**COMPLETED***Just plain old ARCADE CLASSICS slim w/rotation (Lots of photos!)

[DNA Dan]

Alrighty....but not to brag..




Just rotate your ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, everyone's doing it!

[RetroBorg]

Alrighty....but not to brag..




Just rotate your ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, everyone's doing it!

Looks great!  

Though the video would of looked better if you had stopped on some of the HyperSpin game themes I made. 

[TopJimmyCooks]

That is awesome.  Mad props. (does anyone say that anymore?)  Basically the only benefit of Mala beyond that is that you can go from a vertical game to a vertical without rotating to horizontal in between.  I like that it loads the game instantly-no 2 to 3 second "load" splash screen as with Mala. Wishing I had a PC in the arcade machine with enough grunt to run HS now!

Excellent work and blazing a trail as usual.

[RetroBorg]

Basically the only benefit of Mala beyond that is that you can go from a vertical game to a vertical without rotating to horizontal in between.

HyperSpin version 2 will support vertical themes, so there should be no need to go back to horizontal after a vertical game, hopefully it's not too far away.

[BobA]

Great video.   Looks almost seamless.  HS 2 will be great. 

[DNA Dan]

What happens to the main menu of MaLa when you go from a vertical game to a horizontal game? Does it switch back and forth? How about HS2.0?

[TopJimmyCooks]

DNA Dan:
Mala lets you have both a horizontal and a vertical layout.  My two layouts are basically the same elements, just rearranged slightly.  When you exit a vert game you are in the vert layout and select again from there, and vice versa. 

RetroBorg:
Do you have a feel for a timeframe on hs2.0? Are they actively working on it now? is the vert layout included for sure?  Seems like it would require a lot of game video layouts to be redone? 

[DNA Dan]

Seems like an either/or situation. Either the Vertical and Horizontal games are kept separate so there is no "return to horizontal", or they are all in the same mix and you will need to rotate on exit back to the menu's orientation.  Can you choose from all available games while it's in a vertical layout?

[nitz]

Alrighty....but not to brag..




Just rotate your ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, everyone's doing it!

That is awesome. Nice to see it rotating in the cab. Very slick. Makes me want to work on my own.

[RetroBorg]

RetroBorg:
Do you have a feel for a timeframe on hs2.0?

Dazz anounced on this forum "HyperSpin v2 is coming..." that was back on: 18 October 2010, 15:54:40

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106666.0

It's been over a year since that announcement so I would think it wouldn't be too far away.

The official word is "It will be ready when it's ready!"

I think it's going to be well worth the wait, in my opinion HyperSpin is already the best looking front end but when version 2 comes out it will probably have the most features as well.

Are they actively working on it now?

From what I've read Badboy Bill has been working on it but I'm sure he takes a much needed break from it from time to time.

Is the vert layout included for sure?  Seems like it would require a lot of game video layouts to be redone? 

I asked a similar question on the HyperSpin forum and Dazz replied, "New themes will need to be created for both Widescreen and Vertical. "

So it looks like each game will need three themes, horizontal, widescreen & vertical.

It does seem like a lot of work but for the games that already have themes there probably won't be too much to do to make the widescreen and vertical as most of the hard work of cutting out artwork has already been done.

Changes that are already done:

-Vertical and non stretched Widescreen support, 1280x720 native.
-Start on sub menu's in multi mode.
-Search system, search by name, company or year.
-Multi-User favorite system.
-AVI intro video support.
-Intro images, up to 2 images, with fade timing by the user.
-New Parental Controls system.
-New Operator Menu
-Disable menu items from within HS.


-Wheel speed can be tuned by number instead of low, med, high.
-Center wheel image can be x and y offset per your own value.
-Fixed the wheel image layering, center image is highest.
-New wheel algorithm to calculate wheel positions, wheel is perfectly round now.
-That allows for spread factor now, number setting to spread images on wheel further or closer together.
-Wheel smoothing is now allowed, no more slightly jagged wheel images.
-Vertical and Horizontal wheels are positioned by number now, not left right, center.
-You can set the exact amount of 3d rotation on the wheel now, for wheels that it applies to.  Not left and right like it is now.
-Fixed pin wheel backwards rotation.
-New dynamic wheel reflections.  Lot's of adjustment settings to get the best reflect look you want.
-New coverflow wheel style.

