Author Topic: Horror FPS bartop (Read 43168 times)

ChadTower · « **Reply #120 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:28:32 am »

Can't see a ton of gaming sites from work anymore... the Atomic edition isn't horror based, is it?

rovingmind · « **Reply #121 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:31:19 am »

maybe a new thread should be started with just a list of "horror" and "dark gothic" genre games?

I'm starting to think about building my own dedicated horror cab now. My only problem is i would want Carnevil.

rovingmind · « **Reply #122 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:38:00 am »

Quote from: ChadTower on April 23, 2007, 11:28:32 am

Can't see a ton of gaming sites from work anymore... the Atomic edition isn't horror based, is it?

well if doom is considered horror, duke nukem blows away the same kinds of alien monsters, plus egg sacks and strippers.

the atomic edition gives you the map editor and loader.
it was the last package version.
I have it somewhere in a box at my moms house along with an extra disc of something like 200+ add on levels

ChadTower · « **Reply #123 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:39:00 am »

I am absolutely in love with the art on Carnevil. Never seen the cab, just pics of it, but wow. Awesome.

I'm not really considering Doom itself to be horror, but I think there are a few custom WADs out there that are horror based.

rovingmind · « **Reply #124 on:** April 23, 2007, 11:55:43 am »

I played one carnevil cab a few times. loved it. Definitely need the huge monitor. If i had the rolls of dough i would set up to play it on a wide flatscreen. Its on my list of want to own.

ChadTower · « **Reply #125 on:** April 25, 2007, 05:03:27 pm »

PC is here... looks reasonable, now to find a power supply to test it with. I'm sure I have one around somewhere not in use.

Timoe · « **Reply #126 on:** April 25, 2007, 11:55:17 pm »

What does your bar top look like?

ChadTower · « **Reply #127 on:** April 26, 2007, 07:52:24 am »

Cab plans haven't been nailed down yet. It wouldn't do much good to design a cab without having the requirements finished. Odds are the shape won't be anything too unusual but the details will be.

ChadTower · « **Reply #128 on:** April 26, 2007, 03:09:43 pm »

Had some time this morning. I pulled the power supply from the PC I originally tried to test with, grabbed a 12g drive and a 50x cdrom off the shelf, and tried to power up.

Couldn't figure out at first how to make it "turn on" so I looked at how the other motherboard does it. Momentary contact switch over two pins on the front panel header on the motherboard. So, I grabbed the new motherboard user manual off the web, found the power button pins, and shorted them with a screwdriver. Fired right up.

Oddly, I guess this drive already has win98 on it. To my surprise it already started in the OS I need. Too bad it's Emachines branded so I'll have to re-image it.

Couldn't get the old 50x CD drive to eject the tray... grabbed an older 8x off the shelf. This one would eject and somehow had a Win98SE disc in it. WTF is going on here? A little while longer and still can't get it to recognize the oldass 8x. Pull a much, much newer drive off the shelf and this one fires right up. Two old drives to the trash can. The goal is to eventually not need the CD drive anyway.

Was about to re-image the drive when I had to go to work.

ChadTower · « **Reply #129 on:** April 27, 2007, 02:34:48 pm »

Proto CP planning.

The trackball is in hand. The joystick is still en route. I have a couple of Ultimarc controllers on hand, can't remember which right now, so that will determine which I buy going forward.

Things to be added as proto construction goes on:

Definitely:
GGG TrackBall Booster Kit

Maybe:
GGG Electric ICE™ RGB Trackball Lighting Upgrade Kit
GGG Opti-Wiz

rovingmind · « **Reply #130 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:43:51 pm »

how did your motherboard testout? or have you had time to set-up the drive yet.

ChadTower · « **Reply #131 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:46:52 pm »

The motherboard tested great... have to re-image the drive with fresh 98se but other than that, looks really good.

rovingmind · « **Reply #132 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:48:47 pm »

great, waiting for pictures now

ChadTower · « **Reply #133 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:58:22 pm »

Still nothing to see, really, other than the motherboard sitting on my workbench with the various parts attached to it.

rovingmind · « **Reply #134 on:** April 27, 2007, 04:14:03 pm »

I figured, but soon you will have your optiwiz and begin sizing panels and thinking about artwork.

