Help with Frontend

[TopCat]

Can anyone help me ?
I would like to set up a computer using as little software as possible and to play only one game.
The reason is I have a galaxian cabinet with no insides and would like to just switch it on and play galaxian rather than trying to buy a pcb.
so is there a way in which i can just turn the computer on and it goes straight to the galaxian rom ?

Thanks for any help

[SirPeale]

Now THAT's easy.

I'd use VAntAGE as the emulator, on either a PC Card flash drive with an IDE adaptor, or a very tiny hard drive.  You could do that with a 486.

Have the emulator load that one, tiny little ROM at boot.  Use DOS.  Viola!  There you go.

For added splash, since you're already using only a tiny amount of the flash card (or hard drive) add a couple games with similar controls.  IE Space Invaders, Galaga, etc etc.  Then you would just use a front end (I recommend ArcadeOS).

Does this cabinet already have a monitor?

[Lilwolf]

Unless you really wan't it as original as possible.

there are a ton of games that would run GREAT on that game.

Consider doing a little more playing with games/mame and add the games that run WELL and ORIGINAL on the controls on a vertical screen.

Original is GREAT... but once your maming... you might want to mame a few more...

[SirPeale]

Unless you really wan't it as original as possible.

there are a ton of games that would run GREAT on that game.

Consider doing a little more playing with games/mame and add the games that run WELL and ORIGINAL on the controls on a vertical screen.

Original is GREAT... but once your maming... you might want to mame a few more...

Isn't that pretty much what I just said?

[Tiger-Heli]

Can anyone help me ?
I would like to set up a computer using as little software as possible and to play only one game.
The reason is I have a galaxian cabinet with no insides and would like to just switch it on and play galaxian rather than trying to buy a pcb.
so is there a way in which i can just turn the computer on and it goes straight to the galaxian rom ?

Thanks for any help

Point 1 - I'm not sure where you are going with this, but - if you just want a galaxian game in the gameroom without restoring the cab, that's fine.  If you want a "can't tell it's not original" galaxian cab to charge people to use, that violates at least the spirit of the MAME license.

Point 2 - As said, consider adding other vertical games as well.

Point 3 - Implementing this is way simple - In dos MAME, just create (or edit) a file named autoexec.bat adding the following lines to it:

cd mame
C:\MAME\mame.exe -galaxian

For windows, you can do this manually and add the batch file to your startup folder, or use a program like batchrun to simplify the process and add a shortcut to it to your startup folder.

[Tilzs]

Point 1 - I'm not sure where you are going with this, but - if you just want a galaxian game in the gameroom without restoring the cab, that's fine.  If you want a "can't tell it's not original" galaxian cab to charge people to use, that violates at least the spirit of the MAME license.

And running almost any roms in mame doesn't voilate the original game licence?  Pot meet kettle

[Tiger-Heli]

Point 1 - I'm not sure where you are going with this, but - if you just want a galaxian game in the gameroom without restoring the cab, that's fine.  If you want a "can't tell it's not original" galaxian cab to charge people to use, that violates at least the spirit of the MAME license.

And running almost any roms in mame doesn't voilate the original game licence?  Pot meet kettle

It violates the original game license, but not the MAME license, b/c MAME tells you not to do this.

In other words, if TopCat doesn't own at least a broken Galaxian board, he could theoretically be sent to jail or be sued by (I guess?) Midway.

If TopCat charges a quarter per game to play Galaxian, with or without a broken PCB, the MAME team could be sued and MAME could be shut down.

This has all been hashed out in http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=17873 so let's continue it there, if need be.

[SirPeale]

And running almost any roms in mame doesn't voilate the original game licence?  Pot meet kettle

He's talking about charging for use, and this is getting off topic.

[TopCat]

whoaaa!  I didn't mention anything about charging to use it !

I simply want to have a working cabinet without paying $100s for all the internals.

its simply for pleasure and I'm quite confident midway could not be bothered taking me to court for using it in my front room considering i could put a playstation in it with a licenced copy of galaxians from ebay.

