Arcade Machine Construction

More Vertical Madness !

Vertical Madness !

Really bad wiring pictures

Tournament Nite 23

Some more pictures

Video of flashing buttons !!!!!

Tournament Nite 22

Introducing MaLa

Tournament Night 21

Tournament Nite 20

Tournament Nite 19

Tournament Nite 18

Tournament Nite 17 (The Farooqui Cup)

Tournament Nite 16

Tournament Nite 15

Tournament Nite 14

Tournament Nite 13

Sure plays a mean pinball .....

More lighting madness

Lights in Action !

Tournament Nite 12

Tournament Nite 11

Lights, Camera, Action !

Instructions Card

Tournament Nite 10

Next weeks Tourney games announced

Blatant Posed Shot

Speaker Covers

New lightguns in place

Tournament Nite 9

Next Tourney games

New Lightguns !

Slaughter !

Announcing Wah!Cade

Tournament Nite 8

Oooohhh Gadgets !

MAME Attract Videos

Tournament Nite 7

Lightgun news......

New Control Panel Part II

New Control Panel

Tournament Nite 6

CPO Quality

Mamewah skin

Tournament Nite 5

Control Panel Overlay

Lightguns have arrived !

Coin Door Lights !

Coin door wiring fixed & Lightguns

Coin Door in place

Tournament Nite 4

Coin Door Arrives !

Added a spinner

Marquee !

Decided to alter the profile

Time for a mini-tournament

Painted

Speakrs and slidy keyboard drawer

Overall shape coming together

Added a trackball

Back to the start

Changes made after advice

First piccy up !

First posting !

2009-11-25T12:35:00.003Z

Managed to paint the bezel the other night. Need to fill some counter sunk screw holes, print the instruction cards and finally come up with some handles or something for rotating the bezel and screen.

First up is a very blurry photo of Frogger in all its vertical glory.

Attempting to show off the full cab with failing light and an flashless camera.

And another similar shot.

Coolio.

2009-11-23T16:05:00.003Z

After a loooooong gap from Arcade Machines I finally decided to dump the TV screen with its handmade VGA-SCART cable and plumped for a 23" widescreen monitor. All with then intention of being able to rotate the monitor for vertical games in MAME plus I thought Future Pinball would look rather nice. And I was right.....

So the screen in its horizontal position with a carboard bezel acting as a template.

Then some Future Pinball love action.

Ahhh once my favourite all time arcade machine.... Bridlington '84....

Phoenix. 'Nuff said.

All in all its looking good. Just need to slightly modify the bezel as you end up switching the monitor off every time you so much as breath on it. Plus it needs painting and instruction cards need doing....

2007-08-20T20:14:00.000+01:00

Its not just the wiring thats bad - the pictures are pretty terrible too :)

A fellow arcade constructor was asking me about wiring up the controls so I said I'd post some piccies of my wiring. I knew it was bad but bjeezuz its worse than I thought. My only defense is that the original wiring was much neater - I've took it all apart and put it back together a fair few times as well as adding the ledwiz wiring later on. ~Okay okay, enough with the excuses already.

As usual, click on the pictures for a larger view.

And heres an excellent link that explains how it all works :

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_wiring.shtml

And heres another link on wiring the micro switches :

http://www.darkravenwind.com/cdvision/madcatz2.htm

2007-08-06T16:45:00.000+01:00

"Bend over, spread your cheeks and give me two good coughs"
- Ice Cube

Tourney nite 23 happened sometime last week but these write-ups take time you know ?

1UP - Flicky. quite possibly the best platfrom game ever. Really simple but brilliant. And Buks was brilliant and Balki was errr simple. Buks' first game was supposed to showcase the tallent he'd picked up over the previous couple of weeks practice (and Buks had practiced nearly every night). But unfortunately neither of his games of Flicky came any where near his best. Still, practice makes perfect and Balki was sadly lacking in the practice department. Buks leads 2-0.

2UP - Pipi & Bibis. A *mature* game this one (Balki -you dirty little b*stard). Quite a good game once you get into it. The graphics kind of remind me of the old SpyVSpy cartoon strip (but not to anyone else). Balki was good at this one - but a fatal flaw in his tactics proved his undoing. You see, Balki was just pressing the fire button - not keeping it pressed. Read the instructions boy ! A fairly good brace of scores all round but Buks proved to be the master once more - Buks leads 4-0.

3UP - Go Go ! Mile Smile. Now this is a pretty good game despite it being a bit odd. Sort of like Qix in that you make long lines and have to avoid the baddies touching any part of the line. Cross that with Pacman and you've got it. Now, Balki needed to win this 2-0 otherwise Buks walks away with the trophy (again). Not to be - Buks wins and Balki declared. Buks wins 5-0.

4UP - Pandoras Palace. A consolation game of this. Buks didnt' have it in him to totally trounce Balki and let him win :)

Buks wins 5-1. Nice

2007-07-14T23:02:00.000+01:00

Been messing about as usual and thought I'd take some photos of the cab.

Heres the marquee again. The lights on this time but not sure if it shows through.

Mmmmmm - new frontend. MaLa in all its glory. Nice theme too (from the MaLa site)

Opening credits of "Dragons Lair" - nice, really nice.

Ahh - the age old question - "what buttons do I use ?". Why just the ones that are lit of course ! This piccy is showing the button config for Dragons Lair - but you knew that already.

Lightgun mounting, hole where wires are stuffed and pinball flipper button. The hole is covered using those office desk cable tidy cover things. Found in a skip ! Excellent !

In her throbbing glory. In Technicolor.

2007-07-14T22:57:00.002+01:00

STOP PRESS !!!!

I've uploaded a very low-res video of the buttons in all their "attract mode" glory.

NOTE : Taken on a mobile phone so the res is crap. Not recommended at full screen.

Embedded video here :

2007-07-04T16:55:00.000+01:00

"When the enemy advances, withdraw; when he stops, harass; when he tires, strike; when he retreats, pursue."
- Chairman Mao Zedong (Tse-tung)

So tourney 22 has come around - some classic games too. Read on......

1UP - Qix
Buks hates this game. Its just one of those really annoying games - rubbish at it too. But so is Balki which is probably why, despite it being Balkis game, Buks won 2-1. Chortle.

2UP - Vs. Excite Bike
Oh the joy. This is a great game. Its got all the elements of a classic game - nice simple graphics, lots of tunes etc etc. And Buks was pretty damnded good at it too - especially against Balki who had never played it before in his life. Oh dear. So quite how Balki managed to wipe the floor with Buks and win 2-1 is still being debated. Even stevens now at 3-3.

3UP - Jackal
Great choice by Balki. Sort of like Commando but a lot better. Balki went first and posted a reasonable score, only to be beaten by Buks who posted a personal best. Then Balki lost all 3 lives of his second game within a minute of starting. His score was so low I'm not sure he logged it. Anyway, to save Balki the embarrasment, Buks won 2-0. Score now 5-3 to Buks.

4UP - Elevator Action Returns
Never really got into the first game in this series but EA Returns is a great looking game. Plays pretty good too. Balki needed to win this game 2-0 to force a tiebreaker but......... it wasn't to be. Balki lost the first game then declared.

Victory to Buks - the trophy is now back in its rightful place.

Thanks to Balki for the catering.

2007-06-21T12:35:00.000+01:00

I've been nusing the MAMEWah frontend for a couple of years now. Its great - seems to work with all the emulators I want. But, theres a few issues :

my installation is a bit messed up and any changes seem to break it
MW hasn't been updated in a long while
MW doesn't directly support the LedWiz so have to rely on 3rd party software

The LedWiz "addons" I've been using are okay but theres a 30 second pause from exiting a game and going back to MW - which is too long.

So I started looking around and found a fair few posts from people on BYOAC singing the praises of MaLA.

So to cut a long story short - MaLA is ace ! All the functionality of MW but with built in support of the LedWiz (via a plugin). The buttons for each game light up as you scroll through the list, you can light buttons for a specific game or emulator - so I get lit buttons on Daphne games (game specific) and also on Megadrive and SNES games (emulator specific).

The attract mode animations are excellent too.

