Who said we can just wire the TV?? @@

Yeah.. it didn't work.. I was right... the frequency is different between computer monitor and the arcade TV, first, is the frequency, second, the resolutions... so.. after spending hours of wiring @@ , now, i'm back to the old issue again. I think I prefer to use an monitor... all I need to do is figure how to mount it... We finally took the arcade apart... I'm more like a do-it person when there are not risk to take things apart. And oh.. yeah.. 5 mins works saved our few hours research, nice!


And so far, we've got 6 games for sure. I hope I can find more in the future.

Pinball: excellent
NeverBall: simple control, nice
Blobwars: mouse key works perfectly!
Raid'em(raidem) - perfect game!! 2 players, easy keymap, turn "eye candy" option to min
SuperTux(supertux) nice LUX game
frozen-bubble nice cute game, 2 players
Game List for our wiki page


Key mapping plan is done and test with games. All we have to do is wire the controllers and test it. That's what I'm gonna do after this blog.


After all, I've gotta say thank you to Stephen Liang. He's been putting a lot of affort on this project, working so hard quietly.

BTW.. why dose NEC use LG/Philips screen?? That's weired..

Regular CRT Monitor

Arcade Project Update

Naked Keyboard


Happy New Year!

During this holiday, Stephen, Mohak, Patty and myself went to school to do the arcade project. Mohak was doing the game search. Patty was taking care the labeling for some cables and Stephen was doing research on key mapping and he also started some soldering for the key mapping also. At that time, I set up a network for the arcade machine, so Greg can ssh there and install the arcade launcher. I had great trouble of installing the launcher since there are a lot of dependency to install for Perl.

It was a great fun day, we faced a lot of small problems and finally fixed. We spent a lot of time on researching. We found that when we actually start doing the arcade is totally different to what we expected.

Stephen and I went to college for the arcade project during the holiday, but it seems that the access card was disabled since it was holiday. So, Stephen did the rest of soldering in study area which is located in second floor.

Too bad that it looks like we are not going to finish this arcade project before Semester 2 starts. But for sure we'll arrange sometime to complete this arcade in the future. Currently the project is 60% completed. Here is the work load I would assume...

- launcher installation - 4 hours, Greg
- controller wiring - 6 hours, Stephen Liang, Nestor
- games and launcher integration and testing - 3 hours, Greg
- launcher, game, controller test - 5hours, Nestor, Greg, Stephen
- hardware installation - 5 hours

Although it seems hard, but I am still hopping we can finish it before semester start...


Installed Game List:
1. Torcs
2. quake3 demo - need to pair the keys well
3. Frets On Fire - no yum install, make failed, try rpm, may need to pair 2nd joystick also
4. NeverBall -
5. Blobwars
6. Pinball
7. LBreakOut2(lbrickbuster2)
8. Raid'em(raidem) - turn "eye candy" option to min
9. Dodgin' Diamond II (dd2)
10. Kobo Deluxe - nice
11. Njam - pc-man
12. Barbie Seahorse Adventures(seahorse-adventures) - an classic looking adventure game
13. Shippy - a nice old school classic shooting
14. Tecnoballz
15. XGalaga(xgalaxy) - a nice old school classic shooting

Keyboard logic board soldering

I did the soldering for the keyboard for our arcade machine. It has 27 wires and it's separated into 2 set, column and row. So, we have 18 columns, lets say column is A to R and Row is 1 to 9. When we press Y, it connect the row E and column 2 together, then the signal from the keyboard will be sent to the PC. Here is the photo of the keyboard chip.




We are planning to complete wiring the keyboard logic board to the controller the end of this week.

More games - Contributions of the Open Source Community

I talked to my friend Markslane, we studyed BSc in Computer Scienc together. He is the leader of the opensource game editor called "Game-Editor" (http://game-editor.com/). He suggested me some games made using his editor that we could use. These games can also run on Linux, Mac and even on Windows. I think Nestor will like this stuff :-)

http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5205
http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6326
http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6329
http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6327
http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6323
http://game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5439

This is the full list of stuff:

http://game-editor.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6&sk=v

More games...

Hi guys, I want to tell that by accident I discover a larger list of games while we were doing our labs...

In SYA710 we had this lab "Creating your own Live CD", so when I installed the livecd-tools, I took a look in each file and there were one kickstart file with this name: livecd-fedora-games, so that took my attention I opened and... there is a larger list of games in there! I'm trying to make it work, in that way we can play with that CD (a lot more easier) and determine (based in play with each game) which ones we can include.

