Home made Arcade Machine???

andrew241983

ye i have downloaded the whole rom set for mame and downloaded all the vids and preview and stuff from pleasuredome. ive setup all the paths for each one but no previews or anything show up in mame when i navigate through the games.. ive setup the nes and snes , dreamcast sega mega drive , and a few other but when i press to enter say mega drive it just keeps returning to the main menu like there is no roms there.. even thought their in the right path...
and no previews or anything show up for any games...
absolute soul destroyer

edit: yes emulators work outside hyperspin

CathalDublin

Are the games showing in your wheel but no themes?
Roms need to be Matched to the game databases
You can download hyperspin rom
Manager to do this
http://www.emucr.com/2011/02/hyperspin-rommanager-v10.html?m=1
Your movies need to be in flv format.
You need to download themes from hyperspins web page for mame and wheel art&box art for the other consoles.
It's easier to donate to hyperspin and get FTP access than manually download each theme, box art file, etc but it's up to you really.

Myrddin

Hyperspin generates a log file, I suggest you start there. It could be a number of things but its likely one of those 'so simple I never thought if doing it' type fixes

Optimus Prime

ah Hyperspin.. No one who has built a mame cab escapes being broken by it!

andrew241983

keithgeo wrote: »

ah Hyperspin.. No one who has built a mame cab escapes being broken by it!

at this stage ive been broken rebuilt and broken again:mad:

As Cathaldublin mentioned, it seems like you're missing database files or they dont' match up to your rom names.

Because your hyperspin is quitting back to the main menu above your game lists I'd say it's probably the latter. Have you put your XML files where they're supposed to go? Have you made sure that the roms in the roms folder match the names in the XML, because if they don't they won't show up in your games list, and if they're all wrong, the front-end will quit back to the menu because it can't find any games to list.

That happens a lot when you get your XML files and your roms from different sources. You can use a tool called Hyperspin dat gen to generate an XML file of whatever is in your roms folder, regardless of what they are named, which means the games will launch, but if your roms are named wrong in the first place then your videos and artwork etc probably won't work with them either. You're probably better checking that your roms match your artwork, and renaming the entire set if they don't. There are free renaming tools to do this, check on the HS website and read up on the forums, and back up everything you do.

Everyone who has tried to tackle Hyperspin has put a lot of work into this area. It's just a big negative to the front-end. It's beautiful when you get it working but it's time consuming to set up.

andrew241983

cheers mackdaddi ill give this ago prob better starting afresh and seeing how its goes!!
cheers for all the input lads will post back if it gets better

Myrddin

andrew241983 wrote: »

cheers mackdaddi ill give this ago prob better starting afresh and seeing how its goes!!
cheers for all the input lads will post back if it gets better

Don't forget to read the logfile, it'll tell you exactly or nearabouts why games arn't launching

andrew241983

will do thanks

The Last Bandit

Use Hyperlaunch to manually verify you can start up each emulator & rom.

andrew241983

just a bit off topic lads are u able to save high scores with mame 146.. ive installed the highscore.dat(think that's what its called) and created a folder called hi but doesnt seem to be saving for the like of pacman , metal slug etc...is there something else i'm missing??
no point being a master at you own arcade games if ye can't gloat to your mates haha :D:D

edit: also is it ok to decase my pc and mount it to the mdf? with stand offs for the motherboard... just want a more authentic look.. or is the risk of static electricity to components from dust and that too high??

CathalDublin

You need to compile your own version of mame 146 with the high score and no nag diffs
It's simple to do, I'll link a tutorial when I get home this evening.
And it's fine to decase the pc, just make sure there is a fan on your processor, some dells/etc have ducting running to a case fan, if this is the case buy a decent heatsink/fan suitable for your processor

Andrew76

andrew241983 wrote: »

just a bit off topic lads are u able to save high scores with mame 146.. ive installed the highscore.dat(think that's what its called) and created a folder called hi but doesnt seem to be saving for the like of pacman , metal slug etc...is there something else i'm missing??
no point being a master at you own arcade games if ye can't gloat to your mates haha :D:D

edit: also is it ok to decase my pc and mount it to the mdf? with stand offs for the motherboard... just want a more authentic look.. or is the risk of static electricity to components from dust and that too high??

Exactly how I have it setup too, perfectly fine.

andrew241983

CathalDublin wrote: »

You need to compile your own version of mame 146 with the high score and no nag diffs
It's simple to do, I'll link a tutorial when I get home this evening.
And it's fine to decase the pc, just make sure there is a fan on your processor, some dells/etc have ducting running to a case fan, if this is the case buy a decent heatsink/fan suitable for your processor

that's great mate would appreciate that

andrew241983

cheers andrew76 .. is your mounted on the floor or on a side panel??

Andrew76

andrew241983 wrote: »

cheers andrew76 .. is your mounted on the floor or on a side panel??