So, its goodbye to MAMEWah for now but I will continue to run WAHCade! in Linux (Balki - add LedWiz support please - ta.)

2007-06-21T10:09:00.000+01:00

"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
- Gore Vidal (1925-)

The following (somewhat biased) write-up was penned by non other that Balki "Scoop" Schmalki....

1UP - Manic Miner (1983: Spectrum 48k)
First up was Matthew Smith's seminal platformer Manic Miner. Buks steps up to the plate and virtually completes the game. Balki sits down manages to lose a life on the first level, something which never happened in practice sessions.

Oh Dear. An all too predictable 2-0 to Buks.

2UP - Blue Max (1984: Atari 800)
Next was the lost gem Blue Max - This early example of an isometric shooter has the player piloting a Sopwith Camel, shooting & bombing various targets.
Manfred von Balki dons the scarf & goggles and achieves a respectful, if not unbeatable score. Buks opts for the "I'm a passenger, not the pilot" style of playing and loses 0-2.

3UP - Sensible Soccer (1992: Sega Megadrive) Time for 90's cult football game Sensible Soccer. Two player was the only logical choice here, which was unfortunate for Balki as Buks knows the funny old game only too well. Result: a 2-0 drubbing for sick-as-a-parrot Balki.

4UP - Frak! (1984: BBC Micro Model B)
Possibly the best platformer ever witnessed on the Beeb. A purple caveman, his purple yo-yo, purple balloons and some monsters (also purple) - What more do you need in a game? Balki (ex BBC owner) hammers Buks (ex Spectrum) into the ground with this one: Result 0-2.

Scores on the doors: It's a tie 4-4, so...

Tie Break: Peggle (2007: Windows)
"A modern classic". Perhaps. This "skilled" game of firing a ball at some pegs and hoping for the best went right down to the wire, but Balki pulls out all the stops and comes out the clear, undisputed championship winner 1-2.

Final Score: Buks 5 - Balki 6

Balki wins ! (finally).......

2007-04-30T10:57:00.000+01:00

They don't like it up 'em - Lance Corporal Jones

Balki had to win this one - his wife had told him not to come home without the trophy....

1UP - Hopping Mappy. This one has been a hidden gem of a game. I'd played it maybe once, didn't like it (its one of those cutesy animal games popular in Japan) and thought I'd never play it again. But after closer inspection, its a great game ! Its a bit like a 2-D Monster Farm Jump (we played this in a previous tourney) where you bounce around on a pogo stick. The object of this game is to "collect" the static animals by bouncing on them (extra bonus for getting them in order) while avoiding the bouncing cats and the other bouncing thing (no idea what it was). Balloon collecting bonus levels appear every few levels too. So, onto the game - Buks was up first and posted a very respectable score. Balki stepped up with high hopes only to have then dashed. Second game saw Buks post his personal best which proved too much for Balki who stepped down with a tear in his eye ("its hay fever" he claimed - yeah right). Buks 2-0.

2UP - Metro Cross. Another oldie that we have avoided. This game sees you guiding our hero across a rapidly scrolling left to right assault course, avoiding obstacles and trying to pick up blue cans to slow down the timer. This is where the skill comes in - the faster you complete a course, the more time you will have on the 4th course (all the remaining time is added for this course). Any remaining time is converted into a bonus too so its an advantage to finish quicker. Balki goes first on this one and manages to get to course 6 - one better than Buks has managed in practice. Buks steps up and only gets to course 5 BUT posts a much higher score - basically doing the first 4 courses much quicker than Balki and earning the bigger bonus. And the same happens on the seconds game - much to Balkis frustration. Buks 4-0.

Balki now needs to win all the remaining games to force a draw.

3UP - Psychic 5. This was a bad choice for a tourney game. Its a good little platform/adventure style game but not really intended for a competition. Not much to report other than its a pretty difficult game but Buks managed to pip Balki to the first game (okay he scored double Balkis score). After the second game Balki declared - obviously not his day. Buks 6-0.

4UP Funky Jet. This was Balkis hope for scoring at least one point..... but lady luck was definitely not shining on him tonight. A doubles game was declared and despite Balki being the better of the two in practice, Buks once again managed to score more points at which point the towel was thrown in. Buks 7-0.

Oh dear, not a good night for Balki. Only a walk out spared him from an 8-0 drubbing. Still, 7-0 was an historic win (or defeat if you are in Balkis camp). Next tourney has not yet been arranged so there should be plenty of time to pick the next 4 games.

2007-04-05T11:19:00.000+01:00

Bit of a non event in some ways - we picked the games about 3 weeks ago but neither of us had done any practice at all so we decided, seeing as the games all looked and played pretty good, we should postpone those games and play a PES 5 best of 3 games for the trophy.

Sweden 1 - 0 Senegal

A resounding victory for Buks' Swedes in the first game. Balki and his Senegal posse had to just stand and watch as the game was taken away from them.

Sweden 0 - 1 Senegal

Balki bites back with a superb header from a corner kick. One of the best headed goals I've seen in a long time.

So, onto the final decider.

Sweden 1 - 0 Senegal

This game went all the way to the last 2 minutes of extra time. Looking like a sad 0-0 draw, Buks managed to squeeze a last minute goal to take the trophy home.

Not quite the retro arcade tournament we had hoped for but still - games were played !

2007-02-16T12:46:00.000Z

So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
- Sun Tzu

So tourney 18 kicked off last night over in sunny Leeds. Much trash-talking was done over the obligatory curry and both contestants were fired up for the grudge match of 2007. So how did it pan out ? Read on sir !

1UP - Ninja Emaki. Top down shooter with a difference. Not a bad game but I don't think we will be returning to it again. Both Buks and Balki were pretty terrible in practice sessions - a good litmus test is to see how many end of level bosses you can get to on one credit. Buks managed to defeat the first level boss on both his tries but Balki was less experienced and didn't manage to get past it on his first game. The second game was closer but not close enough. A good player would probably defeat the first 2 or 3 bosses on this type of game. Maybe we are getting too old ? Buks leads 2-0.

2UP - Liquid Kids. A great game this one - sort of Bubble Bobble meats Super Mario with the graphics of New Zealand Story. Balki was confident of a "home" victory in his first choice game but he had an appalling first game, closely followed by an even worse second game. Buks managed to beat these scores easily and was seen grinning from ear to ear while throwing glances at the trophy sat atop the machine. Buks winning 4-0.

3UP - Nova 2001. A confident Buks started this one up. Balki had reported an appalling practice score but this was due to his inability to read the controls setup (he didn't realise it was a two button game - DOH !). So having watched Buks amass a comfortable score using the correct controls, Balki then went onto trash Buks' score and then wipe the current high score as well. This was not good as Buks only needed 1 victory to take the trophy. The second game saw Buks beat his previous best only to then watch Balki double his high score. Buks still leads 4-2.

4UP - In The Hunt. The final game. This one is by the dudes who created R-Type and its a fantastic looking sideways shooter. Buks still only needs a single victory but Balkis previous 2-0 win had knocked his confidence somewhat. But it just wasn't going to be Balkis night as he posted an appalling score which Buks was able to beat with ease. Which meant technically buks had won but Balki wanted his last game to try and get a few consolation points. Disaster. Balki score exactly the same score as his previous attempt which once again, Buks managed to trounce. Buks wins 6-2.

Much trophy kissing ensued. Balki claims his wife was going to file for divorce if he didn't take the trophy home. Bless.

After the tourney we watched the DVD "Once Upon a time At Atari" which was excellent, but only if you are a retro geek. Funnily enough, the missus came home and we paused the video during an interview with some ex-atari dude and she said "Is this a documentary about beards ?". We laughed anyway.

Next tourney will be classic SNES and Megadrive games. Coolio.

2007-01-18T09:31:00.000Z

"A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions"
- Confucius

So the Farooqui sponsored trophy was held last night in Leeds. Both players admitted to a little practice but neither was prepared to predict the outcome.

1UP - Sonic Boom. This is one of those very difficult top down shoot-em-ups. Buks was up first and amassed a reasonable score which Balki was unable to surpass. A better score for Buks in the second game, only to be bettered by Balki. Into the third game and Buks managed somehow to increase his previous scores which proved too much for the ailing Balki. Buks leads 2-1.

