Re: has any one run a ZVG under linux or started to try??

> What PC/motherboard did you end up using?

I tried a few I had lying around before settling on the old Biostar
M7VKQ that used to power my main computer a long long time ago. It's
got a 1.2Ghz Athlon on it and 32MB of memory. The thing boots off an
old 32MB camera card in a ICS Systems IDE interface.

Here's the machine's inside:
http://www.consortiumofgenius.com/arcade/vector_mame_inside.jpg

In this picture, you can easily see the PC down below. The ZVG is
mounted in a ventilated box velcroed to the deck where the coin box
should be, and you can probably also make out the interface to the
monitor and the keyboard ipac. Check out the interface from the ipac -
the Cinematronics keyboard ribbon cable is unmodified and can be plugged
back into the Cinematronics boardset at any time. The interface to the
Cinematronics monitor involved interrupting two jumper wires on the
board, that lead to from the DAC section to the the X and Y size pots at
the input to the amp section (and picking up a ground elsewhere.)

> I'm tired of trying to get
> MAME and vector MAME to play nice with the same PC.

I haven't had this problem, but due to the Vector cabinet's unique
monitor I decided to just dedicate a computer to it. However, I did
prototype this system (without sound) on my Dell C510 laptop.

The BIGGEST problems I've had were due to the USB ipac and the USB
keypad I ended up using. Of the 8 I tried, the only motherboard that
had any problems with the 4810 soundcard was an Amptron. I had to find
a mainboard that did keyboard emulation correctly in DOS so I could have
the front mounted keypad for Space Wars (see front picture below). I
also wanted one that would handle the mouse really well in DOS for
spinner games (I love Omega Race!) and haven't quite solved that
problem... currently don't know whether to use PS/2, serial or USB.
Well actually serial's probably out cause I don't like the latency of
the serial mouse interface. It reads correctly but lags due to the 9600
baud rate.

Game as seen from the front:
http://www.consortiumofgenius.com/arcade/vector_mame_outside.jpg

I'm open to suggestions on the mouse/driver. For the spinner mechanism
itself I use an Ultratwist, but make my own electronics from old mouses
(the Ultratwist's electronics didn't seem to work well at all in DOS
MAME for some reason.)

Cheers,

                                                -Lewis
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Received on Mon Nov 10 16:38:19 2008