The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Software Forum => Topic started by: johnws on July 09, 2003, 01:47:54 am
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I've been pretty busy the last few days teaching myself C++ and OpenGL. Although I can barely do anything I am very motivated to make my own frontend. I don't *why*, but I wanted something very similar to UltraCade (http://www.ultracade.com/images/new_interface_lg.jpg).
With my *very* limited knowledge, I've successfully made a very very beta of my frontend which I'll call "mamewik" until I find a good name for it. So far I've got the following features:
Any fullscreen resolution that your graphics card is capable of (usually 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, etc...)
Any windowed resolution (as long as your background is the same resolution, everything else will resize)
Display Marquees in a wheel which you can:
-scroll up by 1 by pressing up
-scroll down by 1 by pressing down
-scroll up by 10 by pressing right
-scrool down by 10 by pressing left
OpenGL provides smooooth turning for the wheel :)
Displays preview (still for now) of game
-automatically resizes to window
Displays background. Will stretch/shrink based on resolution
By pressing 1, it loads the selected rom. It:
a) lowers the CPU resources for the frontend
b) loads the rom (which will run at full speed now)
c) waits for rom to finish
d) once done, it then resumes the frontent and gives it normal CPU resources
all which is done very smooth, and you never see windows :)
I'm brand spankin' new to C++, and I'm surprised everything runs so well.
Oh, and here are some previews of the frontend:
1024x768 - fullscreen (http://www.wasted.ws/mamewik_1024x768.jpg)
800x600 - fullscreen (http://www.wasted.ws/mamewik_800x600.jpg)
640x480 - windowed (http://www.wasted.ws/mamewik_640x480.jpg)
Things I will implement soon:
-user mappable keys
-custom sounds: background + for scrolling
-if i find out how, maybe animated previews
-clean up marquee graphics a bit. i don't like the white around the edges and the resolution is kind of low
Ya, ya, ya.. I know it's a waste of time, but I needed something to keep me going until I start my own mame cabinet. I'm very lazy so this will probably never make a public release. Only for personal use :)
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I'd just like to add that I intend to change the theme (and espiecally the name). I only made one that looked like UltraCades because I needed to make a rough layout while I was coding. ;D
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Very cool!...I bet you'll have people hassling you to release that now! :)
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Don't forget to post i'ts release! :))
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Looks good, sounds like a fairly simple setup which will please many users.
Ya, ya, ya.. I know it's a waste of time, but I needed something to keep me going until I start my own mame cabinet. I'm very lazy so this will probably never make a public release. Only for personal use :)
New FE's are never a waste of time as there's always going to be people out there that aren't completely happy with all the other FE's - yours might be the one that answers their prayers.
Keep up the good work
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Looks good, sounds like a fairly simple setup which will please many users.
Ya, ya, ya.. I know it's a waste of time, but I needed something to keep me going until I start my own mame cabinet. I'm very lazy so this will probably never make a public release. Only for personal use :)
New FE's are never a waste of time as there's always going to be people out there that aren't completely happy with all the other FE's - yours might be the one that answers their prayers.
Keep up the good work
yeah, and especially new fe's that do something different like this one are very welcome...that turning wheel is certainly different :D
I think you are not the only one that liked de ultracade interface...it has come up here several times so i am sure some people would love to try it on their cabs...you could allways release it with a note that it is unsupported or something like that ;)
peter
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Looks great! Could work well as a kid friendly front end too!
Here is some ideas for names for the frontend:
RetroRotation, WheelMarq, Mamespin ?? just some suggestions ;D
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Looks great!! I was just going to post a thread asking if anyone was going to try to emulate the Ultracade setup as it would be very cool to have such a setup for MAME. The idea of having animated sets to go along with the games is also awesome, as that is how Ultracade displays the games as well. I really hope this gets finished soon or a beta is available for testing. Ultimately, I think it would be great for MAME fans to have an "ultracade" type frontend to use in between some of the great other frontends that are already out there.
Keep up the work--hope a working version is available soon.
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this wouldn't work for most people, y'know, as snes, nes, atari, genesis, etc.. games did not have marquees, but as a mame fe, this is amazingly cool
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mmm, nice
bet the marquee wheel/game selection thing looks great in real-life
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Simular to what I am currently doing. Instead of working from scratch I am grabbing the opengl graphics engine from stepmania and using the stepmania wheel menu system. (which is c++ and opengl using their custom rage graphics engine) Check it out, www.stepmania.com.
It's a cool interface. I'm hoping to use a double wheel system for generating custom lists. On the right wheel is your normal wheel, the left is the list you want to edit.
Where did you get the graphics from?
