Linkable Games on Driving Cab Advice wanted.

Having built myself a fully ghetto driving setup, and gotten a ways into configuring the PC, I've realised I want to image the HDD in case anything goes wrong. It's an awful lot of work, isn't it? I have like 3 programs running in the background just to control the wheel, all on auto-switching configs, and this is without a frontend so far.

 

So, any recommendations for imaging software? Would need to keep the windows install intact and activated as well.

 

I was also wondering about driving games. Specifically games that can be linked over Lan, as I'm thinking of building another setup or mb two. Will Mame do that? Can you get Mame to display two-screen games like outrunners or F1 super lap to actually display two screens on two screens over lan? Or even on one PC?

 

I managed to configure Daytona last night across a jury-rigged lan. And Outrun 2006 should work. How about other model 2/3 games? I'd love to get STCC up and going, but that seems to clag on linking two instances in m2emulator. Is there a build of Supermodel that can network Scud Race or Daytona 2? What about Sega Nascar on Demul?

 

I have Grid, which plays well at 480i on the CRT, and am thinking about Grid 2 if I can get two machines that will handle it.

 

Suggestions and advice welcome :)

Edited August 25, 2016 by buttersoft

Google Macrium Reflect or Aomei...both great easy products and free. I use both and others. Holler if you need any help

I've used Macrium before, and it invalidated my XP install. I imagine it's better now :)

 

And having been on google, i see there's some network builds of Supermodel out there. Does anyone know how to configure those for Lan play on Daytona 2PE and Scud Race?

I backed mine up with Acronis True Image 2015.

Easy to use and no problems.

 

I've used Model2 emulator and had two PC's connected via lan. Wasn't too hard to configure.

Norton Ghost or EasUS

Hdclone

 

Sent from my GT-I9506 using Tapatalk

Macrium Reflect is my recommendation.

 

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

I've used Model2 emulator and had two PC's connected via lan. Wasn't too hard to configure.

 

I have it up and running, yeah. But it doesn't work for the game i really want it to - STCC :(

 

I also have the latest build of supermodel, but no idea how to configure it. I haven't tried yet, but I can't find any info online. I notice the .ini file for the emulator has changed, mb there's something in there...

 

I'd also love to get Outrunners up and going, though that might have to be one PC and two screens, from what i understand. Never tried networked MAME though, so any tips much appreciated.

 

 

EDIT:

Hmm, looks like you can link Virtua Racing and Outrunners and F1 Super Lap over lan in MAME. Anyone had any success with that?

 

EDIT2: I keep finding more stuff, but man it's pain to google through this. I swear repairing CRT's is easier :)

relevant part in your mame.ini :

Code:

 

#

# CORE COMM OPTIONS

#

comm_localhost 0.0.0.0

comm_localport 15112

comm_remotehost 127.0.0.1

comm_remoteport 15112

 

2 or more PCs setup:

 

comm_localhost is the master pc machine, put the ip adress in here.

comm_remotehost needs to point to the ip adress of the next pc.

pc1 points to pc2, pc2 points to pc3 etc.

Last pc points to pc1 again.

After this, just start the game and in the setup/service menue of the game, you need to setup the network of pc1 to "master" and the rest to "slave" (or "unit2", "unit3" etc. depends on the game).

 

EDIT: AFAIK the localhost can just be left all zeros. It's only the remote host that matters.

Edited August 25, 2016 by buttersoft

As far as I'm aware networking has not been emulated in supermodel yet

Also with supermodel make sure you're running the development builds rather than the 0.2a as they have made significant improvements

 

I've not tried mame and Virtua Racing yet but might give that a go this weekend on my setup - the ini file is pretty self explanatory so just make sure you've added exceptions in your firewall for the 15112 port to be allowed.

I'll let you know how I get on

As far as I'm aware networking has not been emulated in supermodel yet

Also with supermodel make sure you're running the development builds rather than the 0.2a as they have made significant improvements

 

I've not tried mame and Virtua Racing yet but might give that a go this weekend on my setup - the ini file is pretty self explanatory so just make sure you've added exceptions in your firewall for the 15112 port to be allowed.

I'll let you know how I get on

 

Cheers, man.

 

I have the emucr builds of supermodel, yeah. And I would swear there are videos out there of networked play already. I thought that was the stuff the devs were releasing. But I might be wrong. I hope it is, or that they do release a new build soon!

 

I managed to get 2x VR running on my test machine. Two instances of MAME on the one laptop, linked up. It was a pain, but not an insurmountable one. Using 2x windowed mode, the instance set to "master" would always run at like 1/10th speed, and the link would never be found. Then i discovered that when running VR or Outrunners in windowed mode, you can't move the window or size it, or the game crashes. Might just be GroovyMAME, but even disabling switchres didn't help. In the end I managed to connect two fullscreen instances of GroovyMAME, one at 800x600, one at 480i on my little test crt. Alt-tabbing between means i can only see one screen at once, and the audio from the other goes into fast forward, but it does link, and stays at good speed with the countdown timer stable between machines.

 

And i did need to hunt down the m1comm.zip rom, which is missing from the model1/system32 games.

 

I also got outrun working much easier after nutting out the above, though there doesn't seem to be a way to set a single-seat cab. So in mame.ini i can set numscreens 2 and then pretend the right-side seat doesn't exist. At least with a CRT i can. With an LCD (laptop's permanent screen) it just kept crashing. One time I'm grateful there isn't sound in attract mode though, I'll say that :)

 

 

I have a setup i can test things with over lan, but that's for next week when I have more time.

So Virtua Racing and Outrunners work perfectly over LAN. With Outrunners you can just set numscreens 2 and then not worry about the second seat of each. It does mean you're playing as cars #1 & #3, but whatever :) And then you have to play with the aspect ratio for VR, if in 480i...

 

F1 Super Lap was a little more challenging to get right. This was over LAN, not sure about two instances on one machine though. With the remotehost set in mame.ini (see up the thread) the game won't load far enough to produce video until it finds the link, and thus won't go into the service menu, etc. So you have to leave the network settings as default in MAME, then set one instance to be cab #2. Then set up the network in mame.ini. Then run both cabs and they link. Master/#1 is the default state of the F1lap rom, and there is no single setup - only Master/#1, #2-#8, and Replay, for remote camera. Once the network is set up in mame.ini the game goes hunting for the link no matter what the internal game settings are, and won't load until the token ring is complete.

 

Also, i learned that you don't need to set the localhost in mame.ini for any of these games. Leave it as 0.0.0.0, and just play with the remotehost. I also found it easier to dictate IP addresses, rather than let the router decide based on which cab powers up first. That way you don't have to adjust the network settings in mame.ini any further once things are set up.

Edited August 25, 2016 by buttersoft