BYOAC OLD Wiki - User contributions [en]

Joysticks

2007-09-21T20:48:12Z

Dislecksea: /* Conventional Digital Joysticks: 8-way, 4-way & 2-way */

A '''Joystick''' is a device to let you manually control direction of movement in an arcade game. This article describes the most common types of joysticks used in arcade cabinets and game systems.

==Conventional Digital Joysticks: 8-way, 4-way & 2-way==
[[image:Stick-principal.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Stick diagram by JoyMonkey]]
Conventional joysticks are fairly simple devices without which Pac-Man would be ghost-fodder. When the joystick shaft is moved in any direction, the lower end of the stick is levered in the opposite direction and makes contact with switches, these switches are what tells Pac-Man to move and in which direction.

[[image:Directions.gif|left]]By using four switches at the base of the joystick, 8 directions can be achieved; Up, Down, Left and Right as well as the four corner positions which are triggered by two switches being activated simultaneously. When you press the joystick diagonally up and to the right, both the "up switch" and the "right switch" are triggered simultaneously, indicating your diagonal move. Joysticks like this are known as 8-way joysticks.

Some joysticks were designed to specifically prevent the player from moving diagonally. For example, joysticks used in Pac-Man and Donkey Kong both have physical restrictions preventing the joystick from moving to the diagonals. Since the joysticks only allow movement in 4 directions (Up, Down, Left and Right) they are known as 4-way joysticks. While it is possible to use an 8-way joystick when playing 4-way games, it's not recommended, as accidentally hitting a diagonal with the joystick can create problems during gameplay, such as causing Mario to stand still or Pac-Man to become confused between moving up or to the side.

Other games, such as Defender, Joust, Mario Brothers and Galaga, used a 2-way joystick since movement was only necessary from left to right or up to down. While it may not be historically accurate, it is generally not a problem to use either 4-way or 8-way joysticks for these games.

Standard 8-way only joysticks:
:* [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/happcompetition.html Happ Competition], [http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/happultimate.html Happ Ultimate (can be ordered in 8 way, 4-way, or 2-way models], [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/wico.html Wico 8-way Leafswitch Joystick (discontinued)].

Standard 4-way only joysticks:
:* Happ Ms.Pac/Galaga Reunion, Betson Ms.Pac/Galaga Reunion, [http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/happultimate.html Happ Ultimate (can be ordered in 8 way, 4-way, or 2-way models],[http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/wico.html Wico 4-Way Leafswitch (discontinued)].

====8-Way to 4-Way Switchable Joysticks====
Many 8-way joysticks that are sold can also be set to work in 4-way mode. There are two basic methods to change modes:

1) Changing a restrictor plate that only allows the joystick handle to be pushed in certain directions; or:

2) Changing the actuator (that's the small piece on the bottom end of the joystick shaft that makes contact with the switches) to only allow contact with one switch at a time.

Restrictor plate changes convert the joystick to "true" 4-way operation, and will give the best play. Actuator changes do not keep the handle from moving into the diagonal positions, this method only keeps the switches from being activated. The result is a "dead spot" in the corners, where the stick can be pushed, but no switches are hit. This is not much better than playing in standard 8-way mode, and is not reccomended. Adjusting these joystick usually involves opening up your control panel so you can access the lower section of the joystick base. Some models using a restrictor plate can be easily changed by hand once the control panel is open, while some others require the use of basic tools, like a screwdriver.

Joysticks that can be set to 4-way or 8-way operation via an actuator swap include:
:* [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/happsuper.html Happ Super], [http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/happsp360.html Happ Perfect 360], [http://www.retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/xgaming.html X-Gaming Joystick (X-Arcade)].

Joysticks that can be set to 4-way or 8-way operation via the restrictor plate include:
:* Suzo 500 (aka [http://ultimarc.com/controls.html Euro-Stik] or [http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=197 Omni-Stik]), [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/ultimarc_tstik.html Ultimarc T-Stik], Ultimarc Mag-Stik, [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/ultimarc_jstik.html Ultimarc J-Stik], [http://www.himuragames.com/store_joysticks.php Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT], [http://www.himuragames.com/store_joysticks.php Seimitsu LS-32].

In the last few years, some companies have added to this feature to allow the joystick to be switchable from above the control panel in some way. This makes it simple for anyone to switch the joystick between 4-way to 8-way from game to game, without having to access 'the guts' of the control panel.

Conventional joysticks that can be switched from above the control panel like this include:
:* [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/ultimarc_tstik.html T-Stik Plus], [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/ultimarc_magstikplus_part1.html Mag-Stik Plus], [http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/prodigy.html Omni-Stik Prodigy].

====[[TRON joystick]]s====
TRON arcade machines had 8-way trigger joysticks that were restricted to make it difficult to go diagonally. This was necessary because some of the four games in TRON were developed for 4-way sticks, while others were able to use 8-ways. [[TRON_joystick|More on TRON joysticks here.]]

Also see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

==Unconventional Digital Joysticks==
[[image:Inductivestickopen.jpg|right|thumb|Inside a Suzo Inductive Stick]]
====[http://www.suzo.com/suzo/product.asp?nP=4545 Suzo Inductive Joystick]====
Instead of using conventional microswitches, Suzo Inductive sticks employ the use of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite ferrite ring] at the base of the joystick shaft. An oscillating magnetic field is induced in the ferrite ring by the main coil in the centre of the PCB around the opening. This oscillating field within the ferrite ring induces a current in one or more of the eight smaller coils on the PCB. The exact position of the joystick is determined by the strength of the current in each coil. A potentiometer can be adjusted so that diagonal positions are ignored (resulting in 4-way output) or that diagonals are accepted (resulting in 8-way output.) The sensitivity of 8-way operation can be refined using the potentiometer. It is completely silent and is easily switchable between 4-way and 8-way using the aforementioned pot located on the bottom plate of the joystick.
[[Image:Suzo_Inductive_restrictor.JPG|right|thumb|Suzo Inductive Octagonal Restrictor]]
It has an octagonal restrictor to assist in locating the desired directions. There are 6 pins for the connection which are labeled on the bottom plate of the joystick: Ground/Earth; +5 VDC; Left; Right; Up; Down. It is a short throw joystick with a max travel of 5 degrees from centre. The joystick is designed to be undermounted without taking the joystick apart; this requires a hole in the panel approx 44 mm or 1 3/4". The joystick handle was produced in two sizes, a 32 mm ball handle (suitable for cocktail cabinets), and a 38 mm ball handle. This joystick is no longer produced but as of May 2006 some were still available from Groovy Game Gear and TNT Amusements.

====[http://retroblast.com/reviews/joysticks/happsp360.html Happ Perfect 360 (P360)]====

The Perfect 360 joystick is an optical joystick, which means that the position of the handle is read by optical switches, instead of conventional leaf switches or microswitches. This gives near-silent operation, as the handle & actuator never touch anything.

These sticks have a very smooth feel, largely due to the "no touch" action. P360 joysticks have a round restrictor, instead of the more common square restriction found on many other modern joysticks. This round restriction adds to the smoothness factor, because there are no corners to feel.

