Introducing 'lil Coin Counter

[Veinman]

With all the discussion about coin counters, I decided to create an application that could track the number of "quarters" that have been inserted into your cabinet. Personally, I want to know when I pay off the price of building this thing.

It doesn't actually know anything about Mame. All it does is sit in the system tray and detect when keys 5-8 are pressed. That includes when you type those keys in any application at all. It saves totals for each player, and the totals persist after you shut it down. You can clear the totals, or simply edit the file directly in notepad. It saves the info in a simple .ini file.

Tons of features could be added, but I doubt anyone wants to dedicate too many CPU cycles to this kind of thing, so I kept it simple.

Sorry, but it's Windows only, and you have to have .NET framework 1.1. I've only tested on WinXP.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any problems. Remember, it starts up minimized in the system tray, and its icon is a quarter.

'lil Coin Counter v1.0

[Thenasty]

if you guys want to hook up the Real Thing in your cabinet for nostalia look, check my BYO Gadget on my WWW page on how to hook up a Coin Counter to your coin switches (5,6,7,8).

[IG-88]

Hey, that's pretty cool. Suggestion(s)? Can you figure out a way to set a limited number of credits and still keep a running total? Lets say I wanted to let the kids play 5 or 10 credits per game before they had to start over. Can you disable the 5 & 8 keys until you hit say, the Esc key, or something along those lines. That would force you to restart a game after you ran out of $$ if you know what I mean. Oh and how about a quick start icon with that cool quarter look?

[EndTwist]

Veinman -- any chance I could take a peek at your source?

[Veinman]

Yeah I realized that I need to apply the icon to the executable.

IG- I'll post the source soon. It's not like I'm doing anything out of this world, in fact most of it is based on a tutorial about hooking the keyboard that I found on the net.

Regarding the question about limiting credits....I think I could fairly easily prevent keypresses from getting to their intended application (Mame, etc) but I'd have to test it. It's not something I'm crazy about since preventing other apps from getting keypresses is "rude," but I suppose in this case it could be handy. I'd probably do that with a checkbox or something like that. I suppose the biggest issue with it is that it wouldn't exactly be tough to foil.

[EndTwist]

Yeah I realized that I need to apply the icon to the executable.

IG- I'll post the source soon. It's not like I'm doing anything out of this world, in fact most of it is based on a tutorial about hooking the keyboard that I found on the net.

Regarding the question about limiting credits....I think I could fairly easily prevent keypresses from getting to their intended application (Mame, etc) but I'd have to test it. It's not something I'm crazy about since preventing other apps from getting keypresses is "rude," but I suppose in this case it could be handy. I'd probably do that with a checkbox or something like that. I suppose the biggest issue with it is that it wouldn't exactly be tough to foil.

I've been working on this exact problem . (Except I'm using VB6 and trying to get it to work on both XP/2000 and 95/98)

I have a keyboard hook setup, but for some strange reason, when the keyboard hook enables MAME suddenly has global key support...
When I disable the keyhook, it goes back to normal.

So right now, I'm trying everything...

[Veinman]

Mine's written in vb.net.

[EndTwist]

Mine's written in vb.net.

I know Doesn't matter - I just want to see your code for ideas...

I can get the key blocking working in XP/2000/98/95 for everything BUT MAME...Anyone want to take a look

[Howard_Casto]

I wanted to keep this under wraps until I could write a tutorial, but checkout autohotkey (sorry don't have a url).  It's loosely related on the old autoit scripts, except this doesn't suck and actually works.  It supports true, low-level key blocking/remapping in windows, meaning that it even works for directx. 

The drawback is that it's not a full featured scripting language and it  can't handle command line options and advanced logic.  Also writing a script for it is farily complicated, it's basically like writing regular code.  The true solution will be when I integrate ahk support into my next generation of wrappers, thus making the ultimate solution.  Btw it also works for mouse movement, clicks, ect. 


Btw.... coin counting/tracking is cool.  Setting up a fixed limit so your kids can only play so much per boot is also a good idea (and can be done with some simple logic and an ahk script.)  Integrating it with the fe is a bad idea as it promotes piracy, and more importantly, mame cabs in public environments.

