OLD
CHANGE HISTORY
6/30/99
OLD
CHANGE HISTORY
6/30/99
Netbabbler in the dumper
Netbabbler appears to be up and down, meaning the message board may be out of commission. It may be time to investigate an internally hosted CGI based message script if anyone can recommend one. My CGI skills are pretty bad though.HotRod updated their web site a couple of days ago. Due to a variety of reasons, they are not going to immediately ship the Capcom CD-ROM with the Hotrod. They will not be delaying the shipment of the joysticks. The CD-ROM will follow in a month or so. Read more about it on their web site.Added the Hardware Bible to the downloads page. The Hardware Bible is a collection of pinouts, interfaces, and about anything else you'd hope to find, from game consoles to PCs.Added the VideoConnection web site to the links page - Video Connections is a good source for hard to find items like leaf joysticks and such.Daniel is selling his homemade arcade stick for the PSX for $150 (one only). His message on Dave's Classics:"it cost $80 to build its green with black buttons & the size of a ten gallon fish tank i call it hulk, it contains real arcade parts to deliver the real arcade feel, but you must live in the arlington va. area"Brian has updated the MAME Cocktail project - lots of nice pictures :)Big Den's Gameroom has a nice tutorial on creating a bezel for your arcade monitor. Thanks to Minke for the kick in the head to post it, and to the person on the message board who gave the original link (I regret I cannot find the name). Added to the Finishing Touches section.Michael pointed out that Jason's Arcade Style Joystick has disappeared. Anyone have an updated link? Thanks Michael.Daniel tried the Sidewinder TSR with Arcade@Home and DOS MAME and said it worked great. I've added a new version 1.5 that has several parts, but I think you have to compile it. Supports up to 4 pads! Someone please try it and let me know? Thanks for the feedback Daniel - added to the downloads page.Added Ruel's PC-TV Net Page to the Finishing Touches page. It's an excellent source of information on connecting PCs (and Macs) to TVs with links to well over a hundred products to do so. A must visit if you're going this route. Should not be too difficult to take these products and interface to an arcade monitor instead of TV I think.Wells-Gardner VGA monitors - An excellent compromise for folks wanting to get real arcade monitors without the hassle of hacking an interface, Happ Controls has a variety of Wells-Gardner arcade monitors with VGA connectors. They come in sizes ranging from 14" to 33", supporting resolutions from 640 x 200 up to 1024 x 768. The two models to check out are the U3000 going up to 640 x 480, and the U3100 going up to 1024 x 768. This is the monitor being used in the ArcadePC sold by Hanaho/HotRod. The 19" U3100 is a very popular choice at $399. Added to the Final Touches section.I have a bunch of catch up to do still. As I'm taking time off for the next few days for the baby, I'm hoping to sneak time in to get back up to speed here . . . stay tuned. A big thank you for all the well wishes we've received :)
Added a searchengine to the FAQ. Please try it and let me know how it works for you. Linked on the contents bar on left, or at the bottom of the What's New page.
Some interesting changes in the MAME front. There have been some additions in the new release that makes the lives of arcade cabinet builders much easier. From the readme:Very nice to see the CabMAME additions :) But that's not all from the MAME front . . .
- The Pause key can be changed from the "Keys (defaults)" configuration menu. [Nicola Salmoria]
- [DOS] New video modes from CabMAME: low scanrate modes for connection to NTSC/PAL and arcade monitors. -monitor NNNN selects the monitor type: "standard" (default), "ntsc", "pal", "arcade". -centerx N and -centery N each take a signed value (-8 to 8 for centerx, -16 to 16 for centery) and let you shift the low scanrate modes around. -waitinterlace forces update of both odd and even fields of an interlaced display for each game loop. [Brian Lewis]
- [DOS] Since there are now many tweaked VGA modes which may have compatibility problems with some video cards / monitors, they are now off by default. By default, VESA is used; the -vesa command line switch is no longer used. Instead, there is a -tweak switch which enables the VGA tweaked modes. [Nicola Salmoria]
- Changed the analog port handling to avoid problems with keyboard control (e.g. Arkanoid 2). [Nicola Salmoria]
Richard Davies has written a PSX pad driver for Allegro (part of the MAME source code) and submitted it to the MAME Dev team. It uses the same physical adapter as DirectPadPro. It is *not* in the current release of MAME. No feedback yet as to whether or not it will be incorporated. Read the full message on cabMAME and ArcadeOS were recently updated.After a few questions on the message board, matt(v) wrote up this "never to be seen again guide to PSX control hacking." Little did he know that I'd post it permanently :) Added to the technical page.You still need to buy the blueprints, but now you can see the figures that are included with the blueprints online. Unlike the manual I received, these are in color and I think a bit easier to see. TwistyGrip.Bugfinder has written up a page hosted at KillerClown's arcade that details keyboard hacks supporting up to 16 keystrokes without the ghosting problem. He lists 4 varying configurations and the keyboard model he used. Worth a look if you're going the keyboard hack route. Added to the inputs page. Revamped inputs page to give Keyboard Ghosting its own section.Nthero sent me an email that he'd found the Smart Joydapter available from the A.I. Trading Co. for $17.00! The downside is that it's in HongKong, so shipping & handling may eat up the savings from the $45 price from UVA. Anyone who finds out please let me know? Thanks for the email Nthero! The interesting thing I saw on their page was that it is 4 or 6 button joystick compatible, so you will get limited use as compared to building the do-it-yourself interface.Stephan Hans is now selling a two-pad N64 adapter from his web site. At $40 (plus shipping & handling) it's cheaper than buying two separate interfaces with a Y adapter. They will be available July 1, when he also will start accepting Visa! Nothing but good news from Stephan time after time :)Bill sent me an email concerning the Atari trackballs from the last update. They are, in fact, no longer available from that source :( Thanks for the email Bill!Did some miscellaneous upkeep of the FAQ, including cleaning up the links page.Two AM, time for bed. More to come - 131 messages in my arcade faq inbox to sort through among other things :) I've received several requests from folks about the monitor discharging writeup - the good news is that it will be returning here shortly. Also, a few of you have asked about the Hagstrom programming writeup. Please bear with me while I wait for some information from Hagstrom before I respond to those.
