New Cabinet - Lots of questions

[Jakobud]

Well its been several years since I've built a cabinet and it looks like a lot has changed.  I'm going to build a new one something in the near future but I have some questions about LEDs, Rotating Monitors, etc...

• Ultimarc Servo Stick - Is this thing any good?  Any reviews of these?
• Can you setup frontends to automatically switch the ServoStick between 4/8 way when starting a game?  How does the frontend know which games are 4 and which are 8 way?
• I'm interested in RGB LED illuminated buttons + joystick + trackball.
• LED Buttons - Are the GGG Ice buttons the way to go?
• LED Trackball - Ultimarcs trackball doesn't appear to have a translucent white trackball. Only translucent red or blue.  I'd like a white one so I can make the trackball any color I want.  Is there an option for this?  Any other opinions on better trackball options for using RGB LEDs?
• LED Joystick - Are people typically buying a specific joystick that is for LED usage or are people buying whatever joystick they want and then replacing the shaft and top with translucent LED compatible ones?
• I'd like to use the Servo Stick but replace the balltop and shaft with LED compatible ones.  Does andy have an option for this?
• I'm interested in using an LCD screen and doing a rotating monitor setup.  There are SO MANY threads on this topic I am having a hard time following how to do it.  Is there one specific defacto controller/motor/wheel setup that people are using?  Any straightforward tutorials for this?
• Can frontends automatically rotate the monitor when you first start up a game so that it does the correct orientation? Which frontends?  How does it do this and how do the frontends know which orientation each game is?
• Is there a program that uses controls.dat file to automatically generate pictures of your control panel setup along with properly labeled buttons for each game?
• If so, can you setup MAME to show the proper screenshot when you start the game and/or pause the game?  That way people can clearly see which buttons to use and what each button does.
• Similarly, I've seen how LED Blinky can be setup to light up ONLY the buttons that are used for each game.  How is that accomplished?  Does the frontend have to pass some setting to LED Blinky every time it starts a game and tells it which buttons are used?
• I've seen LED Blinky light up buttons and joysticks using RGB colors that match the colors that the original game used for the buttons/joysticks.  How is this accomplished?
• Is there an easy way to filter out all adult-themed roms? I remember someone making a .bat file back in the day.  Is there something similar?

If anyone could answer any of the above questions and point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.  Unfortunately this message board has grown to an UNREAL number of topics since I originally joined back in.... 2001 or whatever.  Back on the ORIGINAL message board before it was converted to this one.  Some people probably remember that time :-)

[arzoo]

As to your LEDBlinky question, it uses a number of data files (controls.ini, mame.xml, and colors.ini) to determine which controls are used by each rom and which colors to light up.

[Slippyblade]

A lot of your questions have the same answer.  Mala as a front end.  There are plug ins for Mala that facilitate monitor rotation as well as servo joysticks.  I'm sure there are plug ins for other front ends, but I know Mala supports it.  DaOldMan has written a few plug ins to do this.

[dkersten]

Ultimarc Servo Stick - Is this thing any good?  Any reviews of these?

Yes, I like it and it works great.

Can you setup frontends to automatically switch the ServoStick between 4/8 way when starting a game?  How does the frontend know which games are 4 and which are 8 way?

yes, mala with ledblinky (which you will need for your lighting anyway) will control the servostik using the controls.ini file.  works really well.

LED Buttons - Are the GGG Ice buttons the way to go?

Personally after using the EI2 and the Ultimarc Classic RGB buttons, I prefer the ultimarc, both for the button quality and for the illumination quality.  I only used the RGBdrive2 on the GGG buttons, but so far 5 have failed of 30 in the past 3 months, they don't light up quite as bright, and the buttons leave a lot to be desired.  This is only my opinion though, both companies are great to deal with.

LED Trackball - Ultimarcs trackball doesn't appear to have a translucent white trackball. Only translucent red or blue.  I'd like a white one so I can make the trackball any color I want.  Is there an option for this?  Any other opinions on better trackball options for using RGB LEDs?

The ultimarc is actually translucent white.  In the pics on the website it is red or blue, that is a pic with it lit up.  The RGB on it is fantastic, very bright, very uniform, and as long as you don't overtighten or tweak the trackball housing when mounting it, it rolls very well.

Can frontends automatically rotate the monitor when you first start up a game so that it does the correct orientation? Which frontends?  How does it do this and how do the frontends know which orientation each game is?

as stated already, there are plugins for mala that will do this easily.

Is there a program that uses controls.dat file to automatically generate pictures of your control panel setup along with properly labeled buttons for each game?

CPwizard. 

If so, can you setup MAME to show the proper screenshot when you start the game and/or pause the game?  That way people can clearly see which buttons to use and what each button does.

easily done with mala

Similarly, I've seen how LED Blinky can be setup to light up ONLY the buttons that are used for each game.  How is that accomplished?  Does the frontend have to pass some setting to LED Blinky every time it starts a game and tells it which buttons are used?
I've seen LED Blinky light up buttons and joysticks using RGB colors that match the colors that the original game used for the buttons/joysticks.  How is this accomplished?

With mala and ledblinky, this is pretty much automatic.  LEDblinky will load a color.ini file that you can edit to alter the colors, and either controls.ini(dat) or mame.xml will determine how many buttons for each player and if there are other controls like a trackball.  LEDblinky actually lights the button that mame is assigned, even if it is not the button you assigned in the ledblinky configuration.

You would be surprised at how easy it is to set up mala with ledblinky and get the colors working right.  Just do it one step at a time.  Get mame working right.  Then get mala working right.  Then add ledblinky and configure it.  Then start to tweak some games.  Asteroids for example is set up by default to have 5 buttons, the first two are "rotate left" and "rotate right" but most use the joystick and 3 buttons, so you edit either controls.ini to say 3 buttons (or mame.xml if you don't have a controls file or are using a version of asteroids not listed), then edit color.ini if you want to set the buttons to anything other than white. 

One more "advanced" piece of advice for when you are just about complete:  Make sure that no buttons on your control panel are set to the "inc" or "dec" for trackball or mouse functions, or those buttons will light up the trackball color when you select a game with trackball. 

[bulbousbeard]

Just build two cabinets: one horizontal and one vertical. I have NEVER seen an automatically rotating cabinet that wasn't a goofy piece of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---. It's always slow, clunky, and awkward. Just do two cabinets.

Remember: if you try to do everything, you'll just end up doing everything poorly.

[dkersten]

Better yet, go with a 40" vertical setup and virtual bezels.. that way you get the bigger screens for any game.