General Arcade & Retro Chat' Special Championship Edition

Jack burton

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120114747#Comment_120114747

Yeah I just got an email. And I just got a load of 20odd VHS tapes off an Irish seller. €6.50 up to 10kg. I just emailed him the label. Really handy. Sad to see it go

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120114868#Comment_120114868

I can't remember and engine but they brought over some monster parcels for me before.

Retr0gamer

This is too good not to share around. The ff7 fan mod that adds voice acting is next level cringe

https://twitter.com/GmanLives/status/1614732093497708545?t=mZiR4cNEnm2d-cJR28WpZg&s=19

KeRbDoG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120114747#Comment_120114747

Lets hope someone takes over the lockers...I can but hope as the inter-Ireland shipping was fierce handy. Easier to convince someone to ship something largish when you could do 'I will email you a pre-paid PM label, just print/stick/locker' :D

The Last Bandit

Apparently there a few alternatives but the legality of them may be questionable.....

https://www.deliverme.ie/ - charge 25 per delivery !!

https://www.oohpod.com/ - operate like PM did but also have lockers in NI you can collect stuff from, not a bad option if you live in North Leinster

MrVestek

Got a fair bit of work done on the Hyperspin setup for the Blast City yesterday. Only things left to do are sorting out an input issue on one or two buttons on the J-Pac and customising the Windows 7 install for custom boot intro and replacing the shell with Hyperspin itself.

Also getting the steering wheel and Aimtrak controls hot-swappable with joy2key.

Anyway, small preview here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0aIsQf6ca0

o1s1n

Nicely done!

What graphics card are you using as a matter of interest?

There really is nothing quite like sitting on the floor tinker around inside a cabinet is there? :D

MrVestek

It's an ATI Saphire HD5770. I was using something previous to that, can't remember what... but Dreamcast emulation wouldn't work with it as it was a DX9 card so had to upgrade to something that supported DX10.

The motherboard / RAM combo are from the older version of my gaming PC so it's fairly specced up for what it is... and yeah. Nothing like spending a Monday night on your knees bent over a JAMMA harness. :-D

That thing almost broke my heart last night as I ran a bunch of Windows 7 updates which eventually installed secure boot and screwed everything up royally causing the OS to no longer boot.

That's why everything is pulled out like you see in the video as I eventually had to pull out the CMOS battery to reset everything.

Pain in the hole.

The Last Bandit

Looks great. I wouldn't replace the shell though with Hyperspin, ya it looks a lot more seemless during boot but is a total pain in the ass when something goes wrong - its hyperspin so something will go wrong :)

Having Hyperspin or whatever launcher (I prefer attract-mode) in the Startup folder will fire it up after Windows has loaded, so you can always drop back to a working environment when needed.

MrVestek

Yeah good point actually. That's how I had it set up when this was in the bartop. I ran some command when Hyperspin started up to change the mouse pointer to a dot and to hide windows explorer.

Can't remember what that was called but I'm sure I'll find it again.

Steve X2

My Egret 3 has had Hyperspin in it for years. Going to replace it in the coming months with Launchbox Bigbox on Windows 10, but for Hyperspin on Windows 7 I used Instant Sheller to hide the OS and run Hyperspin, hide the mouse etc. Worked well for the time, and still works now. I have a mini wireless keyb/mouse attached and can use that if i ever need to temporarily disable the sheller and access the OS.

Instant Sheller was left for a long time without an update, but has got a few in recent years to allow Windows 10 and now 11 to be used. I know if you use Windows 10 Enterprise(not pro) you get a few more options to hide the OS.

MrVestek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119058#Comment_120119058

Instant Sheller! That was it actually. You must have given the same advice about 8 years ago! :-P

MrVestek

So I was doing some more work on this earlier during my lunch break earlier.

I did have the BIOS set to automatically power up the board when flipping on the PSU but as I wanted to keep the PC's PSU inside of the cab this would be impractical. I'd like to be able to keep working on the setup but have everything locked away looking tidy.

I was just about to order a wireless PC power button thingy when I thought to myself... hold on I bought a button about ten years ago for the bartop that I never ended up using. Rooted through some draws and found it in an old DIY kit.

Got some spare speaker wire, stripped it and put a two slot dupont on one side using my crimping kit. I thought to myself, well I put a camlock on the under side of the Control Panel but I never use it and the spring in the CP's clasp locking mechanism is knackered anyway.

So, I removed the camlock but the button wouldn't fit properly. Fixed that right enough by filling down the sides slightly, screwed in the button and... it fits perfectly! It's got terminal screws on it too which makes it handy.

You can see what it looks like below now including my makeshift cable connected to the PC's motherboard.

Makes it super handy now, all I need to do is flip the CP to turn the cab on and can then press the button underneath to turn on the PC.

TechnoFreek

Defo agree with leaving windows in case anything goes wrong which can be often

I find by the time my monitor fires up and settles, Hyperspin has already auto launched.

I also have windows set to boot muted. Then have a control panel button combo to unmute. And two more combos to increase and decrease volume.

I remember that feckin windows 7 update that killed everything. I disabled auto install of updates.

