Motorcycle Cabinet For My Own Video Game

[DaredevilDave]

After a night of gaming with a friend, I decided it was time to clean up the GUI.

I've been playing with MaLa and yesterday I discovered the MaLa Layout Editor.

I downloaded the newest Beta (2011?) for MP4 support. I played around with adding graphics to the games list.



I don't know how long MaLa has had the ability to do the "circular" menus. After a LOT of tweaking I got it working well.

I have another "emulator" set up for Daredevil Dave, as well as other PC games.



I'm using batch files to launch the different PC games and it works great. This way I only need one Emu Page for all the PC games. I received Tiger Woods 08 from Amazon and installed it.

I have a lot of work to do to the menu but so far I'm liking how it works and looks, in general.

As for the monitor size, I kinda think it's too big for some games. I think I died a few times in Galaga because it's hard to take in the whole screen.

My friend likes the big screen. And it IS fine for most games. But, like I said before, I can shrink the screen size any time I want. Still playing with that. So the monitor is okay. I'll decide on screen size before I make the bezel.

One bummer about this TV is there is no sleep mode. If the PC goes to sleep the monitor stays on with a bright blue screen. Just mentioning that in case anyone is shopping for a screen. This is a TV technically, so that may be why. Kinda sux, but the remote control makes up for it. Maybe I can rewire the power button so it's always on and just use a power strip.

If anyone has any questions on any of this please feel free. I don't know what others have done with MaLa - finding layouts are a pain for me because of my screen size, and I have found no sites that really offer a way to browse them easily. It seemed easier to just make my own, and I enjoy doing so.

I will gladly share the layout if anyone is interested. I intend to use MaLa "Steps" (I think it's called that) to do the different emulators.

This layout is a fixed 1920 x 1080. I wanted it scaleable but my scrolling menu didn't like it, and I don't need it really. It's still in the early stages.

[DaredevilDave]

Yay! The TV screen is defective, returned it today. So that's been my week.

Good news: I am now taking this opportunity to find a slightly smaller panel. It is not easy. There are no 30 inch TVs that I can find.

There are some 30 inch monitors, but they're either too nice/expensive (I'd want it for my desk!), or used and have so-so reviews online, which makes me nervous.

I have a 28 inch monitor sitting in there for now. Good thing I have all these screens just sitting about. It's too small, I think. Close though. If it were 16:10 rather than 16:9 it might work. I think it's just too short. I am open to changing my mind on that, and will be using this 28 inch  (27 actually) for a few days.

I'm ditching the idea of a TV instead of a monitor because TV's can't be shut on and off (or sleep) by the computer the same way a monitor can. I put my computer to sleep (I rarely shut it down) so I'd like the monitor to do the same.

Once I get the monitor I can finish this thing!

[MTPPC]

As long as the TV comes alive on power up, you can use a smart strip to give your speakers and monitor power when you pwer up your PC.

[DaredevilDave]

Problem is that I don't turn off the computer, not often. I wonder if it would still work? It sucks because cheap TVs have better viewing angles than cheap monitors, at least in my experience.

In the meantime, I realized last night that not using V-sync is very bad for my controllers (in MAME). After enabling it there is no more discernible latency between mashing a button and watching the little bullets come out of a ship.

In other news - I've been working on a golf game for the past few days. Kind of a Golden Tee clone, but with better graphics (not yet, but they will be) than the older versions available to MAME users.

So far I have a trackball swing system, the ball flies, you can rotate and aim anywhere you want. I have one hole that I'm playing around on.

Grass textures are temporary - everything is I guess haha...





I thought about making a bowling game instead. It would take less time and uses the same mechanics to get the ball rolling. In fact I made a bowling game like 7 years ago for the iPhone that was never released. It has realistic ball curving and good pin physics, and a unique way to throw that curve.

I don't know how far I'll go with it. I'm not sure there is a need for such a game. With the golf game I would release new courses though rather than being stuck with the same 6-7 courses. Golden Tee also has no personality, at all.

I've wanted to make a golf game for a loooong time, so I'm just screwing around with this.

P.S.:

Name this game:

"Looks like he hit the tree, Jim"

[stigzler]

How about a bowling game on a golf course? With rockets.

[DaredevilDave]

How about a bowling game on a golf course? With rockets.

Yes! I was actually thinking there must be SOMEthing besides golf and bowling that I could do with this. I was thinking hand grenades. Or something less explosive like that bean-bag game people play outside - I can't remember the name.

I did make a quick bowling alley, made the golf ball into a bowling ball. Works nice. But it's bowling.

