BTW, you could just run on ONE computer with a dual display output video card. There is a way to specify what monitor something shows up on. Don't remember how though.I had thought of that originally, but the problem with that is:
Here's the new cabinet accessory! A second computer!!!! Oh no! hehe
Would you have it go black screen when you start the game up? I was just wondering if the glow of the instruction card would distract from the game.No, I was going to leave it up... but if it does become distracting, I could add a button mapped to the laptop's Suspend/Resume key...
You have to show us more if you pull this off, it's very unique and a great idea.I will... right now I'm trying to figure out how to get the laptop to power up when the main power is thrown... I'm going to need some sort of momentary relay that is only triggered once when power somes on...
I will... right now I'm trying to figure out how to get the laptop to power up when the main power is thrown... I'm going to need some sort of momentary relay that is only triggered once when power somes on...
This is the reverse of my problem. It uses a momentary pushbutton to trigger a power strip; I need a power strip to trigger a momentary pushbutton.QuoteI will... right now I'm trying to figure out how to get the laptop to power up when the main power is thrown... I'm going to need some sort of momentary relay that is only triggered once when power somes on...
http://home.bendcable.com/werstlein
Wouldn't this work to use the first computer to power up the second?
Most crappy laptops use windows 3.11 which would be great for this purpose, but I don't know how to code in any useful languages in 3.11.I'll be writing this in DOS. I already use a small launcher program between Game Launcher and MAME which sets the appropriate mouse driver and MAME version; I only need to modify this launcher to send the image definition to the laptop, wait for the laptop to respond with what images it doesn't have, then transmit those images. The image definition would consist of one or more image overlays along with text labels I can steal most of that from the skinning code I'm writing for DOSCab Jukebox.
In a previous attempt to repair a laptop, I accidentally disonnected the keyboard and was never able to get the paper thin cables back together...Well, after digging through my junk pile, I finaly found a couple of null modem adapters, so I can start coding I also found the carcass of the aforementioned wrecked laptop, a Gateway Colorbook2. It's also a 486, but it has 20 MB of RAM and a 300 mb hard drive. It has a larger screen than the Thinkpad, which in this instance is a liability, but I may try moving its larger hard drive to the Thinkpad.
95 runs great on a 486/66, you shouldn't have to stoop to win3.11.There's not a lot of point on running Windows on a system who's sole job is to put an image on the screen.... :)
...(how many people have laptops to trash, AND enough empty space on their bezel to fit a laptop screen?)...
What about the 5 or 6 inch LCDs that always come up on ebay intended for like mobile displays?Yow... that one looks too nice to destroy for a cab!
...(how many people have laptops to trash, AND enough empty space on their bezel to fit a laptop screen?)...
I think you'll be surprised.
Many instruction cards have pictures of the controls. Do you plan to customize each instruction card graphic to reflect your control panel? If the instruction card collection gets to be large, that'll mean a lot of photoshop time.
I'm not a coder, but if you wanted to make this portable to other people's machines, maybe the top half of the laptop display could be the original instruction card (if there is one available), and the bottom could be a graphic of the particular machine's control panel, with labels that it grabs from a small database file for each game, with fields like "joystick_label," "button_1_label," etc.
With something like that, you could have control panel-specific instruction cards for games that didn't even have original instruction cards, or oddly shaped ones, or whatever.
Did the control definition file project get anywhere?
--Chris
You can already do this with front ends that show both a screenshot and a cabinet image; simply replace the cabinet images with control panel layouts.That's cool but it sounds like the idea of the software displaying layouts based on custom settings would be very useful.
--Chris
In the meantime, find the DOS VESA driver for your laptop... you'll need it... :)
Wow, it's been awhile since I used DOS. I have a question now that I've ripped apart my poor laptop. I'm using a Toshiba Satellite Pro 420CDT with 24MB of RAM. Do I need a DOS VESA driver? It looks like it's built into the video card BIOS. Is that all I need?As long as VESA is available, you're fine...
SUGGESTIONS:The problem isn't the display code, it's the instruction images. Scaled images look awful on laptop screens, so it's likely that different sets of images would have to be created for different resolutions.
1. Please don't hardcode the resolution. This laptops native display is 800x600. It will display 640x480, but in a small window. I would like to use the full screen. Obviously, beggers can't be choosers, but if it isn't that hard to let us pick the resolutions...
2. I thought an earlier post mentioned connecting via a serial port. Would it work faster/better if it connected via the parallel port like the old laplink or interlink?It would, but I know how to write to a serial prt... I don't know how to do two-way communication over parallel. I am planning to look into it, though, as I have a couple of parallel PCAnywhere cabes that would be perfect for this, and I'd rather not use up a serial port that could be servicing a spinner or trackball.
Well, the serial conneciton and info is all over the web, all you need to do is write an interface the sends this info to the serial port, and it'll output it on the LCD screen! Some have multiple lines, some will scroll back and forth.. all up to you!Yeah but we're looking for images here more than text. I think the theory is display a picture of the actual game control panel then show a picture next it with your game panel. Then some text with game instructions.
1: 4-way joystick 2: Fire 3: Thrust 4: unused 5: unused 6: unused 7: unused | (http://members.cox.net/renima/MameCab/layoutsamp.gif) |
(http://members.cox.net/renima/MameCab/layoutsamp.gif)
Then all each user would have to do is make one labeled illustration of their layout, and maybe modify a simple configuration text file to decide which controls never to show...
Well, the serial conneciton and info is all over the web, all you need to do is write an interface the sends this info to the serial port, and it'll output it on the LCD screen! Some have multiple lines, some will scroll back and forth.. all up to you!Yeah but we're looking for images here more than text. I think the theory is display a picture of the actual game control panel then show a picture next it with your game panel. Then some text with game instructions.
I can make a program that dynamically makes cp layouts for you at any resolution for that matter. That's part of the goals of the controls.dat project and I already have a rather crude, hardcoded generator working. All you need to worry about is sending the generated image. :)Scaling the CP image also isn't really the problem... but scaling the scans of the original instruction cards could make them illegible on some laptop screens.