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Moon Patrol reproduction


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tl;dr - complete build photo:

 

http://i.imgur.com/CahlxYAl.jpg

 

Build log:

 

Building a US Williams Moon Patrol reproduction as a surprise gift for a good friend.

 

Plans come straight off Jakobud, which by all accounts are fairly accurate. Will be using a Raspberry Pi with MAME to keep costs down.

 

I don't expect this to be a quick build, as spare time is short. Throwing up photos as I go.

 

http://i.imgur.com/DZFhgSZl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/KhMMLGsl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/40X0MKcl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/tU1Kfmml.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/s6fEqQ8l.jpg

Edited by elvis
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Looking forward to this,

Dan when I was originally going to do mine I document resources to help with the build including paint codes etc, one resource which is good was Dragonslair:

http://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=1815.0

Cheers for that!

 

I've nerded out a bit with this project, and am keeping the whole thing up on github. In there I've got a "reference" folder with photos and things that show off different bits of the cabinets (how the glass mounts is a real tricky one to find info on). I've got some paint colours up there:

 

https://github.com/danmons/arcade/tree/master/cab/moonpatrol/reference

 

But I'm keen to collect as much info as I can, particularly from restores others have done, as they tend to have some awesome info.

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Yeah, was keen on the artwork from gameongrafix.com. They give a 10% discount to BYOAC members, so I was going to get all three bits (control panel, bezel, marquee) all in one go.

 

I've got the side art in AI format, so I'm going to ask a sign writer mate what the cost of getting it cut from vinyl will be. If that's too expensive, I'll go with the stencils instead.

 

Currently it looks like the artwork is going to be the biggest cost! I'm estimating around $200 all up for art (plus postage from the US) and paint. The MDF was $90 (and there'll be plenty spare from that), the Raspberry Pi and SD card is $53, the access panel for the coin mech is around $40, the joystick, buttons and coin mech are all things I have lying around from other projects, and the monitor will be an old TV from curbside pickup. :)

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Raspberry Pi arrived today. Slapping Raspbian (Debian) on it tonight with MAME4ALL and mucking around for a bit.

 

http://photos-e.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xpf1/10431865_684708518243524_1198377959_n.jpg

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Have you tried PiPlay?

 

http://pimame.org/

This is my first play with a Raspberry Pi, but I'm a long time Linux user (been using Linux personally since 1997, professionally since 2001, and have been 100% Microsoft-free since 2006).

 

At this stage I'm looking to make this as fast as possible with as few options as possible. Ideally this will boot straight into a very light menu (game title, screenshot) with about 50 or so games available. My 4 previous MAME cabinets all ran Linux, so I've done this a few times over now.

 

PiPlay looks pretty nice for one of those "all in one" projects, but from what I've seen the author just combines a number of good open source projects together in a neat bundle. It'll probably be too complex for my intended audience, so I'll probably stick to doing it myself at this stage. I'll tinker about a bit tonight and see how I go.

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Fair enough, I recently bought a Raspberry Pi and installed the Openelec version of XBMC and was quite impressed, so I was thinking the Raspberry Pi might make a good MAME computer too.

 

PiPlay is what I was looking at and I was interested to find out what you thought of it being the Linux expert.

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PiPlay is what I was looking at and I was interested to find out what you thought of it

From what I can tell it's just Raspbian (Debian for RPi) with a bunch of emulators pre-installed and pre-configured. If you're going for an "emulate everything possible on RPi" type setup, then they've done a lot of the hard work for you. So for that purpose at least it's pretty good.

 

It's a bit like when folks download those Hyperspin packs from torrent sites that have everything pre-configured for them. If you're looking for the quickest route to getting everything under the sun playable, then that's probably the way to go.

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I'll be interested to see how you interface the Pi and controls. I have a bartop project and I was going to go down the 60-1 board option but a Pi is not only cheaper but way more flexible. Which model did you get?

 

Cheers,

Brad

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I'll be interested to see how you interface the Pi and controls. I have a bartop project and I was going to go down the 60-1 board option but a Pi is not only cheaper but way more flexible. Which model did you get?

I got the Model B with 512MB RAM.

 

At this stage I'm aiming to hack a USB gamepad to deal with everything (frontend/games/coins).