-New text engine, to create even better looking text in HS. 
-Text now has kerning options. 
-Triple strokes now possible.
-Text no longer cutoff on wheel, set the max characters.
-Can italic text.
-Justifty text on wheel now, left, center.
-Add highlights to text, adjustable angle and size.
-Double the fonts.
-Add copyright symbol to manufacturer names.
-Tons of text cleanup options. Remove parenthesis, format brackets, remove secondary manufacturers, ensure first letter is uppercase, format company type, remove question marks etc...
-Multiline game descriptions now possilble for really long names.

-Special art is now coded artwork.  No more external files.  Everything is customizable from inside the settings.
-Set your own special art text, "Next Game", "Previous Game" etc..
-Special art can now use variables, total games, current genre, current system in that text.
-Can specify the joystick color now per wheel.
-Other options besides a joystick, such as xbox 360 controller, keyboard keys, arcade buttons, rectangle arcade buttons.  All animated.
-Up to 15 special artwork slots, with many customizations per slot.
-Change arcade button colors, support multi color buttons.
-Built in graphics for buttons, such as 1 player guy, "Admin", "Start", "Pause" , etc.. like the inserts you would buy or make.
-Option to not animate out special art B
-Sped up default settings.

-Revamped the genre system to work on main xml, no more extra xml's.
-Supports unlimited genres per game.
-Genre wheel now gets its own special artwork settings.  "Next Genre", "Previous Genre" etc...

-Added a performance monitor.
-New keys:  Delete Key, Random Game, Operator Menu, Search

Above are just some of the stuff added to HS expect a lot more.

You can read the thread here: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10128

[TopJimmyCooks]

Dan:
Sorry for the awful cell phone pix, but here are the two layouts.  all games are selectable from either, and they're basically the same.  the vert layout adds a little picture of the cab at the bottom right now.  when you exit the vertical game, it shows the vertical layout.  if you pick a horizontal game, it will rotate, play then exit to the horizontal layout.  Upon exiting mala, a .bat file runs to rotate back to horizontal if its not already there.

Horizontal


Vertical


this is a placeholder for the final art, i really need to woodshed and get something looking a little better.  not ready for prime time.

RetroBorg:  Thanks for the update.  I'll look into HS 2.0 for certain when the time comes.

[DNA Dan]

I see, that's pretty slick! I could see this being a bit of an issue for HS2.0 with all the themes. If you're in a vertical layout you would get one theme for a game, then if you were in a horizontal layout you'd get a horizontal version of the same theme. Seems like it would bloat the software a bit too.

I'm all for limiting the number of rotations though. I probably have about 500 turns on it so far and it's holding up. Hopefully my engineering skills are up to standard.

NITZ: IMO the most difficult part was figuring out the bezel and "mask" so that you can't see inside the cab. I have a multilayered piece of foam board cut into a circle with a square in it. Working with this material was a lot less forgiving than the tools used to build the cab. In addition, this needed to be adhered to a decased LCD with glue so that it was clean and not visible from the front. I just didn't enjoy doing this part of the cab and it's the most "jury-rigged" part of the cab. You can imagine taking the monitor in and out of the cab is not very easy for service of the cab. Perhaps I should have used some sort of elastic or rubber bands to hold it on. It's just very critical that this piece does not come off and interefere with the rotation.

ALSO, I have the LEDs cut and installed already into this piece for my aimtrak. You have to plan ahead for this if you intend to add a light gun.

[nitz]

NITZ: IMO the most difficult part was figuring out the bezel and "mask" so that you can't see inside the cab. I have a multilayered piece of foam board cut into a circle with a square in it. Working with this material was a lot less forgiving than the tools used to build the cab. In addition, this needed to be adhered to a decased LCD with glue so that it was clean and not visible from the front. I just didn't enjoy doing this part of the cab and it's the most "jury-rigged" part of the cab. You can imagine taking the monitor in and out of the cab is not very easy for service of the cab. Perhaps I should have used some sort of elastic or rubber bands to hold it on. It's just very critical that this piece does not come off and interefere with the rotation.

