The Shmup! Arcade (Final Move 4-26-13)

[Ryglore]

Fantasic job Ryglore. 

I love to see a cab with full side art, it really does set it apart from the rest.

Everything else is damn sexy too 

Thanks! Ya I like full side art too. It's one of the reasons I decided to paint it on instead, and I didn't want to worry about ordering vinyl out and then having it not fit correctly because of a mismeasure or miscommunication.

 

[Ryglore]

After a week of prepping to "unveil" the Shmup tomorrow night for all my friends. I realized there still wasn't something right... Sure I have this huge gameslist, but it was a huge mess of mahjhong and clones, etc. So I downloaded romlister.

I tailored 3 games lists for the cabinet. The first is a list of games that are tailored toward the controls I have on the CP, 2 8 ways and 6 buttons and a trackball. So I set it to list only games that have 2 through 8 way joysticks and up to 6 buttons. As well as trackball and spinner support (since most spinner games you can play with the trackball just fine).

The next list is a list of all playable shooter games, vertical and horizontal. This is my main list that I'll prolly be playing the most often and it will give me all of my 1942s, Strikers, Gunbirds, Raidens etc as well as the R-types, Gradius and so on.

And finally I made a list of only Trackball games, this way we can quickly find trackball only games without scrolling through the main list of games.

 

[Epyx]

Hope you guys have a great time. I know anytime Ive had poker buddies over the breaks usually turn into the main event and overshadow the poker itself.

[Ummon]

I think that looks cool. I would've rounded all the corners.

If I may suggest some more curves?

[TOK]

I think he got it right. That looks like a melted Hershey Kiss.

[Epyx]

Agreed, for this cab the stronger lines add to the look.

[Ryglore]

Agreed, for this cab the stronger lines add to the look.

Agreed, if the front of the CP stand wasn't angled I could have gotten away with some nice curves. But with the sharp line of the angled front, rounded corners or curved edges wouldn't have fit.

[javeryh]

This cabinet is amazing - you should be very proud!   

[Ryglore]

This cabinet is amazing - you should be very proud!   

Thanks Javeryh! I am extremely happy with it.

Though I've been sick as a dog since this weekend so it's sadly not seen much use lately.   

[Epyx]

This cabinet is amazing - you should be very proud!

Agreed, what I love about Ryglore's cab is that it is a modern classic...modern but at the same time you can totally picture this rolling off the assembly line in the 80s.

Hopefully you get better...weekend deserves some playtime...nothing I like more than a couple of cold ones...a snack and some time in front of the cab, with Hockey in the background

[Ryglore]

Hopefully you get better...weekend deserves some playtime...nothing I like more than a couple of cold ones...a snack and some time in front of the cab

Agreed.... Daioh is calling my name.. 

[Ryglore]

I've been quietly working on the Coin Reject button labels, and since I was talking to Gamester about it on his thread, I figured I'd post what I was doing on mine. (Since I am borrowing his wife's idea about using vellum that is). I've been playing with various thicknesses of paper, trying to get the labels to look just right. The main problem I'm facing with it is the darkness of the blue in the reject buttons themselves. Unlike the stock Yellow buttons that came with the door, the blue knocks down the light quite a bit more that I anticipated.

Testing began while I was finishing up the cab late last month. Originally I used cardstock, figuring the blue buttons would allow nearly the same amount of light through as the yellow. Unfortunatly, the cardstock proved to thick and knocked the light down too much. I then tried regular office printer paper, but this also seemed to be only sub-par.

Fast forward to Gamester's post about his coin reject buttons and using vellum. His turned out really well, and he's using Red buttons. I happened to have some old vellum sheets still laying around from a previous project and decided to test that route. Seeing as I am also using LEDs for the lights which are a lot brighter than the #161 bulbs originally in the door, I decided to test the labels out as both a single label and a double ply label. Here are the results.

The label itself


The reject button with a single vellum label.


The reject button with a doubled up vellum label.


Though the second one looks ok in the picture, in person you can tell that the extra thickness of the vellum "white" sections is knocking the light down a bit much and you can't really read the word "Only" on the bottom of the label. This being the case, I opted to go with the just a single thickness of Vellum inside each button and here is how they look mounted in the door with all the springs and eclips back in place.

Finished buttons


Somehow I have a feeling that there are still a bunch of little touches that may end up still being tinkered with.... I guess a project is never really finished/

[Gamester]

Love the design, Ryglore!   

So, I know firsthand how hard it is to take a good picture of a lighted button, but is the bottom right corner as dark in person as it appears in the photo?  If so, perhaps a slight relocation of the lights is in order?

[Ryglore]

So, I know firsthand how hard it is to take a good picture of a lighted button, but is the bottom right corner as dark in person as it appears in the photo?  If so, perhaps a slight relocation of the lights is in order?

Ya the bottom corner is dark like that, i think it may be because of the LEDs, I'm not sure. I'm going to do some testing tonight and see what I can do to fix it. I was playing with it a little last night, but it got to be almost 1:30a and I had already stay up too late working on it.

