CHANGE HISTORY

1/29/00

Arcade Logo Contest Winners

And the winner is...  Logo #6 is the logo we've gone with, thanks to everyone who voted :)  You can see all the logos here.  The first three folks who voted for the logo, thereby winning the Capcom Coin-Op Classics #1 CD (thanks Hanaho!) are:  lextifer, stumpy, and macmichael - congratulations!  You've been emailed, when I hear back with your mailing information I'll get those out to you.  :)

Another Contest?

I have 6 more of the Capcom CDs to give away, so I'm looking for ideas on how to do so.  Nothing too elaborate, but something related to the FAQ would be nice.  :)

Free cabinets - 6 of them!

6 free cabinets about to be tossed on a bonfire next weekend if not rescued, including a sit down cabinet!  Read the message, and then if you're near easter Mass and are interested, email the owner!

Arcade Solutions reopens!

Arcade Solutions is once again taking orders!  Excellent news!  They are vendors of custom made arcade controls that have to be seen to be believed.  Andy Desak, owner, is a regular on the message board and a great guy.  He's building a couple more of his monster controllers and will be working on some "step-by-step" instructions as he does it, so look for good things to come in the future!  A visit to his site is highly recommended!

Caveman Joe's Cassette Drawer Console

Added Caveman Joe's Cassette Drawer hack to the stand alone section.  This is a PSX pad hack housed in a cassette drawer case that can be used for both PC and PSX games.  Very cool :)  This makes #111 added to our lists now!

Step-by-step guide modificatino

Modified the step-by-step guide to be friendlier to folks without frames.  If there's anyone out there who can't use frames, I'd be interested to hear how it works for you.

New Stick-It coming

Stick-It has a new offering coming down the pipeline soon - it's a very sexy looking curved arcade console, a USB only stick with the same features as the original, including the on-the-fly programmability, but now sporting a spinner!  Take a look at the rendered picture on their web page.  Availability will be in late April, but they are taking pre-orders now.  Cost?  $79-$89 :)

Arcade Solutions customer speaks

Speaking of Arcade Solutions - got an email from nate telling me about his web site featuring a custom built arcade controller from Arcade Solutions.  It's a two stick, spinner system with leaf joysticks and buttons.  The spinner is a kit from TwistyGrip -- Nate's had this controller since October, and has "only now put it down for a few minutes to make a webpage about it."  As this is a purchased and not a home-built product, we're not incrementing the count :)  Nate's also got a nice guide to video arcades that's worth spending some time on.  Thanks Nate!  Added to Arcade Solutions's section.

Enter the ButtonBox!

Got an email from Bill reminding me that I hadn't posted anything about the ButtonBox (message left on the message board some time ago...).  The ButtonBox is a build-it-yourself keyboard encoder with the following features:

• Can be used in Direct or Matrix mode.
• Up to 27 buttons can be connected in Direct mode.
• Up to 64 buttons can be connected in Matrix mode (8x8 matrix).
• Switch between Direct and Matrix mode "on the fly" (without reboot).
• No "ghosting/masking key" problems in either Direct or Matrix mode.
• Which button sends which keystroke is configurable from the PC using a configuration program (not available yet).
• Any errors encountered in the ButtonBox are displayed on a LED.
• No external power needed, it uses power from the keyboard interface.

The web site has hardware instructions, software to program it, and other info related to the encoder.  Looks great - thanks for the reminder Bill :)  Anyone building this please let me know!

Housekeeping

Added a link to the technical page and monitor's page for Rockman's PC to Arcade doc that's fairly popular but hard to find.

More to come!

Think I'm finally catching up to normal update intervals... We'll see.  Many pages are getting minor or major revamps, between the time sensitive and quick updates.  Next on my radar is a separate page for Spinners.  I'm also about 1/3 caught up with my backlog of emails, many apologies for anyone who hasn't heard back from me yet (I've only let 255 messages queue up).  Stay tuned :)

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01/19/00

I think this update's going to be big

Brien King's Arcade Restoration Workshop moves

If you haven't been to this page, you've missed out.  This is one of the must-visit pages for arcade collecting.  Visit it at it's new location.

Links page seriously revamped

Took the opportunity of a bit of quiet time this weekend to redo something that's bugged me for a while.  The links page has been seriously revamped (update on the update - still a work in progress, but I'm posting it anyway), take a look and please let me know what you think.  Among other things, added several arcade parts vendors and noted what countries they have offices in (I'm often asked for vendors outside the states).  If you know of any I haven't got listed, please let me know.

$5 off a PSX-PC convertor

The  PC-PSX page is having a sale on their PSX to PC pad convertors.  Print out this coupon, then head over to their web site and place your order :)  I do not know how long this sale is going to be - see their pricing page for more details and rules.

RB-Joy added

Added RB-Joy, a utility that simulates keypresses or mouse events with a joystick or gamepad, to the links page.