2UP - Popeye. A great looking game from the early eighties. The animation on the characters was brilliant in its day. Balki took first dibs and scored a reasonable amount which Buks should have been able to beat. But didn't. The same story for game 2 - Balki had an average game only it was good enough for a below par Buks. Balki leads 3-2.

3UP - Solomon's Key. The game of the evening and one Buks promised to go back to as he was unable to advance past a certain level. Balki claimed to be "not very good at this" which is often used as a ploy in tournaments to give a false sense of security to the other player. Not so in this case - Buks went on to post his highest score to date. Balki stepped up and played a respectable game but was outclassed by Buks. The second game proved to be more of the same with Buks increasing his personal best once again. Buks leads 4-3.

4UP - Tengai. A sideways scroller but with a Japanese/Samurai theme. Quite an excellent game this. Balki needed to win 2-0 to claim overall victory, Buks just needed one game to claim a draw and force a tiebreaker. Balki stepped up, chose his character and dived in. One thing the players noticed is that this game starts at random levels so no two games play in the same order. Balki was disappointed with his score as he felt he could have done better. But was it good enough ?

No.

Buks pulled a blinder out of the bag and beat Balkis score. Would this prove too much pressure for Balki ? He now needed to win both the remaining games to scrape a draw. And what a game he played. Beating all other previous scores, Balki managed to amass an unbeatable score. Buks was unable to score anywhere near and the point went to Balki. This meant all rested on the final game. A win for Buks would see the trophy coming home, a win for Balki would see a tiebreak game to decide the winner.

Balki was on form once more and his score was nearly double that of the first round. Buks stepped up and was just getting into his stride when he lost the first life. The second life was lost moments later. Thins were looking bad. But. He. Played. On. Good use of the smart bomb against the larger foes meant his score eventually surpassed Balkis and victory, and the trophy, were his once more.

Some good games this evening. The players were graced with the presence of Davs who played the odd game and may even be invited to a 3-way tournament in the future (as long as he doesn't pick Defender).

Next tourney may be a "pick of the best" from previous tourneys where each played picks 2 games that they excelled at (Buks is already whispering Solomon's Key).

Over and Out.

2006-12-14T12:39:00.000Z

"rasherfrashersnasher"
- Muttley

So we got together last night to play tourney 16. Balki did loads of practicing and I did none (as usual). In fact, I didn't even pick my games this time as I've been busy. So Balki picked mine. "But surely thats just stoopid ?" I hear you ask. "Yep" is the answer.....

Choplifter - "We should play this first to get it out of the way as its too difficult" said Balki. The lying git. I wasn't expecting to do well and guess what ? I didn't. Balki scored poorly in the first game. Only to be beaten to the "worst score ever" by me. then Balki played his second game for about 4 hours claiming "I've never been this good before". Yeah right. Nuff said. 2-0 to Balki.

Fly Boy - Like I said, Balki chose my games. Well, I can honestly say this game is weird. Theres a button that doesn't appear to do anything and your "pilot" seems to die for no reason at all. Due to lack of practice and the fact that I'm so hard and cool meant I lost both games. Balki now leads 4-0. Incidentally, Balki discovered the button is used to kick planes/birds/whatever but only if you are above them. And the reason for dieing for no reason was flying into clouds. DOH !

Pooyan - Probably the best game of the 4 this week. Really enjoyed playing this one. You play as mother pig who has to stop the wolves from stealing her baby pigs. Honestly its a good game - old skool style graphics and sound with bonus levels and stuff. Balki took first blood as expected but then I took back the next two games. Balki leads 5-2 (at this point Balki has won the trophy but we carry on anyway).

Cabal - My last game which even though Balki picked it, I'd played back in the 80's at some holiday camp arcade somewhere. My first game seemed to go on for hours. Beat the top score and everything. Amazing. But then Balki managed to fluke the next two games - which was bad sportsmanship if you ask me. Balki wins 7-3.

Well, Balki did win fair and square and he gets to keep the trophy over the xmas break.

Next tourney is the "Farooqui Challenge Cup" kindly sponsored by my good friend Asif. For those who are interested, Farooqui is pronounced "Faa-roo-key".

2006-12-01T12:40:00.000Z

"The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him."
- Henry Stimson

Jessicade is finally out of the garage and back in the house after a long hiatus. Looking splendid in her new yellow and red t-molding, I may finally have finished the cab I started over 3 years ago. Unless I can think of anything else to do on it. Like side art. And a proper bezel. Oh god the list goes on and on ....

Talking of lists, lets look at the games we played last night.

Hopper Robo - Buks chose this after trawling the MAWS site and clicking "Random" until he spotted a game that "looked alright". Balki practiced a little and Buks did no revision at all - yes he's that hard. Maybe thats why Balki won the first game 2-1......

GALPLUS - Balki loves Galaga and I'm pretty sure this is the follow up game. Although Balki didn't do too well on his first visit he did well enough to beat Buks' pitiful score. Balkis next visit saw him playing for around 15 minutes and amassing an unbeatable score. In fact buks threw the towel in and forfeit the game. Balki now leading 4-1.

Clash Road - Buks chose this using the same random method as above. Except where Hopper Robo was quite a good game, Clash Road is basically sh*t. Having played a couple of practice games and still not knowing what to do, Buks managed to win both games bringing the score to 4-3.

APB- Balki left this game till last. Probably deliberately as he knew Buks was rubbish. Except Balki somehow managed to completely screw up his first game and score what was probably his lowest ever score. Buks didn't fait much better but did manage to beat his score. Balki then pulled a corker of a game out of the bag and blew Buks away, meaning that the last game would either mean victory for Balki or a draw forcing a tie breaker. Balki stepped up and beat his previou score leaving Buks saying thinking that all was lost. But no. Buks somehow managed to beat Balkis best score despite the swearing and accusations of cheating. Buks drew level 5-5.

And so it was time to randomly pick a game........

Van Van Car- This game is basically pacman, in a car (or is it a van ?) that can shoot (so is it a tank ?) but it can also jump (what ?). A quick life each to get used to the controls and then we were off. Buks took first go as it was his tournament. Completely random skills resulted in what looked like a pretty good score. Balki then took his turn and looked like he was set to equal Buks attempt. Except he didn't. And what looked like a walk in the park suddenly turned into a nightmare as Balki lost life after life and finally the words "Game Over" flashed in front of his eyes. Read em and weep Balki.

Buks once again victorious. Balki was left to suffer the humiliation of his wife (again) and took the long solo journey home. While Buks paraded naked round the house except for a discreetly placed trophy. Until the police were called........

Next tourney will hopefully be better organised and plenty of practice will be partaken of.

2006-10-10T17:09:00.000+01:00

"If a man does his best, what else is there?"
- General George Patton Jr

So, it came to pass that we finally played a tourney game at Balkis ON A PROPER CAB. No half built control panel balanced on a stool, hunched over a monitor, complaints of bach ache, leg ache and poor diabetes control. No. None of this. For Balki has indeed finished his cab (well, he's not planning any modifications YET).

Woah ! the beast in all its glory. So, will Balki have home advantage ? Will Buks snatch the trophy back ? Read on.....

Burnin' Rubber - Balkis first choice. An enjoyable top down scrolling car race from the early 80's. I was quite good at it back in the day although i can never remember what stage I could get to. Anyways, to cut a long story short Balki just pipped Buks 2-1 although the game Buks won was a total slaughter.

Donkey Kong Jr - A very hard game for those who have never played it. A tactical choice by buks as he knew that Balki would probably not play it much pre-tournament. the only problem was Buks was a bit hit and miss - sometimes he'd get to the 2nd round of screens and othertimes he'd barely get off the first screen. A good series of games eventually awarding Buks the victory 2-1. That levels the scores at 3-3.

BurgerTime - Balki brining another classic to the table with the seminal cookery based platformer. One of the "classics" that neither of us ever saw in the arcades - must have been out there somewhere ! Anyhow, Balki was rubbish and Buks managed to walk away with a 2-1 victory. Buks now leading 5-4.