That was actually one of the things that had me hesitating about doing a rotating monitor for awhile - I worried about being able to get the bezel around the monitor to both look decent and not interfere with rotating. I like what you've done, but yeah, foam board can be a pain to work with. I've got a very dark piece of plexi on order, and I'm going to paint everything visible around the monitor black and hope the screen just looks like it's floating there. If that doesn't work out, I'll likely go the foam board route.

Up until recently, I wasn't totally sure I wanted to do a rotating monitor even after getting all the parts together. But seeing the video of yours in action made the decision for me. Auto rotating is awesome!

[DNA Dan]

I'd like to see other solutions that people used for this issue. The main source of the problem is typically you want the cab as small as possible (Width wise), but when the monitor rotates, it needs to be at least and big as the diagonal dimension of the monitor plus some additional "filler" distance. The piece I ended up cuting only has about 1-2 inches from the corner of the monitor to where the edge of the circle is. This would be a difficult plexi cut without having it crack in the corners. Good luck and start a new thread with you're build! I am happy to have at least inspired one person on this thread! 

[nitz]

The piece I ended up cuting only has about 1-2 inches from the corner of the monitor to where the edge of the circle is. This would be a difficult plexi cut without having it crack in the corners.

I'm not sure what you mean. Did you cut plexi to actually go around the monitor rather than just put the monitor behind it?

Good luck and start a new thread with you're build! I am happy to have at least inspired one person on this thread! 

I will definitely do that. I think I pretty much have to since I expect to need a lot of help.

[TopJimmyCooks]

the monitor is behind a full, fixed piece of glass as per the Knievel design and others.  there's a bezel behind this glass that rotates with the monitor.  it's big enough to block the user from seeing into the cab when the monitor is diagonally oriented during rotations.  I think what Dan is saying is that making this piece out of Plexi rather than foam core would be hard.  Foam core is perfect because it's stiff, matte and you can't actually touch it once installed.

heres a pic of my version of what Dan did, using black 1/4" foam core board:


it doesnt touch the back of the glass but it's very close. 

here's the back painted smoked glass.


Due to the geometry of my particular cab, I had to round the corners of the clear window through the glass, otherwise I couldn't make the foam core big enough to cover all the way out to a square corner.  I had to trim the bottom left corner and left side of the bezelto clear my admin panel.  rotation is counter clockwise.

[nitz]

Thanks TopJimmyCooks, that's what I thought was the usual way people do this. My post above may have made it sound like I was planning to cut and mount plexi around the monitor, maybe that's where the confusion came from. I'm basically planning to do this only without the foam board if the plexi is dark enough.

[DNA Dan]

Jimmy - Are you rotating your setup yet? Looks good.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Thanks, DNA dan.  Switchcade has been basically complete for 3-4 months now and auto rotating with Mala.  In the meantime I've left my straight job and gone back to working for my self, and my wife broke her arm badly, so it's been just the occasional gameplay lately.  I need to come up with a better temp marquee and Mala Layout before it goes public, but hopefully during Christmas time work will be slow and I can do a big update.  I recently got time to finish my usb flight stick and usb wheel swap panels so all the controls are built.

I feel like the Pololu/lazy susan system is a good and permanent solution.  If you think about the forces acting on a lazy susan bearing, 100 cans of soup, etc. the sideload of the monitor and disk is no big deal, especially since the disk is kept co-planar with the mount.  My last concern was wheel slippage but with the 90 degree hinge mod and sandpaper on the disk, that's no longer an issue.  its at the point where I never look at it and ask myself, is it going to spin?  It just goes.  the fact that it's USB controlled is huge.  I love what Da old man did with the parallel port, (and I'm in debt to him for his Mala plugin that makes my system work) but I'm glad i'm not going that route, or building H Bridges, etc.  I like for the hardware to be easy and the software to have lots of options. 

