3 million newbie q's

[dash213]

well maybe not 3 million but a few!!

i want to build a cocktail cab and have it set up for vertical games and horizontal games ie: controls on two sides opposite, and a set of controls on one side (for two players) which can also be utilised for dual joystick games (karate champ is one of my all time favourite games!!)

is this possible??  what sort of controller would be best??  keyboard hack?? I-PAC??  i would like to try the keyboard hack (my best mate is an electronic technician, so no probs there!!)

also, how do you set up mame to switch the screen between two players??  i can do it manually through the mame menu, but it won't switch when it swaps between players.

sorry if i have asked a lot, but i am totally new to all of this.

[paigeoliver]

A cocktail table with four control panels can actually play almost everything in MAME with the proper orientation and everything (at least for one player action). Exactly what would go on each panel would be a matter of choice. But I once figured out a layout that played ALMOST everything 100 percent correctly. (and without having 9000 controls on each panel).

To get the screen to flip for player 2 you have to go into the game's dip switch menu and enable cocktail mode. Not all games have this option.

[Brax]

well maybe not 3 million but a few!!

i want to build a cocktail cab and have it set up for vertical games and horizontal games ie: controls on two sides opposite, and a set of controls on one side (for two players) which can also be utilised for dual joystick games (karate champ is one of my all time favourite games!!)

is this possible??  what sort of controller would be best??  keyboard hack?? I-PAC??  i would like to try the keyboard hack (my best mate is an electronic technician, so no probs there!!)

also, how do you set up mame to switch the screen between two players??  i can do it manually through the mame menu, but it won't switch when it swaps between players.

sorry if i have asked a lot, but i am totally new to all of this.

You want to do this:
http://www.smacksville.com/

Click on cocktail..... Its the perfect solution.

[rampy]

is this possible??  what sort of controller would be best??  keyboard hack?? I-PAC??  i would like to try the keyboard hack (my best mate is an electronic technician, so no probs there!!)

Welcome aboard, man... and good luck with your project...

Even if your best friend is houdini, I'd still go for the ipac (especially if you are in the UK)... or other keyboard encoder (like the keywiz)...

It's not worth the time and effort to hack a keyboard, when there are plenty of other things you could be working on for your cabinet. =P

while you are shopping at ultimarc's site.. maybe grab some t-sticks or j-sticks so you can switch easily (or, rather easier) from 8 way mode to 4 way mode and back again... (or leave some in 4 way mode)

*shrug* that's what I'd do anyways.. and definitely check out smack's cocktail as brax points out...

rampy

[dash213]

thanks for the info guys.

rampy - i am in australia, so whatever an i-pac plus shipping costs in pounds, multiply by 3 for aussie dollars!!!

that is one of the main reasons why i want to try and use a keyboard hack, i just can't afford to buy an i-pac (read: wife won't let me!!!)  i have no problems on the building side of things, as i used to be a cabinet maker, but the electronics has got me buggered!!!

anyway, i guess i'll probably end up with and i-pac, it's just that i want it NOW, and my budget won't allow it at the moment.

[rampy]

thanks for the info guys.

rampy - i am in australia, so whatever an i-pac plus shipping costs in pounds, multiply by 3 for aussie dollars!!!

that is one of the main reasons why i want to try and use a keyboard hack, i just can't afford to buy an i-pac (read: wife won't let me!!!)  i have no problems on the building side of things, as i used to be a cabinet maker, but the electronics has got me buggered!!!

anyway, i guess i'll probably end up with and i-pac, it's just that i want it NOW, and my budget won't allow it at the moment.

Ah... I see... I assumed by your vernacular that you were in the UK, my bad (which woulda made shipping/duty cheaper on the ipac)

have you seen the key wiz cheapo keyboard encoder  although I have no idea if RandyT ships internationally or not...

Not sure if US to AUS is worse than UK to AUS ...  

you see this thread from a while ago where do aussies buy their parts

maybe get your ipac from oz stick?  http://home.iprimus.com.au/ozstick/parts.html

There's nothing wrong with using a keyboard hack, although youmay or may not have issues with finding the right keyboard that doesn't ghost/block/etc ....   it's  just highly recommended to save yourself a bunch of hassle and trouble and go with a keyboard encoder =P

best of luck and I hope this helps a little.

rampy

[anthony691]

I did the same thing, I used an I-Pac and wired the verticle player 1 and horizontal player 1 to the same spot on my I-Pac. I think it has a total of 29 buttons

[Smack]

Thanks for the plug!

If you've got any questions pertaining to my set up, just drop a line on the board here and I'll cath up with you!

The Ipac4 is definately the way to go!

Smack