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this wouldn't work for most people, y'know, as snes, nes, atari, genesis, etc.. games did not have marquees, but as a mame fe, this is amazingly cool
Actually, it could work. If the game has a marque insert it. Though many marquees aren't long and wide, some are just letter sized (like neogeo inserts). So, I plan on having if there is no marquee just to put the game name in there, but I also will have the game name below the screenshot. (Giving ideas to john). Since I am borrowing stepmania's source I've been calling it stepMAMEia.
Hehe, maybe john and I should calibrate :) Actually, that is a good idea, john let me know. I have ansi c++ and opengl experience, but only from college. I don't have much m$ c++ experience but I can figure it out. I'd help ya learn. I think it would be easier to grab an open source graphics engine that does the dirty work rather than working with raw opengl directly.
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I'm certainly interested! Now THIS would be an awesome frontend... ;D
Can yall have it ready by next week? ;) j/k
I loaded up a picture of UltraCade and they look almost identical. I mean you gotta look hard to see a difference. This thing is already coming along really well...
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hehe. I've paused working on that project for now. I;m working on finding a job, classes (went back to school for abit), and reviving the controls.dat project.
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Anything I can do to help? (I have very limited programming experience...)
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Help with what? the frontend idea?
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This thread sure got a lot of replies ;D
Thanks for the support everyone.
SirPoonga: I'd love to team up with you, but the problem is that I have almost no experience with C++ :-\ I would most likely be learning along the way (kind of like I already am ;D). Anyway, that would be cool, and maybe we could even make a public release!
I'm getting a little head of myself here ;)
I'm going to be really busy this week because I have guests staying at my house for the rest of the week, but I'll try to get a little more work done, and work things out with you :)
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Help with what? the frontend idea?
The frontend, controls.dat, or whatever...
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Looks great man, I guess now when I get that part of my fe working it'll look like I ripped you off. ;)
Seriously though, I've always been envious of ultracades menu system and I'm super impressed that someone is taking the hard road and actually making a unique fe. Please let me know if you need any help code wise and keep me informed of your progress.
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this wouldn't work for most people, y'know, as snes, nes, atari, genesis, etc.. games did not have marquees, but as a mame fe, this is amazingly cool
No they didn't but they do have flyers, box art and others that could be made to fit the front end
count me in for beta testing.
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Wow that looks very cool. Very colorful. Looks a little like the DDR stuff. :)
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This thread sure got a lot of replies ;D
Thanks for the support everyone.
SirPoonga: I'd love to team up with you, but the problem is that I have almost no experience with C++ :-\ I would most likely be learning along the way (kind of like I already am ;D). Anyway, that would be cool, and maybe we could even make a public release!
I'm getting a little head of myself here ;)
I'm going to be really busy this week because I have guests staying at my house for the rest of the week, but I'll try to get a little more work done, and work things out with you :)
Yeah, it will get alot of replies. I think people have been looking into an ultracade replica. I have been ever since I have seen one.
Like I said, I don;t know much aobut microsoft c++, though stepmania is sorta cross platform. I know the main source uses windows specific stuff, but there is a mac os x and a linux port in progress, and screenshots of that progress.
I think this would be perfect for learning if someone else (like me) works with you to answer questions. This is something I've been wanting to do but it is low on my project priority list. If you want to see a cool wheel menu grab stepmania (www.stepmania.com) and some music/dwi files from ddrmaniax.net. It's open source in c++. Somewher on the online docs or the readme says how to download the source. The source is rather large though. But once you get that far I can help you disect the source to need what you need.
AlanS: Do the same :) I'm pretty much the bottle neck of the controls.dat right now (sorry). I just need to get a database setup and at least for now some primative forms to add data to the database.
My current priority list in projects is homework of course now that I am going back to school, then controls.dat. Because I will want to include that into my next FE. now, I don;t want to say we need to use the stepmania source. Bu as I always say, don't invent the wheel twice. The code is already there and it is open source. If we use stepmania source we would have to keep the FE open source too as stepmania is GPL'd.
john, I'd actually like to see how far you are on your FE right now. If you get mirc pop onto the chat room and dcc meanything you want. I am usually in the room lurking at nights central time zone.
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Will do, AlanS, but as soon as I clean up my code a bit. Because I'm just learning it's a bit of a mess, but shouldn't take too long to clean up. I had a few minutes free today so I cleaned up the marquees. Here's some updated screenshots/clips:
Short Clip - i tried to record the screen from my webcam. Apparently it only does about 10-15fps, but it gives a rough idea (http://www.wasted.ws/mame.wmv) ;D
Cleaned up still shot (http://www.wasted.ws/mamewik_1024x768_new.jpg)
I'll work on cleaning up the code in a bit :D
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Oh man, that's sweet.
