(Topic ID: 234532)

MAME Club - Everyone Welcome

By vid1900

5 years ago


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  • 162 posts
  • 68 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 4 years ago by lpeters82
  • Topic is favorited by 51 Pinsiders

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There are 162 posts in this topic. You are on page 2 of 4.
#51 5 years ago

Try mGalaxy, a fully-baked commercial package which meets modern standards of intuitiveness and useability; I thought it was a breath of fresh air compared with Hyperspin. The package contains two apps, one to launch the frontend itself, the other to configure everything. Configuration is done through a GUI, and the tedious stuff like fetching art, history, marquee, etc for the game database is fully automated (though it can take a while if you have a lot of ROMs). The interface itself looks great (subjective of course, but I prefer it over Hyperspin), is easy to navigate with joystick/spinner/trackball, and is stable. Functionally, it is just as easy for guests to navigate as a cabinet built around the xx-in-1 JAMMA boards, but looks much more elegant.

The free version is fully functional, but the paid ($25) version adds a lot of very nice skins and unlocks numerous advanced configuration settings. (Personally, I think even the free version would be worth a $25 donation just to thank the devs for making things so easy compared with the open-source stuff!)

http://www.mgalaxy.com

#52 5 years ago

omg, it’s a Defender Donkey Kong in post #20!

#53 5 years ago

This video is about eight years old, but this was an early test of a MAME I built back then. Maybe it’s about time I built another...

#54 5 years ago

Built my first cabinet from scratch using ArcadeOS back in 99. I’ve built several more since then with my 2 current setups running Hyperspin. My issue, guests WANT to play but they can’t figure it all out. For example if they are already in PAC Man, they have no clue how to exit, scroll to another game, select it, and then start a game. Any stupid simple front ends out there that streamline this process?

Someone mentioned Launchbox, but I never tried it.

#55 5 years ago

My cocktail Mame cab that I built a few decades ago. Uses MameWah as a front end, I like it because it is designed to run with arcade controls and uses lists to manage games - maybe 50 in my favourites. Just two buttons per player as these manage the game of my youth that I want to play. Runs an ancient low spec pc with a Trinitron crt screen and has been stable for years now. About the only thing I'd like to do is add servos to automate the 4 / 8 way joystick settings. One day maybe.

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#56 5 years ago

I bought a cheap small Jamma cab setup running a 60 in 1 a few years ago. CRT, 2 joysticks 3 buttons each. I now have it running MAME on a Pi. It's pretty basic but good enough to give me my arcade fix. Best thing is with it's small profile I can get it and my Night Moves in the space previously taken by 1 pin

One day though I'll get an all singing and dancing MAME cab.

Only have this pic to hand right now ...
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#57 5 years ago
Quoted from SYS6:

My cocktail Mame cab that I built a few decades ago. Uses MameWah as a front end, I like it because it is designed to run with arcade controls and uses lists to manage games - maybe 50 in my favourites. Just two buttons per player as these manage the game of my youth that I want to play. Runs an ancient low spec pc with a Trinitron crt screen and has been stable for years now. About the only thing I'd like to do is add servos to automate the 4 / 8 way joystick settings. One day maybe. [quoted image]

There is something to be said about a reasonable, focused design. Although I created a monstrosity, I've always wanted something smaller and simple.

#58 5 years ago

I'm still in the process of building mine. Made it all myself from cabinet to photoshopping graphics. Still in process now of getting the PC setup finished. Running Hyperspin as the frontend with mame and a bunch of console roms. Have to move the cab in through a window because its too wide for a doorway and my hallway, then vinyl wrap it.

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#59 5 years ago
Quoted from djreddog:

Someone mentioned Launchbox, but I never tried it.

launch box free seems pretty good but not ideal for scrolling through games with arcade controls. I tend to use the track ball as a mouse. I can set a favorites section to be on the top and add one, ten, or thousands games.

Launch box also will act as the front end for pretty much any emulator or anything really. It just runs command prompt strings to play your game. You bind a key to quit mame and then you are back at the launch box menu.

