jsoper Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 Way to go Curt! Looks like you're gonna put Ultracade in their place, providing the same thing that looks better for a fraction of the cost. I hope everything works out for you! Wow, I just went to Ultracade's site. With those prices, they sure can't complain about competitors springing up. Good luck Curt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 I don't know much about "mamecabs" but I did have a few comments/questions. I noticed only two buttons across (wouldn't that rule out capcom style games that use 3x2)? Seems like it's make more sense to rotate the monitor sideways to closer match an arcades resolution. Embedded Arcade OS (EAOS). Never heard of that, is it custom? Is there a way to hook up a keyboard for maintenance, etc (and a place to store it)? Pretty nice but seems kinda limited in that a user would not be able to make use of any compilations they already have.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 I don't know much about "mamecabs" but I did have a few comments/questions. I noticed only two buttons across (wouldn't that rule out capcom style games that use 3x2)? Seems like it's make more sense to rotate the monitor sideways to closer match an arcades resolution. Embedded Arcade OS (EAOS). Never heard of that, is it custom? Is there a way to hook up a keyboard for maintenance, etc (and a place to store it)? Pretty nice but seems kinda limited in that a user would not be able to make use of any compilations they already have.. There are no Capcom games installed onto the unit, the layout is designed for the games installed onto the unit. Arcade OS is custom You can hook up a keyboard, but the system is not designed to be altered unless you choose to replace the internal HD or wipe it clean and install your own OS and software This is designed for gamers who want a turnkey, zero maintenance system, if you are looking for a MAME system you could change the HD and modify it or you can look at an arcade that is geared toward MAME where you can install your own OS, frontend, emulator and such on your own, this is meant for player who don't want to have to be bothered in the in-depth technical sides of gaming. Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sukotsu9 Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 Very cool idea! I don't have the space now, but long term... Is a rotator for Tempest included? Seems a must for the true arcade experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 (edited) There are no Capcom games installed onto the unit, the layout is designed for the games installed onto the unit. Well these comments by you... The interface also has the ability to connect a trackball and/or spinner to it so if you find that you want to expand the capabiliities of the control panel, it has a lot of future-proofing built into it, each player can have up to 10 buttons. HD is encrypted and can only accept add-on game paks from like-encrypted USB thumbdrives with add-on paks installed and these add-on paks will not be ridiculously priced like others that cost $300-$500 which is just insane. Gave me the impression that.. A) It can handle more buttons/more input devices "future-proofing" B) Future add-on paks may or will be available, which I presume Capcom is one of the possibilities. This is designed for gamers who want a turnkey, zero maintenance system, if you are looking for a MAME system you could change the HD and modify it or you can look at an arcade that is geared toward MAME where you can install your own OS, frontend, emulator and such on your own, this is meant for player who don't want to have to be bothered in the in-depth technical sides of gaming. Well I'd hate to give away any future plans I'd have (If I got it). But that thought has crossed my mind. With it being encrypted. I'd be tempted to have two seperate hard drives in it. The original, and my own custom that I would switch between thru the BIOS. Thus protecting the original investment while expanding it for my own personal use. Still didn't hear any comment about turning the monitor sideways. Thanks for the responses. It's very tempting. I'm already working on some begging techniques. FWIW I'm not really a big Capcom fan anyways (a little more old school). Just looking at it from the point of view from other people. Most likely I'd be more interested in adding a spinner and trackball. Something like this would be perfect for someone like me who has no mechanical skill at all, although I'm really good at configuring machines and have been going to alot of trouble lately to put together a bunch of stuff including screenshots, songs, movies (recordings of different games), and a bunch of other odds and end stuff. Edited June 29, 2006 by Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scogey Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 The machine looks increadible. The price is a bit higher than I thought. (as compaired to the machine sold at Target stores) If I ever finish my basement I will be in the market for this. Curt....any plans for a Cocktail table version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 The machine looks increadible. The price is a bit higher than I thought. (as compaired to the machine sold at Target stores) If I ever finish my basement I will be in the market for this. Curt....any plans for a Cocktail table version? Key difference: the Target machine is a cardboard bolted-together P.O.S. with a 13" low-res TV screen as a monitor, a Super Nintendo-level logic board, and Jakks plug-n-play quality controls, and it costs $500. Curt's machine, by way of contrast, looks like it might actually be worth paying