Mixing MAME with Actual Arcade Machines

[Mike A]

So I have my Rave Racer fully functional. I am currently trying to find another one so I can link them up. Ultimately I would love to have 4. I have the space, but they might be hard to come by. So this is the question.

Can I link my cab to a PC running Rave Racer through MAME or another emulator?

[Howard_Casto]

That's an interesting question.  I guess it depends upon if MAME is doing any kind of tcp/ip translating for the networking feature or if it's sending the raw data just as the original arcade machine did.  Probably the easiest way to find out is throw it on a laptop, hook them both on the network and see what happens. 

I can't find a manual online.... does it use an Ethernet port for linkups or some sort of serial cable?

[Mike A]

It looked like an RCA cable, but I didn't look too closely. When I get home I will take a better look. One of the cables is sitting in the bottom of the cab. The jack is almost on the floor and it is recessed. I am hoping that MAME and the cab speak the same language.

[Mike A]

I dabbled in Arduino programming a few years ago. I know you can transmit serial data from a PC to the micro controller and back. I don't know what kind of throughput this task would require and I don't know how MAME would handle the data to begin with. I guess it is time to start researching.

[yotsuya]

RCA cable? How would you even interface that for MAME?

I bet it uses a serial or parallel cable like Crusin’ USA does.

[Mike A]

This is from the manual.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Howard_Casto]

You've got two cables there so that's 4 wires.... bare minimum needed for a serial connection.  It makes me think that networking via Ethernet is out of the question without some sort of special software interface. 

[PL1]

Based on the last page of the manual, there are "IN" and "OUT" RCA connectors on a "Relay PCB assembly".

Ridge Racer 2 (two games earlier in the series) used relay board part# b-2223g according to this e-bay listing.




Scott

[Howard_Casto]

I mean if mame has the outputs defined (or documented at least) it could probably be ran through mamehooker to send it through a generic I/O board.

*edit*  but the problem would be sending data to mame from the arcade pcb.... maybe if some hacked inputs are defined and those inputs are hooked up to the memory locations in the driver....

[Mike A]

I am pretty intrigued by this. These are the kind of problems I like. I enjoy being out of my depth.

[markc74]

You have the space for 4 ridge racers?

Man, I’m jealous...

[Titchgamer]

Intresting project idea!

[yotsuya]

I’m still not sure how you get the signals into the PC...

[Howard_Casto]

You'd have to interface the two rca cables to a Arduino (or your avr of choice), which would have the cables going to simple I/O registers that would, in turn pass along the data to the pc as either a serial connection or a HID interface.  It wouldn't be for the faint of heart. 

[SailorSat]

Not that simple but possible. That network might be something like 10Base2 - But not ethernet compatible for sure. Most likely they implementet a very basic protocol on their own.

Much like the sega comm boards are high-speed serial connections over toslink.

*EDIT*
Some games used actual Ethernet, I think some games like WAR: Final Assault.
Other used plain Serial Null-Modem (like Race drivin)