ChadTower · « **Reply #135 on:** April 27, 2007, 04:18:04 pm »

First, I build a proto CP so I can see how many buttons I'll need and test out the proposed control scheme. It is possible this control scheme will suck and need serious revamping. I don't think it will but you never know.

ChadTower · « **Reply #136 on:** April 27, 2007, 07:40:22 pm »

Just imaged the drive with clean 98SE... no USB support, though.

Found an unofficial 98se service pack... sounds good. Trying that.

ChadTower · « **Reply #137 on:** April 27, 2007, 08:21:58 pm »

The oldass power supply is squealing when the motherboard is powered down... probably dead caps or dying inductor. I'll keep using it to test but when time comes to put it in the cab I'll need a new one.

theCoder · « **Reply #138 on:** April 27, 2007, 10:23:28 pm »

Quote from: leapinlew on April 14, 2007, 04:23:37 pm

As for your power - don't forget about wall warts. I prefer using those instead of drawing power from the computers PSU.

I used three transformers on my last project. 15 vdc for the monitor, 19 vdc for the CPU, and 12 vdc for fan, amp & led's. I tried creating a circuit to step down a 19 vdc to 15 & 12. It worked, but the monitor drew too much current and the thing got REALLY hot. I'd recommend looking into it if you are concerned about space & weight and are only powering simple stuff like lights & fans. It is documented in the PartyBox thread below in my sig.

You mentioned lighting your trackball? You can easily do it with 3 led's, 3 resistors, and 3 strategically drilled holes in the trackball housing.

Good luck with the build.

ChadTower · « **Reply #139 on:** April 30, 2007, 08:58:55 am »

Got USB support working and at least initially that service pack looks good.

ChadTower · « **Reply #140 on:** May 04, 2007, 07:48:37 pm »

Joystick is in... this sucker is a monster. It may be too big and heavy duty for a bartop. We'll see when I start making proto CPs... but goddam, I feel like if I put this on a bartop and yanked hard I could flip the cab over.

theCoder · « **Reply #141 on:** May 04, 2007, 08:02:13 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on May 04, 2007, 07:48:37 pm

Joystick is in... this sucker is a monster. It may be too big and heavy duty for a bartop. We'll see when I start making proto CPs... but goddam, I feel like if I put this on a bartop and yanked hard I could flip the cab over.

How big is too big? Do you have a picture of it?

ChadTower · « **Reply #142 on:** May 04, 2007, 08:04:15 pm »

That one.

ChadTower · « **Reply #143 on:** May 04, 2007, 09:04:10 pm »

Installing mobo drivers now... using an ancient serial trackball mouse. This mouse is awesome, it's hair sensitive, and the ball is nice. I'll have to seriously consider using this thing as a small CP control later on.

ChadTower · « **Reply #144 on:** May 04, 2007, 09:21:58 pm »

Drivers working well.

Killing Time is installed. The controls are more than I thought... here are the keyboard mappings grouped by how I'm initially seeing them on a CP.

Joystick directions

Forward Up
Backward Down
Turn Left Left
Turn Right Right

Trigger

Attack L Cntrl

Trackball

Look Up Page Up
Look Down Page Down
Side Step Left Q
Side Step Right W

Buttons immediately right and left of trackball?

Two joystick thumb buttons?

Run L. Shift
Next Weapon Delete

Side Step On L. Alt
Open/Use Space
Jump A
Crouch Z
Center View Home
Automap Tab

GadgetGeek · « **Reply #145 on:** May 04, 2007, 10:05:27 pm »

I don't recall what encoder you are using...any chance you could shift/shazamm a couple of the functions? Maybe sidestep on and automap? Might save a couple buttons on the CP.
Just a thought.

ChadTower · « **Reply #146 on:** May 05, 2007, 09:55:45 am »

Haven't chosen an encoder yet as I didn't know the layout requirements. I need to play a bit and remember exactly what automap and sidestep on are used for in the game, maybe I can just common them or something. I'm not familiar with the shazam or shift so I'll look that up tonight.

Grasshopper · « **Reply #147 on:** May 05, 2007, 10:06:32 am »

As you're using a trackball, I'd say that a mini-pac would be the most economical and flexible solution.

