Budget Atari and Capcom arcade cabinets to see release this fall!

[128Kgames]

 

Looks like unlike Arcade1Up's previous claims, at least some of the games are using MAME to run them, rather than a "custom" emulator.

Instructions for adding a USB keyboard to access the MAME settings: https://imgur.com/gallery/9J77bht?fbclid=IwAR0TBeIt5v6INvZCO-tJloze5VIrP4PYqCKdlr8pngrfr-453FT4PQy-0Ng

I just might do that to make Quantum playable.

 

 

I'm patiently waiting on a solder-less solution for adding the USB. What might be interesting is if you could add a USB WiFi keyboard using a USB receiver, instead of a wired keyboard. That would be a great solution.

[negative1]

why would anyone want to run "modern" games on this? It's a classic arcade cab. There are about 200 "golden era" arcade games that would run great on it.

thank you for pointing that out.

for the retro crowd, these machines are able to play the select games,

and many more [about 7000 for that MAME set]

 

but if you want marvel vs capcom, teenage mutant ninja turtles, and other more processor intensive games,

you will be out of luck.

 

later

-1

Edited December 11, 2018 by negative1

[twalk]

 

I wouldn't call the materials "god awful", you have to take into account the equivalent wear and tear these cabs have gone through in store as compared to being "at home". Ever seen a full size arcade cab after 10 years and multiple routes? I have, and depending on where they were, some of them ain't pretty.

 

Ever see those mug shots where they show people who first get arrested for prostitution, then how they progress over time? Yeah, not pretty. Well, that's what I'm equating these store demo units at Walmart to - 10 years of being on the street turning tricks. I mean, have you seen the people that shop at Walmart? There's whole web pages dedicated to the riff raff that shop there...

 

As far as putting deck protectors on them? They don't even have them in stock to ship to customers, what makes you think marketing can get them shipped out to stores along with the cabs? Besides, people would just pry them up and break them off anyway.

 

Hey, what if 1Up sent cabs out like this deliberately to gain some real world play testing? Then Walmart ships them back and they can gauge just what stood up and what didn't based on how much abuse they took? Nah, that'd be too forward thinking.

 

While I think a more hardened unit would have been the better way to go for a store display, it would have differed from the actual product sold to consumers and people might have complained. But again, maybe 1Up will learn from this experience when the second wave releases next year.

 

 

A1U really did screw up quite a bit of stuff. However they are learning and fixing things. The control panel paint & demo units are a case in point. Pretty much all of the new demo units have the full plastic cover over the control panel that only let's you push one button. That both keeps it looking good + doesn't let the potential customers know that the controls are decent, but below average..

 

Despite the (too) large number of problems they've had, I think that if they'd had just ignored the rest and fixed the control panels (paint + a bit better joystick, much better spinner, trackball + buttons are decent-ish), then I think that there would have been much fewer complaints

 

If they were really on the ball, then they'd be selling (real sanwa and/or happ) "professional control decks" for $100, direct ship. (Not to mention lighted marquee kits, etc)

[Tanooki]

Theyre not arcade cabinets. Disagree?

 

Not at all, but when forking over $300 I don't expect the buttons failing to work 100% of the time, nor would I like to find my hands rubbing the ink off after a few weeks/months depending how heavily it is used. I know these Walmart beaters are extreme cases just to run them over the coals for people to moan about, but it's still something that is a real issue, one being immediate, and the other taking a matter of not terribly too much time. The sad fact is the button accuracy and sticker reliability are better on those $100 My Arcade 10" arcade cabinets than this and that's sad as can be, though not as pathetic as it holding true to the $20 tabletop NOACs.

 

 

And no I'm not naive, that's what many people paid for it as that is the MSRP. Just because Walmart and others are catching on they're boat anchors eating up way too much shelf space they're willing to take the hit to get them out of their sight. So yes, a smart shopper who actually waited, and has the fortune of a local store doing the price knockoff can do much better. Perhaps I'm not saying anything new, but sucking up to the things as you do seemingly ignoring issues pissing it away like the money doesn't matter shows you either have deeper pockets or don't care about others who do not who want something to be nice and work as intended and hold up too.

 

128K: I am. You'd have to read back which would be time wasting, but I actually was able to try out one that had been just put on the floor at a walmart that day and barely touched yet, a SF2CE unit. I played a few rounds on it and it was misfiring on button pushes causing me to blow simple stuff like fireballs or mis timed kicks since I had to hit the button again causing damage. I totally understand that if they were out long enough for jerks to abuse and rub the ink off of, or sheer sticks off, they're not going to run optimally. You're on it about the mugshots, you got your recent drug addict or hooker, then one at it for 10 years. One looks fresh and nice, the other looks ragged sick broken and worn out and those Walmart units are going meth addict hooker in a matter of weeks which is insane.

 

 

 

My entire thing on this is just the buttons not picking up all the time, and their sticker issue. The sticker one they addressed, but you have to be in the know, and ask them to send you a cover. I don't recall them having a second run from the factory including that are they? They should. As for the buttons, if they're not picking up, maybe swapping them for something of slightly higher quality would be nice to mitigate that too. I'm not asking for some high end suzo happ or sanwa deal you put in a real cabinet, but at least something fairly durable like the stick in the old 2000~ era Dreamcast joystick or something.