for. Yes, I wish it were cheaper too, but the quality looks much much much higher than the Midway/Target box you're thinking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Hi Shannon, Sorry, missed the monitor question--- The issue with that is all of the games are oriented (with either side bezel artwork and/or stretched) for horizontal play, so placing the monitor into a vertical orientation wouldn't be beneficial for about 90% of the installed games. Sure, that is definitely something you could do... right now I have some new MonStore solid state HD's coming in to examine, these are USB based, so that could free up HD0 on the primary and then you could setup the bios not to boot from the USB port instead, there are a lot of options... You may find the next product - The Entertainment Center, to be more your liking since it'll have 8 Buttons per player and a trackball, we're also going to offer CP upgrades to players who want more control options then the standard 2 stick/4 buttons per player layout. Curt There are no Capcom games installed onto the unit, the layout is designed for the games installed onto the unit. Well these comments by you... The interface also has the ability to connect a trackball and/or spinner to it so if you find that you want to expand the capabiliities of the control panel, it has a lot of future-proofing built into it, each player can have up to 10 buttons. HD is encrypted and can only accept add-on game paks from like-encrypted USB thumbdrives with add-on paks installed and these add-on paks will not be ridiculously priced like others that cost $300-$500 which is just insane. Gave me the impression that.. A) It can handle more buttons/more input devices "future-proofing" B) Future add-on paks may or will be available, which I presume Capcom is one of the possibilities. This is designed for gamers who want a turnkey, zero maintenance system, if you are looking for a MAME system you could change the HD and modify it or you can look at an arcade that is geared toward MAME where you can install your own OS, frontend, emulator and such on your own, this is meant for player who don't want to have to be bothered in the in-depth technical sides of gaming. Well I'd hate to give away any future plans I'd have (If I got it). But that thought has crossed my mind. With it being encrypted. I'd be tempted to have two seperate hard drives in it. The original, and my own custom that I would switch between thru the BIOS. Thus protecting the original investment while expanding it for my own personal use. Still didn't hear any comment about turning the monitor sideways. Thanks for the responses. It's very tempting. I'm already working on some begging techniques. FWIW I'm not really a big Capcom fan anyways (a little more old school). Just looking at it from the point of view from other people. Most likely I'd be more interested in adding a spinner and trackball. Something like this would be perfect for someone like me who has no mechanical skill at all, although I'm really good at configuring machines and have been going to alot of trouble lately to put together a bunch of stuff including screenshots, songs, movies (recordings of different games), and a bunch of other odds and end stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Not in the current offering, I have spoken with the workshop and if a user makes a request, a spinner could be added, besides Tempest, the spinner would work well for Victory too. Curt Very cool idea! I don't have the space now, but long term... Is a rotator for Tempest included? Seems a must for the true arcade experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Yes, a cocktail is in the works, the cad layout is done, just messing around with positioning of the internals and coming up with a way to easily install/remove the monitor, the basic concept is done, just need the woodshop to build up the proto, tweak it, then lockdown the settings and run off a batch to examine... the only downside is that the Exidy gun games would be omitted since they wouldn't be applicable, so most likely 2 trakballs would be added (one for each player) and then the software has to be adjusted for screen flipping... Right now a few orders have come in and things are more along at a nice pace which is good, truck is coming Wednesday for the first frieght pick ups and shipping, I worked a very good deal with North American as they gave some competitive rates and they have a good track record of handling coin-ops. I can't promise, but may in the next couple of weeks we'll have a short run (maybe 10-20) cocktails ready, I'll see what can be done, again thats not a firm figure, I have to pass this by everyone internally, gotta a lot of people things have to go past for review and approval now, but let's see what can be done. Curt The machine looks increadible. The price is a bit higher than I thought. (as compaired to the machine sold at Target stores) If I ever finish my basement I will be in the market for this. Curt....any plans for a Cocktail table version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 The Target machine --- I can only describe it as this - a beautiful brain-box trapped inside of a really crappy attempt at a coin-op, its worth it just to take the CPU box and put it into your own cab with a real TV Monitor, with some decent quality speakers built into it and a cab with some REAL controls, not those mickey mouse Jakks Ms Pac Man joysticks/buttons. Also it only has 12 games, all of which are included in the Awecades, plus 73 others ontop of that. They have what can only be described as the worlds crappiest TV set, we have a 21" .21 pitch multisync monitor by IBM (manufacturer by