Mounted to MDF that's in turn held on it's side by two metal slots. Here's a few old pics of the setup. The step down in the bottom pic has since been replaced and moved outside the cab as there's a 360 + pad hacks in there now. Keyboard moved outside also, but what's on the MDF hasn't changed.

From front of cab:



From back of cab:

Myrddin

I've something very similar also. A pc mounted on a plywood plynth, fan on the cpu only. Works perfectly

andrew241983

thanks for the pics andrew much appreciated

Steve X2

I used to have a similar setup myself with the pc and all its parts mounted on MDF. But I installed some external temp sensors from an electronics project I had abandoned and monitored the temps for a couple of weeks in various parts on the candy (they were all logged to a text file on the pc as well as the normal built in sensors that the computer had).

A very nerdy thing to do for sure but I just wasn't happy with how messy it looked with everything mounted to the MDF. So once I'd got all the temps recorded I installed the PC inside a mini pc case with its side door removed. Everything went in perfectly and was very neat indeed. I used some acoustic dampening foam to reduce any vibrations inside and outside the case and installed it in the far back right side of my Egret 3. You cant even see the pc unless you really stick your head in the cab, perfect.

Now I left the temp sensors exactly where the were inside the case and recorded them for a couple of weeks as well as the same internal sensors on the computer and everything was once again logged to a text file.

Anyway, after doing all this and comparing the temp results (internal and external) from when the pc was mounted on the MDF and inside the mini case I found that temperatures within the candy cab were the same for both and the internal temp was about 1-2 degrees C higher inside the case.

So I was more than happy to live with the pc inside the case all hidden away.
One other benefit from moving all the parts back into a case and moving it to the far back right of the candy was the noise. It was never loud as I used pretty much the best quality low noise parts for the whole pc but when it was moved further back into the case the noise dropped even further.

Myrddin

Airflow & space are not a consideration on my Tekken 3 cab. I actually had to get into it once. Yes, a human being can fit & work inside one they're that big

Steve SI

Steve SI wrote: »

I installed some external temp sensors from an electronics project I had abandoned and monitored the temps for a couple of weeks

I just put a crapload of fans in mine. It's only a little bartop, which means the heat had nowhere to go, so including the onboard fans on the PC there are 5 or 6 fans in it now, and most of them are pulling the hot air outside the case through vents and the like.

Outside:







Inside:







By the way, if you're de-casing the PC, make sure you run the wire from the power switch out to the back of the cab or somewhere and wire it to a momentary pushbutton. It's easy to do and is a great way of switching on/off your cab. Top right of this last pic you can see the power break i put in that wire so i could take the back off my cab. All of the fan cables and everything are quick disconnectable, so there's no hassle with pulling out wires or breaking solder if i need to get back into the cab to make some tweaks. A couple of panel mount USB ports are a good idea too, handy for hard drives and memory sticks and the like for dropping new files and artwork in.

andrew241983

gonna just start afresh.. anybody fancy "lending" me login details for the EmuMovies Download Service Utility:D:D:D:D:D:D:D.. havent got the cash to sign up at the minute thats why building progress has slowed to a crawl and why im working on gettin all the software ready to go for when im in better cash flow state... might be able to stretch to a few beers for anyone willing to help:cool:

CathalDublin

you can download them free on emumovies site in 240p(320x240 / 240x320) which is perfect if your using an arcade monitor or TV and you can also convert your AVI ones to FLV using the converter available on their page
http://emumovies.com/forums/index.php/files/file/1065-emumovies-video-converter/


oh and this thread is how I learnt to compile mame

andrew241983

My bad I thought u had to pay to download them all I thought u only got a certain amount for free

andrew241983

CathalDublin wrote: »

you can download them free on emumovies site in 240p(320x240 / 240x320) which is perfect if your using an arcade monitor or TV and you can also convert your AVI ones to FLV using the converter available on their page
http://emumovies.com/forums/index.php/files/file/1065-emumovies-video-converter/


oh and this thread is how I learnt to compile mame

where exactly can i download the video snaps cant find it anywhere on the site it keeps saying ive to pay a sub??

CathalDublin

you need to be logged in, with a free account
http://emumovies.com/forums/index.php/files/file/1067-mame-video-snaps-d-240p/

the files download as MP4 and you use the free converter to convert them to flv

andrew241983

CathalDublin wrote: »

you need to be logged in, with a free account
http://emumovies.com/forums/index.php/files/file/1067-mame-video-snaps-d-240p/

the files download as MP4 and you use the free converter to convert them to flv

thanks Cathal i see it now but found another download of all the videos in flv as one 15gb file so have that downloading now:D:D
Thanks for your help.. slowly but surely getting there

Steve X2

You probably know at this stage but the video names need to match up with you're mame romset.

The Last Bandit

fatmatch is a great help in sorting and renaming this sort of stuff.

Steve X2

The Last Bandit wrote: »

fatmatch is a great help in sorting and renaming this sort of stuff.

I've gotten very lazy with renaming roms and checking the hash values.
These days with nice bband I just re-download the full sets when they come out instead of only grabbing whats changed and hash checking the rest