to dive in and build one similar to yours with the rotating monitor but then I stumbled on this thread.  So I liked the idea here and I bought a 50" Samsung LED Tv and my Dell 21:9 monitor arrives tommorow.

I was wanting to buy plasma like you did but the plasmas in the store just looked so terrible compared to the led tvs.  I don't know if I could have adjusted them better when I got them home but didn't want to chance it.  I told the guy that my 50" plasma I had at home that was 14 years old blew away the plasma tv's they had in the store now.

Anyways I got it setup against a wall and created a 1080x1080 resolution like you did and it looks great.  So again thanks for the ideas.  I couldn't believe you took that old cab apart.  I think I might have had to just build a complete new one and save that old one.

[Maximus]

Hi Gilrock,

Sounds like you are well on your way to building out your own fully dynamic art cab, and the experience you have from building a multi-pin will make this build easy for sure. I tore apart this cab because I was never very happy with the screen angle and size, so it just made sense to go back and 'get it right'.

This build is fully operational now and has been put through it's paces at one of my arcade parties already with 4 people mashing away on it so I'm very happy with the way it has turned out. I've been spending time configuring the front end and setting up my Daphne emulator properly lately, now it plays 15 LD games woooo hooooo!!!!

4 player configuration works perfectly, as does Hyperspin with the dynamic marquees, also the servo controlled joysticks kick ass, switching between 4 and 8 way as you pick games or go back to the Hyperspin menus. Oh and yes I finally got rid of my nag screens 

I still have work to do around the top of the cabinet, building out the housing for the marquee and generally making it all look more integrated, but my time is stretched across my whole collection these days so there haven't really been any interesting updates to post for a while.

[Gilrock]

Do you know about what screen angle you have now with the 51" screen?  I've started modeling a design in Sketchup and I've currently got my screen laid back about 30 degrees from vertical.  It's kinda hard to judge whether I will like it or not just looking at the 3D model.  I put a 6' person in the model and I try to roll the cabinet around to see how it will look and whether the marquee monitor will be blocking part of the view.

[Maximus]

I doubt mine is more than 15 degrees from vertical

[jongunz]

I think this is my favorite cabinet on this entire site.  Truly talented.  And the cabinet is a thing of beauty.  I liked the first one too.

[brucelee00]

Just curious as to how you like the servostiks ? I know they are sanwa jlw and i've heard many mixed feelings about how they feel for fighters,flying, and 4 way games. I'm curious if you had some time to play around with them and how they feel considering you actually own some dedicated cabs and have something truly to compare it to. I'm not expecting these sticks to be perfection for all game types, but would like to hear your thoughts on this? I've used jlw in other builds and they seem to work pretty well all around expect for 4 way games as there is no restriction plate to switch to. I do like the idea of auto switching, but want to make sure they are worth the investment and time in setting these up in a CP. Thanks!

[Maximus]

To be honest I never expect my MAME cab to compare to my dedicated cabs, after all it's simply not the same, so to expect it to feel the same as any dedicated cab is unreasonable. My MAME cab is strictly for fun, friends to play at parties and for me to fire up a game I may have never tried before just to get a feel for it. The best a MAME cab is ever going to be is a fancy conversion cab with non-standard controls - and I'm fine with that.

[brucelee00]

To be honest I never expect my MAME cab to compare to my dedicated cabs, after all it's simply not the same, so to expect it to feel the same as any dedicated cab is unreasonable. My MAME cab is strictly for fun, friends to play at parties and for me to fire up a game I may have never tried before just to get a feel for it. The best a MAME cab is ever going to be is a fancy conversion cab with non-standard controls - and I'm fine with that.

agreed. I'm still curious to know what you think of those sticks though in the contexts of mame and how well they respond to the various game types. As you said it's for fun and friends to play on to have fun... if they are terrible for many of the game types, wouldn't that reduce the fun aspect ?? Most people who build mame cabinets don't have the space for dozens of dedicated cabs and the cost alone to accumulate a good collection would be a pretty hefty amount. I don't know if you have tried other sticks people use for mame but would like to hear your overall thoughts on the servostiks

[Maximus]

I really don't think I'm an advanced enough gamer to be able to give an answer on this. I fail to see how 4 micro switches placed a millimeter or two from a moving bushing can really differ that much, I think you'd have to be a highly tuned player to have those differences affect your game play enough for you to consider them bad.

