help with arcade vga monitor and gameex

[discgolfer72]

im working on converting this machine into a mame rig

it has a 14 inch vga monitor in it but it is a arcade monitor

i have gotten it to run fine in the gameex menu (running in arcadevga mode set at 640x480). but as soon as i launch a game it goes all out of sync,

and adjusting the sync will steady the picture but it is a double immage

i can plug the pc into a pc monitor launch a game in mame ui32 itself and plug it into the arcade monitor and it plays fine no sync problems (manualy set all game resoultions to 640x480 in mame also )

what is my problem why is it that when i launch games from windows using mame ui32 it syncs fine

but in game ex when the game launches it wont sync

i though tof using soft15k but that does not help it does not support the onboard intel graffix my pc has

is there a setting im mising in the gamex config or what

[Brian Hoffman]

  discgolfer72 said:

im working on converting this machine into a mame rig

it has a 14 inch vga monitor in it but it is a arcade monitor

i have gotten it to run fine in the gameex menu (running in arcadevga mode set at 640x480). but as soon as i launch a game it goes all out of sync,

and adjusting the sync will steady the picture but it is a double immage

i can plug the pc into a pc monitor launch a game in mame ui32 itself and plug it into the arcade monitor and it plays fine no sync problems (manualy set all game resoultions to 640x480 in mame also )

what is my problem why is it that when i launch games from windows using mame ui32 it syncs fine

but in game ex when the game launches it wont sync

i though tof using soft15k but that does not help it does not support the onboard intel graffix my pc has

is there a setting im mising in the gamex config or what

Do you have a MAME.ini in you mame folder? If so you can find alot of video adjustment in there. Set read config to 1 in the MAME.ini. If you have no MAME.ini run MAMEUI.exe -CC or whatever your mame executable is called to create one.

[discgolfer72]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Do you have a MAME.ini in you mame folder? If so you can find alot of video adjustment in there. Set read config to 1 in the MAME.ini. If you have no MAME.ini run MAMEUI.exe -CC or whatever your mame executable is called to create one.

it seems it had somthing to do with the way game ex launches the games

i tried everything in the mame ini and all settings

and could get it to work fine launching games in windows thrue mame ui32 (but windows it self would not sync had to launch game then swithc to the arcade monitor)

and i could get gameex menu to work fine on the monitor but as soon as i launched a game it would just shoe fuzzy lines

i ended up finding a app called quick res that allowed me to set windows res to 640x480 and now everything is working

i guess when launching a game thrue game ex it runs mame at what ever res windows is set to

even tho i set gmameex to set res to 640x480 and had mame set to launch the games at 640x480

mabey one of the techs involved in gameex can elighten me to another setting in gameex or a way that qucx res could be intergrated into gameex so this ishue can be fixed

(im probaly just missin some small setting in the adv config menu )

[bkenobi]

You can set GameEx to launch at a specific resolution or to whatever Windows is set to. It sounds like you might want to specify 640x480 and you should be good.

[Stu1983]

Having ArvadeVGA mode turned on may be your problem as you say you are using an onboard graphics card..,

ArcadeVGA is a graphics card realeased by Ultimarc.com to let u play games at their native low resolutions that are unsupported by standard pc graphics cards

So by turning this option on in GameEx you are telling it to play mame games at lower than 640x480

So if you turn off ArcadeVGA mode and just set mame.ini to run at 640x480 it will use that setting for everygame rather than having an separate ini for every game

Stu

[discgolfer72]

  PimpDaddyStu said:

Having ArvadeVGA mode turned on may be your problem as you say you are using an onboard graphics card..,

ArcadeVGA is a graphics card realeased by Ultimarc.com to let u play games at their native low resolutions that are unsupported by standard pc graphics cards

So by turning this option on in GameEx you are telling it to play mame games at lower than 640x480

So if you turn off ArcadeVGA mode and just set mame.ini to run at 640x480 it will use that setting for everygame rather than having an separate ini for every game

Stu

i had tried bolth arcadevga mode and then just telling gameex to run at 640 x480

bolth way gave me the same results

monitor would sync in gameex menu but on launching a game it would just show fuzzy lines (i could adjust the sync post on the monitor and get it steady but still had a double immage like trying to run a std rez monitor on a medium rez game)

i just thought it was funny that i could launch the games from windows in mame (with the ini set to 640x480 )and they worked but when game ex would launch them it would not sync

oh well i fixed it bu using quickres and forcing windows to always run at 640x480

it was just kinda a pia

now i need to find a damn driver for xp that will work with the track ball n the game

its a standard happs ball but its connected to a encoder board that outputs to a serial port

the solitare game is dos based and runns on a old 386 intel chip so it should be rady o run on a xp computer right (as long as i can find the proper driver that is lol )

anyone here ever messed with one of these before

[Brian Hoffman]

  discgolfer72 said:

i had tried bolth arcadevga mode and then just telling gameex to run at 640 x480

bolth way gave me the same results

monitor would sync in gameex menu but on launching a game it would just show fuzzy lines (i could adjust the sync post on the monitor and get it steady but still had a double immage like trying to run a std rez monitor on a medium rez game)

i just thought it was funny that i could launch the games from windows in mame (with the ini set to 640x480 )and they worked but when game ex would launch them it would not sync

oh well i fixed it bu using quickres and forcing windows to always run at 640x480

it was just kinda a pia

now i need to find a damn driver for xp that will work with the track ball n the game

its a standard happs ball but its connected to a encoder board that outputs to a serial port

the solitare game is dos based and runns on a old 386 intel chip so it should be rady o run on a xp computer right (as long as i can find the proper driver that is lol )

anyone here ever messed with one of these before

Serial mouses used to be very common. If your dos game works with it, it should work in windows as a mouse right? Anyways, remember the Mame.ini I was talking about earlier? If you edit that you can configure it Mouse =1 . This should enable mouse support for games that use the trackball like cenepede, simpsons bowling, golden tee. etc...