[NE146]

Whatever.. all I know is when I finally open mine, it goes right into the pinball room to round out my home arcade.

 

[negative1]

more news on the USB mod, and extra games in the Rampage cabinet:

 

 

later

-1

[negative1]

the hidden games in the rampage board are : centipede, crystal castles, liberator, millipede, missile command and super breakout. [ checked with the USB mod]

 

 

you would have to add a trackball to play them, and you can adjust the sensitivity also, and change settings and mappings for all the other games on there.

 

later

-1

Edited December 11, 2018 by negative1

[128Kgames]

the hidden games in the rampage board are : centipede, crystal castles, liberator, millipede, missile command and super breakout. [ checked with the USB mod]

 

 

you would have to add a trackball to play them, and you can adjust the sensitivity also, and change settings and mappings for all the other games on there.

 

later

-1

 

It would be great to see whats on the trackball enabled cabs (Centipede, 12-in-1) I'd like to see if super breakout is there. If settings for each game can be adjusted I wonder if you could set the trackball for Major Havok for the left and right rotation?

[NE146]

Yeah that's good news if we'd eventually be able to modify the trackball sensitivity for Quantum and others.

[128Kgames]

Yeah that's good news if we'd eventually be able to modify the trackball sensitivity for Quantum and others.

 

You can - the user on reddit BerryBerrySneaky that discovered the USB connectivity already has:

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/9J77bht

[negative1]

Yeah that's good news if we'd eventually be able to modify the trackball sensitivity for Quantum and others.

it's not eventual, its being done right now.

 

anybody with a USB keyboard, and the mod can change it, and it will save the settings.

 

 

It would be great to see whats on the trackball enabled cabs (Centipede, 12-in-1) I'd like to see if super breakout is there.

If settings for each game can be adjusted I wonder if you could set the trackball for Major Havok for the left and right rotation?

Super breakout is on the 12-1 cabinet, not sure if it can be accessed yet.

I haven't seen anyone testing the centipede board yet.

 

ALL the analog settings, and key bindings can be changed in MAME, also you have

===========

- savestates

- replay saving, and playback

- high score saving for all games

- CHEATS (per game)

- pause and resume of games

- edit default settings and change them

 

and most of the usual features, although file access hasn't been tested yet.

 

I'm on the lookout for used boards, or defective ones, if anyone has them for loan or sale.

(Not the overpriced ones on ebay).

 

later

-1

Edited December 11, 2018 by negative1

[JBerel]

So how exactly is this outfit shipping retail products with MAME on them? That's a clear violation of the license, or outright theft is it not?

[128Kgames]

So how exactly is this outfit shipping retail products with MAME on them? That's a clear violation of the license, or outright theft is it not?

 

"In May 2015, it was announced that MAME's developers were planning to re-license the software under a more common free and open source license, away from the original MAME-license. MAME developer Miodrag Milanovic explained that the change is intended to draw more developer interest to the project, allow the manufacturers of games to distribute MAME to emulate their own games, and make the software a "learning tool for developers working on development boards". The transition of MAME's licensing to the BSD/GPL licenses was completed in March 2016. With the license change, most of MAME's source code (90%+) is available under a three-clause BSD license and the complete project is under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later."

[John Stamos Mullet]

So how exactly is this outfit shipping retail products with MAME on them? That's a clear violation of the license, or outright theft is it not?

mame allowed commercial release of its code in 2014. Edited December 12, 2018 by John Stamos Mullet

[Tanooki]

Well I didn't know that about MAME, but it got me having this parallel train of thought for a moment. Those multicade systems already on the market on those cheap to not so cheap chinese PCBS like the iCade60in1 I have. I wonder if those are in some way MAME based and just using their own goofy GUI on it to cover that up. I've been for a time researching getting one of those trackballs for it, and it seems you can get a very responsive one for around $40. I wonder if that thing could be wired to work with these A1U cabinets that now have those trackball games found on it. And if it could, where would one hook it up to?

[128Kgames]

Well I didn't know that about MAME, but it got me having this parallel train of thought for a moment. Those multicade systems already on the market on those cheap to not so cheap chinese PCBS like the iCade60in1 I have. I wonder if those are in some way MAME based and just using their own goofy GUI on it to cover that up. I've been for a time researching getting one of those trackballs for it, and it seems you can get a very responsive one for around $40. I wonder if that thing could be wired to work with these A1U cabinets that now have those trackball games found on it. And if it could, where would one hook it up to?

Now that the 1Up boards have been accessed, I'm hoping a spinner can just be swapped out for the factory dial without the need to modify it further, adjusting settings in the software.

[negative1]

Now that the 1Up boards have been accessed, I'm hoping a spinner can just be swapped out for the factory dial without the need to modify it further, adjusting settings in the software.

there are several mods on youtube, and in this thread way back when people were first trying to mod the spinner.

this is a great one:

 

as long as you have one that has the 4 outputs to Gnd, Voltage, Data channel A and B, then you can

just wire it up to the encoder they used.