 

I wrote a quick script to filter out all games in MAME4ALL (based on MAME 0.37b5) that were:

* joystick based

* 2 or 4 way joystick only

* 0-2 buttons only

 

The results that came out were a total of 357 games (a fair few clones/hacks/bootlegs in there):

 

[edit] I made the game names clickable - each link will take you to mamedb :)

 

600

alibaba

alieninv

alpine

alpinea

amidar

amidaro

amidars

amidaru

amigo

anteater

armora

armorcar

astinvad

astrob

astrob1

astrob2

astrof

astrof2

astrof3

ballbomb

barrier

beastf

blasto

blkhole

blockade

boblbobl

btime

btime2

btimem

bublbobl

carnival

cheekyms

circusc

circusc2

circuscc

circusce

ckong

ckongalc

ckongo

ckongs

commsega

comotion

cookrace

cosmica

cosmica2

cosmicg

cosmicmo

cottong

crash

crazyblk

crush

crush2

crush3

depthch

desterth

devilfsg

devzone

diamond

digdug

digdug2

digdugat

digger

disco

dkong

dkong3

dkong3j

dkongjr

docastle

dogfight

domino

dominos

dorunrun

douni

dowild

dremshpr

drgnbstr

dzigzag

eagle

eagle2

eggs

elim2

elim2a

elim4

exodus

eyes

eyes2

fantazia

flicky

flstory

flstoryj

freeze

frogger

froggers

galaga

galagamw

galap1

galap4

galapx

galaxian

gallag

galpanic

galturbo

galxwars

gmissile

grescue

gteikoku

gundealr

gutangtn

guzzler

hangly

hangly2

hardhat

headon

headon2

heiankyo

hexa

higemaru

hustle

invad2ct

invaddlx

invaderl

invaders

invadpt2

invho2

invinco

invrvnge

jjack

journey

joust

joust2

joustr

joustwr

jrpacman

jspecter

jumping

jungler

junglers

kaitei

kaitein

kamikaze

kicker

kickridr

kikcubic

kingball

knockout

laser

lasso

lnc

locomotn

lrescue

lupin3

magspot2

maketrax

mappy

mario

masao

mbrush

megatack

meteor

mikie

mikiehs

mikiej

minivadr

mmonkey

monkeyd

monsterb

moonal2

moonal2b

moonbase

mooncrgx

mooncrs2

mooncrsb

mooncrst

moonqsr

motorace

mpatrol

mpatrolw

mranger

mrdo

mrdofix

mrdot

mrdoy

mrdu

mrjong

mrlo

mrtnt

mspacman

mystston

naughtyb

nrallyx

olibochu

otwalls

ozmawars

pacgal

pacheart

pacland

paclandm

pacman

pacmanbl

pacmod

pacnchmp

pacnpal

pacnpal2

pacplus

paintrlr

panic

panicger

pengo

pengo2

pengo2u

penta

pepper2

phoenix

phoenix3

phoenixa

phoenixc

phoenixt

pignewt

pignewta

pingpong

piranha

pisces

pkunwar

pkunwarj

pleiadbl

pleiadce

pleiads

popeye

popeyebl

popflame

puckman

pulsar

qix

qix2

qixa

qixb

radarscp

rallyx

rallyxm

rbtapper

redalert

redbaron

redufo

retofinv

ripoff

robby

robotbwl

rocnrope

rollingc

route16

route16b

rpatrolb

rthunder

rugrats

safarir

samurai

sasuke

satansat

sboblbob

schaser

scregg

sformula

shaolins

shollow

shollow2

sicv

sidetrac

silvland

sindbadm

sinvemag

sinvzen

sisv

sisv2

sitv

skychut

smooncrs

solarfox

solfight

sos

spacbatt

spaceatt

spacebrd

spacedem

spacefb

spacefbb

spacefbg

spacefev

spaceint

spaceph

spacewr3

spacfury

spceking

spcewarl

spcewars

spclaser

spdcoin

speakres

spectar

spectar1

spiders

spiders2

spiero

sspaceat

starcas

starcas1

starw

stratvox

streakng

sucasino

superg

superinv

superpac

sutapper

swarm

tail2nos

tankbatt

tapper

tappera

targ

theend

theends

timber

todruaga

tomahawk

toypop

tranqgun

travrusa

triplep

troangel

tsamurai

turpin

turtles

uniwars

vanvan

warpwarp

waterski

wbdeluxe

wboy

wboy2

wboy3

wboy4

wboyu

wiping

wiseguy

wndrmomo

wotw

yamyam

yankeedo

yosakdon

zarzon

zerotime

zigzag

zigzag2

zookeep

zookeep2

zookeep3

Edited by elvis
added clickable links
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Well sheeeit, no Puzzle Bobble (apparently classified as 8-way), no Snow Brothers (classified as 3 button). Looks like I'm going to have to add a few obvious ones to the list by hand.