There is a paid version called "big box" that may work better than launch box which is free. I have not looked into it yet. Launch Box was really easy to setup too. Importing games auto looks up and downloads box art and that kind of stuff. It is smart at MAME ROMs and creates capcom, DE, Midway, trackball, etc categories automatically.

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

#60 5 years ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

HA! That's right on par with the classic [quoted image]

My soldering iron slipped though my hand about a week ago while I was adjusting something else. Like an idiot, my reactions kicked in and I tried to grab it...ouch.

#61 5 years ago
Quoted from lpeters82:

My soldering iron slipped though my hand about a week ago while I was adjusting something else. Like an idiot, my reactions kicked in and I tried to grab it...ouch.

Dang man! Treat that thing like a light saber !

#62 5 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
Often people try and put the most games into a single arcade-looking cabinet.
This is a club thread where people can argue:
CRT vs LCD monitors?
Convert real cabinets (ruining them forever), or build a new one?
Can you ever have too many controls on a panel?
Are you turned on by Scanlines or Tanlines?
CRT burn; worth it to re-phosphor?
Can a monitor be too big?
Pi or Intel CPU?
Are light-up buttons gay?
Cheap places to get vinyl decals printed?
LED or Fluorescent lights for marquee?

I prefer to hang out in the $299 Walmart junk arcade thread. That's where all the single moms are right Vid?

#63 5 years ago
Quoted from tomdotcom:

I prefer to hang out in the $299 Walmart junk arcade thread. That's where all the single moms are right Vid?

yawn....

I hate Friday's because whenever your mom is not home, you don't get enough attention.

#64 5 years ago
Quoted from barakandl:

launch box free seems pretty good but not ideal for scrolling through games with arcade controls. I tend to use the track ball as a mouse. I can set a favorites section to be on the top and add one, ten, or thousands games.
Launch box also will act as the front end for pretty much any emulator or anything really. It just runs command prompt strings to play your game. You bind a key to quit mame and then you are back at the launch box menu.
There is a paid version called "big box" that may work better than launch box which is free. I have not looked into it yet. Launch Box was really easy to setup too. Importing games auto looks up and downloads box art and that kind of stuff. It is smart at MAME ROMs and creates capcom, DE, Midway, trackball, etc categories automatically.
https://www.launchbox-app.com/

I use Launchbox in Big Box mode on my media center PC, it's pretty good. Big Box mode is designed to be navigated with game controls where regular LaunchBox isn't.

LaunchBox auto imports a lot of things, including your Steam library. You can set up certain platforms to perform tasks before or after, for example Daphne (LaserDisc arcade emulator) only has keyboard support so I configured it to automatically launch Joy2Key before and close it after.

It will hide duplicate titles but sometimes it defaults to the wrong region of a game, fixing the ROM shortcut in the library is easy.

My only annoyance with it is that by default it wants to copy your ROMs into it's own folder when you import, but you can set it to use the files in-place.

#65 5 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

yawn....
I hate Friday's because whenever your mom is not home, you don't get enough attention.

I get it, you can be a smartass, but I can't

I said it with humor intended, not hate btw.

#66 5 years ago
Quoted from tomdotcom:

I prefer to hang out in the $299 Walmart junk arcade thread. That's where all the single moms are right Vid?

What do you expect when you came to troll a cheap imitation thread that spawned from a cheap imitation toy of that cheap imitation???

#67 5 years ago
Quoted from tomdotcom:

I get it, you can be a smartass, but I can't

I fully encourage you to be a smartass, just make sure it's funny material.

Maybe like:

"I like this thread better, because there is no way in hell a single mom is going to be able to drag one of these up her apartment stairs without a man in her life."

"Poll: Single moms, do you prefer Odroid XU4 or Pi B3+ ?"

"A MAME cab means commitment. That's why single moms don't build them."

"Buying a used MAME cab is like dating a single mom. You are just picking up where someone else left off."

"A single mom would never have time to build a MAME and still keep 3 kids alive"
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#68 5 years ago

Here's my MAME setup. I've spent a couple grand on it so far. It's got 6000 games on it but my favorites to play are Tron and Centipede. I'm going to add a ton of random artwork and lighting to the cabinet soon to really make it pop.