[Epyx]

I used red transparencies from Staples for my coin inserts...they allow the red( or blue, green, clear etc) light to come through while blocking with what you have printed in black:

[Ryglore]

Nice Epyx! I may look into that if I don't like how things are turning out when I get around to monkeying with the lights.

[Ryglore]

After weeks of playing the SHMUP, I've decided that the MaLa layout that I had wasn't on par with what I was looking for in a GUI. So, I decided to craft a new layout using the same general set up as what I had before. Only now I have it so it shows the titles screen, a snapshot and the list name that I am currently viewing.

The list name was the big thing for me. Originally I thought it wasn't an option and decided to live with it. But, since I now know a lot more about the MaLa Layout program now than I did before, it was much easier to figure out everything. Plus I kept getting questions from friends that were playing it as to what list they were in... which I had memorized already.

Anyway, Here it is. I'll be installing it tomorrow night!



The tweaking continues...

[Queeg]

Looks great, you played the unification card very well on your cab. Menu looks nice and clean.


I envy you being done with your GUI, I am getting into my GameEx GUI and there is just so much info to process and align.

[Ryglore]

Looks great, you played the unification card very well on your cab. Menu looks nice and clean.

Thanks!

I envy you being done with your GUI, I am getting into my GameEx GUI and there is just so much info to process and align.

I really like the ease of setting up the layouts in MaLa and am glad I went with that FE. But I'm still learning little details and I'm sure in a few months layout v3.0 will be getting worked on. I still want to change the snaps section to video, but for now I'll be sticking with a regular screenshot

[Ryglore]

Huge thanks to drventure on this one! I've been wanting to run videos on the cab for the screensaver rather than the snaps folder like I had been. DV helped out by sending me his videos from his cab for the following:

1943: Battle of Midway
1943: Kai
1944
19xx
Armed Police Batrider
Batsugun
Centipede
Daioh
DonPachi
Galaga
Gunbird 2
R-Type
R-Type 2
R-Type Leo
Skull Fang
Shienryu
Strikers 1945 II
U.N. Defense: Earth Joker
Xevious

For right now the videos are running just fine on my cab as if it were idling in attact mode at an arcade! But I can already tell that I'm going to need more than just these 19 videos. So eventually I'll sit through the download over at emumovies and then weed out all of the shooters.

Eitherway, Huge thanks again to drventure! This is frickin sweet!

[emphatic]

Huge thanks to drventure on this one! I've been wanting to run videos on the cab for the screensaver rather than the snaps folder like I had been. DV helped out by sending me his videos from his cab for the following:

1943: Battle of Midway
1943: Kai
1944
19xx
Armed Police Batrider
Batsugun
Centipede
Daioh
DonPachi
Galaga
Gunbird 2
R-Type
R-Type 2
R-Type Leo
Skull Fang
Shienryu
Strikers 1945 II
U.N. Defense: Earth Joker
Xevious

For right now the videos are running just fine on my cab as if it were idling in attact mode at an arcade! But I can already tell that I'm going to need more than just these 19 videos. So eventually I'll sit through the download over at emumovies and then weed out all of the shooters.

Eitherway, Huge thanks again to drventure! This is frickin sweet!

Here's a video I took of my cab last night:


If you have an XBox 360, you really should get Mushihimesama Futari for it.

[Ryglore]

Here's a video I took of my cab last night:


If you have an XBox 360, you really should get Mushihimesama Futari for it.

Oh man, that game looks sick. But it looks like it's not available in the States... 

[emphatic]

Oh man, that game looks sick. But it looks like it's not available in the States... 

Don't worry mate, it's region free. I suggest you get it from www.videogameimports.com or http://www.ncsx.com/
This game is just too awesome.

[Ryglore]

Oh sweet. When I get some extra cash I'll have to look into it!

[opt2not]

Holy! That game looks awesome! I might have to look into it as well.

...and woah, you guys are up early

[Ryglore]

...and woah, you guys are up early

Ha, I'm at work. =P

[Ryglore]

Thanks to the videos that DrVenture gave me and the testing of the video screensaver, I decided that I needed as many videos of shooting games as possible. So I downloaded the torrent of EmuMovies complete collection and went to work.

After spending a little over an hour moving the video files to my external HDD and then sifting through them. I trimmed the video list down to 265 videos of any type of shooting game available. including Contra's, Metal Slugs, Mercs, Commando and a few others. I'm still debating on whether or not I want to keep the sound on while the screensaver is running though.

I will say that having videos of games running when the cabinet is idle not only looks way better. But it also allows me to see games in action and make note of them for later.   

[Ryglore]

Like I said earlier in my Centipede cab project thread, I am moving within a few days (Starting tomorrow). In the process I decided I need a better way to quickly remove the CP from the cab, since currently I need access to the rear of the machine to get to the USB ports for the trackball unit. So I decided to install a 4 port USB hub into the CP box for when I am in need of either removing the CP or adding files and have to attach my Keyboard and external HDD.

Also, I got a sweet new digi cam for Christmas and decided to mount it up on my tri-pod and record a little video treat for everyone that followed my progress throughout the build. The video goes through the entire load up, from completely off to load up and then I took some video of myself playing Strikers 1945 II and Centipede.