Sony) which is crystal clear and gorgeous! This is a REAL arcade machine - all commercial grade 3/4" black MDF, t-molding, textured industial grade 5mill clear laminate over the Control panel graphics. All HAPPS joysticks/buttons, custom interfacing logic. What nots mentioned and needs to be added is if you look at our cabinet, note the 45 degree cut away at the back bottom of the cabinet, that is because underneath are a pair of 4" fixed casters so that if you need to move the machine around you can tilt it back and its like having a built in handtruck right in the machine. This making positioning and moving the machine easy for those who don't own a handtruck and need to move/reposition their machines. Curt The machine looks increadible. The price is a bit higher than I thought. (as compaired to the machine sold at Target stores) If I ever finish my basement I will be in the market for this. Curt....any plans for a Cocktail table version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Take a look here - www.retroblast.com and scroll down, seems Ultracade was in massive debt and is being liquidated, so actually the timing of this product is perfect to replace Ultracade in the home arcade market. Curt Way to go Curt! Looks like you're gonna put Ultracade in their place, providing the same thing that looks better for a fraction of the cost. I hope everything works out for you! Wow, I just went to Ultracade's site. With those prices, they sure can't complain about competitors springing up. Good luck Curt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 (edited) Not in the current offering, I have spoken with the workshop and if a user makes a request, a spinner could be added, besides Tempest, the spinner would work well for Victory too. Curt It'd also be handy for arkanoid and us users willing to change things around a little. Hey... wasn't it ultracade who tried to copyright the MAME name? Thanks Curt for the very timely responses. Edited July 1, 2006 by Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scogey Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Yeah, I can tell just from the pics I've seen here that the quality is a fairly big step up from those sold at Target. Cant wait to see the cocktail table! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusty Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 WOW!!! I LOVE IT CURT! I'm currently working with "the boss" to allow me to go ahead and place an order. I GOTTA have one of these! I've got a question though. Could you explain the 'Classic Arcade Sounds' feature that is mentioned on your page? I'm guessing that it cycles through all the games and plays the intros of each game. But I wasn't sure... Thanks for keep the dream alive! SjN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Probably just background arcade noise played during the menu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Exactamondo! :-) Also, after 3 mins of no use the system starts to randomly load games and run their attract modes for 3 minutes per game then loads up randomly another game, so the system is always showing off You can either start a game that is being shown on the screen or hit the menu button to return the menu and select a game you'd like to play. Curt Probably just background arcade noise played during the menu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djmips Posted July 8, 2006 Share Posted July 8, 2006 As I've pointed out in another thread recently, one of the main drawbacks of emulation is latency between user input and the result showing up on the screen. Another area where this shows up is in with buffered audio. Ideally it should be no worse than on the original machines. What steps have been taken in this special emulation OS to provide tight control / screen feedback and audio that syncs near exactly as the original games? thanks, - David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 10, 2006 Share Posted July 10, 2006 Ancient Chinese Secret... Seriously though, there is a lot of optimization which had to do with how the OS interacts with the HW and the games, we've got a really lean and fast OS so it's been greatly reduced and very responsive, there is still room for improvement (there always is) but you'll find the quality far far superior to much of the cab attempts using stuff like XP and MAME. Curt As I've pointed out in another thread recently, one of the main drawbacks of emulation is latency between user input and the result showing up on the screen. Another area where this shows up is in with buffered audio. Ideally it should be no worse than on the original machines. What steps have been taken in this special emulation OS to provide tight control / screen feedback and audio that syncs near exactly as the original games? thanks, - David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIPITBULL Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 I can't believe how low your price is, I have seen similar cabinets, with less games, sell for over $3400.00 and thats not including shipping. I am starting to save up my money now, very nice work curt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted July 16, 2006 Share Posted July 16, 2006 A few quick questions for curt.. If I order one how long does it take before it's ready? I'd like to have a spinner and trackball as well can that be done? I'm not exactly the most co-ordinated when it comes to things of that nature. Can the trackball act as the mouse? How hard would it be for me to hook up something like a cordless keyboard/mouse? I figured that'd be the easiest way to use one if I needed (think custom here ok..) If I use a card is it charged right away, or when the item is ready to ship? I think that's all.