Zzyzzyxx - The final round. Buks once again tactically chose a game that Balki will have never played before. Unfortunately Buks hated the game and was pretty rubbish at it. Which meant
that Balki only had to concentrate and win 2-0 to take the trophy. But he didn't. Balki still won but by 2-1 which meant the final scores for the night were ...... 6-6. So its time for a tiebreak !!!!!

Now, tiebreak games are very rare at these tournaments and we had never really agreed on the method of choosing a game. But Balki suggested a game we had never played before that he'd read about on some retro site. It was being touted as the best "Space Invaders" sequel ever (or something. Anyway, without further ado......

Super Space Invaders '91 - One quick practice game - each of us taking a life and we decided to go for it. We decided to do 2 players alternating but when the game started we were both on screen. Cool. So it was a sort of co-operative game but the winner was the one with the most points. Luckily we had decided that the game was going to be "sudden death" or "golden goal" as we palyed for ages and would never have been able to play the best of 3 games. Anyway, Buks' luck held out and despite the fact that Balki had amassed more points, Balkis last life was taken from him just as the end-of-level-boss appeared. Buks had a fair few points to catch up but seeing as it was the boss level he used all his power weapons which seriously depleted the bosses health. A few shots later and the boss was in flames, Buks' score doubled and victory was his !!!!!!

Commiserations to Balki. Despite the home advantage and playing on his new cab things just didnt go his way.

Next tourney may be at Balkis again as Buks' cab is in bits as he is routing the edges and fitting t-molding.

2006-07-14T09:25:00.000+01:00

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
-Michel de Montaigne

13 proved unlucky for Buks as he lost to Balki in a tightly fought contest last night. Buks travelled away to visit Balki in Huddersfiled and the travelling combined with an attempt by Balki to poison Buks again proved his undoing.

Bomb Jack

Balkis first choice and not a game that Buks has ever been any good at. Balki was first up and posted a poor score but it was too much for Buks who crashed to earth with an even worse and quite frankly appalling score. Balki then went on to top his all time best score for the second round leaving Buks a huge mountain to climb. But Buks almost caused the shock of the tournament by scoring almost double his previous best score. It was not to be though and Balki took the first game 2-0.

Black Widow

Cynically picked by buks purely because Balki hates dual joystick games. Buks steps up first and posts a personal best, Balki was unable to get anywere near. Next round and buks has a disaaterous game and can only hope that Balki falters. But no ! Balki plays a blinder and takes the point. Into the final round Buks scores an idential score to Balkis previous round which proves too much for him and buks takes the round 2-1 leaving the scores at 3-2 to Balki.

Bomberman World - 2 Player

A tricky game this one. In Vs mode you play against human players and computer players, so the points go to wehoever lasts longer than the other player - even if both players lose to the computer. Balki chose this game despite taking defeat in a previous Bomberman tournament - and thats exactly what happened this time. Balki started well, taking the first point bu then lost every single round losing the whole game 2-0. Buks now leads 4-3.

Tecmo Millenium Soccer - 2 Player

Brazil v Argentina. Buks was confindent going into this game on the grounds that he'd practiced all week and Balki hadn't even loaded it up. Buks was still laughing when Baslki scored his goal in the first round. Unable to retaliate, Buks lost the first game. Swapping teams to ensure balance saw Buks playing as Brazil for the 2nd game. And saw balki win 1-0 again. Balki wins the tournament 5-4.

Next tourney in a couple of weeks and may involve a couple of future Pinball games.

2006-07-08T21:56:00.000+01:00

If you haven't got it already get Future Pinball ! Its free (as in FREE not as in pirate software free) and its ace ! Lots of tables - some totally excellent ones.

In fact, its so good I drilled two more holes on the sides of my control panel to add flipper buttons - and yes it sort of feels like you are playing pinball, much better than using the existing buttons on top of the CP.

Get it here : http://www.futurepinball.com/

I may be sad and take some photos (they're only buttons for gods sake !!!).

2006-06-26T12:47:00.000+01:00

Ironed out the lighting problems I had earlier. Now got attract mode working in mamewah ! It switches to a seperate attract mode when running powermame then displays just the buttons in use when playing the game. Looks well cool.

2006-06-23T12:30:00.000+01:00

Okay, so this video is poor quality and the lighting effect are hardly ground breaking but they are pretty cool none the less.

This is the in-game attract mode running via PowerMAME. It changes to just light the relevent buttons when you insert a coin. Dropping back to the MAMEWah menu turns off the lighting - unfortunately I've not yet worked out how to get it working.

See it here : http://www.anti-particle.com/videos/buks_panel_vid.asf

Thanks to Balki for hosting it !

2006-06-23T10:33:00.000+01:00

Go Buks ! Go Buks !

The headline says it all really. Victory has once more visited chez Buks and the trophy cabinet is no longer empty. Balki blamed the Dhal but this was thought to be in revenge for Buks blaming Balkis sausage casserole after the previous defeat.

Normally games are picked at least 1 week before the schedules tournament but as usual Buks was messing about with the cab installing lights and exciting stuff (more on this in a later post) so 2 games were hastily picked less than 24 hours prior to "kick off".

First up was Buks first choice Tiger Heli. Neither Buks nor Balki had actually played this much but it looks like a classic 80's shooter. Buks posted an appallingly low first score but secretly hoped that Balki would fair even worse. Not to be. Balki stepped up and although he did't do well, scored enough points to draw first blood. Balki 1-0. Time to kick some butt for the second game. Buks did well, in an amateur only played this game twice type way. Unfortunately for Buks, Balki then went on to triple his score, topping the games hi score table and taking the first game 2-0.

Next up was Asteroids. Balki had spent many a wee hour playing this a few years back when he shared a house with a self confessed 'Roids addict. But then Balki threw his entire reputation on the arcade scrapheap and posted his all time lowest score ever. Smelling blood and fear (and Dhal) Buks stepped up to the machine and played an absolute blinder to take the first game. Balki still leads 2-1. Another round starts and Balki once more takes to the controls. The pressure was too much though and he posts a slightly better than the previous round score. Coming in for the kill, Buks attempts to take full points from Balkis favoured game. But this was not to be - a couple of mistakes early on and GAME OVER. Balki scrapes back a point to lead 3-1. Final game was taken by Balki who obviously learnt from the previous 2 rounds and looked like he could have sat in front of the screen all night. Buks was unable to compete with his high score and lost the round and the game. Balki winning 4-1.

Time for a change from the old arcade games for this round. Buks and Balki had spent many hours playing Sensible Soccer back in the day and agreed that the new version (Sensi 2006) would make a good tournament game. Teams were chosen using the star rating - England (Buks) V Argentina (Balki). Memory of the game is a blur but suffice to say Buks too it convincingly 3-0. buks crawling back to 2-4. Next round it was decided to swap teams just in case of an advantage. Halway through the game, Balki said (and bear in mind it was 2-1 to buks at this point) "I think this game I'm playing better" at which point his game collapsed and he lost 5-1. Buks now firing on all cylinders and bringing the score to a closer 3-4.

Balkis final choice up next - Mario Brothers. Not to be confused with the NES or SNES games, this was an old arcade single screen affair. The object of the game is to stun and then kick the enemies while running around what looks like a sewer. Balki was up first and complained that he wasn't very good etc etc. It turns out he wasn't very good and posted a low score. Buks stepped up expecting the same kind of experience but managed to spawn a few moves and slaughtered Balkis score. Buks now on evens - 4-4. All to play for now - Balki had to win the next two games to retain the trophy. But disaster struck again, Balki repeating the experience of the previous round. Buks stepped up and was unstoppable - posting the games hi score and walking away with the trophy despite an early poor start.

2006-05-18T09:22:00.000+01:00

I think balki spiked my sausage and mash casserole. Okay so maybe I just lost fair and square :(

First up was Balkis #1 choice - Defender. An excellent game if somewhat flawed by the fact that neither myself or balki were any good at it. We both remember watching people play it in the arcades (back in the day....) but I think I only played it twice because it was so difficult. Anyways, Balki drew first blood with an impressive score of 18,500 (impressive for us I might add). Buks on the other hand managed a measley 7,550 and so lost the first point. The second game was not good for Balki as he threw away his chances with a poor score of 5,625 - Buks took full advantage and posted a whopping score of 9,475 to take the score to 1-1. The final game saw Balki losing it completely with a score of 7,175 but Buks failed to capitalise and just missed out with 7,025. Balki leads 2-1.