[elvis]

Btw.... coin counting/tracking is cool.  Setting up a fixed limit so your kids can only play so much per boot is also a good idea (and can be done with some simple logic and an ahk script.)  Integrating it with the fe is a bad idea as it promotes piracy, and more importantly, mame cabs in public environments.

I'll second this.  Reading this thread, these where the first two thoughts that popped into my head.

I'm all for MAME in the private/home arena.  When used there it really isn't hurting anyone.  (Read my rants on the mame.net forums about honest people willing to pay for the games they play but given no option to do so).

But for the folks who abuse the project by putting MAME cabs in public places for profit, coin-counter projects are only aiding the piracy problem, and should be avoided.

Quotes like :

Personally, I want to know when I pay off the price of building this thing.

make me very suspicious.  MAME cabinets are not about "breaking even".  The MAME code came free, as did the ROMs.  Any cost you incur making them is written off against your leisure time, just like any hobby you could care to think of.  Illegal money making from MAME just isn't right.

[Veinman]

Suspicious? Well you can forget it. I have no intentions of making money with my cabinet, and further more, counting credit keypresses doesn't get anybody closer to making money than NOT counting keypresses.

I am not stupid enough to try to throw a mame cabinet into a public place. I've never seen such a thing, but I suppose it wouldn't surprise me.

I just wanted statistics to see how much I played my cabinet. If you don't like it, don't use it. But don't go accusing me of something when you have no idea what you are talking about.

edit-
One more thing- in my sig is a link to my cabinet project. Maybe you can point out the coin box? No, you can't, because mine doesn't have one.

[jelwell]

Quotes like :

Personally, I want to know when I pay off the price of building this thing.

make me very suspicious.

[Howard_Casto]

starroms.com.......


and unfortunately, most if not all of us have to use pirated roms in some form as many titles simply aren't available for sale.

By "piracy" I was referring to romz hounds that download the rom instead of forking over the 50 bucks to buy the same title on their favorite game console.

[elvis]

Sorry, but either you only have like 6 roms or you stole them because they are NOT free. You have to pay for legitamate copies. And if you do own the license than it's totally legitamate to sell a MAME cabinet. See Hanaho.

Joseph Elwell.

I have purchased all of the ROMs available from StarRoms.com (roughly 30-ish at last count).  But as Howard mentioned, there are plenty more that I *WANT* to purchase, but cannot.

And as I've questioned on the MAME.net forums, if I cannot:

1) Locate a game board for purchase
2) Locate a legal ROM distributer to purchase from or
3) Cannot purchase an arcade-equivalent port on another console or computer

What options are left for me if I wish to play the games?

I *WANT* to pay for the games I play.  This will only encourage more game distributors to start up licensing of their older games for people to enjoy.  Yet despite all the ugly name-calling going on (we're all dirty little pirates, apparently) and despite all my pleading to large companies to offer me legal games to purchase, they still do not let me do so.

So what is the suggestion from the peanut gallery?  Where can I turn to if I can download the games, yet there is no available path for me to take to in order to actually purchase the rights to play these legally?

Capitalism and copyright law is all good and find for modern items being sold to Joe Sixpack, but for collectors of digital information it falls rather flat.  I don't have the silver-bullet answer either, but a good start would be for companies like Capcom, Taito, Midway, etc to on-license their classic games in bulk to resellers like StarRoms.  I'm certain the effort on behalf of the large organisations would be minimal, and that StarRoms are more than willing to take part.  (In fact, from my conversations with the StarRoms guys, I'm more than certain this is so).  The missing part is the willingness of the large corporates to put their money where their mouths are, and instead of labelling us all pirates, offer us a chance to purchase the games we are "stealing".

Truth be told, I play all of 6 of the 30 games I purchased from StarRoms.  But out of sheer principle I purchased the entire stock.  Hopefully if more people do the same, it will give StarRoms the purchasing power to buy more games en masse and extend their offerings.

