Recent Posts

I came across the original EA Sports PGA golf. Unit is good except the hard drive is bad. Is there a way to get the ISO of the hard drive? No disk left in unit. I have dongle original DFI computer. Really like to get this cabinet up and running for the family. Thanks for any help.

Join the Facebook group-- I'm certain it's mentioned in this thread.  That's where support is and where you can get literally any help you could possibly need to get it up and running. 

People seem to have frequent issues with MAME and aspect ratio. There has been threads on this board about it. I don't know if anyone has found an easy solution though but I might give it a go too.

Yeah, I thought it'd be an easier fix but I'm still at a bit of a loss. From my research it seems like MAME just doesn't like aspect ratio mismatches, so if you try and play 4:3 games on a 16:9 screen, only vertical lines up with horizontal losing alignment the further away from center you go. It seems most other guns offer a 4:3 offset to fix this, like Gun4IR. I haven't yet tested alternative versions of MAME though, they may have different input handling that gets around this issue, retroarch may fix it and I might wind up setting it up anyway for PS1 games and other console titles.

Do you know what the problem with using DemulShooter is? I'm guessing it's some kind of mouse input type related problem?

I believe the issue is that whatever output VD is sending out is just a simple windows low level input hack, while DS is expecting an actual hardware device. You can't select the input from VD inside DS. I can partially get it working by using it with a hardware mouse and the usesinglemouse console command, the gun doesn't do anything but if I move the mouse it updates to the absolute position of the gun, and if I click the hardware mouse shots are fired at the position of the gun. I imagine you could fashion a clunky workaround with a fake hardware ID, but from my testing so far the only thing that DS seems useful for on a 1 gun setup like this is for CXBX, which is still fairly buggy and only useful for 2 games. Everything else has worked without it, and there's a good chance that CXBX will eventually get some better native mouse input support, or I can fix the issues I'm having with it.

New version seems like it works perfectly on Index, thanks a lot.

I'm glad to hear that it is working now.

Before I forget I thought I should attach my right click border script (courtesy of a guy over the AHK forum) for anyone interested

Thanks for that AHK script, could be very useful in future. I might have to get out my tracker gun and give it another go.

I can only play MAME stretched fullscreen right now due to it not properly offsetting for 4:3 and expecting that to be handled by the gun.

People seem to have frequent issues with MAME and aspect ratio. There has been threads on this board about it. I don't know if anyone has found an easy solution though but I might give it a go too.

CXBX seems to have some calibration issues I've got to work out because most people are just using DemulShooter instead but I can't

Do you know what the problem with using DemulShooter is? I'm guessing it's some kind of mouse input type related problem?

New version seems like it works perfectly on Index, thanks a lot. Got it pretty close to dead on with a couple of tries, fine tuning should be easy enough with OVIE.

Before I forget I thought I should attach my right click border script (courtesy of a guy over the AHK forum) for anyone interested, which has worked so far in every emulator and game I've tested it in. It just takes the 5 pixel outer border of your monitor and converts left clicks in that area to right clicks, which works well with VD. You might have to adjust the timer delay from 20 to something higher on slower systems, and the program is set up for 4k so you might need to redefine the posX and Y to match something smaller.

Right now I think I'm pretty happy with my setup. I've got a few more emulators to try out, but I can play the vast majority of stuff I've tested. CXBX seems to have some calibration issues I've got to work out because most people are just using DemulShooter instead but I can't, and I can only play MAME stretched fullscreen right now due to it not properly offsetting for 4:3 and expecting that to be handled by the gun.

After doing the thermal tests, I then decided to do some voltage checks. Hard to do with the monitor still in the cabinet, so I removed the chassis, located components of interest, hooked up jumper leads to them, labeled the leads, then put it all back in the cabinet and flicked it on. I could then test each lead with a multimeter from outside the cabinet without sticking my hands in dangerous places.

