My Wife....

[mikew72]

Ok, after a short period of tearing my hair out, struggling, and fighting I've finally managed to get my cabinet fully working.

It's a Lordsvale Playscene 20 cabinet making use of a modified J-Pac adapter.  I modified the J-Pac because the cab is wired for a 4-slot NeoGeo, not proper Jamma and I thought it better to mod the J-Pac and keep the cabinet original. Running it is an i7-4970k @ 5GHz(one of my sons gaming PC cast offs), 16GB RAM and a Radeon 7770 graphics card.

All is good with the world and I get my daily PacMan fix...

I wanted move the cabinet from the cellar to our living room - which is where the wife comes in.  Her conditions on having the cab in the living room is that it must play Mario Cart 8.  So, off I trot to install cemu but alas the 7770 just isn't powerful enough to get a decent frame rate - even at low resolutions...

So I rummage through my pile of graphics cards and come up with the following.  Nothing quite seems a perfect match though:

1. Radeon 5550.  If the 7770 doesn't have the grunt, the 5550 certainly doesnt.

2. GeForce 780ti.  Should run powerful enough, but it's a big power hungry card.  The PC would need a better power supply and I feel cooling is an issue inside the cabinet...  Plus, there's the issue to getting the nvidia card to output a 15kHz signal.

3. Geforce 960. Prefer this over the 780, it has a DVI-I so should be able to get VGA out of it so long as I can output the right frequency/resolutions.

4. Geforce 2060 Super.  The fastest card I have and plays Mario 8 fine, but no VGA output and still the issue of frequency/resolution.

5. Geforce 1060.  No advantages over the 2060 really.
 
6. Keep the cab in the cellar and put up with the wifes smarmy grin.

7. Buy her a switch and have a quiet life.

Suggestions please?

Mike

[Malenko]

sell me the 2060 and then buy her a switch or WiiU

[mikew72]

I've just had a look at how much they're worth and unless my memory is failing, they're worth more now than when I bought it new...

[Mike A]

How are you supposed to play Mario Kart with microswitch arcade joysticks? Am I missing something here?

[mikew72]

Yes.

The PC has bluetooth so you can connect wii controllers wirelessly - I know, i have no intention of playing Mario Kart on my cab, just finding a way of convincing the wife to let it in the living room.

[thelanranger]

Buy a displayport to VGA adapter for $9 off amazon and use the 2060?

[Mike A]

Divorce sounds easier.

[yotsuya]

Keep it in the cellar and buy more games to add down there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mikew72]

Buy a displayport to VGA adapter for $9 off amazon and use the 2060?

Is there a list or recommendation of which ones work with low resolution graphic modes?

I've fitted the GTX 960 to see if I can even output 15kHz with an nvidia card, without having to worry about DP/HDMI/VGA issues - haven't had any look so far.

Other than that, divorce is the next best option...

[Vigo]

I prefer wearing down the wife’s resolve. Bring it to the living room to “work on” and take months pretending to make progress, by pulling out various computer components and tinkering aimlessly. You have to brush off demands for a few weeks, but she will eventually give up on nagging, and the compromise with Mario Kart double dash or whatever appeasement you can muster ends up looking not so bad.

In reality, I’d put an switching auxiliary video port on the exterior of the cab, use a vga adaptor with a selector box, then dock a real switch or Wii U  into it. Why attempt to emulate with a video card currently more expensive than the system itself?

[Zebidee]

If you upgrade from Wife 1.1 to Girlfriend 4.6beta you'll get better performance and you can use whatever video card you want, but it is a PITA to set up and not always very reliable. It will cost you a bit, but maybe less than a new video card.

[Zebidee]

Actually, scratch that advice and stick with Wife 1.1 - Girlfriend needs to be constantly updated and there are usually hidden costs you don't see up-front.

[mikew72]

After spending all afternoon trying to coax a 15kHz signal out of the Geforce 960, divorce definitely does seem less painful.

However, a little progress has been made - we had to move the cab from the basement into the living room to try the graphics card (ahem).  Lets see how long it can stay before she notices...

[Malenko]

I've just had a look at how much they're worth and unless my memory is failing, they're worth more now than when I bought it new...

Yeah a Miner might give you that much, but I'd use it to play games.  I can sweeten the pot, a modded WiiU with whatever games you want =)

[Marsupial]

I second the auxiliary input with actual wiiu method. Not like you'd want to use the arcade hardware anyway.

[Vocalitus]

Use the Radeon 5550 and turn on frame skip.

There is no other way to get her to lose interest than having frame skip turned on such a crap game. 

