Anyonw know what happend to the LCD Marquee display project

[Hoagie_one]

I remmeber someone mentioning that they wanted to hook up a backlit color lcd marquee that changed to the current game playing in mame.

Anyone remember this and who was thinking aobut it?

Any ideas on how to do this?

[Sephroth57]

yeah i remember, i think they were trying to display the controls/instructions for the game when you started it. Im curious about this also, but too lazy to search, someone go find it quick ! =P

[oldsage]

yeah i remember, i think they were trying to display the controls/instructions for the game when you started it. I'm curious about this also, but too lazy to search, someone go find it quick ! =P

Sounds intresting... I thought about doing something similar, but i don't have a clue how to do it so i forgot about it...
Could be nice to see how someone else did it...

[GGKoul]

The LAME project died a long time ago....

[Corporate Dog]

Upon reading the description of this project, I was hit with some inspiration to maybe try something like this on a smaller/less ambitious scale with my future cab.

I still intend to do a traditional marquee, but I REALLY like the idea of a dynamic, LCD-based controller configuration diagram.

One way to do it would be with a hacked Palm Pilot, which I could imbed in my control panel. Some of the older Palms can be had for a song these days... all you'd need to do is solder in a constant power supply, hook it up to your PC with a standard sync cable, and then install THIS on it...

http://palmorb.sourceforge.net/index.html

... along with some fairly simple custom software to send the appropriate CP configuration data.

You could also do the same thing with some custom software and a standard serial/USB LCD module if you don't have a spare Palm Pilot lying around (I like this particular company and its products, though I have no idea whether or not they're the cheapest: http://www.crystalfontz.com).

Of course, with the LCD and Pilot/PalmOrb combo solutions, you're still limited in what you can display (text, mostly). In the end, I think I'm going to write a slightly more complex software solution, which would push a bitmap image to my Palm over the connection cable, and then force it to display (totally foregoing any kind of LCD emulation scheme).

Regards,
Corporate Dog

[Hoagie_one]

there is a thread somewhere about that project.  some have had some good sucess with it

[SeaMonkey]

I know I had the idea a while back, but got shot down just because how much it would cost to have a custom marquee sized LCD screen.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,28977.msg242346.html#msg242346

[Silver]

Well I don't about the marquee idea - in terms of size - although the LCD as a controls info on a CP has been done by a few (including me).

The thread you want is here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,17856.0.html

I've used the same LCD as in the thread (24x8, sadly not backlit which I would recommend). It uses an RS232 connection so you can run it off your serial port.

I worte a small VB project which will generate txt files using your rom dir, the controls.dat project and mames listinfo.xml.  It displays game title, game controls, and will scroll the game title if too long, remove the clone info etc.... You can get it here:

http://www.silverfoxy.plus.com/LCDGen.html

Another plus is that MinWah kindly shoved in some code in his FE to copy out a txt file to the com port at your specified settings (see the mamewah faq or ini) so it works easily with MameWah.

At the moment it uses codes (for fonts/scrolling etc) that work with a PJRC interace, but you can insert your own codes if you have a different LCD.

I was contacted a while ago by a guy using a BetaBrite which I think he wanted to use as an FE. Looking at the codes for that it would be easy to use to send a game title to that as a marquee - we agreed to test it out but he did not get back to me after a while. This is all text only though. On the above thread someone also wrote a program for a GBA to display controls and grphics pic... looked good, but not sure he ever released the program....

[Hoagie_one]

you could use a full sized lcd monitor and just hide the bottom portion of it so a marquee sizd portion shows only.

[versapak]

"you could use a full sized lcd monitor and just hide the bottom portion of it so a marquee sizd portion shows only."



Yep, and then it could easily display anything. You could just set up a dual screen setup on your PC.



So many great ideas out there. I may never finish my first cab, but it has many great successors already in mind. lol   

[Gamecab]

If anyone knows how to Hack and I-Opener LCD screen I would be willing to give it a try.  I have a spare 8x6 LCD screen just hanging around.

[jace055]

you could use a full sized lcd monitor and just hide the bottom portion of it so a marquee sizd portion shows only.

I am in the process of building this exact thing right now, but there is a little twist.  I am going to work on it this weekend and try to get pictures up.   

[penjuin]

When you say LCD, do you mean a colour one? if you can deal with black and white, head over to http://www.crystalfontz.com or http://www.matrixorbital.com and you can pick up some pretty nice ones. They are all ready to be simply plugged in. The ones from Matrix orbital can also be interfaced with a keypad (maybe an interactive control menu ). If you get a character LCD, then go to (windows) http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net/ or (linux) http://lcd4linux.sourceforge.net and you can find controlling software. Graphic LCDs are a bit more complicated but there is plenty of software for them. Sometimes even small games can be played on them (imagine dual space invaders! )

20x4 screen with 25 key keypad interface
(currently playing space invaders)


Graphic LCD

[Trimoor]

I think the idea is to use a LCD computer monitor to display a marquee and game/controller data.
The hardware is trivial, just plug and play, but we need the appropriate software to link it with MAME.

The best thing to do would be to add support directly into MAME.  Then it would work on all OSes. (I HATE windows.)

[fogman]

I have thought about doing something like this to project onto the marquee.  Any thoughts?

http://www.audiovisualizers.com/madlab/lcd_proj.htm

[quadmasta]

I have thought about doing something like this to project onto the marquee.  Any thoughts?

http://www.audiovisualizers.com/madlab/lcd_proj.htm

The way that's instructing is ultra crappy.  The light would be all sorts of the wrong color and would throw the final colors of the projection WAY off. 

http://www.lumenlab.com  best $20 you'll ever spend if you're interested in projection.  There are guys running 12' screens at 720p for about $800 total investment.

