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Custom Arcade Machine - Need audit of software/hardware, $ offered (Melbourne)


snukeniz

Question

[uPDATED 31-12-17 - 1:45pm]

 

Hey everyone,

 

This is a service request, and im willing to pay for the right persons time:

 

I was wondering if there was anyone out there in the Melbourne area that could come round, audit the machine and help me understand how the back end works. Id like to make sure all software is the latest, and that the controls are mapped properly, plus be shown how to add / remove games from the rom list.

 

I recently purchased a custom made arcade machine thats running off a Hyperspin system, but a lot of the games either dont work, are unresponsive to the arcade controls or pop up some sort of error. The company i bought it off are not being helpful at all

 

[uPDATES:]

 

Requested system info below:

- PC Tower running Windows 10

- Software: Hyperspin, MamePGUI, MameUI32, Pinball FX, Pinball Arcade, Future Pinball, Daphne

- 'ARCADE' Folder in My Documents: It looks like they just have a portable HD with a bunch of software on it and dump it into My Documents on the PC. There a lot of extra temp files & portable hard drive software files that are unnecessary.

 

Errors:

- NBA Jam - DirectDraw Init Error: #2 , then once i press 'SELECT', it opens a new small window that says 'Fusion 3.6 Genesis 32x - NBA JAM TOURNAMENT'

- Metal Slug - Player 1 buttons are unresponsive. 'START' works but 'INSERT COIN' brings up some sort of debug options?

- MULTIPLE GAMES where the controllers dont map to any commands within the game, some games Player 1 doesnt work but Player 2 does, etc

Edited by snukeniz
member requested update
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A lot of these companies dump a whole lot of ROMS onto a PC or a Raspberry Pi and then say comes with, '10 000 games' despite the fact that a shitload of the games are clones, different region versions, or don't work.

 

The errors you are getting will be from ROMS that are either mismatched to the version of MAME that is running, not there are all, missing CHDs, or a number of other reasons. You might be missing BIOS files for various systems etc. Seriously, the list of issues that can go wrong with badly configured ROMS/emulators is massive.

 

It would be good to provide some info first, this way whoever you find to assist, can be armed with more info on what they need to fix.

 

Take some photos/videos of the errors you are encountering and post them. Also find out if the machine is running a standard PC or a Raspberry Pi/other micro PC. This will be a good starting point.

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Thanks for your reply!

I've updated the main post with the below information:

 

Requested system info below:

- PC Tower running Windows 10

- Software: Hyperspin, MamePGUI, MameUI32, Pinball FX, Pinball Arcade, Future Pinball, Daphne

- 'ARCADE' Folder in My Documents: It looks like they just have a portable HD with a bunch of software on it and dump it into My Documents on the PC. There a lot of extra temp files & portable hard drive software files that are unnecessary.

 

Errors:

- NBA Jam - DirectDraw Init Error: #2 , then once i press 'SELECT', it opens a new small window that says 'Fusion 3.6 Genesis 32x - NBA JAM TOURNAMENT'

- Metal Slug - Player 1 buttons are unresponsive. 'START' works but 'INSERT COIN' brings up some sort of debug options?

- MULTIPLE GAMES where the controllers dont map to any commands within the game, some games Player 1 doesnt work but Player 2 does, etc

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The DirectDraw error means that the emulator is trying to run in an unsupported graphics mode. Could be driver related, could be emulator settings related. The window popping up after that is a Megadrive emulator, not sure what's happening there.

 

With Metal Slug (or any other game) if you go into the settings, which you usually achieve by hooking up a USB keyboard and hitting the TAB key, you will be able to remap the controllers for both MAME globally (all games) or just Metal Slug. All the games with not working controllers just need controller remapping. Try to get into the settings using a USB keyboard, remap some controls and then report back.

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Sounds like they have done what many have alredy said, they've just dumped the Hyperspin setup without configuring it.

I'd start by backing up the Hyperspin drive, that way if you make any changes that totally mess the system up you can always go back to the start.

Next thing would be to find the [Emulators] folder and start by going through and configuring each one's controller inputs individually.

