building a desktop controll box, need help.

[vide0bug13]

Last time I had a nice post then that log out after 60 minutes thing went off and I lost all of it  so heres a short rundown:
I am making a table top arcade box with a laptop in it. the laptop outputs to a television, so the box will plug into a television.

IMPORTANT STUFF:
* Laptop has a 700 mhz processor, 64mb ram, 3.2 gig HDD and a ATI RAGE mobility-P graphics card.
* I ordered 2 8-way joysticks and 12 buttons (plus 2 player and 1 player buttons)

A few questions:
1. How can i get 2 players playing smoothly at once? From past experiences I have seen keyboard don't like more than 3 things happening at once.
The laptop has its built in keyboard, serial port, usb port, and a ps/2 port.

2. I have a windows 98 disk, will this be good? (i play on trying to do a "front end", all I have to do is edit the boot file right?)

3.How many buttons do most games need, I can have up to 6 buttons a player but i would still need exit and coin buttons right?

Any other tips/ tricks will be welcomed.

PS. Sorry for being so blunt, I'm pretty sick right now and don't fell like typing another super post

[BASS!]

To get this running smoothly you will need a very trimmed down version of mame. I would reccomend going to the software forum search, and look up advancecd / or dos mame. I have gotten mame to run great on similar specs, but it does take a bit of work.  I would say .84 mame would be a good version to go for. As for your controllers, it does look like you are trying to go on the cheap, but you will need some way to translate those button presses / joystick hits to keyboard keys. Do a search for the ipac2 or the keywiz ( you can mash every single button at once and it will register). You will wire your controls into this, and when you hit a button, your computer will think a key is being pressed on the keyboard.

As far as your windows cd goes, you may just be using it to install the latest dos, and then erase windows all together, and just load into your frontend.

Good luck:-)

[BASS!]

Oh yeah, I totally forgott. If this is your first wiring job I really recomend the minipac. It comes with all of the wires and connectors, so there is no fiddly crimping and soldering. I myself have never used one, but many here have, and rave about it.

[vide0bug13]

yep, I am doing this cheap . Most of this thing is made of parts laying around, i really don't want to buy anything else.
Also, what would slow mame down? If it needs more ram i can get some...

And I had an idea, if I have player one connected to the laptop keyboard and player 2 connected to an external keyboard would they still run into the key ghosting problem?

EDIT: i found a key wiz here:
http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=200
are you shure this will support 2 players with no problems? I will buy this if i have to...

[Turnarcades]

I'm pretty much an expert in running low-end deskop PC's and 700 Mhz is about the minimum I would use with XP, a resource-friendly front-end and a pre-0.106 build of MAME. As I find laptops generally need higher specs to work equivalently well (particularly RAM requirements), you should not aim any higher than this software arrangement for the system you intend to use in your project.

With regards to controls, I seriously recommend you go with an i-pac or equivalent as it will save you tons of time and headaches, plus overcomes the problems related to keyboard hacks and ghosting. Wiring your own can seem like a good choice, but for the £30 it saves you you can run into a host of complaints and kick yourself every time you experience a problem. 6 buttons each should be plenty for you, with coin+credit each and maybe one or two more for frequent use commands like escape or pause if you don't like the idea of shifted functions. The credit buttons come in handy as an additional button for other platforms too, like 'select' on SNES.

[vide0bug13]

well, i plan on putting 98 in it not XP...
also, i plan on getting that keywiz.
ps. does anyone have a link to mamewah? the site seems to not exist for me...

[Bloinkxp]

From the "old days" i ran Mame .36-.55 on a Win98 machine with a thumping PIII650 and I used a keyboard hack.  Eventually, I did go the Keywiz route with the same rig.

Mamewah's site seems down.  Try sending a message to Minwah (he is the author).

[Turnarcades]

Haven't spoken to Min for a few weeks so dunno what he's doin at the mo. Obviously I highly recommend Mamewah as I would not use anything else in our cabs.

[vide0bug13]

well, i found mamewah but it claims to be missing system flies or something of the like, anyone know where to get these besides the main site?

[Turnarcades]

I've got them but not sure if I'm allowed to up them. Hang fire a few days or PM Minwah for them.

[vide0bug13]

Hey, how do i find him? I tried that "people finder" link up top but it doesn't exist.
also, will the computer run games like mortal combat smoothly(700mhz, 256mb ram, ATI rage mobility-p)? I don't want 6 buttons per player if they aren't necessary...
and one more question, how long/wide should i make this thing? currently I plan on making it about a foot wide and three feet long (this will be a 2 player box).

[Turnarcades]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=profile;u=501

That's his profile. 6 buttons per player is more ideal, especially if you are currently going for 5. 6 is the norm for many fighting games and adds functionality in other platforms. You would struggle to get any of the MK or similar Midway games running at that spec on a decent P3 desktop PC so highly doubtful on your laptop. If you want these games you'd be better off using the MD version (MK1, UMK3 custom) and SNES version (MK2, MK3) as they are the best versions respectively and run on the lower specs very well.

Finally, if making a standalone panel you will need to make it a bit wider than you would on a cab as if you are going to play it seated you need to allow a little extra elbow/knee room between you and the secnd player. The size you mention will be more than enough unless you're fatties though be careful with your dimensions else it will be a heavy, ungainly frankenpanel.I certainly wouldn't recommend going above 30" wide for just two players, though you could go a little deeper for wrist comfort and stability. See our build thread below which shows a 'Box Arcade' we built for a customer which had decent dimensions.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=75157.0;all

[daywane]

MK can play full speed on a 700meg CPU
256meg ram
Mame 56 did fine on my HP pavilion with the above specs.
EDIT:
I just remembered.
I did go to XP (from Windows ME)
and added a 64 meg radion vid card
That might be the difference
also I never had a lap top.
things might be differant with a lap top

[gonzo90017]

well, i found mamewah but it claims to be missing system flies or something of the like, anyone know where to get these besides the main site?

Make sure you run "setup.bat".