I see the same conversations on KLOV about dedicated games, and it always kinda makes me smile because you can guarantee back in the day when you were playing games in the arcade, the controls you were using were beat to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in the most neglected and awful way. Yet there's a mob of people there that will argue all day long over leaf vs. microswitch, restriction plate designs yadda yadda yadda.

My cabs may be elaborate in their designs and executions, but at the end of the day I'm a pretty average-to-lousy gamer.

[brucelee00]

I really don't think I'm an advanced enough gamer to be able to give an answer on this. I fail to see how 4 micro switches placed a millimeter or two from a moving bushing can really differ that much, I think you'd have to be a highly tuned player to have those differences affect your game play enough for you to consider them bad.

I see the same conversations on KLOV about dedicated games, and it always kinda makes me smile because you can guarantee back in the day when you were playing games in the arcade, the controls you were using were beat to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- in the most neglected and awful way. Yet there's a mob of people there that will argue all day long over leaf vs. microswitch, restriction plate designs yadda yadda yadda.

My cabs may be elaborate in their designs and executions, but at the end of the day I'm a pretty average-to-lousy gamer.

Fair enough

[TopJimmyCooks]

I had a cab with p1 and p2 servo sticks for a few weeks.  They are what they are as maxi griff says: a do-all joystick. 

I really liked them and they certainly beat the crap out of playing four way games with an eight way.  I may redo my main cab cp to get rid of the extra dedicated four way leaf stick in favor of these.  I never felt compromised by too long or too short of a throw and the centering was nice.  I'm no twitch player, fighter player or purist but I recommend servo stiks if you only want one stick per player on the game. 

[Le Chuck]

I had a cab with p1 and p2 servo sticks for a few weeks.  They are what they are as maxi griff says: a do-all joystick. 

I really liked them and they certainly beat the crap out of playing four way games with an eight way.  I may redo my main cab cp to get rid of the extra dedicated four way leaf stick in favor of these.  I never felt compromised by too long or too short of a throw and the centering was nice.  I'm no twitch player, fighter player or purist but I recommend servo stiks if you only want one stick per player on the game.

+1, there are a few options out there to do this as well, Ultimarc, GGG, and DIY. 

[scubajoe]

I have been very impressed with your old and new MVC cabs. I had been wondering if anyone had a solution to the 4 vs 8 way joysticks. I was not happy with the manual ones I have seen so am just trying to figure out what else I need to order from ultramarc. I am trying to see if I can get the WOLF board to work with most of the buttons and sticks. Your new CP design is inspirational I am trying to figure out if I can add a spinner with out screwing things up.

Any chance of getting a 300 dpi layered file of your CP so I do not have to reinvent from scratch

[Sshado]

Looks awesome, but you should have sold me the first version and started this new one from scratch 

[DrZhark]

Hi

Any updates on  your build?? I'm working on something very similar, in fact I've 'borrowed' your design and I'm making a dual screen cabinet....
Your MvC cabinet has been an inspiration for my first ever build.

[Deadpool]

That is really nice man! I some day will have a basement specifically for my man cave with all the "man" amenities, but I think I want the theme to be a Marvel theme!  Would be cool to get some of the fat head stickers but in actual size of the marvel characters, you would have to have some tall ceilings for a 8 foot+ Hulk! lol  Arcade machine make the perfect added touch!

[scubajoe]

Any chance you can post a an art file of the 4-player CP?

Started into the new CP layout.

Went backwards and forwards on this for a while and in the end settled on trying to keep as much of the original as possible. I was going to shave the CP down to 2-player and have it be the width of the cabinet to make it easier to put in a line of cabs, but due to it's depth the cab doesn't really sit nicely in a lineup anyway. So I decided to create a compact 4-player setup and keep the original CP size.

