Jukebox in background?

[Zakk]

I wonder if this has been covered, I couldn't find a thread, but anyway...

 I usually set a cab up with Arcade Jukebox 8, and mamewah.  Now I have a buyer that wants a cab to be able to play music in the background while the game plays on the cab.  Okay, I can probably rig a way pretty easy to get mp3's to play randomly in the background, but I just "know" that I'm going to get a call "How do I turn off the music, it's getting annoying?"

Now this cab is going to be in a cottage some 5 hour drive from me, so I don't want to be driving there if I don't have to, so my qustion is this:  How would you guys set it up so that he could select the setup config, or even better, select the songs they want to hear, in the background while they play games (as opposed to just random play). If possible, I'd like it to configurable with the mamewah frontend, but not exit when I switch emulators...

Whew I talk too much   Any ideas guys?

[Superdude]

I can tell ya how, but it will cost ya since my advice will be making you money.  

[Zakk]

I'm sure that answer was more useful than any advice you could have given anyway.  Thanks.

[Zakk]

For anyone who thinks like that guy, I'd just like you to know that the cabinets I do are mostly done for friends, family and people I know.  It's not a commercial venture, it's just a way to keep building cabs (read: it's my hobby).  For example, this cabinet in question is for my lawyer, a person I would like to keep on my good side, and hey I have wondered myself if there was a way to get the music to play while the games are running.  

[Generic Eric]

Maybe too invovled, but how about a second PC with a KVM switch in the cab.  My computer doesn't work, so I can't be of any help as far as programs and what not.

BTW
Is kinda funny you mention the Lawyer playing mp3s.  I trust he ripped them all himself and has the cds somewhere.  LOL

[DrewKaree]

Ya know, in perusing the HUNDREDS of sites for tips, hints, ideas, & general knowledge, seeing your site and the info you've put up on it, the reviews, all the stuff you've offered without asking for a dime....it all leads me to believe you're someone we should help as thanks for what you've done.

I wish I could help you out, but I've not even gotten into how to set up more sophisticated software than Mame32 yet.  Good luck, best wishes, and know that you're not alone in wanting to tell that guy to stuff his "help".

[Edgedamage]

I think mame likes to have the sound card to it's self. I recall one time I had mame running in a window and then started winamp and got a error message something about "unable to start direct sound".

[Zakk]

Thanks drew.  Maybe I'm reading his post wrong, maybe he was being funny, I dunno...wasn't much help either way  I figure maybe I'll go straight to minwah and ask him if there's a way to override the way mamewah handles dual emulators.... oh and you really should try different frontends.  Mame32 is nice and easy as a loader, but there are SO many frontends that do so much more.  It's amazing what some of these people come up with! Oh, and glad you enjoy my site!  It is there to help out, but again and again I come here when -I- get stuck.  

Eric: Heh yeah the irony wasn't lost on me, however, if anyone would have his ass covered, it's this guy

[Zakk]

I think mame likes to have the sound card to it's self. I recall one time I had mame running in a window and then started winamp and got a error message something about "unable to start direct sound".

I think that might be the soundcard itself, it has to be able to handle two channels (older ones wouldn't, new ones do).  For example, I just started up winamp, then fired up mamewah.  It's perfect, it brings the music down a notch when the game starts, I just need an easy way for a non cab-savvy person to run it.  In fact a bunch of drunken crazies on vacation is more like it.  Automatic or simple button click is what I'm hoping for.  I'm hoping minwah will have an idea...

[SpamMe]

Hi, I've been using mamewah successfully as a winamp frontend (winamp running invisibly) for some time now, and have had no problems (other than the initial setup).
 
I'm not on my home PC atm, so I'll post all the specifics here (required winamp, a plugin, and a batch, and a seperate app) in a little bit (few hours, I think).  To be sure, it was a pain in the arse to setup, but worthwile for me at least, and it works seamlessly with mamewah now/doesn't show any windows/winamp components etc.

