[TechnoFreek]

Thanks kerbdog. I had considered those options alright.

I'm in no hurry to get the romset as it will be a few months before I get cash together for the cab anyway.

I presume if a new mame update comes out I can download the update pack and merge with existing full set using clrmame?

[EnterNow]

Originally Posted by Steve SI

As for the CHD files changing format. I'm not really sure as the format seems the same but the process for reading them might have changed a bit

There has been a change in the format, & either a redownload or a conversion with CHDMAN is the way to get them working again.

Unfortunately as part of the process the SHA1s for CHDs with older style metadata did change, although this only really affects MAME because all the CHDs supported in MESS were created with newer CHDMAN versions which already had the newer style metadata. This is something of an inconvenience and means ~200 SHA1s will need updating in MAME, forcing people to use V5 if they want to avoid SHA1 error reports. This is a shame because ideally I wanted the changes to be entirely optional so that people could simply stick with V4 if it suited them better but Aaron clearly had different ideas and wanted to ditch the legacy metadata.

http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/

[TechnoFreek]

Thanks guys. Might wait for version 146 to land so and just get a fresh set altogether

[MackDaddi]

hey, just saw this thread now, sorry for the late post.

As has been posted, you can config all your buttons in one go in mame, or set specific ones per game. Just hit tab then "input this game" or "input all games" while a rom is running.

With regard to setting buttons, it's good to sit down and figure out what different system emulators you need and which of the available ones will allow you to remap all their buttons and GUI inputs. You don't want conflicts in your setup. You want your encoder to have a dedicated set of key mappings that don't change, and all of your emulators to be able to be configured to use those keys for all the important functions, so it's important to use emulators that are fairly customizable.

All the officially supported hyperspin emulators are the ones to go for for that reason, but read up on zsnes (different versions have different levels of options) and nestopia (some funny gui options that need tweaking to hide menu bars, cursors, etc) if you plan to use nintendo roms.

If you're just using Mame though, it's totally your preference, but a lot of people have said mame reached a sweet spot and then started getting worse with every update, breaking more stuff than it fixed. I think i'm using 1.41 and it's great, but i know i have an incomplete set, as i've stripped out a lot of the crap ones, bootlegs, mahjongs, adult ones (kids in the house, etc). I'm sure someone on the board would be able to "help" you with your rom problems, but let's say no more on this for fear of breaching charter rules.

Whereabouts in the country are you located?

With regard to booting up and powering down, get this bit right, it makes a huge difference to your finished cab, but needs a bit of planning. If you use windows XP as your OS and have SP3 you can use instantsheller.exe to easily boot into hyperspin. Quicksheller works too, but instantsheller is way more reliable and easier to use in my experience, and has a better GUI and options, and a more reliable undo feature. It works on vista as well i think, but trust me, you DON'T want vista anywhere near your cab.

to hide your windows environment you'll need:
Stardocs bootskin.exe (if you want a custom bootskin with an animated/moving progress bar)
Instantsheller.exe (to change the shell application, change cursor schemes, change sounds, wallpaper, etc.

Both are available on the hyperspin forumns resources area or on emumovies.com (i think).

To disable password on boot you need to go to start>run and type "control userpasswords2" exactly as it is here (without quotes) to get the windows user accounts password utility. Take a look at the options there and knock off your password.

Also, when you boot into hyperspin as your shell, your startup folder won't work in windows (i found that out the hard way)so you'll need to use the "startup program" feature of hyperspin for anything that you need to run in the background in addition to the frontend. It's somewhere in the general settings in Hyper HQ. I have a small freeware app called "volumetray.exe" in there, that lets me assign hotkeys to various volume control functions. I've then mapped these to some of the shifted keys on my interface board so i can control the volume level or mute sounds from the control panel. I've heard that hyperspin V2.0 may get a volume control, but i couldn't be bothered waiting for it to come out and don't like untested X.0 version releases anyway, so i used a workaround.