My motorcycle game has "motorcycle golf" and bowling too. You leap over the course from a hillside and crash near each flag. Bowling - similar with giant pins. So I'm willing to go weird.

My old bowling game had different lanes or alleys. The first was a backyard red-necky thing made of plywood and cinder blocks. You work you way up through weird locations, like an underground mafia hideout bar/bowling lane. I never finished or released the game.

Anyways, perhaps there is a forum area for this topic? I'll check it out.

In the meantime, I'm open to any ideas for a cabinet trackball game, ridiculous or otherwise. One strange idea may spark another.

I do like how the super-old black and white Atari Football game used the trackball to determine the speed of the players on the field (the X's and O's). I remember standing at odd/strategic angles and wailing on that trackball going for a touchdown. So, some kind of similar action like that could be cool. Like if you're fast with the ball you're fast in the game.

I'm hoping to paint the cabinet soon. Blue base color and the whatever from there.

[BigCurtis]

I never understood the popularity of the regular golf games. Sure you need one or two, but after that, I assume golfers would prefer to be real golfing, out in the "nature" and all that. On the other hand, I don't think I can get enough of the miniature golf courses. Dunno, maybe because it's closer to pinball that way?

After your usual pointer-style trackball games (Missile Command), the "hey you're a ball, roll roll roll!!" (Marble Madness), positional shooter (Centipede), the XOs football movement, and the golfs, I can't think of any without considering a mouse an upside down trackball.

Always thought it would cool to have a game where the LS30 (or rotary stick of your choice) controls movement & facing of main player avatar, with buttons for shoot or whatever, and a trackball to control the movement of a defenseless character you're escorting to safety, or harmless spy drone. Vareity of themes appropriate, but I think it'd be a fun control scheme/mechanic.

[DaredevilDave]

Well my entire post just disappeared, so the enthusiasm is probably gone from this new one.

Glad the site is back up!

I left off with the cocktail cabinet I picked up for $50. I'll start another thread soon.

I'm gonna lay off on the descriptions since I already typed it all and lost it.

Old Space Invaders (deluxe I think) cocktail. Dude spray painted it black - wish he didn't.



JAMMA harness and a 6x9 speaker that didn't tear when I poked it.


Weird gate thingie on the bottom of one joystick. It looks the there are two installed. Can't even move the stick properly because of it. I can't figure out what the second one is supposed to do - weird shape. They're brand new.


Control panel for Atari "Ataxx".


Trackball

I received my 3" trackball from X-Arcade. It's really nice. One problem is that they said the lip around the ball is 1/4" high, but it's actually only 3/16 (they are fixing the descriptions). Kind of an important 16th of an inch to miss for me.

SOOOO I will be removing the top of the Trackball case when I mount it. It operates fine without it. Doing so will allow me to maintain structural integrity of the control panel (not routing down to a millionth of an inch).

It is beyond me why they design these things this way. It would be very easy to make the case shorter, like the U-Trak. Just seems like a problem that's easy to fix. I'm guessing most people use wooden CPs and not thin metal, including X-Gaming themselves. 

Whatever, the top is already off and works flawless, so problem solved.

I'm planning on painting and finishing the cab itself in a week or two.

[DaredevilDave]

Two videos of a bowling game I'm screwing around with. It's the same swing mechanics as the golf game I originally started - there's no way I'm designing golf courses right now.

What I'm going for here is something I have never seen in a bowling game, but is often claimed - realistic pin physics, and realistic ball spinning.

Even the PBA's own game on the iPhone has crappy physics, and you can steer the ball down the lane. I want to see pins chaotically "exploding" when hit hard in the pocket. I want them bouncing off the wall for a possible (yet rare) split conversion.

Anyways, still working on all the above, but here's where I am so far....

!

!

In my game, you set the spin with the backswing, the direction with the forward. Nothing original I'm sure. I left the mouse cursor visible for the video. There are also two additional views in the video so you can check out the ball action.

I designed a bowling game back in 2009, but I abandoned it so I could make Daredevil Dave - a good choice.

But the bowling game was good and I'm wanting to design a trackball game, so I'm picking up where I left off, but starting from scratch too Some of the old graphics are in this test game.

You start off poor, playing in a backyard bowling league on a crappy homemade alley (see second video). You work your way through various locations, including the middle of a downtown street, an underground Mafia hideout/bowling alley (it could happen!), and some others.

Even back then on the old iPhone 3g I had realistic pins. I don't even care for bowling all that much, but someone has to!!!

