"Research" machine

[ai-guy]

I've been trolling these forums for a couple of months and now I'm about to bite the bullet and build myself a cab. I'm a computer scientist, teaching computer game development and design (and sometimes game history!) [so this project will actually be tax-deductible  ]. But I still have to watch the budget, so I'm trying to make use of stuff I have on hand: 19" PC monitor (upgrading my wife's desktop to LCD was part of the deal), old Pentium III, dissectable mice, etc.

This site is such a great resource. Not sure I'd be able to take this leap without access to the collected wisdom herein. Anyway, a couple of questions:

* The PC has a Debian install, but I still have the original WinNT CDs. Is there a strong advantage to reinstalling Windows or is x-mame perfectly good?

* Are the 32 lines on the KeyWiz really enough? I'm planning a two-player cab: 16 for the joysticks, 12 for the Street Fighter buttons, that only leaves 4 more buttons (one player, two player, a button near the spinner -- I plan to research Tempest quite heavily  , another near the trackball -- ditto for Centipede ). I can't think of any more that I'll need, but I'm wondering if I will change my mind later.

* Am I going to kick myself for getting the generic white Happ trackball ($55 plus interface) rather than the (gorgeous) ICE-T ($110)?

Any advice appreciated.

[JonnyBoy]

Usually the buttons near trackballs and spinners are mouse buttons and don't tie into the keywiz. That saves you a couple inputs.

With those four extra buttons, I'd add player one and player two coin and start buttons. Some people prefer to hide the coin buttons and making them shifted, I don't like that, personally.

[DaveMMR]

I can answer two of those three questions (I don't have a good answer for reinstalling Windows over x-mame):

The 32 Inputs should be more than enough.  The joysticks only use 4 inputs each (U,D,L,R -- diaganols are registered when two are pressed at once).  Add 12 buttons, 2 starts, 2 coins, ground -- that's still only 25.  Plus, you don't have to give each contoller it's own specific button, they can all share the same set.  Otherwise, you can have buttons share inputs (i.e. the button by the joystick and the button by the spinner are both connected to the "Button 1" input... whatever that may be). 

I bought a trackball used for $40 (Happs) and the Electric Ice Upgrade Kit seperately.  A lot cheaper than $110.  To sum up: no, you won't kick yourself, because you can upgrade it easily.  (NOTE: I wired up my trackball but haven't tested out the EIUK yet, but I've heard good things).

[JonnyBoy]

I wasn't sure if he planned on having two sticks for each player, the 16 inputs thing...

[ai-guy]

Aha! 8 directions = 4 inputs. That changes the equation.

I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the coins. I'm thinking of going actual coin-op, with the proceeds going to charity (maybe Childs Play http://www.childsplaycharity.org/index.php) or to our family vacation fund. Not sure how long it will take until my son (age 10) figures out that he can use the keyboard to get himself credits.

[theCoder]

I'm thinking of going actual coin-op, with the proceeds going to charity (maybe Childs Play http://www.childsplaycharity.org/index.php) or to our family vacation fund.

This would only fly if you put your students to work, developing games for your cab.  Mame and most commercially purchased games have very explicit "no money to change hands" clauses in their licenses.

I recently picked up a book on game programming for C#.  Using the sprite libraries and knowledge learned, I made a stab at writting a version of Star Castle.  It's not done, and may never get done, but it was a cool way to learn a new language.

Good luck on your cab.

[ai-guy]

Mame and most commercially purchased games have very explicit "no money to change hands" clauses in their licenses.

Good point. I guess another route is to go with tokens as I've seen some other folks do. It looks like Happ has acceptors for their coin doors that take tokens instead of quarters. The main issue isn't the money, but having some way to limit how much the kids (10 and 6) are playing. This was one of my wife's conditions for agreeing to this crazy project.

[theCoder]

The main issue isn't the money, but having some way to limit how much the kids (10 and 6) are playing. This was one of my wife's conditions for agreeing to this crazy project.

If you're kids aren't too computer suave you could write a small program that enables/disables the cab menu front end based on the time of day.  It is a little more invoved to log the actual time played, but if you use your imagination, you can come up with something.  If you do a decent job of it, I'm sure others in this forum would use it and shower you with praise and money (well, maybe just the praise).

[johnperkins21]

The main issue isn't the money, but having some way to limit how much the kids (10 and 6) are playing. This was one of my wife's conditions for agreeing to this crazy project.

Get yourself a timer, like one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/102-7824483-0199339?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dblended&keywords=lamp+timer

And hook that up to the monitor inside the locked cabinet. You have the key so you can unlock it, and set the timer to "on" whenever you want to play or give the kids some free time. Although I do like the whole token idea. Give them a certain number of tokens for doing chores, but some games last longer than others, especially once they get good.

I remember seeing something about a timer-like device for TV and video games that uses a card system that you can program time on. If I could find that I'll link it for you.

Edit... Here's two:
PlayLimit - http://www.playlimit.com/ and
Time-Scout - http://www.time-scout.com/