What do you hate?

[Nightmare03]

What part of building/restoring a arcade machine do you hate or find boooooooooring?

*Please dont kill me*

So far, even though i havent started building the cab, its all been fun and after ive brought/found/restored =P each part ive looked like this  

Just got a 14" monitor i recently threw away in my garden back in.. a bit wet on the case and the back was stuck on with 2 massive clips ( nothing a soldering iron cant fix ) So now thats off and im gonna use it for my arcade machine. Its got built in speakers which ill hook my speakers into. Damn this is so FUN!!

Also i know its off subject, but is there a way to get mame to load games with different file names? Like Space Invaders is invaders, if you rename it it wont run ... you can only run it if its called invaders ( obviously you all know that ) Is there anyway i can change that?

-Nightmare

[allroy1975]

Well, I moved mine Down some stairs...it was one of those staircases where you go down about 6 stairs, then turns to the right ..is flat..and turns again and drops down another 4 or so.  At the bottom of this staircase there's a tiny little space with a door off to the left.  It may be nearly impossible to imagine.  I moved it with my weak girlfriend but at least we had gravity on our side.  it was a nightmare though.

Although...the next Summer, when it was about 100 degrees outside moving it back UP those same stairs while dripping sweat all over the high gloss paint and trying to find  a grip on the LuSid cab...phew...I almost killed my brother in law.  I was on top of the machine and he was down the stairs trying to push it up...when I lost my grip...it slid down about three stairs and he (somehow) stopped it just before it squished him and killed him.  MDF is NOT light.  

I hate moving machines.  

Allroy

[SirPoonga]

It's building, it's all fun!

[Frostillicus]

I hate the cleanup.  

[Tilzs]

Discussing with the with the wife on a good place for it

[Nightmare03]

Ah, Well my girlfreind is cool with it ... Dunno what she will say about a second one...  

[DarkKobold]

I hate Repair more than anything. Every part is fun.... When it is the first time you are doing it. Recently, on my joust project, I had a wire fall out from the 25pin joy connector, I broke a connector off the leaf switch, and the coin acceptor switch mysteriously stopped working.

It is going to take forever to fix it all. So so irritating.

I'd have to put moving the cabs at a close second. No machine is light.

[Brad Lee]

Waiting on parts, or waiting till Ive got the 50 extra bucks or 100 or whatever it is I need for new toys

[Apollo]

I hate what I'm doing at the moment. I have my cab, my control panel is finished, my ArcadeVGA card and video amp are on the way. The bit I hate is that I could be finished but I haven't got enough money for the PC yet.

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!! So frustrating.

[Harakiri]

I hate "the most" of portuguese people at emulation scene wich have banned me over the IRC channels #Roms and #Emuladores! Now i can't discuss anything related in my native language!

BTW: You guys rule!  

[Nightmare03]

Im hating making this program at the moment...

If anyone around here can program in Visual Basic 6.0... Do you know how to stop a list box from moving on a key press, like if you press A and your on F it will scroll you up to A but i need it to stop this so i can use Q to launch the game...

-Nightmare

[unclet]

Cleaning up MDF dust is a real pain, but discovering a measurement error after you cut MDF or plexi is the worst for sure.

[Buddabing]

I hate moving machines.  

I'll second that. I don't know why there's not more emphasis on these boards on portable cabinets. It's one of the selling points of the SlikStik cabinet.

[SNAAAKE]

i hate cleaning up  
And the wiring...very annoying

[DARRYLICSHON]

I would say money , and moving

[OSCAR]

When you have everything running perfect....  and then you decide to "improve" or "tweak" something and get everything totally messed up.

Not MAME related - but I have been fighting with my Time Pilot for a couple weeks now.  It was working perfectly for months, and then I decided to install the hi-score save kit.  Kit works great, but ever since I messed with the cabinet, I've been constantly fixing something.  The night I installed the hi-score save kit, the sound started cutting out occasionally.  A new sound amp IC fixed that, then a couple days later, I was occasionally losing -5V from the power supply.  I replaced some burnt pins and resoldered the header on the power supply board, next the monitor started acting up.  Right now the heaters aren't glowing, so no picture.  I think there may be some bad solder joints or something on the neckboard (K4600), but I haven't had a chance to look into it yet.  *sigh*

[RacerX]

When you have everything running perfect....  and then you decide to "improve" or "tweak" something and get everything totally messed up.

I've done this.  I had my old college roommate coming for a visit, and it was going to be the first time he saw my MAME cab.  I tweaked the controls a bit, and all of a sudden they would not work at all.  I finally got it fixed *after* he left.  But he's since played on it many times and loves it.

