Building first cab, few questions

[Mantorok]

I realize that this is not a cabinet-building site per se but everyone seems very friendly! I am trying to put together a cab for personal use, as I happen to have two "good enough" PCs that aren't being used. I plan to use GameEx as the front-end, since I mostly will be using NES and such, rather than just MAME. Right now I am still looking at the options.

I plan for two sticks +8-10 buttons each, and also a trackball plus some buttons. I get the impression that most builders use the trackball to control the mouse in GameEx? It seems intuitive, if it somewhat reduces the magic (sure you can control with the stick and buttons but it seems a little complicated... comments?).

Everyone seems to buy from Ultimarc, and I assume I need a i-pac to control the two players, plus buttons and the stick. Is this the bare minimum that I need, if I am using a dedicated motherboard and computer monitor? I'm basically broke. The thing that I'm not sure about is the trackball, a second controller is required for it? Between the OptiPac and the trackball that is like 80 dollars. Am I missing something? Is there a more affordable combined controller somewhere? Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a Logitech trackball or something? Obviously that would be tacky but I don't see how a $60 difference makes sense.

Thanks for any clarification you fellows can provide!

[bazzman69]

I realize that this is not a cabinet-building site per se but everyone seems very friendly! I am trying to put together a cab for personal use, as I happen to have two "good enough" PCs that aren't being used. I plan to use GameEx as the front-end, since I mostly will be using NES and such, rather than just MAME. Right now I am still looking at the options.

I plan for two sticks +8-10 buttons each, and also a trackball plus some buttons. I get the impression that most builders use the trackball to control the mouse in GameEx? It seems intuitive, if it somewhat reduces the magic (sure you can control with the stick and buttons but it seems a little complicated... comments?).

Everyone seems to buy from Ultimarc, and I assume I need a i-pac to control the two players, plus buttons and the stick. Is this the bare minimum that I need, if I am using a dedicated motherboard and computer monitor? I'm basically broke. The thing that I'm not sure about is the trackball, a second controller is required for it? Between the OptiPac and the trackball that is like 80 dollars. Am I missing something? Is there a more affordable combined controller somewhere? Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a Logitech trackball or something? Obviously that would be tacky but I don't see how a $60 difference makes sense.

Thanks for any clarification you fellows can provide!

you could try this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-TRACKBALL-USB-PS-2...1QQcmdZViewItem

its usb and doesnt need an opti pac might keep cost down a little

http://bazzman.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/index.jhtml

[Will]

Anything you buy--either opti-pac with basic trackball, or all in one solution--is just a mouse. Some people like the larger ones because they are more rugged, and can be used for golden tee, etc. I thought about just adding a laptop touch pad to mine...

Using GameEx with just the joystick and buttons is SIMPLE and keeps the keep feel consistent between games and the interface. Don't buy a trackball just for getting around the menu!

As long as you are SURE you don't want to play trackball necessary games such as golden tee and some of the older ones, forget the trackball altogether and build a mouse/keyboard drawer. I say this only cause you are on a budget, otherwise do both

Finally, I bought all my sticks, buttons, and controllers from optimarc. I can vouch for the mag-stick plus and the ipac. The ipac's custom setup interface is WELL worth choosing them. And the mag-stick plus seems to be top notch although I haven't done any side by side comparison.

Feel free to ask other questions. Many of us have built them before!

[shbon]

I realize that this is not a cabinet-building site per se but everyone seems very friendly! I am trying to put together a cab for personal use, as I happen to have two "good enough" PCs that aren't being used. I plan to use GameEx as the front-end, since I mostly will be using NES and such, rather than just MAME. Right now I am still looking at the options.

I plan for two sticks +8-10 buttons each, and also a trackball plus some buttons. I get the impression that most builders use the trackball to control the mouse in GameEx? It seems intuitive, if it somewhat reduces the magic (sure you can control with the stick and buttons but it seems a little complicated... comments?).

Everyone seems to buy from Ultimarc, and I assume I need a i-pac to control the two players, plus buttons and the stick. Is this the bare minimum that I need, if I am using a dedicated motherboard and computer monitor? I'm basically broke. The thing that I'm not sure about is the trackball, a second controller is required for it? Between the OptiPac and the trackball that is like 80 dollars. Am I missing something? Is there a more affordable combined controller somewhere? Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a Logitech trackball or something? Obviously that would be tacky but I don't see how a $60 difference makes sense.

Thanks for any clarification you fellows can provide!

My best advice, is spend a looooong time doing research. On the face of it, it seems a simple project: a pc, a monitor, a few bits of wood, some arcade controls... I spent over 3 months BEFORE I cut a piece of wood and felt it time well spent.

BYOAC is THE place of all knowledge. Study carefully.

Their Forum is more focussed and has a larger audience for cab related stuff than this one.

Specific answers to you Qs:

GameEx needs a relatively good PC to run smoothly. Say min 1.5GHz? I upped the spec of my cab PC (P4 2.8GHz) as GameEx was the heaviest user when considering the FE, MAME (most games) and old console emulation. GameEx is especially heavy if you want to run it in a high resolution on or above say 1024x768.

GameEx can easily be controlled with an arcade joy and buttons.

Basically two main options for a keyboard interface Ultimarc or KeyWiz. You can hack a keyboard, but most people don't bother these days, I believe.

All the emulators have a keyboard interface (certainly the ones worth playing), hence you need something that emulates a keyboard. Watch out for the ANALOGUE joysticks on later emulators (E.g. Playstation) that you can need to play some games effectively. They're a different beast.

Your choice about trackballs. I think most need an interface like an Opti, but i expect some don't as a previous poster said. Golden Tee, Missile Command, a few others, will you play them? Most of your consoles didn't have them.

If you're flat broke:

How about building just a control panel? Or using an X-Arcade?

You need access to power tools, expensive to purchase for a one off proj.

You'll blow your budget comprehensively anyway!

Good luck!

Shaun

[wastedmind]

I built my control panel using the xarcade buttons and joysticks. It came with a keyboard encoder and a easy diagram for installation. I have a usb HUB so I can plug USB devices in such as a mouse keyboard and a logitech headset etc. Right now I see no use for a mouse but the USB hub is available if I need. Pics Of my Arcade Cab Browse the gallery.

[calebratjunon]

What I did to try to keep costs down was to use the existing arcade monitor that came with my cab. I bought a JPAC Jamma connector from Ultimarc and hooked the buttons and joysticks to that. Then I pluged the Jpac into my Keyboard jack and my monitor out jack. You need to use Powerstrip to get your monitor card to run at 15 mhz. Here's the process:

I have two cards in my machine; one is onboard 32 megs nvidia, the other is an nvidia 6600 agp. I plugged the agp card into the jpac and a standard LCD into the onboard so I could configure the system. When the machine boots up, you'll see a messed up image on the arcade monitor, usually double printed. When Windows loads and powerstrip is loaded, configure it to run the agp card at 640X480 NTSC or 640X480 ARCADE. Try both, make a few changes to get the picture perfect and then save the config. Now whenever windows loads you have a picture on both monitors. I made a VGA connector on the back of the cab that is always pluged into the onboard video. This way if I have to make changes and the arcade monitor can't display I don't have to rip the cab apart.

[Will]

If you want a trackball that is natively usb, then try Happ Controls. They have 2 1/4 inch and 3 inch ones that are usb/serial. Personally, if I had to choose, I would rather spend the money on adding other cool features, like a coin door, or side art, or support for more players since the trackball usage is limited. Of course getting it all is good, too.