Working on a Linux Arcade Distribution for Cabs

[HolgiB]

Actually there are just people from germany involved, I think I have reached a point where it is time to change that.

My plan was, to create a website with some tutorials on it, how to build necessary hardware to connect a pc to your cab. Similar to here, but in german language. The operating system of my choice on my cab pc, was planned to be linux. After posting in a german discussion board, to promote my website, I got a lot of feedback that people are interested in Linux in theire cabs.

So I started to work on a small Linux distribution, Gentoo based, called "Lincade". The goal was, to have a distribution which is simple to install and which will be ready for cab use, after installation. This goal is actually reached.

To keep Lincade as simple as possible, there is just a support for hardware, the most people are using in such a project. At this time only Matrox G100-G400 graphic cards are supported (15 Khz in console and X). I am confident to have AVGA support in the next week. Almost every soundcard ist supported and there is support for about 20 network cards. But networking is not integrated in the setup, but will be in the future.

Lincade can be controlled from the bootmenu. You can choose between Cab-Mode and PC-Mode. The default after a few seconds is Cab-Mode. This will result in a linux console screen in 15Khz and X in 15Khz with an automatically startimg advmenu. The PC Mode is for maintenance. So it will working in standard VGA resolutions and frequencies, no autostart of X together with advmenu.

There is still a lot of work to do. But as it is, it will work for the most people already. It is possible to join the project. The website is already translated into english language.

My last changelog:

    *  Standard Kernel targeted to PIII/PIV and Matrox
    * alternative Radeon Kernel in /boot (for AVGA)
    * added some network card drivers
    * fb-tools added
    * Kernel sources added
    * Bootmenu chooses profile (CAB Mode->15Khz for console/X Advmenu, PC Mode->  VGA resolution and scanrate for X and console, Linux prompt for maintenance)
    * after the installation a hint for e.g. sound configuration
    * modified .bashrc and .xinitrc that advmenu in CAB mode will launched atomatically but not in PC mode
    * Bug fixed on install CD, which avoided the start of SSHD
    * fixed some things in setup.sh, still some ugly glitches
    * Background sound in advmenu added
    * Backpic in advmenu added
    * Fee mame demo ROMs added

Project home: www.pc2jamma.org

The setup is still german only, but in this early state you dont have a choice  , so dont be afraid - you can just press enter until its installed. In the next release, there will be a choice of language in the setup possible.

--Holger

[Q*Bert_OP]

 

[BobA]

Viel Erfolg!

Sounds like a great idea!

[Grasshopper]

Excellent idea.

Time to learn German.....

[ahofle]

Wow, this is such a good idea.   

[jimmy_bored]

This is great news..... Ever since they stopped updating AdvancedCD I think alot of people went away from linux or started hacking there own(like me) which is alot of work striping down a standard distribution and then compiling your frontend ends...

My only request is to have english as an option on your website. I haven't spoke or read german since high school!  I hope the linux distribution is multilingual?

Great job!

[Antix]

great work.

I would like to see english, and support for more vid cards (I have a geforce 2 MX that works in 15khz fine)

Very impressed by what you have acheived so far

[HolgiB]

Thank you, for your replies!

You can change the language of my website, at the left. Just choose english. The most important articles are also in english available.

Today I started to create a multilingual setup. Maybe its the easiest to drop german for the setup. Most germans should be able to understand this simple questions  .

@antix
Send me your xorg.conf if you have a running linux.

Yesterday a user did a test installation and we found some bugs. Already started to fix them In the next release I am confident to have networking and the possibilty to choose between at least two diffrent groups of graphics cards (ATI/AVGA and Matrox).

My plan is to release the next Version on this weekend.

--Holger

[jimmy_bored]

You can change the language of my website, at the left. Just choose english. The most important articles are also in english available.

I found it.. its the small "en" next to the blog entries... I missed this before.. All is good!  I plan on loading it up next week..

[HolgiB]

There is some progress in the setup routine of Lincade. I added a "Language Chooser" and Networking. Fixed some bugs...

You can find more details at the project website: www.pc2jamma.org

--Holger
P.S.: Please visit my sponsors.

[CathalDublin]

Cool, I'll have to try this out during the week
Problem with your website
Text is only converted to English on the homepage, none of the other pages

[HolgiB]

Sorry, not everything is actually translated into english. But I am working on that... The newest blog entries and the installation howto are already english.

--Holger

[notaburger]

This has been something that has been a long time coming.  Good luck.
Good timing too.  I was just getting ready to install dsl on my cabinet.

[Ahigh]

Great effort, and definitely something to be commended for.

It would be great to be able to have a dist that's already gone through all the trivia of setting up an arcade-orientated installation of linux.

Good luck and keep everyone posted on your progress.  There are many who could benefit from your findings.

--
- Ahigh

[HolgiB]

Hi,

thank your for your positive replies.