Usage:  Songs are selected with the joystick the same way they are with any other list, 1 player start starts a song or queues it up. Pause button pauses/unpauses if hit while viewing the list, escape button stops playback/clears the song queue while viewing that list. CD Covers, if available, show up as you scroll through the list.

Advantages, for me, over a seperate dedicated app: can queue up songs from mamewah, allowing for consistantly interface (both visually and functionally) from list to list (see pic, jukebox is lower left), ability to have songs running in the background while playing games, switching lists and emulators etc. (didn't think this was important at first, but it definately makes it feel more like a real arcade when playing), and the price (free).

Disadvantages:
There's no list showing which songs are coming up, nor any box saying what the currently playing song is. Required setting mamewah's (uh... start modifier keys... what do you call those?) to pause and escape, but as I don't use them otherwise, this wasn't important to me. There's no skip to next song function, (but you could sacrifice either the pause or the stop/clear button for that), no repeating, no random, no coin op etc. i.e. nothing that a dedicated music player has.

If that still sounds like something you (or anybody else) would be interested in, LMK, and I'll make sure it's here for you

[GadgetGeek]

I haven't thought this through all the way yet, but my thoughts would be some sort of mixer software running in the background so you could vary the relative sound levels between Mame and the Jukebox.  You'd need a way to bring the mixer to the front to mute the jukebox if necessary.
Just my first thoughts, and I'm still thinking, always thinking.

[Superdude]

1) I don't give out advice for people to make a "profit" off of it.  If I believed in giving advice for profit, I would have wrote a book about how to build an arcade mame machine.  
2) If your making money building arcade machines for people, figure it out all by yourself.  Don't ask for others to help you make money, it's not right.
3) If this is for a friend or yourself and not for profit just say so.  I will be happy to help.  

I am very discouraged with people here trying to make a buck instead of helping people.  I'm not saying making money in arcades is bad, but when you have people making books and selling them on ebay with other people's work is ridiculous.  Not to mention,  freaks who wanted to sell their arcade machine and then they want to sell kits of their arcade.  

As far as your problem with playing mp3s in the background their is a couple of ways going about this.  If you have a Sound Blaster Audigy you can get a panel to actually control winamp with.  I have seen this and works pretty good without interferring your work on the desktop.  You can also hack a keyboard with multimedia buttons to control the tracks.

Thanks

[Edgedamage]

3) If this is for a friend or yourself and not for profit just say so.  I will be happy to help.

Well maybe you should have asked him first before your first uncalled for post. Have you looked at his site? Someone who is looking for a profit would not have free cab plans or free artwork for download. Or show how to do mouse hacks or show how to wire up coindoor lights.
If you want to join a forum where it's ok to make uncalled for remarks I suggest you join the Visual pinball free forums.

[Superdude]

Zakk stated he had a "buyer", thus he was SELLING.

Anyways, let's get this thread back on track. I was wrong to post my editorial here.

[Edgedamage]

Zakk stated he had a "buyer", thus he was SELLING.

Anyways, let's get this thread back on track. I was wrong to post my editorial here.

See that's what makes the BYOAC  forums so nice people here say they are sorry unlike other forums where it just gets nasty.

[Zakk]

Hi, I've been using mamewah successfully as a winamp frontend (winamp running invisibly) for some time now, and have had no problems (other than the initial setup).

Hmm, okay, I think I see what you're saying, so you could select the tunes first, then go into say mame, and have it run in the background, but there would be no way to control it or list the songs?  I think that would be perfectly acceptable.  Plus the lack of skip button is a plus, if you had been in an arcade and a tune came off the jukebox that you picked and some guy came along and hit the skip button cuz he hates it, well that's just not right!

