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Linking two cabs together?

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Yenome:
far as i know kaillera is your best bet for cab linking. i dont see any reason why two pc cant be networked together and kail to be told that cab 1 is only connected to cab 2. doing it this way you could set up one cab and just clone everything to the second and change only the connection setting for kaillera. I would also suggest you set this all up in a VM before doing it with two full machines. heck with it ill try that now. VMs here i come.

MonMotha:
If you don't mind having to change stuff between being in "linked mode" vs "standalone mode", it seems most foolproof to just have a separate encoder in each cabinet.  Program them to use different keycodes (you can configure the emu on the "slave" one to compensate when it's in standalone - just use the MAME standard 3/4P keycodes or whatever).  When you want to play 4P linked, just move the USB cable over to the "master" PC and also use a VGA splitter/amp to duplicate the video.  Done.  No lag, no fuss.  It's two cables, but it's easy and has almost no room for problems.

If you actually want to take advantage of the link functionality in some games e.g. fighters where each player gets a dedicated view, then that's a different story of course and requires emulator support (or use the real gameboards).

CoryBee:
I haven't done it either but have researched it a bunch. Looked into kaillera and I would think a physical connection would be best, plus no input lag over network (I know it is unlikely over LAN). I am super tired but shouldn't be too hard to have a switch or two that disconnects the mother board+monitor from the Slave cab and a connection be made with a DB25 connector to the Master. Master would obviously be cloning screen and like badmouth said have a way to keep track of Joystick IDs. Dr. Venture's or Joytokey, I prefer Joytokey as I can treat gamepads as keyboard inputs.

Good luck, would love to see it implemented.

Nephasth:
I would run a Lono2 in your master unit. This way you'll have 4 "always on" game pads on the master. Have headers 1 and 2 wired to P1's and P2's controls in the master. Wire headers 3 and 4 to some type of connector(s) (like Molex or DBx). Also have a VGA splitter in your master. In your slave you can run whatever other encoder you want (it will only be running (on) when the cab is in stand alone mode) and wire your controls with a Y harness with one end running to the cab's encoder and the other running to the mating connector(s) to plug into the master unit's Lono2 connectors. When you want to run linked, the master unit will be running as usual, on the slave you would just plug in the Lono2 connectors and VGA cable, and have to power on the monitor only. Could do something similar with lit controls as well, just requires more wiring.

CoryBee:

--- Quote from: Nephasth on January 21, 2013, 02:06:48 am ---I would run a Lono2 in your master unit. This way you'll have 4 "always on" game pads on the master. Have headers 1 and 2 wired to P1's and P2's controls in the master. Wire headers 3 and 4 to some type of connector(s) (like Molex or DBx). Also have a VGA splitter in your master. In your slave you can run whatever other encoder you want (it will only be running (on) when the cab is in stand alone mode) and wire your controls with a Y harness with one end running to the cab's encoder and the other running to the mating connector(s) to plug into the master unit's Lono2 connectors. When you want to run linked, the master unit will be running as usual, on the slave you would just plug in the Lono2 connectors and VGA cable, and have to power on the monitor only. Could do something similar with lit controls as well, just requires more wiring.

--- End quote ---

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