Driving Cabinets?

[pinballwizard79]

Driving arcades, anyone want to share?

I am thinking of buying a dead Cruisin USA or even a Hard Drivin cabinet with intentions of running MAME, System22, PC titles & etc.

You know, it seems like using a Logitech G25 for a wheel & PC loaded with a legal, nice & smooth running PC copy of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 would make playing Race Drivin, San Fransisco Rush, Rush 2049 & Hydro Thunder a pretty easy task.

The rest, well that's another story.

[divemaster127]

That is what I did used a G25 &  modern pc games

[Dmod]

Here's my driving project using a Logitech Driving Force Pro and a Happ Speed Shifter.  I should update it as it's now 99% complete.  I'm running an OC'd E8400 at 4GHz which plays most of the driving games smoothly.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71515.0

Before the driving addition, my kids pretty much ignored both the MAME cabinet and gameroom.  Now they're in there almost every day.  Their favorite games are Radikal Bikers and the Cruisin USA.

[javeryh]

theCoder built a pretty sweet Xbox cabinet.  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=57479.0;all

[leapinlew]

Heres Mine:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=54588.0

Runs MAME - overall, it didn't have a lot of acceptable games. I sold it.

[mark shaker]

http://www.marksarcade.com/

There may be 2 cabinets of intrest:

   Sybil has various wheel, shifter and pedal attachments.

   ArcadeGTO is a dedicated sitdown driver that can work with a PC or PS2,
   but the PS2 games are so good that I don't bother playing PC games.

   - Mark

[Ummon]

http://www.marksarcade.com/

Wow, I've seen three panels, but five?  Nice keyboard touch, too. Also, that Hanaho is a neat approach to two trackballs....oh, and two spinners. Hmmm.

[pinballwizard79]

I managed to find this after a little searching: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80469.0


http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=hivVxzl7Mxw&eurl=http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=80469.0


I like it, only prob is I cannot stand analog monitors (endless issues & no support) & refuse to buy a $500+ digital tube.

So it looks like a PC based restored Hard Drivin cabinet with a 26" LCD and modified panels to secure the G25's components will be the best route.

Now if I can only figure out how these guys get Cruisin' to run so smooth:

[pinballwizard79]

Also, lew thats pretty sweet.

[Paul Olson]

Now if I can only figure out how these guys get Cruisin' to run so smooth:

A 3Ghz core2duo does pretty well at playing it smooth. I drop down to about 80% during the start when the girl is waving the flag, but it plays at 100% after that...at least so far. I haven't got my 270 wheel hooked up yet, so I haven't made it very far in the game. It is hard to play with a 360 wheel.  I will try to post back when I can make it through a race.

[pinballwizard79]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773

So upgrading to something like this should fix my woes eh?

[divemaster127]

The intel core duos are the way to go right now for the most power in mame
dm

[Paul Olson]

Like DM said, the Core2Duos are the only ones that will get you the speed you want.

[mark shaker]

http://www.marksarcade.com/

Wow, I've seen three panels, but five?  Nice keyboard touch, too. Also, that Hanaho is a neat approach to two trackballs....oh, and two spinners. Hmmm.

Thank you. 

On Sybil: If someone does a scratch build, they could eliminate the drawer, put the PC behind the marquee, and stuff in about 8 panels. 

On the Hanaho Arcade PC:  I'm sure a lot of people look at the position of the sticks and buttons and cringe, but the layout actually works great.

   - Mark

[pinballwizard79]

Thanks, good to know regarding the C2D's

I found this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

The nice thing is with a project like this starting several months from now & taking several months to finish if I buy the CPU right after completing the cabinet I benefit from 6-9 months of price drops.

So perhaps at that point a 4.0ghz will cost the same

Do you guys overclock your CPU's?

[Paul Olson]

I got my cpu at Fry's with a cheap motherboard that won't overclock, so I am stuck for now. I will get a new board one of these days then I will try overclocking. When you have some free time, quite a bit of free time, check out this thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=72776.40. There is a lot of good info there, but the thread has gotten pretty long.

[Dmod]

Do you guys overclock your CPU's?

I'm overclocking now with an E8400 at 4 GHz.  At this speed, all but a handful of driving games are playable without enabling frame-skipping.  There's still some minor sound-skips on a few games but these usually disappear during regular game play.

At 3 GHz, many games are still playable but the audio glitches ruin the experience.

If you want to play games like Cal Speed, Radikal Bikers, Speed-Up, SF Rush, etc.  I think you're looking at a 4GHz minimum.  The Cruisn games run well at slower clock rates.

BTW, my experience above is with running Vista x64 and multi-threading which definitely squeezes more performance out of the E8400 Core 2 Duo.

[pinballwizard79]

Hopefully in 6 months a 4ghz overclocked to 5ghz will be a mere $150

A few years ago purchasing a CPU capable of running any Cruisin game would have cost more than buying a dedicated cabinet.

Gotta love technology