Back to your res issue have you tried runnig the mame game via the runlastgame.bat ? If is still messed up we can see if it is a command line issue or gameex itself.

[discgolfer72]

lol i dont want to mees up my stuff lol got it working thats all that really matters to me at the moment i have another one of these machines so ill start from scratch on it and let oyu know the results

as for the mouse im running mameui32 and already set it to use the mouse

the problem is it wont even work in windows so im not shure whats going on

either the hardware driver is to old for xp to be supported or i just need to fond the proper driver

like i said solitare challenge is a dos based 40mhz intel 360 game

and its not the port on my pc because i have a touch pad mouse with serial connector and it works just fine

here is a pic of the trackball and encoder board setup

ps thanks for all the input

[Brian Hoffman]

  discgolfer72 said:

lol i dont want to mees up my stuff lol got it working thats all that really matters to me at the moment i have another one of these machines so ill start from scratch on it and let oyu know the results

as for the mouse im running mameui32 and already set it to use the mouse

the problem is it wont even work in windows so im not shure whats going on

either the hardware driver is to old for xp to be supported or i just need to fond the proper driver

like i said solitare challenge is a dos based 40mhz intel 360 game

and its not the port on my pc because i have a touch pad mouse with serial connector and it works just fine

here is a pic of the trackball and encoder board setup

ps thanks for all the input

Hmm, What makes this such an interesting problem to me is that is WORKS in your old dos game. Keep in mind the winXP DOS system in not really true DOS it runs on windows subsystem, It intrigues me as to why it works there and not in windows.

Of course I may be off base completly and you are reffering to the original setup, that ran dos and a solitare program. That would make more since as there would be a line in the config.sys or autoexec.bat that initialized the hardware correctly.

Im not sure persay but it may be easiest to grab an ohm meter and pin it out and compare to the pin out on a standard serial device.

http://pinouts.ru/SerialPorts/Serial9_pinout.shtml

Additionally you are using HAPP controls and I know there are few resources to connect these to PC.

Here is one that doesnt fit your hardware exactly but is a good read.

http://www.ultimarc.com/optipac3.html

[discgolfer72]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Hmm, What makes this such an interesting problem to me is that is WORKS in your old dos game. Keep in mind the winXP DOS system in not really true DOS it runs on windows subsystem, It intrigues me as to why it works there and not in windows.

Of course I may be off base completly and you are reffering to the original setup, that ran dos and a solitare program. That would make more since as there would be a line in the config.sys or autoexec.bat that initialized the hardware correctly.

Im not sure persay but it may be easiest to grab an ohm meter and pin it out and compare to the pin out on a standard serial device.

http://pinouts.ru/SerialPorts/Serial9_pinout.shtml

ok glad i took pics

after looking at the pics i noticed that there is a switch on the encoder board marked ms / pc

so if its anything like the old roller ball mouse i had some time ago ms = ms dos and pc = xp ect my grandpaw overflowed the damn toilet today and it leaked thrue the floor into my work shop soaking my pc for this game and my damn lcd monitor im putting in it argggggggggggggggg so im going to have to wait a day or 2 to even power any of it on again to test my theroy

but yes your second asumption is the correct one the original arcad game itself has a dos based intel 386 computer inside runnig the solitare program

[Brian Hoffman]

  discgolfer72 said:

ok glad i took pics

after looking at the pics i noticed that there is a switch on the encoder board marked ms / pc

so if its anything like the old roller ball mouse i had some time ago ms = ms dos and pc = xp ect my grandpaw overflowed the damn toilet today and it leaked thrue the floor into my work shop soaking my pc for this game and my damn lcd monitor im putting in it argggggggggggggggg so im going to have to wait a day or 2 to even power any of it on again to test my theroy

but yes your second asumption is the correct one the original arcad game itself has a dos based intel 386 computer inside runnig the solitare program

Sorry to hear about the flood, I would defenatly open the equipment up and let it dry in the sun, But open it up moisture can stay enclosed for very long periods. If you have a heatgun it may not be a bad idea to use it also.

you do not have to discharge LCD monitors like you do with CRT's, just be carefull.

Good luck.

Brian Hoffman

[discgolfer72]

  Brian Hoffman said:

Sorry to hear about the flood, I would defenatly open the equipment up and let it dry in the sun, But open it up moisture can stay enclosed for very long periods. If you have a heatgun it may not be a bad idea to use it also.

you do not have to discharge LCD monitors like you do with CRT's, just be carefull.

Good luck.

Brian Hoffman

one step ahead of ya dismantled everything and hit is as much as i could with my heat gun now i have it sitting out in the sun and just praying none of it gets any gfs on it

not to worried about the pc it was only 35$ but the lcd is another story id

[discgolfer72]

well all the wet things turned out to be fine so whew that was close

just abut done with the machine got a deal on a 17 inch lcd so i crammed it into the cab

and decided since i have 2 of these cabs ill do this one with just joys and 6 buttons per player

and ill do the next one with the original arcade vga monitor 2 joys 3 buttons per player and the track ball

here it is just about finished just got to wire up the cp to my keywiz

this machine is really not to my taste its for a buddy of mine but he likes it and it will fit nice in his small apartment