I will try to have the release tomorrow or on saturday ready.

You can find a new screencast of the setup process on the project home (www.pc2jamma.org).

--Holger

[Outrun]

Wow, a Tux-cade....well, you've got my attention.

Keep up the good work.

[notaburger]

looks like the iso is up now but the changelog is still in german so you'll have to use babelfish or something else to read it if you don't know the language
 

[HolgiB]

Hi!

Seems that here are some people cant wait , thats great!

You can find on the project home the new Lincade 0.3 Release. The annoucement, changelog and the installation documentation is english.

This is a stable release which will work for the most people. Actually only Matrox and ATI based graphic cards are supported. You can expect a well preconfigured Linux system with optionl networking, for cab usage including Advmenu/Advmame and some free demo roms.

For detailed information please go to www.pc2jamma.org.

--Holger

P.S.: Please click on some ads, it will help me to have at least zero costs. I dont expect to become rich with this ;-). Just doin' it for fun.

[iwillfearnoevil]

P.S.: Please click on some ads, it will help me to have at least zero costs. I dont expect to become rich with this ;-). Just doin' it for fun.

this is against google's tos to ask people to click your links like this. i'm sure there is another way to phrase it so it still serves your purpose. the setup screencast is awesome.

[HolgiB]

@jened

Thank you for your advise and your comment about the setup. Anyway hard for me to feel guilty for the 6 Bucks I earned...

To the project: Actually we are working on the integration of other emulators. To name one, its SNES9x... We are not sure how the integration will look, it could be an optional package or its just in the further releases. Both is possible. We will see.

--Holger

[jimmy_bored]

Wow.... I just got everything setup last night and your distribution rocks!  I could not ask for an easier setup.  I think I had to hit the "enter" button 4 times and 4 minutes later I was playing...


Great job and keep up the good work! 

[IG-88]

FANTASTIC!  I think you will be surprised at how many of us will use this one word gets out.

What kind of system specs are you expecting this to work on? (minimum specs) Just curious.

Did I also read right that you are working on a cheap keyboard interface also? You get an inexpensive K.I. out along with this Linux build and you can guarantee to be promoted to GOD status in no time.

[HolgiB]

@immy_bored
Great to hear that one of you had success, installing my little distribution. Its the first feedback I received at all. That means, since today I know I created something useful for other. A great motivating start into the weekend  .

@IG-88
The systems specs are, that you have at least 4 GB of diskspace, a Pentium III Processor with 800 Mhz and 128 MByte of RAM. It will also work on slower machines, but maybe this is too slow to emulate some complex games.

I recommend to use a Matrox G400 or G200 graphics card, because it is perfectly supported in Lincade. You will get the linux console screen at 15Khz and are able to control the boot process inside your cab. The most known soundcards are supported.

Did I also read right that you are working on a cheap keyboard interface also?

Yes, I try to build a cheap keyboard interface solution based on a microcontroller. This will also be open source then and free for everybody. My plan is to also sell already programmend microcontroller and boards really cheap. Because its open source, everybody will be able to build such an interface on his own for a price less than 10 USD. But I am not that familar with electronics and microcontroller are completey new to me. So this will take some time. I am just started with an development environment on linux and putted my first customized code back on an atmel microcontroller. This are the first steps on an long way...

What will be there in the near future is a documentation about how to put ROMs easily on the Lincade system by using WinSCP. You need a nic inside your PC for that.

Because its a gentoo based distribution, there are also optimization possible which can give every Lincade system a big performace boost. Everybody is able to start a recompilation process on this box itself, to optimize the binary code to fit exactly to your hardware. There will be also a tutorial how to do this, if you have really old hardware and need to get everything out ot it.

--Holger

[Silver]

Ghoost, a member of the german Arcadeinfo-Forum is working on SNES emulator integration.

That's good news.

what you are doing is ideal, with the drawback that I am hoping to include other emulators apart from Mame. I do not know much about the difference Linux emulators though.....

[IG-88]

Its a great thing that you are doing tutorials for all this stuff. I, for one, have just starting tinkering with Linux and I will need all the help I can get.

Is there also a way you can show me (us) how to put the roms on without having to use WinSCP and a nic? Like I said I am a complete newbie too Linux.

Again forgive my ignorance but when you say "You will get the linux console screen at 15Khz" what are you meaning exactly? Is that the refresh rate you are talking about? That is what arcade monitors normally run at correct? Will this even work on a PC monitor? Sorry if the answer is obvious.   

Another thing I was thinking about. You said that this should run on slower systems (slower than 800mhz) if the games weren't too complex. I wonder how low you can go for say the "classics" ie: pac, frogger, donkey kong, asteroids ect. ect.

Oh ya, aren't those Matrox cards AGP types? (if I remember right) Did they make G200 & 400 that were PCI or ISA?

Anyway great job!