Connection- P360 joys require a little more effort to hook up- in addition to the Up, Down, Left, Right and Ground connections on standard joysticks, the P360 also needs a +5 volts connection. This is easy enough to get, as encoders such as the I-Pac and KeyWiz provide a +5v header. PC power supplies produce +5v on the red wire of the drive connectors. There is also +5v power available on USB & PS2 cables. +5 volt power is easy to find.

History- The Perfect 360 started out as an aftermarket add-on kit for Wico leafswitch joysticks. Models were later added to the product line to convert Happ Super, Competition, and Ultimate sticks, and possibly others as well. Happ eventually bought the rights to the P360 technology, and discontinued the kits. Happ began producing a complete stick instead, with the top half of a Wico joystick base (no longer sold by Wico by then) mated to a P360 bottom half.

Interchangability- P360 handles and Wico handles have been found to be interchangable. There are also replacement handles available from SlikStik. Wico Pear-top sticks used the same pivot cones and spacer sleeves.

====[http://retroblast.com/reviews/Ultimarc_Ultrastick_0925006-01.html Ultimarc UltraStik 360]====
[[Image:UltraStik1.jpg|right|thumb|Ultimarc's Ultrastik 360]]
This offering from Ultimarc operates on similar principals to an inductive joystick, but offers many more custom features. Using its USB interface and the provided software, it's possible to easily switch the joystick between 2-way, 4-way, 8-way, analog and even 4-way diagonal (Q*Bert) modes. User defineable custom modes are also available.

When used via USB, Windows thinks of this joystick as a gamepad and allows you to hook-up 8 buttons straight to the joystick; so no seperate encoder (IPac, Keywiz etc) is necessary.

==49-Way Joysticks==
Once used in a small handfull of Williams, Midway and Atari games, 49 way joysticks live in a no-man's land between digital and analog joysticks. 49-way joysticks do not, as the name might seem to imply, point in 49 different directions. The number 49 comes from the number of positions the stick can report to the game hardware, including positions somewhere ''between'' "dead center" and "pushed all the way". Imagine a 7x7 grid (that's 49 squares) and you've got it. Games that originally used this hardware benefited from the extra info the joystick could report by allowing the player to control the on-screen character with more precision- both in the form of better directional control (24 discrete directions possible, if you count dead center), and 3 levels of speed control, based on how far from center the stick was pushed. For example, in [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=9553 SiniStar], the player can make the ship move faster or slower, by varying how hard they push the stick, and the ship's movement is not limited to just 8 directions. Attempting to play this game (or others that originally used 49-way sticks) with a standard 8-way digital joystick tends to be frustrating- SiniStar is a very difficult game in the first place; take away the speed control and limit yourself to 8 directions, and it's ''really, really'' hard. More info on 49-way joysticks can be found at [http://urebelscum.speedhost.com/49waySticks.html What are 49-Way joysticks?] by URebelScum

Games that originally used 49-way joysticks include:

*SiniStar
*Blaster
*Arch Rivals
*Pigskin 621 A.D.
*Blitz
*Blitz '99
*Blitz 2000
*NFL Blitz 2000 Gold Edition
*NBA Showtime
*SportStation
*Gauntlet: Legends
*Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

For home gaming purposes, when paired with the [[Gamepad Encoders#GP Wiz49|GP Wiz49]] controller from [www.groovygamegear.com GroovyGameGear], these analog style joysticks have become a popular all-around stick. Using the GP-Wiz's various DRS modes, these joysticks can be easily switched between 8-way, 4-way, 2-way (vertical), 2-way (horizontal) and diagonal (Q*Bert style) modes without having to physically change the joystick hardware. This allows these sticks to be used to play any digital joystick games well. In additon, the two 49-way modes allow play for games that originally used 49-way sticks (and have emulator support that goes beyond 8-ways- not all 49-way games do), and also will play well for ''some'' games that originally used analog or Hall-Effect joysticks.

There are three varieties of 49-way joystick: Williams, Midway, and Happ.

The Williams are easy to distinguish- they use a distinctive rubber centering "spider" on the bottom, and have balltop handles. Red balltops come from SiniStar; Orange come from Arch Rivals. There are also Williams optical sticks out there with Turquoise and Yellow balltops. These ''look'' like 49-ways, complete with centering spider. However, these sticks do not have as many optics, and the pin connector is different, with fewer pins. These sticks are 8-way only. Turquoise ones most likely come from Bubbles, however, some early Joust games shipped with Turquoise and Yellow optical sticks.

The Midway and Happ 49-ways are ''very'' similar, in fact the Happ is just the Midway stick with a minor re-design. (Happ bought the rights to a lot of Midway's parts business several years ago.) The Midway sticks have a smaller diameter shaft, and the centering grommet has a correspondingly smaller hole. Both have a black bat top handle. Replacement handles are available in a variety of colors (Happ variety only) at [www.groovygamegear.com].

==Analog Joysticks==

Analog joysticks are not bound by the limits digital joysticks face. Digital joysticks can only point in 8 (or fewer; see above) directions, or no direction at all (centered). Analog joysticks can point in (theoretically) an unlimited number of directions. Furthermore, Analog joystics can discern how far the handle has been pushed from the center position. Games take advantage of these properties to give the player a much greater level of control over their on-screen character. For example, the bird in [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=9338 Road Runner] can run in more than just the 8 standard directions, and how far the player pushes the joystick from center determines how fast the Road Runner runs.

Most analog sticks use a pair of potentiometers, one to measure left-to-right movement (the X-axis), and one to measure forward-and-back movement (the Y-axis). A few games, however, used a "Hall Effect" stick. Hall effect sticks use Hall sensors and magnets to read the postion of the stick. The end result is the same, though- both types report to the game which direction and how far the stick is being pressed.

While the actual resolution of an analog joystick may be theoretically unlimited, the standard for analog joysticks connected to a PC is 256x256. Compare this to the 7x7 resolution of a 49-way joystick, or the 3x3 resolution of a standard 8-way joystick. This explains why it is difficult to play games that originally used analog controls with a standard 8-way stick; the stick simply can't control the on-screen character the way it was intended to be controlled. A 49-way stick is sufficient for ''some'' games that originally used analog controls, but not all of them. Road Runner, for example, can be adequately controlled with a 49-way joystick, as that stick would give the bird 24 directions to run in, and four speeds (including stopped)- which ought to be enough to outwit that dumb coyote. [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=9773 Star Wars], on the other hand, cannot be played well with a 49-way, as that stick will only aim the X-Wing's blasters at 49 equally spaced spots on the screen, leaving Tie Fighters that are in-between those spots un-shootable. (Star Wars actually used an analog Flight Yoke, rather than an analog joystick, but these controls are electrically identical, and actually interchangeable as far as the game is concerned.)

Games that used analog joysticks include:

{|
|
*Afterburner
*CyberSled ''(2 analog sticks per player; two players = 4 sticks)''
*Food Fight
*Jurrasic Park
*Maneater
*Pursuit
*Quarterback
*Rail Chase
*Red Baron
*Solar Assault
*Space Harrier
*Star Wars Trilogy
|
*Steel Talons
*T-Mek
*Tail Gunner
*Tail Gunner II
*Thunderblade
*World Series Baseball

*Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters ''(Hall-Effect)''
*I, Robot ''(Hall-Effect)''
*Road Runner ''(Hall-Effect)''
|
*Apache 3 ''(yoke)''
*Hydra ''(yoke)''
*Lock-On ''(yoke)''
*Star Wars ''(yoke)''
*Stun Runner ''(yoke)''
*The Empire Strikes Back ''(yoke)''
*The Return Of The Jedi ''(yoke)''
*Turbo-Sub ''(yoke)''
|}

==Rotary Joysticks==

There are two types of rotary joysticks that often get confused: Mechanical rotary sticks, and Optical rotary sticks. Either can be interfaced with a PC.

