Freaking lazer Mame

[Locke141]

I have been thinking about getting a ILDA RGB laser for years and Markc74's CUBE build got me thinking wouldn't be cool to play vector games on a laser. It turns out some one actually made it happen.



Has any one ever seen a laser Mame setup?

Edit:It looks like the Laser are less then ideal for most vector games, but it seem asteroids is pretty doable with expectable quality. 
Lots of info here

[matsadona]

Sweet, I wanted to do something like this with an old Vectrex I have...
I have an ILDA RGB laser, but the scanners on that one are even worse than the ones in the video. You probably need something better than a random Ebay $300 China laser to pull it off.
Anyway, I will try it out regardless - thanks for sharing this.

[Locke141]

No problem matsadona,

How do you like your cheep laser?

After doing a bit of research it seems that the scanner speed is the limiting issue. Moving mirrors have momentum unlike the coils on the neck of vector monitors. I also read that the older simps games are better and safer for your laser.

It seem that there has been a fee attempt at this over the years and the link above is just a later exsample. Two guys has something that looks like it worked pretty well called laser mame but they never shared it and were trying to get Atari to license the roms so they could sell the soft ware. Then some one took what was know about how the first group did it and made "lazymame". I can't find the link to the fourm post with lazymame FTP info but it is out there.

There are also simulations of asteroids out there made with the limitations of lasers in mind

If you get it up and running please post a video. .

[matsadona]

In general I'm happy with the laser, considering it is a cheap one. Perhaps the wattage stated is not 100% true, but still it is a blast at parties when used together with a fogger, as in the picture below

But with the slow moving mirrors it is more or less a scam saying it has ILDA support. Yes, it can draw basic figures, but any complex shapes will get rounded corners.
Anyway, I will try to hook it up just for the sake. Perhaps I will be motivated to buy a better laser eventually

[Locke141]

That does look cool.

When I was poking around looking into this stuff it seems that there are several laser enthusiast forum and open sours (like laser boy) and open laser) project out there. It also seem that a lot of these guys BYOL. It may be cheeper then dropping the big dolors on a fast laser.

[ChadTower]

Been talked about many many many many times over the years.  Basically, projection lasers are mechanical.  Monitors are electrical.  In order to get a mechanical device even remotely as fast as an electrical device (i.e. mechanical mirror deflection vs electrical CRT style deflection) you're talking a very expensive laser setup.  Very expensive.  And even then you're still in the low end of the required range at best.

[Locke141]

Been talked about many many many many times over the years.  Basically, projection lasers are mechanical.  Monitors are electrical.  In order to get a mechanical device even remotely as fast as an electrical device (i.e. mechanical mirror deflection vs electrical CRT style deflection) you're talking a very expensive laser setup.  Very expensive.  And even then you're still in the low end of the required range at best.

That's all true, but you don't need to be near as good to still be cool. Even just as a gimmicky thing you just try for fun. After doing some reading it seem that only the very early Vector Games (like Asteroids)  are worth even trying on the reasonable priced models, what ever that means in the world of ILDA lasers.

There are also seems to be a Asteroids clone called Laseroids designed with limitations of ILDA lasers.

[pbj]

You can't possibly do that, followed by an example of someone doing it.  I love this forum.

[ChadTower]

I didn't say it can't be done.  I said it will cost a whole lot of money and still only be partially working.  The example he posted bears that out.

[Le Chuck]

Get 4 cheap ones.
Write nifty program that splits screen into quadrants and sends info to lasermajiggers.
Spend a fun afternoon calibrating lazermadoodles to all draw together.

Profit.

[ark_ader]

Get 4 cheap ones.
Write nifty program that splits screen into quadrants and sends info to lasermajiggers.
Spend a fun afternoon calibrating lazermadoodles to all draw together.

Profit.

How much do those thingydibobs cost?

[pbj]

"A whole lot of money."

[ChadTower]

Writing 1/4 of the screen would still need to be written at the same speed.  All that does is reduce the XY range of each laser.  Range is not the problem.  Mechanical speed is the problem.  Change of direction of a phyiscal object.


Now, if someone wanted to write some games that are playable at the achievable speed, that would be an idea.  A laser vector system is not impossible.  It's the set of specific games that are real issue.


It's a similar issue to trying to display MAME with a Vectrex monitor.  The thing just doesn't draw quickly enough to keep up with software written for arcade monitors.  I wonder if anyone has tried to emulate Vectrex games to a laser setup.

[Locke141]

Lots of info here

It seems that it should be doable. But I don' think that's much different then targeting the oldest veter arcad games. Sorry but your not going to get to play Star Wars.

On price, you can get "cheep" IDLA lazers for around $300. I have in passing seen them for as much as $4,000. But based on the very limiting learking I have done on some Lazer projecter forum, and  there are more dedicated forums on the subgect then I would have thought, it would seem lots of the people in that hobie build there own fairly capible setups.

Edit: I'm posting a quote from www.photonlexicon.com that seem to be our equivalent to telling people not to build franking panels or not to angle joy sticks.

$450 is pretty cheap for an RGB projector. If you find one on E-bay for that price you're probably going to end up with a piece of junk. Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is an expensive hobby, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Even if you built the thing yourself, you'd be hard pressed to pull off a true RGB projector for that price. A *cheap* set of scanners is going to eat up nearly half your budget, and good scanners will cost more than your entire budget. Then you've got to think about optics, lasers, drivers, a case, and all the associated electronics. Oh, and don't forget the cost of the controller and software too...

Like I said, it's an expensive hobby.  You can save yourself some money by building things yourself, but even so, it's never going to be cheap. Also, if a deal appears to be too good to be true, chances are it is... There's a lot of cheap crap on E-bay; don't get suckered in. You'll end up wasting your money and have to start over again. (Lots of us here have already been down that road...)

Also, you've got three threads open where you're asking the same question. It's generally considered bad form to do that. One thread is sufficient. Just a reminder...

Adam

[yotsuya]

You guys will try to install ---smurfing--- MAME on anything. 

[ChadTower]

It's not really an emulator setup until someone complains that it won't run Castlevania 3.

[yotsuya]

You think the lasers can run Gauntlet Legends 100?

[Le Chuck]

What about 16 of them?  Then they're drawing 1/16 of the stuff of one lazzerrr.  That's gotta count for something.  I bet 16 is the magic number here.  With 16 you can play vector call of duty.  Facts. 

[yotsuya]

What about 16 of them?  Then they're drawing 1/16 of the stuff of one lazzerrr.  That's gotta count for something.  I bet 16 is the magic number here.  With 16 you can play vector call of duty.  Facts.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!