[fogman]

Have you built one of these or do youknow anyone who has?  I would love this kind of project, but I've always been afraid it would be worthless once I spent money and hours on doing it.

Feedback on the finished product owuld be appreciated!

[tetsujin]

If anyone knows how to Hack an I-Opener LCD screen I would be willing to give it a try.  I have a spare 8x6 LCD screen just hanging around.

Why hack the screen when you could just run a display server (X, for instance, or something simpler and customized?) on the iOpener?  Plug a USB network adaptor into it and fire away...  I don't think it would be any good as a marquee (too narrow) but as an auxiliary display...

I was considering using my iOpener for something like that in my cabinet.  The iOpener was fun for a while but it's not much use nowadays.  Too slow.    But I could totally see using it as a programmable LCD display.

[Captain_Dingo]

You know, I'm sitting here reading this, and thinking "I have this old ePods (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004YNWY/103-8956153-7792625?v=glance) laying around, I should use that for an LCD display on the cab somewhere"...

Then it hits me... The thing's got a touch screen.  Now I'm thinking of writing a front end that runs on the epods (connected to the PC over a serial connection) and then launches mame on the PC.  Once the game is launched, the ePods can serve as the admin buttons as well as display instructions and controls.

Now I just have to figure out where to put it in a cab...  Maybe a flip-down panel between the two speakers or something (kinda like a TV screen in some cars)

[Trimoor]

The hardware is easy.  It's just plug and play.

The hard part is the software.  Has anyone found a way to interface it with MAME?  Have it take the game that's running, and display a single image on a second monitor?
It would be great is someone could write the software for a playchoice10 setup.  I have the hardware.....

A good use for an iOpener is a dynamic picture frame.

[tetsujin]

The hardware is easy.  It's just plug and play.

The hard part is the software.  Has anyone found a way to interface it with MAME?  Have it take the game that's running, and display a single image on a second monitor?

Why interface with MAME at all?  Why not make that functionality part of the front-end?  When a game is launched, simultaneously post a new image to the monkey-computer.

I mean, it'd be great to have a greater ability to inspect the game state and use that information - like displaying Street Fighter moves for whichever character the player is actually using...  but that stuff, as far as I know, just hasn't been written.

[Trimoor]

Any frontend writers wanna take this up?  Anyone at all?
I hate to see an idea like this die.

[Lilwolf]

I talked about doing this ages ago.. .and nobody seemed to think it was a cool idea. 

The idea was to always have a game running.  And when you select a new game, it would kill the current process (or ask Howard if he could write a wrapper for mame to close mame on a socket call or something) and then launch the next game.

But I think the trouble was nobody wanted to hack another video to their cabinet...

[Lilwolf]

btw, it wasn't for use with an epod (but a hacked gameboy advanced). 

Epods are discontinued and hard to find these days (only 2 on ebay).  So spending too much time on something that might never be usable...

BUT

how about this... a web based frontend?  You select everything through a webbrowser (or java application) and machine X that runs java... And it sends a socket link to your arcade machine that is running a headless frontend...

Now you could run them both on the same machine (and having a key to tab between them or something)

So you would have mame running 24/7.  Then when it gets a signal, it will kill the current game and launch the next...

This would be very doable... and would probably be pretty easy to setup.  Heck, the java application version would allow you to also load new roms throught then frontend / socket so you wouldn't even need to have a keyboard on the system. 

Anyway... then you could use it on an epods or any other hand held device... or just an old notebook you have laying around that you hack in somewhere on your cab.

[tetsujin]

I'm not sure what problems that solves.  I'm not sure what the "mame running 24/7" thing is about either.

If I have two (cooperative) computers networked together, it's not at all a big deal to make one display something (static image, UI, whatever) on the other's screen.  That's what X is for.

Making it display something useful, I think that's a bit trickier.  I'd love for auxiliary displays to be able to display high-score tables, relevant hints about playing the game, etc. - not just a marquee displaying the game art, but something showing useful information about the state of the game.  But as far as I know there's nothing in Mame that can pull that kind of data out of a game.  It might not be hard to add it for certain games, but...

[Lilwolf]

The idea is that you use the other computer 100% for control.  Basically your mame machine stores mame and roms...  And it runs a very small program that will kill the current mame... and then launch another... But it could/would also have  a web browser on it (depending if its web based or running an application on the controller)

Then on the second computer / web interface would then have the graphics / snaps similar to any frontend you see.  And when you launch a game, instead of running it locally, it would launch it on the other computer.  Then that machine could then show moves, hints, ect... MP3 player... ect...

So, if you have one of those small web based boxes...  You hack it to your cabinet... and use it to control the cabinet itself... but you could also use any computer that has access to the web, or that has a java jvm on it.  Just makes it so you aren't writing code that will only work on one device.

[Trimoor]

But I think the trouble was nobody wanted to hack another video to their cabinet...

I beg to differ.  I put dual monitors in my MAME cab, and have nothing to drive them with.

[tetsujin]

The idea is that you use the other computer 100% for control.  Basically your mame machine stores mame and roms...  And it runs a very small program that will kill the current mame... and then launch another... But it could/would also have  a web browser on it (depending if its web based or running an application on the controller)

I guess.  It just seems simpler to me to run all the important software on the one good computer...  and since the cheapy computer is just being used as an extra display, make it exactly that - an extra display.  If I were to do something like this with my iOpener, I'd want to keep its responsibilities extremely limited.  There's not much that machine can really do...  Java sounds like a bad idea for such a machine.

Though on the other hand, running the entire front-end on the monkey computer would save the monkey computer the trouble of having to communicate UI requests over the network...  I don't know.  Either way could work.  But I don't really want the front-end to be on the secondary display anyway.