CAn you get a MAME Car Racing Type Thing?

[sicpuppy]

I played Mario Kart GP at the arcade yesterday and realised how awesome it really was.

Is it possible to get things like this in a MAME format? I.e. PC loaded with a load of racing games using the arcade type car?

[Antiriad2097]

Yes. Witchfinder built himself a racing MAME cab.

Easiest way is to buy an old cab, chuck a PC in it, hook that up to the monitor (or replace the monitor, depends on preference really) and wire the controls to the PC via one of the readily available USB boards.

You can buy adapter boards for various control types at Ultimarc: http://www.ultimarc.com/

There's loads of info about stuff like this at http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm
or you can buy the 'Project Arcade' book that the site creator wrote, it covers many of the varying control types etc
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Project-Arcade- ... 0764556169

Doesn't need major technical skills, if you can wire a plug you can do this.

[Lorfarius]

This sounds like such a neat idea, would love to see some pictures if anyone has them!

[sicpuppy]

If I was to say, get an old Mario kart GP/Midnight Club/Ridge Racer/Sega Rally etc complete arcade thing with seat, wheel etc - Does anyone know how easy it would be to hook it up to a MAME system?

[Antiriad2097]

As easy as buying a couple of cards to put in your PC from Ultimarc to take the analogue inputs from the wheel and output to the monitor. Not sure on the spec of those monitors, but it may even be a straight VGA connection now. After that its just a case of connecting wires to the right bits of those cards from the controls, which is usually no more than crimping a few connectors or tightening some screws.

The tricky bit is configuring MAME for these inputs, but that's mostly just trial and error depending on the game.

[Lorfarius]

Giving me an idea for an article! Would love to see examples and chats of peoples cab homebrew attempts, will add it to the list

[witchfinder]

Yes. Witchfinder built himself a racing MAME cab.

Gah! Don't remind me...

Let's just say if you've never done a MAME Cab before, don't start with a driving one. The cab is one thing but setting up the games/emulators is a nightmare.

Some things to consider:

- If you like more recent games like Sega Rally, Ridge Racer etc then MAME is (as far as I know) still incapable of running these games and you'll need alternative emulators like Model 2 and Vivanonno. You'll also need a high spec PC and a 3D card if you're using those emulators. If you're sticking with MAME then you'll still need a decent PC to run anything more recent than Turbo Outrun believe it or not!

- What kind of steering wheel do you want? A 270 degree rotation auto-centreing wheel will allow you to play OutRun, Chase HQ but not Pole Position or Super Sprint for example. A 360 degree wheel is even harder to configure as it has no 'centre' point.

- Do you have potentiometers in the pedals as well? My cab had one on the accelerator which was a pain in the arse to configure smoothly, but had a button in the brake which was easy.

- What kind of gear shift will you use? A 2-way shifter will work for OutRun and Chase HQ but many games need a 4-way shifter. Also the way MAME interprets the input for the shifter varies from game to game (for example Outrun recognises it as one button that changes the gear each time it's pressed, others need a 'button' for each gear). There's a special version of MAME to deal with these inconsistencies called ShifterMAME, but it doesn't support everything.

I'm not trying to put you off... Actually, I am! It's damn hard work and after spending 6-9 months trying to get mine done with limited success I never wanted to see the damn thing again and ended up selling it at a £200 loss!

You can visit JAMMA+ for more advice, examples of past projects and maybe even find a donor cab there - www.jammaplus.co.uk

[subzero]

or you could make a cab from scratch, i made a cab in 2005 and bought a pretty good (at the time) usb steering wheel and pedals for it, it was a standee but it did the job.

[Lorfarius]

I'm not trying to put you off... Actually, I am! It's damn hard work and after spending 6-9 months trying to get mine done with limited success I never wanted to see the damn thing again and ended up selling it at a £200 loss!

You can visit JAMMA+ for more advice, examples of past projects and maybe even find a donor cab there - http://www.jammaplus.co.uk

How far did you get with yours? Clean up the outside as well? Any pics?

[witchfinder]

Finished it, cleaned it up nice, and it was on display at Byte Back, Retro Reunited and the first R3PLAY...



I don't have many pics of the conversion however.

Funny story: As I mentioned, I sold it for around £120 as a project (the video card died at R3PLAY) on Ebay, six months later the guy that bought it sold it on Ebay again for around £95 and it was picked up by Arcade Whorehouse who plastered it with horrible 'multi driving game' artwork and listed it on Ebay for a grand! As far as I know nobody ever bought it...

Edit: found the Ebay listing. They relisted it again at £995 and I'm not sure what happened after that...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... true&rt=nc

Another edit: As of 2 weeks ago they're still trying to sell it...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... true&rt=nc

"We have had the cabinet CNC manufactured. Totally artworked. New 20 inch flat screen installed." - f*cking liars!