The pins are exact dimensions, down the the hundredth of an inch - or close. The ball is the same, with the weights of each being what they should be.

The bowling alley is regulation size. The lanes are oiled and the ball will gain more traction toward the end. That's why the pros get that nasty hook in their shots right at the end. I have never seen a game simulate that hook - mine does. I think. 

The curved path of the ball is actually caused by the amount it is spinning. In other words, the physics engine in the game is causing the curve - I didn't program the curve in so it "looks real". The spinning of the ball actually determines the amount of curve. A lot of games are designed to look "real" - like the ball is spinning but it's just for looks. In this game, if the ball spins the ball will curve that much. If you want a straight shot, don't spin it!

Any bowlers here? I'm open to all suggestions, and will gladly send out test versions to anyone who wants one. I'm not ready for that but I could be in a day or so if people are interested. It plays great with a mouse or arcade trackball.

I also suspect there is another sub-forum for this game discussion, so I will check that out.

[PL1]

Weird gate thingie on the bottom of one joystick. It looks the there are two installed. Can't even move the stick properly because of it. I can't figure out what the second one is supposed to do - weird shape. They're brand new.

That's the 2/4/8-way restrictor plate on your Zippyy stick. (LS-32 knockoff)   

Yours is currently set for 4-way.

If you want to set it for 8-way operation, remove the two screws holding the restrictor plate (dark blue in this LS-32 pic) and move it to this position or you can try it with the restrictor plate removed.



Some people have also slightly ground down the inner points on the 4-way "clover-leaf" like this for smother transitions, but if you grind away too much it will be able to hit diagonals which causes problems with some 4-way games.


Scott

[DaredevilDave]

Just lost another post before I could submit it so I'll just say thank you very much and skip the rest!  

[yamatetsu]

I can't figure out how to embed youtube videos here - maybe we can't?

....

Change https to http.

[DaredevilDave]

Thanks! I just made the videos public too so people can actually watch them from here. Duh. So if you tried watching them before and couldn't, now you can. Please do!

Nothing much to report but don't want to waste a post.

My X-Arcade trackball came with 2 bearings that were crappy, so I'm waiting for those. The support there is fast and excellent, even if the product wasn't perfect on arrival.

It came with a free Maximus Arcade redemption code but I doubt I'll use it. Maybe someone here would want it?

I'm currently using MaLa, but I tried Attract-Mode yesterday and I kinda liked it. I don't like the keyboard-only UI though, and I don't like any of the included layouts. But it works fast, and is still supported unlike MaLa. If I can make "image game lists" then maybe I'll switch.

Can you make image game lists with Maximus? I can't find info on that and have seen no videos showing it. I also hear it is no longer supported/updated, but not sure.

[DaredevilDave]

Been awhile since I posted! Well I still need to paint the cabinet but in the meantime I've been setting up the software, which is probably a never-ending process.

After getting frustrated with certain aspects of MaLa (slow video loads and a few other things, great program though) and another front-end that I tried, I decided to make my own. So that's where I've been!

Unfinished but fully functional:

!

Key features:

I made the controls visible on the arcade cabinet as you scroll so you can see how each game works. Hitting a button zooms the camera into the control panel so you can read the layouts.

The video screen part has optional scanlines and shading. The screen is rounded too so it looks more authentic (I think).

Supports MAME, Model2/3, PC games, for now. Will not support most consoles. I'm designing this for me so it includes what I want it to and nothing else

Uses an updated (by me) controls.ini file and a custom made game list. I also custom designed some of my own "wheel art" and marquees for games that had either bad ones or none at all.

----------------------
If anybody is interested in trying this I am willing to share the FE as well as all graphics (except videos maybe as they're kind of big in file size). It's not very slick as far as setup goes - no GUI's, just text files and a hand-built games list Excel/INI file.

It requires a decent computer but not sure on the requirements. It's in 3D. I notice I can scroll faster using a computer with SSD drives as opposed to regular disk drives (regular HDD is used in the Youtube video).

I need to fill up the screen with more graphics I suppose, and I may add another wheel design or two. I don't want it full of unnecessary junk though. I want it to look nice, give only the information a player really needs, and be easy to use.

This is best used by someone who has maybe several hundred games (not thousands). There is no list filtering or sorting yet. It isn't very customizable, is a little weird to set up, though very simple. Like I said I designed it just for me but am willing to share. It uses Hyperspin transparent wheel art but anything can be substituted.

Hoping to paint the cabinet soon, I've just been lazy.