Day 268

Today since it was getting so close to Christmas and I wanted the unit to be operational, I decided to disable the emulators that were still giving me trouble. Most of them were working fine, but it was always some small detail: Can't start the game without some extra step, can't exit, etc. This included Turbografx 16, NES, Nintendo 64, Vectrex and Visual Pinball.

I also enabled the shutdown feature of Hyperspin so I wouldn't have to quit the program and then shutdown in Windows. Now if I can just make Windows XP more invisible in the startup / shutdown procedure, it'll be just fine.

I also wanted to add a wireless network card to the unit, so I could also add internet radio. Unfortunately the Linksys card I had lying around didn't support the security in my network, so that was out. Odd since that card was way newer than the old Airlink 101 cards we had. But that's Cisco for you.

Day 258

One Game, One Button, One big pain in the butt.

Today I spent the majority of the day trying to get one game emulator to work properly in the cabinet. Kega Fusion which plays Sega Genesis games. Everything thing else in the program works just fine except for exiting the emulator and returning to Hyperspin.

Nothing I tried worked. Consulted with people in the Hyperspin forums, Fusion forums, you name it. The emulator just simply refused to acknowledge what Hyperspin was telling it to do.

So I thought, I'll hack an old keyboard and make one big button that represents the escape key and that should fix it. But I'm too lazy to go through the trouble.

So I found this link:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...dows-xp-vista/

So I told Windows that one button on the X-Arcade Solo will represent the Escape key forever. Done.

Now Fusion behaves itself.

Day 249

Today I worked on the marquee.  I could have had it done professionally by a website that specialized in this sort of thing, but I was looking at least $30 for the size I needed.

I tried the local Kinko's, but I was looking at about $22 to get it done. But for now, I was still working on keeping my expenses low.

After leaving Kinko's, I went to the library to pick up a DVD I'd ordered on their website and I decided to ask the reference desk if they did color prints.  They said yes, so I grabbed a computer, dropped my flash drive in and opened the graphic image in MS Publisher (yes I know, but it was the only program they had that could print banners).

So after fiddling with the sizing a bit, I sent it to the color laser printer, paid my $2.25 and took my pages home. I had to stretch the image across 3 sheets of paper, so I knew I'd be doing some arts and crafts for this thing.

So I got home, took the remaining plexiglass I had from the bezel, cut and fitted it. Then I cropped and pasted the three pages together and attached that to the back of the marquee sheet and settled it in place and attached the metal bar to hold it up.

Not bad. You can see the seams between the pages, but I don't mind it. Maybe later if I find twenty bucks floating around I'll get it redone, but for now I'm quite pleased with it.






I've been fussing with the Hyperlaunch program to get all of the emulators to exit properly and I almost messed it up completely. My joystick can be reprogrammed to represent any key on the keyboard, so I tried to set up one of the keys to represent the Escape key and did the rest of the buttons as they were before.

It worked out all right, but there was a problem. For some reason there was about a 1 second hesitation between pressing a button and having the action executed. That's no good for video games. The response should be instantaneous. So I set it back to the factory default and left it there.

So I'm back to learning the script code for Hyperlaunch to get all the emulators to work. It's going to be tedious, but as soon as I get the whole thing working, the hard drive is going to be backed up and stored on DVD's in case something catastrophic happens.

Day 228

Today I got up the courage to do the bezel. I'd already had the plastic sheeting and I just needed the spray paint to finish the job. My biggest fear was that I'd screw this up completely and have to buy another sheet (around $20). I spoke to the guy in the paint department at Home Depot and he suggested a brand of spray paint that has a nozzle that isn't supposed to drip, run or spatter, and provides a nice wide spray.

So I cut the plastic to size and after a few trial and error tests of trying to put the bezel in place, I had to take the Dremel tool to take off some of the edge. Better to cut too little than too much, as my old Wood shop teacher used to say.

After finally getting it to fit in place, I took a china marker and marked the left and right sides and placed tick marks where the monitor shone through.  Took the sheet back out, masked off the area where the monitor should be and spray painted the rest of the inside.

