Is it possible to build a 6 player X-Men?

[jlfreund]

I'm curious whether it's possible to build a 6player XMen (my all time favorite) from scratch?

The Roms are imperfect, but it's not clear from MAWS what to expect works and doesn't work.

Does anyone know how one would go about getting two arcade monitors to line up seamlessly, then find a video card and driver that would work with it?

Maybe there's an easier way, like buying a PCB and just using that to drive some kind of special arcade monitors and new controls?

Jason

[torez]

Think most of the newer decent video cards offer screen splitting to more than one monitor.

[Bluedeath]

Hou have to use a semi reflective glass tilted by 45

[Flip_Willie]

Hey,

    I am not sure about using 2 arcade monitors, but using 2 Pc montiors is easy enough.  Right now, my personal computer has that set-up.  ( Two monitors side by side using a horizontal video stretch. )  X-Men 6 players looks awesome on it.  A lot of newer video cards have VGA and a DVI output. DVI to VGA adapters usually come with your card, so setting up two VGA PC monitors isn't that hard.
   
     It would probably be more difficult to get two arcade monitors working, but I am sure it is possible.

     By the way, I have some schematics of the original X-men 6 player arcade.  (Found them on this forum a while ago.) I will post them later, if you want them.

Flip Willie

[Angry_Radish]

If you are near milwaukee, I saw one for sale here for around 800 I think..

[Bluedeath]

Hey,

    I am not sure about using 2 arcade monitors, but using 2 Pc montiors is easy enough.  Right now, my personal computer has that set-up.  ( Two monitors side by side using a horizontal video stretch. )  X-Men 6 players looks awesome on it.  A lot of newer video cards have VGA and a DVI output. DVI to VGA adapters usually come with your card, so setting up two VGA PC monitors isn't that hard.
   
     It would probably be more difficult to get two arcade monitors working, but I am sure it is possible.

     By the way, I have some schematics of the original X-men 6 player arcade.  (Found them on this forum a while ago.) I will post them later, if you want them.

Flip Willie

two vga monitors are ok as long as you don't use LCD ones (they're not bright enough).

[jlfreund]

MAWs lists the display size as 288 wide (presumably each of the two CRT's is that width)

Would it be possible to use a nice 768 LCD television set?  I think using a single display to render both monitor outputs would be the best choice because then your cabinet would work well with other games.

Jason

[Bluedeath]

MAWs lists the display size as 288 wide (presumably each of the two CRT's is that width)

Would it be possible to use a nice 768 LCD television set?  I think using a single display to render both monitor outputs would be the best choice because then your cabinet would work well with other games.

Jason

Of course is possibile, but if you want the same experience of the original cabinet you must use 2 CRT

[jlfreund]

MAWs lists the display size as 288 wide (presumably each of the two CRT's is that width)

Would it be possible to use a nice 768 LCD television set?  I think using a single display to render both monitor outputs would be the best choice because then your cabinet would work well with other games.

Jason

Of course is possibile, but if you want the same experience of the original cabinet you must use 2 CRT

Really?  I haven't seen a setting in Mame to lay out multi-monitor output side by side on a single monitor.  When I say "possible", I mean possible without chaning MAME.  How would you do it?

Jason

[Bluedeath]

MAWs lists the display size as 288 wide (presumably each of the two CRT's is that width)

Would it be possible to use a nice 768 LCD television set?  I think using a single display to render both monitor outputs would be the best choice because then your cabinet would work well with other games.

Jason

Of course is possibile, but if you want the same experience of the original cabinet you must use 2 CRT

Really?  I haven't seen a setting in Mame to lay out multi-monitor output side by side on a single monitor.  When I say "possible", I mean possible without chaning MAME.  How would you do it?

Jason

In the wersion of mame 32 that i'm using there is an option to use multi monitors and wich one is the main display. Is an amd64 optimized version of mame32 0.109

[Silver]

Really?  I haven't seen a setting in Mame to lay out multi-monitor output side by side on a single monitor.  When I say "possible", I mean possible without chaning MAME.  How would you do it?

If you are happy to just use 1 monitor with the image squished, then I am not sure quite what you are asking when you ask "is it possible". Not sure how well the game runs (a lot of games listed as 'imperfect' in MAWS will play fine).

I believe mame defaults to showing multimonitor games on one monitor. With the new rendering system now in place, you can define a layout for each game that will display it however you want. For example, Ninja Warriors and Darius are both triple-screen games (3 CRTs side by side - although actually done with mirrors to avoid the gap) and mame plays them fine on 1, 2 or 3 monitors. No changes to mame required, just creating a correct layout file. I believe just running "mame darius" with default settings will play it with all 3 screens shown on one screen.

The only other potential to check is that all 6 players controls have been hooked up in the driver (probably have).

Note, if you build a 6-player control panel, you will find one monitor quite small for 6 people to crowd around - especially when you consider you will have large areas of the screen black as the wide image is squished to fit on a single TV...

