Add arcade start up sounds to XP

[atog]

I was replacing my xp startup graphics thanks to the posts in the thread about windows in your cab.  I was poking through my windows folder and found in /windows/media you have the wav files that XP plays on starting up and shutting down.  I figured it might be cool to replace them with some genuine arcade sounds.  I found some classics over at basement arcade, and downloaded his Miss Pacman sounds for starting the game and when miss pac dies.  I renamed these to Windows XP Startup.wav and Windows XP Shutdown.wav and copied them over the old files.  It works great and is much nicer for my cab than the stock Windows sounds.

If anybody has links to, or records some other cool arcade wav files, post them!

[SirPoonga]

You know you didn't need to rename them.

[Howard_Casto]

if you don't know enough about windows to apply sound schemes then perhaps you should take one of those computer 101 courses before you start working on any arcade controls.  

It's been done the same way since windows 95 (actually even 3.11 was very similar).  I find it extremely disturbing that anyone wouldn't know how to use themes and event sounds at this point.  No offense of course, I'm just saying you need some serious computer courses if you wish to understand software enough to do anything complicated in your emulation setup.    

[atog]

ah you guys mean going into the actual windows interface and just pointing the startup sound over to the different wav.  yeah I guess I could have done that too, I was just going with the flow at the time.  Howard you are definitely right, I will have to study a lot if I ever want to do anything good with my cab.

[Howard_Casto]

I'm sorry, going back and reading that a second time that sounded a little harsh.  I am serious about what I said, but it didn't come out right.  

Sorry.  

go into the control panel and the sound options in "sound and audio devices" to change it properly.  

It's a bad idea to rename those files as some programs expect them to be there.  (it's rare but potentially could cause errors or unexpected results.)  

[atog]

Not at all, you are absolutely correct.  If I am doing anything to my computer I will invariably find the most ignorant, obtuse, oblique or just plain dangerous solution - guaranteed.  I wish I had your knowledge, but I don't.

Anyway, I still think the basic idea is sound even if my implementation was flawed.  If anybody is using windows in their arcade cabinet and still has the stock sounds on boot up and shutdown, you can easily replace them with something more appropriate and in the spirit of things.  My friend Matt at work thinks I should replace the miss pac sounds with some files of the Master Control Program from Tron.  That is a good idea and I might do it tonight.  Here are some links to good Tron sounds:

http://funwavs.com/movie/sounds/tron/?page=3

http://www.sciflicks.com/tron/sounds.html

http://www.moviesounds.com/tron.html

[Homebrew]

They're not much and i don't have a page hosting them, but i've made a few sound clips from the marvel vs. series of games as well as a couple from SFA3.  Probably about 10 or so in all.  They're just short clips with things like the announce from SFA3 saying beat em up guys! or appocolypse saying I am the appcolypse.  If anyone is interested i can zip and email them to you.  I too would be interested in any links to game sound clips if anyone has some to share.

-Kevin

[Superdude]

HOLY SMOKES! YOU CAN EVEN CHANGE THE BACKGROUND TOO!

...
sorry had to get that in.

[SirPoonga]

Do a search for XP or plus! themes.  I found many.

[jets]

haha...I have to throw this in but you know the initial XP semi-dos boot up screen thats black and has the green bar cycling from left to right?

I changed mine so it says "WinblowsXP"

[Brad Lee]

If your looking for sounds, poke around in your \samples directory.. plenty of lasers, explosions, and game-y sounds there

[1UP]

Check this out...  

[atog]

That could be the coolest arcade cabinet upgrade I have ever seen 1-up.  Nice work man!

[Carsten Carlos]

Damn, I should have used WinXp on my cab to have such a nice bootup-screen!

At first sight, I even thought Pac-Man & the ghosts were moving instead of the line underneath them!

[SirPoonga]

I have a random bootloader I found.  The startup screens for xp I go through are space invaders, tron, cowboy bebop, wolves, dogbert, west coast choopers, yamaha, and a couple others.  It also randomizes the login screen too.

[jginiso]

That startup screen looks great! Would you mind passing along info on the boot loader?

Thanks!

[RoadhawK]

HOLY SMOKES! YOU CAN EVEN CHANGE THE BACKGROUND TOO!

...
sorry had to get that in.

[Silverwind]

HOLY SMOKES! YOU CAN EVEN CHANGE THE BACKGROUND TOO!

...
sorry had to get that in.

LOL

I know I have been guilty of this in general (NOT THE BACKGROUND/SOUND THING)... but a lot of us might overlook the easy solution and try to create a more elaborate fix than neccesary..