I merely want it to act as original as possible and maybe buy another couple of trashed cabinets with a dedicated game which I can pick up for peanuts as I can't afford $1500+ for working original cabs.

and thanks to BYOAC artwork is freely available to give my cab a real feel

I would like to thank "Peale" for the great advice I have tried it and it works perfect cheers

[TopCat]

I would also like to add that I have been usig mame on my computer for about 5yrs and enjoy it very much with my hacked gamepad joystick controller box and have played most games its just I only love the ones I played as a kid which are Galaxians,Phoenix (the best) and 1941 (although I now like 1943) so I am hoping to have these in my garage quite soon. If I can't get original cabinets I will build them from the plans on jackobuds great site

[TopCat]

out of curiosity and to build my knowlege is there a similar programme to Vantage for horizontal games like Pac-man ?

[Tiger-Heli]

out of curiosity and to build my knowlege is there a similar programme to Vantage for horizontal games like Pac-man ?

Errrm, Vantage supports Pac-Man, and Pac-Man isn't a horizontal game  . . .  

[Lilwolf]

Sorry, I was just trying to get my post numbers up

actually, I wrote this at work... and someone came in (quick minimize) but I didn't think I was working on it for more then a few minutes... so the post 5 minutes after yours isn't that off...

but sorry.. I didn't want the steal your thunder even though your vintage suggestion is better then my mame.

Unless you really wan't it as original as possible.

there are a ton of games that would run GREAT on that game.

Consider doing a little more playing with games/mame and add the games that run WELL and ORIGINAL on the controls on a vertical screen.

Original is GREAT... but once your maming... you might want to mame a few more...

Isn't that pretty much what I just said?

[TopCat]

Is this your way of contributing to this Thread ?
With sarcasm and assumptions ?
Only most people seem to offer help and advice.
As I don't play Pac-man I forgot it was vertical but Im sure this didn't make much difference to the question so I assume you could'nt answer it and therefore prefered to state the obvious (unless you thought you were quite clever knowing Pac-man was vertical)
for your two contributions so far
"THANKS FOR NOTHING"

out of curiosity and to build my knowlege is there a similar programme to Vantage for horizontal games like Pac-man ?

Errrm, Vantage supports Pac-Man, and Pac-Man isn't a horizontal game  . . .  

[Minwah]

Is this your way of contributing to this Thread ?
With sarcasm and assumptions ?
Only most people seem to offer help and advice.
As I don't play Pac-man I forgot it was vertical but Im sure this didn't make much difference to the question so I assume you could'nt answer it and therefore prefered to state the obvious (unless you thought you were quite clever knowing Pac-man was vertical)
for your two contributions so far
"THANKS FOR NOTHING"

I think that was a bit uncalled for, since it was your bad example...

MAME plays PacMan, perhaps use an old version, like v0.36final - this'll run a load of classics just great.

[Tiger-Heli]

Is this your way of contributing to this Thread ?
With sarcasm and assumptions ?
Only most people seem to offer help and advice.
As I don't play Pac-man I forgot it was vertical but Im sure this didn't make much difference to the question so I assume you could'nt answer it and therefore prefered to state the obvious (unless you thought you were quite clever knowing Pac-man was vertical)
for your two contributions so far
"THANKS FOR NOTHING"

out of curiosity and to build my knowlege is there a similar programme to Vantage for horizontal games like Pac-man ?

Errrm, Vantage supports Pac-Man, and Pac-Man isn't a horizontal game  . . .  

After the "THANKS FOR NOTHING" comment, I'm not sure why I'm still responding to this thread, but I am.

I wasn't being sarcastic - to recap -

YOU asked how to play GALAXIAN on the cab with minimal software.

PEALE recommended Vantage - a good program for slower computers, but I don't know if you are dealing with a slower computer or not.  I have run Vantage, but preferred to just use an older build of MAME, even when I used a Pentium 200.

I gave you some advice on setting up batch files to do what you initially asked.

I accidentally skipped over your post where you thanked Peale for the advice on Vantage and said it worked well, I did read the post where you said you were pretty much only interested in Galaxians (vertical), Phoenix (vertical???) and 1941 and 1943 (vertical).
 
Then YOU asked about a program like Vantage to play horizontal games like PacMan.

Since the initial thread was about playing only Galaxian this could be taken two ways -

Hey, I like PacMan too - how can I play it with this setup,

or

What program could be used to play horizontal games on a slower computer.  (Had I seen that you liked Peale's Vantage suggestion, I might have assumed you were heading more this way).

I suppose I could have thought out my answer, but I thought by pointing out the obvious, if you were looking to add Pac-Man, you would have your answer.  If you were asking about horizontal games, you would post back with "my bad - this is what I meant"  (which you sortof did.)