I have been trying and I got some errors, hopefully I can make it works.

If somebody wants to take a look to the file, here is a link for a quick view:
livecd-fedora-games.

A lot of options!!

I wasn't too much into games before, now I start to wanted to try some, most of all because I saw some images about them... I still have a list about the ones I need to find some information...

Wormux
NeverBall
NetHack
Spring project
Unreal Tournament 2004, 2003 & original
Doom 3
Medal of Honor
SAVAGE: The Battle for Newerth
Planet Shift
Glest
Blobwars: Metal Blob Solid [2d platform game]
The Battle for Wesnoth
Boson
rRootage
Scorched 3D
Chromium B.S.U.
Racer, The real deal
Flight Gear

Also Nestor remind me that I need to check if they are joystick supportive controllers, so far I just could find that information about SuperTux, is not easy to find that kind of detail... keep trying.

I like a lot the game that Milton proposed, I'm a little concerned about something that I read about that one, I think is necessary to have a look deeply in the fact that the game include song files and some internal fonts that are proprietary, and their redistribution is not permitted, hope this doesn't represent any problem because I like that one....

By the way, please guys take a look to Arcade Wiki Page I put some screenshots if I get the chance I will put some more I just don't want saturate the page, better keep eliminating whatever is not ok for the arcade....

Research on soldering keyboard

I found a page about keyboard in wiki. Soldering is hard, very very small, but I think we can try it. The keyboard we have is very old. Maybe we can not press a lot of key at the same time. I found in keyboard, we can press 3 to 9 keys at the same time. I tried my laptop and 2 keyboard. But we have a lot of keys for our controller. We may have problem. Any suggestion?

I worry the old keyboard will only support to press 3 keys at the same time. And the keyboard is not ps2, we have to buy an adapter to try. Sometime I pass by my home, I see old computer with keyboard, if i found one, maybe we can use it.


Keyboard on Wiki

I've found two amazing websites fully of Linux free games !!!

[1] http://techgage.com/article/top_10_free_linux_games/1
[2] http://gamesuy.blogspot.com/2007/12/top-10-free-linux-3d-games.html

After seen some games like American Army, now I am thinking if the computer we have is going to be able to play 3D games like that !??!?

I also got very happy with the graphical interface that Greg show us in today's class. It is very intuitive and it allow us to put a brief video of each game in the menu, with this interface the students that are going to play, could take a better idea about the games.

got another one for ps/2 port..

I found another ps/2 convert from my dad's "treasure box". Since I'm not sure what interface is for John Selmys' keyboard, i am not gonnna buy a adapter before john show it to me...

anyway, here is the photo of the ps/2 adapter..

ops.. not the right connector..

i just had a closer look of the ps2 keyboard converter.. just found that it's not the one we're looking for. it's for old computer to use ps2 kb.. so.. i guess i'll need to search my house again.. or buy one from store.. @@

Linux Games Instead of Emulator

Linux games or Emulator
Nestor I agree with you, its better to use Linux games instead of a emulator.

PC monitor or TV?
In my opinion the pc monitor is better than the TV, because of the resolution and because is going to be easier to plug and handle with the computer.

FOUND IT!!! PS2, DIN-5 converter!!

I was looking for an old PS2, DIN-5 converter/adapter. I couldn't find any in my house. My dad told me he don't have it. When I have just decided give up on it and move on in search of smaller soldering tool, I found it in my dad's mini tool box. YEAH!!!

I knew it, i knew my dad must keey it some where, hehe... Isn't it good to have a dad that loves old technology? (yeah, old tech, not new tech, hehe..) Too bad that someone took my old ps2 keyboard, otherwise, we can start by the way.

Anyway, here is the photo of it. Hope this 15 years old connector still works..

Arcade Project Update

Here is few update on our arcade project...

Update
First, We may use open source, free Linx games instead of arcade roms with emulator. Since it's more suitable for the LUX source and more games variety, flexibility. And the best thing is license.

Second, instead of using any serial port, paralle port to connect controllers. We plan to use keyboard and solider controllers wires to a keyboard. Thank you John Selmys for donating a keyboard to us. ^^

Third, we may put a ear phone plug and volumn control for the sound system. This will reduce the distraction if we put our arcade in a PC lab.

Discussions:
PC monitor or TV?
Now we have not deside which one to use yet. I believe they both have their advantages and dis-advantages..

