Because... Horizontal Multi- Vector

[Xiaou2]

The Most memorable Attract modes that Spring to my Mind...

Dragons Lair
Space Ace
(and a few of other Laserdisc games)

Killer Instinct
Tekken 3

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  (That soundtrack was amazing to hear replicated, on an arcade machine)
Daytona USA  (But its Grinds on you, when you work +9hr shifts, in an Arcade)

Other / Special:

Sega Genesis - "Target Earth"   Dont press start, and just wait.  The Attract Intro, is like an Epic movie trailer.
Black Knight 2000 (Pinball) - That Soundtrack, is beyond amazing.  Drew me in, in an Instant.


 Most older classics, of course, lack anything special in the Attract Mode.  Though, when you hear the Star Wars tune,
or the Star Trek  tune...  you immediately wanted to play these games.   Just seeing gameplay of games like Outrun
and Afterburner II... also just made you want to play.  You really didnt need anything more than that.

 Laserdiscs were unique, in that they were the only machines capable of Cinematic Attract modes, until much more
advanced hardware came along.  Other than that, there were often just usually some very simple title or
sprite animations.

[bobbyb13]

I saw more of many games in the attract modes than I ever did playing them.
Even still in Daphne versions of DL and SA.

I get it with attract modes.  It was the best part of Pit Fighter.  Genesis Mini 2 has a very nice attract mode.

Goat is like a tougher lamb.  Stew, curry…. Roasted with rosemary and garlic.  I recently ate leg of lamb, drank scotch, and watched lamb run around.  ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- was so cash.

I wanted to love the early LaserDisk games but found the way they ran to be so rushed and disjointed that for the $ they cost I stopped caring after a few quarters.
A disappointment to me because they looked really cool but I was a pragmatist with my paper route and lawn mowing and driveway shoveling money.
Or maybe I'm just cheap. 

The Most memorable Attract modes that Spring to my Mind...

Dragons Lair
Space Ace
(and a few of other Laserdisc games)

Killer Instinct
Tekken 3

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  (That soundtrack was amazing to hear replicated, on an arcade machine)
Daytona USA  (But its Grinds on you, when you work +9hr shifts, in an Arcade)

Other / Special:

Sega Genesis - "Target Earth"   Dont press start, and just wait.  The Attract Intro, is like an Epic movie trailer.
Black Knight 2000 (Pinball) - That Soundtrack, is beyond amazing.  Drew me in, in an Instant.


 Most older classics, of course, lack anything special in the Attract Mode.  Though, when you hear the Star Wars tune,
or the Star Trek  tune...  you immediately wanted to play these games.   Just seeing gameplay of games like Outrun
and Afterburner II... also just made you want to play.  You really didnt need anything more than that.

 Laserdiscs were unique, in that they were the only machines capable of Cinematic Attract modes, until much more
advanced hardware came along.  Other than that, there were often just usually some very simple title or
sprite animations.

All the little rats have names.
They will be adopted out.  Nikki will never sell them to anyone who would eat them.
We have room for 14 anyway even if someone gets cold feet on letting them go.

I told the girls that in 2 years of living up here that everyone would be vegetarians.
It's 3 years and we're up to 3 vegetarian meals a week.
 

Kids (vs goats) are more like lamb, though a still a gamier taste (and aroma). Feed them rosemary first for extra garnish

We used to raise sheep, suckle 'em then eat 'em. That's farm life. Lamb roast was a regular Sunday thing.

Don't give them names Pets are different.

Don't eat lamb much anymore, good stuff too expensive.

But as far as the CABINET goes...
 

It has been illuminating to discover that after all the effort in paintwork over the last 15 builds that I can achieve something equal to all the effort with the gun with only this:



FFS

Awesome. You could shave with that reflection!

Glad you chose "battleship" grey because that's how the spaceships, deathstar etc looked in the original 1977 release. I originally saw Star Wars the traditional way: at the drive-in, from the back seat of the family station wagon.

