Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: nickbuol on June 06, 2005, 06:30:04 pm
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I've seen some chatter lately about the IPac LED harness, or the GameCab LED Driver Board, but I have to ask...
How many people actually use these LED controlling (allowing) devices in their cabinet?
I saw one guy that hooked up a blue LED to each of his PL1 and PL2 buttons to blick for coin insertion on Pac-Man (I believe), but are these a nice to have feature, or mainly "glitz" ("bling" for you younger folks on this board)? They seem kind of cool, but I would like to hear more about people's personal experiences with them before looking into adding them into my 2nd cab that I am starting.
Thanks!
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Ok, This is only speaking as "Charlie" and not as GameCab the Company who sells the boards (Charlie wears Eye Glasses ;D). I like to use the LED board mainly to add some of the always on leds around my cab. I power the coin door leds and make my trackball glow. I personally think that adding a few well placed lights to the cabinet helps to add some character to it. I also really like the player one and two blinking, call me old school but that was my favorite things about the old Atari games from the 80's.
(Still Charlie Here ;D) - I'm also in the process (Projects and Spare time allowing) of sandwiching two pieces of plexiglas together and drilling a few small holes around the outer edge. These holes would allow a LED to be mounted right between the joined plexiglass. My goal is to get a glowing glass look. From that point the glass could even look as it was blink if the machine was credited. This glass could be mounted on the control panel or even as a monitor glass. I'm not really sure how it will look but it's always worth the shot to try.
Thanks
Charlie
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My personal opinions - The LED harness and blinking credit lights for Asteroids, and Battlezone, etc. are pretty cool (especially if you remember them from the original games), but MAME (correctly) only supports them for about a dozen games.
The rest of the time, they are un-lit at best and distracting at worse.
There is a project to add blinking credit lights to all MAME games, but it is not done yet.
There are other projects to allow you to only light up the buttons and directions that are used in the game, which will be cool.
Finally, see http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,30538.0.html (Neon MAME) for an example of a cabinet which does a really cool job of integrating lighted buttons using LED's
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im not gonna use em
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There is a project to add blinking credit lights to all MAME games, but it is not done yet.
There are other projects to allow you to only light up the buttons and directions that are used in the game, which will be cool.
Just to clarify, the LSE I'm working on (a software framework to drive LED controllers from apps like MAME) will do both and more, and will be available to all MAME versions one way or another.
Details currently here (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,35063.0.html)
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i don't :(
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I use them for lighting my trackball, my coin door and will be adding them for the player one and two button.
I did buy Gamecab's product just because I thought it would be easier to hook everything up.
Bottom line it is a matter of personal taste. Are you trying to recreate an replica of a machine you remember playing or are you trying to create a machine that is fun for you and your friends?
Either way LED's have their place as they are easy to work with, don't generate any heat and last for a long time.