Mechanical rotary sticks are the type that most people remember from games like Ikari Warriors. They have a 12-position rotary switch attached to the bottom of the joystick, which is turned by rotating the handle. Each turn of the handle is accompanied by a clicking sound, and distinct tactile feedback that lets the player know that a turn has been registered.

The SNK games used a stick called the LS-30, with yellow octagonal tops. The Data East games used the same sticks, but with a yellow barrel shaped top. Wico used to make a rotary stick, with a yellow balltop These were basically standard Wico leaf sticks, with the rotary switch added to the bottom. Happ still sells a mechanical rotary stick, which is basically a Happ Super with a rotary switch added to the bottom. Fl0yd at BYOAC figured out how to attach the rotary parts from a Happ rotary to the bottom of a Happ 49-way joystick, and still sells the kits to modify your own Happ 49-way.

Optical rotary sticks have an optical encoder wheel, similar to a spinner, instead. Caliber .50 used a stick called the Loop-24, with green octagonal tops.

Most games that used rotary joysticks used the rotary function to determine which direction the on-screen character was aiming. This allowed the player to shoot in a different direction from the direction of motion, all with one hand.

===Mechanical Rotary joystick games (LS-30, Happ Mechanical Rotary sticks)===
*Battle Field
*Top Gunner (bootleg)
*World Wars
*Ikari Warriors
*Victory Road
*Heavy Barrel
*Gondomania
*Bermuda Triangle
*Time Soldiers
*Guerilla War
*SAR - Search And Rescue
*Downtown
*Victory Road
*Midnight Resistance
*Ikari III - The Rescue
*Exterminator (unknown whether this used mechanical or optical rotary sticks)
*TNK III
*Battle Field (Japanese verion of Time Soldiers)
*Dogosoken (Japanese version of Victory Road)
*Makyou Senshi (Japanese version of Gondomania)
*Guevara (Japanese version of Guerrilla War)

===Optical Rotary games (Loop-24 or Happ Optical rotary sticks)===
*Caliber .50
*Touchdown Fever
*Touchdown Fever II

===Other "Rotary" games===
These games did ''not'' use rotary joysticks,
but are sometimes confused with rotary games.

*Frontline (Taito Aim-n-Fire)
*The Tin Star (Taito Aim-n-Fire)
*Wild Western (Taito Aim-n-Fire)
*Sherrif (rotary switch)
*Bandido (rotary switch, clone of Sherrif)
*Xybots (Twist-to-Turn)
*720 (Optical 720 spinner/joy hybrid)

==Mounting Joysticks==

==European vs US vs Japanese Joysticks==

Common US joysticks include those produced by:

*Happ
*Wico
*Atari
*Midway

[Most of the Happ joysticks (including the Supers and Competitions) are actually manufactured by a Spanish company ([http://www.industrias-lorenzo.com Industrias-Lorenzo]) and are therefore technically European joysticks]

Common European joysticks include those produced by:

*Suzo

Common Japanese joysticks include those produced by:

*Sanwa
*Semitsu

==See Also==
* [[Controls]]

[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Index]]

Pushbuttons

2007-09-21T20:46:45Z

Dislecksea: /* Microswitch Pushbuttons */

__NOTOC__
'''Pushbuttons''' are the simplest and most common form of control consisting of a momentary switch that makes contact when pressed.

== Microswitch Pushbuttons==
[[Image:Happ-horiz-pushbutton.gif|right|thumb|120px|Microswitch Pushbutton]]
Pushbuttons come in various shapes, sizes and configurations though the most common is the Industrias Lorenzo horizontal microswitch pushbutton (aka Happ Horizontal Pushbutton). Because they use a microswitch these buttons make a clicking noise on activation and deactivation that may seem a little alien to many old-school gamers. They comprise the following parts:
* Button plunger
* Button housing/bezel
* Spring
* Microswitch

The plunger top may be concave, flat or convex. The microswitch can be positioned horizontally or vertically. Most people prefer horizontal orientation as these tend to be more reliable ([[horizontal versus vertical pushbuttons|read why here.]]) Microswitch pushbuttons are probably the most popular type of button used in arcades. Because of this they can be found in almost any color both opaque and transparent. They can also be found with little men icons, generally used as start buttons for the player indicated.

These buttons are sold by numerous [[vendors]]. Common suppliers are [http://www.happcontrols.com/ Happ], [http://www.ultimarc.com Ultimarc], [http://www.fxbuttons.com FX Buttons] and [http://www.groovygamegear.com GroovyGameGear.]

Installation requires a 1 1/8" hole.

See Also - [[Working with Microswitches]] and [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

==Leafswitch Pushbuttons==
{| align=right
| [[image:Leafswitch-button.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Buttons]]
| [[image:Leafswitch-holder.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Holders]]
| [[image:Leafswitch-palnuts.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Pal Nuts]]
|}
Before microswitch pushbuttons appeared, leafswitch pushbuttons were the standard and are still preferred by many people today. The main advantage to leafswitches over microswitches is that they are almost completely silent. They comprise the following parts:
* Button
* Button holder (usually with the actual leafswitch attached)
* Pal nut
As with most types of pushbuttons, they come in two lengths; long (1 7/8") for wooden panels and short (1 5/8") for metal panels.

It is occasionally difficult to find buttons of the appropriate color and the appropriate length for a particular project. In those situations, check [http://homearcade.org/BBBB/leafsw.html Leaf Switches & Button Solutions]by [http://homearcade.org/BBBB/index.html The Real Bob Roberts] for potential solutions.

==Atari Volcano Buttons==
{| align=right
| [[Image:SirPsVolcano.jpg|right|100px]]
|
{| cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0
|[[Image:Ataributton.gif|right|52px]]
|[[Image:Volcano switch black.jpg|right|56px]]
|}
|-
| [[Image:Volcano switchs red n blk1.jpg|right|100px]]
| [[Image:Volcano switch n lens.jpg|right|100px]]
|-
| [[Image:Volcano switch lens1.jpg|right|100px]]
| [[Image:Volcano switchs red n blk2.jpg|right|100px]]
|}
Also known as cone buttons, volcano buttons are comprised of:
* Microswitch
* Lens (plunger)
* Plastic mounting clip/brace
* Plastic or aluminium cone

These were used as player start buttons in many Atari cabinets, available with illuminated red and later solid black lenses. The red button lens would blink when a player inserted a coin and remain lit during gameplay. Taller cones were used on fire buttons of Missile Command.

The actual switch used appears to be a [http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/submini/db.htm Cherry DB3] sub-miniature microswitch. This switch is still available from Cherry, however the plastic mounting clip and lenses have been out of production for some time. The plastic cones were re-produced by [http://www.gamecab.com/products.asp?cat=25 Gamecab], but have been unavailable for a while now.

