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A Mame machine in an antique buffet - USB probs solved (I think!)
wilno45:
Bought my nephew a spud gun and a potato for christmas, guess which one we gave him first. ;D
drventure:
That's great!
saurian333:
--- Quote from: drventure on October 20, 2009, 11:37:46 pm ---Just read another thread here about a little gizmo I'd never heard of before
the ARFX light effects module
http://www.arfx.nl/index.php?main_page=index
Whoa! Since my monitor is hanging out in front of the backing board of my cab (yeah, it's kinda weird that way), something like this could totally work for me!
This and those AimTrak modules and it'll be one hell of a christmas!
--- End quote ---
Hey Doc, I only just saw your post on this. Just wanted to mention that I personally have an amBX system (lights only, not the built-in speakers, fans, other goofy stuff), and I think it's pretty sick. Obviously the ARFX would work better in your case, since they're LEDs on a bar and take up less space. The amBX is pretty bulky, although your cabinet might allow you to place everything down inside the box and still get a pretty cool effect.
Also, I see that ARFX has somewhat better Linux support and a lot of other software-related advantages. That appeals to me as well, although I primarily like the amBX for gaming, which (unfortunately) restricts me to Windows anyway.
The advantage of the amBX? It's WAY cheaper than ARFX. On eBay or what have you, for just the lights, you're looking at probably around $60-100, last time I checked. I got mine on woot.com during the last woot-off, for $25 shipped. Looks like the ARFX starts at 100 Euros. :o
Anyway, just food for thought, if you were serious about that. If you can find an amBX as cheap as I got mine, it might be worth playing with. I certainly don't regret mine.
drventure:
Holy ^&*%!
That's perfect, and CHEAP! 5 minutes of searching turned up a site selling them for 35$+10 shipping, so I suspect I can find them even cheaper like you mentioned.
http://www.sizzletwist.com/philips-ambx-starter.html
Thanks for that pointer! I hadn't run across this but it would work just fine I suspect. It's basically the same thing, only using traditional LED's rather than the strips so they're bulkier. I my case, I'd probably have to decase them (or desolder the LED's and hook them to wires to run them where I need them). But still, that's easy to do. It'd also provide a few other possibilities, like potentially hooking up the led console lights I built to that device rather than the LEDwiz. And at 20-40$, I wouldn't cry over decasing them ;)
Great stuff!
drventure:
Well, yesterday at our New Years Day party, the cab finally got a (small) workout. No one there was +truly+ into old school classic arcade stuff like people here, but we had a great round of "I used to play this game.... Can't remember what it was called, you run around...shooting....blah blah".... Followed, by several guesses, then some game's name comes up... "Track And Field?".... "Yeah that's here", and we fire it up, then repeat the process.
My cabs definitely not quite "hardened" but it handled pretty well for having 4 guys pounding on it during a game of TMNT, and 2 guys playing track and field FAR better than I ever will :)
Everyone loved the theme. I didn't actually collapse it, as the front doors are off and I've got several elements undergoing "finish out" right now. And worse, I don't have any of the lighting actually operational, so that whole element is dead right now (though that amBX module will certainly help in that regard!).
But it was definitely a good time (as was Halo on the projection screen!).
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