Ultracade on my pc. its its own emu? close enoguh?!?

[delta88]

So I have free rain over an ultracade machine, I was gonna make a copy of the harddrive by plugging it in and using it as a secondary drive, should werk? after that if I make an image of it or load it onto my pc or another pc I should basically have an ultracade setup , no? casue all thats in the cab is a pc and an interface board.

thx
for any input.

[XtraSmiley]

Is Ulticade the one with rotating Marquees to pick the game?  Man, I'd like a copy of that... but it's probably not legal so I'm not really asking  Anyone know a front end that works kind of like that?

[PacManFan]

Kymaera can, I'm about to release a new version.
-PMF

[paigeoliver]

So I have free rain over an ultracade machine, I was gonna make a copy of the harddrive by plugging it in and using it as a secondary drive, should werk? after that if I make an image of it or load it onto my pc or another pc I should basically have an ultracade setup , no? casue all thats in the cab is a pc and an interface board.

thx
for any input.

The Ultracade OS will likely be checking for a security chip on the interface board, and perhaps checking for the checksum of some arbitrary chip or chips on the motherboard.

Believe me, that sucker is going to have some sort of protection against bootlegging, otherwise the bootleg units would already be out there.

[XtraSmiley]

Kymaera can, I'm about to release a new version.
-PMF

Do you have a link to your homepage?

[XtraSmiley]

Kymaera can, I'm about to release a new version.
-PMF

Do you have a link to your homepage?

[arcadecab]

I would love to see an identical version of the current Ultracade system available as a frontend.  Since the Ultracade system is basically a PC, I was thinking the same thing.  With the animation and the running videos of the games, it would be a sweet setup.  I know that 3darcade and DragonKing (I believe) have this option, but I would like to see the same layout and skins used in the actual Ultracade machine.  I would think it would be just a matter of time before the Ultracade system in general would be available through MAME as a large rom with the games already included.

[)p(]

I would love to see an identical version of the current Ultracade system available as a frontend.  Since the Ultracade system is basically a PC, I was thinking the same thing.  With the animation and the running videos of the games, it would be a sweet setup.  I know that 3darcade and DragonKing (I believe) have this option, but I would like to see the same layout and skins used in the actual Ultracade machine.  I would think it would be just a matter of time before the Ultracade system in general would be available through MAME as a large rom with the games already included.

Sure you could make a rotating wheel skin in 3darcade to look like the ultracade one...but not me...I like the wheel but not the looks of the ultracade skin ;-)  Actually I don't use the ultracade like wheel anymore on my cab...i reverted back to a simple marquee list...I felt the rotating to be a bit to dominant for my taste after a while especially on a cab like mine...

peter

[PacManFan]

Here's the roating preview wheel in Kymaera, I don't have a skin built for it yet to show it off. You can configure the size of the previews, # of previews, angle offset,etc...

[SpamMe]

Nice, didn't know Kymaera was going to do the wheel thing

[SirPeale]

Do you have a link to your homepage?

Take a look right below his name.  See the 'WWW'

[XtraSmiley]

Hmmm, I didn't see anything called Kymaera there, maybe I didn't look hard enough?

EDIT:  Oh wait, yes I do, under downloads, well no offense, your product looks nice, but the Ultracade is a little sweeter.  It has a bit more marquees and the center of the wheel is off to the side more.  Also, when selected the marquee is enlarged.  Anyway, I think what you've made is GREAT, and since you are not charging for it, it's better than GREAT.  Good work.

[nighthawk2099]

I remember seeing this last summer

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=9401;start=0

but seemed like it just disappeared into cyberspace...never to be heard from again.  

At the time, it actually seemed to be a good sub. for Ultracade.

[Howard_Casto]

He is mia... We haen't heard from him since... Btw I'm sure the preview that pmf posted is just a wip so chill... he even said it wasn't skinned yet.  

Btw the next version of dk will also support this but via the use of 3d models instead of on the fly matrix rotation.  (Models is how 3darcade does it if you want an example of how it'll work.)  The reason I'm doing models instead of a hard-coded wheel is so the type of list you want to make   is not limited to a wheel but virtually any abstract shape in any order you wish with any type of rotation.  Obvoiusly it's gonna take some time though so be patient.    Who knows, I might get lazy and throw in a fixed wheel as a stop gap until i get it ready.  