Also, this new digi has a super macro setting, and I was able to get a really good picture of the coin reject button finally.

Enjoy!

The 4 port Dynex USB hub. Fittingly the logo glows blue when turned on.


The new coin reject picture in Super Macro mode


And now the icing of the cake, the SHMUP live and alive!

[Encryptor]

Is there any special reason your video is sideways?

Encryptor

[Ryglore]

Is there any special reason your video is sideways?

Encryptor

Ya. I couldn't figure out how to rotate it vertical in Window Movie Maker.... =(

[drventure]

I'm having the same problem with DirectShow 

Nice cab! I see these and am really wishing i'd put a coin slot or two someplace... Just not sure where!

[Ryglore]

I'm having the same problem with DirectShow 

Nice cab! I see these and am really wishing i'd put a coin slot or two someplace... Just not sure where!

Thanks! You could put some of these Happ metal coin drops some place on the CP. Or maybe some of these Roll down coin acceptors, but those would need a vertical surface to mount to... and you don't want to put it on the front of the buffet... I'm having the same problem with my Centipede bartop. I'm really thinking I'll just be using a coin button for that.

 

[Ryglore]

When I moved to the new house, I realized a couple things about the SHMUP. The CP isn't a easily removable as I would like. I fixed part of the problem when I installed the USB hub in the CP Box earlier, but I still wasn't happy with it. I plan on eventually making a second CP top for use w/ Dual joysticks for 2 players and a 4 way Joystick w/ 2 buttons. But in order to make things as nice as possible, I needed to rework the way my control panel is wired.

So, with nothing but free time and nothing else to keep me occupied at the house (No TV or net at the moment), I decided to take up the soldering iron and get to work. (This is my first real soldering job)

First things first I removed all of the wiring from the CP top and removed the Key-Wiz40-ST.


The plan was to wire the Key-Wiz into a a 25 pin D-sub connector and that way I can easily unplug the CP and remove it when I need to. Though, I also had to wire in a 9 pin D-sub connector for the coin switches and the pause and exit buttons.

Side View


Plug View


Once the Key-Wiz was wired, I rewired the control panel top to clean it up a bit and wire in the 25 pin D-sub. I ran all of the button wires to the terminal blocks that I had originally used for grounds and I daisy chained the ground wires together.

Here is the original wiring job


and the new wiring.


Once everything was wired, I mounted the Key-Wiz into place and now everything is all set to go!


I'd like to make the CPs hot swappable, and I'm not sure if I can do that w/ the 25 pin on the Key-Wiz. So at some point I may change the Key-Wiz out to a GPWiz... I've not decided.

[drventure]

Nice work. Too bad it took two cables. I once thought of doing something similiar using one of those old key style phone system cables from way WAY back (like a db50 cable or maybe an 80 wire EIDE cable)

But DB9 and 25 are sure easy to work with!

[Ryglore]

Ya it was a fun little project. With all the tweaking I've been doing to the cab, I'm a little embarrassed that I announced the Shmup as 100% finished... 

[emphatic]

Great, now you can make:
a 1 player panel with 1 joystick and four buttons (for shmups)
a 2 player panel with 2 joysticks and four buttons (for 2 player shmups)
a 1 player panel with a 4 way joystick
a 1 player panel with a spinner
a 1 player panel with a trackball
a shed to store your panels.   

Having a dedicated 1 player panel for the games you play the most though is great. I enjoy games way more that way, as it's just more comfortable.

[drventure]

I'm a little embarrassed that I announced the Shmup as 100% finished

They're never finished 

[Ryglore]

Great, now you can make:
a 1 player panel with 1 joystick and four buttons (for shmups)
a 2 player panel with 2 joysticks and four buttons (for 2 player shmups)
a 1 player panel with a 4 way joystick
a 1 player panel with a spinner
a 1 player panel with a trackball
a shed to store your panels.   

I should have all the bases covered w/ the removable CP that I am planning.

Having a dedicated 1 player panel for the games you play the most though is great. I enjoy games way more that way, as it's just more comfortable.

I actually prefer playing in the player one position... now all I need are some barstools and I can sit down and play for more than a few minutes at a time. 

I'm a little embarrassed that I announced the Shmup as 100% finished

They're never finished 

Agreed, I usually compare it to being a "car guy". Car guys are constantly spending spare time tweaking and shining and buffing their "babies". And I am constantly tweaking and modding and playing my arcade. 

[Ryglore]

Hey all, been gone for a bit, but I just wanted to post a little update. Everything is working wonderfully and the new CP wiring works great without any bugs. But I am in the middle of changing the load up movie to make it even more authentic arcadey. Think Rom checks and scrambled screens when you load up a game. 

[opt2not]

Hey all, been gone for a bit, but I just wanted to post a little update. Everything is working wonderfully and the new CP wiring works great without any bugs. But I am in the middle of changing the load up movie to make it even more authentic arcadey. Think Rom checks and scrambled screens when you load up a game. 

Welcome back! Nice to see you're still tinkering on Shmup, but uhmmm...how's the bartop coming!?   
I'm eagerly awaiting an update on that one!