Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Software Support => GroovyMAME => Topic started by: dskinchen on April 05, 2012, 08:48:43 am
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Tried to research the answer but so far no luck... I have a P4 Win XP Mame cab that was using an ultimarc AGP ArcadeVGA card to drive a Wells K7000 monitor. The card died and new ones (AGP) aren't available, so I'm curious--can I use groovy and soft15khz (and any other software plugs) to drive my system? How does it handle boot into windows? I don't have a keyboard or pc monitor on the system. I'd love to have the machine boot up right into something like hyperspin but I'm limited when it comes to working out all the software. Any input/guidance would be greatly appreciated. Detailed, step by step help would really be awesome... Thanks!
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You should be able to use an appropriate AGP ATI-based video card, Calamity's modified drivers and GroovyMAME with your setup.
However, be aware that modern versions of MAME are more demanding and a P4 might not be fast enough for some of the games you want to run.
You can easily configure your system to boot to Windows and automatically launch a front-end, though again, HyperSpin might be too much for your CPU.
You'll have to try it out and see.
To set everything up, you're going to have to pick up a cheap keyboard and mouse. You'll probably need to borrow a PC monitor or LCD (or pick one up used at a thrift store or something). I don't think you can set it up without a monitor. You might be able to use an LCD TV that has a VGA input to set things up, but I'm not positive.
You can get Calamity's modified ATI drivers here, along with recent builds of GroovyMAME...
http://mario.groovy.org/GroovyMame/WindowsATIDrivers/ (http://mario.groovy.org/GroovyMame/WindowsATIDrivers/)
Here's what Newegg has in the way of AGP Radeon HD 4000 series cards....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007317%20600007850&IsNodeId=1 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600007317%20600007850&IsNodeId=1)
You could also try your luck on Ebay...
http://tinyurl.com/ebay-agp-radeon-4000 (http://tinyurl.com/ebay-agp-radeon-4000)
One question... Do you currently have a J-PAC?...
http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html (http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html)
The J-PAC is nice because it protects your arcade monitor from out-of-range signals. During the boot process, before entering windows, a normal video card will put out out-of-range signals until the windows drivers kick in. Depending on your arcade monitor, you may be ok without one, but I never felt comfortable going directly into my monitor from a non-ArcadeVGA card.
I can't give you step-by-step instructions on setting things up because everyone's setup is different, but there's plenty of resources if you search on these forums (and the hyperspin forums, if you go that route). If you have specific questions about specific steps, post in the appropriate board and I'm sure someone will help out.
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I've got a Wells K7000 on a p4 mame cab. It used to run perfectly with one of Andy's arcadevga cards, but that seems to have died and he doesn't make agp cards anymore.
I did my research and installed a radeon hd3850 I had lying around with soft15 and quickres. The best I got was a blue screen on the monitor, and stripping out the drivers and reinstalling hasn't gotten me anywhere. Of course when you boot at 15khz your pc monitor no longer works and since I get nothing with the arcade monitor, it sure makes it hard to diagnose... Can you give me some guidance on what I might be doing wrong? I'm sure you need more info so let me know and I'll answer best I can. thanks for any help you can provide. David
Hi dskinchen,
I didn't get if you're using regular drivers or the CRT_Emudriver.
Anyway, two things:
- Most moder ATIs only work when using the DVI output.
- HD 3xxx can't do low dotclocks, so they're not very good for MAME (though this has a workaround).
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Hey Calmity. Sorry to be slow responding but my login got locked when I tried to change my email. Anyway, I'm using the drivers that came with the card, then running soft15. I get it to give me a blue screen but that's it. When I remote into the machine, everything looks good so it's the card/drivers.
I'm using the dvi with an adapter so that's fine but if this isn't the best card to use, I'll look for another in my pile of antiquated parts. Sounds like I will also look for the crt_emudriver file too. If I can get that working, my next questions will be how to hook it up so that it boots right into mame with no windows wrapper (and no high refresh rates to cook my monitor...) Stay tuned and thanks everyone for your help. David
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Before you install the CRT_Emudriver, run the ATI Catalyst Uninstaller utility to make sure that all the old drivers are completely removed...
http://www.ultimarc.com/cat-uninstaller.exe (http://www.ultimarc.com/cat-uninstaller.exe)
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Do what krick said, and also make sure it's not your AGP port what's broken instead of your old ArcadeVGA.
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Thanks Krick, Calamity.
I pulled the HD3850 and tried a geforce 2mx400. Didn't see any special drivers for that one, or any special modelines either. Actually, I don't even know if that's a "working" card, although the geforce 2 gtx and pro "work." Anyway, all I get is this beautiful blue screen... Btw, when I remote into the machine, I can see it working fine and the agp port is working properly. Help?!!
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Hi dskinchen,
I'd say that blue screen is indicating some sort of failure, but not on the software part I'm afraid. Are you sure the cable works?
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Hmmm. It's a new cable I made up to ensure the old one was working. I'm using Andy's diagram (below, board side) which ID's pins 1 - Red, 2 - Green, 3 - Blue, 10 - Sync Ground and 13 - Horizontal Sync & 14 - Verical Sync tied together as composite sync.
As I said before, this machine used to work with the ArcadeVGA, but then stopped working one day. The monitor works great, the computer works great so I'm totally clueless as to what is wrong. I will check the cable again to be sure I've got no shorts and continuity. Can you confirm I have the pinout correct?
Geeze! This whole thing is making me fell like a total moron! :banghead:
UPDATE... OK, so yes, the "new" cable I made had the blue feed shorted to ground. :badmood: Fixed that and now I have a "display" visibile but it is very fuzzy and full of "static" lines if that makes sense.. Do you know if the geforce mx2 works with soft15? I have another geforce card to install but would I be better off with a Radeon? Thanks for all your patience and help. David
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OK, so I pulled the geforce2 mx400 and put in a geforce4 mx440. I now have a display, but it's still full of static. Is that a common signature of a card programming issue? If not it's probably that my replacement cable isn't shielded? I'm planning on getting another regular monitor cable and hacking it for my WG tomorrow.
Also, the display doesn't fit the full windows desktop, so I have to scroll to see the top/bottom of the screen. Is that normal or is there a way to adjust that? Again, thanks for putting up with my ignorance. I really appreciate any help/guidance you can provide.
David
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I'm not sure of what you mean by static on your display but it sounds like the cable again, probably not shielded.
If you have to scroll to see the whole screen probably the desktop is being virtualized, try setting a lower resolution like 640x480@60. Anyway consider getting an ATI card at some point if you're planning to use GroovyMAME.
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If not it's probably that my replacement cable isn't shielded? I'm planning on getting another regular monitor cable and hacking it for my WG tomorrow.
If you had a J-PAC (http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html), you could just plug in the monitor cable. No "hacking" required.
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Heyyyy! Are you a shill for Andy?!!! ;) JK.
Actually, I got it to work perfectly last night with a new cable. Turns out my soldering skills stink. I managed to knock off the ground when I fixed the blue short... Anyway, now I need to figure out how to implement groovy... I'll probably have a million questions about that too...
BTW, I want to thank both you and Calamity for putting up with me and my bumbling. You guys are really fantastic and a huge resource. Thanks for all that you do around here! David