If you get a dx (direct x) error and it says you are missing a certain. dll file (eg. d3dx9_41.dll) then you'll need to download that .dll and save it to your Windows [system] folder.

There is a good chance that the video card doesn't support D3D and you will need to install one that does in order to get many of the emulators up and running.

There's plenty of other pitfalls when running Hyperspin and hopefully another member in Melbourne with experience can sort it out for you.

Some pics of the PC setup would be helpful, mainly inside the case to determine whether or not they've fitted a video card that can supprt the emulators.

Edited by Kaizen
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Its sheer laziness. I mean you should build these rigs identically inside, set the system up once, image it and everything will work for every machine you build after that.

 

Brad

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Ok so I just tested a few games on a few consoles to make sure I wasnt incorrect in what I was about to type.

 

Sega classics: i got 1 game to work, but for multiple others i got a 'Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator has stopped working' error.

Sega Genesis: Onslaught: DirectDraw Int Error #2 - Unable to set display mode. Paper Boy: Same DirectDraw error. Pitfall: Same error. - All of Genesis doesnt work.

Nintendo classics: Donkey Kong: Worked fine. Metroid: Stalls on the start screen, requests to press enter, but if you press any key it doesnt do anything. Punch Out: I got a game to start, but not all buttons are mapped.

Capcom Classics: "There are known problems with this machine. One or more ROMs/CHDs for this machine have not been correctly dumped." But the games are responsive after that.

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None of your emulators have been setup. You even have some games attempting to use an emulator it wasn't made for. These guys are a disgrace. I mean you can verify the rom sets with data files weeding out the non-working and these dicks couldn't even do that.

 

Run dats across using the remove or move option. Job done. Then spend about 2 mins per emulator setting up global options. Use relative paths, image that and then you have a completely working system that you just copy to the next one.

 

This incompetence at that price point just makes me angry. They should NOT be selling them at all.

 

Brad

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Yep, you have some very serious emulator setup issues going on with those errors. What do you mean Sega Classics? Is that a menu item in your Hyperspin front end for Sega Master System? If it's Sega, why the hell are they trying to run with MAME and not a Sega emulator?? Whoever setup your emulators needs to be shot. The fact they have sold this as a product is downright deplorable.

 

If they won't fix it for you, you're gonna need to get someone experienced with both Hyperspin setup and emulator setup to fix it. It could take minutes, it could take hours, depending on just how much is setup incorrectly.

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I would be getting consumer affairs involved, the seller has sold you a machine stating it has xxx games, when in reality he has sold you a machine that does not meet the level of what is advertised.

He may come back with the old "'I only sold you a machine, the games and software are free", chestnut, but in reality he has supplied it, so it has to be covered even if it was free.

 

It would be in his best interest to sort it for you, I'm sure that he does not have permission to use the logos of all the manufacturers of said pirated games, or artwork, or permission to distribute said pirated games, even if free, I am sure consumer affairs would have a bit of a field day with him.

 

If you contact him do it in writing, Email or text, if you call him he can say whatever he likes, but he has to be careful on what he writes.

 

 

Hope it all works out.

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It would be interesting to see how it panned out, that's for sure. Selling ROMS like this is totally illegal, but not heavily policed. However, if more and more people keep getting burnt, such as in the Digital Hype fisaco, maybe the policing will become more robust.

 

To the OP, just so you know, with machines like this, you can expect the following if the machine has been built and configured properly.

 

1) All console games up until N64/Dreamcast era will work flawlessly. There should be no errors, no slowdowns in emulation and every game will work as it should 100%. When you get to N64 era, Dreamcast and beyond, the level of emulation will depend heavily on the PC running the emulator.

 

2) Hyperspin will be setup with a complete artwork set for every game with videos, background images, wheel graphics etc etc. Basically, there should be no unpopulated artwork, or only very minimal stuff missing.

