Project: Driver MAME

[FrizzleFried]

It's been a while since I've been able to post a project announcement in this forum!  Lately,  I've been taking on "real" arcade projects having already built up a collection of MAME cabs.  That is about to change as I am ready to tackle Project: Driver MAME...

I've wanted to build a Driver MAME cab since just after I got in to this hobby just over 2 years ago.  Originally I wanted to get a cockpit cabinet to MAME,  but after many months and many acquisitions,  I determined a stand-up would be the way to go based on space limitations... and,  frankly,  availability of cockpit cabs in my area.   About 4-6 months ago I came across  a "working Pole Position"...



"Working" ---my bottom---!  The thing did power up,  the sound did work, and the game DID play.  That said,  there was/is obviously a problem with the board set...



This,  actually,  wasn't a bad thing really.  Why?  Because it'll be less difficult "emotionally" gutting a broken Pole Position cabinet than it would a fully working one.  Now,  I fully understand that I will be,  to some extent,  upsetting the arcade gods,  but not too badly,  for there are a SHITLOAD of "broken" Pole Positions out there and it's better one ends up a driver MAME cab than in the dumpster (or burn pile!).

Now,  this build should be pretty straight forward.  Why?  Because about 4-6 months ago (right after getting the cabinet),  I also acquired these nifty little items:

A Pole Position cockpit throttle assembly with brake and gas pedals (instead of just gas as the stock upright uses).


A 4 position Atari shifter (instead of the 2 position PP shifter).  This will give me 2 additional inputs to use for various things in MAME and/or the front end I will be using.


Attached to the shifter is the appropriate encoder hardware for the shifter, wheel,  and pedals.  I've also gotten a nice little software package from the same source that includes the software necessary to get a dedicated Driver MAME up and running.  Of course it will need to be customized (and updated by now),  but it's one helluva start.

Hardware wise,  I am ready to go minus a hard drive.  I have a few old drives on the shelves,  but I don't trust them.  My main rig in the office has a couple raptors,  I think I can condense the info on them both to one and pull the other.   As for the cabinet,  the side art is in 8/10 condition and will likely remain as-is save for a Magic Eraser clean up.   CP is in great shape,  etc.  The monitor in it currently works but has some burn-in.  Luckily I have a brand new 19" Vision Pro sitting next to it.

I'll post updates in this thread as they happen...

[HaRuMaN]

This thread makes me sad...   

[FrizzleFried]

This thread makes me sad...   

It took just one response to ---meecrob--- up my posting.  Thanks turd-bucket.

I deserve it though. 

I've douched up many-a-threads myself.

Don't be a Friz damnit... Don't be a Friz!

[HaRuMaN]

It took just one response to ---meecrob--- up my posting.  Thanks turd-bucket.

No prob.  It's a service I provide free of charge.  Just ask Chad. 

Ehh...  I'm just partial to Pole Positions, and have been trying to get my hands on one with not much luck.

[leapinlew]

Hey Friz -

As a fellow driving MAME cabinet builder, what games do you plan on running on it? Once I completed mine, there were only a couple dozen games it could play - of those, only a handful accurately played. I eventually sold it.

[TOK]

Hey Friz -

As a fellow driving MAME cabinet builder, what games do you plan on running on it? Once I completed mine, there were only a couple dozen games it could play - of those, only a handful accurately played. I eventually sold it.

I love driving/racing games, but they do seem to be one of the weak areas of MAME. Just such a crazy array of wheel and shifters types.

Think when I finally get around to one, I'm going to do a cockpit cab using a new PC and  Logitech G25 wheel, then run PC racing games on it... NFS and Trackmania for arcade type stuff, stuff like fFactor for true sims. The cost of the PC and wheel will keep pushing this back, because so far I've based all my MAME cabs on recycled junk computers. 

[FrizzleFried]

I am not entirely sure.  

From what I've read there are about 35 games or so I should be able to play.  Some of them not 100% accurately (many 270 games will play but of course you have to manually "return" the wheel to the neutral position to straighten out, etc.).  

Also,  games without a shifter but with a "button" like A.P.B.,  can be played using the shifter as the buttons...but again,  not accurate.

Even if I can only play Offroad, PP, PPII, and a few others,  I will be happy.   Or who knows,  perhaps I will not like it and sell it as well?

[leapinlew]

One issue I had was with the shifter.

My config of Mame didn't recognize low or high gear, it used 1 key to switch. So, it didn't care if I pushed it low or high - it just switched from whatever gear it was in to the other. I used a return to center shifter to combat this, but it was still problematic.

