Week 10: A look at the computer and software
It’s actually been quite a few weeks since I’ve posted any progress. Christmas and Winter combined made it tough to do much work. We don’t have a heated garage so the cabinet was moved to the basement. We can’t paint down there so we’ll have to wait until spring to do that. But that has given me more time to work on the electrical and software side of it!
The cabinet is powered by an old-ish Dell desktop computer. It isn’t the best, but is plenty to run the old games this cabinet is designed for. Since there’s only going to be 2 buttons, it wouldn’t be good for graphic intense games like Street Fighter, anyway.
Hardware
- Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
- 3 Gigs RAM
- 250 Gig HDD
- Onboard graphics
- Ipac 2 Keyboard Encoder
- Ultimarc MagStik Plus Joystick
- 4 Arcade push buttons
Software
- Windows 7 (skinned with custom boot to largely be hidden)
- mame 0.148 (through Mamui – a graphical version of mame)
- Maximus Arcade frontend
- Fix-It Felix, Jr – Custom built version – will not link the location
- Fix-It Felix, Jr – Official Disney leaked version, customized with The Dragon Kings “(I) Fix(ed)-it Felix Jr.” mode. Very useful, this mod customizes controls, saves high scores, and more for the leaked version of the game.
More on Software
My first step in getting the computer all set was installing Mame. I used a slightly older version (0.148) because my ROM set was built for that version. MAME is an amazing emulator that essentially emulates thousands of arcade machines, very accurately. But it’s not very pretty. Using Mameui helped with this. It’s a graphical interface for MAME. But still not super easy to select, start, or play games. That’s where a front end comes in. I chose Maximus Arcade. So, I skinned windows, set up Mame and Maximus, and now the computer doesn’t act like a computer at all. See videos below of the boot-up and game selection in action.
The Game
Of course, it’s great that I’ll be able to play Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, and the rest. But this is a Fix-It Felix, Jr cabinet, I’ve got to be able to play that game! Disney actually put a version of the game online but that’s built in flash and isn’t arcade control friendly, and doesn’t look movie accurate. They also made actual cabinets playing what the community considers to be the “real” game. But it was highly guarded and at first nobody could get their hands on it.
Enter, the BYOAC community. I won’t get into details here, but one member did an excellent job recreating the game. It runs on Windows. It’s customizable. A small group were allowed to be testers and play the game. I was one! This will be my main version of the game, and at first I thought my only version.
BUT! Then the actual Disney copy of the game leaked. It appeared to be an early build, but it’s definitely the same software running in the actual Disney made arcade cabinets. And luckily it runs on Windows, too! This version had some set backs though, it ran at a very specific resolution. It didn’t save scores. The controls can not be changed. But The dragon Kings mode (see above) helped immensely. This version will be a back up to my first version though, since it still has some downfalls on my computer. (I can’t get it to be true full screen – and you can’t add the movie sound effects)
Next time! I’ll show how the controls connect to the computer.