ChadTower · « **Reply #148 on:** May 05, 2007, 02:14:04 pm »

I may already have something else... I had a project a couple years ago so there are some controllers on hand, but I don't remember for sure which. I know there's a Jpac, a v1 AVGA, and an Ipac4... there may be an optiwiz or something else too as well as a repro tempest spinner. I've been collecting parts for a while now waiting on the chance to make some scratch builds.

KenToad · « **Reply #149 on:** May 07, 2007, 12:59:25 pm »

Man, it all sounds great, but such a tease without any visual accompaniment.

ChadTower · « **Reply #150 on:** May 07, 2007, 01:01:23 pm »

There is nothing to see yet anyway.

Havok · « **Reply #151 on:** May 07, 2007, 01:09:47 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on May 04, 2007, 08:04:15 pm

That one.

I'm not seeing that working out well for you. You might be better off just using a U360, or perhaps four buttons to move in the directions...

ChadTower · « **Reply #152 on:** May 07, 2007, 01:48:31 pm »

That doesn't give trigger or thumb buttons, though, so going that way puts it 6 or 7 buttons, not 4. The trigger joystick is the best way I have come up with so far to have that many distinct controls in one spot.

What I may have to compromise here, though, is finding a smaller trigger joystick. Since this isn't a commercial cab, if the Happ stick turns out to be too big, I can find a decent 8 way PC trigger joystick to use. That would actually be easier to interface, too.

shardian · « **Reply #153 on:** May 07, 2007, 02:11:40 pm »

I would recommend one of the older style pc joysticks like this one:
ebay link

I had one similar to this that had a small footprint and wasn't too tall or wide. I played the crap out of road rash with it.

ChadTower · « **Reply #154 on:** May 07, 2007, 02:13:15 pm »

That's like what I was thinking, though that particular one may be analog.

KenToad · « **Reply #155 on:** May 07, 2007, 02:56:00 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on May 07, 2007, 01:01:23 pm

There is nothing to see yet anyway.

I have never seen one of those Happ trigger sticks in "real life." How about just a photo of the hardware you have assembled so far, or even just a mockup of the layouts you're considering. I'm wondering what your trackball looks like, etc. Anyway, it's pretty weird to have 4 pages of a project announcement without even a mockup to show for it.

So show something already.

ChadTower · « **Reply #156 on:** May 07, 2007, 03:06:13 pm »

I'll give it a shot. I have it laid out in my head but I'm not very good with mockups. How do people usually demonstrate that in these threads usually? The one thing I don't want to do is spend 2 hours making concept mockups that I could have spent on the actual machine. This is my first scratch build so some of this is new to me.

KenToad · « **Reply #157 on:** May 07, 2007, 03:15:32 pm »

Well, there is the infamous cardboard mockup, which some people find works well and is really funny when people go overboard and try to make it playable. What I usually do is start with a potential controls layout and consider how the artwork could be strikingly integrated into it. But, I've never really tried anything as revolutionary as what you are attempting, so for you, I'm guessing that a test board will be very helpful for practice mounting and for actually playtesting your ideas. Any time you spend mocking it up will certainly not be wasted, as you will get a lot of feedback from the guys on here as well as a more concrete idea of where the potential design snags lie. As far as sharing your ideas initially, a basic sketch can make a world of difference. I'm sure a lot of people in this thread will be willing to chime in with wanted and unwanted opinions about the WIP in your head.

In any case, I'm looking forward to "seeing" progress.

ChadTower · « **Reply #158 on:** May 07, 2007, 03:41:58 pm »

Oh, yeah, a proto CP will definitely be made, maybe 2-3 of them. I didn't figure pics of a generic blank bartop cardboard cab would be all that useful. There isn't a ton of use in trying that until I have the actual requirements worked out, though. Requirements first, design second, build third. That's one thing I see a lot of guys do around here that I don't necessarily agree with... they've got the thing half built and are still tweaking the design elements around.

Havok · « **Reply #159 on:** May 07, 2007, 05:06:42 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on May 07, 2007, 01:48:31 pm

What I may have to compromise here, though, is finding a smaller trigger joystick. Since this isn't a commercial cab, if the Happ stick turns out to be too big, I can find a decent 8 way PC trigger joystick to use. That would actually be easier to interface, too.

Just get a Tron cocktail joystick. Should be real easy to find...


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