Home made Arcade Machine???

nacimroc

neoanto wrote: »

Guys,
I am using Maximus Arcade as my frontend and im at the point where i want to put in preview videos in the game select area.
Any ideas where a good place to look for them is?
At the moment i was considereing using youtube and one of those sites that let you record from it, then the file can be converted from an SWF to something AVI or whatever.

Emumovies provides them all aswell. A donation will get you FTP access to get them all quickly or you can get them in batches from the site itself.

(Think this is allowed)

Theres nothing dodgy about talking about videos of games. As posted, emumovies.com is your friend here. It's worth paying for FTP access to get the full high res collections but you can download them in lower res in batches for free, you just need to sign up for a free account.

Some of the sets you can get there are very good, while others are incomplete, but it's still the best site out there for preview vids. I ended up grabbing as many as I could from there and then looking for specific ones missing from my favourites list on YouTube to make sure that at least all the ones on my favs list had previews. If you use Firefox as your browser there are some good add-on free plugins that you can use to rip videos off of YouTube and other streaming video sites in a few different formats.

Also, for games I couldn't find videos of anywhere, I used google image search and Microsoft photo story (freeware) to grab some stills of the games and create a kind of moving animated photo sideshow with some suitable background music. They're not perfect but better than having no video preview when you're scrolling through your games. I think MS photo story outputs in AVI format but if you need to convert there are loads of freeware apps on the net.

I uploaded my ones to YouTube as private downloads, then used one of the aforementioned firefox plugins to download them in a different format before deleting them off youtube again

neoanto

Cool guys,

Tried that out, emumovies is exactly what i was looking for.
Cheers!

andrew241983

Lads finished my cab now (well the building part) now just looking for the easiest way to shell straight into maximus arcade but still be able to get back to windows if I need to change anything
Any help much appreciated

P.s still can't get dream cast games to launch think I've everything setup properly but that's not a big deal

CathalDublin

When shelled you can always plug in a keyboard or RDP on and press crtl+alt+del and hit new task "explorer.exe" to get back to explorer

nacimroc

I use instant sheller. Simple program. 1 click and done. LINK

If you make your own load screen it has to be 800*600 I think. As Cathal said, same way to get back to windows.

andrew241983

Cool will give it a bash tomorrow thanks lads

Instantsheller is the best option and there are one or two others. Instantsheller needs XPSP3 or higher.

BootScreenXP is handy too, if you're using xp for your OS. You can change the Windows boot screen to whatever you want and still have a custom moving progress bar during boot.

There's very little you can do with your bios splash screen ( the VERY first screen you see when you power on your machine). Usually it's the PC manufacturer's logo and some function messaging, unless you have an option in your BIOS to alter it, but I read that if you plug in a second "dummy" graphics card into the PCI express port without a connection to the monitor that windows sees that as its first gfx option on many machines, and tries to run it as the default card first, and only when that doesn't work it engages the other card (your actual card) and shows the image on your monitor.

That process takes a few seconds, and your bios screen is gone by the time your second card and your screen kicks in. Result is you only see stuff that you can alter/customise on boot up.

andrew241983

Alright lads I used instant sheller and it worked a treat but when I was in maximus arcade my joystick became unresponsive and all the buttons too I rebooted a couple of times and its still the same.. Any ideas?? Also I got a VGA to scart cable from a chap online and he has a USB lead wired to it (for power to auto select station?) but that's not working either as in I'm not getting any picture through it I'm not to bothered about that its more the problem with the controls the light is green on the ipac but could it stop be broke ??
Any help much appreciated

CathalDublin

No picture at all even at the bios screen on boot? Have you tried a different TV?
Sounds like a stuck button. It Happened mine occasionally on an old joystick that kept pushing down, open up the ipac config tool

andrew241983

Didnt try it on another tv more worried about the ipac .. Never even thought about it being a stuck button have a feeling it might be one of the micro switches off the joystick it got a bit damaged during soldering but was working fine till today ill check it all again tomorrow

CathalDublin

Try disconnect that microswitch and reboot(Thats why its a good idea to use crimps).
If a switch is stuck when the computer is booting none of the inputs work, well on my iPac2 anyway.

sham69

andrew241983 wrote: »

Alright lads I used instant sheller and it worked a treat but when I was in maximus arcade my joystick became unresponsive and all the buttons too I rebooted a couple of times and its still the same.. Any ideas?? Also I got a VGA to scart cable from a chap online and he has a USB lead wired to it (for power to auto select station?) but that's not working either as in I'm not getting any picture through it I'm not to bothered about that its more the problem with the controls the light is green on the ipac but could it stop be broke ??
Any help much appreciated

Just on the joystick and buttons not responding.
This happens to me on a regular(ish) basis.
Its either one of 2 things, microswitch stuck or the ipac has thrown a hissy fit.

I usually swap the ipac to a different USB port , it reinstalls and all is fine.


I got my Scart to VGA from a german company as I was using a philips tv.
I bought one from ebay and same thing happened as what is happening to you , no picture.
I was running off S-Video before that but the quality was shocking.
If you need the link to the scart cable let me know.