[)p(]

Yes howard is right in 3darcade it are just parts. In fact it is just cylarcade mode that has been in the fe for years but when the mame wick demo came I got asked a couple of times if it could not be made into a wheel...so I made a skin like that.

Here is an example of a flat wheel layout. If you look closely you can see the parts.




peter

[Sephroth57]

i wish i could get one of your guys cool looking front ends working... everything seems to work weird on my PC i think im setting something up wrong.

Suggestion for the FE programmers, distribute it in a self extracting zip that after u unzip all you need to do is double click your exe. seems everyone has these complicated settings and things, i need something simple =P

[shmokes]

uh...oh!   you're going to get some wrath for that comment...  

[PacManFan]

He's right actually, some frontends (no names mentioned) can be a little difficult to set up. Many FE's require the user to manually configure cfg files, ini files, text files, gamelists,etc.. Sometime the documentation can be less-than-helpful.

-PMF

[SirPoonga]

Suggestion for the FE programmers, distribute it in a self extracting zip that after u unzip all you need to do is double click your exe. seems everyone has these complicated settings and things, i need something simple =P

Have you ever thought it may not be that simple?

[shmokes]

I am usually a big advocate of people being able to ask pretty much whatever they want.  I bust HC's balls all the time for his short fuse (not that I think he particularly cares one way or the other what I think of his rants).

This particular question, though, leaves a bad taste even in my mouth.

The frontend developers, with the exception maybe of Cyberpunk, donate hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work to the rest of us.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to draw the logical conclusion that when Howard or Minwah or anyone else sets out to make a frontend they don't think, "Hmmm....I've always been a fan of unintuitive, difficult software.  That's what I want to make!"  Could a frontend be better?  Yes, of course, it always could be better no matter how good it is.  Did the frontend developer make it as good as their current abilities would allow them?  WTF, of course they did.  And then, over time, they improve it as new ideas come to them, or they learn new ways of programming things, etc.

It's one thing to suggest, "Hey...would it be easy to implement such and such a thing?" or, "Since I'm not a programmer I don't know how feasible this is, but what if you made your frontend do this?"

But to just blanketly state, "you didn't make your frontend easy enough for me," is a bit narcissistic and tactless, not to mention adds nothing of value whatsoever to the frontend world.  What do you want, an apology?  Like I said, they made it.  It stands to reason that they tried, to the utmost of their ability, to make everything about it good.  

Like Poonga said....what makes you think it's that easy?   And if you think it's that easy, what are you waiting for?  Make the frontend of your dreams.

[SirPoonga]

Good speech shmokes, but that's not what I was getting at.


Making an FE isn't that easy.  Most of the FEs out ther now handle multiple emus.  That can't be done by just dragging and dropping the program onto your computer.  Now, a mame specific FE it is possible with the stipulation you drop it in the mame folder or asked to point to the mame folder, then tell it the mame exe(s) you use.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah, what sirp said.  To paraphrase:

Mo' Features Mo' Problems


If you want a front end that doesn't do anything then an automatic setup is a given.  If you want skinnability, advanced filters, multiple emu support, support for screensavers, external programs, multiple rom folders ect.... then your going to have to suck it up and setup a few options.  For the past few versions my fe has been semi-automatic for the setup of mame.  The video settings are also set to automatic so you don't have to worry unless you have a really cheap or really old video card.  In other words if you want to setup mame and only mame it is pretty much idiot proof.  I think at this point that's the best that any of us can do.  

I would like to say that since I added this wizard my tech support questions have almost completely dropped off the radar.  I mention this only to prove the fact that adding a bit of user friendlyness will pay off.  


However I invested several hours making the stupid wizard, which I find annoying and will never use myself.  I did this because I was extremely bored one day and thought it'd be a nice gesture.  I don't expect ANY of the other fe devs to do this.  Normally I wouldn't even do this.  Some end users ask waaay to much from a freeware project made by a single person.  

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  We go through a lot of trouble making this software, the very least an end-user can do is spend an equal amount of time and effort trying to get it to work and trying to solve problems on their own.  

Now I'm not directing this towards anyone in the thread, but whever us fe devs see a comment like "Your front end is way too hard to setup(or stupid, or coded wrong ect..), you should fix it for me now!!"  