In the remade/remastered (and later) versions, released in 1997, the same version where Han shoots second instead of first, there was a magenta wash over everything and I thought it was particularly noticeable in the Deathstar scenes.  It makes the movie look less "seventies", but I dunno   

You be the judge.  I wrote about this on another thread last year and posted comparison shots, so rather than repeat myself any further:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,166923.msg1759471.html#msg1759471

Not kidding either.
With spar varnish as a first coat to seal the wood up and then block sanding every coat thereafter you could achieve one hell of a finish without ever spraying the damn thing.

It IS important to note that each succesive coat was allowed to dry for 2 days before sanding and another layer applied (so it hardened up pretty well) but if you could stand to wait longer you could get an even flatter finish.
But I am impatient because I want to play the damn thing.

And so I took the day off of real work stuff so that I could attend to various overduw crap here at the ranch and of course- it rained all freakin day.
At least I could work on the cabinet!

In between showers I succeeded in getting a nebulous looking kind of spray job that I was shooting for (see what I did there?!) onto the bezel finally, hammered in some T-molding, and got going on putting the guts in.



I'm going to polish the control panel up a bit and get it to blend into the whole mess a bit more.

The monitor components wound up in a different arrangement than the Cosmic Chasm did.



Keeping fans and the HV unit as far away from the tube as possible became the directive and this setup achieved that goal without any major harness reconstruction.
From what this kit came to me with I only had to remake the power from deflection to HV unit part to spread them this far apart, and conveniently I had a run of some very nice shielded wire with four conductors from a stupid spendy audio install at the Hale Komodo a while back.
Gotta love "scraps" sometimes.

Power distribution and sound is easy comparatively but I have temporary stuff in place in case I can't wait until the other crap shows up to fire it up.



Still waiting on audio cable, pinstriping tape, and some other silly crap for aesthetics that will take a long time to get complete I think.

There is an Ipac in there waiting for me to wire up for the button only panel to swap in so I can play Asteroids, Gravitar, Space Duel and the like more authentically.
Need to add the real coin door to that actually too now that I think of it-

[Zebidee]

Nice to see a fresh post on this project. I learn a lot about paint from your posts.

No longer surprised to see that you've nearly finished the painting and got the guts in. I expect next shots to be games in attract mode? 

I bought the official DVDs for DL and SA a long time ago, and you can play through the game scenes, stitched together like a little disjointed movie about 15-20 minutes long (I can't remember exactly now, but something like that). Anyway, when my kids were quite young, they enjoyed just watching the DVDs through more than actually playing the games. TBH, I liked it too, especially watching with them.

Back on less sentimental topic - Suggest you lose the big old USB keyboard and grab some 2.4Ghz wifi mini-keyboards with touchpads - You can find them for only $4-5 these days. They are a great breath of freedom after juggling full-sized cabled keyboards and mice in cabs for decades. I got a couple, put one in my Sydney mate's cab and put the other in the magenta Aussie lowboy. Now I need more for ongoing projects, so I just ordered three more - one with Thai language so wife can use it with smart TV.

Here's an example on Aliexpress:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005274253892.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.51.4cbbsowKsowKYi&algo_pvid=4de212ca-cbf5-4046-b99c-323281d80e7f&algo_exp_id=4de212ca-cbf5-4046-b99c-323281d80e7f-28&pdp_npi=3%40dis%21AUD%215.57%213.96%21%21%21%21%21%40211bf31716844799417967376d07e4%2112000032448003539%21sea%21TH%213053391937&curPageLogUid=XMXygFiKEHWD

Example pic attached.

EDIT: They arrived just as I posted!

[bobbyb13]

Maybe I need to try a different one because I had a shot at using a wireless one with integrated mousepad that is a lot smaller than this Dell thing already- and the Pi wouldn't recognize it.
Driver issue maybe?
I'm still pretty well Pi stupid.

