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Go buy this.

https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=HSAST

That thing would only need to save 4 digits at my house. Countless hours spent for a 2,XXX high score.

"simple" haha

Are you sure about that encoder?

To put things into better perspective, in Queensland during 2022:

- 72 Motorcycle riders died due to transport accidents
- 12 Aircraft occupants died due to powered aircraft accidents

Maybe flying is the safer option.

[Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3303.0 Causes of Death, Queensland, 2022, V20-29, V95]

Yes, they used to say its safer than driving a car. But I dont think thats the case anymore. But, I was thinking the other day that its much safer than riding a motorbike, since you don't have drunk drivers and geriatrics gunning for you when you're in a plane

I've had a couple of close calls on a cycle with drivers pulling right in front of me.  One time with a passenger and I had to take the bike sideways and still stopped only inches from the vehicle.  Caused me to keep my eyes glued on vehicles stopped at on-roads from then on.

But statistics will be statistics.  It's not the total number of fatalities which are important, but the overall percentage of fatalities for the number of active operators.  I would suspect that there are a LOT more cycles on the roads than hobbyists buzzing around the skies. 

This discussion reminds me of a saying about the old days on the autobahn where there was no speed-limit.  As a whole, you were very unlikely to get in an accident on the Autobahn.  But if you did, it would almost certainly mean that someone was going to die in the most gruesome of ways.  This is how I view personal aircraft, except maybe with an increased chance of something bad happening.

Everyone has to go at some point.  It might as well be while doing what you love.

Has anyone used UV prefinished plywood to build an arcade cabinet? How does vinyl do on it?

I haven't used it, but I would expect vinyl to stick to it like iron.  So long as the finish isn't leeching any oils (which it shouldn't be...I assume that the UV moniker is an indicator of a UV cured resin soaked into the outer layer) then that smooth and non-porous surface would be ideal.

If you aren't looking for that woodgrain look around the vinyl it might not have as much value, considering the extra cost.  But if you are thinking a large decal on wood-grain or a full wrap, it would probably be the best wood-based foundation for one available.  Definitely consider using the wet application method if you go this route.

Also, given the hard outer layer, make sure your machining process is compatible, to avoid edge chipping and the like.  It may or may not be as hard and fragile as melamine, but it's worth looking into that aspect before deciding.

Do you want it just illuminated, or do something clever like only light when playing trackball games?
Mine is simply lit from below by an LED strip (left over from my marquee light) and both connected to a switch.
So, normally, they are on when the cabinet is powered on, but I've the option to turn the lighting off if wanted (with the cab still running)

Just illuminated is all I want.  Didn't even think of just getting a simple LED strip but that sounds like a plan to me.  Thanks

Do you want it just illuminated, or do something clever like only light when playing trackball games?
Mine is simply lit from below by an LED strip (left over from my marquee light) and both connected to a switch.
So, normally, they are on when the cabinet is powered on, but I've the option to turn the lighting off if wanted (with the cab still running)

Go buy this.

https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=HSAST

I tried the vive tracker as a light gun route myself and used the precompiled vive controller as a mouse pointer as well. I ended up getting this gun (Hyperkin Hyper Blaster) to attach the vive tracker to:

How did you get the calibration to work? For me it's always all over the place, and there's no good way to adjust it.

I saw the hyperkin guns, but importing one would've been overly expensive, and they mounted the tracker on the top so you can't use the iron sights without heavy modification anyway. I found it easier to just mount to a guncon, you can put a tracker in the hole for the cable with minor modification to fit a tripod mount, and then you can use the iron sights and wrap a couple of wires around the pogo pins for a trigger and A/B. I've tried some alternatives, but the required minimum distance is just too much for my setup, even with fish eye lenses. I could use a smaller screen or move further away, but I want to play on a big screen, and that requires both a large screen, and a low minimum distance. Right now I'm playing with my gun barrel about 9 inches from the display, I think even camera based laser detection would have problems here due to occlusion.

As a basic example, at this distance on a 4:3 game I have a horizontal view angle of 50 degrees. If we assume you can get about 1x diagonal resolution away from a screen with a fish eye, and you're playing with an outstretched arm instead of shooting from the hip, you would need to be around 60 inches away (40 inches due to screen, 20 due to distance from barrel to eye), giving you a view angle of 26 degrees, or almost half as small a picture. With a much larger screen, barrel to eye distance gets smaller proportionally, but even with a 200" display (which would give you a 163" 4:3 screen), you'd still only manage a 33 degree horizontal view angle.

Obviously, there's an argument to be made about what view angle is good enough. Time Crisis 3 deluxe had 50" 4:3 screens with the player about 60" away from the screens, which corresponds to a horizontal view angle of 37 degrees. Standard cabs had smaller screens with lower view angles and are still totally playable, but I'm looking for arcade level without having to rent a warehouse to fit a 300" screen in so I can stand 27 feet away.

You're right, you have to unplug one of the boards while you program the other board, and it works. I was just thinking for the longest time theres no way they didn't build something into the software to toggle between multiple boards. I assumed you could use an iPac4 and an iPac2 together but theres nothing on the Ultimarc website that says they have that capability. They only talk about the UIO having this capability. So confusing. Ultimarc would save us and them a bunch of headaches if the would just create normal documentation like every other software/hardware company. How hard could it be? Their stuff isn't that complicated, but we have to jump through a bunch of hoops to figure out simple things that could just put in the help file.

Hey guys, I'm this close to buying an Asteroids original cab. I need expert advice. The one thing holding me back is that it doesn't hold the high score after losing power. Do I need to keep it powered on 24-7 to keep the high scores?  TIA