I use only legally, freely available software, the vast majority of which is open source. This is what I believe in. I will not, nor ever advocate the use of stolen software.
As such, for my project, I use only legally, freely available ROMs available from MAMEDev - i will not use illegally obtained ROMs - please respect this - I strongly advise you do the same in any of your builds.
Friday, 18 January 2008
How to control this beast!
When you first start using MAME on a PC, you'll be using a keyboard, possibly a mouse, joystick, gamepad, etc. - what you are unlikely to be using at the start, is an arcade control console. One of the most time consuming processes (if you build from scratch like me) in this arcade machine build is figuring out how to build and connect an arcade-machine-type-control-console to a regular PC in order to have something more authentic to play your games with.
It might be worth pointing out at this point, that this is my second (maybe third) attempt at building this arcade machine contraption. My first serious attempt involved the purchasing of higher specification components when I had a lot more disposable cash than I have today.
The first time around, I purchased an I-PAC interface board from Ultimarc - if you click the links you'll see that this is a very neat looking "screw-plugs to PS/2 or USB connection" board. The purpose of this board is so that you can connect two wires to anything (a switch or button for example) and have that send a keystroke along your normal keyboard connection - very swish - straightforward, no mess, a sensible approach to take. When my first attempt was aborted for a number of reasons (mostly due to the birth of my children and my severe reduction in available time and money) this particular item went for a song on eBay - lucky buyer!
This time around I don't have the money (and I would likely cry) to buy another. "So", me thinks, "I can build one of those monkeys, no problem at all!" thus begins my keyboard hack.
It might be worth pointing out at this point, that this is my second (maybe third) attempt at building this arcade machine contraption. My first serious attempt involved the purchasing of higher specification components when I had a lot more disposable cash than I have today.
The first time around, I purchased an I-PAC interface board from Ultimarc - if you click the links you'll see that this is a very neat looking "screw-plugs to PS/2 or USB connection" board. The purpose of this board is so that you can connect two wires to anything (a switch or button for example) and have that send a keystroke along your normal keyboard connection - very swish - straightforward, no mess, a sensible approach to take. When my first attempt was aborted for a number of reasons (mostly due to the birth of my children and my severe reduction in available time and money) this particular item went for a song on eBay - lucky buyer!
This time around I don't have the money (and I would likely cry) to buy another. "So", me thinks, "I can build one of those monkeys, no problem at all!" thus begins my keyboard hack.
I love Open Source!
I'm a big open source fan. I use Ubuntu on every server, desktop and laptop I own. I don't dual boot with another operating system, such as Microsoft Windows or any of Apple OS's. I used to use Windows solely, and used to point, laugh, and make silly faces at people who used Linux, but I had an epiphany around summer 2006 when I was due to attend a conference on Open Source in Brussels, Belgium. I installed Ubuntu on my laptop that I took with me, and from that point on, I was hooked.
For this arcade machine, I'm going to need some software:
I have to use Linux - it's in my blood. Don't let this put you off if you're not used to using Linux - it's nowhere near as difficult to use as it used to be. Also, there is loads in this blog that might be useful to you without you looking at the software.
For this arcade machine, I'm going to need some software:
- an operating system
- some me it has to be Linux, preferably Ubuntu or some variant
- some version of MAME (the application that runs the games)
- on ubuntu/linux the application is called xmame
- a GUI
- it's not obvious when you first start looking into all this that the mame program does not have an interface to run the games from, it's a command line program that you need to type in order to run a game.
- as such, this makes the idea of using a semi-authentic cabinet a bit tricky unless you're going to put a keyboard in it somewhere, or...
- get a program to run "the program that runs the games" that you can operate from arcade controls
I have to use Linux - it's in my blood. Don't let this put you off if you're not used to using Linux - it's nowhere near as difficult to use as it used to be. Also, there is loads in this blog that might be useful to you without you looking at the software.
Get your head straight!
I'm one of these people that carries about 100 thoughts around in my head at one time. 100 balls in the air, if you'll permit me. As such, organising these into any kind of structure to talk to someone else about, is one of the hardest parts of my life.
Take this arcade machine project for example.
Let me throw down on the page all the thoughts I have on the subject (please forgive this indulgence, I will try to clarify as many of these as possible in later posts (I hope))
The balls:
size, shape, colour, materials, cost, where the wife will let me keep it, when the wife will let me work on it, control mechanisms, where to get a keyboard-to-arcade-controls "black box" from and how to use it, where to get arcade controls from, how to connect them together, where to get the software from to run the games, whether i can get open source software for the project to do the job well enough, angles of panels and how they fit together, ergonomics, the order of construction, how will i share (how i will find the time to share) all this hard work so that it's not just a personal indulgence, keeping within the legal boundaries where "roms" are concerned, authenticity vs. usability
I'm sure there are more balls that i've dropped at the moment, but if you're starting down this path, try to answer as many of the above as possible before you get started.
Take this arcade machine project for example.
Let me throw down on the page all the thoughts I have on the subject (please forgive this indulgence, I will try to clarify as many of these as possible in later posts (I hope))
The balls:
size, shape, colour, materials, cost, where the wife will let me keep it, when the wife will let me work on it, control mechanisms, where to get a keyboard-to-arcade-controls "black box" from and how to use it, where to get arcade controls from, how to connect them together, where to get the software from to run the games, whether i can get open source software for the project to do the job well enough, angles of panels and how they fit together, ergonomics, the order of construction, how will i share (how i will find the time to share) all this hard work so that it's not just a personal indulgence, keeping within the legal boundaries where "roms" are concerned, authenticity vs. usability
I'm sure there are more balls that i've dropped at the moment, but if you're starting down this path, try to answer as many of the above as possible before you get started.
I'm going to build an arcade machine!
Have you ever wanted to build your own arcade machine, but just simply couldn't find enough info to get started? If this is you, this blog is for you.
Now you might have come across a few of these sites, where someone says "I'm gonna build an arcade machine" and the site is sparse, and has very little content, or thoughts of the builder, or anything of use.
You haven't?
I came across a few like that when I started looking for stuff that would help me in this worthy pursuit, and none of them really did the job.
Above all things, most people seem to "not" want to share their cabinet designs. I don't know why that is.
I'm starting this blog half way through my build, so i'll be posting retrospectively to begin with until the build and the blog catch up with each other - i'm sure you get the drift.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope this will be useful to you in some way.
Now you might have come across a few of these sites, where someone says "I'm gonna build an arcade machine" and the site is sparse, and has very little content, or thoughts of the builder, or anything of use.
You haven't?
I came across a few like that when I started looking for stuff that would help me in this worthy pursuit, and none of them really did the job.
Above all things, most people seem to "not" want to share their cabinet designs. I don't know why that is.
I'm starting this blog half way through my build, so i'll be posting retrospectively to begin with until the build and the blog catch up with each other - i'm sure you get the drift.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope this will be useful to you in some way.
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