Something odd I noticed is when doing the thermal camera checks, I had the game board off and only the monitor turned on, and the clicking sound would be constant. I also had no static feeling on the monitor glass.
When I was testing the voltages later on, it clicked a few times when I turned it on, and didn't click again. Now it has a slight buzz coming from the neck board and the monitor has static if I run my hand over the glass, so the flyback must be working now, right?
It no longer clicks when I turn it on. It just behaves like it's not getting a signal and still doesn't display the 'no signal' message.
Except for one round of tests where I actually got some color and very distorted blips of the 'no signal' image, but I could never make it appear again. 

I can hear the tube static trickle away when I shut the monitor off, so it sounds like it is degaussing.

Have a look at my marked-up screenshot of the schematic. I've noted where I tested for voltages and the results I got. It seems to me like maybe the IC404 is my issue if you look at the voltages on their pins, and take into account the thermal image of this chip. It's very strange that I get 0V near R490, but have 11.9v at R493. I did test those resistors on-board and their values are correct, but maybe I'll pull them and see if they're still good.

Or maybe it's T401 not creating the voltage IC404 needs to operate?
Or maybe T403 isn't working and it's messing up T401?
At C432 beside T401, I get ZERO voltage. I think it's supposed to be around 18v?

I also tested the Neck Board voltages at the connectors, and compared to what the printed values said, I got:
4.98v (should be 5v)
7.19v (should be 8v)
170.2V (should be 170v)
11.93v (should be 12v)

Lastly, I tested these parts and they're good:
Q404
Q419
C432
D416
D423
R438
R440
R492
R491

I'm thinking of just getting an IC404 and slapping it in there and seeing what happens. Unless you guys have some other tests I should do to narrow this down, or suggest some other parts I should get at the same time just in case I get another domino effect.

So I'm messing with this for the first time. I've used CRTEmudriver for a while but never used it to run modern PC games. So I'm just trying out a few games and was recommended this thread.

Instead of adding a modeline for every resolution, I saw a comment from 2020 that said to download a standalone version of Switchres. Is that still the recommended way to do this in 2024?

Someone on here can share the links for the restore discs and latest software too. I am here for the same request.

I did some further testing this weekend. I was able to borrow a thermal camera adapter for my phone, and using this I could inspect the boards while they were running in the cabinet. Photos aren't the highest quality, and the angles are weird due to the space limitations of shoving my hand and phone inside a live cabinet.

I didn't find anything outrageously hot, but I did get some results. Keep in mind, these images show the hottest thing in the camera's view, and the coldest. Usually that range is from 22°c to 28ish.

In the power section, I can see some resistors and diodes get warm, but nothing unreasonable (see pic).

There's 3 resistors near the back (R137, R138, R196) that get up to 48°c, but I think that's normal for giant resistors like this (see pic).

On the neck board I can see the main IC201 gets warm, as do the large heat sinks, but nothing hotter than 31°, so it seams fine.

The signal input board has a couple of diodes in the corner that get pretty hot (45°) but I recall the dude in one of those youtube video's I posted saw the same thing happening to his board. I guess it's normal. I tested the diodes and they still work, so I guess it's fine? (see pic)

The one thing that really caught my attention was this somewhat hot spot over by R469 (the big ceramic resistor). R490 and IC404 were in the middle of that. I have a different pic where that IC is up to 55°, which is suspicious to me (to be continued).

And I was curious what the tubes neck looked like so I snapped a pic of that for fun.

I'm always impressed with these sort of 'one shot's skills. That is, the type of skills where one mistake and you either throw it away or live with it. Water colours are another. What youve just put down is it, unlike oil paints where you normally have several DAYS to just keep going over it.

Well done 🧐

Sweet! I'm planning a mini now, did you draw up custom plans, or scale something down from an existing set?

No plans, I just YOLOed it. Drew out the design on a 4x2 sheet of plywood using a photo of a NEOGEO cab as reference. Cut out the two sides and pretty much improvised/trialed and errored everything in between to fit the monitor and control panel.