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#69 5 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

I fully encourage you to be a smartass, just make sure it's funny material.
Maybe like:
"I like this thread better, because there is no way in hell a single mom is going to be able to drag one of these up her apartment stairs without a man in her life."
"Poll: Single moms, do you prefer Odroid XU4 or Pi B3+ ?"
"A MAME cab means commitment. That's why single moms don't build them."
"Buying a used MAME cab is like dating a single mom. You are just picking up where someone else left off."
"A single mom would never have time to build a MAME and still keep 3 kids alive"
[quoted image]

Forget the bickering.... Anyway to zoom out of that picture? Haha

#70 5 years ago
Quoted from RatShack:

I use Launchbox in Big Box mode on my media center PC, it's pretty good. Big Box mode is designed to be navigated with game controls where regular LaunchBox isn't.
LaunchBox auto imports a lot of things, including your Steam library. You can set up certain platforms to perform tasks before or after, for example Daphne (LaserDisc arcade emulator) only has keyboard support so I configured it to automatically launch Joy2Key before and close it after.
It will hide duplicate titles but sometimes it defaults to the wrong region of a game, fixing the ROM shortcut in the library is easy.
My only annoyance with it is that by default it wants to copy your ROMs into it's own folder when you import, but you can set it to use the files in-place.

ok cool. I might buy the big box then. I need to watch some youtube videos of the interface and see if I like it.

Launchbox wanted to copy all the ROMs from one folder to the install folder and I no to that as well. I think the idea is then your launchbox setup and all ROMs is portable and you can save it all to a flash drive or whatever to move to another PC.

Being able to run a command AFTER you quit the emulator is nice and gives me an idea about a minor issue I have. Does anyone know if there a windows command prompt line I can do to turn off the mouse pointer and then turn it back on after mame exits? The issue is in marble madness and other track ball games is there is a small vertical strip on the right side of thee screen where the mouse pointer becomes visible in. It is kind of annoying and I haven't figured out how to get rid of it yet.

#71 5 years ago
Quoted from LesManley:

Here's my MAME setup. I've spent a couple grand on it so far. It's got 6000 games on it but my favorites to play are Tron and Centipede. I'm going to add a ton of random artwork and lighting to the cabinet soon to really make it pop.
[quoted image]

Gotta be interesting playing Tron with those controls...

#72 5 years ago

Not bad at all..instead of the spinner,you use the 3 buttons...right and left button to spin arm/tank and the center button to shoot....I also have a nice setup for spy-hunter... ..........Joey

#73 5 years ago
Quoted from mwong168:

For those interested in having dynamic marquee for their MAME cab here is a nice sized LCD off ebay. I just ordered one last week and it will be perfect fit for the top of my Vewlix cab.
ebay.com link » Hdmi Dvi Vga Lcd Controller Board With 14 9 Lta149b780f 1280x390 Lcd Display

I got really excited when i saw this, but my marquis is 26". This might be good for a bartop. I wish these would come down in price.

#74 5 years ago

I have been giving some thought to building a 4 player machine. This one has been around awhile Pentium IV.

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#75 5 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

[quoted image]

Not preferred, give me concave suzo happ buttons any day. They feel so good. And frankenpanels take all the fun out of it IMO

#76 5 years ago
Quoted from viper001:

Since this thread is already active, I have a related question. I have a MAME cabinet I bought from a company called Dream Authentics many years ago. It's a 2 player setup, I have had to replace the Ipac controller and the PC that is driving it but otherwise its still in decent shape. My only complaint is I have been unable to find a front end simple enough that I don't have to babysit this thing every time we have a party. Right now I have HyperSpin loaded, which is beautiful and fancy but has not turned out to be the simple front end I was hoping for. All I have loaded are the arcade type games (MAME32), I have no need or interest in loading any of the console type games.
So my question, who makes a front end launcher that is simple enough that little kids can select and load whatever game they want from the menu? I don't care if it's free or if I have to pay a few bucks, it would be worth it to have this not be a constant nuisance. Prior to HyperSpin I was running GameEX which was nice but not simple enough (although it would have been a pretty old version as this was several years ago, maybe the current one is a consideration?).
TIA!