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Will do, AlanS, but as soon as I clean up my code a bit. Because I'm just learning it's a bit of a mess, but shouldn't take too long to clean up. I had a few minutes free today so I cleaned up the marquees. Here's some updated screenshots/clips:
Short Clip - i tried to record the screen from my webcam. Apparently it only does about 10-15fps, but it gives a rough idea (http://www.wasted.ws/mame.wmv) ;D
Cleaned up still shot (http://www.wasted.ws/mamewik_1024x768_new.jpg)
I'll work on cleaning up the code in a bit :D
That looks really nice ;D
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OMG! Man, you are amazing! How the hell? Where the hell? :o
you just jump out of nowhere with this "attempt?"
Good start, for damn sure. I too have played several different UltraCade machines, though I don't really like the design you chose. They have better ones.
Anyway, killer! This kind of layout makes it so brainless for users I think. No need to bother them with all the stupid MAME stuff. Just look through the games and go!
But, if you have 2,000 games to jump through that can be a hassle. Wonder what can be done about that? Cuz in UltraCade, they usally only have like 20 or so games on one machine, which is easy to go through. But for us with Cabs at home and 2k games...problems arise.
Maybe a shift function with a list of categories (& favorites) at the bottom of the screen or something, then that cat. loads up in the wheel? who knows. ???
Good work. I don't think anyone here is gonna let you NOT work on it and make a public beta. ;D
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I can't see it! It said it wasn't available or something. :-\
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Cannot find page.....bummer, I really wanted to see it.
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Sorry. Server went down (:(). For now, here's a mirror:
http://www.cykotix.com/~john/mame/
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Categories is a good idea. It was also brought up in the chat room last night. I'm thinking a single wheel, with categories, and then once you choose the category from the wheel, it displays each rom in that category, and then you can push a certain button to go back to the category wheel. That sound good? The 2 wheel design is also good, but, maybe a bit CPU hungry? ;D
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I want I want I want I want I want.... ;D
Sweet stuff...I've been looking for something like Ultricade sine...well Ultracade!
I'm a big fan of the Catagory wheel option above. Is it possible to have the background mirror what catagory you selected?
Example, you select fighters, and a "fighterish" background comes up. something to that effect.
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I want I want I want I want I want.... ;D
Sweet stuff...I've been looking for something like Ultricade sine...well Ultracade!
I'm a big fan of the Catagory wheel option above. Is it possible to have the background mirror what catagory you selected?
Example, you select fighters, and a "fighterish" background comes up. something to that effect.
A good idea, and very doable! ;D
edit:
I just noticed now that there's audio in that clip. My brother was watching television in the background; just ignore that! (no audio *yet* in the fe)
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Would it be too CPU-intensive to have like an inner wheel and outer wheel for categories and games? I'm about to load the movie file up as I post this message.
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Oh yeah... I want that...
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Oh man this is going to be sweet! You should team up with someone who already has an existing frontend and make it better!! Actually I say that cause I want this released soon, lol pay no attention to me. Great Job! ;D
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Oh man this is going to be sweet! You should team up with someone who already has an existing frontend and make it better!! Actually I say that cause I want this released soon, lol pay no attention to me. Great Job! ;D
Hehe, that's why I suggest disecting stepmania's source. The graphics engine is very impressive. It does all the dirty work like timing and stuff for you. I'm going to continue working on my FE idea with the stepmania source regardless of what happens here, just an option though.
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Both of yall keep up the good work. Maybe we should make this a race. ;D
(Just as long as one of you is done by the end of the summer so I can finish my cabinet before the fall smester starts!)
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:o Oh man that's Sweet!
Just started my first cab (CP Done) and I found my FE. That is amazing and I eagerly await its release. You rock!
Oh yeah, first post--Yay me!! ;D
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Wow!!! :o I really want this!! Hurry up and release a beta!!
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I don't know how you feel about this, but you could always make it OpenSource. That would be an easy way to get collaboration from those of us that can program, and it would make life easier w.r.t. releases and what not.
In case you don't know about it, check out sourceforge.net they offer free hosting, CVS, mailing lists etc... basically everything you need to run a project.
Of course, if you are planning on charging for it eventually, then that won't work, but otherwise, it'd be an interesting option
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I don't know how you feel about this, but you could always make it OpenSource. That would be an easy way to get collaboration from those of us that can program, and it would make life easier w.r.t. releases and what not.
In case you don't know about it, check out sourceforge.net they offer free hosting, CVS, mailing lists etc... basically everything you need to run a project.
Of course, if you are planning on charging for it eventually, then that won't work, but otherwise, it'd be an interesting option
This doesn't work for front ends..... Many fes int he past have been opensource particularly gmaelauncher but quite frankly no one is ever willing to contribute. It probably has to do with the fact that everyone wants something slightly different in a fe so when someone qualified to code wants a fe, they usually start from scratch.