She will be back in the kitchen in no time.

You are welcome. 

[bobbyb13]

This thread got even better than I thought it would

[pbj]

You should sell the ---smurfette---’s car and buy yourself a cool guitar.

[Mike A]

I bet he lets her wear shoes and talk to strangers.

[Zebidee]

You should sell the ---smurfette---’s car and buy yourself a cool guitar video card.

Chillin' to some Jimmy right now

[Phreakwars]

Man up, put her in her place and make her play Mario Kart DS instead. 

[Seob]

Watch out with wife 1.1. Sometimes they hit a bug that will trigger version 1.1a. This is an auto updating version, that will do monthly upgrades until version 2.0 is reached. This version will auto install additional software called child 0.0. This is a very fast upgrading program that uses a lot of resources and keeps up claiming more and more space.
Some wife versions have a continuous bug that keeps upgrading to the x.1a version, that in turn will add yet another child program to the system.
Claiming even more of your precious time, space and resources.

A small note of caution, never and i mean NEVER run any wife version together with any girlfriend version in the same window. This will result in a fatal error, where you might have to uninstall wife and girlfriend versions, costing all of your money.

I had my cabinet for a while in the kitchen, “working” on it, but at the end, they start to get annoyed with it, so i needed to move my cabinet to the attic. But is is totally fine with me building arcade cabinets for my sons to put on there rooms. 1 build last year, the next this year.

[Vigo]

Watch out with wife 1.1. Sometimes they hit a bug that will trigger version 1.1a. This is an auto updating version, that will do monthly upgrades until version 2.0 is reached. This version will auto install additional software called child 0.0. This is a very fast upgrading program that uses a lot of resources and keeps up claiming more and more space.
Some wife versions have a continuous bug that keeps upgrading to the x.1a version, that in turn will add yet another child program to the system.
Claiming even more of your precious time, space and resources.

A small note of caution, never and i mean NEVER run any wife version together with any girlfriend version in the same window. This will result in a fatal error, where you might have to uninstall wife and girlfriend versions, costing all of your money.

Sounds like bloatware to me.

[Howard_Casto]

Set the wife down and calmly explain to her that she doesn't know ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- about arcade cabinets or video games and that what she wants to do is stupid.  Explain to her the difference between analog and digital controls and how annoying it is to play a console game, intended for long play sessions, crouched over a cabinet.  Perhaps suggest getting a switch instead as it'll run Mario Kart 8 deluxe, which is the best Mario Kart to date.  I'm sure she will be more than understanding as women are such rational and logical creatures.

[bobbyb13]

Thread keeps getting better in fact-

[Zebidee]

Just get her a Mister to play with on the couch. Then she won't need to bother you and your arcade cab any more!

... oh, I mean Mister FPGA, not whatever else you're thinking, although that might work for you too! 

[nitrogen_widget]

Your son's cast off the PC has the same video card as my main pc and a much better processor.
Are you adopting?

[Grasshopper]

[mikew72]

Your son's cast off the PC has the same video card as my main pc and a much better processor.
Are you adopting?

Well, Ive just swapped with my son the 4790k I7 for my own ryzen 1700x. Rockon Intel single core preference on 4 cores is probably better than ryzen 8 core performance for the programs I want to run.

I think if I can get things working good, we'll probably end up with an i7-4790k ? 5gHz, 16 Gb DDR 3 and an nVidia GTZ 1060 - so long as I can get the nvidia to output 480i.

[eds1275]

My advice is also to put a Wii on a different input. The best news is that you won't have to mess with settings or tweaking the controls or setting it up for her if she isn't tech savvy and then after a few months of her not using it (I assume this is what would happen) then you can just put all the pieces away inside the cab for a nicer look.

[mikew72]

In the interests of marital harmony we have negotiated a compromise.

I got to keep the cab in the living room and she got to buy me a second hand R9-380 graphics card. 

The only downside is she keeps insisting on playing mario kart now.  Still, she'll get bored soon.

[Mike A]

Sounds like a win to me.

[bobbyb13]

You've scored.

As long as she doesn't decide she wants to go from Mario Kart to Forza you're good!

[StefanBurger]

Just upgrade to Wive 2.0
Upgrade path requieres at least Divorcement 1.0, which can be quite costly

[TOMMYGUN]

My advice is also to put a Wii on a different input. The best news is that you won't have to mess with settings or tweaking the controls or setting it up for her if she isn't tech savvy and then after a few months of her not using it (I assume this is what would happen) then you can just put all the pieces away inside the cab for a nicer look.

It's like teaching a cat to use the toilet