Customised HDD image for xxxx-1 systems inc Laserdisc Games - anyone want one ?

[Jed]

I've spent the last 4 years on and off customising and modding a basic 1000-1 gamebox system's HDD. (Games Family, Babystar, Gamebox, etc)

 

I added stuff like:

 

Ability to play Laserdisc Games (Dragon's Lair, Space Ace)

SNES

MP3 jukebox

and many other games inc decent vector support, high score save, etc etc

 

As well as all the usual favourite MAME games.

 

you'd need at least a P4 2Ghz chip in your gamebox to fully take advantage of this image and play the newer stuff like NBA Jam etc. Using Mamewah editor and Photoshop I've customised the Home Screen + graphics so it looks nicer than the standard xxxx-1 awful-coloured-crap home screen. I fixed the basic menu so it doesn't overlap the screen snaps, plus got rid of the hundreds of duplicate games and different languages etc.

 

I call the image 'Flynn's' - in homage to Flynns Arcade.

 

Edit March 2018 - I can't host the image any more on onedrive due to restrictions when I did. If your'e after this image post a request for anyone hosting the torrent, seeing as people are still after it I might see if I can do something at megaupload.

Edited March 31, 2018 by Jed

[GIBO]

Ok Im in,where do I send it too and whats the min size HDD you will need

[berzerker]

id like to give it ago im trying to revive a dead 400-1 gameking, obviously ill have to tone down the games as my chip wont run them

[con]

sending you a pm

[gameroom]

PM sent

[Jed]

Hey all,

 

I'll get to the PM's etc shortly and send details.

 

Basically the HDD needs to be minimum 80GB and IDE.

 

Course if you want to fill it up with your own MP3 for the jukebox, then the bigger the better. I'll remove my music etc before imaging.

 

I forgot to mention my cab is a 2-P upright and horizontal monitor. (this image is not for cocktail machine ie no screen flipping etc.)

 

Most games format correctly though for vertical games etc.

Edited April 6, 2012 by Jed

[mamejay]

Hey Jamma. Is this set to 15khz for arcade monitors? I have seen replacement images but they are just straight output without soft15khz

[Jed]

Hey Jamma. Is this set to 15khz for arcade monitors? I have seen replacement images but they are just straight output without soft15khz

 

Sure is - I run an Arcade monitor on mine.

 

I have also run it on a plain LCD perfectly too (via RGB), without having to change anything about the image.

[mamejay]

PM sent mate.

 

Also does your mame build save high scores?

[sriley50]

Does it work on the red game 1000 in 1 game box?, I have it and its menu sux...<_<

[Jed]

PM sent mate.

 

Also does your mame build save high scores?

 

Yep - that was the very first thing I added to my machine - ability to save high scores is a must.

 

Does it work on the red game 1000 in 1 game box?, I have it and its menu sux...<_<

 

Hmmm - not sure what the 'red' is ? Basically if it is a games family system (gamebox) then this image *should* work fine.

 

I bought my machine about 4 years back (2008) as a 1066-1 basic system. I have used the drive in newer model gameboxes (2011) also without issue.

 

I'll get back to everyone's PM's sometime over this weekend with my details. Had a big response!

 

Cheers.

[Andyj965]

I'm keen. Thanks for putting in the effort to improve these systems. PM sent.

[ocdcsv]

A quick thought.

 

Can you create a ghost image and upload to Internet then people can download...

You could make the image smaller by removing the roms.

The Roms can always be downloaded elsewhere etc.

 

Using a torrent you can spread the image out to other people.

[Jed]

A quick thought.

 

Can you create a ghost image and upload to Internet then people can download...

You could make the image smaller by removing the roms.

The Roms can always be downloaded elsewhere etc.

 

Using a torrent you can spread the image out to other people.

 

 

It's doable sure, but providing a torrent would be creating a world of hurt for most people to get it actually working. xxxx-1 are not like normal front ends where you can just have a 'blank' image, dump your own roms in and away you go (like hyperspin, mala etc) as the xxxx-1 software is specific to the gamebox hardware. It's a great system when you have it set up well, but in it's basic form, it is a total pain in the arse to add even a single game. Hence this image all done, plug and play :)

[hipknot]

sounds good to me

[Jed]

OK think I have replied to everyone so far let me know if I have missed you.

 

To the international AA users who responded - sorry, but I'm only organising this for peeps within Australia.