 I'm interested in this solution, sounds fairly workable, and I'm not scared of a little installation work

[SpamMe]

I had a lot of trouble setting this up initially, so feel free to second guess anything here

Required:

• Clever.exe [Extra command line options for winamp]  http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=58602
• gen_play_remover.dll [Does a couple of important things: Removes songs from the playlist as they finish, and exits winamp when the playlist finishes.] Note, I'm using a version 1.21, havn't tried new version in this link: http://www.nunzioweb.com/daz/files/gen_play_remove_v1_4.zip (Many thanks to DrO for this one!)
• Winamp - I used v. 2.91 lite, but 5 may work also.
• Shortcut to winamp (don't remember why but it was necessary at the time for some reason)

Batch file, adjust paths as necessary

@echo off
IF NOT EXIST "C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.m3u" GOTO :1
del "C:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.m3u"
:1
if not "%2" == "quit" goto :2
TASKKILL /F /IM winamp.exe /T
goto :end
:2
if not "%2" == "playpause" goto :3
start /min C:/CLEveR.exe playpause
goto :end
:3
start /min C:/winamp.exe.lnk /add %1
:end

Winamp settings:

• "Show winamp in" should be set to 'none' (as opposed to In Taskbar or In System Tray). Don't recall where this is exactly in the winamp prefs, but shouldn't be too hard to find.  
• Any other plugins you see fit. A lot of people have the scroll lock, numlock  caps lock leds set up via ipacs. There's a plugin that flashes your LEDS to the music without interfering with actual keystates: http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=108744

Playlist file remover winamp plugin settings:

Check:

• "Enable played file removal from the playlist"
• "Remove files from playlist when pressing 'next' if winamp is playing a file" (not important unless you opt for a skip button over a pause button).
• "Close Winamp when the last file is removed"

MP3 stuff May not be necessary.
Without some sort of filelist, mamewah's going to rely on filenames for MP3 titles, and cover art has to be named identically to the mp3s.
I used a few apps to take care of this.

• MusicMatch jukebox for tagging and embedding cover art.
• Tag&Rename: Changed all mp3s to <artist> - <song>.mp3. Auto-magic tagging of files requires license or something, free to use to rename/move file based on mp3 tag though.: http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm
• MP3 Image Tag Extractor: Extracts and resizes cover art images from mp3s. http://mp3imagetagextr.sourceforge.net/

End result: All files and cover art in one folder in the following format:
<artist> - <song>.mp3
<artist> - <song>.jpg

Mamewah Emulator Settings:

• List Generation Settings
• Rom path C:/mymp3s or whatever
• Extension will be MP3
• Method: Rom Folder Only
• Executable settings
• Executable: C:/yourbatchfile.bat
• Send Rom Path: Yes
• Send Rom Extension: Yes
• Use Long Filenames: No
• Show DOS Box: No
• Extra Options #1: playpause
• Extra Options #2: quit
• Misc Settings
• Set artwork path to your cover art folder

[Zakk]

Whew!  That's a lot of reading!

Okay, I have to deliver /pick up a couple of cabinets this aft. If I get back through the blizzard, and if edgedamage doesn't try and kill me with a hatchet again while I'm there, I'm going to sit down with a couple of beers and work my way through this.  Or pass out trying

I'll keep everyone posted if this works!!

[Zakk]

Alright!  So far I have it playing just fine in the background!! Spam's instructions are pretty good.  Noe I just have to fine tweak it to actually play the list, instead of just random play.  There was a quirk where the batch file would not load a shortcut file, so I had to direct it to the winamp executable itself, but after that it was easy sailing!  Now to follow directions a bit mroe closely and get all those plugins in there to see if I can properly manage the setlist.  Cheers SpamNe!!!

[mr.Curmudgeon]

I'd like to do something like this, but i'd also like to have buttons on the CP as well (like Superdude mentioned).

Does anyone know where to get a set of membrane-based multimedia controls?
I'd like to integrate the softer membrane buttons into the control panel design, to avoid having giant multimedia control buttons, or sloppy keyboard keys.

Is there any exterior hardware controls for winamp available? Maybe a cd-rom front plate, with LCD or something that could be mounted in the coin-door area?

edit: A touchscreen version of this would be AWESOME on a cabinet/jukebox!  

[DrewKaree]

I'm not sure if what I'm about to say is what you meant, curmudgeon, but let me know if it is.  

Would the keypad from an automatic garage door opener work?  Other than that, I know you don't want a whole keyboard in there, but what about a 10-key peripheral such as ->THIS<-?  

