Pincab Nes Tropical Project

[palm0live974]

Hi everyone,

at first, a big thank you for what you all made so far !

Time for me to introduce my project, and ask for a litle help from Reunion Island, Indian ocean.

my project is a present for my dad who's getting retired soon. he's a pinball fan but he don't know anything in computers !

I have installed pinball x, working great with VP, FP and PFX2. i'd like to add 2 features : a NES emulator and a juke box.

i have to find a way for those applications to be easily launched with pincab buttons.

i 've tried several solution with no success.

i tried maximus arcade to be the master front end but i couldn't launch pinball x from it.

another solution would be to launch the NES Emulator and jukebox from Pinball X (i didnt' succeed with pinballx)

or, i could may be do that with gameex...

the point is that it must be very easy to navigate, select and play, shutdown, with no mouse or keyboard.

i put some pictures attached of my work in progress !

excuse my english, i'm french !!

hope i can find answer and contribute !

Olivier

[Draco1962]

Hi Olivier! I would start with the documentation provided by Zeenon as it may have some ideas about how to setup Jukebox to run in PinballX. The NES emulator may be doable, however, you will need to provide more details as to which NES emulator you are planning to use and details about your setup, such as whther or not you will have a joystick installed on this cab or some sort of gamepad attached? Since NES was a console, having a gamepad is almost a must. You may be better server using the Xbox 360 for Windows (wired or wireless) along with Xpadder for setting up your gamepad profiles.

[palm0live974]

Hi !

thank you for your answer ! i'm gonna check that document for the jukebox part !

about the NES emulator, i haven't choose the emulator for now, i use to play with Jnes wich is easy and nice.

i have a true NES pad plugged with a usb adapter (see here) and it works great (a real pleasure to handle those game just like before, my dad would not play with any other pad !!)

so, to include a Nes Emulator, everything is possible... but i don't know how yet.

Now i go read that documentation that should answer to my requests i hope !

Thank you,

i let you know my next success !

Olivier

[tthurman]

Hello Olivier, welcome to the GameEx and PinballX fourms.

Since this is a combo arcade and pincab, here is Olivier's other thread in the GameEx User Projects forum. There are some nice pictures of this project, that is already well in progress.

I look forward to following your build!

[palm0live974]

Yeah that was my first post, and i saw after that there was an other user project page !!

i'll send you more pictures when there are things to show !

thank you for your support, i'm on the jukebox part tonight.

if some of you have a clue for the nes system, you're welcome !

[tthurman]

Getting by without any keyboard, or mouse would seem quite the challenge. Then again necessity is the mother of invention, so someone has most likely done something to bypass it.

I'm not that person, but some suggestions:

One thing that comes to mind is perhaps incorporating a track ball mouse, You could route a recessed area for it to sit in near the apron area, and secure it with velco. To me this would go a long way to give you the function you need, without looking terrible.

You could enable remote access on the machine and do keyboard releated functions (configuring etc.) remotely.

Alternatively, I picked up a couple of these for my HTPC's, and they work fantastic after you get used to them. Should do all you need, and is easy enough to be tucked away out of sight. Note: I have no idea why these have increased so much in price, so I'd shop around. I paid 50 ish USD for them.

[palm0live974]

Thanks for the suggestion, but i'm 100% sure that my dad will be lost with a trackball.

everything must be managable with the 11 buttons on the pincab, i'm pretty sure i'm gonna succeed on pinball x that is already the best solution in terms of navigation.

I must figure out how i can add my Nes Emulator in the list of the main menu....and than select games, such as the mame display.

my buttons are controlled with ATM JoY card, that is recognized as a keyboard, and avery key is assignable, that part is easy for my navigation problem.

thank you for those who can help ! and any other comment or support for my project is much appreciated !! don't hesitate.

Olivier

[palm0live974]

Hi everyone !

i'm exploring an idea for my navigation problem...

what i want is : turn on the computer and having a shell i can chose from pinball, NEs, or Jukebox.

i'm exploring the possibilitie of having one windows user per application.

so when windows start, i can choose from 3 users (pinball, nes, jukebox) (i can do that with my pincab buttons)

than i setup automatic startup programs for each user.

this idea works, but now, i'm facing screen resolution issues so i need some advices from you !

what i want is to make different profiles for different users, so the pinball has 2 screens (this works, i won't tooch it so VP is gonna give troubles)

the NEs user should have only the backglass screen and be turned to main screen.

i found a software that allows to change resolution for each user, but i can't change rotations or define which screen is tha main one.

I have a nvidia gt630, i'm gonna see what nvidia's control panel can offer.

The pinball user is working perfectly

the nes user must find a frontend that admits to be displayed on the second screen

the jukebox user is not configured for now.

Please take a look, i feel like i'm close to the result !!

Olivier

[Carny_Priest]

Google display changer I I. Use it to set up different display profiles including rotation and resolutions.

[palm0live974]

Thank you !

i'm a bit lost with the way i have to use that program, i found that i had to do ti with command lines..

..i have to do a .bat file after ?

If you can help me with that software, that would be nice.

[Carny_Priest]

Yes, it is command line driven. In PinballX settings you have options for each emulator system you define to define a program to launch before PinballX launches the emulator. Type into the field dc2.exe -config= whatever you named your profile. You will need to enter the path to the dc2 executable.

Or you can write a bat that you can call

Or you can write a AutoHotkey script

Bats or scripts are for if you have more programs that you want to run alongside the emilator

[palm0live974]

Thank you ! i succeeded to change resolution and rotation, that's nice.

but, my idea to have 2 users on windows (one for nintendo, one for pinball) makes a real mess in the different displays.

i must go back to a single user with everything included in.

I have a question : how can i have a shortcut to launch a software from pinballX menu ? i'd like to launch gameex from pinball x.

i tired to add a custom system in pinball x settings, based on how jukebox or mame is added in the documentation, but i never see that new system in the list.

Please another help !

olivier

[palm0live974]

Hi !

This project is finished !

here is some pictures of it, and soon a video.

Thanks to those who helped me on it !

Next post = next project !

Olivier

[nullPointer]

Great job palm0live, looks fantastic. Love the folded metal edges and corners; really gives it that 'old school authentic' charm. Looks like someone's getting in a well deserved nap in that last picture after an intense round of pinball/cab building!

[Adultery]

God, I envy you guys with pin cabs!!! That's BEAUTIFUL!!!

[tthurman]

Great job man, thanks for following up with the pics!

Has your dad played it yet, or are you holding out until he's officially retired? Or as nullPointer mentioned, is he too busy nappin'

[palm0live974]

:-)

actually i gave him that present on a party day with 45 people from my family !

he has it for 1 month now, and plays 1 hour a day minimum.

and after a big score, a big nap, for sure.

my son said he'll have to find a huge idea for my retirement...!!

my next project will be improved, i have to get my pincab with games inside ! (with a trackball and game ex, for sure!!)

for thos who wants to know how i did the trick the have Nes on one part and Pinball too, i'll take time to explain, just ask.

(a video is coming soon)

Thank for your support again.

[ClassicGMR]

C'mon in! Funhouse!?! AH-hahahaha!!!

Sweet pincab, Would LOVE to have one someday!

Someone in that last pic isn't excited about your new toy though....

[stigzler]

Very cool. Like null - love those folder metal corners + also love that 'ball launcher' Looks like hours of fun