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 Well, some new things have come up.... almost every order has asked if we could add more buttons and several asked for trackballs, so the 601's have now been upgraded to 605's and all come with 6 buttons per player, 2 1/2" trackball and of course the Actlabs light gun as well. All existing customers have been shipped out a CP500 control panel replacement and a return shipping label, the upgrade is simple, just uplug the USB cable and plug it into the CP500 panel and reattached it back onto the cabinet, done. The other addition is we've expanded the use of the Atari 80's games and added a 2nd menu which contains 65 Atari 2600 games, so now the systems are shipped with a total of 150 games. I gotta tell you, playing 2600 games with arcade controls, WOW!!! Its more fun then ever! Curt I can't believe how low your price is, I have seen similar cabinets, with less games, sell for over $3400.00 and thats not including shipping. I am starting to save up my money now, very nice work curt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted July 21, 2006 Share Posted July 21, 2006 (edited) Hi Shannon - Well, 2 weeks ago we'd ship out in 2-3 days, but orders are coming in steady and we also got several dealer orders, so orders are about 5-7 before the freight shipper picks up, generally they pick up once a week on Tue or Wed. All Awecades are now coming with 6 buttons per player and trackball installed, a spinner is very easy to add. Yes, the trackball is interpreted like a mouse, the light gun also acts like a mouse too. The motherboard still has active kb/mouse ports, so you could plug in a wireless kb/mouse receiver and use wireless kb/mouse. Your charged upon order, and your arcade assembly gets queued and you receive email updates as your order is processed, then you'll be called by the Freight carrier to arrange time/day for delivery. Curt A few quick questions for curt.. If I order one how long does it take before it's ready? I'd like to have a spinner and trackball as well can that be done? I'm not exactly the most co-ordinated when it comes to things of that nature. Can the trackball act as the mouse? How hard would it be for me to hook up something like a cordless keyboard/mouse? I figured that'd be the easiest way to use one if I needed (think custom here ok..) If I use a card is it charged right away, or when the item is ready to ship? I think that's all.. Edited July 21, 2006 by Curt Vendel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 (edited) Hi all... Well, we've been listening to emails and due to so many orders requesting customized additional buttons and adding a trackball to the system we simply made 6 buttons per player and 2 1/4" trackball as standard to the newly released AC-605. All current 601 owners have been shipped - free of charge - a replacement CP500 control panel and a Fedex return shipping label to send back their CP100 control panels, its a simple upgrade, just unplug the USB cable from the CP and remove and replace it with the new panels. Besides the upgraded control panels, using the Atari 80's license further we've added 65 Atari 2600 games into their entirely devoted menu screen and I have gotta tell you - playing games like Combat, Yar's Revenge, Adventure and others on a control panel is like playing the games brand new all over again, its an absolute blast!!! We even integrated Star Raiders to use the 6 button configuration so accessing the Galactic map, foreward view, turning shield, computer and engaging hyperwarp are all their! Most importantly - the upgrades are at no additional cost. If you haven't purchased an Awecade and were considering one, well we've given you all the more reason to pick one up, so come on over to www.awecades.com and check out the Arcade Games section. Also with the facilities now in full swing, the next phase of Awesome Arcades has opened - Special Services -- Remember the Colecovision, Odyssey2 and Astrocade kiosks built for Phillyclassic 2? Ever seen those kiosks that Atariage uses at shows? The huge Exhibitor wall that the Atarimuseum uses as shows? Well those are all older, very early custom productions that were done originally by me as an individual, but now have far more professional displays made custom just for you... Now Awesome Arcades offers the ability for stores to have custom built kiosks and displays to make their stores kickass, for individuals or companies looking for a display to make their exhibit at videogaming and computing shows stand out from all the rest and for arcade hobbyists who want the ultimate custom arcade and whats out there, including the Awecades, don't meet their needs, well our Special Services group can custom design and build anything you want for stores, shows or home arcades, whether its a reproduction of a classic, a replica of a store display or something totally unique and custom, let us build your dreams and make them a reality!!! http://www.awecades.com/special.htm Curt Edited August 8, 2006 by Curt Vendel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted August 8, 2006 Share Posted August 8, 2006 Remember the Colecovision, Odyssey2 and Astrocade kiosks built for Phillyclassic 2? Ever seen those kiosks that Atariage uses at shows? The huge Exhibitor wall that the Atarimuseum uses as shows? Well those are all older, very early custom productions that were done originally by me as an individual, but now have far more professional displays made custom just for you... Curt Can you build a replica of the 5200 kiosks? Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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