[davieboynj]

I know this isn't really going to be constructive, but I would just hang tough and get the original cabinet - - you'll eventually be able to find one.  even in an arcade, i'm sure they'd be almost happy to give it to you.  a 6p xmen doesn't pull quarters today, and cannot be converted into anything else. 

But, if that doesn't pan out, or if space is an issue, i would go completely off the beaten path: make a showcase cabinet that is just a pedestal with 6 sets of controls on top of it and a projector at the base firing up into an adjustable mirror directly underneath the control panel.  pull it 7 feet away from the wall and VOILA - - best 6p Xmen experience ever, and on your wall, no less.  old projectors don't cost much these days, and it can be easily converted into something else if you get bored with it. 

[sphetr2]

I know this isn't really going to be constructive, but I would just hang tough and get the original cabinet - - you'll eventually be able to find one.  even in an arcade, i'm sure they'd be almost happy to give it to you.  a 6p xmen doesn't pull quarters today, and cannot be converted into anything else. 

I agree. I saw one go for $300 in my area. Cheap! Especially for what you're getting. 2 Big CRT's, and one of the best multiplayer games around!

Also, shipping for this baby is a  , so you'll want to make sure you find one near you.

Oh, davieboynj-  thanks a lot. I drooled on my pants.

[jlfreund]

Really?  I haven't seen a setting in Mame to lay out multi-monitor output side by side on a single monitor.  When I say "possible", I mean possible without chaning MAME.  How would you do it?

If you are happy to just use 1 monitor with the image squished, then I am not sure quite what you are asking when you ask "is it possible". Not sure how well the game runs (a lot of games listed as 'imperfect' in MAWS will play fine).

I believe mame defaults to showing multimonitor games on one monitor. With the new rendering system now in place, you can define a layout for each game that will display it however you want. For example, Ninja Warriors and Darius are both triple-screen games (3 CRTs side by side - although actually done with mirrors to avoid the gap) and mame plays them fine on 1, 2 or 3 monitors. No changes to mame required, just creating a correct layout file. I believe just running "mame darius" with default settings will play it with all 3 screens shown on one screen.

The only other potential to check is that all 6 players controls have been hooked up in the driver (probably have).

Note, if you build a 6-player control panel, you will find one monitor quite small for 6 people to crowd around - especially when you consider you will have large areas of the screen black as the wide image is squished to fit on a single TV...

Thanks!  I didn't know there were settings to layout multiple monitors' output into one.  I'll give that a try.  If MAME can layout the two screens side by side, and the video driver could support a resolution that allows the two side by side frames to take advantage of the full width of the television monitor, then I could conceivably get an image as wide or wider than two landscape-oriented arcade monitors (depending on how biggie my television is)

I'm still in the what-if phase now.  Just finishing building my first cab. I don't know if there will be a second.  But it's great to know there is a possibility.

If I were to do it, I might start with an old unit and refurbish it.  My goal would be to replicate the cabinet and artwork, but upgrade the controls and guts on the inside to make it more mamey.  That would require the widescreen television so that I could play single monitor games.

Jason

[Silver]

Yeah I just fired it up. Seems to work perfectly with full sound. mame does default to both screens on 1 monitor, but has options to split across two screens in the arcade.

Heres a quick snap. Note the large amount of black space top and bottom, required to maintain the aspect ratio while squeezing the image onto one monitor (ie stops the graphics looking squished). If you want to play this on one monitor with 6 people, you need a LARGE monitor or projector IMHO.

[jlfreund]

Yeah I just fired it up. Seems to work perfectly with full sound. mame does default to both screens on 1 monitor, but has options to split across two screens in the arcade.

Heres a quick snap. Note the large amount of black space top and bottom, required to maintain the aspect ratio while squeezing the image onto one monitor (ie stops the graphics looking squished). If you want to play this on one monitor with 6 people, you need a LARGE monitor or projector IMHO.

Nice!  Thanks for testing that.  I didn't realize the black space would be so big, but I guess that's the compromise you need to make if you want to make it a MAME box instead of pure XMen.  At least it's possible to get the proper aspect and proper physical dimensions if you buy a big enough TV.

Jason

[Spaz Monkey]

Dude, that thing is *HUGE*!!  I think the footprint is something like 6ft wide and appx 8ft deep!

[Flip_Willie]

Here are some diagrams of the original cabinet.  ( I found them on this site a while ago. )

[Dav]

Dude, that thing is *HUGE*!!  I think the footprint is something like 6ft wide and appx 8ft deep!

Yeah, it's much deeper than it looks because there's a 25 inch monitor hanging of the back.  I just happened to have a spot where there was a doorway behind it so it wasn't too bad.  The front cabinet makes a nice place to store spare jamma boards.  The bad thing about it for swapping boards is the controls are on the left and the jamma monitor is on the right.

The ones I've seen at auction usually sell for about what 2 25" monitors are worth.  That keeps them from getting dirt cheap.