 

3) MAME will emulate the MASSIVE majority of arcade ROMS with 2 joysticks and 6 buttons per player. Most everything up until the early 2000s should work perfectly with exceptions such as 3D games and games that require specific controls or hardware. There should be no nag screens telling you to hit left and right on the joystick and no screens saying this game may have errors. When you start the game, it should boot instantly.

 

4) You should have an arcade games list that has duplicates removed so that you do not have to scroll through 10 000+ arcade games to find the game you want. You should have a complete romset, but that romset can have all the duplicates, non working games, or games that don't work with your control setup removed.

 

I would keep pursuing the seller and document video evidence of the machine not working on all the games. Take videos, photos of errors etc and then email the seller with those videos/photos.

 

Good luck.

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Thanks for all the replies guys, I might push this through consumer affairs, its clear hes doing it to more people as ive had a few friends pose as buyers and hes instantly blocked them from his page once they asked too many technical questions about the setup.

 

Should be interesting to see what the outcome is.

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For "Sega Classics" emulation, along with other console emulation, they're probably just using MESS - it's built into MAME now, and tbh it's going to be just as good as Kega Fusion for a massive system setup like this one running an LCD.

 

EDIT: My bad, the error does say Fusion 3.6 - it sounds like they've just grabbed an image from somewhere themselves and don't know what to do with it.

 

Careful with consumer affairs. The use of most game roms and such falls into a grey area at best. How they can be selling these under an ABN i'm not sure. You might be able to argue that going in blind you expected the vendor to provide licensed software, and now you want your money back. Another problem might be that each install of windows technically needs it's own individual license key.

 

I would follow Pat's suggestion and keep at them. We pretty much managed to hound another maker such as this out of business when other complaints were added to a thread like yours and it became the #1 hit on google for them. These guys need to up their game and, as Brad said, at least get a single stable software image to build from, and deliver what they advertise.

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I bought an arcade machine off Ultra Custom Cabs in December last year and I am extreamly happy with my machine. Almost every game I have played works and loads fine. It does come up with the odd error message, I just read the on screen message to move the joystick left and right and the game loads and played fine (that is a general rom message and only in mame). My son stuffed up the settings and I contacted them and they were very helpful, talked me through what to do on the phone (as there are back up settings on the PC) and it was fixed within minutes. 2 of my friends have also purchased off them and are happy. Maybe the guy that started this thread should contact them and ask for assistance. Sounds like he has no understanding of how machine works. I have been talking to them reciently on getting an upgrade and going with their new system that’s advertised on the website as it has a lot more different emulators (a bigger system).
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Meh, not much different than what I did myself 10 years ago with info anyone can get off the internet, its Mame with a front end.

 

Legally they can sell the machine with the capability to run Mame, but illegal to sell it with Mame and the roms, bit of a grey area regarding the sellers responsibility when it comes to what is covered under consumer law, the original poster had a problem, At the time we were commenting on what had transpired with the buyer and the response he received from seller which was pretty much "too bad so sad" at the time, maybe they got wind of the thread ?

 

Would like to hear from @snukeniz to see how this went?

 

Now 4 posts promoting the same seller :rolleyes

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Interesting...

 

I was just about to buy an Ultra Custom Cab, but thought I would have a look at what reviews I could find, glad I stumbled across this forum!

 

They sound pretty dodgy - sadly they are making exactly what I am looking for - a 4 person upright machine with heaps of games.

 

Is there any other companies that people know of or know anywhere I can get something like that?

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I was just about to buy an Ultra Custom Cab, but thought I would have a look at what reviews I could find, glad I stumbled across this forum!

 

They sound pretty dodgy - sadly they are making exactly what I am looking for - a 4 person upright machine with heaps of games.

 

Is there any other companies that people know of or know anywhere I can get something like that?

 

Mate I would seriously consider building your own and learn a heap along the way, would probably set you back $800-1000 depending on what you would like to run inside your Cab, build it the way you want it.

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Mate I would seriously consider building your own and learn a heap along the way, would probably set you back $800-1000 depending on what you would like to run inside your Cab, build it the way you want it.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply Slayer.

Unfortunately a lack of time and skills makes that hard. But cheers for the suggestion.

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