We generally think that the user is:

a.  lazy
b.  stupid
c.  a jerk
d.  all of the above


I say this to let end users understand that telling someone their product sucks or is designed poorly and then going around and asking for help is a bad move.  All of us, contrary to popular belief are nice guys and we are willing to help the general public, else all of this software we make would be kept to ourselves.  It's just a matter of being a little respectful towards the people who spend a lot of time making you stuff for free.  

With that in mind nothing blatently disrespectful has been said in this thread yet.  I posted so that nothing blatently disrespectful would get posted.  Let's try to play nice everybody.  


With all of that in mind I would like to report that there has been a dramatic change over the past year or so in terms of end users.  I seldom hear anything disrespectful towards developers, users, or software in general anymore.  It is very much appreciated. Thanks to no one making me angry I've been able to contribute far more than I normally would this past year.  I've also noticed that front-end and emulation utility development is at a high again.  I would say that it's not just a concidence.  

[Lilwolf]

And shmokes... Howards only angry at you because you stole his old avatar.    

[eightbit]

For end users that want a simple setup program go use mame32 just don't complain about its look or lack of features.

[delta88]

so yeah... back to the ultracade thing... heh

[MameMaster!]

...HMMM...this is an interesting thread.

I'm kinda' of illiterate when it comes to getting some of the front ends to work. I really don't have much actual PC knowledge (I'm in advertising and have only used a Mac for almost 12 years now....my first PC was purchased in 10/01!); but I am definitely more able than the average joe who's knowledge of a PC and software stops at MP3s and AOL.

It is too bad that some of the most interesting front ends aren't extract and run....BUT considering all of the hard work you guys have expended to create these amazing and powerful programs.....I'm all too grateful to poke around and try to figure it out on my own.

There's nothing like the little moment of triumph that I felt when I got Mame32 up and running (I thought I was genius!); most recently I felt the same way with the 3d Arcade Front end.

Serious THANKS and KUDOS to you developers out there. I know this is fun for you guys who have the skills to do the programming...but it's still obviously hard work none the less.....and it's truly appreciated!!!!!

I may not be able to contribute from a technical perspective....but at least I've been able to make some $$ donations to Mameworld.net over time here and there.

Thanks again!!!!

MameMaster!

 

[Edgedamage]

I like the wheel type frontends they look great. A cool option would be able to scroll through the game list with a spinner.

[XtraSmiley]

A spinner, now THAT's a great idea!

[SirPoonga]

Man, I really need to get some time!  I want to hack out the spinning wheel menu form stepmania.  It would be cool to navigate that by spinner too

[Howard_Casto]

I like the wheel type frontends they look great. A cool option would be able to scroll through the game list with a spinner.

dragon king does this.... you can scroll via a mouse axis

[PacManFan]

I like the wheel type frontends they look great. A cool option would be able to scroll through the game list with a spinner.

Kymaera can also use the mouse messages as an input, so you can use the mouse up/down/left/right to make the gamelist scroll.

-PMF

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah but mine uses raw data, so the faster you spin the spinner, the faster the gamelist would scroll.  

[Mr. Dude]

Ultimate Applauncher uses that rotating feature.  On the Ultimate Arcade website they have a free demo download and to purchase the full program is only $19.95 I think.  I've tried the demo and it seems pretty neat, anyone here actually own or have used the full version?

[PacManFan]

Yeah but mine uses raw data, so the faster you spin the spinner, the faster the gamelist would scroll.  

Isn't the rawinput functionality XP only? Or are you talking about reading the relative mouse axis'  and transforming that to a movement in the list? Why does it always have to be a comparison with you HC? Are you over-compensating for some other shortcomings?

-PMF

[Howard_Casto]

Like you said, directinput gives you relative mouse values.  As the mouse is an analog device, it's only common sense to take advantage of it if you have access to the values. I brought this up because a digital polling of the mouse isn't going to give the desired effect with a spinner, not to knock you.  As you are supposedly a professional programmer you could easily add this.  I was trying to give you an idea, but nevermind.  

I still don't know what your problem is pmf, but considering you bumped your own fe announcment (we NEVER bump on the byoac board)  I would say your the one who's letting their software develop into an extension of their.... ego.  

[hulkster]

hmm, you guys should create a frontend that changes games by reading your mind.  yeah, you could hook up the trackball interface to your brain, and then..."hmm, lets see,...uh....Ninja Turtles" and poof!