The cabinet still needs one more coat of paint actually, but it is easy just rolling it on.
There are a few 3rd coat holidays in spots as it is and I haven't even cut the back doors yet so they will need a dose too.

And I'm not sure I like being so predictable.



Still have some controller configuration to get to and the image still isn't perfect throughout but it is getting there.

May need to take another shot at rewinding the ferrites on this yoke to see the result or maybe some magnets on the tube will be in order.
You never can tell what indignities these old sets may have suffered in their long lives so who knows if the mask is knocked out of alignment or is heavily magnetized and that is the cause of my image imperfections or what.

We'll see when my next shot at reminding myself anything about dealing with the Pi and ADVmame settings.
The next week and a half is shaping up to be rather full already.

[Mike A]

Nice work.

I love all of it.

[Zebidee]

I'm less Pi-literate than you are so I dunno - those wifi mini-keyboards work with stuff like Mister pretty seamlessly, so assumed it would be same with Pi. I've only really used them with Windows. Maybe you'd need a driver.

[pbj]

One of my first cabinets was a Tempest that had been converted to Dig Dug, then Black Tiger, then DJ Boy.  It was painted that same color.  You're simultaneously giving me both horrific and happy flashbacks.  The guy I sold it to painted it black and installed some NFL conversion kit on it.  That cabinet saw some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

Vectors are about the only games that get me twitching for dedicated arcade cabinets anymore.  Between you and Arroyo, my god. 

 

[bobbyb13]

Like Love & Hate?
I wasn't even aware of the whole conversion era of cabinets until a few years ago actually.
Total naivete.

One of my first cabinets was a Tempest that had been converted to Dig Dug, then Black Tiger, then DJ Boy.  It was painted that same color.  You're simultaneously giving me both horrific and happy flashbacks.  The guy I sold it to painted it black and installed some NFL conversion kit on it.  That cabinet saw some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

Vectors are about the only games that get me twitching for dedicated arcade cabinets anymore.  Between you and Arroyo, my god. 

 

Flattering to see my name near Arroyo's but that chap is well beyond me.
I hope I'm still headed that direction but I will probably never catch up.

But at least maybe I can get other's to feel the vector itch.
Vector screen images are something else and well worth devoting the space for a cabinet that plays one or a few if you don't have one already pbj.

Had a few minutes yesterday in between yard chores to build the base plate for the marquee and speakers.
Still NO idea what art will go inbetween the speakers.
That could take decades to sort out.

I finally ran the machine enough to discover that the yoke calibration is way off and that the Pi appears to SERIOUSLY gag on the Death Star explosion.
There is also the possibility that I have screwed something up so I need to see what I can do about it.
I would prefer an fpga solution to still waiting on someone to out-do the Pi for the color vector games I want to play.

At least some artwork showed up.  The first person I contacted about any ghosted me still yet so figured I would go for option B.
This was not my first choice for images but they do suit the vibe well enough and are surface mounted plates that can always be changed anyway.



Displate.  As opposed to Datplate maybe.
 
Never heard of these things before but they are nice quality for the $$.
They were a good size for what I wanted to see on the cabinet and they are metal plates so can be swapped easily if I felt like it as there is a magnet holding the things on.
Easy to apply!
Since you fly a T-65B in Star Wars and a T-47 in Empire Strikes Back I figured one on either side of the cab would be appropriate.



And the other side.



My sister still needs to get me some vinyl characters to keep the art bit rolling and fill out the rest of the space the way I want to and there is still pinstriping to do to finsh the look after that but I'm closer.

I'll spend a lot of time with configuration in the meantime anyway.

[PL1]

the yoke calibration is way off

In Windows the first step is to calibrate it in Control Panel so it's in the right ballpark for most games.
- Not sure how/where to do that on the Pi.   

To calibrate the yoke in the Star Wars game, move the yoke through the full range of motion a few times by doing a couple laps around the outer edge of the screen. (i.e. upper left to upper right to lower right to lower left to upper left . . .)
- The game software figures out what range of values the yoke outputs and adjusts accordingly.   


