Prev/Next Blog
by date

Next steps - getting TGB into an arcade cabinet

Name:	Manjit Bedi
Date Posted:	May 23, 2007
Rating:	Not Rated
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Manjit Bedi

Blog post

Sometime, I need to progress one of the key requirements for this project.

The game is to go into an arcade cabinet. The game is going to be an art piece for a contemporary artist.

I am currently doing my development work using TGB 1.1.3 on a Mac Powerbook. So far so good.

But when I need to start doing some testing with the USB controls I do wonder if I will need to get the game working on Windows based system.

It seems there are few other people out there who have been using arcade cabinets and running Torque based games. Any caveats?

M.

Recent Blog Posts

List:	09/15/07 - Update on the game project 06/13/07 - Making an arcade style high score name entry screen 05/23/07 - Next steps - getting TGB into an arcade cabinet 04/21/07 - Experimenting with weapon collision and using mounted objects

Submit your own resources!

David Montgomery-Blake (May 23, 2007 at 13:16 GMT)

You should talk to the Orbz developers. They had an Orbz arcade cabinet.

Matt Grosse (May 23, 2007 at 14:03 GMT)

i built my own MAME cabinet (and i love it!). as far as controls go, mine are wired up to a controller that plugs into the computer via USB. the controller translates the sticks/buttons into keyboard commands. so basically the controller board is a programmable keyboard, that comes with software to set it up. if your cab can use something similar, it will be trivial to implement for your game because it'll be just like using a keyboard.

feel free to email me if you'd like links to websites to order the parts. i should be able to dig them up.

Phil Carlisle (May 23, 2007 at 15:56 GMT)

Oh my god. I just thought of something. I recently threw out a whole ton of CRT Monitors I'd been keeping around but not using since I switched to my nice TFT's. But an arcade CAB would be absolutely ideal for a good quality CRT!!! theyre so much brighter for that!!!

Hmmm.. now I will have to see if there are any left, think I saved one.

Rubes (May 23, 2007 at 17:22 GMT)

That MAME cabinet is freaking awesome. Nice work.

Leroy Frederick (May 23, 2007 at 21:35 GMT)

Quote:
That MAME cabinet is freaking awesome. Nice work.

I'll second that motion! ;)

Greg Squire (May 24, 2007 at 00:37 GMT)

I built a MAME cabinet a few years back as well. There are different ways to interface the controls.
Usually the controls use a keyboard emulator board, like IPAC (www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html) or KeyWiz (groovygamegear.com/webstore/), and then it looks like keystrokes to the game. Also I've seem gamepads hacked, and then it looks like a joystick/gamepad to the game.

There's a site www.arcadecontrols.com which is a wealth of info on this subject. Also there is a book out (written by the site's owner) that goes into a lot of this detail as well. It's called Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine .
Edited on May 24, 2007 00:40 GMT

You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.