[http://www.ram-controls.com/order-cones.html RAM Controls] is currently a source for these cones and switches. They not only manufacture and sell the cones in various heights and finishes but they are also a supplier of [http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Glossary NOS] switches.

[[Image:Eao 11-131.jpg|left|100px|EAO 11-131.825N switch with 11-931.2 red lens]]Charlie from Gamecab.com discovered that a company called EAO currently manufactures switch assemblies that are quite similar to the original Cherry P163 assemblies. They don't include an LED, but the neck is threaded the same as an Atari cone, so they work pretty well together. They are available from [http://www.newark.com/product-details/text/CD121/5134.html Newark In One].

Related BYOAC Forum threads: [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=11468 1] -
[http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=11123.0 2] - [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42155.0 3] - [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42509.0 4]

==See Also==
* [[Controls]]

[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Index]]

Pushbuttons

2007-09-21T20:46:30Z

Dislecksea: /* Microswitch Pushbuttons */

__NOTOC__
'''Pushbuttons''' are the simplest and most common form of control consisting of a momentary switch that makes contact when pressed.

== Microswitch Pushbuttons==
[[Image:Happ-horiz-pushbutton.gif|right|thumb|120px|Microswitch Pushbutton]]
Pushbuttons come in various shapes, sizes and configurations though the most common is the Industrias Lorenzo horizontal microswitch pushbutton (aka Happ Horizontal Pushbutton). Because they use a microswitch these buttons make a clicking noise on activation and deactivation that may seem a little alien to many old-school gamers. They comprise the following parts:
* Button plunger
* Button housing/bezel
* Spring
* Microswitch

The plunger top may be concave, flat or convex. The microswitch can be positioned horizontally or vertically. Most people prefer horizontal orientation as these tend to be more reliable ([[horizontal versus vertical pushbuttons|read why here.]]) Microswitch pushbuttons are probably the most popular type of button used in arcades. Because of this they can be found in almost any color both opaque and transparent. They can also be found with little men icons, generally used as start buttons for the player indicated.

These buttons are sold by numerous [[vendors]]. Common suppliers are [http://www.happcontrols.com/ Happ], [http://www.ultimarc.com Ultimarc], [http://www.fxbuttons.com FX Buttons] and [http://www.groovygamegear.com GroovyGameGear.]

Installation requires a 1 1/8" hole.

See Also - [[Working with Microswitches]]and [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

==Leafswitch Pushbuttons==
{| align=right
| [[image:Leafswitch-button.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Buttons]]
| [[image:Leafswitch-holder.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Holders]]
| [[image:Leafswitch-palnuts.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Pal Nuts]]
|}
Before microswitch pushbuttons appeared, leafswitch pushbuttons were the standard and are still preferred by many people today. The main advantage to leafswitches over microswitches is that they are almost completely silent. They comprise the following parts:
* Button
* Button holder (usually with the actual leafswitch attached)
* Pal nut
As with most types of pushbuttons, they come in two lengths; long (1 7/8") for wooden panels and short (1 5/8") for metal panels.

It is occasionally difficult to find buttons of the appropriate color and the appropriate length for a particular project. In those situations, check [http://homearcade.org/BBBB/leafsw.html Leaf Switches & Button Solutions]by [http://homearcade.org/BBBB/index.html The Real Bob Roberts] for potential solutions.

==Atari Volcano Buttons==
{| align=right
| [[Image:SirPsVolcano.jpg|right|100px]]
|
{| cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0
|[[Image:Ataributton.gif|right|52px]]
|[[Image:Volcano switch black.jpg|right|56px]]
|}
|-
| [[Image:Volcano switchs red n blk1.jpg|right|100px]]
| [[Image:Volcano switch n lens.jpg|right|100px]]
|-
| [[Image:Volcano switch lens1.jpg|right|100px]]
| [[Image:Volcano switchs red n blk2.jpg|right|100px]]
|}
Also known as cone buttons, volcano buttons are comprised of:
* Microswitch
* Lens (plunger)
* Plastic mounting clip/brace
* Plastic or aluminium cone

These were used as player start buttons in many Atari cabinets, available with illuminated red and later solid black lenses. The red button lens would blink when a player inserted a coin and remain lit during gameplay. Taller cones were used on fire buttons of Missile Command.

The actual switch used appears to be a [http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/submini/db.htm Cherry DB3] sub-miniature microswitch. This switch is still available from Cherry, however the plastic mounting clip and lenses have been out of production for some time. The plastic cones were re-produced by [http://www.gamecab.com/products.asp?cat=25 Gamecab], but have been unavailable for a while now.

[http://www.ram-controls.com/order-cones.html RAM Controls] is currently a source for these cones and switches. They not only manufacture and sell the cones in various heights and finishes but they are also a supplier of [http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Glossary NOS] switches.

[[Image:Eao 11-131.jpg|left|100px|EAO 11-131.825N switch with 11-931.2 red lens]]Charlie from Gamecab.com discovered that a company called EAO currently manufactures switch assemblies that are quite similar to the original Cherry P163 assemblies. They don't include an LED, but the neck is threaded the same as an Atari cone, so they work pretty well together. They are available from [http://www.newark.com/product-details/text/CD121/5134.html Newark In One].

Related BYOAC Forum threads: [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=11468 1] -
[http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=11123.0 2] - [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42155.0 3] - [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42509.0 4]

==See Also==
* [[Controls]]

[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Index]]

Building

2007-09-21T20:43:53Z

Dislecksea: /* Tools */

__NOTOC__{{Portal|name=Design and Building}}
'''Building''' a [[Arcade Cabinet|cabinet]] from scratch, or even modifying an existing cabinet can be a daunting task for some. This page is designed to help you find your way through some difficult building challenges so you can complete your cabinet and start
playing.

==Design Considerations==
* [[Basic_guide_to_build_a_cabinet|Basic Cabinet Building Guide]]
* [[Controls]]
* [[Power Options]]

== Design Software ==
Good construction work requires planning. This is also true for building a cabinet. With decent construction plans and button layout plans things are much easier. This section gives you a nice overview of software tools that can help you in constructing your own cabinet.
* [[Design applications]]
** [[Graphics software]]
** [[Technical design software]]

==Building Materials==
If you're planing on building an arcade cabinet from scratch, these are some of the materials you might end up using for various elements of the cabinet.
* [[Wood products]]
* [[Metal products]]
* [[Plastics]]
* [[Finishes]]
* [[T-Molding]]
* [[Electronic Components]]
* [[Bondo]]

==Tools==
Building your own arcade machine is no simple task and requires the correct tools as well as the knowledge of how to use each one correctly and safely. Hopefully you already own some of these tools and are well versed in their operation. If not, here's a few things you might want to add to your shopping list.
* [[Hand Tools]]
** [[Safety Equipment|Safety Equipment]]
** [[Marking Tools|Marking Tools]]
** [[Measuring Devices|Measuring Devices]]
** [[Sandpaper/Sanding Blocks|Sandpaper/Sanding Blocks]]
** [[Clamps|Clamps]]
** [[Sawhorses/Stands|Sawhorses/Stands ]]
** [[Working with Wire| Wire]]
** [[Wire Strippers/Crimpers|Wire Strippers/Crimpers]]
** [[Hammer/Screwdriver|Hammer/Screwdriver]]
** [[Fasteners|Fasteners]]
** [[Multimeter]]
** [[Soldering Iron]]
* [[Power Tools]]

==See Also==
* [[Basics]]
* [[Examples]]
* [[Cabinet Plans]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Portals]]
[[Category:Building]]

Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks

2007-09-21T20:42:05Z

Dislecksea: /* Installing the Hot Wire */

==Generally==
The most numerous controls on your Control Panel will most likely be [[Pushbuttons| Push Buttons]]. They are comprised of two parts: the plastic button and the Microswitch. Since the plastic button is, well, just a plastic button we are going to focus our discussion on the Microswitch. However, understand that whenever we refer to pressing a Microswitch, we are also referring to pressing the button.