 

looking at the 12-1 ini file for example for MAME has this:

=============================================================

#
# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
#
coin_lockout              1
ctrlr                     
mouse                     1
joystick                  1
lightgun                  0
multikeyboard             0
multimouse                0
steadykey                 0
offscreen_reload          0
joystick_map              auto
joystick_deadzone         0.01
joystick_saturation       0.85
natural                   0
uimodekey                 auto

so inputs like the dial and trackball are getting redirected through the mouse,

because they are not being automatically enabled:

 

#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
paddle_device             keyboard
adstick_device            keyboard
pedal_device              keyboard
dial_device               keyboard
trackball_device          keyboard
lightgun_device           keyboard
positional_device         keyboard
mouse_device              mouse

once you get into the analog settings for the game, you can make adjustments to your liking,

and go from there.

 

 

as far as trackballs go, you can replace them with the USB ones, like:

suzo happ ones that have the USB encoders.

 

 

more details here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=153999.0

 

 

some people claim there is lag inherent in mame, but thats

a much deeper topic:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65756.0

 

 

again, you can modify the settings in the configuration.

 

[for ARM/android/etc, the devices configuration explanations are here:

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Spinners,-Trackballs,-Lightguns,-and-other-Mouse-Devices ]

 

 

Spinners, Trackballs, and Lightguns are often described together because they are seen as mouse devices by the operating system. Spinners operate by rotating a spindle which turns an encoder wheel. Optical sensors detect the movement of the encoder wheel and forward the speed and rotational direction to the arcade game. Trackballs are essentially the same but they have two spindles oriented perpendicular to one another. By rolling a ball that is in direct contact with the spindles, trackballs can provide two-dimensional input like a mouse. In this respect, a spinner is also like a mouse that only moves in a straight line (left/right or up/down).

 

Hardware for Emulators

Because mouse input is ubiquitous on modern computers, spinners and trackballs translate nicely to emulators that can accept input from a mouse. For trackballs, the input is practically identical to a mouse. Spinners can also be setup like a mouse with separate X and Y tracking (like an Etch-a-Sketch).

 

Adding a USB mouse to a Raspberry Pi is trivial. Attaching a trackball or spinners requires a USB interface. Fortunately, arcade hardware is available that will work, and often comes with (or is compatible with) a USB interface. There are several options available from Ultimarc, Groovy Game Gear, Happ, and others. The key to making this hardware work on the Raspberry Pi is to ensure that the interface behaves like a USB mouse.

 

later

-1

Edited December 12, 2018 by negative1

[JBerel]

I saw 4 of these units on accessible display at my Wallyworld today. Despite everything I've already read and seen about them, I was genuinely shocked to see their condition. One had just holes where the controls once were. The paint scratched off easier than crayon on tile, and the buttons, trackball and especially spin dial just felt like sadness. Even my very low expectations were not met, despite knowing they're a fairly low end toy. These will be on deep, deep discount soon. They had lots sitting around, and the demos would only serve to discourage sales.

[negative1]

USB mod on the 12-1, use at your own risk:

 

 

later

-1

[NE146]

Do the settings stick? Or do you have to modify them each time you start up the machine..e.g. spinner sensitivity on Breakout.

Edited December 12, 2018 by NE146

[Bill Loguidice]

Do the settings stick? Or do you have to modify them each time you start up the machine..e.g. spinner sensitivity on Breakout.

 

Supposedly they stay, which is why I'm going to try it. I saw that Super Breakout was listed, but unless I missed something, it's not available to unlock, right?

[John Stamos Mullet]

 

Supposedly they stay, which is why I'm going to try it. I saw that Super Breakout was listed, but unless I missed something, it's not available to unlock, right?

He played it right in the video. It's unlocked.

[128Kgames]

USB mod on the 12-1, use at your own risk:

 

 

later

-1

 

Backdrop option! Hello Asteroids Deluxe and (hopefully) Space Invaders (if they use MAME on that cab too).

[John Stamos Mullet]

He played it right in the video. It's unlocked.

Also- - just as an FYI, MAME doesn't have a locking feature that would even facilitate this.

 

If the correct rom files are present in the roms folder, MAME detects them, then they appear on the menu and they are playable, period. MAME doesn't have a ROM-specific lockout feature. The only thing that needs to be done is bind control settings to any roms present and detected once you launch the game. IF someone can access the ROM folder and write to it, and it has enough storage space, you could feasibly put every "Classic Era" game emulated by MAME on these, and they will run just fine.

[negative1]

Backdrop option! Hello Asteroids Deluxe and (hopefully) Space Invaders (if they use MAME on that cab too).

unless someone can figure out how to access and write files to the system,

then it might work.

 

 

Supposedly they stay, which is why I'm going to try it. I saw that Super Breakout was listed, but unless I missed something, it's not available to unlock, right?

at this point, some settings stay intact, and some dont.

 

there are several videos on facebook, that show all the variations, controls, saving scores,

playing games, changing senstivity, defaults, etc.

 

it just hasn't been compiled in one place yet.

 

later

-1

Edited December 13, 2018 by negative1