[Minwah]

Im hating making this program at the moment...

If anyone around here can program in Visual Basic 6.0... Do you know how to stop a list box from moving on a key press, like if you press A and your on F it will scroll you up to A but i need it to stop this so i can use Q to launch the game...

-Nightmare

A bit cheap but if the ListBox receives focus, force it somewhere else - then the keypress won't be read by the ListBox event(s).  Like this:

Private Sub List1_GotFocus()
    Picture1.SetFocus
End Sub

Turn on the forms KeyPreview property, and use the forms KeyPress/KeyDown/KeyUp etc. events instead

And I hate PAINTING!!!

[dhansen]

Right now the heaters aren't glowing, so no picture.  I think there may be some bad solder joints or something on the neckboard (K4600), but I haven't had a chance to look into it yet.  *sigh*

Oscar...looks like it's time to call 8-liners!!!

 

Doug

[Nightmare03]

Thanks for the code Minwah, but ive sorted it in a easier way now  

I just put a space at the begginning of each game and its ok now.

-Nightmare

[Zombie]

arrrgh! the software part, configuring all the different emulators/frontends. its taking almost as long as the building the thing. also i dont have a trackball on my controlpanel so i got to sit down on the floor and stretch for the mouse inside the cabinet.

i'll also add the moving part to the list, that MDF is heavy!

[shmokes]

I hate HATE HATE, when I've cut out and sanded the edges, curves and corners to perfection a whole side panel out of expensive 3/4" melamine and I've clamped that to another sheet of melamine so I can use a template/flush trim bit in my router to make the other side panel EXACTLY the same as the first and I'm nearly finished going all the way around and suddenly one lapse in concentration and I pivot the router on the corner of my workpiece digging a diagonal divot into the edge of my brand new side panel.

Mistakes of any kind in the carpentry phase are frustrating and expensive.

[ErikRuud]

I love the whole process! Carpentry, wiring, homemade spinner, software.  I will soon be upgrading the PC in my cab, it will be the first time I assemble a PC from a barebones kit.  That will be fun too!

MDF is heavy, that is why I built both cabs in two pieces.  The second cab was started in my garage, then moved to the basement when the weather got cold.  When it was complete, it was moved out of the basement, into the minivan, and then down into my wife's cousin'd basement.  I did all the moving by myself with an appliance dolly.

[gnateye]

Waiting on parts, or waiting till Ive got the 50 extra bucks or 100 or whatever it is I need for new toys

that is the worst! and stripping all those tiny little wires, i use the db25 swapable panels and the wires in the db25 are so small no wire stripper does the job, i have to use a pen knife or my finger nails and after 3 or 4 db25 cables its gets tiring, but other than that i love it all. not something i hate but about the only stressfull thing i have encountered is taking hte back off a brand new tv to get it to fit, voiding that warranty and seeing the neck all exposed, then trying to move it into place, just d@mn stressful

[Tiger-Heli]

Also i know its off subject, but is there a way to get mame to load games with different file names? Like Space Invaders is invaders, if you rename it it wont run ... you can only run it if its called invaders ( obviously you all know that ) Is there anyway i can change that?
-Nightmare

Ummmn, what exactly are you trying to do with re-naming the game.  EmuLoader has a custom game name feature, you can call invaders "Space Invaders" or "Shoot the Aliens" and it will appear like that in the game list.  But the rom is still invaders.  You could maybe include the mame call to invaders in a batch file with a different name.  Otherwise, I think you would have to mod the MAME source and re-compile.

What exactly are you trying to do and why?

[Nightmare03]

It doesnt matter now, i am making a Mame frontend i suppose, to launch games, it also has a top 10 game list so you can launch your favorite games faster. I was just wondering if i could do what i asked because instead of doing this for each game

If GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyQ) Then
If List1.Text = " Space Invaders" Then
Shell ("mame invaders")
Me.Hide
Timer1.Enabled = False
Timer2.Enabled = False
Else

I could just do this instead ONCE  :

If GetAsyncKeyState(vbKeyQ) Then
Shell ("mame" & list1.text )
Me.Hide
Timer1.Enabled = False
Timer2.Enabled = False
Else

I guess i just gotta code alot more into it thats all, mostly copy and paste and change a few things ... it will support all roms that mame does.

I might make the program so that when you open it, it will automatically check your roms directory and add each game to the list.

-Nightmare

[Pixelhugger]

The marital discord.  

