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


Jed

Question

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 by Jed
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@Jammasized - Hi mate - are you still willing to share the image you made, or for that matter, is it even still available? I'd be keen to get my hands on it. I've been trying to have a look at the locked down Chinese XP build that is on my 2100-in-1 "Games Family" board but they've done a pretty decent job of ensuring not much gets changed. Every time I change something in the registry and reboot it just reverts back... every single time. I don't want to mess around with it too much either, just in case I completely mess up my newly purchased machine.

 

hey,

 

I don't think your hardware is going to be compatible with my image unfortunately. The image I've distributed via this thread is heavily modded from a fairly old xxxx-1 machine, one of the original 2-level board Game Family gameboxes (has mother+daughterboard) that came as a '1066-1'. It ran a version nof Win2000. So I don't think the drivers that are on my image will suit your hardware unfortunately, and given it's chinese language, it's hard to frak around with far as drivers go.

 

I know Commando's image was an XP build, that might be a more suitable image for you, see a few posts previous to this.

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hey,

 

I don't think your hardware is going to be compatible with my image unfortunately. The image I've distributed via this thread is heavily modded from a fairly old xxxx-1 machine, one of the original 2-level board Game Family gameboxes (has mother+daughterboard) that came as a '1066-1'. It ran a version nof Win2000. So I don't think the drivers that are on my image will suit your hardware unfortunately, and given it's chinese language, it's hard to frak around with far as drivers go.

 

I know Commando's image was an XP build, that might be a more suitable image for you, see a few posts previous to this.

 

Thanks Jammasized - I'll definitely check out Commando's post. I have the Mother/daughterboard one as well, 2.5Ghz Celeron with 1GB RAM - and yep, mine is running a stripped down Windows XP SP3 in lovely Chinese... a complete and utter pain to try and mess around with it. I have managed to get all the data copied off of the harddisk and will now start hacking around to see if I can improve things a bit. I have an E8800 Core 2 Duo CPU lying around, which apparently works on this G31 motherboard, so I may even try to get that going. Just a shame I can't find the original "Games Family" software anywhere... I'm sure it's actually the Baby Star installed software with the Games Family skin, since the app that it runs is baby.exe.

 

Anyway, I'll also see if I can make contact with Maniac-UK who has done modding on these before.

 

Thanks again for the response.

 

Riaan

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Thanks Jammasized - I'll definitely check out Commando's post. I have the Mother/daughterboard one as well, 2.5Ghz Celeron with 1GB RAM - and yep, mine is running a stripped down Windows XP SP3 in lovely Chinese... a complete and utter pain to try and mess around with it. I have managed to get all the data copied off of the harddisk and will now start hacking around to see if I can improve things a bit. I have an E8800 Core 2 Duo CPU lying around, which apparently works on this G31 motherboard, so I may even try to get that going. Just a shame I can't find the original "Games Family" software anywhere... I'm sure it's actually the Baby Star installed software with the Games Family skin, since the app that it runs is baby.exe.

 

Anyway, I'll also see if I can make contact with Maniac-UK who has done modding on these before.

 

Thanks again for the response.

 

Riaan

 

Good one, my gamebox is so old, the best I could go to is a Pentium 4 2.2Ghz, but that was enough to let me add and play a lot of the more demanding stuff and other things like like Laserdisc games Dragon's Lair, etc. If you can add a Dual Core that's awesome, the Mobo must be a lot newer.

 

Maniac-UK is the Godfather of modding these I'm sure. I'm not sure how you'd get in touch with him though as his site is now long gone.

 

If you do manage to have success modding the software and hardware with these newer boards, it would be cool if you could post your findings here as you go ?

 

You are correct in that these systems all run the Babystar software with the skin that says games family. You can extracted the whole setup out and ran it as a standlone .exe on another PC, which is a useful test-bed for modding stuff without having to test in in and out of the cab every time.

 

Cheers,

Chris

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Hello,

I am just wondering if anyone may know whether a baby star 1940 in 1 with a corrupt hdd can be fixed or not? It boots up fine but once you select a game it just freezes,

have been trying to get it to work for about 6 months in my spare time, are you able to clone the drive? will the corrupt files be transferred?

cheers

Ben

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Hello,

 

I got one of the 3149 in 1 replacement HDD

 

Shutdown feature included

Trackball support

Laserdisc games included

Most of the dupes are gone

 

If there is interest I could torrent the image in a couple of days.

 

bye

Chimera

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What hardware does it run on I'm Interested

 

yep, that is key. You can't just assume the image will run on all xxxx gameboxes. Some users can't run the Image I made as it doesn't match the hardware. Being a 3xxx nI'd say it may only suit hardware produced in more recent years. (guess)

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yep, that is key. You can't just assume the image will run on all xxxx gameboxes. Some users can't run the Image I made as it doesn't match the hardware. Being a 3xxx nI'd say it may only suit hardware produced in more recent years. (guess)

 

I am willing to give it a go. Small IDE drives are cheap and easy to image up one for testing. Hope it works. Will be awesome to have more laser disc games to play with.

