anyone know stuff about MAME arcade cabinet builds

[techn1um]

Hi

I recently purchased off a well known auction site a Sega arcade cabinet (used to be virtua striker) which only has the monitor and vga cable in it which I was told I could just hook up a pc to it and a special cable to get the joysticks and buttons to work and away I would go.

Unfortunately this has not been the case, the monitor when connected to the pc only shows wave lines almost as if its not the correct resolution, also the cables I brought have different size spade connectors on so need to sort that out.

Im already getting some excellent advice on here about my Amiga Tower I had forgotten about in my attic so thought id ask if anyone on here has built a MAME arcade machine???

thanks in advance.

T

[desiv]

If it's an original Virtua Striker, then it has a "medium resolution" monitor.
The stats for that (from KLOV) are:
MEDIUM RESOLUTION

HORIZONTAL VERTICAL
Scan Frequency: 25.00 KHz Scan Frequency: 60.0 Hz
Scan Period: 40.0 µSec Scan Period: 16.7 mSec
Active Video: 32.0 µSec Active Video: 15.4 mSec
Video Delay: 7.2 µSec Video Delay: 1.2 mSec
Sync Pulse: 4.0 µSec Sync Pulse: 0.2 mSec
Scan Line: 640 Pixels Screen: 416 Lines
Resolution: 512 Pixels Resolution: 384 Lines
Clock Freq: 16.00 MHz


So you'd need a video card in your PC that can sync to that..

Or something like the ArcadeVGA card to drive the monitor.
It's possible your card can do that, but you probably need to look at something like AdvanceMame or ???

It's not a JAMMA cab, so you'll have to manually do the joysticks.
This site: http://www.ultimarc.com/index.html will have everything you need for interfacing if you want to do that...

Good luck! It's fun and worth it!

desiv

[techn1um]

Thanks, this is the cabinet I purchased -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT but dont know if its original virtua striker although the stickers all indicate that.

and this was the cables I purchased to connect the pc to the joysticks -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=230516744056

I guess what I will do is actually change the joysticks and buttons to another set as I want 6 buttons per player as I think thats the norm isnt it?? so hopefully the cable above will connect to the new set of controls and then that shouldnt be an issue. Im more concerned about getting the pc to work on the monitor.

The arcadevga will that just work or is there settings I will need to change as im a real noobie at thiswhich is why I was hoping for advice.

thanks again

[desiv]

The Arcade VGA does support 25Khz, but I'm not sure how it would handle scaling other games up or down to that resolution...

I'd email Andy here: http://www.ultimarc.com/contact.html and ask him.
He was great helping me out with what I needed for my cab, although I use a lo-res monitor and only use lo-res games on it and my vga card supported that, so I didn't need the ArcadeVGA.

Not familiar with that cable set, but it looks like it will work.

desiv

[techn1um]

Thanks mate, ive just dropped Andy an email although tbh im not entirely sure I know what im explaining LOL

I think the main thing is to get the pc to show up on the monitor and then worry about the rest later.

How do you mean lo-res monitor and lo-res games? Is there only certain games I will be able to play on this setup then?? as I was hoping to install MAME or whatever AdvancedMAME is and then have loads of different games installed on it.

[desiv]

My arcade machine had an original lo-res (standard) monitor.
That is designed for:
Horizontal ------------------- Vertical
Scan Line: 456 Pixels Screen: 262 Lines
Resolution: 336 Pixels Resolution: 240 Lines

All the games I wanted to run on this are older "vertical" games (PacMan, etc), so it wasn't an issue for me.

The Medium res monitor is designed for:
Horizontal --------------- Vertical
Scan Line: 646 Pixels Screen: 312 Lines
Resolution: 512 Pixels Resolution: 288 Lines

However, I would think MAME would be able to run a lower res game at that resolution (with stretching or centering or ??).
Higher res games coudl probably be downscaled..

But I don't have much experience with MAME and resolution scaling.

I actually went with an emulator called Vantage as it was optimized for the games/monitor/CPU (OLD AND SLOW) that I was using.

desiv

[alexh]

I'm sure all you need is to set up your PC to output 15KHz screens via VGA.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by alexh

I'm sure all you need is to set up your PC to output 15KHz screens via VGA.

I think his "medium resolution" arcade monitor is 25Khz.
So, if his VGA card can do that, it should work.

desiv

[alexh]

Never tried to drive a medium res monitor but I imagine that it should just be a settings tweak using the appropriate mode creator? The gfx card will do all the scaling. Might look a little blurry.