Second game was Tutenkam. buks played this game on some campsite in the Lake District sometime in the mid-eighties. Not quite as good as he remembers but still a good but tough game. First score was a respectable 12,020 which was a lmost double Balkis 6,220. Second game was a disappointing 7,980 but still beat Balkis 3,260. Buks leads 3-2

Third up was Puckman (or Pacman for the non-Japanese). This is a game I am absolutely terrible at. I could have predicted this score (and I think I did). Balki was first on the table with a very impressive 23,090 against Buks' 16,530 (a personal best). Second game saw another good score from Balki - 21,490. for some reason Buks' score isn't documented but safe to say it wasn't very good. Balki leads by 4-3.

Final game was a new one - and not an old arcade game. We've been playing about with some new (and free !) software - Future Pinball. tonights table was Puzzle Bobble (or is it Bubble Bobble ?). Anyway, a nice simple layout without too many complicated sequences (I can never work out what to do with pinball games). anyway, this game went right to the wire. The way the scores stood at this point meant it could go either way. First up was Buks who posted a totally disasterous score of 3,950 - quite possibly the lowest score ever. Balki thrashed this with 10,982. Buks came back on the second game with a more respectable 11,615 to beat Balkis 7,355. So, down to the final game - Buks managed to amass 18,508 but Balki pipped him at the final hurdle and scored 27,048. Balki wins the trophy 6-4.

2006-05-17T12:49:00.000+01:00

Well, I had to do it. I have purchased the above items from www.groovygamegear.com in the States and I am just waiting for the parcel to arrive (sometime next week hopefully).

Top left is the "brains" behind the mad flashing/strobing lights. Its a LED-WIZ and god knows how it works but the effects are fantastic.

Top right is the replacement trackball and RGB lights. Each of the 3 different coloured lights can be controlled independantly and means you can get over 1000 colours per device. Cool !

Bottom left is the RGB-Drive which is basically the RGB light for the buttons.

Bottom right is the translucent button type thing.

Should be a good project !

2006-03-30T22:47:00.000+01:00

Finally got round to printing the instructions card I made in Illustrator. It uses the same background image as the Control Panel (originally from a Defender marquee).

Heres a close up - the print quality is pretty good for a home printer. I used some sticky back plastic to cover it and it went on with minimum bubbles :

Heres a shot of the whole cab (shame about the flash - I have no idea how to use a camera) :

And heres yet another shot in case you wanted more :

I need to put my thinking cap on now as I've done just about everything I planned to do. Theres lots that could have been done better but I think I've done okay with my limited skillz ! Those old enough to remember what a CSE is (no, not a GCSE) pobably won't be surprised to know that I got a CSE 4 in woodwork at school. That killed any dream I had of being a carpenter. Good job I bought a ZX Spectrum with my brother when I was 13 !!!!!

2006-03-10T12:29:00.000Z

Tourney Nite 10 was held at Buks' house in Leeds last night. Balki has high hopes of winning back the trophy but would his desire for fame and fortune cost him dearly ?

Yes.

Game on !

First up was Combat School. We played this as a two player rather than taking a game each. Which kind of makes it more fun as this is a Track & Field type button bashing game. It was looking good for Buks in the first round as Balki cocked up the first event. But disaster struck buks on the third event when he managed to capsise his boat and Balki streamed ahead. One up to Balki. The second round was a complete disaster for Buks as his shooting skills left him trailing behind once more. 2 - 0 to Balki.
Next up was Neo Turf Masters. Weird game this - we played a 2 player "Match Up" game and seemed pretty even but as soon as one of us dropped a shot it wanted more coins. So it was basically a case of play the game till someone dropped a shot then the point went to the other player. Bit crap really. We should have played 9 holes per round and awarded the points to the winner. Anyway, it finished 2-1 up to Buks.
Smash TV was next. I had high hopes of taking a 2-0 victory on this but Balki had been practicing. He even said "I like Smash TV - its not as hard as Robotron" which defeated the whole point of picking this game ! Anyway, Balki took first blood again but Buks managed to pull back the last 2 games to finish 2-1 up.
Into the last game at 4-4 - Snow Brothers. this was going to be tight ! Both Buks and Balki claimed to be "Rubbish" at this game. Balki scored an appaling 5750 on his first round - followed by a lot of swaering (Balki) and a lot of laughter (Buks). Buks had beaten this score by the second screen and then went on to score a personal best but was defeated by the boss level. Balki then "pulled one out of the bag" and beat my previous round score but he was also defeated by the boss level. Balki had gone for the extra bonuses and combos which meant Buks had to follow suit for the 2nd round. Which he did. Defeating the boss at the end of level one and then clearing the next two screens saw the trophy once more staying with Buks.

A great laugh last night, but maybe more fun when you win ?

2006-03-02T16:49:00.000Z

Next week will be the 10th Tournament ! how many hours have we wasted playing games ? !!!

Balkis first choice is Neo Turf Masters. A pretty decent golf game and should be a laught with a 2 player game. This one uses buttons rather than a trackball so we should be able to play it :)

Buks chose Smash TV partly because Balki is so bad at Robotron therefore he shouldn't offer up myuch resistance with Smash TV. The gameplay in this game is awesome. I just wish I was any good at it.

Balkis 2nd choice game is Snow Brothers. Very similar to Bubble Bobble but different enough to be fun.

Combat School is Buks' final choice. A button basher a bit like Track & Field but not quite as fun.

Practice has already started and with a week to go we should be posting some very high scores. Yeah right... :)

2006-02-26T21:18:00.000Z

Jessicade in all her glory.

2006-02-26T21:10:00.000Z

I'd decided ages ago that the speakers below the marquee didn't look the part. I wanted to cover them with some "in-theme" speaker grilles but never got round to doing them. Fast-forward to this weekend when I poped into the local Halfords (car accessory shop) and spotted some 10cm Kenwood car speakers for £19.99. I took the grilles and mounting "things" off and spray painted some primer (about 4 coates). Then I sprayed the grilles yellow (about 3 coats). The mounting "things" were painted with a bright red enamel modelling paint (didn't have any red aerosol). The finished product actually looks pretty good. Not bad for 20 quid.

2006-02-26T21:01:00.000Z

Okay, so I finally took some pictures of the lightguns and the LED strips that the guns use to work out positioning.

First up is the right hand LED strip. I cut holes in the bezel and jammed the strips in . Unfortunately the first set of strips stopped working after dropping out and being man-handled into the holes.

Next up is the left hand LED. Not much else to say really.

And the left hand PL1 gun in its "holster". Just two pieces of thick dowel to hold the gun by the trigger and the handle. Seems to work fines - its not dropped off yet.

The guns work beautifully. I had loads of hassle with the PS2 Guncon2 guns. The driver seemed to work but there were huge issues with accuracy. I think this was down to using the VGA/SCART cable. Anyway, these guns use a camera and the two LED strips to work out the guns position on the screen. I've tested a single gun with House of The Dead3 and Art is Dead on the PC as well as loads of MAME lightgun games.

2006-02-02T12:17:00.000Z

Tourney 9 took place in Huddersfield on Balki's control panel. Despite having the home advantage Balki didn't manage to retain the trophy and Buks returned to Leeds once again victorious.

First up was Cosmic Cop. About a weeks worth of practice on this one - but having discussed tactics etc it looked like Balki would take this one 2-0. Balki played first and amassed a pretty good score - way more that my personal best. But as is often the case under tourney conditions - I managed to beat my best score and just pipped Balki's first attempt by around 1,000 points. Same happened on the second game which meant I took the lead - 2-0.