[HolgiB]

Is there also a way you can show me (us) how to put the roms on without having to use WinSCP and a nic? Like I said I am a complete newbie too Linux.

Thank you for this good note. This is a problem, which a lot of people will have. So I created this afternoon a screencast how to do this. A written  tutorial will follow asap.

Again forgive my ignorance but when you say "You will get the linux console screen at 15Khz" what are you meaning exactly? Is that the refresh rate you are talking about? That is what arcade monitors normally run at correct? Will this even work on a PC monitor? Sorry if the answer is obvious.

Yes with 15Khz I mean the resfresh rate which is needed when you want to operate a system on an arcade cab screen. A PC monitor is not able to deal with such a low feresh rate. Thats the reason why you can choose after power on of the PC, where it is connected. By default it assumes, that the system is inside a CAB and chooses the correspondig mode automatitcally, but you can choose manually the PC-Mode to get refresh rates for a PC monitor. Important for testing or putting ROMs on it.

Another thing I was thinking about. You said that this should run on slower systems (slower than 800mhz) if the games weren't too complex. I wonder how low you can go for say the "classics" ie: pac, frogger, donkey kong, asteroids ect. ect.

Indeed this would be interesting to know but is beyound my experiences/testing. In other words, try it by yourself. A guess is that Pentium II/266 would be fast enough for this.

Oh ya, aren't those Matrox cards AGP types? (if I remember right) Did they make G200 & 400 that were PCI or ISA?

I am not sure, but I think you are right. There are also some G100/G200 PCI Version available. With a G100 you can expect the same results on a slow system like with a G200 or G400. But if the system is fast, I recommend using a G200/G400 to avoid that the graphics card becomes the bottleneck of the system.

--Holger

[BitterPill]

Interesting. Im using gentoo at the moment but I may give this a go. Will it work with this? http://www.nexusuk.org/projects/vga2scart/ I haven't made one yet but I plan to.

Keep up the good work

[Smack]

Haven't been on the boards a lot over the last year and just found this thread.

Wow! I'm gonna give this a whirl when I set up my other cocktail cab. I made the transition to Ubuntu Linux about 3 months ago and am loving it.

Haven't tried it yet, but a big hefty nice job!

Smack

[elvis]

Again forgive my ignorance but when you say "You will get the linux console screen at 15Khz" what are you meaning exactly? Is that the refresh rate you are talking about? That is what arcade monitors normally run at correct? Will this even work on a PC monitor? Sorry if the answer is obvious.   

The "KHz" rating of a monitor refers to the horizontal scan rate that the electron beam travels at as it draws pictures to a screen.

15KHz refers to "CGA" resolutions - the resolutions used by older genuine arcade hardware, and standard definition TV.  These sit somewhere around the 240 lines ("320x240 resolution" - remembering CRTs don't understand resolutions per se, but just lines drawn across the screen) at roughly 60 frames per second drawn progressively, or more recently around the 640x480 resolution at roughly 30 frames per second drawn interlaced (ie: half a frame in one pass, and the other half in the second pass).

31KHz are VGA resolutions, or around 480 lines ("640x480 pixels") drawn at 60 frames per second (or in TV land, "480p").

For a far better explanation of all of this, and the intricacies of monitors and scanlines, check out this excellent guide:
http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/monitor1.htm

[Lewis Black]

Definitely watching this with interest. Great concept!

[CathalDublin]

Ive downloaded the image and I'll have a go at setting it up over the next few days and report back  
My setup is
ArcadeVGA Card
23" Arcade Monitor
Keywiz Keyboard Emulator
Sound Blaster Live PCI
P3 1Ghz, 1GB Ram, 40gb HDD

Should my system work ok with it?

[HolgiB]

Hi Cynos,

this should work without any trouble. Just give it a try.

--Holger

[CathalDublin]

Still didnt get a chance yet, will try it out --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- the weekend

[dweebs0r]

Watching this as well.  Great idea. 

Time to remove Windows from the cab!

-D

[HolgiB]

Just want to introduce our new

Lincade Forum
http://www.pc2jamma.org/forum/

There is more room for questions, wishes or dicussion relate to Linux in an Arcade CAB.

--Holger

[HolgiB]

Some progress. SNES Emulation is working now, I will do my best to have a Lincade 0.31 release in the next week.

--Holger

[KDOG]

Hey HolgiB,
Will a matrox g450 card work with lincade.

[CathalDublin]

Would it be hard to dual boot this with say windows if I also want to use my cab as a jukebox?

[ddrmanxbxfr]

Would it be hard to dual boot this with say windows if I also want to use my cab as a jukebox?

Yea as im an lincade developer i can assure you that it would be easy just an configuration file to edit..

[ddrmanxbxfr]

Hey HolgiB,
Will a matrox g450 card work with lincade.

Well it's not officialy supported and i think i would not work because it's not the same chip and we don't have some g450 so we can't test it or support it..