Set your options in hyper HQ to shut down windows on exiting hyperspin. If you need to config the PC or make any changes after you've shelled, you can just use ctrl+alt+delete to call up task manager, run new task, and start explorer.exe to get the windows environment back. It's also a good option to map that key combination to a shifted button on your panel if your encoder supports it.

One last tip, there's an option in windows that show you the location of the cursor when you press ctrl. You can switch it on in the mouse and pointer options in control panel, and it's handy to see where the cursor is if you've turned it into a dot (one of the options in instantsheller.exe) for doing any extended admin work. Be aware though, that mame's default key scheme uses ctrl also, so you'll probably want to either change that, or switch off the "show mouse" option when you're done messing around with the PC (you don't want your cursor flashing away in mid-game)

How is the project coming along? Am looking forward to seeing pics.

[TechnoFreek]

Hey lads, thanks for all advice and encouragement so far. Progress is very slow but as mentioned before, I have a newborn in the house. Still, most things are underway to some degree.

MAME PC
Need to get a dedicated pc for MAME. My mate has some pc parts lying about so I plan to take these off his hands. Processor is dual core or quad core 64 bit Intel based. Knowing my mate, I'd be confident that any parts he has are high spec, relative for their time. My plan is to run Windows 7 64 bit on this. I realize that a core i5 or i7 would be the best thing but these parts should cost me nothing and suffice for the moment.

MAME/Hyperspin
As I don't have a dedicated machine yet I have installed Hyperspin and MAME on my only pc as a test. I have the full rom set and CHDs for MAME 125 so that's what I have going at the moment. I also donated to Hyperspin to get themes etc. Will sign up to Emumovies next month and get all that.

Currently acquiring MAME 145 roms too but wont bother with CHDs. When MAME 146 comes out and the CHD format situation has settled I'll update to that.

Have Hyperspin and MAME more or less working to my satisfaction. Just a case of transferring to dedicated pc and sorting startup and shutdown events.

I have a couple of queries to get Hyperspin configured exactly to my liking but I'll split them into a separate post to get things clean.

Cabinet:
Was in discussions with Jeff in Digital Systems Designs and have talked through some options with him. Basically I have agreed in principle to buy an Atomiswave HD from him. Its the flat screen that has really attracted me to this particular model.

Only con as such with this machine is that it is one player only. This does mean that it will be cheaper but Jeff fabricates 2 player panels so he can have one made to my specification at a later date. He defo allows for layouts and artwork but not sure if I can select joystick and button manufacturers??

Jeff can also configure the internals of the cab with his equivalent of a jpac etc so basically all I would need to do is hook up my MAME machine and then later remove the 1p panel and replace and wire with 2p panel.

Think that's all the main pieces covered. As you can see progress is slow but at the same time most elements are underway. No pics to share yet but I will absolutely do so when appropriate.

All feedback welcome

[Andrew76]

Originally Posted by TechnoFreek

Cabinet:
Was in discussions with Jeff in Digital Systems Designs and have talked through some options with him. Basically I have agreed in principle to buy an Atomiswave HD from him. Its the flat screen that has really attracted me to this particular model.

Only con as such with this machine is that it is one player only. This does mean that it will be cheaper but Jeff fabricates 2 player panels so he can have one made to my specification at a later date. He defo allows for layouts and artwork but not sure if I can select joystick and button manufacturers??

Did he say what stick and buttons it ships with? I wouldn't be too worried about this for the minute, if you do get the cab then see if you like the feel of the stick and buttons that it comes with and if not then get a different set. They're pretty cheap to buy online and very easy to install. There are a couple of us on here with the exact same cab as that pretty much so can help out with any wiring questions if need be.

[ondafly]

Originally Posted by TechnoFreek

Cabinet:
Was in discussions with Jeff in Digital Systems Designs ....

not to be a killjoy or anything - but when did you last hear from Jeff ? I've been chasing him via email for the last few weeks to buy a cabinet from him, and basically he stopped replying to me

[TechnoFreek]

Andrew, I didn't ask what buttons the cab ships with, I presume they're just the originals unless they need replacing.

