Recent Posts

Not sure why its stretching the pics...
Anyway - heres the dark shots...

Hey guys! Its been quite a while since I posted here.
I have this project some may find interesting - so I figured Id post and see what you all think.
I started with a MAME cab way back in 02....had that for a few years and then got into full on collecting games in 06. That lasted until 2013 at a peak of 40 games. I got tired of all the room and energy they took up, so I went back to MAME and built a machine with a widescreen monitor on top and a rotated 50" tv masked off to a 4:3 ratio so It would display artwork dynamically as well as the simulated crt scanline, shape and curvature. Problem with that was there was quite the learning curve with all the different controls on one control panel.

As I was collecting the smaller "playable" machines from New wave games, I thought it would be cool to have something like these but in full size...
So I designed what I call the SlicerCADE!
Imagine cutting the front foot or so off the machine and lopping it just below the control panel - then hang it on the wall!
Im going for pure authentic FEEL of a real arcade machine - with more robust technology, smaller footprint, and less energy consumption. 
All my cabinets are roughly 25x42x12" and use the same template for the component mounting. Some slight mods are made to mimic the real machine and to compensate for the monitor layback.
My goal is to rebuild my collection (most of it at least), and also have the graill games I never was able to obtain - all for ALOT less money.
Some are using RP4 boards, some are using micro PCs so I can run a more robust version of MAME that will handle outputs and better Vector rendering. They take about 30-40 seconds to boot. A bit long, but once they are on - they are on.
Im also using 24" monitors that are rotated and masked off to 4:3. The3 controls are all arcade quality using leaf switches instead of cheap microswitches for a more authentic feel.
I know there are things out there that you can buy, but they are kinda crappy for what im looking for - and not dedicated.
Im trying to get a 95% or better authentic look and feel to the original cabinets.

So far I have 5 completed shooting for abot 25 or so (depending on the wallspace I have - LOL)!
I can do full writeups on some of the builds if anyone is interested - in the mean time I figured Id just post what Ive got and see where it goes.
Hope you all enjoy!!
V~

Here's the log!

Thanks
Looks like you have a good/recognized dump, and everything is fine on DemulShooter size
Nothing obvious can explain why the reticles are not followinf the aim, unfortunatelly.... 

You can also check that there's only one dll plugin in the /bepinex/plugins/ folder to avoid conflicts

Thanks for checking. I did some more troubleshooting and determined that the issue started with version 15.0. It works fine up to version 14.3. I'll attach a log from version 14.3 in case it helps determine what changed from 14.3 to 15.0 and beyond.

v15.0 update comes with an update for Rabbids, with a new plugin to install
Did you make your tests with DemulShooter v15.0 (and newest) + new plugin, or did you keep the existing old bepinex plugin ?

Sorry for the delay. Yes, I did update the both DemulShooter and the plugin.

Apologies if this has been discussed already - didn't see it in search results but I'm in my end stages of putting together an emulator with an Attract Mode front end for Mame, and various other emulators on a mac mini.  Nearly everything is working beautifully but I have two issues remaining and I seem stuck on both and am on the verge of giving up on the mac (which has already been a journey to say the least) and restart on PC because it feels like the Mac support is much less common but that seems so silly that the place I'm getting stuck is on the mac talking to the Ultimate I/O board. 

1.) installed an ultimarc ultrastik and while the computer recognizes the device attached and I can use the SDK to change configuration of it(change the name to player 2 joystick for instance), my FE in Attract doesn't appear to be responding to it....I admittedly need to spend more time troubleshooting here, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it seems like there may be some issues with the SDKor Mac in general once you read problem #2.

2.) I put some RGB led gold leaf buttons from ultimarc on it hoping to light them and while they function as expected through an ultimarc Ultimate I/O, I have found no way to get them to light consistently.  I am aware LEDBlinky is a common software used on the PC for this task, but is there really NOTHING out there for the mac to control those RGB signals?  I was using the SDK to set some colors to the buttons, but I am never seeing them lit while using the mini.  I know it's wired correctly because when I hard boot my mac computer, all the buttons light up on startup but turn off once the OS starts to load.  I borrowed my daughters bulky PC and tried it there(running no arcade software at all) and as soon as I plugged the Ultimate I/O USB cable, all the lights came on to the color of the LEDs I had previously configured in the SDK which leads me to believe the SDK is interacting with hardware, but there is something about the Mac not totally compatible with these Ultimarc devices.