 

If there's anything else that can be played on a 4 way stick with 2 buttons that is worth adding, sing out!

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Well sheeeit, no Puzzle Bobble (apparently classified as 8-way), no Snow Brothers (classified as 3 button). Looks like I'm going to have to add a few obvious ones to the list by hand.

 

If there's anything else that can be played on a 4 way stick with 2 buttons that is worth adding, sing out!

 

Great project & Kudos for Linux.

 

I always thought the only difference between 4 & 8 way was the 4 way limit block to stop the diagonal movement.

So unless your planning to use a physical 4 way controller for some particular reason? Then a standard 8 way

serves both 4 & 8 way games. It just doesn't do anything when you activate the diagonal in 4 way games (eg. Pacman).

 

Just as a side note. I find it odd that so much effort in building the cab (Cost of materials & Labor), Effort into artwork (Cost & matching).

Yet the core driving it all is a woefully underpowered Pi with dubious video output (Can they run in syncrefresh mode?).

I'm not trying to bash the Pi - I honestly don't know if they are powerful enough - Even for older games.

But the concept of building a cab from scratch - Yet no desire for "Good" emulation seems at odds.

(Good emulation meaning running in syncrefresh mode and appropriate hardware to suit)

 

I'm guessing the preference for a Custom Mame build as opposed to a XX-in-1 is due to the available games.

If not, What is the benefit of the Pi over a XX-in-1 board - How is it more flexible or better performing.

(Taking into account you have to hack up & Key Map in Mame a USB gamepad to interface with the Pi)

 

Either way (PC or Pi), You have to build the Mame stack yourself (front end & whatnot) - Which as you mentioned is beyond the recipient to do.

This leaves you in a position to do maintenance or Add games upon request when the owner becomes bored with their compliment, Rather than

pointing them to a XXX-in-1 or XXXX-in-1 board set and letting them do it themselves.

 

 

 

Back to the main point of this post :lol

I have 3 brand new USB gamepads for free if you want them - They are those cheap arcade style USB gamepads.

Ideal for hacking up for such projects. You can pay for postage or just pick em up if your nearby.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66071[/ATTACH]

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I always thought the only difference between 4 & 8 way was the 4 way limit block to stop the diagonal movement.

So unless your planning to use a physical 4 way controller for some particular reason? Then a standard 8 way

serves both 4 & 8 way games. It just doesn't do anything when you activate the diagonal in 4 way games (eg. Pacman).

This is a gift cabinet, and the recipient would prefer to play older games like Pacman and Frogger, which suffer a bit with an 8-way joystick. As such, I'm going to put the 4-way restrictor gate on it, and limit the games to 2-way and 4-way games only.

 

Just as a side note. I find it odd that so much effort in building the cab (Cost of materials & Labor), Effort into artwork (Cost & matching).

Yet the core driving it all is a woefully underpowered Pi with dubious video output (Can they run in syncrefresh mode?).

I'm not trying to bash the Pi - I honestly don't know if they are powerful enough - Even for older games.

But the concept of building a cab from scratch - Yet no desire for "Good" emulation seems at odds.

(Good emulation meaning running in syncrefresh mode and appropriate hardware to suit)

 

I'm guessing the preference for a Custom Mame build as opposed to a XX-in-1 is due to the available games.

If not, What is the benefit of the Pi over a XX-in-1 board - How is it more flexible or better performing.

(Taking into account you have to hack up & Key Map in Mame a USB gamepad to interface with the Pi)

 

Either way (PC or Pi), You have to build the Mame stack yourself (front end & whatnot) - Which as you mentioned is beyond the recipient to do.