Next up was Zaxxon. This was an odd choice in that its one of the "flagship" retro games but I never played it in the arcades because it was way too hard. Having it on MAME means you can practice forever without spending lots of 10p's. I had practiced this game a lot over the past week and had actually become pretty good at it. Whereas I previously couldn't get past the outer space wave, I can now get past the end of level robot on most attempts (pretty good for me anyway !). I was first up and got to about 1/2 through the second level. Pretty average score for me. As Balki started his game, he jokingly said "Watch me crash into the wall". And then did. Much laughter ensued. Balki posted a very low score. Next game I somehow managed to emulate what Balki had done. I barely made it past the outer space level. Not good. Balki had a chance to pull a point back. But to cut a long story short, he didn't. Another 2-0 to me. So 4-0 at the halfway point.

Next up was Frogger. Not a favourite of mine. This is basically because I played it to death on the ZX Spectrum in the 80's. Although in practice I did okay, theres something about the game that just doesn't click with me. Balki was first up and beat his previous high score which meant I was going to have to pull one out of the bag if I wanted to beat it. I didn't but I did score a respectable score. Next game saw Balki beat his score again which meant I was going to have to do the impossible. I was right - it was impossible. I score the lowest Frogger score I have ever had. So Balki brought the score back to 4-2.

Lastly was Monster Farm Jump. This is a Japanese (I think) game from the 90's which I've never seen before. I "discovered" it while browsing the MAWS website. Excellent game with loads of level and difficulty selection. First up was me, and I managed to score possibly my best ever - I got to level 9 before losing all my lives. Balki was next and also got to level 9 but he'd been too quick on the bonus level and didn't amass enough combo's so his score was way less than mine. Which meant the score was 5-2 and technically impossible for Balki to win. We played one more game but I didn't do well (due to laughing and waving the trophy about). Balki beat me on the last game so 5-3 was the final score.

So victory to me !

Next tourney we have decided to choose 2-player games so I suspect that they'll be mostly soccer and fighting games.

2006-01-30T14:46:00.000Z

the following games have been chosen for the next tourney night (9 not including the PES5 nite) :

Frogger
Cosmic Cop
Zaxxon
Monster Farm Jump

A couple of classics there plus 2 modern games. I remember playing Frogger to death on my Spectrum but never played it in the arcades (bored of it I think). Zaxxon was one of those games that the "big kids" used to play. I used to just watch in awe ! I remember the first time I saw Zaxxon in the arcade i thought it was almost realistic graphics (!). Cosmic Cop is an R-Type type game. Plays a good game but I'm pretty crap at sideways shooters (probably why Balki chose it). And finally, Monster Farm Jump - this one is a hidden gem if you ask me. I "discovered" it by clicking on the Random link on the maws site (www.mameworld.net/maws/). It reminds me of an old spectrum game called Bounder (or was it Bouncer ?). anyway, its a typical overly cute, completely mad Japanese game.

Practice sessions are taking place as we speak 9okay not while we're at work) so should be a good 'un.

2006-01-30T14:33:00.000Z

Okay, so I've already bought the Guncon2 lightguns and got my brother to do some soldering on the vga cable to accept the composite sync. BUT, they never worked properly. Okay, so I got a couple of games of House of the Dead III up and running but there was loads of hassle calibrating, as well as never quite getting 2 player working. And MAME gun games never quite worked (due to dark areas of the screen).

So, I've ordered 2 LCD Topgun guns from playasia.com as the BYOAC forum has been buzzing with people testing them and reporting good results. These guns are different in that they have a small camera on them that somehow tracks the position (theres two infra red "sticks" that attach to the side of the screen) so it doesn't matter what kind og screen/graphics card/cable you use.

I'll post more when they arrive.

2005-12-06T10:20:00.000Z

Balki and myself abandonded our plans for another tournament night the other day as we decided to test Wah!Cade on my linux laptop. Balki managed to fix a couple of problems I'd been having and we got a few bugs ironed out. Which left a couple of hours left for a Pro Evolution Soccer 5 mini-tournament. Prize on offer was the MAME Master Trophy.......

First a quick rundown of the rules -

pick 2 equally skilled teams
play normal and extra time
no penalties
winner declared after time runs out

So, we picked Columbia and Senegal and 10 minutes a game. We drew the first game. And the second. And possibly the third (all 0-0). Just when it looked like no-one was going to score Balki fluked a tap in ion the 89th minute of the 4th game. Absolute disaster. Another couple of 0-0 draws and eventually Balki was declared the winner. Almost as bad as losing on penalties ! We had a few minutes spare before Balki had to go home so we picked Argentina V Argentina just to see if we played any better with a decent team. Lots more goal opportunities including a couple of open goals which I still managed to either sky the ball or hit the post. Balki eventually fluked another goal before stealing the trophy and heading off into the night.

Next time Balki !

2005-11-21T15:40:00.000Z

Okay, so this is not really anything to do with me but ..... My co-tournament buddy Balki has been secretly developing a Linux clone of the excellent Mamewah. Written in Python, it should actually work on Linux, Windows, Mac and Amiga. Only tested on Linux so far though.....

I've had some success as lead tester (I just gave myself that job title, better tell Balki....) except my laptop doesn't appear to like the latest version of Ubuntu (Breezy 5.10). It worked much better on the previous version (Hoary 5.04). Shouldn't have upgraded !

Anyway Balki's site is listed in the link section on the right >>>>>>>>

Post any findings etc on the BYOAC forums !

2005-11-11T08:49:00.000Z

The silverware finally returned to my trophy cabinet last night after a compehensive victory over Balki. The event was hosted by Balki who also provided catering and refreshments.

First up was Out Run. In practice I was appalling so I decided not to spend too much time on it as I knew Balki was pretty good at it (he used to beat me on the real thing back when we were at Uni together). Despite this defeatist attitude, I managed to pull one out of the bag and claimed first blood. No doubt this was due to nerves on Balki's part - which proved true as he went on to completely slaughter me in the next 2 rounds.

Time Pilot - I spent many an hour playing this on holiday one summer back in the 80's. I don't think I ever got past the UFO level but my high score was pretty good compared to the rest (a small holiday camp somewhere in the Lake District I seem to remember). My first round looked like a total disaster after I lost all but one life on the first level. Then I managed to turn my game around as I completed the next 3 levels or so on 1 life - beating Balkis previous best in the process. Neither of us did brilliantly but I did better Balki's personal best on both rounds so he didn't really stand a chance.

Next up was Sky Kid. Balki's choice here - I managed to get some practice in over the past week so it looked like honours would be even. Balki suffered a couple of disasters though including forgetting to pick up the bomb on the first level. Picking up the bomb and dropping it on target is where all the bonus points are so this was Balki's big mistake. Balki needed to win this 2-0 but unfortunately for him, he didn't. The tournament was won after this game (much trophy waving ensued).

Last up was Super Cobra which Balki admitted to having never practised. We only managed one game as victory was already mine. Bloody tough game it is too - I'm pretty good at Scramble (I can complete the first base and nearly the 2nd) but this is waaay too hard.

So another victory chalked up. Next games will have to be chosen carefully as the past two tournaments have seen both Balki and myself throw "home" games away.

2005-10-24T12:58:00.000+01:00

Just purchased the above item form PC World for £24.99. It enables you to control power to all peripherals via one socket. Basically I plug the PC into the black/grey socket and the TV, subwoofer and marquee lights into the white sockets. No power goes to the white sockets until I turn on the PC. A couple of seconds later and they all come on. Same happens when I power down the PC. After a couple of seconds everything goes off. Good for the environment too as everything is off rather than on standby.

Right, next job is to work out how to wire up and external switch so I can turn on the TV without having to open up the door in the cab. Or work out how to do it via the keyboard/mouse (bios setting).

2005-10-18T12:53:00.000+01:00

Added the MAME attract video pack from http://www.darrensweb.org/mame_videos.php

Its a BIG download via bittorrent (over 1Gb) but well worth it.

They work really well in Mamewah too. Here is an example snippit from the mame.ini file (the Mamewah one not the MAME one) :

### Artwork Locations ###
artwork_1_image_path c:\mame\snap
artwork_2_image_path c:\mame\artwork
artwork_3_image_path c:\mame\cabinets
artwork_4_image_path c:\mame\flyers
artwork_5_image_path c:\mame\marquees
artwork_6_image_path c:\mame\cpanel
artwork_7_image_path
artwork_8_image_path
artwork_9_image_path
artwork_10_image_path
movie_preview_path c:\mame\videos
movie_artwork_no 1

##########################################################

So basically you tell mamewah to replace the artwork_1 images (or wherever you are displaying the snap images) with the videos. The video doesn't start for a couple of seconds so it doesn't pause when you are scrolling through your list of games.

