Recent Posts

Lots of interesting design and problem solving going on in this project! I like that you designed first in SketchUp. I'm not sure what VP software you are using but Visual Pinball allows for direct top down viewing if you configure that way. Direct top down viewing IMO loses something of the realism that some angle and perspective achieves though. Watching for your next updates! 

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/LowFidelity/100-favorite-arcade-games-for-mame/
looking at this site for my top games to try.
I have looked all day to find a list of ROM names to full arcade games title. NO LUCK AT ALL
so I find a game I like and google Mame rom name. a download site pops up with the MAME name.
so then I search my my file for the MAME name.non-merged set

12 hrs to download. I got the right M.A.M.E. set
 to test out

For mounting the lcd monitor I initially wanted to just use a simple wooden board. But I noticed that a lot of virtual pinball games don't let you change to viewing angle to one that is directly from the top of the playfield, it is usually still at an angle. With the screen already being at the common pinball angle, this would make the playfield angle tilted backward for the player. To combat this, I figured there was some room behind the monitor so I could be tilted to correct the viewing angle. So the simple board became a figure with attachment points for hinges and latches to secure it.




My next challenge was coming up with a mounting system for the control panel. I wanted the panel to be easily serviceable and also removable in case I want to swap it out with a different control panel. On top of that I also did not want any visible screws. I found a solution in using screws as a hinge. I first drilled a big hole that would fit the head of the screw. Then on the side I drilled smaller holes that I filed out to fit the shank of the screws.





Time for some assembly. Here I'm fitting the control panel box together. I used a piece of the dresser with the brand as the front piece because I found it a fitting reminder of it's origins.


I'm using metal angle brackets to connect it all. By not using dowels and glue it would be more likely I could fix any mistakes if my design was insufficient. I had to make the bottom panel in two pieces, because I thought I would have plenty of would from the dresser, and so I used one of the panels as an under layer when I was cutting and it got a lot of saw marks on it. It turned out I dit not have plenty of the would I needed :s. Luckily it was only the bottom so no biggie.




Test fitting the monitor on the mount.



Creating the monitor pivot point.

I will replace the Hard Drive. But to be honest I know nothing about M.2.
I have some studying to do.

Financially this project is stupid. after all the upgrades I could have bought a HP EliteDesk from Amazon for $130. I have one and use it for my main computer.

But I am having a grate time setting this New / Old PC up. all the parts I am putting into it a still Brand new.

 I can not explain it . but keeping everything new , is important to me. And I bet when I am done it might just go on a shelf. But I am having a blast doing it.

A-Tech 8GB RAM for HP Thin Client t620/t620 Plus | DDR3 1600 SODIMM PC3-12800 1.5V 204-Pin Memory Upgrade Module (x2) coming in May 3rd

 SATA to USB 3.0 Adapter, External Hard Drive Converter Cable for 2.5" 3.5" HDD, SSD with Power Supply coming in tomorrow.

USB Hub 3.0, 7-Port USB Hub Splitter with Individual On/Off Switches and Lights, 3.2ft/1m Long Cable Compatible with MacBook, Laptop, Surface Pro, PS4, PC, Flash Drive, Mobile HDD. coming in tomorrow.

USB hub,4 Port 2.0 USB Splitter Expander,USB hub for Laptop,MacBook,Surface Pro,PC, Flash Drive,Mobile HDD.  coming in tomorrow.


 

I was pulling my video cord out of one of my PCs. To let my daughter use. OMG the computer was NASTY!!!!
 I took the fan off the video card. The thermal past is hard as concrete .I am making headway but I am having to really use the 91% Isopropyl alcohol. For some reason I never gave the the video card a thought. Also from the Factory. The used way to much thermal past .
CPU cooler is next.
Side note this is not my new little Thin Client. These are HP ProDesck  I 5 and I 7 CPU's. Old PC's work just fine for me.
after Playstation 2,  and Wii . Emulation . I am just not interested.

Hello all, first post. 

I'm a handy guy, and do a lot of DIY electronics projects. While I'm planning a larger arcade clone build at some point, most of my arcade or classic console stuff takes place on a Raspberry Pi 3 on a small 13" CRT. I really like the setup, but I really hate mapping Neo Geo arcade controls to a SNES or Playstation type controller, so I decided to take a USB Nintendo 64 controller I never use and chop it up to be the brain in a miniature arcade control deck, with a few twists.

Principal changes-

Purple instead of red overlay- I happen to like purple so decided to have a little fun.
Compact size for single player use. To fit this I am using 16mm buttons, and found some on Amazon that have worked well for other projects for me in the past.
four individual buttons to simulate a D-pad layout, rather than an arcade stick. (my son does not like arcade sticks)
two extra buttons on the sides of the panel so I can do Gamenoy Advance or Super Nintendo with the controller as well.

Just attached a few pics of the panel art I am using, and of the buttons I choose. Also included an example of what my panel will look like fairly close when done from this thread-
https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,120322.0.html

I laid out the buttons by hand last night to make up the D-pad layout on some 1/2" plywood, and will likely begin on drilling out the holes and countersinking the rear of the panel tomorrow. I was able to print out a few copies of the overlay that I adapted from the linked thread that should work great when scaled to the length of a standard 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper- making the overlay/template come out to 10 7/16 x 4 1/4".