This leaves you in a position to do maintenance or Add games upon request when the owner becomes bored with their compliment, Rather than

pointing them to a XXX-in-1 or XXXX-in-1 board set and letting them do it themselves.

 

All good points. Good discussion too, so thanks for that.

 

I'll be running the Pi at 60Hz / 60FPS output, and syncing games to that. Speed wise it's fine. It handles 1980s games at full speed (I'll try to benchmark some games for you and report back). Even newer CPS1 titles from the 90s run at full speed (I've seen folks play Street Fighter II at full speed on it).

 

Cost is the other factor. The RPi plus SD card was $53 delivered to my door. That blitzed any other "buy it new" solution. My other choice would have been to use an old motherboard and CPU running Linux (how I run my own personal MAME cabinets), but I find over time they are troublesome and require attention (CMOS batteries fail, other parts break and things go wrong years later). The recipient is not at all tech savvy, and I'd like to provide him with something that is as "dumb" as possible, and will have some longevity without requiring someone with tech skills to fiddle inside.

 

AND... I'll be 100% honest, I just wanted an excuse to screw around with an RPi. :) If the RPi proves to be crap, I'll keep it for myself and use something else. But a quick test last night left me quite impressed with such a tiny bit of hardware.

 

Back to the main point of this post :lol

I have 3 brand new USB gamepads for free if you want them - They are those cheap arcade style USB gamepads.

Ideal for hacking up for such projects. You can pay for postage or just pick em up if your nearby.

Cheers for the offer. I've got quite a few USB game pads lying around unused that I can hack up, so I'm good for gear currently.

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Slight setback for the "simplicity" concept:

 

MAME4ALL is amazing for speed (based on the MAME 0.37b5 MAME, which was the last of the speedy MAME builds before they went to full 24bit colour, transparency, etc). It plays some more recent titles (Puzzle Bobble) at full speed even at the stock 700MHz core.

 

The downside is it's scaling is a bit crap, and Moon Patrol (the game I want the cabinet to be based on) ends up with it's image squashed, and black borders down the side of the monitor.

 

AdvanceMAME doesn't have the "squashed image" problem, but won't run newer titles at full speed (even clocking the ARM core to 900MHz).

 

So, I think I'll go with AdvanceMAME for the nicer full-screen picture, and either add MAME4ALL in as a second emulator in the menu, or just forget about newer games that won't run on a more modern version of MAME.

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Good progress today. Main shell is complete. Now on to the tricky bits - CP and glass are up next.

 

http://photos-a.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xpa1/10518205_1505976449617112_374463441_n.jpg

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just curious. if you use a raspberry pi and just wanted to build a repo cab running just say one game, can it boot straight into one game without going through a menu eg boot straight to donkey kong or pacman??

 

could it also boot straight to say that fix it felix game that some guys have built dedicated cabs for? sorry to hijack your thread elvis. just curious that's all.

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Hey great project, I was planning one of these for one day, but yeah I feel ya the parts are pricey. I have some art and reference stuff I could send ya if you like?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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just curious. if you use a raspberry pi and just wanted to build a repo cab running just say one game, can it boot straight into one game without going through a menu eg boot straight to donkey kong or pacman??

 

could it also boot straight to say that fix it felix game that some guys have built dedicated cabs for? sorry to hijack your thread elvis. just curious that's all.

Yup. Just set your startup application to be the emulator and ROM of choice (just like you'd normally make your startup application the front end).

 

Hey great project, I was planning one of these for one day, but yeah I feel ya the parts are pricey. I have some art and reference stuff I could send ya if you like?

Yes please! Interested in any high res or vector art people might have.

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Glass has been ordered. No idea when it'll be ready. $45 for 580 x 560 mm, grey, hardened, polished edges.

 

Bought some bits and bobs from Bunnings to make the control panel and latches, monitor bracket and coin/access door.

 

I found a high res bezel scan, so that will save me having to buy that from the US and ship it (printing here in AU comes in a touch cheaper). I've found a ~1700 pixel wide marquee (~72dpi). Not sure if that will be high res enough to print nicely. I'll have to do a test to find out. I found vector side art, so that's sorted (although I'm still considering stencils, as that might be cheaper and sexier).

 

I can't find high res control panel art anywhere, so that one might still have to be purchased.

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