Scott

[Zebidee]

It needs R2D2 somewhere - after all, he is the most important Star Wars Hero. He saves the day, at least once, in every one of the main movies.

[bobbyb13]

I thought I already typed a reply to this...?!
Yeesh-

Easy argument to say that R2 was consistently the most admirable of all characters in the entire saga.
Calm, methodical, focused, intelligent-

I'll need to sort out a place for a nod to him.
I'm trying to make sure this doesn't wind up cluttered or tacky and I'm almost sure to fail numerous times before I have piled stuff onto it, decided differently, and scaled it back.

It needs R2D2 somewhere - after all, he is the most important Star Wars Hero. He saves the day, at least once, in every one of the main movies.

The entertaining and frustrating part of this is that I have been into this part of it already as regards control configuration and thought I had it done already.
Seemed to work fine then but that was setting it up in the dining room and not when everything was in the cabinet.
Hopefully I can remember how to get into the Pi again?
One of the excellent things about the AdvanceMame card image is that the system boots right into the USB-DVG and VectorMame menus for you.
But of course if you don't know what you are doing then going from command line to GUI is something different.
Maybe "startx" was it?
Then I had loaded in the joystick calibrating widget already so hopefully it is still somewhere I can find it.
Although after using Windoze for 30 years+ has made me pretty functional there it has been tough on me figureing out how anything else works.

the yoke calibration is way off

In Windows the first step is to calibrate it in Control Panel so it's in the right ballpark for most games.
- Not sure how/where to do that on the Pi.   

To calibrate the yoke in the Star Wars game, move the yoke through the full range of motion a few times by doing a couple laps around the outer edge of the screen. (i.e. upper left to upper right to lower right to lower left to upper left . . .)
- The game software figures out what range of values the yoke outputs and adjusts accordingly.   

Scott

The other joy is the deadzone is set at some insane value so I need to remember how to get that back into the realm of reality.

Maybe tonight?

[Zebidee]

Nice to see progress! Seems your project memory is becoming scatty like mine. I often find myself coming back to my own posts here to remember WTF I have done previously 

Make your own R2D2? Maybe I should be more careful posting links like this, you might just do it:


EDIT: This was posted on BYOAC by DaOld Man in 2015: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,148070.msg1542012.html


Someone else on BYOAC ("Krangbrain") made a Star Wars cab some six years ago, you might be inspired by the art they used:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,152253.msg1645600.html#msg1645600

[bobbyb13]

Oh, if I only had the time...
I'm still working on just getting time to pinstripe this thing and glue together the plexiglas box for the book/manual I chose as a ridiculous accessory for this oddball cabinet.
I did get a few stickers for subtle silly detail here and there at least.
My heirs may get to decide on the marquee at the rate that will go.

More importantly will be sorting out the game play.
Yoke calibration I can manage and maybe I can actually get the roller to work properly too, but the Pi gags- often- while you are playing a few things- and that will not fly.
It's a Pi 4 so no higher to go yet I think.
I'll be buying repro Star Wars guts if it can't be remedied.
I knew the Death Star explosion was no bueno but I was surprised to see the state of it.
Or maybe I can try the AdvMame build for a PC?
Not sure that integrates well with the USB-DVG but maybe that is (yet another) avenue to look down.

Nobody has made what I want for a vector fpga board yet, but I'll keep hoping.
There are a few candidates floating around, but none are the grail for me at this point.

Does nobody else love Cosmic Chasm and Tac/Scan?
What is really dumb is those games appear to play without glitch or slowdown on the Pi in the other cabinet and heavy hitters Star Wars and Major Havoc are a mess of audio stuttering and graphic flutter when taxed at all.
In either cabinet.

Maybe I have done something wrong but I can't imagine what it would be.

Hopefully I get time to work on this one again soon but I have a flurry of necessary crap going on to distract me from anything that even sniffs of fun.