It's because of your project and the other Solarbotics thread that I did this - thanks for documenting your work so well.   

[DNA Dan]

Cool! You're welcome. Thanks for your input as well.  I think what this forum presents is different folks pushing the envelope of what is possible for the future of arcade gaming. I too have had my share of inspiration from others on these forums too, especially DaOldMan, Knievel, etc..

Have you taken a look at the tire on your rotation unit? I haven't checked mine since the 90 degree mod because it's difficult to see up in there. Just wondering if you see any wear or rubber bits coming off from the pressure. I don't see any dust in the bottom of the cab, so I assume everything is okay.

[TopJimmyCooks]

No problems with tire wear.  It seems to be a very high quality, elastic rubber.  I did notice that it lost some traction when dusty (from mdf dust) so it's probably a good idea to wipe it down if you're back there.

[DNA Dan]

I found an issue with the script I posted a few replies back. Whenever I try to run Joust, it rotates vertical. In mame the screen is not rotated, so Mame properly identifies it as a horizontal game. When I look at my Rotation.ini list of vertical games, there is no "joust" found in the list. What is in the list is "joust2". When I delete this from the list, it works properly, but now joust 2 will not rotate vertical. So for the AHK experts out there, is there any reason why in the script it identifies "joust2" as the %romname% lookup for "joust"? Is it just a partial match and not reading the "2"? Is there a more specific command to have it lookup exact matches only in the vertical games list?

I guess this is an issue where the first version of a game was horizontal, but then the sequel to the same game was vertical AND when the roms are named the same but with an addition to the name. Are there any other examples of two games like this?  God I see why joust 2 was such a flop. The gameplay is terrible on a vertical screen. 

[nitz]

Yep, it's just looking for joust in that string and it finds it - ...josvolly,journey,joust2,joyfulr... so it thinks it's a vertical game.

I can also see this happening with the Mortal Kombat games. mk is gonna match galagamk, grdnstrmk, spfghmk2, and spfghmk22 and you'll notice that mk2 is gonna match the latter two. There could be other examples, but this is what comes to mind.

The only fix I can think of off the top of my head, is to make a workaround for those games. There probably aren't that many of them. I would just add this underneath the line romName = %1% in Rotation.ahk.

If ((romName = "joust") | (romName = "mk") | (romName = "mk2"))
{
goto horizontalrotation
}

And if you find more games that do that, just add them by following the pattern.

I haven't tested this but it should work.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Dang, first time I typed a post and did something and completely lost it.  So, either round 2 or double post:

Punch out has issues as well.  originally 2 stacked horizontal screens i guess, and it makes sense to display vertically, but it's horizontal in mame.  I don't really like the game but have been asked by people to play it.  So I need to delve into this as well. 

I bet before too long we'll have a good set of ini's for 'taters that address these.

and +1 on death to Joust 2.  I had high hopes for it as a rotation demonstrator alongside the one true Joust, but the sounds that game makes are horrible. 

[nitz]

Punch out has issues as well.  originally 2 stacked horizontal screens i guess, and it makes sense to display vertically, but it's horizontal in mame.  I don't really like the game but have been asked by people to play it.  So I need to delve into this as well.

If you have Punch Out setup to run vertically via a punchout.ini file in your mame folder, getting the screen to rotate should just be a matter of adding punchout to the list of vertical roms in the Rotation.ini file.

[DNA Dan]

Finally had some time to test this out, works like a charm. I added the line of code provided by nitz for the three games. I can't think of any others off the top of my head (but I am sure there are more). For punchout, I added it to the verticalroms list then changed the setting "in-game" to suit my vertical orientation. The default in mame is two horizontal screens stacked, which is why the global autoror- setting does not trigger the rotation.

[nitz]

Cool. If you come across more games that need to be added to the work around, post 'em here, or maybe better yet, make a stickied post in the Mrotate section.