Chat Room!

A long time ago, I set up a chat room while I was experimenting with things to add to the FAQ.  I never publicized it, and recently found the link again.  The message board took off more than I ever thought it would, so... who knows? :) Chat room here.

Build a MAME cabinet for someone?

Someone in the 716 area code is looking for someone to build a MAME cabinet for them.  Interested?

Free GORF cabinet

Possibly too old, but posting it anyway... Tomm has a free Gorf cabinet in the Dallas area.

Slush pile

Well, this update took longer than the last one :)  Rather than sit on things forever, I thought I'd put some more of my "slush pile" up for the truly twisted to sort through.  This link takes you to the posts that I've pulled out of the message board as I delete messages.  These are messages that I felt had enough meat to them to be looked at to see if they should be added in one fashion or another to the FAQ.  No format or guarantees...

Arcade project

Added The Machine to the cabinets page.  This makes #107 -- thanks to Gerald for pointing out that I can't count :)

New web ring

We've joined the Custom Game Controls web ring, linked at the bottom of the page. :)

Logo contest winners!

I'll be announcing the winners of the logo contest on my next update, presumably this weekend :)  Thanks to everyone who sent in a vote!

CustomArcade happenings

Couple of blurbs regarding CustomArcade -- the first is that the RetroRadio CD from MonroeWorld is available for sale from CustomArcade's web page.  Second, CustomArcade has decided to donate $5.00 from any controller sale to charity.  Kudos to them!

Moonlight23 has moved

If you had a link to Moonlight23's internal pages, they probably won't work anymore - the site has moved, though the main page still works and points you to where you need to go...

Free Dragon's Lair cabinet in Cleveland Ohio

Gack, someone rescue this one before it hits the dump!  Dated 1/15, hope it's not too late.

Butler2000 added!

Rodney of Patriot fame has put up a site about his latest project, the Butler2000!  KE24 interface, removable control panels, uses the new MAME code for shifted key combinations... very well done.  This is system #108 to be added!

Free (almost?) Asteroids Deluxe cabinet

Columbus Ohio, an Asteroids Deluxe headed for the trash heap.  Was posted on 1/12, hope it's still there!

Four(!) free cabinets in Buffalo, NY

Again posted originally on 1/12, hope they're still there...

Side by side comparison pictures

Added side by side comparison pictures of the HotRod, Stick-It, and CustomArcade controllers to the alternatives page.

Xtreme MAME Machine

Added the Xtreme MAME cabinet to the collection -- features trackball, spinner, and a StarWars controller hack based off Jude's project.  Very well done, this makes project #109!

johnmac's MAME Machine

Added johnmac's MAME Machine - a keyboard/PowerRamp hack with trackball support as well, very nice!  This makes project #110!

More to come!

There's so much more on my to-do list...  Emails, bookmarks, and message board threads to add to the FAQ, products to review, pictures to post - I tried to get most of it up tonight, but sleepiness took over... I'm not sure I'll ever catch up :)  Stay tuned!

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01/06/00

Happy New Year!

CustomArcade review!

Yes, at long last my review of my CustomArcade panel #2 is up!  Nutshell?  Holy cow, what a system!

BYOAC Logo!

You've no doubt seen the wonderful logo at the top of the main page by now.  The logo was created for us by mckechnossomy, whose efforts are very much appreciated!  I have posted a page with 14 different takes on the logo, and would like to invite you to take a look and vote for the one you like best.  The first 3 people to email me with the one that I ultimately choose will win a copy of the Capcom Coin-Op Classics CD, generously supplied to us by Hanaho!

Alternatives page seriously revamped

I spent some time and seriously revamped the alternatives page.  Added CustomArcade, Arcade2000, and a variety of other vendors.  Put in a chart comparing all the arcade console products at a glance.  Updated some bad links.

Reviews added

Added a couple of reviews to the review page, Atila's HotRod SE review, and Prophet's ArcadePC review.

Links page tweaked

Minor updates to links page.  Added a local mirror of the missing MAME Cocktail Project.  This project is being resumed so will be replaced with it's proper link soon.

LaserRot's Update

LaserRot's Arcade Cabinet has had a fairly big update with *lots* of pictures and some more information - stop on by to see what's new!

Onion's MAME Project

Onion sent me an email with news of his MAME project...  It's a 4 player arcade cabinet using a Hagstrom KE72T interface as the brains.  The controls include a trackball as well as the buttons and joysticks for four players.  The web site is still a work in progress, but there are pictures up and more to come.  Thanks Onion!  This makes 106 projects now!

Updates, thankyous, and more to come!

There's been a lot more to talk about than made it into this update.  Due to Y2K, holidays, and family, the FAQ took a major back burner seat until today.  I've simply run out of time, but there's much more coming.  A very big thankyou to the folks on the message board keeping everyone up to date with recent news.  More to come, stay tuned!