IMBerzerk

Thanks for those... pulling down and rebuilding... I already have Vectrex done and dusted... and looking 100% better than before, so maybe this was a good thing after all.

Oh no, there is no hope... sounds like two Chinamen in a World Class Ping-Pong match. Then the scratching... oh the scratching.... like nails on a chalkboard. I can get the games working fine. GameEx is that easy, and I have a lot of my old discs with many of my ancient roms that I've been using. It's all the screenshots, titles, box art... etc.. all the name associations, and details that I lost. That's hours and hours of work.... I already started on Vectrex, so far so good.

Other than this site... http://www.localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/ Which is having issues today. Are there any other good ones that have full achives, rather than one shot at a time? A2600 A5200 A7800 Coleco... etc... Thanks, IMBerzerk

Yes, XP, and I understood you. I was only pointing out that under Vista, there was no problem. But I dumped Vista because 2 emulators (A7800 and Vectrex) ran terrible. I'll try that pack. Thanks a mil. IMBerzerk

No I didn't try that. I did notice it worked with Vista without an issue. I was thinking of using Vista, but some of the MESS emulation ran dead slow (Vectrex). I'll try this and see if it works. Thanks a mil. IMBerzerk

I decided to repost my question as it was lost in my last thread title. I started rebuilding my cabinet already, loaded XPSP3 and the latest drivers for everything. My card is an 6600GT, PC is a 3700 AMD, plenty of HP to run everything. But my arcade videos are all smeared and distorted. I am running the latest version of FFDshow. Any ideas? Thanks, IMBerzerk.

Yeah, you can't imagine... or I wouldn't want you to imagine is more like it. It really sucks.

Yep, HD crashed.. and now it's all gone.. everything. I was actually planning on buying a portable HD and backing it all up, but the Gremlins got to it first. I lost everything.. all pictures, games, videos.. everything. I do have the core MAME stuff on DVD, so I can at least get that going again... which brings me to a question. I have a problem already with the FFDshow codecs and GameEx's latest release. My game videos look all smeared and full of blocks and distortion. The PC is plenty fast and I am using an Nvidia GT6600 with the latest Nvidia core drivers (1.82). Also, I am using the newest version of FFDshow. Anything ideas why this is happening? I have GameEx set to the Pentium4 settings, if that even matters. 1 of many questions to come.. Thanks, IMBerzerk... and totally depressed over this.

It levels out after a while. But at some point, you have to force yourself to be satisfied otherwise it will never be finished. Also, I noticed you don't have a marquee set-up... make sure you leave yourself some room for one... you can't go without it!!

hence why after 8 years I am STILL working on my Berzerk cabinet... it's worse than owning a classic car!! LOL!

When I look at some of the cabinets that are sold at 2-3K USD that have no graphics, classic appeal.... or historic value... it does make me wonder. To me, they are priceless. I'd never sell them, but I do wonder if they are worth anything. IMB

Also, what about speed? A window weighs a lot more than a keyboard. How did you slow it down?

LOL!! No, let me add in that these are all conversions. Sorry.... no I didn't do them from scratch, I hope I wasn't leading you to believe that. When I started building my first cabinet, MAME cabinets were a new thing. This was back in 1999/2000. There was little to go with, and not much info out there. The Berzerk cabinet was an old Frenzy cabinet that was in REALLY bad shape. It required a ton of woodworking to get it back to life. I paid $150 for it, and by all means, should have passed on it, but I couldn't. It was my favorite game, and I was lucky to find the cabinet. Frenzy and Berzerk used the same cabinet, so I knew if I passed on it, I'd never find another one. It's too rare of a cabinet to find one without paying a fortune which kills the idea of converting it. So I spent 6 months reworking it, hand painting it, and searching the net for the glass bezel. The control panels I make from graphics on the net, usually from Arcade Art. Then I customize them to fit my needs for the cabinet. I love the classic look of the 80's cabinets, so I usually base the artwork on them. The Cafe one was an old Strata Bowling cabinet I bought from an arcade Warehouse in Maryland. He had a ton of stuff. It was a mess, but for $100, why not. That one took 3 years to complete. It runs Mala however, and eventually, I will change it to GameEx. Lastly is the Galaxian/Robotron cabinet. That one is for my wife. That was an old "Heavy Barrel" cabinet by Data East. I found it outside a Thrift Store, in the rain, and totally destroyed. So after 3 years, and while finishing the cafe cabinet, I slowly worked on it. Everything had to be clean, wired out and repainted...everything. The reason why it's split in half.... it's for my wife, and she could not decide if she wanted a Galaxian or Robotron cabinet. So I decided for her.... typical. Sorry about the tall tales... but I love my cabinets, and enjoy building them, hence why I know so much about the buildig process. After doing this 3 times, and of course all the mods I have made to my Berzerk cabinet over the years (this is the 4th control panel)... I can do this stuff in my sleep. LOL! All the best. PS... The window motor was a great idea!! I like it a lot.

