MAME Driving Cabinet help please

[Johnny_Summers]

Hi guys,
Just joined the forum.

I already have a standard (JAMMA spec) MAME cabinet, but as you can imagine, playing driving games on one of these just doesn't do it.

I have managed to get hold of a Special Criminal Investigation cab with the view of playing the MAME driving games on it. Upon investigating the controls for the wheel, they seem to be similar to that of a (non optical) mouse (wheels with holes in it, sensors at the side for the x-axis).
My question is.......can I wire this up as a mouse and use it directly in the PC (serial or PS2) or would I need an Opti-Pac, A-Pac etc?

Also, if anyone has any manuals or documents for this machine that would help with identifying wiring etc I would be extremely grateful.

Cheers guys,
Johnny.

[Minwah]

You could almost certainly wire the optics up to a mouse hack, opti-pac or similar interface...this is common practice, search this board for more info.

Failing this, you could use a mouse hack, but use the mouse optics instead of the original arcade ones...do this only if the above does not work tho.

[Johnny_Summers]

MinWah,
Thanks for the reply. Can I just confirm:
Using an Opti-Pac, I wire up from the wheel (4 wires IIRC) to the Opti-Pac board, then use the standard PS2 cable from the Opti-Pac board to the PC. Using a mouse, I chop the mouse bit off and connect directly to the wires coming out of the steering wheel? If that is the case, what is the advantage of using an Opti-Pac? Oh, the Opti-Pac handles the buttons I guess?

Thanks again.
Johnny.

[Minwah]

Using an Opti-Pac, I wire up from the wheel (4 wires IIRC) to the Opti-Pac board, then use the standard PS2 cable from the Opti-Pac board to the PC.

Yep.

Using a mouse, I chop the mouse bit off and connect directly to the wires coming out of the steering wheel?

Not quite that simple, see: http://mamewah.mameworld.net/mousehack.htm

If that is the case, what is the advantage of using an Opti-Pac? Oh, the Opti-Pac handles the buttons I guess?

Basically an Opti-Pac is a piece of cake to connect up to, a mouse hack is not (Oscars pre-hacked mice excluded, but these are currently unavailable).

[Johnny_Summers]

Minwah,
Thanks very much for that info. I actually already have an Opti-Pac so I will give it a go with that.

Johnny.

[Minwah]

Thanks very much for that info. I actually already have an Opti-Pac so I will give it a go with that.

Good luck, you just need to identify the 5v and GND wires then and you should be set