[nitz]

OK, I couldn't resist using AHK to find all the horizontal games that need the workaround. Turns out there are more than I thought - 56 of them. I did this by comparing the horizontal and vertical game lists, minus non-working games, from Mame 0.144. Here's the edited Rotation.ahk for anyone who wants it. It's been renamed Rotation.txt since you can't upload a file with the ahk extension.

[TopJimmyCooks]

Nitz, you da man.  Now step away from the keyboard and start spinning something with those parts!

[nitz]

Heh heh, yeah I really should, thanks again for those parts btw. I must admit the software type stuff comes way easier to me than the mechanical stuff. So I've been procrastinating a little, but I've also had very little free time these last couple months anyway. I'm aiming to get started on it in the next month or so provided I can find the time.

[DNA Dan]

OK, I couldn't resist using AHK to find all the horizontal games that need the workaround. Turns out there are more than I thought - 56 of them. I did this by comparing the horizontal and vertical game lists, minus non-working games, from Mame 0.144. Here's the edited Rotation.ahk for anyone who wants it. It's been renamed Rotation.txt since you can't upload a file with the ahk extension.

Sweet! So does this fix the partial match issue? Or is this just for games with sequels?

[DNA Dan]

Starting to think more about my next project. I am going to make a bartop portable 14" LCD single player cab. Wondering if I should rotate or not. With such a small screen I think it's pretty much mandatory. Not sure however if this is going to make it overly wide or heavy. I want this thing to be portable, thus I am using a 14". I plan on decasing a computer and physically mounting the Mobo and guts with standoffs so everything will be secure. For the rotation, I am considering the wider circle lazy susan bearing such as this http://www.vxb.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=bearings&Product_Code=Kit11280&Category_Code=LazySusan

I saw a thread where someone used something similar and it didn't work for them. I am hoping this style will remove the need for bottom wheel supports and will be a more direct mount using tapered shank bolts. I guess it depends if the bearing is just two cirlces of metal like the cheapo ones I have seen at Lowe's or if there are actually ball bearings in there. Seems like this could work.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I agree it would work.  At 13.75" diameter that particular one may be too big for a 14" monitor.  can probably get a smaller one in the same style from woodworker's supply or rockler. 

[DNA Dan]

They make smaller sizes, I am just unsure about this style of bearing and whether it will rotate smoothly with the deflection from the monitor angle. It looks like there are bearings in there. I think I will just order one and see.

The thread I read before (that didn't work) used this type of bearing http://www.vxb.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=bearings&Product_Code=Kit8998&Category_Code=LazySusan which is okay for laying flat, but the deflection from the monitor angle generates too much friction for it to turn smoothly.

[DaOld Man]

I ordered one from vxb a while back for a project that I havent finished yet, what would you like to know?
I ordered one with the aluminum rings. They have small ball bearings between the rings.
I cant remember the size of it, its out in the shed, but they all look to be made the same.

[TopJimmyCooks]

DaOldMan:  is it a few bearings held captive with metal spacers in between, or a continuous circle of bearings touching each other? 

[DaOld Man]

Im not sure how many balls are in between the rings, but they form a continuous circle.
One thing about the bearing I got, it looks like it has several holes, but only three (if I remember correctly, guess i need to go dig it out) of the holes go all the way through. I think this is designed to bolt to one surface and sat on the other surface. however, I think it is possible to drill the other holes all the way through, thats what I plan to do anyway.

[DNA Dan]

Interesting. Definitely would need to drill holes on the side that only has the rubber feet. Might also have to use a standoff or something firm because the rubber will compress from the weight of the monitor. From what I can tell, you need the rubber feet there to give clearance for the outer circle to turn since they reside in the same plane. Maybe some thick washers on the inner circle would give enough clearance. Damn, now I HAVE to rotate my next build.

[DaOld Man]

There is a slight bit of difference in the plane of the two rings, but not much, maybe a few thousandths of inch.
I think some washers would be sufficient to get clearance.

[nitz]

Sweet! So does this fix the partial match issue? Or is this just for games with sequels?

This should fix the partial match issue entirely - though your mileage may vary somewhat depending on added/changed rom names between the version you're using and version 0.144