So, did I "steal" my games?  Have I deprived anyone of profit by playing the games I do, if those games are no longer for sale?  I own several consoles, with legally purchased ports of the modern games I play.  I don't play these in ZiNc or other newer-system emulators (MAME is the one and only emulator I use).  I've purchased everything I can from StarRoms.

So where do I go now for the 100 or so games I want to play, but can't buy anywhere any more, nor play in my local arcade?

Back on topic:

My apologies to the OP if they took offense to what I wrote.  I did not intend to label you a pirate.  It was not intended to sound that way.

My concern is that any coin-counting software, while certainly able to be used legitimately for home users, will only end up being used by the less-than-honest people out there.  Don't assume just because something *CAN* be written that it *SHOULD* be written.

[Nailz]

Holy crap....  if everyone has gotten down off the soapbox now i'll just say, cool program VeinMan!

[jelwell]

Quotes like :

Personally, I want to know when I pay off the price of building this thing.

make me very suspicious.

[elvis]

1)  The original poster, elvis, claimed ROMS were free, "The MAME code came free, as did the ROMs."

You are taking my original post way out of context.  I know all too well the legality issues of MAME ROMs, even to the point of contacting original game developers in person (at my own expense thanks to international calls) in an attempt to open their eyes.  Their complete lack of enthusiasm and outwardly "we huge corporates don't talk to the little people" attitude quite frankly stinks.

My original post was made with highly sarcastic undertones (again, the art of sarcasm is lost on non-Australians - I should learn this when posting in US forums).  The "what more do you want?" comment should have indicated my feelings at the time.  I do not in any way shape or form condone piracy.  Nor do I believe we MAME users have a hell of a lot of legal options available to us.

The StarRoms kids deserve a commendation for the steps they are taking.  At time of posting, there are 27 games available from them.  Sure, I'd love it if there where 270 isntead, but sitting around in some forum whining about it won't help.  I ask everyone who gives a flying turd about the idea to contact game developers and let them know your wishes.  Only when they see that the market exists will they bother investigating the plausibility of selling to it.

I don't understand what you find "cute" about my post.  I have purchased all the ROMs available from StarRoms on principle that if more people did the same it would show the games industry that people desire to play original classic titles, and are willing to do so legally.  I personally believe only 6 of these are worth playing.  That doesn't mean I wasted my money on the other 21.  And quite frankly for the extremely cheap price they are being offered at, I've wasted more money in real arcades playing games I didn't enjoy.  Instead, those few dollars have gone towards cementing the point that there is one more emulation user out there willing to shell out for games, despite not having the ability to do so in all cases.

So again, I ask you all to put your money where your mouths are.  Just like I have, buy legal games from StarRoms; and just like I have, contact companies letting them know you wish to have a legal option to play their older games.  Only in numbers will the whole scene move forwards.  Whinging on forums doesn't get it anywhere.

Sorry for the soapboxing.  I've seen plenty of communities dissolve because they all sat around fighting each other internally instead of banding together and fighting united to get the result they desire.  I hope this community is bigger than that.

[tspeirs]

Howard:

I am the developer of GameEx. I would be very interested to know what you were referring to with the Cough - GameEx remark.

I am not being confrontational on purpose, but from my standpoint I really have no idea what you are talking about!?

It looks like your saying I should have thought about it and not released it publicly. I did not have a grand master world domination plan when starting the project last year when it simply started out as just a MAME front end for HTPC's.

Maybe I misunderstand, if so sorry, but please explain your comment, I am looking to re-educate if need-be rather than argue.

Cheers,
Tom

http://gameex.net

[Howard_Casto]

My apoligies sir, it was a typo.  It's corrected now. 

All fes except mine look alike to me anymore. 

[youki]

Regarding the question about limiting credits....I think I could fairly easily prevent keypresses from getting to their intended application (Mame, etc)

From a technical point of view, it is not so easy.

[CJK]

if you guys want to hook up the Real Thing in your cabinet for nostalia look, check my BYO Gadget on my WWW page on how to hook up a Coin Counter to your coin switches (5,6,7,8).

Cool! I was trying to figure out how to do this! Thanks!

-- Chris