After it dried, I took the mask off and put the sheet in place. Not too shabby, says I.

Now I have just enough plastic left over to do the marquee along the top. I still haven't established who will print the marquee art I've made up, so I'll do that today.

I also want to find some plastic stickers for the arcade control layouts. I'm hoping I'll find static cling stickers so I won't mess up the bezel.

Day 225

Well, today I finally got my laser games to work. My problem was that there were two instances where I would have to press the escape key in order to progress into and out of the games. I fixed one of them by upgrading one of the modules within Hyperspin, called Hyperlaunch. Hyperlaunch is a sub-program which allows certain emulators and PC games to work within Hyperspin.

Once I had that in place, I got rid of one of the little windows that would pop up whenever I tried to run either Dragon's Lair or Space Ace.

The other issue was I couldn't get the key settings to stick in the Daphne emulator itself. So I went into the configuration file and made the changes manually.

I also (with the help of other users on the Hyperspin forum) fixed the onscreen theme that shows the available games. One of the graphic objects sat in front of the game wheel so you can't see which game you're selecting.

I got the plastic sheet from Home Depot for the front of the cabinet and I need to lay out where the monitor is located so I can paint one side and get it placed. I also need to print out and place the controller layout for the buttons depending on which emulator or jukebox program you're using. I want to get this sucker finished before Christmas so Amanda can help finish decorating the side art.

Day 211

Last Saturday, my X-Arcade Solo Console finally came in the mail. It seems that the post office didn't like the label the seller put on the package and they sent it back. So he had to resend it, this time in 2-3 Day Priority (like that means anything, the Post Office just sends it when they feel like it).

Anyway, setting it took no time at all. Windows XP recognized it immediately. The only thing is that it doesn't show up like a game controller. The movements of the stick and the buttons represent keyboard keystrokes. Not that it's a bad thing, it just took me by surprise.

 

So far, most of the games are working just fine. Just got some fine-tuning to do and include a small program that will control the main volume via the stick and buttons. I'll have to get a trackball to sit alongside for some of the games, such as Centipede and Missile Command. 

I got some new cable staples to replace the ones that came with the rope lights. The ones that are there now have a bit of a gap between the rope light and the surface of the cabinet edges. I'll get that done when I have a chance.  I also need to resubmit my marquee to this banner company in Colorado. I didn't hear anything at all from them and I'm starting to think my submission got lost for whatever reason.

Day 201

Well, I spent the last few days filling in the blanks in Hyperspin and making the game menu wheels look nicer. I added Vectrex to the mix, but I'm still having difficulty getting the emulator to work within Hyperspin.

Anyway, last Sunday I was in Fuddruckers with my wife and they had wi-fi, so I thought I'd check my email. As soon as I connected to their internet, my Ipod Touch pinged me that an auction I'd been watching on Ebay was close to ending. Now this auction was for an X-Arcade Solo game panel.

X-Arcade's products are tough and they can withstand a lot of abuse. They're solid and well-made, which is why they command such a high price. When I saw this one on Ebay, there was one bid and it was going for $50 with free shipping. I figured I'd keep an eye on this and put it on my watch list.

Anyway, when my Ipod pinged me, I clicked on the view button and it opened up Ebay. It was going for $52 and there were two bids and there were two minutes left on the auction. So I put in my bid of $65 and it came up with me as the highest bidder.

So I waited, knowing full well that someone was going to snipe me and bid at the last second. But then the timer ran out and popped up with "You are the winner". So I paid the auction and now I sit....waiting...for the bloody Post Office to update their "Track and Confirm" web page. Hasn't been an update since this whole thing began. I realize that last Monday was a banker's holiday, but jeez. On one hand, the seller used Economy shipping, but on the other hand, he's only one state away.  I hate waiting.

Meanwhile, I've been working on my marquee art. Not having used the graphics program Gimp in awhile, I had to re-learn a few things.  But it doesn't look too bad...