Also I had played around with the idea of making the CP art more generic, but as the side art is so visually strong and I have now decided to set space aside for the cab to be out on it's own and have standing room for 4 people, then I knew that I had to have the CP still match the rest of the cab.



So this is more of a 'turbo-charging' of the original design. I've tried to make the 4-player setup as compact as possible, I know it may feel cramped for some of you, but the cab will rarely see full 4-player action, and when it does hopefully everyone will already be drunk enough to not mind a bit of shoulder rubbing and elbow poking while screaming at each other playing TNMT or NBA Jam.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Hey Griff, did you ever update your first post with a final shot of the completed cab?

D

[bulbousbeard]

To be honest I never expect my MAME cab to compare to my dedicated cabs, after all it's simply not the same, so to expect it to feel the same as any dedicated cab is unreasonable. My MAME cab is strictly for fun, friends to play at parties and for me to fire up a game I may have never tried before just to get a feel for it. The best a MAME cab is ever going to be is a fancy conversion cab with non-standard controls - and I'm fine with that.

Huh? There is really nothing stopping a decent GroovyMAME setup from being indistinguishable from real hardware. I've fooled several people who've owned MVS boards for over 10 years. It would be trivial to take, say, a Neo Geo big red, do a GroovyMAME setup on it, and nobody would even know it wasn't a real MVS setup (MAME even supports multi-slot game switching now).



In any case, the problem I see with this kind of setup is not having the resolution for a good CRT shader.

For the best CRT shaders, you really need a 4k resolution screen to get the most out of them. When you use so many of your pixels on a virtual bezel, you're losing the pixels you need for the shader.

[Maximus]

Just dropping in to say I haven't forgotten about this, just had a lot going on for a while. I'm knee deep in an Atari 720 restore and a Williams Bubbles complete rebuild so I keep getting distracted from finishing up all the final framing for the top and marquee area. As is always the case, the machine is fully functional and that stopped the build from getting completed.

I'll get there one day. 

[Maximus]

Any chance you can post a an art file of the 4-player CP?

Sorry man, I do share a lot of my art and templates but not this one, MvC:R is mine...... ALL MINE!!!! WUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA 

[scubajoe]

Had to ask, Thanks for the reply, now I will get started doing it from scratch.

[millercentral]

Incredible build.

Any chance you could detail your software configuration (you mentioned hyperspin and ledblinky, but how did you get the marquees to update in hyperspin, etc?

Thanks!

[skottles]

Wow truly the best build I have ever come across. Great work. 

[FALSE]

Sorry to bump this old thread but I'm considering positioning a monitor in the same fashion as Maximus has in this cab.
What do I need to think about when positioning the screen?
I'm worried about cutting off the picture on some games with the control panel or speaker area/marquee...
I'm probably over thinking this... really just looking for tips or advice I guess.

[PL1]

What do I need to think about when positioning the screen?
I'm worried about cutting off the picture on some games with the control panel or speaker area/marquee...
I'm probably over thinking this... really just looking for tips or advice I guess.

This looks like a good place to start.

To control the viewable area I created a custom resolution in windows using the NVidia control panel. I made my desktop a square 1080x1080p resolution and rotated it 90 degrees. This works really well as the square image just shows centered on the full size panel and allows me to control the size of my full screen apps.

Scott

[FALSE]

What do I need to think about when positioning the screen?
I'm worried about cutting off the picture on some games with the control panel or speaker area/marquee...
I'm probably over thinking this... really just looking for tips or advice I guess.

This looks like a good place to start.

To control the viewable area I created a custom resolution in windows using the NVidia control panel. I made my desktop a square 1080x1080p resolution and rotated it 90 degrees. This works really well as the square image just shows centered on the full size panel and allows me to control the size of my full screen apps.

Scott

Yea I read the whole thread and after reading it a few more times it seems to make more sense...
Like I said, probably overthinking it, but I'm terrible at "winging it" on a project.
I have to make sure I understand everything before I move forward.
Thanks for pointing out what should have been obvious to me.