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Hello, how are you?.
I wanted to share all the changes I did to my arcade cabinets.
In the past I used an Arch Linux distro "Groovy Arcade". While it did a wonderful job converting the video output to CGA to make it compatible with CRT tubes, it had several disadvantages:
1) The main frontend only worked with "particular" joysticks encoders. X and Y Axys doesn't work in most of them.
2) Updating any emulator requires updating some packages of the distro. My experience with this was that once all is updated, the emulators doesn't work anymore. Sometimes the OS won't boot anymore.
2B) Some required packages are hard to find.
3) Most configuration is through keyboard and console input.
4) In every boot the Player 1 and Player 2 controls were reversed. I had to build an external circuit to avoid that.
So I couldn't update any emulator. Also I wanted to play some Mugen packs, but it was impossible in this OS.
Surfing the web I found this board:
The GBS-8100
It converts VGA input to RGB CGA output.
I have found a few reviews of these boards, and one point in common with the people having issues was they were using wall transformers to feed the circuit. It needs 5V 2A. Since the board includes a two pin power cable, I just soldered it to a molex connector to plug it to the computer PSU. This way I got perfect video and picture in all games with no issues at all.
I did some upgrades to the computers:
1) AMD Athlon X2 270 3.40GHz
8 GB RAM
Radeon RX 560
1TB HD
Same motherboard and CPU but new RAM, GPU and HD.
2) AMD A4-6300 APU 3.70GHz
8 GB RAM
Radeon RX 560
1TB HD
This one is a brand new PC.
I had to upgrade the GPU because I wanted to play DEMUL games. With the RX 560 it works perfect.
I'm using a HDMI to VGA adapter to be able to connect the GPU to the GBS-8100 boards.
Both computers are using Windows 10, and are offline.
Tried several frontends, but in the end I chose RetroFE.
I found it very easy to configure. I'm using the default theme with the MAME multimedia pack found here and the screenshots I already had. Since I liked the default layout, I didn't want to loose time configuring a new one.
Had to do some images and videos to complete the several systems.
Video resolution set to 1024x768. Perfect image in Windows and all emulators.
I also improved the cooling system replacing the intake cooler with a more powerfull one and added a new exhaust one.
The above modifications were done in March this year.
Then, the first days of September, I decided to add more buttons to the cabs. Also I wanted a new background for the control panels.
Panels Before:
The guy who made this job stretched too much the image, and it looked very bad.
Panels After:
Much better. A proper job done.
I had 4 different joystick boards in both cabs. This complicated the wiring since all of them were different. And I needed more buttons. So I bought 4 gamepads and hacked the boards. Since all four of them are exactly the same, the wiring process was much easier:
Joystick Boards A:
Joystick Boards B:
I prefer this method because I like to be able to enable or disable auto fire or "turbo" function on the fly.
These were the panels before this mod:
Full Panel Before A
Full Panel Before B
Mod complete!:
Full Panel Off A
Full Panel Off B
Full Panel After A
Full Panel After B
The tiny red and black buttons at the edges are the enable / clear auto fire or turbo buttons.
Full view of both cabs now:
Full Cab A
Full Cab B
Now that I have more buttons I can add more systems like PSX.
I'm very satisfied with these changes. Windows is much more friendly than Arch Linux. I can update any emulator with ease. RetroFE its also very easy to configure.
In the past I had a flag effect video issue. This happened sometimes. The issue was present with Groovy Arcade and with the new GBS-8100 solution. When I added the new joysticks boards, I put the chasis control board (Bright, H-sync, V-sync, etc) cables above the boards. The flag issue seems to be fixed since then.
Well I think that's all for now. It seems there is always space for improvement
.
Regards and happy week end
I wanted to share all the changes I did to my arcade cabinets.
In the past I used an Arch Linux distro "Groovy Arcade". While it did a wonderful job converting the video output to CGA to make it compatible with CRT tubes, it had several disadvantages:
1) The main frontend only worked with "particular" joysticks encoders. X and Y Axys doesn't work in most of them.
2) Updating any emulator requires updating some packages of the distro. My experience with this was that once all is updated, the emulators doesn't work anymore. Sometimes the OS won't boot anymore.
2B) Some required packages are hard to find.
3) Most configuration is through keyboard and console input.
4) In every boot the Player 1 and Player 2 controls were reversed. I had to build an external circuit to avoid that.
So I couldn't update any emulator. Also I wanted to play some Mugen packs, but it was impossible in this OS.
Surfing the web I found this board:
The GBS-8100
It converts VGA input to RGB CGA output.
I have found a few reviews of these boards, and one point in common with the people having issues was they were using wall transformers to feed the circuit. It needs 5V 2A. Since the board includes a two pin power cable, I just soldered it to a molex connector to plug it to the computer PSU. This way I got perfect video and picture in all games with no issues at all.
I did some upgrades to the computers:
1) AMD Athlon X2 270 3.40GHz
8 GB RAM
Radeon RX 560
1TB HD
Same motherboard and CPU but new RAM, GPU and HD.
2) AMD A4-6300 APU 3.70GHz
8 GB RAM
Radeon RX 560
1TB HD
This one is a brand new PC.
I had to upgrade the GPU because I wanted to play DEMUL games. With the RX 560 it works perfect.
I'm using a HDMI to VGA adapter to be able to connect the GPU to the GBS-8100 boards.
Both computers are using Windows 10, and are offline.
Tried several frontends, but in the end I chose RetroFE.
I found it very easy to configure. I'm using the default theme with the MAME multimedia pack found here and the screenshots I already had. Since I liked the default layout, I didn't want to loose time configuring a new one.
Had to do some images and videos to complete the several systems.
Video resolution set to 1024x768. Perfect image in Windows and all emulators.
I also improved the cooling system replacing the intake cooler with a more powerfull one and added a new exhaust one.
The above modifications were done in March this year.
Then, the first days of September, I decided to add more buttons to the cabs. Also I wanted a new background for the control panels.
Panels Before:
The guy who made this job stretched too much the image, and it looked very bad.
Panels After:
Much better. A proper job done.
I had 4 different joystick boards in both cabs. This complicated the wiring since all of them were different. And I needed more buttons. So I bought 4 gamepads and hacked the boards. Since all four of them are exactly the same, the wiring process was much easier:
Joystick Boards A:
Joystick Boards B:
I prefer this method because I like to be able to enable or disable auto fire or "turbo" function on the fly.
These were the panels before this mod:
Full Panel Before A
Full Panel Before B
Mod complete!:
Full Panel Off A
Full Panel Off B
Full Panel After A
Full Panel After B
The tiny red and black buttons at the edges are the enable / clear auto fire or turbo buttons.
Full view of both cabs now:
Full Cab A
Full Cab B
Now that I have more buttons I can add more systems like PSX.
I'm very satisfied with these changes. Windows is much more friendly than Arch Linux. I can update any emulator with ease. RetroFE its also very easy to configure.
In the past I had a flag effect video issue. This happened sometimes. The issue was present with Groovy Arcade and with the new GBS-8100 solution. When I added the new joysticks boards, I put the chasis control board (Bright, H-sync, V-sync, etc) cables above the boards. The flag issue seems to be fixed since then.
Well I think that's all for now. It seems there is always space for improvement
.Regards and happy week end
.
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