Pulled back in after 3 years...

[Steve Kaz]

All,

I wanted to post re: my project because I'm strictly an amateur at this stuff and am now returning after a LONG layoff.  Basically, I got my cab up and running at the end of 2005 and never finished the rest of it off because it was functional (and because I ended up moving from the VA area back to Pittsburgh PA).  Two kids coming along and finishing off two basements has cut into my time as well...

Why am I going into all that?  Basically because I've been gone so long that I have a ton of stuff to catch up on to get my machine finished the way that i'd like.  Any information and suggestions will be much appreciated (as I have to figure out new developments in games, software, etc).  Believe me, I'll be doing my own required reading on all parts of the site, I'm just wondering if anyone has specific advice

My cab was the UAII model that I finished with a Slikstick Quad (and I saw the thread last night that they went bankrupt at some point not long after my order).  I have an OLD Pentium III machine with Windows 98 that I'll be replacing with another machine that I just got (Pentium 4 and Windows XP).  The old machine ran the Mamewah front end, but I always had some issues with it and it would freeze whenever the computer ran the screenshots screensaver). 

Some things that were on my TO-DO list of 3 years ago:

1)I know that I have to take the Quad apart and fix some buttons that are now stuck down.
2)Obviously, start fresh with the new computer and whatever new frontend I choose
3)Finish priming and painting the machine and look into getting printed sideart?
4)I always planned on grabbing the ACT Labs guns and adding those games.  Do they still make/sell those?
5)is there a release list that I can check to see games that have been emulated after a current date?

Thanks again for any suggestions!  My 3 year old (who wasn't born when the machine first became operational) first played the game last night and started losing his mind with joy when Sunset Riders and X-Men came on.  He climbed up on a chair and didn't want to quit.  I figure now is as good a time as any to get this finished, as i've already created a monster

[Steve Kaz]

Also, I never got Daphne or the Pinball emulator figured out.

Have people mainly moved on to that Mala front-end?  Is it easier and more friendly to use than Mamewah?

[StarControl]

I think the top six front-ends right now (in no particular order) are Mala, Mamewah, Maximus Arcade, GameEx, Hyperspin, and Atomic FE.  My favorite is Hyperspin for its graphical glory.  The Hyperspin team is in the midst or creating animated artwork for each individual game in Mame (clones excepted).  They have themes for over 500 Mame games completed at the moment.  The easiest setup I ever did was Maximus Arcade.  I had it running in within 10 minutes of completing the download with a generated list and no issues.  GameEx is reasonably easy, well supported, and flexible.  After setting up GameEx, Maximus, Hyperspin, and Mala I tried downloading Mamewah and it was too difficult for me to justify finishing the setup process.  GameEx, Maximus & Hyperspin are all free to try, but they do require registration fees to get the most out of them.

If you've been gone three years, then you may not know about Future Pinball.  You should take a look at that (www.futurepinball.com).  It won't be running on your Pentium III.  Daphne is still around and much easier to get working with the new Daphne Loader.

Act Labs is still around, but you will also want to check out the TopGun LCD.  Both guns have their fans, but the three big advantages for the TopGun are:  a)  the technology allows machine gun fire emulation -- the Act Labs can only do single shot; 2) the TopGun will work with non-CRT screens; & 3) the TopGun is way cheaper.  There are lots of review threads on these forums for both guns.  The Topgun software drivers sucked when they first came out, but I hear those problems are mostly a thing of the past.  I haven't got mine installed yet.

You can always check the what's new lists at mamedev.org to see what's been added, but three years is a lot of releases to go through.  It's probably easiest to see what isn't emulated yet, and for that go here:  http://unmamed.mame.net/

The latest thing starting with release 128 is the beginning of support for laserdisc games in MAME.  Figure you need 13GB of hard drive space for each MAME laser disc game you want to support.  So far only Cubequest, Firefox, M.A.C.H. 3, and Us vs. Them are supported, but there about 50 or so laserdisc games that could be emulated so buy a big hard drive.

With a 3 year hiatus, you've also missed the release of two different models of the ultimate all-in-one joystick --  Groovy Game Gear's GP-Wiz49  and 49 way joystick with optional rotary joystick modification kit and the Ultimarc Ultrastik 360.  See http://www.groovygamegear.com and http://ultimarc.com

If you want a pretty front end, then you're going to want video snapshots of each of the games to play during game selection.  For that go to emumovies.com.  You can register and get FTP access and the DVD's of everything or you can hunt around for one of the torrents that Circo has released.  Most of the front ends use the AVI format videos, but Hyperspin uses FLV's so download the format appropriate to your front end.

[Steve Kaz]

Thank you very much!  There's a ton of good info here.

I'll have to check the specs of my Slikstick quad.  I know that I got the 4 way joystick up top and two 8 way joysticks in the #1 and #2 positions.  #3 and #4 were sticks of the rotating variety (so I could play Ikari Warriors and such).  As I said, things became functional and I was off.  I think my "3 player" button is off as well, as it tended to hit the f1 key while we were trying to play Wrestlefest.  I'll have to just find out which one was a problem and remap it (one more thing on my list)

The Pentium III worked well for the first run, but the sound would skip bad on Golden Tee and NBA Jam.  I'm going to have to pull the video card out of the old machine and put it in the new one (with the S-video hookup)

I remember talk of the Wiz49 back when I started this, but thought that was above my abilities (and I ordered the CP from Slikstick).  Now is when I begin experimenting, as I have to take the CP apart and fix some things.  I'm also considering putting the old machine in a small version for my kid.

Thanks again for the help.  You saved me a bunch of time!