Sanity Check

[lordbah]

What I have:
Cabinet which will limit control panel to 23" wide by 6" deep
Computer running Linux and xmame
Computer speakers
LCD monitor

What I will use result for:
Single player old (80s) arcade games

What I will buy:
UltraStik 360
SpinTrak
U-Trak
5 play buttons
3 admin buttons (Shift, Coin/Start, Pause/Exit)

The joystick, trackball, and spinner all say they can be directly connected to USB, and the buttons can connect to the joystick, so apparently I don't need an I-PAC or similar encoder.

I'd certainly like to be able to wedge in a second joystick for Robotron and Root Beer Tapper, but even without it I don't know whether I can fit what I've got on such a small panel. I've been trying the designer tools but they aren't very novice-user-friendly.

Of the games I'm interested in, none has more than 5 buttons used in play. However they aren't all in the same position relative to the non-button controls. I'm trying to keep it down to 5 anyway since the UltraStick only handles 8 buttons.

I know xmame is supposedly abandoned, but sdlmame was unusably slow on this machine (Dell Inspiron 530).

So ... what am I overlooking?

[DaveMMR]

You have it pretty figured out.   But ditch the "SHIFT" button.  The "Start" button is the most common one to double as "shift" (i.e. hold it down and any other button would be secondary).

Five buttons is fine (though with the U360 harness, you can have up to six: start, coin and six action). 

You probably can wedge in a second joystick.   23" (especially for a one player setup) is more than enough.  Mine's only 25" wide and it has 2 joysticks with six buttons each, trackball, and spinner.   Classic CP's were not all that wide compared to more modern arcade fighters (and Golden Tee).  There are tools to help you plan it out, check the wiki.

Try the latest command-line MAME on your setup with a selection of games you're interested in.   If you're having trouble, try an older version.  I happen to like .99 for most games and .116 for Bubble Bobble. 

[Ginsu Victim]

My CP is 23 5/8" x 11" and I have two U360s, 7 buttons each per player, 2 start buttons, 2 pause buttons, and a spinner.

Even with yours being 6" deep, you should be able to fit two sticks if you want to.

[Ummon]

Ginsu, he's also putting in a trackball (u-trak).

I like having a dedicated pause button, which doubles as exit in shift mode. Of course, the spinner and trackball will accomodate at least three buttons each, too.

[bigredsk10]

Can I suggest putting the admin buttons, like pause or insert coin, on the side of the arcade cabinet. That way you save clutter on top, can play pinball games and its kind of fun to slap the side of the cabinet to pause the game

[DaveMMR]

Ginsu, he's also putting in a trackball (u-trak).

Actually, with the u-trak, he'd have even more available space since it doesn't require a mounting plate.  Six inches deep would be a tight depth with one (assuming 3"). 

You just can't play Golden Tee.   

[PsychoAU]

I have what used to be a Centipede cabinet that has long since been converted.  I built mine with 2 players with 7 buttons each and a 2.25" Trackball.  The CP on those is 23.75" wide.  But, there are two supports under the CP that are 3/4" on each side, so really I have 22.25" to work with.  I built it about 10" deep, but the front piece of MDF takes 3/4" off the depth, so I really have 9.25".  I am using two U360s so I don't have to worry about joystick microswitch clearance.

I have attached the Visio template of my CP so you can play around with the layout.

Instead of a Tornado Spinner like in the template, I am going to use a TurboTwist 2, but you can see how a Tornado would fit there (it takes a 2" x 2" footprint).

I even had room to have a row of buttons at the top.  I am only putting the Player 1/2 start buttons and two in the middle which are mouse buttons.  I have the shift button under the bottom of my CP box and some pinball buttons on the sides.

It was a really tight fit, but it can be done.  Hope this helps you a little.

EDIT*: Here is a video I put together real quick stepping you through my finished CP.  Gives you a better idea of how everything looks using my template on the final product.

[lordbah]

Does that feel weird for something like Pac-Man, where you're only using one control and it's all the way over on the left rather than centered?

My cabinet used to be a Galaxian.

[PsychoAU]

It depends on how you play pac-man.  I play normal games with my left hand using the joystick (right for buttons, of course) so when I play pac-man, I play it with the left hand like the other games.  So I stand in the middle and play with my left hand.  If you play pac-man with your right hand, then it can get tricky.  But it's not a problem for me.

[lordbah]

It's time to try to configure MAME to use the controls. The obvious route of just start it up, hit tab, player 1 controls, p1 up, enter, then move the first joystick up ... did nothing. I haven't been able to find documentation for what to put into xmamerc to get it to use the new devices. I do see in /dev/input js0 and js1 for the two joysticks (though not until I rebooted), and there are 6 mouse devices now where there used to be 2 so it's probable that some of those are the trackball and the spinner, though I couldn't say which is which. Anyone running Linux (Ubuntu), USB devices (no IPAC), have any words of wisdom?

EDIT:
More googling found something.

xmame.SDL -joytype 5

finds both joysticks, and I am able to map them via the tab menu. I was also able to map the only pushbutton I've got wired up, which is connected to one of the joysticks. However -trackball is rejected as an invalid argument. No idea what argument to try for the spinner.

EDIT2:
-mouse is rejected. -alwaysusemouse is accepted but doesn't change anything. For the trackball, vertical motions kind of work but seem quite damped, horizontal motions don't really work (sometimes the pointer will move a little to the right, really never goes left). The spinner doesn't work at all.

Is xmame too old to support USB trackball and spinner?

[lordbah]

Spinner works now. The cable coming from it has two rows of pins, but the connector which turns that into USB only has one row of sockets. I just had to move it from the bottom row of pins to the top row. No idea why they don't match ...

Still can't get the trackball working right.

The joysticks work, but when I release one after a move and it snaps back to center, it transmits a motion in the opposite direction. Have to figure out where and how to tune that.

[Ginsu Victim]

If you're using U360s, then the snapback problem might be helped by increasing the deadzone in your maps. Are you using the default springs or the hard springs?

[mr_doles]

Actually, with the u-trak, he'd have even more available space since it doesn't require a mounting plate.  Six inches deep would be a tight depth with one (assuming 3"). 

You just can't play Golden Tee.   

Why can't he play golden tee?  Is it a space issue or an issue with the game and the u-trak?  I am looking at trackballs now and want to make sure I can play golden tee.  I know just because I am asking it is a joke on the space and I look like an idiot  but better safe then sorry!

[Ginsu Victim]

Golden Tee requires a lot of depth in the CP so you can slap the ball hard. A small CP equals broken fingers.

[nuka1195]

Use your thumbs on each side of the trackball. works great, no broken fingers or dislodged bezel.

[lordbah]

Default springs, default maps on the joysticks. Unless there is a Linux version of the UltraMap utility, I guess I'd have to dismount the joystick and move it upstairs to connect to the PC to alter the map?

The version of xmame I'm using is apparently too old to accept the -multimouse option. Is there another way to teach it to tell the difference between the spinner and trackball? It might not be important since I don't think I have any games which use both - as long as this conflict isn't what's preventing the trackball X axis from working.