Yes, I should do that too. How about movement when guys get a little rough with the cabinet... like Robotron? My Berzerk cabinet has 2 leaf joysticks from Wico (damn sucks that they don't make those anymore!!!), which causes players to toss them around a bit. With the cherry switch type, it's not as violent. IMB

ROFL!!!!!!!

Happy B-Day Flash.... enjoy a health one. All the best! James IMB

True. I used MDF on my panels as well. I just cut the holes in my CP plus the slot for the T-molding and it looked like I ground up a 2x4. I'll post some picks of my 2 cabinets... you can see the size. They are almost identical. Both being 24" wide. Believe me, you may not consider weight now, but I've had the Berzerk cabinet for 8 years, and tinker with it all the time. Moving it is a pain in the a$$ but definitely workable on carpet. The other I've had for 3 years, both have wheels in the back as well. The MDF cabinet I am still working on and dread moving it, it's just damn heavy, even on a painted concrete basement floor. I should also mention I have already been surgically 'repaired' downtown, so to avoid having to go through that again... weight matters to me now more than ever. I tossed in the 3rd, it's a cafe style for the kids. It's an old Strata Bowling cabinet. PS... the keyboard is a great idea. Judging by the video the location might be a little difficult to use? But it's really cool. You've really got talent with wood. IMB

MDF? You might want to reconsider doing whatever guts can with 3/4" plywood, and all the stuff you see with MDF. If you do that whole thing in MDF, it will weigh a TON. One of my cabinets is made with MDF and has a 20" LCD, with a small desktop PC, and compared to my Berzerk cabinet that is all plywood, and has a 21" CRT with a full tower PC... the Berzerk cabinet is much lighter. Size wise, they are very close. Just keep that in mind. IMB

True.. that's Martini talk, you know.. more sophisicated. http://users.nac.net/delliott/007/martinis...not_stirred.htm

I'll say 2 things... 1. You have successfully taken game cabinet making to a whole new level. I don't think in all the years I have been surfing the web, looking at examples, etc... etc.. etc... have I ever seen such a well designed cabinet. Although it needs paint... and some graphics, which I would assume are in the works, it looks awesome!!! The Goliath... the Beast, the CRUSHER... you gotta name that thing! 2. Why is it that everytime we take a picture of, or film our dogs, they're always licking their balls? see video at 5:00 mark. LOL! Great job man, I am now schooled on how to build a total game machine. IMBerzerk

yep... I knew you couldn't resist this thread... it was a TRAP!! Actually, I did think about what you said and you're right. All questions should be answered to matter what the content, hence why the post. You got me again! IMB

Looks like they made a ton of changes to the code, and dumped a lot of 'old' code according to the what's new text. I haven't tried the laser disc support, nor do I see any change in anything I play (mostly old skool games). Maybe it effects the newer stuff? But anyway, like you mentioned, it seems stable so far. After 10 years, these guys are still going... that's an accomplishment by any standard. IMB

Hello Gents, Just a head's up, MAME 129 is out. Remember the best version to use with GameEx is the MAME 0.129 Windows command-line binary. Get it and all MAME info here... http://mamedev.org/release.html Now is a very good time to consider recompiling it and adding in Hi-Score support for the new GameEx Hi-Score options. All the info required to recompile is here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71845.0 - Thanx Headkaze! Remember to read the 'What's New' text file to see what vast new improvements 129 has brought. Enjoy! IMBerzerk

Well, what the hell... it's a good topic, what does it do? Is it worth having as a game on the cabinet? What have you learned about it? I wasn't trying to turn you away, it looked like a 'wheel spinning' question on the forum, that's all. I know that there are a bunch of poker/gamling games in MAME, I think there are a few 'arm bandit' games as well. Have you tried any of those? I'm up to about 5K games in MAME, of which I play .05 of them. So who knows how many of these games are actually in my game list.

Sorry dude... but like I said, this is really not a MAME board, ROM board, or anything else other than a GameEx board. Your basically relying on us to give you our best opinion on a subject that's not even related to this board.