I think I, or my DreamAuthentics cabinet, may be cursed...

[lingpanda]

I was using 64bit Vista and ran into many issues. It could've been just my setup. I started over with Xp64 and all is great!

[Lawrence]

64-bit is absolutely the way to go. The speed increase in Mame is substantial. Games like CarnEvil will be unplayable without 64-bit.

I'm using 64-bit Vista and have 62 emulators setup on my cab. Only a tiny number of emulators won't run on Vista. More often than not, if a program does have some issues with Vista running it as an admin will clear the problem.

I doubt you'd have much trouble with a fresh install. Most of the controls are plug and play. The real work is configuring the emulators (which you need to do anyways). One thing to be careful of -- if you use multimouse option in Mame, the numbers for the assigned will shift around if more mice are plugged in later or if the existing controls are unplugged and replugged into different USB ports. If you really are going to do individual cfgs for each game you need to be careful of that. I'm not sure why you'd need to do individual custom cfgs. From what I've seen of your control panel it looks easily doable with the default.cfg plus CFG Magician.

[Invincer]

Yeah, I tried the CFGmagician; but I want to configure some games that have alt players both on the center controls, some with either or options; like 1 or 2 player mode with left and center mapped to player 1 and right side mapped to right side controls. If one person plays center while other has to play left or right it can be unfair advantage.... it is kind of a game by game situation (not to mention the dipswitch thing and the video cropping or full which is game by game also). If there is a software out there that can read my mind and input the custom cfgs before I get in each game to know what I want; then let me know. If there ever is one someone here may come up with it though... In case you could not tell from all my posts, I am finicky, and never can stop tweaking things. Thank God for deadlines at work; doesn't matter how far ahead of schedule I start something, I will tweak it forever till deadline. But I digress.....

Want to hide the desktop and Vista can't sufficiantlly do that on start with the boot screen. Besides, I hate Vista with a passion. It is an unfinished product and is this century's ME in my opinion. Even on my main HDTV I got so sick of the crashes and bugs; I uploaded to test Wndows 7 against others advice. They just don't understand how much I hated Vista. Funny thing is the beta for me is more stable than Vista Ultimate was... lol . At least is has been for me...

Sp I knew I wanted XP, but I didn't know I should get the 64 version; so thanks guys..

[Tom Speirs]

One final thing I don't know how well they cool their cab's but I have two beefy fans with variable speed dials that blow air out the back of the cab just behind the PC. I also keep the lid off the PC and have an air grill just behind the monitor. It's important to keep the air flowing.

Im not so well up on the chips, but that last point is very important, Ive got through a few shuttle style pc's sitting in cabs over the years. Thats why I wouldnt recommend overclocking unless you have the cooling worked out. They also can get a bit dusty etc.

[bkenobi]

Water cooled is a good thing if you can keep it from leaking. I haven't looked into it since the first generation came out years ago (there were horror stories about leaks, so I never pursued it). BUT, remember that even with liquid cooling you must get the heat out of the cab somehow. Just putting the heat in the liquid doesn't help in the long run unless it is removed. If it can't get out, then the liquid won't provide a large enough delta temperature to provide adequate heat transfer. I could post all the equations, but I'll leave that stuff at work and keep this for fun

[Lawrence]

I used to be into watercooling. Was a ton of fun at first, but that quickly wore away and I ended up hating it. It's very high maintainence. Have to change the cooling solution frequently or gunk starts to build up. It was like having a fish tank, but without the cute fishies.

Circulation isn't an issue in my cab, though -- whole thing is made of metal so it radiates the heat outwards, and there's no floor in the base at all so cool air can enter without any problems. So difference in temp at all from when the computer was outside the cab to when it was installed.

[Tempest]

Yeah, I tried the CFGmagician; but I want to configure some games that have alt players both on the center controls

CFG Magician can do this.

some with either or options; like 1 or 2 player mode with left and center mapped to player 1 and right side mapped to right side controls. If one person plays center while other has to play left or right it can be unfair advantage....

I'm not sure what you are saying here, but CFG Magician can probably do this too.

it is kind of a game by game situation (not to mention the dipswitch thing and the video cropping or full which is game by game also).

It seems contradictory, but CFG Magician works on a game by game basis, only in a mass production way...

If you have custom dip switches that are not configurable in CFG Magician, and set them in Mame 1st, they will be retained. Of course you can always add them After using CFG Magician.