Basically, I would just get a 200-600 Mhz processor (or better) and run an older version of MAME.  Otherwise, look at what game you want to add, look at http://caesar.logiqx.com/ and see what emulators it lists, and look at maybe Raine, Rage, Nebula, Final Burn, etc. depending on the game.

[TopCat]

Firstly I may have been a bit quick to jump - sorry

I appreciate any advice given

My hope is to have about 4 or 5 dedicated machines for personal use in me basement. As these machines are now very expensive I either intend to buy old battered cabinets or to build new ones. To save on cost I intend to use an old 486 with a small hardrive and as little software as possible. For my vertical games Vantage is perfect but there maybe one or two horizontal games I would eventually like. So I was just wondering if there was a small similar programme designed for the old horizontal games.

Thanks for the link I will check it out

[SirPeale]

Okay, we're all playing nicely, right? Okay.  Let's get back on topic.

As for your question about a horizontal emulator for older games, there are a lot of emulators out there, but Mame .36 final is likely your best bet.  I'm using it on a Pentium 2 233 right now, and can play Robotron 2084, Defender, Moon Patrol, Tetris, SideArms at full frame.

[Tiger-Heli]

Firstly I may have been a bit quick to jump - sorry

I appreciate any advice given

My hope is to have about 4 or 5 dedicated machines for personal use in me basement. As these machines are now very expensive I either intend to buy old battered cabinets or to build new ones. To save on cost I intend to use an old 486 with a small hardrive and as little software as possible. For my vertical games Vantage is perfect but there maybe one or two horizontal games I would eventually like. So I was just wondering if there was a small similar programme designed for the old horizontal games.

Thanks for the link I will check it out

I never used a 486 for emulation.  HIVE was also designed for slower computers, but I didn't especially like it when I used the Pentium 200.

As Peale and Minwah said, an older MAME is probably your best bet.  I would go R36B12 or previous (which is earlier than R36, BTW) to get ahead of alpha blending, which really slowed down BattleZone and Asteroids Deluxe.

With my old Pentium 200, I could run most of the classics, although games like afterburner would be around Frameskip 6 or 7, but still playable.

In the U.S., there is very little price difference between a used 486 and used Pentium 200.  (like probably $75 instead of $60), and not much price increase to go to a Duron 600-800 which would even play some of the newer games really well.

Let me throw some other options out there as well - Take them or leave them -

You could probably get by with two cabinets - One for vertical games and one for horizontal games.  Since you wouldn't have to buy three more cabs, monitors, etc., you could put more money into the PC's.  (I realize this might mean swappable control panels which you could avoid with dedicated machines.).

or -

I don't know all the in's and out's of this - but - it should be possible to have 4 or 5 cabinets, have a really good PC (XP 2500 or so) in one of them running MAME, and have minimal hardware in the other cabs acting as terminals on a network.

FWIW.

[Santoro]

I don't know all the in's and out's of this - but - it should be possible to have 4 or 5 cabinets, have a really good PC (XP 2500 or so) in one of them running MAME, and have minimal hardware in the other cabs acting as terminals on a network.

Then you would have a true MameFrame environment.  (insert wacky clown horn here)

[Sylentwulf]

Replacement Galaxian PCB's, all currently running under $25.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&ht=1&query=galaxian+%28pcb%2Cboard%29

[microwrx]

If you want to run only a single game and want minimal software, how about no software at all?  AMOD (Arcade Machine On a Disk) boots straight from a floppy, no software to install at all.

http://www.classicgaming.com/amoad/

[SirPeale]

If you want to run only a single game and want minimal software, how about no software at all?  AMOD (Arcade Machine On a Disk) boots straight from a floppy, no software to install at all.

http://www.classicgaming.com/amoad/

There are several caveats to this approach.

1) Floppies wear out.  Rather quickly, actually.  Every time he turns the machine on it's another nail in that floppys coffin.

2) Sound support.  He has to be able to fit everything in 1.44M of space.  Depending on the driver, that may be hard, what with DOS, AMOD and sound drivers.

3) Rotation support.  AMOD only supports horizontal monitors.  Galaxian is a vertical game.

[microwrx]

Ahh yes, didn't think about the rotation issue.  Oh well....

[Apollo]

Sheesh just buy the PCB and a Jamma loom.