Ondafly, I was speaking with Jeff about 2 weeks ago. Let me know how you get on with him. I might have to rethink my strategy if he doesn't work out for you. Other members on here seem to have had only positive experiences with him so hopefully this is just a blip in your case.

[MackDaddi]

Originally Posted by TechnoFreek

...My plan is to run Windows 7 64 bit on this...

All feedback welcome

Just some food for thought, rather than a recommendation. I know windows XP much better than I know windows 7, and from building a few cabs, and particularly my last one, which was hyperspin based, I would stick with XP pro 64 bit for a mame build, unless you have good reason not to. A lot of the key software you'll be using to set Hyperspin in particular up is built for xp, and also it's a very tweakable system, not very heavy on resources, and it's tried and tested by the community in terms of running it in a cab.

Not saying that windows 7 won't be fantastic for you, it may be, but there's probably a lot more help and expertise out there for you on an XP config, and that might make a big difference to your overall experience.

[keithgeo]

I have win7 64bit running on mine, with hyperspin as the front end and to be honest you wouldnt even know windows was on it. Ive even removed the boot logo for win7, it loads up hyperspin on auto login every mouse cursor etc is hidden and when you exit hyperspin it shutsdown the pc. unless you looked inside and seen the pc you wouldnt think it was one.

Now, it took me a while to get like that, there are a lot of things in win7 that need tweaking. eg the circle animation on the cursor when windows is logging in and out, the images for that are hidden in a .dll file you need to open and delete them from. a few bits and pieces like that, so you would need to read up alright and know what you are at.

I cant remember the reason why i didnt go with xp to be honest, i had it installed at one stage but decided to go with win7 for some reason. mackdaddi is right though id say there is a lot more support for xp alright.

[EnterNow]

Xp is essential if you wanna use Soft15Khz. And then, you'll want a decent amount of ram so XP 64 will be needed to see anything over 3GB.

If you use Win7, you'll have to use an ArcadeVGA or use an LCD monitor. Win 7 is also resource hungry, much more so than XP.

[TechnoFreek]

Thanks guys, to be honest I hadnt given much thought to either xp or windows 7. I just thought windows 7 was the ideal option given that it is the latest version and isnt a pile of sh1te like vista! Although I do appreciate that win 7 is more hungry than xp. I'll be sticking in 4gb ram minimum regardless of the os I choose.

EnterNow - will I need to run Soft15Khz if the Atomiswave has a trisync monitor? Or is that the very reason I need that software?

[EnterNow]

Originally Posted by TechnoFreek

EnterNow - will I need to run Soft15Khz if the Atomiswave has a trisync monitor? Or is that the very reason I need that software?

Andrew or Steve can answer this better. I know the tri-sync will accept a 31Khz signal, I'm just not sure how 15Khz games will look on it. Is it a case that the monitor auto switches to the games resolution? I honestly don't know on that one dude

[Steve SI]

Originally Posted by EnterNow

Andrew or Steve can answer this better. I know the tri-sync will accept a 31Khz signal, I'm just not sure how 15Khz games will look on it. Is it a case that the monitor auto switches to the games resolution? I honestly don't know on that one dude

Yeah, auto switching monitor in my cab(same in Andrews I think). You can enable the low resolution option in Windows 7 and it will run fine at 31Khz without Soft15Khz installed(I ran my cab like that for a while).
But if you do get the ArcadeVGA card(windows xp or 7, 32 or 64bit) or another that supports Soft15Khz(in windows xp, not 7) then you can tell MAME to switch to the proper resolution when a game is loaded up and get the proper arcade experience.


Edit:
You can also just run in 640x480 in Windows XP and it will work fine on a trisync. It's only Windows 7 that you need to enable the "low resolution mode" as it doesn't let you run in 640x480 normally. You don't need to download anything to do it as its just an option in the OS.
.

[EnterNow]

Originally Posted by Steve SI

Edit:
You can also just run in 640x480 in Windows XP and it will work fine on a trisync.

So where does the 15Khz signal come from in that case, if Mame is set to switch to auto-resolution