[desiv]

Yeah, makes sense..
I would think a modeline in Linux would do it
The emulator I use in DOS for my cab has a special 15Khz command line option, but it didn't have a 25Khz option.
Looks like AdvanceMame will do that:
http://osdir.com/ml/games.mame.advan.../msg00199.html

No idea how you would do that in Windows.

Even tho, as a Linux server admin, I spend most of my day working on Windows servers ;-), I almost never play with Windows graphics card configs...

desiv

[alexh]

Perhaps something like PowerStrip? Never used it for anything other than vertical refresh though.

[techn1um]

WOW this sounds totally complicated, I thought id just connect it to the windows pc and then install mame after that and everything sorted but not by what you guys are saying!

I cant look at the refresh rate as I cant view the screen properly but if I connect the pc to my normal monitor I only get 60hz or above when viewing the properties.

I havent yet had a reply back from Andy but that could be because they only work Mon-Friday.

So are you guys saying that I have the wrong arcade cabinet then?

Alexh, I notice your from Oxford, I used to live up there, well Blackbird Leys then Didcot.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by techn1um

I thought id just connect it to the windows pc and then install mame after that and everything sorted

Yeah right

Originally Posted by techn1um

I cant look at the refresh rate as I cant view the screen properly but if I connect the pc to my normal monitor I only get 60hz or above when viewing the properties.

You'll have to set up the correct refresh settings on your normal monitor and then flick over to the MAME monitor.

Originally Posted by techn1um

So are you guys saying that I have the wrong arcade cabinet then?

I've never tried to use a medium resolution monitor, but that doesn't mean you cannot do it. I'm 99% sure you'd be struggling just the same if you had any cab because you're not familiar on how to use them. A lot of reading and a bit of experimenting and you'll be sorted.

Originally Posted by techn1um

I used to live up there, well Blackbird Leys then Didcot.

Ah... The two arm-pits of Oxford.

I live in Didcot, it's nice and cheap compared to somewhere like Cowley.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by techn1um

I havent yet had a reply back from Andy but that could be because they only work Mon-Friday.

So are you guys saying that I have the wrong arcade cabinet then?

Not necessarily. AdvanceMame had an option for 25Khz. alexh is right, you just have to get it setup on a regular monitor first. Then you switch to the arcade monitor later. However, you might not want to drive the arcade monitor at the wrong frequency until the software loads. There are ways around that too, but it gets complicated. (Or simple if you just, once you get it sorted, power on the PC, wait, and then power on the monitor.)

However, the ArcadeVGA might be just what you need to make this much easier. I think there is a good possibility it will do what you want; I didn't need it with my cab, but I was looking at it..

I'd give Andy some time..

And make sure that you tell him that you have a medium res monitor and you'd like to use it for running Windows emulators. He'll tell you if it's designed to do that and any issues..

good luck..

desiv

[techn1um]

Thanks mate, will wait and see what he replies I havent got money to buy the card yet anyway so no rush.

What other options do I have? I thought MAME was the only option for an arcade cabinet?

[alexh]

It's just a screen and a joystick. You can play anything.

PC games, games console emulators, basically anything that supports that resolution.

[desiv]

Originally Posted by techn1um

What other options do I have? I thought MAME was the only option for an arcade cabinet?

It all comes down to what software you can get to support 25Khz.

That's why I mentioned AdvancedMame earlier.. And after a few google searches, I think I found what you need.

http://tiptonware.com/mame_machine/SoftWare.htm

This guy shows how he set up AdvanceMame and the frontend for it for his medium res monitor.

I'm not sure if you'll find many (any) other apps that support 25Khz directly, so something like ArcadeVGA would probably be your next option.

Good luck and let us know how it progresses..
(with PIX!!)

desiv

[alexh]

Interesting stuff. Looks like he could never work out how to create a 25KHz screen mode for windows.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/...9_-_Soft-15khz

I would have thought that after you are able to create a 25KHz screen mode for windows then you'd be able to run anything you like?

[techn1um]

thanks for that, so this other option is this instead of arcadevga as im sort of hoping that arcadevga is the answer to ALL my problems. Im hoping that Arcadevga will connect to my monitor and allow me to run windows on the cab screen and then I can install what I want.

Again sorry for the stupid questions but I really am new to this!

This wifes gonna go balistic if ive just wasted £200 on a machine I cant really use.

[desiv]

Oh, you can use it with AdvMame at least...
It's possible there's a way to drive your video card (drivers???) in Windows at 25Khz???
I'm not sure about that one..

And I'd say it's possible/likely that ArcadeVGA will let you run Windows on it..

But, to be honest, if you get AdvMame running, why would you want Windows?
:-)

desiv