WIP dual screen cabinet (MAME+MESS+Daphne+VPin+PC)

[Yvan256]

That's a... how shall I put this... non-conventional control panel, indeed.

Most people are used to having the joystick on the left and buttons on the right. The 2x3 buttons layout would make it almost impossible to play Neo-Geo games, most fighter games such as Street Fighter, etc.

Count me in as another vote for the swappable control panel idea. Make the primary panel for two players, classic 7 buttons layout (SF2+Neo-Geo combined). Second panel could be for the trackball and the spinner, you could probably mirror the buttons on the left and right side for that panel like some arcade games did. I would even make a third panel for 4-players Gauntlet (don't need 6 buttons per player for most 4-players games) and a fourth panel for dual trigger joystick games such as Assault. From there it's just a step away from a fifth panel for a driving wheel.

What would be nice is some kind of "slot" system where you can store the CPs in the front of the cabinet, with doors. Make sliding shelves for them so that it's easier and there's no friction involved, keeping the CPs brand-new.

Imagine taking the current control panel on top, rotate 90 degrees horizontally (like a turntable) then another 90 degrees vertically (like when you turn a key). That way you can still have a coin door and store CPs on each side.

[iceman87]

That's a... how shall I put this... non-conventional control panel, indeed.

Most people are used to having the joystick on the left and buttons on the right. The 2x3 buttons layout would make it almost impossible to play Neo-Geo games, most fighter games such as Street Fighter, etc.

Count me in as another vote for the swappable control panel idea. Make the primary panel for two players, classic 7 buttons layout (SF2+Neo-Geo combined). Second panel could be for the trackball and the spinner, you could probably mirror the buttons on the left and right side for that panel like some arcade games did. I would even make a third panel for 4-players Gauntlet (don't need 6 buttons per player for most 4-players games) and a fourth panel for dual trigger joystick games such as Assault. From there it's just a step away from a fifth panel for a driving wheel.

What would be nice is some kind of "slot" system where you can store the CPs in the front of the cabinet, with doors. Make sliding shelves for them so that it's easier and there's no friction involved, keeping the CPs brand-new.

Imagine taking the current control panel on top, rotate 90 degrees horizontally (like a turntable) then another 90 degrees vertically (like when you turn a key). That way you can still have a coin door and store CPs on each side.

I am really sold on the swappable panel idea, great stuff

Has anyone attempted something like this... any examples out there?

[dextercf]

You could check out this forums ultra kewl search function.
Also, don't do this: (its

[Malenko]

I'd say drop it to 2 players, unless you and your buddies don't play games that require more than 3 buttons, then keep it 3 player with 3 buttons (sticks on the left)

[Yvan256]

I know you probably wanted to cover the most games possible with your setup, but here's what I would do. Make a list of all the games you want to play on your cabinet, with the required controls next to the name (ex: Pac-Man, 1-player, 4-way joystick with no buttons. Samurai Shodown, 2-players, 8-way with four horizontal/curved buttons. Black Tiger, 1-player, 8-way joystick with two horizontal buttons).

Then you'll see what type of control panel would cover most of your games. That should be your primary control panel, if you go with the swapping control panels idea.

[iceman87]

OMG ...this guy is my hero 

[The Habbler]

You got that right. Oh man that panel is just    I have seen quite a few rotating or removable panels, but the concept on this one is so cool. Its small and keeps the most used stuff out and available at all times still. I think I am in love.

[dextercf]

I wonder how its all wired.. There might be a pile of spaghetti waiting to become problems underneath there..
Personally, i think this looks awefull and franken like no other. But I have to give the guy for a good consept, and that he pulled it off to the very end.

[Donkbaca]

I don't think its that bad.  The only thing I don't get is the rotary sticks with the 6 buttons as the main config, that doesn't make sense, I would have had regular 8 ways and had the rotary's on one of those spinning panels.  Also, the default controls are awfully close to the screen, doesn't look super comfortable to play.  Nice execution though

[The Habbler]

yeah a normal 8way comp or JLW or something and a wider panel to put the default layout closed to the player instead of right next to the screen and we have a winner. Playing SF with a rotary would be weird.

[iceman87]

An update showing the 2 monitors working together for the vpin game, 'Big Score'.   Had to pull off a few tricks to get the backglass to load with the playfield, as this was never intended by its authors.

[nordemoniac]

That looks awesome! The CRT makes it so much better!
Have you thought about using CPwizard when playing MAME? F.ex. scoreboard/art ++ on one screen, and the game on the other?

[iceman87]

That looks awesome! The CRT makes it so much better!
Have you thought about using CPwizard when playing MAME? F.ex. scoreboard/art ++ on one screen, and the game on the other?

CRTs have awesome viewing angles and 0ms response times...was a must for this project. CPwizard sounds cool... I will definitely look into it

[Nephasth]

Updates?

[iceman87]

Updates?

I am currently just plugging away at getting all the emulators/software configured.  As this cabinet also doubles as my main PC, it boots to my desktop which contains 80 one-click shortcuts (my top mame & Daphne games, HyperPin, and 3 one-click MESS shortcuts (Atari 2600, C-64, CoCo 3), and the C-64 Forever emulator).

I didn't end up using Hyperspin as my understanding is it currently has limited or no support for dual screen switching at this time.   Currently I am using a cool little utility called MurGeeMon to handle this.  So what happens is when I play a game that is natively horizontal, my main vertical monitor will shut down (sleep) via the MurGeeMon software which then turns on my secondary (horizontal) monitor and makes it the default screen, so the game loads up properly on this screen.  When I exit the game, MurGeeMon simply reverses the process, and I end up back on my vertical monitor, with my horizontal screen in sleep mode.