Introducing arcadeVFE

[gildahl]

In addition to arcade gaming on my conventional arcade machine, over the last few years I've discovered that VR arcades have come a LONG way, with one of the latest being Arcade Time Capsule, which does an incredible job of re-creating the look and feel of a real arcade and simulates the machines themselves with incredible accuracy.  As something of a purist though, the biggest problem I've always had with these VR arcades and reason they have been hard to take seriously, ATC included, is the lack of good controller options. Part of the problem is that even though they are MAME-based, due to various reasons, they don't tend to work well with conventional arcade control panels like the front-end programmable ones many of us like to use on our IRL arcade machines. And a big part of this is because there is no front-end suitable for VR arcades to handle the background work it takes to configure them.

So if anyone is interested, I just created what I think is the first front end designed specifically for VR arcades. I've only tested it with Arcade Time Capsule, but it may work with others to some extent as well. I also built and documented a full-blown arcade control panel that works with the software and can control every game in the virtual arcade just as well as a conventional arcade machine.  The software is called arcadeVFE (the Arcade Virtual Front End), and is available for free on GitHub.  I've also posted a build guide for the dedicated "ATC Monster Control Panel" as well for inspiration.

https://github.com/gildahl/arcadeVFE

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_UpA_Fa-1jQdQMLDDSFTut15gjGnhjljFkd_raw9Ox4/edit?tab=t.0