 

Cheers

[hipknot]

80gb a fair wack of games have u made a game lis of your adds/losses from the original drive

[Jed]

80gb a fair wack of games have u made a game lis of your adds/losses from the original drive

 

That's just the size of my HDD - mine has a lot of MP3 on it, so 80GB is a reccomendation.

 

As far as what games are on it versus the original drive - there is probably around 250 additions, and no deletions. I don't have a list of the games on it though, sorry.

[Jed]

Hey,

 

Could everyone who has sent a drive please just send me a PM ? I've received some drives tht I can't account for IE I have the names, but I don't know which AA alias they are also for so I can tell people when I've done and sent their drive.

 

There will be a little bit of a wait cause my stupid IDE caddy has decided to fry itself :( Picking up a new one from ebay so I hope to have all the drives sent out by late this week.

 

Cheers

 

EDIT:

 

Have had a fair few questions from people about number of games etc versus the new drives with 1500, 1800 games etc.

 

SOme of the new drives (such as 1600-1, 1800-1) have an anormous amount of clones, different versions, and multi language versions of the same game, and the sellers count it as a game. My drive used to be a 1600-1 image, I stripped out all the clones and multi language games, and it went down to around 1100-1200 games. So that tells you how many duplicates exist in the larger drives.

Edited April 29, 2012 by Jed

[Jed]

Hey everyone

 

Just a bit of an update as it's been slow going for me lately with family staying with me from Canada, not much time to do anything in the last week and a half. had a few issues with my stored image - have had to do a bit of tweaking and create a new image from scratch which is now done.

 

When my rellos vacate after this weekend, I'll have time again so the HDD's should go out next week.

 

Cheers

[Jed]

It wont happen overnight...but it will happen!

 

Ok another update. What I thought was such a simple thing to do had turned into an anti-tech nightmare :(

 

So, three IDE caddies now dead in the process of this. 2 were old, so not hugely unlikely a thing to happen, but one was brand new, but one of those cheap chineses multi ones with card readers, sata, etc which I think was pretty crap from the word go. Anyway it also died, tried to resurrect it over a couple days, no go. Three down.

 

But that's not it - thought I would bung the HDD with the image into an IDE port on my gaming desktop computer. Piff, power supply dies on the gaming desktop. REplace that and piff, I get a windows corrupt can't boot, hal.dll error. Spent a couple days restoring both those things.

 

Anyway... I have bought another caddy, a good quality dedicated IDE caddy only and it should arrive to me tomorrow or monday.

 

Have to laugh sometimes at the sheer amount of stuff going haywire during this project. Almost like I'm under some sort of curse ?

 

Anyway....thanks everyone for being patient. I am hoping now the antichrist of technology has got the f*** away from my house, and things will go well when the new dedicated IDE caddy arrives.

[Andyj965]

Sorry to hear you've had so much grief with it. You've definitely had more than your fair share of IT pain. Appreciate all the effort you're putting in. Cheers

[Jed]

Sorry to hear you've had so much grief with it. You've definitely had more than your fair share of IT pain. Appreciate all the effort you're putting in. Cheers

 

Yep - occaisonally I get this anti-tech cloud above my house and everything goes haywire. The cloud before this one, took out three laptops. I kid you not. Three.

 

But - I'm done now :D The new IDE caddy turned up today and it works perfectly. I have imaged all the drives I have received, and tested each image in my cab and they all work 100%.

 

So - these will be posted off tomorrow. Most peeps should get their drive before the weekend.

 

A couple of things to remember for everyone:

 

I have used this drive in different gamebox systems than mine - there will be a couple of things you need to know.

1. When you first boot the drive, it may be very slow to boot. It may also come up with a Chinese dialog prompt or two. When you see this, just hit your 1 player start button to confirm the dialog and it will go away. The next time you boot, you wont see the dialog boxes.

2. to get laserdisc games working, you will need to plug a PS2 mouse into the PS2 mouse port on your gamebox. (you dont need to use the mouse for anything. it just needs to see something in the PS2 port)

 

I'm sorry it has been such a long wait. I hope you get some fun out of these images.

 

When you get it if you have any questions, just PM me and I'll send you my email address, it will be easier than corresponding here.

 

Cheers

J

[Andyj965]

Got mine today. Thanks very much. I'm away all weekend but will be installing it first thing Monday.

 

Cheers

[berzerker]

hows everyone going with the images? I got a multiboard and im looking for a hdd image just wanted to see how compatability was before sending away a hdd

[berzerker]

Anyone??