Starting my mame cabinet

[dboyrecords]

Hi,

I poked around here a couple years ago but then became fully obsessed with pinball! Now, it's time to get my mame on! Before I spent even more time fumbling around I thought I'd try to get some feedback on the basic Idea...

Can I run a 16:9 monitor vertically so it is a 9:16 with mame and game specific bezel in 4:3 in center of monitor and marque at the top of the same monitor? Rather than using 2nd monitor? Before pinball, I had the bezel and game going on the playfield monitor and marquees on 2nd monitor (Marquee Magician, I believe) but I'd like to keep it to 1 monitor.

Possible??? Thanks

[RIP-Felix]

It is, my cab is set up this way and it works great for virticle shooters like 1941, and the regularly formatted 4:3 games look as big as the would on a arcade monitor. I'm using a 32" LCD. Your going to run into alot of software related issues (emulators need to accept the custom resolution). Mame artwork lay files need to be manually adjusted, I could upload the few I've done if you like (But they are made specific to my resolution). There are virtually no themes in GameEX specifically designed for vertical setups, I'm working on one though. I honestly love my setup, but I really love some of the themes that have been made for GamEX and can't use them on my cab because of the vertscreen. I would really think about that descision. I decided to go with it, despite this and it really paid off. Just don't go into it lightly.

Here are a few links to threads I talk details on my cab.

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/66-cabinets-and-htpc-setups-running-gameex/page-20 (Page 20, Post #388)

http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/11986-what-in-the-name-of-mame/page-2 (Starts on Post #19)

Good luck!

[dboyrecords]

Cool cab! But not what I meant... I want marquee on same monitor as game. I don't want to use all of the screen. That way the original bezel is unchanged. The bottom part of monitor would be unused and hidden behind control panel. Make sense?

[DazzleHP]

It is possible what you describe, but leaving anything unchanged and achieving your goal is impossible. You'll basically have to through every single lay file, changing the orientation, rearranging the original artwork to the new orientation and then incorporating the marquee as well. For me that would be enough work for one game let alone thousands!

Don't get me wrong, it's not my style to discourage anyone but what you desire would require an insane amount of effort. Not to mention that you'll be losing the main reason to have a vert cab - vert games! Sure you could still run them but again you'd have to adjust each and every one of them to appear above your cut-off

Maybe there is an easier way to achieve this, some sort of mass lay converter or something but i know not of one. That doesn't mean to say that one doesn't exist. Good luck either way!

PS @ RIP-Felix - i want your cab so bad man you have NO IDEA!

[RIP-Felix]

Cool cab! But not what I meant... I want marquee on same monitor as game. I don't want to use all of the screen. That way the original bezel is unchanged. The bottom part of monitor would be unused and hidden behind control panel. Make sense?

In MAME artwork files there are bezels pictures and a layout file. Everything displayed in MAME, including the game window, can be positioned via this file. To add marquees, simply copy it to the artwork file for the game and add a string for it in the layout. But like Dazzle points out, you'll have to do this for every game you want to display this way.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend blocking from view any part of the screen itself. This will severely limit the cab's usefulness to play all sorts games. If your like me, and hate black bars above/below the screen, then edit the layout file and customize the artwork to your liking.

One thing you can do to help is to keep a template copy of your custom layout saved, Then add art/marquees as desired to the folder, edit the names in the layout template to fit the new art, and as long as you use artwork pictures of the same dimensions they will conform (Many marquees and controls work). Custom art, like instructions, cheats, advertisements and bezels often vary in their dimensions. You can see I did this with mortal Kombat pictured above. This can get very tedious, but looks amazing!

[dboyrecords]

Hmm... Those aren't the answers I wanted ;( Back when I was first setting up my pin-cab, on a 39" monitor turned vertical, most games (with bezel) seemed really close to original size and aspect. I don't mind wasting a little monitor real estate if I can get the right aspect on games.

So no Marquee Magician type app that will put marquee on same monitor??? Bummer!

I think the lay option might be for me as this time around I'm just gonna focus on the 150 or so "Golden Age" titles. Same for buttons. Pre-fighter, simple. I'm old.

Thanks, I hope one of you think of something quick (or write me some software)

[tthurman]

The second monitor setup sure looks sweet, and in the end, if you really want the marquee/controller display options, it sure would seem to be an easier path. I'm with you on the "Golden Age" titles, but you know how this hobby goes, eventually you'll delve into uncharted water, and discover games you never knew you loved

Either way, It will be interesting to see how it works out for you. Please post some updates as you progress in the Gamer Rigs forum.

[RIP-Felix]

You could do a dual monitor setup with marquee magician displaying the marquees above an arcade monitor. This might give you the authenticity your looking for. Then you just build your bezel to make it look professional. I kinda wish I'd thought about incorporating this in my cab when I was designing it.

Your right, it seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to create a simple program to modify layout files to incorporate the marquee just above the game window (or anywhere for that matter). It's problems like this that make me want to learn C++, visual basic, java script, etc. Having a vertical cab really set me apart from most of the community and being able to solve these kind of problems would allow me to give back to the community. Ah, someday...

[dboyrecords]

I'll keep hoping... I do have an older monitor that could be used for marquee but it would be so slick on one. I want(ed) to have the monitor have the typical slant back but have the marquee area of the cabinet not slant, just a couple inches of reveal, if that makes sense...

[Draco1962]

I always thought a smaller USB monitor as a second mounted overhead or right below the main monitor would be good for something like that, maybe using gameextender to display artwork, CP info, etc. per game.

[RIP-Felix]

Can you find LDC monitors in custom resolutions? I would like to find one about the right size for a marquee and use marquee magician on it. I just thought it was a pipe dream.

[Draco1962]

Not sure. My guess is that they come in more common resolutions. A DMD for an arcade machine would be another cool feature.

[RIP-Felix]

Did a search and there are "Ultra wide 21:9" led monitors now. Kinda spendy, but would display marquees great with marquee magician. I'd have to mod my cab to do it though, tempting.

[dboyrecords]

Yeah those are slick. Got me thinking too!

[Draco1962]

Glad I could help!