I'm using Ben Baker's SDK here because it looks like there isn't much on the Mac that connects to Ultimarc devices except this SDK and the one UI driven pin config tool(that doesn't do the RGB configure in the UI).  Anyone with any bright ideas - I can't tell if I have a problem with the Ultimate I/O and my Mac or if it's the lack of a good LED controller on Mac. 
https://www.baker76.com/pacdrive-sdk/

I'm asking ChatGPT to help me troubleshoot and it seems to think the buttons won't stay on without some LEDBlinky equivalent programing running the background to send signal to the lights.  I would have thought the iPac hardware would simply send 5v and the RGB configuration for an on/off state(once configured via the SDK) at a minimum but with GPT telling me otherwise - I'm a bit confused.  It seems like this is something with limited data on the web to help troubleshoot which is throwing GPT but has ANYONE out there got either an Ultrastik or the RGB goldleaf Ultimarc devices working with a Mac?  I would feel a lot better if I knew this was possible at all because I'm already many many many many hours into juggling mac specific tools dependencies to get all the software running for the various gaming systems.  Thanks for your help!

Hi Geecab

I'm just giving you some news.

I'm missing a component to start the rev counter.

I expect to receive it next week.

 I'm really looking forward to it.

 See you soon.

 

Cheers for the update GPForverer2024! Hope it all goes together smoothly and works first time!

** UPDATES ***

I managed to repair the copper traces on that remote control - used a jeweller's screwdriver end to carefully scrape back the corrosion to bare copper, and a couple of mm each side for good measure, cleaned it all up, then applied some flux and some really thin solder (0.25mm). There was enough copper left to guide the solder into the right places. The fix was successful! Repaired bits are shiny. Some repairs are not shown.





With the remote now working properly, I was able to access the service menu and make various geometry adjustments. Games are fitting the screen properly.


   


From the desktop, most of the Nokia test screen is now visible.  From the arcade frontend (AttractMode) the information text at top and bottom of screen is now visible.


   


Biggest improvements were in vertical size and horizontal positioning. I couldn't get the H size much smaller, but I might be able to make some improvements by changing the H-coil width capacitor (more on that later).

This TCL TV has different screen geometry settings for "50hz" and "60hz" modes, and the service menu will automatically adjust depending on input signal.

To access the service mode do the following:

TCL TV service mode

- Switch on the TV set.
- Press the “MENU” key on remote to show the “PICTURE” OSD menu.
- Move the cursor to highlight “Contrast” item
- Press the “1”, “9”, “5”, “0” keys on remote within a few seconds to enter service mode.

Might also work with "9735" code.

The TCL TV also has one of those EEPROM headers I've recently mentioned on another thread. So, I used this to access the TV EEPROM using my CH341a reader. I was able to use my custom cable, but had to swap three of the pins around as this manufacturer used a different pinout.

I didn't make any changes to the EEPROM at this time, just made a backup (.bin file). The EEPROM is circled in yellow below (bottom right), and the 4-pin header to access it is circled in turquoise (bottom left).

remote fixed

Another update, with some major performance improvements.
Skin swapping is now almost fully complete.
Song selector enabled, with (customisable) focus box.
'UseZero' skin option now works correctly.
Screen saver now much smoother.
Quite a few little bugs fixed.

We've switched from G-Drive to using a OneDrive folder for uploads.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Download here:

https://1drv.ms/u/c/0e0ef07ab6aa89ee/EYhP_q0cePZCisz6017O5FoBhp6IDcmGZyh52EM6qjWJFA?e=hFQcLG

Hi Geecab

I'm just giving you some news.

I'm missing a component to start the rev counter.

I expect to receive it next week.

 I'm really looking forward to it.

 See you soon.

 

Nice job so far, Ond!