MAME - Spy Hunter Weapons Van light

[mac622]

Hello all,

My apologies in advance if I'm posting this to the incorrect forum but I believe this is where it should be. 

The question I have is does anyone know of a particular hack, or a MAME functionality, that will replicate the blinking Weapons Van in Spy Hunter?  I would like to add either an LED (preferable) or incandescent light to the inside of the Weapons Van button dedicated on my CP.  For my interfaces I'm using an I-Pac, Opti-Pac and DS Star Wars hack.  My original thought was to use the 3rd LED drive (Scroll Lock)  from the I-Pac but I don't know how to make that happen.   

Any thoughts/comments will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ian

[RetroBorg]

There was a project designed to do this but I'm not sure what happened to it?

Here's a link talking about it.

http://www.cybertechdesign.net/yabbse/index.php?topic=79.0

[Darth Nuno]

Same question, but need more details 

Would it be possible to pilot all the real Spy Hunter leds on the real cabinet with mame ?

The idea behind this would be to use Mame into an real Spy Hunter (empty) cabinet.

I've no problem regarding how to set a monitor or the controls (A-Pac or USB hack), but never used LED interface yet...

So here's the stuff I presume? :

- Led Wiz interface or other interface?
- Mame ( a special build? )
- other software/hardware?

Anyone here already try something like this?

[TheShanMan]

If you'll settle for having the weapons lights on screen: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83207.msg869036#msg869036

[bkenobi]

Isn't this a good time to use MAME Hooker?

http://dragonking.arcadecontrols.com/static.php?page=aboutmamehooker

I don't know if the project is in a usable state, but this is it's intended use anyway.

[Endaar]

If the driver for Spy Hunter supports that lamp as an output, you should be able to use MameHooker with an LEDWiz to make this happen. I'm working on something similar for Afterburner...problem thus far is that MameHooker first seems to reset the LEDWiz and thus shutdown any lights that are lit-up by your front end, etc. Haven't had a lot of time to see if there's a way around that.

Endaar

[Darth Nuno]

Yes! MAME Hooker seems to be the answer  :

Overview:

Arcade games have always had outputs.  Lights, sirens, motors, solenids scoreboards or what have you, cabinets Have always had ways to interact with the player.  Until recently, mame had all but ignored this, with flashing keyboard lights as our only source of output.  Thankfully, Aaron Giles built us a whole new output system last summer that allows mame to relay the states of various outputs to any windows application.  Unfortunately, knowing the state doesn't magically make a device fire, thus the need for this app.  Mame hooker keeps track of outputs and uses their state to control several output devices including, but not limited to the keyboard leds, ledwiz, the parallel port and force feedback controllers.  More devices will be added as the project progresses.  To learn in detail how to use Mame Hooker, please consult the read me file included with the application.

...but the website seems to be NOT updated since a while  ... some links for the on-line documentation are not available...

I'll order a KeyWiz, and see what I can do. Does someone here already have success on a similar project?

[DJ_Izumi]

It'd actually be pretty cool to see Daytona USA emulated and flashing 'Race Leader' on the player that's in the lead.

[arzoo]

Same question, but need more details 

Would it be possible to pilot all the real Spy Hunter leds on the real cabinet with mame ?

The idea behind this would be to use Mame into an real Spy Hunter (empty) cabinet.

I've no problem regarding how to set a monitor or the controls (A-Pac or USB hack), but never used LED interface yet...

So here's the stuff I presume? :

- Led Wiz interface or other interface?
- Mame ( a special build? )
- other software/hardware?

Anyone here already try something like this?

LEDBlinky will use the mame outputs (same as mame hooker) and can be configured for Spy Hunter - I have it working on my rig.

[Darth Nuno]

LEDBlinky will use the mame outputs (same as mame hooker) and can be configured for Spy Hunter - I have it working on my rig.

Thanks 

My idea is to use the real existing lights (6 in total) from my Spy Hunter cabinet.

Now I'm waiting for my Led Wiz interface and I start to set up the 'thing' 

[Bender]

LEDBlinky will use the mame outputs (same as mame hooker) and can be configured for Spy Hunter - I have it working on my rig.

any details on how you did that, Arzoo?

also is there any way to just light up the weapons buttons that you have in the game?

[arzoo]

LEDBlinky will use the mame outputs (same as mame hooker) and can be configured for Spy Hunter - I have it working on my rig.

any details on how you did that, Arzoo?

also is there any way to just light up the weapons buttons that you have in the game?

LEDBlinky is very flexible when it comes to mame outputs - you can set any LED port or button to any output. 1st, make sure you have the "Flash Player Start With Credits + Other MAME Outputs" option checked. Next, you'll need to edit the mameoutputs.ini file. There's info in the header of that file (and in the install pdf) which explains the file syntax. Here's my config for Spy Hunter:

Code: [Select]

[spyhunt]
LAMP0=P1_BUTTON4
LAMP1=P1_BUTTON5
LAMP2=P1_BUTTON3
LAMP3=P1_BUTTON2
LAMP4=P1_BUTTON1
I believe the Weapons Van is button 3, so you can remove the others if you don't want them to light. Also, as I recall Spy Hunter is not included with the controls.ini file, so you may want to add it using the controls editor.

[Bender]

sweet!

Can't wait to try it out!

[Darth Nuno]

Thanks Arzoo for the config. 

I'll test that once I'll have Led Wiz interface at home 

[Bender]

LEDBlinky is very flexible when it comes to mame outputs - you can set any LED port or button to any output. 1st, make sure you have the "Flash Player Start With Credits + Other MAME Outputs" option checked. Next, you'll need to edit the mameoutputs.ini file. There's info in the header of that file (and in the install pdf) which explains the file syntax. Here's my config for Spy Hunter:

Code: [Select]

[spyhunt]
LAMP0=P1_BUTTON4
LAMP1=P1_BUTTON5
LAMP2=P1_BUTTON3
LAMP3=P1_BUTTON2
LAMP4=P1_BUTTON1
I believe the Weapons Van is button 3, so you can remove the others if you don't want them to light. Also, as I recall Spy Hunter is not included with the controls.ini file, so you may want to add it using the controls editor.

these work for me, so cool!

Arzoo,

2 things: when I launch Spyhunter the weapons bottons are already on. I have to do a hard reset to get them to start off, so they lite up when just when you have them

and I have the same issue when I "pause and speak commands"

any ideas?

does it do this on your rig?

[arzoo]

these work for me, so cool!

Arzoo,

2 things: when I launch Spyhunter the weapons bottons are already on. I have to do a hard reset to get them to start off, so they lite up when just when you have them

and I have the same issue when I "pause and speak commands"

any ideas?

does it do this on your rig?

they work correctly on my rid - can you turn on the debug/verbose and email me the debug.zip file?

Update: I did find a bug - if a Game Pause Animation is not enabled, then the buttons do not return to the correct state after un-pausing. The fix will be in the next release.

But I'm still not sure why the buttons would all be on when spy hunter 1st starts - only the gun button should be lit up. So send my your debug.zip and I'll take a look.

[Bender]

Thanks Arzoo!

you da man!

I'll send you a debug log tomorrow

[arzoo]

Thanks Arzoo!

you da man!

I'll send you a debug log tomorrow

I've been doing some testing with the latest version of MA - the buttons are lighting correctly for spy hunter. But I do have a general problem with MA - when I exit any mame game it (MA) just hangs on a blank screen. Then I have to kill the process - very annoying.