Ultimate Videogame Accessories is selling the Smart Joydapter that allows you to hook up your N64 or PSX controller to your PC. Details on the product are scarce, but it's $35 per adapter, plus $10 for shipping/handling (what exactly is handling anyway?). I've emailed for more information, but what I suspect is this: It will probably have limited functionality, allowing limited numbers of buttons ala the built in limitations of joysticks via joystick ports on PCs. I'm also dubious about force feedback/rumble pack support. HOWEVER - that's all supposition until I hear otherwise. Anyone ordering one want to comment? Thanks to Ben for the news! Added to alternatives page.I've got an MS-DOS TSR to allow MS-Sidewinder support in DOS linked here. Would someone with DOS & a Sidewinder please test it in a couple of games, MAME for instance, and let me know how it works? If it's good I'll add it to the downloads page. Visit the driver's home page for more information.Emulatronia has asked that I not mirror a copy of their playstation adapter writeup (which is perfectly understandable) but said that if I wanted to put up a translation that'd be fine with them. Anyone with decent Spanish skills want to give it a go for the N64 or PSX pages? :) Mi Espanol es malo.Nathan of the MacMAME News and Info page sent me an intriguing email. A company called MPJA is selling Atari trackballs (picture) that fit the 2600 and 400/800 computers. The web page (scroll about 1/2 way down the page) is dated 10/97 so it's not clear if the information is still valid. I've requested a catalog and will let you know what I find. Specs from the page:Black plastic case with 2-1/4" Dia. black ball, Left & Right corner mounted "Fire" switches. Well made unit that uses steel shafts, ball bearings and opto-interrupters. 4ft. cable with molded DB-9 female connector on end. Rubber feet on bottomIf they're still available, I'd think they'd be likely candidates for building control panels with. I always thought Atari made sturdy stuff. Thanks for the tip Nathan!Got another reply from Hagstrom about the KE-24 encoder. To make sure you get the faster model of the KE-24 with the on-the-fly reconfiguration capability (vs. having to shutdown/restart) specify the KE24-FAST model. They also sent me a doc file on configuring the KE-24 using your own code instead of the supplied KE24CFG. Per their request I won't be distributing it, but they seemed fairly willing to send it to any programmers who might wish to add KE24 programming within their apps. This might be the perfect addition to a front end for an arcade cabinet. Imagine reconfiguring on the fly from within your application or front end instead of having to launch the config utility and then go back to your program... I sent a note to Retrocade about it. Anyone on MAME-Dev or who is a front-end author reading this interested in adding this? Email me if you want to speak to the person I've been speaking to at Hagstrom. Programmers only please.
6/7/99
Updates from work
You can tell it's an update from work because it's plain text without any fancy html. Yes, I consider the little blue globes to be fancy :) HotRod is now taking orders via their SSL page. Visit the main HotRod site at http://www.hanaho.com/products/HotRodJoystick/ or direct to the ordering page at http://www.hanaho.com/order/index.html/ - the HotRod classic is $180, the HotRod SE is $200. Shirts are $20 :)
6/5/99
Updates resume
Good and bad news. My new computer is up and running and I'm back to working on the FAQ. Unfortunately, I lost all my html tools/clipart/bookmarks(!) due to a mishap in the upgrade. This means I lost many things I was planning to add to the FAQ, some that have been in the queue for months :( Fortunately, my email did not get lost, so if you've sent me something in the past couple of weeks I should still have it. However, if you don't see it appear this weekend then please resend it. I'll be doing partial updates off and on this weekend.