The second most numerous controls on your Control Panel are likely to be Joysticks. However, you need to understand that there are [[Joysticks| different kinds of joysticks]]. One type, referred to as Conventional Digital Joysticks, utilize the same Microswitches used by Push Buttons. Unlike Push Buttons, which utilize only 1 Microswitch, each Conventional Joystick will utilize 4 Microswitches – 1 each for up, down, left, and right. This 4 Microswitch layout is the same for both 4-way and 8-way joysticks – the diagonals (e.g., upper right) in 8-way joysticks are activated when 2 of the 4 Microswitches (e.g., up and right) are activated at the same time.

Wiring Microswitches for Push Buttons and Joysticks is done exactly the same. There are no significant differences. Since we are going to be talking so much about Microswitches, you should go learn [[Working with Microswitches| generally about Microswitches]].

==Installing the Ground Wire==
The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.

For start you need to attach the [[G| Ground Wire]] to the Encoder. Now, how exactly you do so will depend on your particular encoder. Read the documentation for your particular model. However, it will probably involve you stripping the end of a piece of wire, twisting it if it is loose, folding it over, sticking it into a hole marked “G” or “GND” and then tightening the screw to secure the wire.

Next you need to attach the Ground Wire to your first Microswitch (and no, it does not matter which Microswitch you decide to consider your first, second, third, etc). Here is the trick, so listen carefully. You will be working with TWO pieces of wire at once:
* The first is the other end of the wire that is currently attached to the Encoder. Go ahead and strip that end.
* The second is a brand new piece of black wire that will, eventually, run from your first Microswitch to the second Microswitch. Go ahead and strip one end of that wire.

So now you should have two wires, both with stripped ends. Take those two wires, twist them together, fold them over, and insert both of them together into a [[Q| Female Quick Disconnect]]. Once they are both snugly inserted, go ahead and crimp them with your pliers.

You can now attach the Disconnect to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Common] prong on your first Microswitch. Just stick it on there, it should slide on and hold tight all by itself. Congratulations, one down, a bunch more to go.

To attach the Ground Wire to the second Microswitch, you just repeat the procedure. However, rather than starting with a wire with one end attached to the Encoder, you are starting with the wire with one end attached to your first Microswitch. You strip it, strip a new wire, twist them together, fold them over, stick both into a Disconnect, crimp, and attach to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Guess what - for the third you start with a wire with one end attached to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Rinse, lather, repeat until you get to your last Microswitch.

By the time you get to your last Microswitch, you should have a black wire that you can follow from your Encoder to the Common prong on every Microswitch on your Control Panel except one. Here is the trick to this last Microswitch – it just ends here. It does not loop back to the Encoder. It does not attach to the computer. It does not plug into a wall socket. It just ends with the last Microswitch. So simply strip the wire, twist it, fold it over, stick it all by itself into a Disconnect, crimp it, and slide the Disconnect over the Common prong on your last Microswitch. You are done with the Ground Wire.

==Installing the Hot Wire==
Installing the [[H| Hot Wire]] is much simpler than installing the Ground Wire, simply because you are only running one wire from each Microswitch to the Encoder. Start by taking your piece of wire, stripping one end, twisting it, folding it over, inserting it into a Disconnect, and attaching it to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Normally Open] prong on your Microswitch. Now take the other end of the wire, strip it, twist it, fold it over, and attach it to your Encoder.

Here is the only tricky part – you need to determine where on your particular Encoder to attach it. That will depend first on which control you want to attach and second the design of your particular Encoder. I know what you are thinking – how hard can it be to determine which control I am working on at any particular time? Well, sometimes it is a little harder than you think. Remember, your control panel will probably be upside down when you are working on it, so on a standard 2 player layout Player 1 will be on the right and Player 2 on the left. Plus you will have been hooking up bunches and bunches of these wires, so they all start to look pretty similar after a while. So just take your time and check your work. Of course, if you do mess up, that is why we are using Disconnects which can be easily removed.

On your Encoder you will need to find the correct hole to which you will attach your wire. This is only a little challenging. While an Ultimarc encoder may have a slot for “Player 1 Start” labeled “1Start” the KeyWiz Max might have one labeled “I” – but do not worry. Either way, your Encoder will have a diagram to let you know which slot to use.

Once you figure out where to attach the wire, you basically just strip the end, insert it into the appropriate hole, and tighten the screw (no Disconnect this time). If you did everything correctly, that Microswitch should be ready to go. Again, take your time and check your work. If you do mess up just unscrew the wire and move it into the correct hole.

Once you are done connecting the Hot Wire, pat yourself on the back. You have just installed your Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks. They are ready to go.

Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks

2007-09-21T20:41:54Z

Dislecksea: /* Installing the Hot Wire */

==Generally==
The most numerous controls on your Control Panel will most likely be [[Pushbuttons| Push Buttons]]. They are comprised of two parts: the plastic button and the Microswitch. Since the plastic button is, well, just a plastic button we are going to focus our discussion on the Microswitch. However, understand that whenever we refer to pressing a Microswitch, we are also referring to pressing the button.

The second most numerous controls on your Control Panel are likely to be Joysticks. However, you need to understand that there are [[Joysticks| different kinds of joysticks]]. One type, referred to as Conventional Digital Joysticks, utilize the same Microswitches used by Push Buttons. Unlike Push Buttons, which utilize only 1 Microswitch, each Conventional Joystick will utilize 4 Microswitches – 1 each for up, down, left, and right. This 4 Microswitch layout is the same for both 4-way and 8-way joysticks – the diagonals (e.g., upper right) in 8-way joysticks are activated when 2 of the 4 Microswitches (e.g., up and right) are activated at the same time.

Wiring Microswitches for Push Buttons and Joysticks is done exactly the same. There are no significant differences. Since we are going to be talking so much about Microswitches, you should go learn [[Working with Microswitches| generally about Microswitches]].

==Installing the Ground Wire==
The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.

For start you need to attach the [[G| Ground Wire]] to the Encoder. Now, how exactly you do so will depend on your particular encoder. Read the documentation for your particular model. However, it will probably involve you stripping the end of a piece of wire, twisting it if it is loose, folding it over, sticking it into a hole marked “G” or “GND” and then tightening the screw to secure the wire.