Best of luck.
Sham.

andrew241983

sham69 wrote: »

Just on the joystick and buttons not responding.
This happens to me on a regular(ish) basis.
Its either one of 2 things, microswitch stuck or the ipac has thrown a hissy fit.

I usually swap the ipac to a different USB port , it reinstalls and all is fine.


I got my Scart to VGA from a german company as I was using a philips tv.
I bought one from ebay and same thing happened as what is happening to you , no picture.
I was running off S-Video before that but the quality was shocking.
If you need the link to the scart cable let me know.

Best of luck.
Sham.

ye this guy makes them to order for people especially for arcade machines but this one aint working.. can you send me the link for yours thanks
ill have a look to see if thee is any buttons stuck if not ill change USB and re-install and see if that gets it going again
cheers

sham69

no worries I'll dig out the link.
Only problem I had was, the site is completely in German and they don't take paypal or credit card, its some sort of wired money thingy.

My sister sorted it for me but have to say the cable is great.
I'll be in touch.

andrew241983

Alright lads I know it's Xmas eve but i will have people over the xmas and know doubt they will want a few games..just a quic one I got my ipac working .. Do I need to be running soft15hz to get a picture on my tv through my VGA to scart lead.. I just have it connected to my ati radeon with nothing else cheers

CathalDublin

Technically no bit the picture will be un viewable without soft15

andrew241983

CathalDublin wrote: »

Technically no bit the picture will be un viewable without soft15

Guess the cable is obviously done wrong because I'm not getting any sort of picture from boot up

CathalDublin

Guess so cause you'll usually get either a noise from the tv on boot and a flickerly screen

sham69

sham69 wrote: »

no worries I'll dig out the link.
Only problem I had was, the site is completely in German and they don't take paypal or credit card, its some sort of wired money thingy.

My sister sorted it for me but have to say the cable is great.
I'll be in touch.

Sorry for the delay.
I got the cable from wolfsat.de
I had a look but can't see it now so not sure if they are selling them anymore.
Have a look on arcade controls forum, loads of guys selling cables on there.
I had actually bought 1 on ebay which didnt work although the sellers told me they would.
Sorry I can't be of more help.

andrew241983

sham69 wrote: »

Sorry for the delay.
I got the cable from wolfsat.de
I had a look but can't see it now so not sure if they are selling them anymore.
Have a look on arcade controls forum, loads of guys selling cables on there.
I had actually bought 1 on ebay which didnt work although the sellers told me they would.
Sorry I can't be of more help.

No problem mate will check it out

andrew241983

Lads debating which way to do my glass for covering the tv.. I was thinking blackout paint tried it on a bit of glass and don't think it will work.. What way do you guys do your screen surrounding.. In was thinking of using hard black card as a backing on the glass but don't know how this will look... Any help on how you guys done it is much appreciated..
P.s still can't get my VGA to rgb working I guess it's def done wrong coz when it's plugged in the tv auto switches to AV1 but stays black and that's it....

CathalDublin

My old glass bezel was sprayed black on the inside, looked perfect
Cable must definitely be done wrong, have you tried it with a different TV?
Is soft15 definitely running ok?
As far as I remember you should still get a picture without soft15 but it'll be scrambled up

andrew241983

I didn't install soft15 as I thought it wasn't needed I'm not even getting a scrambled picture.. Ye I think I'll buy a spray don't think the paint will be as good... Where did you buy your spray mate??

owenf

What about black vinyl !!

CathalDublin

just used cheap car spray paint, masked off the viewable area and done 3 light layers with the can, 5 minutes apart.
From my experience of using soft15khz I got a distorted picture on my crt during the bios screen/etc but I was just reading enternows post here he doesnt get any picture until soft15 starts

nacimroc

I use the black card from the art and hobby shop. You can use a black marker on cut edges and looks perfect. Paint works fine too but no room for error.

andrew241983

Cheers lads will try a can of spray seems the easiest way.. Ill install soft15hz and see how I get on

i used some of that hard board stuff,
cut the screen hole out carefully the covered the hardboard in a single sheet of black card.
Folded the card over the screen hole to get a perfect edge the whole way around,
then used perspex over the lot,
worked perfectly.way better result than i expected.
I used those mirror bolts to hold it all together.the ones with the chrome caps

I've used both the card and spray paint methods. There's no comparison if you get the painting right, it looks way way better.

Key things to know are when you mask off your screen area make sure your tape is sealed tight, run your finger right around the edge and make sure there are no gaps for paint to leak into. You want a nice straight hard line without paint cracks or leaks.

The most important thing is to be patient with the spray and use several LIGHT layers, at least 3-4 and make sure there's plenty of drying time between each one. As a guide, your first layer should just look like a heavy dust over the glass, but you should still be able to see through it easily. Don't use enough paint to black it out fully in one layer. It should take at least three coats before you get that far. Keep going till youre happy its blacked out, then put one more coat on.

Enamel spray paint for car body work is best because it sets hard. Any of the auto-body stuff you get from halfords or any other car place is ideal. Matte finish spray paint is good because the glass adds a sheen to it but gloss paint works fine too, and if you can afford to leave it a few days to cure (harden) before you mount it in the cab it will mean the paint is fully dry and unlikely to chip or rub off anywhere.