Are you running groovymame and emudriver? Highly recommend if not.

MrVestek

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120121745#Comment_120121745

Just the regular mame fork which seems to work fine tbh and I have modified the firmware on the graphics card so that it can't go over 31Khz. I've only just gotten the monitor's chassis back from The UK having being repaired by Grant so I don't need another excuse for a vertical collapse by constantly accidentally feeding the wrong resolution into it.

o1s1n

That's a really fantastic use of a redundant camlock, never considered replacing them with buttons. Looks the part too.

o1s1n

Have any of you guys tried the AtGames Legends virtual pinball machines?

I see they've a micro version available now which seems to be getting good reviews.

Has a proper point of view perspective so you get the feeling of depth, haptics for bumper feedback, loads of different tables.

Visually I am not a fan of the cabinet at all, particularly putting vintage arcade artwork like Space Invaders on the side (there is in fact a Space Invaders pinball table in the games list but it's just not artwork you associate with pinball and so overdone at this stage) I do also think they should have included some kind of plunger to launch the ball rather than just a button.

But cosmetics aside, I'm half tempted. Be nice to have a way of playing something that resembles pinball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G-WjZydc_M&ab_channel=PDubsArcadeLoft

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128149#Comment_120128149

Techmoan did a review of one the other day.

You're dead right on the plunger. A real missed opportunity as it would have been very simple to include one and match the pull animation on the screen. And yeah that artwork is certainly an interesting choice :0/

A screen with a bit of a higher resolution than 1080p would have been good for something like this. It wouldn't have to be 4k, just better than 1080p and bump the price from $450 to $500 to cover it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5L-VDt661o

DaveyDave

Watched TechMoan's video last light, surprised with how well the play field looks, at least on camera it looks somewhat convincing. Had a vague idea of the 1up model but the AtGames one looks pretty good.

Mr.Saturn

Had a look at Techmoan’s pinball video last night and it’s a bit of a novelty seeing AtGames’s name attached to a quality product after generations of **** Megadrive clones.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128350#Comment_120128350

I see the full sized one they make actually has a plunger so it should be an easy enough mod to install one to this. Even as simple as just having it activate the already installed switch when it springs back.

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120119058#Comment_120119058

Coincidentally @Steve X2, the latest LaunchBox/BigBox update landed yesterday with this nugget within...

• New Premium Feature: A new option to automatically use Big Box as the Windows Shell has been added to Options > General in Big Box. This option will allow you to avoid loading Windows features like the Start menu, taskbar, etc. and will use Big Box exclusively as the shell. This feature is not for the faint of heart, but does result in a faster and cleaner startup for arcade cabinets and home theater environments.

https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog

Inviere

What's the weirdest location anyone here has ordered from? I've a retro goody on the way from Amman, in Jordan. Can't say I've ever gotten anything from a really far off location like that. Hopefully it gets here (it's a faulty item that needs repair, so will do a thread if by some chance it makes it to the Emerald Isle)

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130290#Comment_120130290

Yes I seen that on YouTube earlier today and will definitely give it a go to see how it works. But I really updated for the new Amiga whdload import feature. I download a full fresh whdload lha collection using WHDLoadtool(which is awesome) and did a fresh import into Launchbox. Worked flawlessly 🙂

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130309#Comment_120130309

I got a Darius Alpha from Columbia about 7 or 8 years ago(a risky purchase). But most people know where Columbia is so not that weird (I had to check google maps for Amman 🙂 ).

Inviere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130515#Comment_120130515

As mentioned above, I'm not overly gone on the idea of replacing the shell myself, just too much of a headache to tweak or fix things thereafter. If they had the option, from within bigbox to restore the default shell, that'd be a nice feature (perhaps they do, I didn't even check).

Importing Amiga lha's has always been tedious given their naming convention, so that IS a welcome update to the parser.

Steve X2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130707#Comment_120130707

I disable loads of unnecessary windows services and other stuff, then disable the shell(this is of course just for inside a cab, not a standard desktop/laptop). Every little bit of performance helps on a Windows system 🙂

Plus, the shell is hidden, not gone so in the event of an issue its just a ctrl alt del away. Instant Sheller is great for a quick on/off shell.

Dr Bob

Not sure if this is of use for anyone, but with Stadia closing down , google have put out an update that enables bluetooth on their controller. I'd picked up 2 of them cheap off CEX late last year as they're a good controller , even as a cabled one , but they're really really good as a proper wireless controller .

(Cex seem to be sold out of them sadly , as I'd say a load got snapped up when news came out about the bluetooth thing.

Might be handy for anyone emulating

Retr0gamer

After getting over my high from beating Punch-out!! I'm kind of thinking that it may well be at the top of my favourite NES game list. I love Mario 3 and Megaman 2 but I had such a good time with punch-out.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130549#Comment_120130549

Darius Alpha used as money laundering my drug cartels? I mean the prices are way more stable than crytpo or even currency.

Retr0gamer

My mam just does not care about my greatest achievement in life.

Dr Bob

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120133306#Comment_120133306

I had a megadrive from Glascow mysteriously divert to Peru , and then was sent back here by way of London ...mega drugs importing isnt unusual