Dual-cab multiplayer

[DogFish]

Howdy there. i recently acquired 2 identical 32" CRT tv's, and while they are a bit slim on the inputs (composite + s-video) i think they would make great cab screens. so anyway, all of this got me thinking, i remember a few 2 player lightgun games that had dual cab's with a screen each, is it possible to emulate linked cabs? and if so, is it reliable enough to make it worth it?

i spose a better question to ask would be does anyone know of a version of mame designed for linked cabs? and if they do, how good is it?

thanks in advance for any help ^_^

[Yenome]

There is another topic of someone asking bout driving games and dual cabs. seems the general census is its cheaper to buy then build on this type. tho i hear multimame is said to support network linking. I spent a few hours cleaning up the back room last night and set up my test systems to try this out but I'm not finished with it yet. so ill have more to report on how well it works later. tho if you just want to do lightguns. you could have Mame do dual screen and get two light bars. one for ea gun. tho some of the guns i hear are bad bout interference from another IR source including another bar.

[DogFish]

thanks i'll try to find the other topic, i found one before but it was like 3 years old so i figured maybe thing had changed. and i have my heart set on using genuine old-style light guns rather than the more modern sensor guns, the old style ones just *feel* right.

[Yenome]

sorry i spoke too soon multimame isn't for linked play. but the rest of what i said stands true.

[MacGyver]

However,  If you are taking about playing a normal 2 player shooting game on two different screens, that should be completely possible.
The Aimtrak guns work like a mouse, so if you had two guns and two IR strips (one for each TV) and then mirrored or split the normal MAME output to both of the TVs, it would let each gun user have their own screen and gun, and both would play the same game at the same time, and see the same output, just more elbow room I guess.  

Their is no reason I can think of that the above described setup shouldn't work.  

[DogFish]

hmm... so using dual monitors on a single computer, i could achieve dual screen multiplayer? hmm... i spose i'd need two graphics cards as well if i want to use these tv's as the best they have is s-video, and i dont think you can sendtwo s-video signals from one card. but still.. i spose that saves me having to have two computers which is a bonus.

hmmm....so i dont suppose you could tell me how i split the picture across two screens? or lead me in the direction of the information that would enable me to do do? i really wouldn't know where to get started.

thanks, this method sounds very feasible.

[Nephasth]

Just use a splitter cable. One like this if you're using S-video.

I used a vga splitter to get the same image to both of my arcade monitors in the Two-Headed Beast.

[DogFish]

ahh... not quite what i'm trying to achieve. the two screens have to be independent of each other. take time crisis II for example, each player's screen is different, each player can duck independently, etc.

[Howard_Casto]

Before you go all gung ho on this project are you really sure you want to do this? 

32 inch tvs are frikkin heavy, and they take up too much space as-is and you want to build cabinets around them.  S-video isn't the best of quality these days either considering hd tvs are so cheap.  Also because you are limited to a s-video connection, it's going to be nearly impossible to pull off.  I've yet to find a video card with dual s-video.  It's also very hard to find svid on pcie cards.  Since pcs generally only have one agp slot (if any) you would have to run one agp card and one pci (no e) card.  Your rig is only as fast as your slowest card and therefore it would chug along.  Now it might be possible to get some pcie cards with s-vid out but I'm guessing they'll be expensive or underpowered... or both.  There are other problems with svid as well in regards to video overlays (laserdisc shooters).  You are going to have issues.. let's just leave it at that.

S -video lightguns are expensive as well.... act-labs are 100 bucks a pop the last time I checked. 

2 pcs isn't going to work either.  Most of your lightgun games aren't even in mame, and they aren't going to support network play (or at least not very well).  I mean yeah, you could always play two completely different games but at that point you might as well just make the cabs seperate.

These are all things to think about.  I don't care for non-traditional lightguns either, but I care for heavy crts even less. 

[Yenome]

you can still pick up some ati pcie cards with tv out. which can take a normal svideo cable. i use my geforce 8500gt. tho since the video cards add nothing to mame. how bad or good it is shouldnt matter. unless you want to play in a high res then i believe the card has an effect. tho i got a spare 8400 gs laying around that has tv out. id have to test it more make sure it works but i have no need for it if you need it.

[DogFish]

its rather a shame that the ps2 versions of time crisis (and every other gun game i know of) dont include console-link play, that would make this whole ordeal so much easier.