Also he can't charge for it as it's a almost total rip-off of ultracade. They'd sue his arse off! ;)
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Of course, if you are planning on charging for it eventually, then that won't work, but otherwise, it'd be an interesting option
Also he can't charge for it as it's a almost total rip-off of ultracade. They'd sue his arse off! ;)
as nice as that is, i wanna know how user friendly it will be?
ps: i am gonna download that as soon as it comes out
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calm down jake, I talked to john the other night and it's in the super early stages. Besides, he wouldn't even give me a sneak peek yet so sit tight. ;)
I think we are making him a tad uncomfortable with all the hype. We will all have to wait patiently I guess.
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Yeah we have to keep in mind that he's learning as he goes along (which is saying more than what most of us can do).
I don't have the time or patience to do it. Plus he's gotten alot more feedback than he was expecting. Just look how many posts this thread had gotten the past couple days.
Maybe the best thing we can do is just sit back (even though I hate the idea, too). We don't want to rush him into doing a half job.
I'm not a very good programmer, but I'd still do what I could to help. I've taken like 5 different languages in college and I still feel new at it... So I can sympathize with him.
When it comes to arcades, though, I feel more comfortable with hardware than software. Just hand me a saw and tell me where to start. Who knows... maybe I'll even design a cabinet one of these days if I feel inclined to do so. Got AutoCAD and nothing but time on my hands at work, anyways...
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Nice FE. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.
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I've coded in C++ for a couple of years now, and i'm willing to help out (hence the OS idea) If you need anything, gimme a shout.
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btw, I can't get any of the images to load...
Are they still up? I would LOVE to take a look.
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btw, I can't get any of the images to load...
Are they still up? I would LOVE to take a look.
Go look at ultracade it looks and behaves very similarly. And that's a good thing!
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hey, if oyu keep it as much opengl as possible and not put in too much windows specific code this would be a great linux FE.
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Back from the dead bump. Anything ever happen with any of the projects mentioned?
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Will do, AlanS, but as soon as I clean up my code a bit. Because I'm just learning it's a bit of a mess, but shouldn't take too long to clean up. I had a few minutes free today so I cleaned up the marquees. Here's some updated screenshots/clips:
Short Clip - i tried to record the screen from my webcam. Apparently it only does about 10-15fps, but it gives a rough idea (http://www.wasted.ws/mame.wmv) ;D
Cleaned up still shot (http://www.wasted.ws/mamewik_1024x768_new.jpg)
I'll work on cleaning up the code in a bit :D
What am I looking for? I get a login flash screen. AND TONS OF POPUPS!
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Dammit, of course I go an miss this post, then none of the sites with the info work anymore.. Is there another mirror?! :(
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You can get the preview movie here, temporarily, though I don't think anything became of the project :(
http:/www.upup.us/mamewik_preview.wmv
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DL not working for me
so what happened this guy just dropped off the face of the earth? i cant even see a pic and you guys are all raving about this FE i wanna see it!
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He was showing his FE, wich looked fantastic.....then he just miracled himself outa here and never came back. He might've got a little freaked out because he got slammed with user requests for the FE do all kinds of functions.
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Maybe his hard drive crashed, was too lazy to remake it, so lost interest in it. So then he forgets about his cabinet for 6 and a half months, but then decides to give it another shot. Makes a new name, and rejoins the byoac community with a different name so nobody pests about him about what happened to it ::)
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thats a bummer the hard drive crashed.....would've loved to see this one make it's debut. If I knew anything about programming, I would lend a hand.....
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Hahaha!
GPrime = JohnWS...
Ah..well...its life. Funny noone noticed that before..
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:)
Not so much of a bummer... 3darcade supports the wheel and kymera and dk will also soon support it.
From what John told me the last time we talked, his fe wasn't really going to support anything other than mame, and in a very "fixed in one way for personal use" type of way. As the above mentioned fes support multiple emus with more varied options, everything should be fine.
I'm still disappointed that john didn't get his out though.
Unfortunately, I've been around here a long time and this sort of thing is far more common than you might think. (I can think of about 10 or so since i've been here) It's just this is the first "vaporware" fe that was so good it will actually be missed. :)
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ah well now i don't feel so bad :)
i actually made a new frontend, but it's strictly for personal use. no teasers this time!
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It seems to me your teaser spurred a rash of development, leading to the happy wheel choices and eyecandy we have now (I know some of this was already in development--disclaimer to prevent blasting). I don't believe in coincedence...your "vaporware" raised the bar (if only a little and only in eyecandy) and we have all benefited from that. The choices we had were great...now they're even better. So, without detracting from our under appreciated resident Devs (who continue to astound); thanks for shaking things up. ;D