*disclaimer* pay NO ATTENTION to the PRICE of the product, if that will work for your purposes, I have seen them in the $15-20 range.

Curmudgeon, not sure exactly what inputs you are looking for.  Post that info for more help if needed

[AlanS17]

Winamp supports a mode where it runs in the system tray and doesn't interfere with the programs list. Perhaps it can be run minimized or at least in the background.

This being said, any front-end that supports running general executables would be able to run it. A script could even potentially be run to create a playlist so one could choose mp3 files with an mp3 executable much like a rom would be run through an emulation executable.

P.S. I just tested running an mp3 through Winamp while Winamp was already open. It ran the file without giving control over to Winamp. So your front-end could keep control. Generic wrappers such as Howards could probably be modified to get the music started or something... I don't know. I'm just rthropwing out random observations and ideas.

[Kremmit]

If I understand the problem, you want this cab to be a mame box and a jukebox at the same time, be easy to use even for non-tech types, and for your media player to a) always be accessable; and b) never be in the way.

Since this guy's a lawyer & he's putting it in his vacation cabin, I assume he's not short of cash.  So why not a dual monitor setup?  I'm not saying you should slap two WG D9200s in there (although that would rock for multiplayer action ), but how bout a small pc monitor, TV or  flat panel?  Mabye one of those LCD's they put in SUVs?  You could run a 2nd video card (PCI, or the motherboard's onboard video mabye?) to drive it, and configure things to run your media player / jukebox software on the small screen.  

I saw somebody mention a touch screen being a good control option for the media player- & I agree, but it would'nt be accessible during game play on a single monitor setup.  If you make the 2nd monitor a touch screen, that problem goes away.  

There are a billion possibilities for mounting arrangements, I'll leave that to you.

There could be other uses for the 2nd screen (high score display a la Dragon's Lair or Turbo, for example).  

There would be configuration hurdles to overcome (dual monitors under whichever operating system you use, how to keep your apps on the right monitor all the time, etc.).  But I'm sure there's a way to make it work if you & your lawyer want to have a go at it.

In fact, now that I've started thinking about it, I'm tempted to try to work it into my current project... Guess I'm gonna need more $$$

-Kremmit

[Zakk]

It's an idea, but in this particular project, size constraints were in full effect.  I had to cut about 6 inches of width and 4 inches of depth from this, just so that it will fit where it's going.  Besides, I got SpamMe's solution running (still in random mode, but good enough).  

I think it's not right to try and do what this guy wants....either run it in jukebox mode, or arcade/pinball mode.  As you say, he has a bit of $$ to throw around, so maybe he should be getting a wall mounted jukebox from me.  We get along great, so maybe I'll be able to talk him into it!  Besides, swede's project has me itching to do a juke project sometime soon

[SpamMe]

...still in random mode...

That's the weirdest thing, I havn't been able to reproduce that at all. Obligatory obvious question: Is winamp set to random mode?

[Zakk]

Hmm, let's see....why yes it is!  This might be a good thng.  I think what he wanted was to be able to go into, say, arcade jukebox8, pick the songs he wanted to hear, then exit and go play games.  I doubt he'll want to bother actually making up playlists, so this way he clicks on one mp3 in mamewah (emulator is "jukebox in background"), and it just starts playing random songs.  So it mught be reading the m3u file, and just running with it.  I removed the step where it deletes the playlist.  I really assume he'll get tired of it, since some games have lower volume, and the tunes can drown it right out.  He'll want a separate volume knob for the songs and the games.  Still, it's a good solution all 'round  Thanks!

[SuperRabbit0]

I know you've finished your solution but wanted to add a thought if you decided to pursue separate volume, etc.

Wouldn't girder be a good application to allow buttons on the box to control background applications (like Winamp volume settings)?  If I understand its purpose correctly, it should be able to do what you need by adding some controls for volume, skip track, etc...

Of course, I have no idea what I am talking about it.  I've been too scared to try to get girder going on my HTPC for about a year now   :-)