Next you need to attach the Ground Wire to your first Microswitch (and no, it does not matter which Microswitch you decide to consider your first, second, third, etc). Here is the trick, so listen carefully. You will be working with TWO pieces of wire at once:
* The first is the other end of the wire that is currently attached to the Encoder. Go ahead and strip that end.
* The second is a brand new piece of black wire that will, eventually, run from your first Microswitch to the second Microswitch. Go ahead and strip one end of that wire.

So now you should have two wires, both with stripped ends. Take those two wires, twist them together, fold them over, and insert both of them together into a [[Q| Female Quick Disconnect]]. Once they are both snugly inserted, go ahead and crimp them with your pliers.

You can now attach the Disconnect to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Common] prong on your first Microswitch. Just stick it on there, it should slide on and hold tight all by itself. Congratulations, one down, a bunch more to go.

To attach the Ground Wire to the second Microswitch, you just repeat the procedure. However, rather than starting with a wire with one end attached to the Encoder, you are starting with the wire with one end attached to your first Microswitch. You strip it, strip a new wire, twist them together, fold them over, stick both into a Disconnect, crimp, and attach to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Guess what - for the third you start with a wire with one end attached to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Rinse, lather, repeat until you get to your last Microswitch.

By the time you get to your last Microswitch, you should have a black wire that you can follow from your Encoder to the Common prong on every Microswitch on your Control Panel except one. Here is the trick to this last Microswitch – it just ends here. It does not loop back to the Encoder. It does not attach to the computer. It does not plug into a wall socket. It just ends with the last Microswitch. So simply strip the wire, twist it, fold it over, stick it all by itself into a Disconnect, crimp it, and slide the Disconnect over the Common prong on your last Microswitch. You are done with the Ground Wire.

==Installing the Hot Wire==
Installing the [[H| Hot Wire]]is much simpler than installing the Ground Wire, simply because you are only running one wire from each Microswitch to the Encoder. Start by taking your piece of wire, stripping one end, twisting it, folding it over, inserting it into a Disconnect, and attaching it to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Normally Open] prong on your Microswitch. Now take the other end of the wire, strip it, twist it, fold it over, and attach it to your Encoder.

Here is the only tricky part – you need to determine where on your particular Encoder to attach it. That will depend first on which control you want to attach and second the design of your particular Encoder. I know what you are thinking – how hard can it be to determine which control I am working on at any particular time? Well, sometimes it is a little harder than you think. Remember, your control panel will probably be upside down when you are working on it, so on a standard 2 player layout Player 1 will be on the right and Player 2 on the left. Plus you will have been hooking up bunches and bunches of these wires, so they all start to look pretty similar after a while. So just take your time and check your work. Of course, if you do mess up, that is why we are using Disconnects which can be easily removed.

On your Encoder you will need to find the correct hole to which you will attach your wire. This is only a little challenging. While an Ultimarc encoder may have a slot for “Player 1 Start” labeled “1Start” the KeyWiz Max might have one labeled “I” – but do not worry. Either way, your Encoder will have a diagram to let you know which slot to use.

Once you figure out where to attach the wire, you basically just strip the end, insert it into the appropriate hole, and tighten the screw (no Disconnect this time). If you did everything correctly, that Microswitch should be ready to go. Again, take your time and check your work. If you do mess up just unscrew the wire and move it into the correct hole.

Once you are done connecting the Hot Wire, pat yourself on the back. You have just installed your Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks. They are ready to go.

Glossary

2007-09-21T20:40:48Z

Dislecksea: /* H */

{{TOCabc}}
==A==
*'''[[Analog]]''', Analog data is data considered to be continuously variable -- that is, data that is not simply on or off (see ''digital''). Temperature is a good example of analog data.
*'''[[FYI:_Arcade_Authenticity|Arcade Authenticity]]''', A measure of how accurately a game visually compares to it's original arcade version (i.e. the original game PCB playing on the arcade monitor it was intended to).

==B==
*'''Bemani''', synonymous with the rythm and dance game genre. Originally from ''Be''at''Mani''a - the first rythm game in the genre.
*'''[[Bezel]]''', A shroud surrounding the monitor of an arcade cabinet so as to frame the monitor and hide the inner workings of the arcade cabinet.
*'''Bucking magnet''', A magnet that is glued to the back of a speaker magnet to counteract the magnetic field the speaker produces. Normally used to allow placement of speakers close to monitors without the speaker's magnetic field distorting the monitor's picture.
*'''BYOAC''' short for "Build Your Own Arcade Controls". Also the name of the [http://arcadecontrols.com/ website] and [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/ community] that spawned this Wiki.
*'''BYOACer''' a member of the Build Your Own Arcade Controls community.

==C==
* '''Cab''' Short for "Arcade ''cab''inet".
* '''[[Cabinet friendly software|Cabfriendly software]]''' Software that is easily operated on an arcade cabinet.
* '''Cap-kit''', [[Capacitor Kit]] - The capacitors (electronic components) on monitor circuit boards tend to go bad after a while, causing color and picture distortion. Replacing the capacitors (and other related electronic components) will often fix such problems. The collection of capacitors and other components that are needed to repair the monitor are referred to as a "cap-kit."
* '''CMYK''' CMYK is a color description scheme used in printing, and stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK. Mixing various amounts of these four colors produces the other colors needed in the printing process.
* '''Cockpit cabinet''' An arcade cabinet that is enclosed. The player sits inside the cabinet to play the game.
* '''Cocktail cabinet''' An arcade machine that is shaped like a small table. Players sit at the table and play the game looking down on the monitor. The monitor is oriented so that it is facing upwards.
* '''[[Coin Doors|Coin door]]''' A metal door on an arcade cabinet where players insert money or tokens to be able to play the game.
* '''COM''' Common - a connector on a microswitch that is always used, regardless of whether the other connector used is NC or NO.
* '''Control panel''' The panel of wood on an arcade cabinet or desktop arcade controller that is the home for the pushbuttons, joysticks, and other arcade controls used by the arcade machine.
* '''Console''' can have different meanings dependant of the context it is used in:
:#short for "Game console" (see glossary [[#G|G: Game console]])
:#The keyboard/screen combination from which a (remote) computer is operated
:#The commandline interface to directly issue basic commands to the computer's operating system (example: The DOS version of MAME is lauched from a DOS-console).
* '''CP''' Short for "[[Control panel]]"
* '''CPO''' Acronym for "Control Panel Overlay." A CPO is a piece of vinyl or similar material originally used to cover the metal or wood control panel, display control instructions and branded game art.
* '''CRT''' Cathode Ray Tube - a type of monitor with a glass tube. You are probably most familiar with a CRT monitor in the form of older televisions and computer monitors (non-LCD based).

