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Bella's Arcade [FINISHED]
javeryh:
--- Quote from: theCoder on November 13, 2007, 07:54:13 am ---Did you end up getting the Mame hi score logic working?
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Hey Coder - I did get the high score patch working - it's awesome. I topped 100,000 in Galaga for the first time the other night. I still have several nagging things to do before I can call this 100% complete though:
1. Refine the MaLa Layout. superbigjay graciously made me a layout and it looks amazing. I've attached a pic if anyone is interested - the big box on the left is for the list of games and the bix box on the right is where the snaps go. I like the way things are laid out but I want to change the font to something more "girly" - the games are displayed in Arial right now and it just doesn't blend in. I also want to increase the size of the font, if possible although right now any letter like 'g' or 'j' or something that hangs low gets cut off a bit... I also want to incorporate some of the colored flowers from the background of the marquee into the background of the layout... I don't know... I need to teach myself how to make these things.
2. Refine my Gamelists. I don't know how to use the "Tree" functions in MaLa yet - right now I have an "All Games" list, a "Horizontal" list and a "Vertical" list and they are still too cumbersome to sort through. I'm thinking I need to separate them into categories like "Puzzle", "Classic", "Shooter", "Fighter", etc. I also need to go through them and remove the duplicates and generally crappy games that no one will ever play (which there are quite a lot of).
3. Install the microswitches behind the coin door return buttons for "insert coin" - right now I repregrammed the "Pause" button as "Coin" because it was such a pain. This is actually a decent solution (just get rid of pause) but after playing the other day with the wife and kids talking to me every 5 minutes I realized a pause button is essential.
4. Install the coin box. This should take 10 minutes.
5. Possibly relocate the power button. Right now if I open the coin door I can reach inside and hit power on the computer itself to power on and off. It works I guess but I'm thinking of relocating it to somewhere on the cabinet (I don't know where yet though - probably the rear of the cabinet). I don't want my kids opening up the cabinet every time they want to play.
6. Apply the vinyl button decals. I had some pink vinyl button decals made to apply to the black admin buttons. They are really cool - the Start buttons are little girl icons. This shouldn't take too long.
7. Make a pink dustwasher for the joystick. I want to take a piece of 1/8" thick plexiglass and make a 2-1/2" diameter circle and paint the bottom pink and then polish the edges. Details like this and the button decals will really make the CP stand out I think.
That's kind of a lot now that I've typed it all out. I almost wish it wasn't playable so I'd just finish the thing! Once I'm done I'm going to take a ton of pics and even record some footage with our new video camera. :cheers:
superbigjay:
Looking good Javeryh,
good progress for a dad :laugh2:
For your layout and adding flowers, it's really simple in illustrator or any other program... Simply a matter of cut'n paste.
If you don't have the suitable program or can't make it, send me a PM with what you want and I'll try to do it...
It shouldn't take too long ;)
PS:
Getting the Hi-Score to work is on my list of todo.
Is it hard to compile mame...
I saw some tutorials and it seems simple enough??
Jay :cheers:
javeryh:
The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!!
I finally got around to installing a microswitch behind the coin return buttons. When the coin return button is pressed, it trips the microswitch sending the signal to the computer. The hardest part was figuring out the placement of the microswitch and how to get it to stay in place.
Here are a couple of "before" shots of the back of the coin door. The yellow plastic is the return button and the red plastic is what presses the cherry actuator on the microswitch.
I couldn't attach the microswitch directly to the plastic on the coin mech because the cherry button on the microswitch would not be activated in this position. My lovely wife suggested using some fireplace kindling as a shim - what a great idea! I cut the shim to size and then positioned the microswitch on it so it would be activated once the coin return button was pressed - I marked everything with a sharpie and then glued everything together in one shot using some Gorilla Glue and a spring clamp. Check it out:
Finally, I ran the wires in parallel (I think that's what it's called) from the actual coin door switch to my newly positioned microswitch. The last shot really gives you a good idea how the whole thing works. The yellow coin return button is pressed which pushes the red plastic into the cherry actuator on the microswitch. Pretty cool.
Now that the coin door is set up, I can insert coins whenever I want but if I don't tell anyone, maybe I can sucker a few friends into dropping some quarters in the machine!
Xb0x3r:
Quick thought, you could have a switch behind both coin returns and have them go through an AND gate so that when both are pressed, the chip sends a 1 (or 0, if common anode) and there you have it, a secret way to insert coins ;D
I'm planning on doing this on mine (when I'm at that stage ;))
javeryh:
--- Quote from: Xb0x3r on January 27, 2008, 07:03:17 pm ---Quick thought, you could have a switch behind both coin returns and have them go through an AND gate so that when both are pressed, the chip sends a 1 (or 0, if common anode) and there you have it, a secret way to insert coins ;D
I'm planning on doing this on mine (when I'm at that stage ;))
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That's a neat idea - maybe I'll try that on my next one but I think I'm going to leave it as is for this one. It's already pretty hidden, IMO. Plus, I don't think I have the skills for something like that! :cheers:
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