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I am willing to give it a go. Small IDE drives are cheap and easy to image up one for testing. Hope it works. Will be awesome to have more laser disc games to play with.

I agree. ... let us know your hardware version and if it works....I wouldn't mind getting a copy too for interests sake on the new image :)

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Hello,

 

Board looks identical to mine, has the same yellow warning sticker, but no white stickers as yours.

Task manager also showed "baby.exe" so yes I think this is a babystar pcb

He is a screenshot from the bootwindow before I upgraded CPU, HDD

 

Motherboard: ZX-G31LM

Ami Bios 1.02

CPU: Dual Core Xeon 3050 ---> now Intel Quad Core Q9550

 

image.thumb.jpg.9c9d5d84caac13def15c33f9146af0cc.jpg

 

 

Regarding image sharing, maybe no need to torrent it.

http://www.myairbridge.com offers for free user a 20 GB upload

To create the image I will use Acronis (.tib) will see how big it comes out.

 

And thats actually the HDD i got:

 

http://www.jammaparts.net/jamma-boards/42-games-family-1940-harddrive.html

Edited by chimera123
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Hello chimera123

your board is a Core 2 Duo board

Most of xxxx-in-1 board are pentium 4 boards which sold the most

Anyway I think it might not be hard to convert the system

I can give a try, if someone is interested

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Hello,

 

Ok, looks like I have a newer version if the board, but should be compatible with the P4 boards.

I will create the image during the weekend and should be able to provide the download link by Sunday.

 

bye

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Hello,

 

Ok, looks like I have a newer version if the board, but should be compatible with the P4 boards.

I will create the image during the weekend and should be able to provide the download link by Sunday.

 

bye

 

That would be awesome chimera I would love to chuck this in my baby star, how many games is on it?

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Thanks Jammasized - I'll definitely check out Commando's post.

 

 

Hi Riaan,

 

I recently finished about a years worth of renos, so i finally have my life back - and more time for AA once again!

 

Anyways I might be able to help out, however i should first point out that my setup may not be compatible with your system.

Back when i used to send out copies of my setup, i was finding some people with new systems couldn't get it to work, which was painful for all parties involved.

 

To check out whether the system will work for you, I've just made quick test.

I've made an image of a clean install of Winxp..

 

To run this check you'll need the following:

1. a new HDD - i recommend a 2.5" SATA drive

2. an IDE extension cord - so you can have the HDD sitting outside the enclosure, and can easily swap without opening up the whole system

3. an IDE power extension - same as above

4. an IDE-SATA adapter - i recommend using something like this.. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/311363254599

5. a USB SATA enclosure - so you can connect your HDD to a computer and copy an image onto the drive

 

OK so once you have all that ready to go, you can download a copy of the winxp image here: http://bit.ly/winxp-image

I'm uploading the 670mb file now, so should be done in about halfa..

 

You'll also need a copy of Acronis True Image to extract onto your HDD.

Once you've extracted the image, pop your new HDD into your X-in-1 and fire it up.

 

If windows loads up - BOOM! You'll be good to go with my setup! Give us a shout to get the ball rolling.

If it fails, sorry i cant help you.

 

All the best, and let us know how you get on:D

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Hi Riaan,

 

I recently finished about a years worth of renos, so i finally have my life back - and more time for AA once again!

 

Anyways I might be able to help out, however i should first point out that my setup may not be compatible with your system.

 

Hi Command,

I've been chasing the 3side cocktail image any chance you have that available.

glad your back on :)

 

cheers

Rocco

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Hi Rocco,

 

Yep i'm back in action and happy to help out.

 

Before we get into it, have a crack at the winxp clean install.

If you can that up and running then your system should be compatible with my setup..

 

Give it a try and lemme know how u get on!

 

Cheers

 

Simon

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Hello Commando

welcome back

I've heard a lot about your work but never had the chance to get it

 

I will try your XP setup as soon as I get a HDD

Just a few questions:

Is your setup 15khz?

If so How do you get the 15khz?

If so is it switchable to 31Khz?

what is the HDD size required for your setup?

 

Thank you

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Hi Moa

 

It's good to be back!

 

My setup runs on 60hz and is currently hooked up to a PC monitor.

If you'd like to tweak the refresh rate, maybe checkout Soft15khz

I don't have any experience with this thing myself, but would be keen to hear if this thing works..

 

Re the HDD - my setup around 220GB so I tend to use 500GB 2.5" drives

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