==D==
*'''DDR''' Dance Dance Revolution. A series of dance arcade games made by Konami. The series is named ''Dancing Stage'' in Europe, however many Europeans refer to the games by the DDR name.
*'''Degaussing''' The process of demagnetizing (removing the magnetic field) of a monitor that can build up over time or occur from external sources, to remove the color or picture distortion caused by the field.
*'''Desktop arcade controller''' A box that holds arcade controls use to play video games. The box is usually somewhere around 3 feet in width and 1.5 feet deep, and is designed to sit on a desktop when played. Unlike a full arcade cabinet, a desktop arcade controller only holds the arcade controls and internal electronics. No monitors, speakers, or computer are part of a desktop arcade controller. Some people have designed a complete "arcade-in-a-box" that goes beyond this definition, including the computer inside the controller, but this is rare.
*'''Digital''' Digital data is data that is either on or off, one or zero, high or low. A pushbutton is a good example of data that is represented digitally. The button is either pressed, or not pressed. The amount that the pushbutton is pressed is not measured. A pushbutton that is pressed half-way down is still considered to be "off" until it makes final contact with the microswitch beneath it, at which point it is considered "on." Compare to ''Analog''.
*'''Diode''' A diode is a device that in simplest terms only allows electricity to flow in one direction. A diode has two ends: a cathode (-) and an anode (+). Current can only flow from the anode to the cathode, but not the other direction. [[Electronic_Components#Diodes| Diodes]] are sometimes used in [[keyboard_Hacks|keyboard hacks]].
*'''DIY''' Do It Yourself.
*'''DPI''' Dots Per Inch. Printing term used to describe the resolution of an image. For digital files, it may be better to think of DPI as pixels per inch.

==E==
*'''Emulator''' A piece of software designed to make one computer act as another computer or arcade hardware. See also [[Emulators]].
*'''Encoder''' An electronic component, usually a microchip, that takes analog or digital signals from a device and encodes it in a format that the computer is able to understand. See [[encoders]].
==F==
*'''Front End''' Software GUI used to launch game roms in one or more emulators
==G==
*'''Game console''' A video game system designed for home play with a TV (or occasionally a computer monitor). Systems such as the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation are game consoles.
*'''Game console controller''' The unit that plugs into a game console to control the game play. These are usually handheld pads with an analog mini-joystick that controls direction, a digital flat control wheel that serves the same function, and pushbuttons.
*'''Ground Wire''' The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the Encoder to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.
*'''GUI''' Acronym for "Graphic User Interface". A front end is an example of a GUI for MAME. The basic MAME is without a GUI, MAME32 is a version with a GUI.

==H==
*'''Hack''' As used here, modifying a device to use it in a way that is different than originally intended. For instance, using the electronics of a mouse to connect an arcade trackball.
*'''High resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 31.5kHz.
*'''Hot Wire''' A wire that carries electricity from a Microswitch to an Encoder. In our case, this usually only occurs when the button for the Microswitch is pressed.

==I==
*'''Isolation transformer''' A transformer that sits between the building electrical outlet and the monitor, isolating the monitor from the building electrical system.
==J==
*'''JAMMA''' - '''Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers' Association'''
A trade association based in Japan; it also the namesake of a trade show hosted in Japan; additionally, JAMMA is a wiring standard for arcade machines that allows for interchangability of video game PCBs without having to re-wire the arcade machine.
*'''Joystick''' Any of a large variety of devices used to control arcade machines. The joystick has a shaft that extends above the control panel that is manipulated by the player, activating switches (microswitch or leaf switch) at the base of the joystick beneath the control panel, thereby controlling game play.
==K==
*'''Keyboard blocking''' A technique used by keyboard manufacturers to prevent ''ghosting'' problems. After a certain number of keys are pressed at the same time, further keypresses are blocked.
*'''Keyboard Encoder''' - A device used to interpret signals from arcade buttons and joysticks into standard keystroke signals. See [[encoders]].
*'''Keyboard ghosting''' A problem that occurs in older keyboards that do not feature keyboard blocking in which phantom keystrokes are generated when too many keys are pressed at the same time. For instance, pressing "A" and "C" and "E" at the same time may generate a fourth phantom "T" keystroke.
*'''Keyboard matrix''' The grid in which a keyboard encoder maps keystrokes. The grid corresponds to the physical electronic traces on the keyboard circuit. A keyboard encoder that has a total of 20 keyboard traces can be arranged in a 10 x 10 matrix, allowing 100 total keystrokes. It can also be arranged in a 12 x 8 matrix, allowing 96 total keystrokes, or any other combination. The manner and method in which a keyboard matrix is designed varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
*'''Kill switch''' A switch that is designed to turn off a circuit when the button is released. Usually used as a precaution on the back door of arcade machines. When the back door is opened, the button is released, killing the power inside the arcade cabinet.
*'''KLOV''' The [http://www.klov.com Killer List of Video Games website].

==L==
*'''LCD Screen''' - '''L'''iquid '''C'''rystal '''D'''isplay. Some front ends support small LCDs, typically connected to one of the computer's serial ports, to display the name of the game that is currently running.
*'''[[pushbuttons#Leafswitch Pushbuttons|Leaf Switch]]''' - A switch type commonly used on older buttons and joysticks. It consisted of two metal contacts, that when united, completed a circuit.
*'''Leafs''' - Short form for ''leaf switch''
*'''Lexan''' An acrylic plastic used to protect control panels and occasionally as a protective barrier in front of a monitor, available in both clear and smoked varieties. See ''Plexiglas''.
*'''[[Light gun]]''' An amusement gun with optical electronics. The spot that is aimed at is determined optically by the gun electronics. Contrast with ''positional guns''.
*'''Low resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 15.75 kHz. Usually referred to as standard resolution.

==M==
*'''MAME''' Acronym for "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator". See also [[Arcade_Emulators#MAME|Arcade emulators]].
*'''Mame32''' Windows version of MAME with built in GUI
*'''Marquee''' Usually located at the top of an arcade machine, this is normally a back-lit colorful sign displaying the name of the video game. Marquees are designed to draw attention to the game.
*'''Medium resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 25 kHz.
*'''[[pushbuttons#Microswitch Pushbuttons|Microswitch]]''' A switch with three contacts, two of which are used at any one time. When the small button at the top of the switch is pressed (or released), a circuit is completed between the two contacts in use, activating the button. The three contacts are NC, NO, and COM. NO and COM are primarily used in arcade machine applications.
*'''Multimeter''' A multimeter is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several functions in one unit. The most basic instruments include an ammeter, voltmeter, and ohmmeter. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimeter Multimeter Wikipedia entry]

==N==
*'''NC''' Normally Closed - a connector on a microswitch used when a button is considered idle when it is pressed, and activated when it is not pressed. A kill-switch that disables an arcade machine when the back door is opened, releasing the pressure on the switch, is an example of a situation in which you would want to use the NC connector instead of the NO connector.
*'''NO''' Normally Open - a connector on a microswitch used when a button is considered idle when it is not pressed.
*'''NOS''' Acronym for "New Old-Stock." This term is most commonly used to describe original, unused vintage items for sale or auction. Many times unused stock may be found stored away untouched for years. NOS items are not reproductions, they were manufactured by the original manufacturer and should be close to perfect condition.
*'''NTSC''' A television standard mainly used in the US and Japan. It uses 525 lines and 60-fields (interlaced) per second giving 30fps. NTSC stands for National Television System Committee who set the TV standards in the US. It has a some colour issues which were corrected when PAL was developed, and TV engineers will refer to NTSC as "Never Twice the Same Colour".

