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Author Topic: Bigger, Better Mario Bros cabinet.  (Read 2103 times)

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mike boss

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Bigger, Better Mario Bros cabinet.
« on: May 13, 2018, 12:43:50 pm »
A brief backstory.
My basement arcade/man cave/kid cave consists of 4 Nintendo Cabinets and assorted other goodies.
My Donkey Kong cabinet is outfitted with an LCD monitor and a 60-in-1 board + scanline generator.
My Donkey Kong Jr is a vertical based MAME cabinet running MAME w/ Mala as the front end. It also has an LCD monitor and scanline generator. My Popeye cabinet was running WWF Superstars, and I had intended on putting in a 6-in-1 Jamma switcher. However multiple issues with the setup led me to putting in a Pandora's Box 3. I'm honestly quite happy with it, it also has an LCD monitor.
Lastly my Mario Bros cabinet (non wide-body), my crown jewel. It was MAME based w/ Mala as the front end. Like my DK JR it had a custom Mala layout and I was using a 21" CRT monitor. It was loaded with MAME + assorted emulators for console based games. It was a really cool machine. I had soooooooo many big plans and ideas for this machine. Some of which however were above my skill set and know how.

So recently the PC inside my Mario Bros failed. I tried to get it back up and running, but no dice. I had another PC laying around the basement that I bought way back off a buddy. It was used in a 4 player TMNT cabinet, and the PC itself had sufficient power to play Street Fighter IV. I got this PC all set up and my files moved over. However the PC would constantly crash. I was at a loss. I'm not familiar with things like overclocking, adjusting certain settings is just above my know how.

I was ticked off. This cabinet was special to me. And I was not looking forward to doing all this work again. Luckily in all this calamity of errors the original HDD had not failed. I was able to pull off all my data, including artwork, ROM's, the custom MaLa layout, video snaps, etc.

I decided I would do it all again, making it a bigger, better version of the Mario Bros I once had. It was an excuse (after like 7 years) to FINALLY complete and install my 2 Aim Trak guns.

So this isn't a true project in the sense of a complete top to bottom build, or restoration, just detailing the evolution of my cabinet. I'm hoping I can post in this thread about certain issues I'm having and perhaps get help with the problems as the present themselves.








mike boss

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Re: Bigger, Better Mario Bros cabinet.
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2018, 12:53:09 pm »
So I dug out yet another PC that I had kicking around.
I put a 500 GB HDD and moved over all my data.
I'll post the PC specs shortly.

The PC is going to have : MAME v 124, MALA, NES emulation, Sega Master System emulation, Sega Genesis emulation, Turbo GRFX 16 emulation, and The House of the Dead 1,2,3 (PC versions).

I've got everything moved and the set up/configuration has begun.

MAME has been installed, as has the HOTD games, and the console emulators have also been installed.
My Aim Trak guns are finally done, installed and calibrated. However if I recall I'm having an issue assigning them ID's. Both work, but show as device 1. I'd like to ID them as device 3 and 4.

It escapes me now which emulator I selected for NES, but it's working well. Right out of the gate the Aim Traks are working with it. I didn't have to do anything.

I'm using KEGA FUSION for the Sega emulators. I'm unsure if they work with the Aim Trak guns.

Also for HOTD I plan on using the Troubleshooter program. I'm having issues where Model2 will not load any games. Could be the PC specs.
I plan on taking on one task at a time.















mike boss

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Re: Bigger, Better Mario Bros cabinet.
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2018, 12:56:37 pm »
I've made a few changes with respects to the configuration.
All the "House of the Dead" games now appear on one list, which is what I wanted.
They also display with the correct name, House of the Dead, House of the Dead 2, House of the Dead 3.
Prior they were showing "shortcut" in the name. I'm happy with the changes.
I had to edit the BAT file for HOTD as it always wanted you to confirm your settings. So I'm glad that is fixed.
All games are configured to EXIT on ESCAPE using a HOT KEY to simulate ALT + F4.

For HOTD3, I have the settings configured to use the lowest possible resolution, and lowest possible video settings.
The load screen will appear, but when I click to play the game the game will not load.
I believe the PC has sufficient specs to run the game, but I'm currently looking to confirm such.
I'm running Windows 7.