PC monitor:
= Adv: better resoulution, easier to configurate
= DisAdv: need hardware installation, less "arcade feel"
TV:
= Adv: more arcade feel
= DisAdv: need to buy hardware to support TV dual to different refreshing frequency

Nameing the Arcade Machine
Then it's the arcade name. There are 9 names proposed from our class and professors. Please go to our talk page to vote for the name. You can have maximum 5 vote for any name, but only one for each name.

Name the Arcade Machine

It's time to actually face the problem...

I'm so excited about getting this arcade today. But then I was in deep thought also... Now, we got to box, it's time to start working on it.

I check out the hardware part that we're gonna connect to. Prof. Michal Heidenreich gave me some ideas how to change the monitor. And he suggests me to change all those screws also. Yeah.. those doesn't cost much, few dollars, i think. They're all rusted now and I would love to have some shiny screws in there. We were still thinking if we should use the original arcade monitor or to use a PC monitor. After I looked at the cabinet, I think it's easier to change the hardware instead of put an extra video card and configure a lower resolution, frequency monitor. And I've seen soem emulator has a function to make PC mointor look blur, make it looks like an arcade mointor.

Then next part is controller... 22 wires... sigh.. because it has 2 set of controllers, each set include 6 buttons, 4 way joy stick(means 4 switches/buttons) and one start button. So, it's 22 buttons in total. I was thinking to use game port, cos it's the usual way. But 22 wires... wow... So, the solution should be either using paralell port or solder wire into a keyboard. But if you have a look of those big desktop keyboard button soldering seems quite hard. Maybe some 10,20 years old key board uses lower end technology, which has a bigger switch and would be able to do soldiering. It's the best way to do, since all we have to do is taking care hardware part. And most emulation already support keyboard key mapping. And there are 3 wires for the coin box also. Looks like we'll go for keyboard for sure.

And the least thing is the speaker, I'm not sure how arcade sound system works. I assume it's analogue signal. Dose it needs a amplifier? And we're thinking to have ear phone jack on the arcade box some where to reduce the arcade noise in the lab. It could be easier to do with an computer speaker since some cheap $20 speakers support earphone output and sounds are amazing!

But of course, here are some good news... We may able to get a designer to handle the art work.. great! I was thinking to do the art work myself, haha.. good, so we can concentrate on the machine.

But anyway, time seems to be limited. One month before final exam, then it's holiday, and next semester will be more intense. I would like to work harder on the arcade project and leave less work for next semester. And I'm planning to write a little open source iPhone interactive game during semester break.

Hope we can make this arcade box running successfully. ^^

Finally.. the Arcade Box, ta ta.... ^^

YEAH!!! Finally, we've gotta it!!! oh.. yeah!!! I've got some photos about this trip.

First, Thank you Evan Weaver for donating $200 for purchasing this arcade box. And thank you Prof. Murray Saul for arrange this delivery. And also Varinder, Milton and Mohak.

Arcade Box

I am very happy with the arcade box, Nestor got for us !!!! Now that we have the hardware, the arcade project is not more only a idea, it is a reality! I hope we can make a good work on it with the collaboration of all the LUX students.

Checking out the arcade cabinet... ^^

Today, Milton, Mohak and myself went to check out the cabinet we're gonna get... not bad for its price. Everything works perfectly. ^^ The bonus is it has 6 buttons!!! great! So, there are no limit on what game we're gonna put.. althougth we may not successfully obtain a license for some new games like street fighter, but it's still a good news. The downside is the controller panel is cracked, we'll need to fix it. But.. anyway, it's great. ^^

Good job! Varinder Singh!!

Nice.. ^^ I'm glad that you found some more info thru the net.

The correct name should be emulator. If you use wikipedia, u'll find a definition for "emulator" but u won't find "simulator" emulator in wikipedia.org

I belive Milton and Mohak are gonna use either MAME Official Page or AdvancedMAME. Please check if it would suit key mapping or not. And do communicate with Milton and Mohak.

The most challenging part is connecting the hardware to our PC's in/out. It could be done by connection wire to keyboard or some output port, like game port or parallel port.. I dunno which way is the best, it's for you and Steven Liang to find out... ;-p

Emulator or simultor

Hi guys i was reading somthing about emulator fo rkey mapping

But we are using simulator for our Project.

Here is link of it

Emulator Link


So Simulator guys!. Can you please tell that, Is this emulator thing solve our purpose or we have to go through simulator only?

Ofcourse we are there to help

Yes Nestor we are here to help . So lets keep in touch. Please inform when we are going to pick it up. It will be great help if we can do it on college days. Means Tuesday or Thursday.

Good Luck