This is why after owning over a dozen different arcade and MAME cabs over the years I bought a NOS arcade legends 1 with the loaded hard drive. Has 250+ games and the suzo happ controls. It’s a smaller arcade cab, doesn’t take up as much space as the bigger midway cabs or 4 player cabs, and has the easiest menu for guests to use. The exit button is key.

I found MAME and Pandora Box’s would go unplayed by guests because there were just way too many games on there and hard for them to figure out how to exit out of a game.

Arcade legends has a nice intro before each game with quick instruction run through. That’s key to me.

#77 5 years ago

I’m in the process of building a captain America 4 player machine... It’s only going to be for multiplayer beat em up games... no two player games allowed, no vertical games allowed. Things like Captain America and the avengers, X-Men, Simpsons and so on. I might add some multiplayer steam beat em up games as well ... It will be very simple and use hyperspin.

#78 5 years ago
Quoted from Chosen_S:

I’m in the process of building a captain America 4 player machine... It’s only going to be for multiplayer beat em up games... no two player games allowed, no vertical games allowed. Things like Captain America and the avengers, X-Men, Simpsons and so on. I might add some multiplayer steam beat em up games as well ... It will be very simple and use hyperspin.

I like the idea of limiting the games. I have a MAME machine that I could play emulated consoles on and a zillion other things, but I don't really see the point. I built it to play arcade games on. I built a cocktail MAME that is strictly vertical one button games. If I redo the control panel at some point I may add a second button. I like the simplicity. I've been planning a Track and Field cab for awhile. I bought most of the parts. Only button mash games, no joysticks.

#79 5 years ago

I have one

The LED's for the pedestal & buttons are unplugged at the moment so you cant call gay.

The LCD screen & giant control panel will ruffle some purist feathers but it's MAME so there are no rules IMO
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#80 5 years ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

Skip the spinner and just use a trackball.

Ever try playing Akanoid, Tempest, Breakout or Blasteroids with a Track Ball? No thanks.

#81 5 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

yawn....
I hate Friday's because whenever your mom is not home, you don't get enough attention.

Chef Oh Snap.gifChef Oh Snap.gif

#82 5 years ago
Quoted from Chosen_S:

What do you expect when you came to troll a cheap imitation thread that spawned from a cheap imitation toy of that cheap imitation???

Cheap Imitationception!

#83 5 years ago

My MAME cabinet has a little Harley Quinn theme to it...I use it for arcade, and all systems up to the PS2.

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#84 5 years ago
Quoted from Chosen_S:

I’m in the process of building a captain America 4 player machine... It’s only going to be for multiplayer beat em up games... no two player games allowed, no vertical games allowed. Things like Captain America and the avengers, X-Men, Simpsons and so on. I might add some multiplayer steam beat em up games as well ... It will be very simple and use hyperspin.

I think that's a great way of doing things. If I had more space I would customize a few different machines like you are doing. One would have for sure been a beat'em up machine that also played games like NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and 2 on 2 Open Ice. I do think it could actually get more play being limited to just those great 25 or 50 games in that genre. Probably go with a 4-player beat'em up, 2-player fighter, 2-player classics, 2-player vertical shooter, plus a Neo Geo, with better art then the original red box. Hell if I had room, I'd build some super specific custom games. I'd want a Tapper / Timber combo plus a Track & Field / Hypersports combo.

#85 5 years ago

A few of my multi games... one for fighting, one for only trackball games, and one for vertical games, and yes fix it Felix jr

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#86 5 years ago

Here is the splash screen intro I made for my cab many years ago. I threw this together quick with no real software or skills but I still like it...

#87 5 years ago

I made a MAME pedestal a little while back running Launchbox / Bigbox. It was a fun project.

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#88 5 years ago

I enjoy early 1980s games... For games that originally had a two way joystick - either [up,down] or [left,right], can a four way joystick [up,down,left,right] be used as substitute to the original two way? Therefore, one could use the single four way joystick to play both two way and four way games from that era.

If so, is this something that can be set in a configuration menu?

