Oooohhh Gadgets !

Just purchased the above item form PC World for £24.99. It enables you to control power to all peripherals via one socket. Basically I plug the PC into the black/grey socket and the TV, subwoofer and marquee lights into the white sockets. No power goes to the white sockets until I turn on the PC. A couple of seconds later and they all come on. Same happens when I power down the PC. After a couple of seconds everything goes off. Good for the environment too as everything is off rather than on standby.

Right, next job is to work out how to wire up and external switch so I can turn on the TV without having to open up the door in the cab. Or work out how to do it via the keyboard/mouse (bios setting).

MAME Attract Videos

Added the MAME attract video pack from http://www.darrensweb.org/mame_videos.php

Its a BIG download via bittorrent (over 1Gb) but well worth it.

They work really well in Mamewah too. Here is an example snippit from the mame.ini file (the Mamewah one not the MAME one) :

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path c:\mame\snap
artwork_2_image_path c:\mame\artwork
artwork_3_image_path c:\mame\cabinets
artwork_4_image_path c:\mame\flyers
artwork_5_image_path c:\mame\marquees
artwork_6_image_path c:\mame\cpanel
artwork_7_image_path
artwork_8_image_path
artwork_9_image_path
artwork_10_image_path
movie_preview_path c:\mame\videos
movie_artwork_no 1

##########################################################

So basically you tell mamewah to replace the artwork_1 images (or wherever you are displaying the snap images) with the videos. The video doesn't start for a couple of seconds so it doesn't pause when you are scrolling through your list of games.

Theres some other vids available for other emulators at http://www.emumovies.com/ but i've not tried them yet .....

Tournament Nite 7

Balki Wins !

Maybe it was because I was playing away from home. Or maybe it was because Balki's control panel was on the floor, or maybe it was because I'm sh*t .... but my reign as MAME Master has finally ended. In what was the worst defeat in history, Balki romped home with the final game to spare - the first time this has ever happened. I let you down, I let myself down. Is this time to consider retirement ?

Nope.

We started off with Centipede. Now my hiscore is way more than Balki's but something happened to my gameplay and too many silly mistakes led to me losing the first game. Then the second. 2-0 to Balki.

Next up was Nitro Ball. A kind of walking/shooting game based on pinball. Both Balki and myself recorded personal bests but Balki managed to pull one out of the bag and defeat me. 4-1 Balki.

Rainbow Islands. Don't ever mention this game to me again. 6-2 Balki.

Last up was Phozon. Having already awarded the trophy to Balki, this game was cut short after I threw the towel in. 7-2 Balki.

I definately think that playing on your own machine helps. Well, thats my excuse anyway !

	PL1 Balki			PL2 Buks
Centipede	1	1		0	0
Nitro Ball	1	0	1	0	1	0
Rainbow Islands	1	0	1	0	1	0
Phozon	1	n/a		0	n/a

Lightgun news......

Managed to FINALLY get some joy with the lightgun. I'm using Acorns Guncon2 driver (http://www.acornscity.com/guncon/index.php?language=english). Although I originally had it working (only sort of) I somehow managed to screw something up and it stopped functioning. After sussing out the calibration screen (which I have to run in 640x480) I manged to get House of The Dead 3 up and running as well as a couple of MAME games.

Next up it getting the second gun to work so we can have some 2 player tournament action.

Speaking of tournaments (no, it's not that time already) we decided to pick the games a couple of weeks prior to the next one so we can get some decent practice in. The games are :

• Centipede
• Nitro Ball
• Raindow Islands
• Phozon

Should be a good one !

New Control Panel Part II

Heres some close-ups of the buttons and stuff.



And heres the CP sat on its box - hinged on the back with a piano hinge. Need to touch up the paint work on the edging but apart from that its just about done.

New Control Panel

Finally got round to posting the piccies of the new CP. Still need to do a bit of work on it like extra coats of paint on the edging (didn't use t-molding as its not that easy to get in the UK).

First up is a piccy of the underside of the old CP without the trackball. Bit of a mess - I was hoping that my wiring would be neater on the new CP but it wasn't ....


And this is the new CP with the trackball added. The moutning plate has been recessed into the wood to make a smooth surface.


And these are the parts waiting to be added. 2 Ultimarc T-Stick Plus', loads of buttons and an Oscar spinner with the MAME spinner top.

The new overlay finally added ! Temporarily stuck down with masking tape at the edges. At this point it is just resting on the old CP box which is too long and narrow. I may have to make a whole new box.

First proper playtest ! My old mate from my previous job wanted to see the machine as he had only seen photos. Heres Lizard mastering the fine-art of the archery event in Track and Field.


More pics to follow !