MarkVP did a pretty sweet Pole Position to Xbox driver. If you ask me, a hacked Xbox with a lot of driving games on the xbox, and a hacked up steering wheel and pedals is the way to go. I'm not sure how long you'll want to stand and play those games, but I think thats a better way to go.

Either way, I'm sure you'll do this build justice. Good luck.

[FrizzleFried]

Minwah has produced a little mod to fix the shifter issue...

...at least with some games.

[tevans333]

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my driving cab. It has a similar set up as yours, 360 wheel etc. I found that I can play 27 games on it that are emulated properly, but many are not accurate as far as controls are concerned. Since I haven't built a cab with a spinner yet I use it for games like arkanoid and such . It's a bit different but fun in its own. The main problem I have, and I am hoping you may know more about this, is that MAME emulates the Pole Position gear shifter as a momentary switch. So I have to put the shifter in high then immediatly back into low to get the gear to change. I would much rather it not be momentary for other games like Konami GT. What plans do you have for your shifter with Pole Position?

[TAG]

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my driving cab. It has a similar set up as yours, 360 wheel etc. I found that I can play 27 games on it that are emulated properly, but many are not accurate as far as controls are concerned. Since I haven't built a cab with a spinner yet I use it for games like arkanoid and such . It's a bit different but fun in its own. The main problem I have, and I am hoping you may know more about this, is that MAME emulates the Pole Position gear shifter as a momentary switch. So I have to put the shifter in high then immediatly back into low to get the gear to change. I would much rather it not be momentary for other games like Konami GT. What plans do you have for your shifter with Pole Position?

Unless I misunderstand the question, I believe he suggested he'd be using Minwah's ShifterMAME.  It seems like a pretty good solution, at least for the games it works with.

[tevans333]

Right, I see that  now I really like my MALA setup, although I've used Minwash for years, so I think I may come up with a hardware solution so that I can play all shifter games without additional software tweaks.

I'm thinking an additional input for pole position type shifter games will be needed. If I add a switch to both low and high in parallel to that new input, then have those switches power a time delay relay set at 1/10 of a second or so I should be able to have that input toggle when shifted. While still using the original high switch and input for all other games. Then it is seemless to the player

[FrizzleFried]

I don't believe his Minwah's solution requires you to use Mamewah... I think it's a modded version of MAME (though I admit I've not looked at it yet,  I have to get the actual cab up and running first).

[FrizzleFried]

Well,  the driver MAME has been postponed for a bit.  My cocktail MAME/jukebox died over the weekend.  The power supply has been making a high pitched noise for about a month...I figured it was dying...but I didn't expect it to take out my motherboard with it.   Sure as ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---,  it killed the motherboard.   The cocktail MAME/juke is a very very important machine as it is used EVERY time I throw a gathering (as a juke)...

So the AMD64 3200+ that I was going to use for the diver ended up in the cocktail. 

That means that I either have to: 

(A) Find an AMD XP compatible motherboard cheap and hope that my CPU and memory are still OK (hope!)...
(B) Buy a cheap motherboard/CPU combo from craigslist...
(C) Save up for a Core2Duo for the driver cab...

[HaRuMaN]

Karma (tm)

 

[FrizzleFried]

Karma (tm)

 

It COULD be a Pole Position screaming out to be saved?   I've actually thought,  more than once,  that I was going to go in and re-seat all the chips, etc in an effort to get it back to running 100%.  IF that were to happen,  I don' t think I could stand to MAME it and I'd truly be back to square one.

[FrizzleFried]

So much for the PP comeback.  I just ordered a new 3200+ off ebay for $39.95 retail (includes fan).  Can't ---smurfette--- too much about that.

[heinekenlvr]

I'm using shiftermame in my PP cabinet. It works great once you get it configured properly. I would highly recommend it if you plan on play PP or PP2.

My PP cabinet started much the same as yours and after much head scratching I decided to gut and rebuild it into a PP/PP2 mame from the ground up. New paint, CPO even a new sterring wheel medallion. It looks freakin brand new.

[Keebo]

I just picked up a PP cabinet last weekend for 30 bucks, no monitor, Rom Board or power supply but it has the steering wheel gas pedal and shifter. Overall cabinet shape is about a B-. I'm wondering what control devices I should use. Through me research I figure I should be using an OPTI-PAC for the steering wheel and an A-PAC for the gas pedal. I noticed alot of discussion about the handling of the shifter, so I should be ok there. Does it look like I'm on the right path here? Also if anyone has a drawing or schematic of how the wiring should look please post it, Thank you.