Theres some other vids available for other emulators at http://www.emumovies.com/ but i've not tried them yet .....

2005-10-14T09:24:00.000+01:00

Balki Wins !

Maybe it was because I was playing away from home. Or maybe it was because Balki's control panel was on the floor, or maybe it was because I'm sh*t .... but my reign as MAME Master has finally ended. In what was the worst defeat in history, Balki romped home with the final game to spare - the first time this has ever happened. I let you down, I let myself down. Is this time to consider retirement ?

Nope.

We started off with Centipede. Now my hiscore is way more than Balki's but something happened to my gameplay and too many silly mistakes led to me losing the first game. Then the second. 2-0 to Balki.

Next up was Nitro Ball. A kind of walking/shooting game based on pinball. Both Balki and myself recorded personal bests but Balki managed to pull one out of the bag and defeat me. 4-1 Balki.

Rainbow Islands. Don't ever mention this game to me again. 6-2 Balki.

Last up was Phozon. Having already awarded the trophy to Balki, this game was cut short after I threw the towel in. 7-2 Balki.

I definately think that playing on your own machine helps. Well, thats my excuse anyway !

2005-10-04T23:46:00.000+01:00

Managed to FINALLY get some joy with the lightgun. I'm using Acorns Guncon2 driver (http://www.acornscity.com/guncon/index.php?language=english). Although I originally had it working (only sort of) I somehow managed to screw something up and it stopped functioning. After sussing out the calibration screen (which I have to run in 640x480) I manged to get House of The Dead 3 up and running as well as a couple of MAME games.

Next up it getting the second gun to work so we can have some 2 player tournament action.

Speaking of tournaments (no, it's not that time already) we decided to pick the games a couple of weeks prior to the next one so we can get some decent practice in. The games are :

Centipede
Nitro Ball
Raindow Islands
Phozon

Should be a good one !

2005-10-01T11:56:00.000+01:00

Heres some close-ups of the buttons and stuff.

And heres the CP sat on its box - hinged on the back with a piano hinge. Need to touch up the paint work on the edging but apart from that its just about done.

2005-10-01T11:28:00.000+01:00

Finally got round to posting the piccies of the new CP. Still need to do a bit of work on it like extra coats of paint on the edging (didn't use t-molding as its not that easy to get in the UK).

First up is a piccy of the underside of the old CP without the trackball. Bit of a mess - I was hoping that my wiring would be neater on the new CP but it wasn't ....

And this is the new CP with the trackball added. The moutning plate has been recessed into the wood to make a smooth surface.

And these are the parts waiting to be added. 2 Ultimarc T-Stick Plus', loads of buttons and an Oscar spinner with the MAME spinner top.

The new overlay finally added ! Temporarily stuck down with masking tape at the edges. At this point it is just resting on the old CP box which is too long and narrow. I may have to make a whole new box.

First proper playtest ! My old mate from my previous job wanted to see the machine as he had only seen photos. Heres Lizard mastering the fine-art of the archery event in Track and Field.

More pics to follow !

2005-09-30T12:38:00.000+01:00

Another Tournament already ? This was supposed to be over in Huddersfield but due to a diabetic incident I was unable to drive - so Balki kindly offered to come over to Leeds. After a splendind tea we sat down (at the new control panel) and started the tourney.

Seeing as it was supposed to be hosted by Balki, he became player 1 and we started with his first choice. I was never any good at 1942 in the arcades, but somehow managed to beat Balki quite convicingley in the end (NOTE : after much discussion we realised that we had in fact played 1943 in the arcades - almost identical gameplay though).

Next up was Bagman - a last minute choice of mine really. Neither of us had played it much and we had never seen it in the arcades. Balki sussed how the bonus points worked which basically meant he slaughtered me. We had a quick radge on Super Bagman afterwards to see if that was any good - a better game but too bloody complicated for us !

Quantum was Balki's second choice - and also one of my "reserve" choices which meant we were probably quite evenly matched. A great little game thats quite unique - maybe Quix is similar but not really. You can be doing really well then all of a suddent you've made a few stupid mistakes and its game over. I managed to win 1 game which gave me an advantage going into the last game ......

Irritating Maze. Its a maze and yes its irritating. I definately had home advantgae here as Balki had not really played this one before. The Novice level is pretty easy though so it doesn't take long to get used to it. One thing we noticed was - you don't actually get a score so its impossible to compare score. So we decided to award the point to the person who gets furthest. I managed to pip Balki on the first two games which meant I walked off with the trophy again ! 5-4 the score this time - only a matter of time before Balki picks the right mix of games and steals it off me !

The new CP is finally in place now - it sits nicely on the new box and Balki helped me attach the piano hinge to the lid so its now fully functional. Needs some woodfiller to cover up the counter-sunk screw and a dab of black paint. I will post photos when its done.

2005-09-23T11:18:00.000+01:00

Picked up the CPO from the university Media Servies department the other day - WOW ! The quality is superb. I supplied them with an Adobe Illustrator .ai file and they printed it on some huge printer and laminated it (both sides). they even trimmed the edges for me.

I will hopefully be drilling holes in the new CP this weekend.

2005-09-19T16:06:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd post some piccies of the Mamewah skin I'm using. I've used about 4 or 5 different skins but finally I'm happy with these.

The first screenshot is of the main Mamewah screen. I designed all the screens is Paint Shop Pro in case you wondered. I used the "Slicker" font which is nice and clear on my TV. The yellow and red boxes are supposed to compliment the new CPO design.

Next up is the options screen. Note the cunning use of the "M.A.M.E. Masters" trophy as a watermark.

Whenever you select a game, this screen pops up displaying the buttons and joystick controls.

after the controls screen, you get a loading screen featuring a nice shot of the machine.

Next thing to do is build the new control panel and attach the new CPO.......

2005-09-15T22:55:00.000+01:00

Is it another tournament already ? It certainly is......

Tourney 5 took place this evening and I can honestly say it was almost too much fun. Obviously I came off the victor sending Balki back to Huddersfield empty handed once more. Good spotsmanship from Balki as he allowed me to change my choice of games just prior to the start - I swapped Hyper Athlete for Donkey Kong as we would have run out of time (Hyper Athlete games can go on for ages and seeing as we play best of 3 games it could have been an all nighter).

Anyway, onto the results :

Formatting seems to have gone up sh*t creek in the table but as you can see, thr final game was conceded after I managed to score a point which meant Balki had no chance of winning the trophy.

Next tourney should be over at Balkis in Huddersfield so maybe my luck will change.

2005-09-15T13:32:00.000+01:00

I've finally sent my CPO for printing at the Media Services department where I work. It's going to be printed and laminated by them so hopefully it will be quality. Overall size is 26" by 13" which will cost approx £23.50 - not bad eh ?

I can collect it tomorrow so maybe I will start on the consruction this weekend.

2005-08-16T10:20:00.000+01:00

Hais Mission Light Gun

My god ! Isn't the internet amazing ? I ordered two of these yesterday afternoon from :

http://www.divineo.co.uk/cgi-bin/div-uk/us-ps2-mlg

And they were waiting for me at work this morning !

I am now a convert to the British Postal Service !

Of course, I don't have a PS2 so they will sit in their boxes till my bro has built that circuit. I bug him every day about it but I don't think he will start it until I stop going on about it :)

2005-08-16T10:14:00.000+01:00

Bribed my brother to come over and solder some wires to the coin door lights. Its amazing what two pints of beer can do !

We used the tutorial as described here -

http://www.retroblast.com/articles/coindoor.html

Worked exactly as they said. Theres even a video to watch how they did it !

My brother (Howard) said last night that I'd never mentioned him - I have now ! He also wired up the VGA-SCART cable which basically turns your TV into an arcade monitor. The picture quality is superb - theres no "bleeding" of colours. One example is the edge of the maze in Pengo. Before I was using a TV-OUT socket on my Nvidia card going into a SCART adaptor. The maze edges were very blurry and the shape was all stretched. With this new cable (and an ATI card) the maze edge is perfect.