That's all for now, hopefully I'll take some progress pictures later tonight or tomorrow afternoon- I am still in the early stages of it now.

Ah that's good stuff then Yolo! I think we are bang on the same page. I just didn't want to come over all preachy and put you off doing what you are doing, experimenting with the code because that's the key to understanding and finding things out. Also, if it wasn't for your efforts and recent interest in this, I doubt the mystery of the latching bit would have ever been solved!!

Now i know the differences with the machines i agree with you that IPT_DIAL should be the default option for the compact cabinets for use on a spinner wheel and then there should be a 2nd option for a normal wheel. I don't know what the most common wheel ranges would be but i have a 900 degree wheel and the steering was just a bit too sensitive so i lowered it and used a youtube video online that shows a guy doing a hard left at the start of Hard Drivin' to go onto the "secret" bit of road that takes you to that big post in the middle of a circle. I kept lowering it until the car didn't make the turn as sharp as i saw him do it in that video. It's probobly not 100% accurate but my guess would be it's got to be above 95% accurate at least.

Cool, lets get IPT_DIAL and IPT_PADDLE options working then. I know what you mean about the secret road to the left. I'm not sure if its possible to do doughnuts around the pole at the end of the track (I remember trying this once on my mame cab but couldn't keep the backend out consistently). Its cool these hidden features are there though!

That info in the options i know would never be accepted into the official branch i just put it here in case somebody wanted to incorporate it into their own version or something. I don't know how to make or change messages/warnings that pop up before the game starts otherwise i would have just added the info in there for those specific games.

I know what you mean about placing it the messages/warnings things that pop up at the start. I'm not sure how you change that either. I agree though, a description of how to calibrate would be helpful.

The Airborne steering range used to be like all the others by default, 0x010 to 0xff0 , i made my own commit that was merged into the mamedev/master that changed it to 0x000 to 0x3FE to fix the steering for Street Drivin' and Airborne then one of the devs suggested it should be 0x000, 0x3FF and edited it and merged it into the master branch along with the brake calibration fix for street drivin'. Just waiting for the brake fix for race drivin' and hard drivin' compact to hopefully be merged into the master now.

Ok I understand now thanks. It does seem like 0x000 to 0x3FF is the correct range.

The code i have made for the Airborne issues that utilizes EMA smoothing/buffering although it's not in anyway accurate or true to the arcade machine it does stop the steering from going out of alignment in almost all scenarios as long as you don't crash the car and have the wheel held to left or right lol. The only way I've been able to throw it off center is by doing really stupid fast movement with the wheel that would just never happen IRL. I can make that code run in mame on the condition that it detects the Airborne game being loaded up but in all other versions it would just use your modified code.

The "as long as you don't crash the car and have the wheel held to left or right" does really make it sound like an encoder latching issue like we've been seeing doesn't it. I'm now back to think its dual encoders in airborne and not potentiometers lol!

It could be a kinda halfway fix/patch untill somebody like yourself who's way more qualified than me can look at what is going on. I remember when you posted the code to pull the wheel values from the game itself i was just looking at the popmessage box on the screen wondering wtf is going on

lol! It might appear like I know what I'm talking about, but trust me I'm completely winging / guessing at everything all the time!!

I was wondering why the compact versions use less CPU? Another thing i was told by the guy who's talking about making his own flight yoke for Airborne is that there are a few cabinets known in existence and a couple of them are cockpit versions and the others are compact.........i was wondering if the problem is maybe the rom dump available on the internet is maybe from the compact version? Maybe it had a different set of values for the steering so the 0xC00 thing might need tweaked to another value for that to work properly? I really don't know it's just a thought. I have thought about taking the roms from the earlier prototype and trying to mix and match them with the one that is working to maybe see if the steering code could be different in the earlier version.

Yes I know what you mean. Its interesting the compact versions use less CPU, atari must have simplified things, made things more efficient with boards used in the compact cabs (and cheaper probably). I had a thought, I might try and read those nvram binary files that get saved after you finish calibrating controls in hard drivin. If we know where to fish out the CNTSPTRN and PATCEN stuff that gets saved, maybe it'll be the same for the airborne nvrams... Knowing what airborne's steering wheels settings are we can modify the code to suit (Or even edit the nvrams and force them to our favoured CNTSPTRN 1024 PATCEN 0 settings). Bit of a long short but you never know...

When you mention disabling the latching code could i just "//" out that section and compile the game without it? I've not tried anything yet i was having too much fun on compact hard drivin' yesterday to be bothered about it and just woke up

Yes that's it, just comment out the lines that do the "result ^= 0x4000" thing (In hdc68k_port1_r() and hda68k_port1_r()) I reckon.

I've honestly not messed around with airborne much at all yet, but I hopefully will do over the weekend.

it seems like many of us have 1 foot in the grave already

"I hate it when it's my turn" 

One thing fer sure, I want my MAME Cab with me. Pretty sure Kids/Grand Kids will keep it to themselves and leech off my hard work (like they have done all their lves) 

Long Live Thenasty