If you have dipsettings that are not available as an option in CFG Magician, let me know what they are, and I will look into adding them.

If there is a software out there that can read my mind and input the custom cfgs before I get in each game to know what I want; then let me know.

CFG Magician can not do this.

If there ever is one someone here may come up with it though...

I'm Trying....

If you can give me very specific details on what you want CFG Magician to do, I will try to help you all I can.

Let's start by addressing one isssue at a time. If you need help mapping 2 player alternating games to your center controls, I will give detailed instructions on how to accomplish the task.

[darth_blunted]

i also have a dream authentics cab http://www.youtube.com/darthbluntedone you can see it in some of these vids check my oldest one first i didnt go all out for my cab i wanted it basic sorta oldschool arcade feel to it i didnt get any artwork for it except the marquee i was offered free cp artwork and side art but i didnt want it and after 4 months the computer broke and they didnt cover it (dream authentics) so i had to get another comp which took me another 3 months to save for then another 2 months setting it up i am almost done with everything that i want in it but damn it took a long time for your machine to get there mine was at my door in 2 weeks (i didnt get mine modded like yours) it took 1 month to get the marquee and they even has sent a new reg for my gameex when i got the new comp going i put in 3 fans at the top of the maching in the ports and basically i have my machine on most of the day i love it

[Invincer]

CFG Magician can not do this.

LOL

I'm Trying....

If you can give me very specific details on what you want CFG Magician to do, I will try to help you all I can.

Let's start by addressing one isssue at a time. If you need help mapping 2 player alternating games to your center controls, I will give detailed instructions on how to accomplish the task.

Hi Tempest,

I am new to using the ROM lister and the CFG Magician. In ROM lister I went in and made lists of 4 ways, 8 ways etc (separate lists for how many buttons, not 7 or less because the number matters on where to locate them). But there is no option for 1 player only, 2 player only alternating, 1 or 2 player, 1 or 2 player alternating, 3 players, 1 or 2 or 3 players, 1-3 players alternating, 4 players; and I would need to multiply this somehow wth all the lists already created with ROMlister because the controls will differentiate.

For instance, a 1 or 2 player game. There are the left side controls, the center controls, and the right side controls. I am mapping player 1 controls to both the left and center positions because if playing solo it is the best position in the center. If playing 2 players, player 1 moves to the left side and player 2 takes the right, so neither is in the center. Make a fair match and less cumbersome. 3 players control panels are not the norm I know...

Is there any way then for ROMlister and CFG Magician to do this for me?

[bkenobi]

You will have to make lists for 1, 2, and 3 player games. Also, you will need to know which games are alternating 2 player unless you intend on having them use the same controls (center position). Anyway, you will be building configs in at least 3 stages. CFG Magician will be able to help, but you need to build the lists first. Fortunately, you aren't asking for anything that's that complex, so it shouldn't be a problem!

[Tempest]

Invincer,

I did a tutorial on RomLister here: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=7582

The easiest way to find the information that you want is if you already know 1 game that has whatever criteria you are searching for.

You can use the "Rom Search" feature in Romlister to show the information for that game.

I know that "Tempest" is a 2 player alternating game, So I used the "Rom Search" feature to show the information for Tempest.

Looking at the information, I find:

<controls_info>numPlayers="2" alternating="1" mirrored="1" usesService="0" tilt="1" cocktail="1"</controls_info>

If I want to find 4 way Joystick, 2 player alternating games, I would add & 'numPlayers="2"' & 'alternating="1"' (1 means alternating, 0 means not alternating) to the end of the text in the box at the bottom of RomLister by typing it directly into the box. In your case the text in the box might look like this:

buttons=4 & (joy4way | !'control type=') & !('BIOS') & 'numPlayers="2"' & 'alternating="1"'

So all you need to do is create your lists in Romlister, changing numplayers=, and alternating= to suit your needs.

I hope that makes it more clear. If not, just ask, and I'll give more examples.

[Invincer]

Thanks for the help Tempest. I think I identified why it wasn't working very well for me in separating out the players and alternating flags. In choosing numPlayers="2"' whether it was 1,2,3,4,, or more the total came out to only a couple thousand ROMs since it is a flag missing in many of them (tried a search with just the word and no specified number for total found in ROMlister with that tag). However... lower down in the ROM description there is a tag of 'input players="2"' seems to be the better choice... on a search with just the words together it seemed to be a flag on all the ROMs. Then will do alternating and then work with the CFG magician. Thanks again.