His next job is to make another VGA-SCART Cable but with an extra cable coming off it attached to some circuit with an RF socket attached. This is for the lightguns I mentioned in a n earlier post.

2005-08-14T14:44:00.000+01:00

Forgot to mention that Balki fixed the wiring problem on the coin door where the "old" coin buttons had stopped working. Turned out I'd wired up the coin doors wrongly ! Althought they seemed to work they actually didn't - they were set to register credits unless a coin was inserted . Weird huh ?

Looking into wiring up a couple of PS2 guncon2 guns for House of The Dead 1/2/3 and others. Need to wait for my brother to solder some circuitry which may take a couple of weeks. More details can be found here :

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/smogdragon/

http://guncon.acornscity.com/

I may go for the second driver as there seems to be more updates on that one.

2005-08-14T14:37:00.000+01:00

Got some time this weekend to cut the hole for the coin door. Also fitted the two locks - one for the coin door and one for the cab door. Need to find a way of switching the PC on without having to unlock and open the cab door. Might have a look at wiring up an external switch.......

Cab door needs another coat of paint and the entire cab needs re-painting/sanding etc.

2005-08-12T10:40:00.000+01:00

Last night was Tournament Nite (again). Good choice of games with a nice mixture. Victory was sweet as I've lost the last 2 tourneys pretty convincingley so to win with such a large margin was good. I will post the actual scores in an update at some point but really this is just a practice post to see if I can post tables !

Rules of the tourney are : Each player picks 2 games. Each game is then played in a best of 3. In case of a draw then a final game is selected and played either in a best of 3 or a one off game (depending on time).

Heres the results showing that Buks (6) beat Balki (2) to take the trophy home !

2005-08-10T22:23:00.000+01:00

I ordered a 2 player mini coin door from Suzo a couple of weeks ago. They have a minimum order of £100 which is a bit steep for a hobbyist but I suppose they don't want to waste time with people ordering £1.25 barrel locks. My order came in at less than £100 anyway and the bloke on the phone was ace.

Also bought a "redemption tray" to store 10p's in - its a fair bit bigger than I'd expected so not sure where to put it yet.

Wired up the door to test it and it works ! Minor problem is that the buttons that used to be Coin 1 and 2 don't work anymore. Not a problem as they will be used for Pause and Escape on my new CP when I get round to making it.

2005-08-06T21:33:00.000+01:00

Excellent spinner from Oscar Controls. I'm rubbish at Arkanoid though so I tend to use it for driving games (not perfect but better than the sticks !). I smashed the perspex overlay while drilling the extra holes for this but it was cracked anyway. Also that gave me the push to create a smaller replacement CP.

I've since added two orange buttons for left/right mouse which go next to the spinner.

2005-08-06T21:28:00.000+01:00

the marquee is hand painted (in reverse on the back). I'm no artist and it's not brilliant but looks okay from a distance. With the marquee light on you can see all the imperfections and that I used the wrong paint. Not bad though and good enough for now.

also included a new piccy of the keyboard drawer with mini-keyboard.

2005-08-06T21:16:00.000+01:00

Before

After

I wasn't happy with the profile shape of the cab plus the bar stool I bought could only be raised so far before your knees banged into the underside of the cab. After much though I finally decided to use my jig-saw and luckily didn't wreck the whole thing. I'm much happier now with the look as well as there being more room for your legs.

the "after" picture is a bit dark so heres the original sketch comparing the before/after shapes:

2005-08-06T21:03:00.000+01:00

The "trophy"

Balki on Dig-Dug

Buks on Pengo

Played a couple of tournaments with my good friend Balki. We are still trying to decide on the best method for scoring but so far I have won the trophy once, and Balki has regained it and kept it for the last 2 tournaments. We choose 2 or 3 games each and play 3 rounds on each game. The first tourney lasted about 3 hours and was a draw so we had to play a single game highest score wins. Since then we have played less games but its been good fun (despite losing the last two times).

Piccies here of the trophy and me and Balki in action.

2005-08-06T20:58:00.000+01:00

Heres a couple of pics of the cab with its new paint-job.

2005-08-06T19:50:00.000+01:00

Okay time for a speaker piccy - theres two mini speakers below the marquee area with a subwoofer in the base of the cab. Theres also a volume control "thing" that sits in the ketboard drawer (but keeps sliding down the back) but this will be mounted "somewhere" eventually.

Heres a piccy of the keyboard drawer too. Since then I've bought a mini-keyboard (£14.99 from Maplins) thats really cool and leaves a load more room for mouse movement.

Worth pointing out here is that the TV is connected to an Nvidia card via S-Video. Can't remember the make/model of the card as I've since switched to Ati.

2005-08-06T19:43:00.000+01:00

I did have some photos of the lower half on its own but I appear to have lost them. They were crappy quality anyway as they were taken with my pre-war mobile phone (Boer War :) ).

The design was originally strictly Lucid Arcade Flashback but after seeing the Ultimate Arcade II cabs (http://www.mameroom.com) I decided to modify the Lucid design and make a hybrid cab of my own. It actually looks just like a UAII but thats what I wanted anyway.

Hopefully heres another piccy with the TV in place (thats if you can post more than 1 pic per post !). EDIT : Looks like they appear in the wrong order but I think people will follow what I'm saying.

2005-08-06T19:37:00.000+01:00

The title on the CP is "Arcadian system 2004" which was always a working title. This has since changed to "Jessicade" as its named after my daughter who was born during its contruction !

Worth mentioning here that the CP controls are all from the excellent Ultimarc (highly recommended by the way).

The CP in this picture currently had :

IPAC 2
2 T-Stick plus joysticks
6 buttons per player
PL1 / PL2 and two coin buttons
OPTIPAC
Trackball and mounting plate

The wiring is a mess as this is the first time I've ever done anything remotely electronic - aprt from wiring a plug !

Note the crack in the perspex which ruins the overall effect for me but most people don't notice it or if they do its all part of the "old and battered arcade machine" look-and-feel.

2005-08-06T19:32:00.000+01:00

Okay, I've taken a few photos during the construction of my arcade cab but not of every stage. This one is of the Control Panel which was the first bit to be contructed - note that theres a gap in the middle which is for the trackball (couldn't afford the parts all at once). Work stopped after this as I spent about 6 months playing MAME games on a spare monitor positioned on the end of the dining table. Good fun though :)

2005-08-06T13:44:00.000+01:00

After a few people posted comments on the BYOAC Artwork forum I made the suggested changes. The sun in the top right has now shrunk somewhat and now hopefully doesn't distract the viewer. I have also completely re-done the joystick and button surrounds using circles rather than joined up curves. The difference may not be too apparent in the jpeg images but it is noticable in the original Illustrator image. Thanks to all who commented on BYOAC.

2005-08-04T10:56:00.000+01:00

This is going to be out of date order as I'm at work and all the photos are on the home machine. But I'm too impatient to wait till I get some time at home to post so heres the latest mini project - designing a new Control Panel Overlay (CPO). The existing CP is pretty basic and originally had a perspex cover. This shattered when I added the holes for the spinner and two mouse buttons. It was one of those times when I was rushing the job and didn't bother to take the necessary precautions - clamping the sheet down and drilling through a sandwhich of wood and perspex. After a few weeks without the perspex cover I decided to design a proper CPO which would be printed and laminated. After much searching and sketching I finally came up with a design loosly based on the Defender theme that the marquee is based on. One quick lesson in Adobe Illustrator later and I came up with the piccy posted here (Note this is a jpeg export of the .ai file which is much more detailed) . Not bad for one weeks work using software I'd never seen never mind used before !

Black Widow

Bomberman World

Tecmo millenium Soccer

2005-08-04T10:50:00.000+01:00

Well, this is it. I've finally decided to publish photos and info on my home built arcade machine.

It's been build over a period of 2 years and is still not finished - and by the accounts of fellow arcade machine builders - it never will be finished !

The aim of this blog will be to document the project and will also be somewhere for me to store all the photos I have taken !