Someone asked about NeoRage compatibility with the HotRod. I tested it and added it to the review - works fine with the exception that I couldn't find a way to map the "Alt" key in NeoRagex, which means the top right button for player one is non-functional.Stephan Hans is at it again! He's found the trigger sequence for rumble pack activation on N64 pads, and has updated his site accordingly. For you hardware hackers he's got some information and test programs to play with. For the rest of us lay-people, hope for an update from DirectPad to support this :) Way to go Stephan! Updated the alternatives page.Digital Genesis Technologies has written another keyboard mapping utility for testing keyboard matrixes and has passed the information on for us to share. It can be found on their web page, or on my downloads page, or direct linked above. Much appreciated guys! Updated inputs page.By the way, the downloads page was created mostly due to prompting by Dann of the Killer Detachable Wheel project. Thanks for the suggestion Dann :)There was a recent complaint about the KE-24 keyboard encoders by Hagstrom, that while excellent products, they required rebooting to change configuration. I emailed them about this, and got this reply:We do currently have a version of our KE24 that allows on-the-fly reloading of the configuration. We have been sending this particular version out to people building arcade controls, since this "fast" version of our KE24 unit combines the rapid scan rate with on-the-fly reloading.Excellent news :) Be sure to specify the "faster" model when you order, and/or tell them the application you are going to be using it with. They are going to send me some of the documentation they have on using the encoder within the end-user application, and I'll pass on any information I get. I just wanted to say that the Hagstrom folks have always been very quick to respond and as open and customer-oriented as you could desire.Found an interface called the INTV2PC for hooking up Intellivision controllers to your PC. It works with the Blue Sky Rangers Intellivision PC emulator, and does not appear to function with other programs or with the Mac version of the emulator. You must supply your own Intellivision controller. This looks like a must have if you're an Intellivision fan! Added to the alternatives page.MAMEHAM has updated their site with a bit on their original project - back in 1987! He hooked up an Atari 5200 and TV into an arcade cabinet. Take a look :)Got an email from David who had found one of the Kidsball trackball's by Kye. He found it available at Buycomp for $20.95 (direct link). The nice surprise was that the Kidsball has a mouse pass-through port, meaning you can hook another pointing device up without a splitter! Thanks for passing this on David!Simon Nield, one of the folks who worked on the N64 parallel port adapter with Stephan, has been at work on a USB console adapter interface. Currently with support for N64 and Playstation pads, he's looking at possibly adding SNES pads next. Circuit diagrams and construction notes are up on the site now, so those of you with the desire and expertise should take a look :) There's some thought that it might work for Mac USB ports as well as PC! He's indicated that there is someone who might be willing to offer pre-made interfaces soon. News courtesy of Emuhq.Simon Nield also has a page up for his modification of the Playstation/DirectPadPro interface, called the MegaTap. It allows for 4 (or more?) Playstation pads hooked up at once via LPT port! His warning, the circuit is not for beginners and he won't be doing email support on it, but it looks good :)Following a link from Simon's site above, I found an excellent writeup of the N64 & Playstation parallel port interfaces on Emulatronia. It's written in Spanish, but has incredibly detailed graphics and a very easy to follow circuit diagram. If you've been thinking of building one of these interfaces, even if you don't speak Spanish, you should take a look. A downloadable version of the PSX interface writeup is available from their web site here, or off the downloads page.^Techie^ has written up a review of the parallel port N64 interface from Stephan and Simon. He has pictures, an English component list, and a step-by-step guide to building the interface. Hosted at EmuHQ.Craig sent me a minor update about the front end of Roswell 88201, including a picture. Very nice I must say :)Sleepiness wins for now. I've still got 106 emails sitting in my "review for the FAQ" folder, and hopefully I'll be able to find some of the links I lost in my bookmarks. More to come soon!
I expect to pick up my new computer today. After that, regular updates (as regular as they get here) should resume. Preview: Got a couple of new utilities sent to me to help with joystick building, and a few other things :)
My computer is down, so I will be unable to do updates for a few days until the new one arrives. The HotRod though is now taking orders! You can read the full news release at Daves Video Game Classics or Retrogames. It will come with MAME, a special version of Arcade@Home, and legal (read that as licensed) copies of CapCom roms. Stop by http://www.hanaho.com and learn more :) Prices range from $179 to $199. Grats HotRod!
I just spent the last three hours rediscovering how much fun arcade games on the PC can be. Why? I just received my HotRod joystick in the mail today :) In a word - awesome! I wrote up a review which is linked off the reviews page. Now, please please please do not hassle the HotRod team - it's not shipping yet. This is a pre-release beta edition. However, when the betas are shipping, can the actual product be far behind . . .? :) By the way, near as I can tell the HotRod web site has officially moved to the Hanaho site.