[JamIt]

I really hate visiting the 'Project Announcements' forum and seeing all the really cool/inventive new projects that people are doing.  Cmon, stop giving me ideas already!
--JamIt

[Luxury]

getting home from work and being too tired to stand up to play a game.  i need to make a couch cabinet.  

[Iori]

Not being able to find a stripped down cabinet in my area (Denver)!    

[Minwah]

Not being able to find a stripped down cabinet in my area (Denver)!    

Perhaps its fate - build one!

[OSCAR]

Right now the heaters aren't glowing, so no picture.  I think there may be some bad solder joints or something on the neckboard (K4600), but I haven't had a chance to look into it yet.  *sigh*

Oscar...looks like it's time to call 8-liners!!!

 

Doug

And miss out on all the fun?!?  

I actually tried that the first time I had to fix a K4600, but the vertical yoke resistance is too low on the K4600 tubes for the 8liners chassis, which causes a terrible pincushion effect.  I'll get this one fixed, it has to be something like an open heater circuit or a bad socket on the neckboard.  Trying to find the problem is the fun part.  

[Iori]

Not being able to find a stripped down cabinet in my area (Denver)!    

Perhaps its fate - build one!

Hehehe... that is what I am starting to think!  That is alot of work though.  I am already planning on building a small cab based on the Happy Hour design for 80's classics and the standup would be the workhorse that played the games that needed more processing power and 2 players.  Maybe it is fate.    I have decided to do the classic small cab first since I have almost all of the parts for it already, I suppose if I haven't found a cab by the time I am done it might be time to get to work on building my own standup.

[Agent Davis]

The absolute worst part is getting the software all set up just the way you want it.  It's really the reason I "quit" the hobby in the first place.  Hopefully, I'll have better luck this time around.

[Wade]

I love this hobby but there are a lot of painful things about it...

1) As someone else mentioned, the marital dischord... I have a 20x20 dedicated game room and my wife still thinks I have too many games (4!)

2) Moving... for some this isn't bad, but for me it's a nightmare.  My gameroom is in the basement, I have to take games out the rear deck and down a 90 degree bend... about 40 ft above the ground below.  VERY scary, could die if I lose my balance when someone is PUSHING too hard!

3) Things break constantly!  Not only on my real games, but my Mame has broken a handful of times, all different parts going bad.  The Mame is easier to fix than the others though.  I've been trying to get a monitor working on my VR twin for about 5 months.  I make a lot of stupid mistakes that just make it even more frustrating.

Wade

[Nightmare03]

Everyone is saying that configuring the software is the hardest part  

It seems pretty easy to me, can somebody explain what they find difficult about it?  

[SpamMe]

Construction screw-ups, definitely. Software stuff can be a pain, but I don't mind it nearly as much as trashing $100 worth of materials :/

[MameMaster!]

What do I hate?
Answer #1: Being finished with both my stand up and cocktail machines

Answer #2: Not having room for a sit down driving cab.

Answer #3: As Oscar said....tweeking software to make it better and then screwing it up. That I unfortunately have done more than once. I've since figured out to run a mirror version of my Mame software on my regular PC and test my "tweeks" before I add them to my cab!

The MameMaster!  

[Brad Lee]

Waiting on parts, or waiting till Ive got the 50 extra bucks or 100 or whatever it is I need for new toys

that is the worst! and stripping all those tiny little wires, i use the db25 swapable panels and the wires in the db25 are so small no wire stripper does the job, i have to use a pen knife or my finger nails and after 3 or 4 db25 cables its gets tiring, but other than that i love it all. not something i hate but about the only stressfull thing i have encountered is taking hte back off a brand new tv to get it to fit, voiding that warranty and seeing the neck all exposed, then trying to move it into place, just d@mn stressful

Kinda OT, but what the heck- I work with 22 & 24 ga wire all day at my job(telephone/pc/wiring) and the best tool for stripping the tiny wires Ive found to be a pocketknife with a serated blade. The blade is kinda like this __/\/\/\__/\/\/\__/\/\/\__ so the wires fit right in the double serration, can strip 2 at once

[DarkKobold]

Everyone is saying that configuring the software is the hardest part  

It seems pretty easy to me, can somebody explain what they find difficult about it?  

I think I can answer this one -

Hardware set-up is pretty intuitive - It is easy to locate a problem in a mame machine. It isn't to hard to use a multimeter to find a connectivity error.

Software on the other hand - let's face it, no matter which version of windows you use, it is gonna be a PITA. So many errors happen in software for no apparent reason.

Maybe it's just cuz I'm a hardware guy. Software always pisses me off.