#89 5 years ago
Quoted from bayoubilly70:

I enjoy early 1980s games... For games that originally had a two way joystick - either [up,down] or [left,right], can a four way joystick [up,down,left,right] be used as substitute to the original two way? Therefore, one could use the single four way joystick to play both two way and four way games from that era.
If so, is this something that can be set in a configuration menu?

Yes, very easily configured in Mame settings.

#90 5 years ago
Quoted from dsmoke1986:

Yes, very easily configured in Mame settings.

Great - thanks for the info!

#91 5 years ago

Nice to have a MAME thread....

Question...I have a SlickStik cab with control panel using the old PS2 mouse connector and more concerning my PC has an ArcadeVGA card to hook up my Wells Gardner arcade monitor.

If I moved over to a Pi setup...anyone know how I could connect it up and could it be as clean/arcade perfect as my ArcadeVGA while keeping the Arcade Monitor?

Thanks.

#92 5 years ago

@bayoubilly70
In general 2 way games work fine with a 4 way stick. Controls for each game in mame are customized by hitting TAB while running the game to bring up a menu. For example I have a switchable 4 way / 8 way joystick. Galaga plays well in 4 way mode. However because it is not physically limited to only left and right occasionally if I drift off center toward up or down I can have a fractional delay changing directions till it gets back on center. So I may try setting it up this way...if I play Galaga with the stick in 8 way ( includes corners ) and program left, left upper corner and left lower corner to all trigger the ship to move left. Right and right upper/lower corner to move ship right. This I think should allow any movement left or right to register even if I am drifting off center in the up/down axis. I will try this later and see how it works, maybe that will be the best setup for 2 way games ( short of an actual dedicated two way stick ).

#93 5 years ago

Does anyone know of a MAME equivalent to Pinside?

#94 5 years ago
Quoted from fossmin:

Does anyone know of a MAME equivalent to Pinside?

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/

#95 5 years ago
Quoted from vid1900:

Convert real cabinets (ruining them forever), or build a new one?

Neither of my dynamo corner cuts are "ruined" forever. Get a jpac and leave it wired jamma.

#96 5 years ago

Can someone recommend a front end to me? I was using mala but my mame pc died and I rebuilt it with the newest version of mame but mala is no longer in development and doesn't work with the newest version. Would prefer something quick to setup.

#97 5 years ago
Quoted from fossmin:

Does anyone know of a MAME equivalent to Pinside?

Quoted from Syco54645:

Can someone recommend a front end to me? I was using mala but my mame pc died and I rebuilt it with the newest version of mame but mala is no longer in development and doesn't work with the newest version. Would prefer something quick to setup.

https://hyperspin-fe.com/

#98 5 years ago
Quoted from swillie:

bayoubilly70
In general 2 way games work fine with a 4 way stick. Controls for each game in mame are customized by hitting TAB while running the game to bring up a menu. For example I have a switchable 4 way / 8 way joystick. Galaga plays well in 4 way mode. However because it is not physically limited to only left and right occasionally if I drift off center toward up or down I can have a fractional delay changing directions till it gets back on center. So I may try setting it up this way...if I play Galaga with the stick in 8 way ( includes corners ) and program left, left upper corner and left lower corner to all trigger the ship to move left. Right and right upper/lower corner to move ship right. This I think should allow any movement left or right to register even if I am drifting off center in the up/down axis. I will try this later and see how it works, maybe that will be the best setup for 2 way games ( short of an actual dedicated two way stick ).

Good idea and thanks for posting.

#99 5 years ago
Quoted from DeeGor:

I made a MAME pedestal a little while back running Launchbox / Bigbox. It was a fun project.

Mine was basically the same set up. When I had more room I thought it was awesome, but it just ended up taking too much space and obviously wasn't very portable. When I get enough energy back I'm going to try to set it up in a standard cab.

#100 5 years ago
Quoted from TheLaw:

Mine was basically the same set up. When I had more room I thought it was awesome, but it just ended up taking too much space and obviously wasn't very portable. When I get enough energy back I'm going to try to set it up in a standard cab.

Yeah, if you're tight on space, it may not be the best choice.

I love how it turned out, and it also doubles as the TV for the room. I can have a game on, music videos, etc.. going on while I play pinball.

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