==O==
*'''OEM''' Acronym for "Original Equipment Manufacturer." An OEM was the originator of a specific part. Parts from an OEM should be more accurate than reproduction parts made for the aftermarket. Reproduction parts are usually not considered 100% fully interchangeable with parts from the OEM.
*'''Optical encoder''' The encoder that is the heart of a mouse or other optical device. It takes the data from the detector and sends the information to the computer.
==P==
*'''PAL''' A television standard widely used in Europe and Australia. PAL is based on the US NTSC standard, but unlike NTSC (used in the US and Japan) it uses 625 lines and 50-fields (interlaced) per second giving 25fps. Also, PAL stands for Phase Alternate Line, because the phase of the color carrier is alternated from line to line. This alternation helps cancel out phase errors, and gives a superior colour reproduction compared to NTSC ('hue' control is not needed on a PAL TV set) even though both are composite colour signals.
*'''PCB''' Printed Circuit Board - the circuit boards at the heart of an arcade machine.
*'''Plexiglas''' An acrylic plastic used to protect control panels and occasionally as a protective barrier in front of a monitor, available in both clear and smoked varieties. Plexiglas is a brand name that is often used as a generic term. Lexan is another brand of acrylic plastic that is often used.
*'''Positional gun''' An amusement gun with analog electronics, whose aim is determined by the position of two potentiometers (pots) at the base of the gun. As the gun is aimed, the potentiometers are moved, translating into horizontal and vertical positioning of the gun's aim.
*'''POT''' Short for potentiometer, a variable resistor whose resistance changes as a shaft is turned. A volume knob is an example of a potentiometer.
*'''Port''' A port can be either a connection on a computer circuit board or a remake of a game/application on another system than the first release. For example the arcade game Pac-Man was ported from the Arcade to various home computer systems.

==Q==
*'''Quick disconnects''' Small connectors used as method to connect wires to microswitches without the need to solder the wire directly to the microswitch. Usually abbreviated as QDs or MQDs (male quick disconnects) and FQDs (female quick disconnects).

==R==
*'''Raster graphics''' A raster-based graphic, such as a JPEG file, is composed of tiny dots, or pixels. Contrast it with ''vector graphics''.
*'''Raster monitor''' A monitor that draws images on screen as a series of dots. Contrast it with ''vector monitor''.
*'''Refresh rate''' The rate at which a monitor re-draws the images on the screen, broken into horizontal refresh rates and vertical refresh rates. Phosphors on the screen begin to lose their charge quickly and have to be refreshed to keep the image on the screen.
*'''Resolution''' The size of the screen display on a monitor. Most PC users will be familiar with 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 resolutions, although many other resolutions are possible. Arcade machine typically used much lower resolutions.
*'''Restrictor plate''' A metal plate that fits over a joystick, restricting its movement so that an eight-way joystick functions like a four-way joystick.
*'''RGB''' RGB is a color description scheme used for monitors and sometimes in printing, and stands for Red, Green, and Blue. Mixing various amounts of these three colors produces the other colors needed. Contrast with ''CMYK''.
*'''RGVAC''' Acronym for the usenet newsgroup [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting?hl=en rec.games.video.arcade.collecting]. This is a newsgroup for arcade collectors and those interested in restoring arcade cabinets to their original form. Regulars to the newsgroup aren't too fond of people that convert rarer arcade cabinets into ermulator cabinets.
*'''ROM''' Acronym for "Read Only Memory". ROMs contain program code, graphics and sound data that is used by the arcade hardware to run the games. Think of it as a CD on a chip. Many emulators require ROM image files to work. See Also [[ROMs]].

==S==
*'''SCART''' A connector found primarily on European televisions providing stereo sound and video inputs.
*'''Spinner''' An optical device used to control on-screen movement along a single axis, usually the X axis. As the spinner is turned the on-screen cursor (or arcade game image) is moved correspondingly.
*'''Standard resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 15.75 kHz.
==T==
*'''[[T-Molding]]''' A plastic strip placed around the edges of an arcade cabinet for protective and decorative purposes. The strip is shaped like a T, with the long part of the T fitting in a groove in the edges of the cabinet.
*'''Trackball''' An optical device used to control on-screen movement along the X and Y axes. As the ball is rolled the on-screen cursor (or arcade game image) is moved correspondingly.
*'''Trigger-grip joystick''' A joystick that has a fire button in the shaft.

==U==
*'''Upright cabinet''' An arcade machine that stands approximately six feet tall with the monitor facing the players while the player stands at the machine.
==V==
*'''Vector graphics''' A vector-based graphic is composed of a series of mathematically described lines that form shapes.
*'''Vector monitor''' A monitor that draws images on screen as a series of lines.
*'''VOM''' Acronym for Volt-Ohm-Milliemmeter. See multimeter entry.
==W==
''-No entries yet-''
==X==
''-No entries yet-''
==Y==
*'''YMMV''' Acronym for "Your Mileage May Vary," an idiom meaning: "if you attempt this procedure, your results may differ from my results." Common to message boards.
*'''Yoke''' Two meanings:
:# A flight yoke used to control flying games.
:# Part of a monitor's electronics resting behind the picture tube.

==Z==
''-No entries yet-''
==0..9==
*'''2-way joystick''' A joystick that only moves in 2 directions, left-right or up-down. Very few games used a 2-way joystick. [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=S&game_id=9662 Space Invaders (KLOV link)] is one such game.
*'''4-way joystick''' A joystick that moves in 4 directions, normally up-down-left-right. Some games, such as [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=Q&game_id=9182 Qbert (KLOV entry)], used a 4-way joystick rotated 45 degrees such that they movement was to the diagonals instead of straight up/down/left/right. Playing a 4-way based game with an 8-way joystick can be extremely frustrating.
*'''8-way joystick''' A joystick that moves in the 4 cardinal directions (up-down-left-right) and the diagonals as well. Playing an 8-way based game with a 4-way joystick can be extremely frustrating.
*'''49-way joystick''' A joystick that has 3 possible positions in each cardinal direction, plus a center position, allowing for a total of 49-different possible positions (7 on the X axis, 7 on the Y axis, 7*7=49).

[[Category:Index]]

Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks

2007-09-21T20:37:02Z

Dislecksea: /* Installing the Ground Wire */

==Generally==
The most numerous controls on your Control Panel will most likely be [[Pushbuttons| Push Buttons]]. They are comprised of two parts: the plastic button and the Microswitch. Since the plastic button is, well, just a plastic button we are going to focus our discussion on the Microswitch. However, understand that whenever we refer to pressing a Microswitch, we are also referring to pressing the button.

The second most numerous controls on your Control Panel are likely to be Joysticks. However, you need to understand that there are [[Joysticks| different kinds of joysticks]]. One type, referred to as Conventional Digital Joysticks, utilize the same Microswitches used by Push Buttons. Unlike Push Buttons, which utilize only 1 Microswitch, each Conventional Joystick will utilize 4 Microswitches – 1 each for up, down, left, and right. This 4 Microswitch layout is the same for both 4-way and 8-way joysticks – the diagonals (e.g., upper right) in 8-way joysticks are activated when 2 of the 4 Microswitches (e.g., up and right) are activated at the same time.

Wiring Microswitches for Push Buttons and Joysticks is done exactly the same. There are no significant differences. Since we are going to be talking so much about Microswitches, you should go learn [[Working with Microswitches| generally about Microswitches]].

==Installing the Ground Wire==
The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.

For start you need to attach the [[G| Ground Wire]] to the Encoder. Now, how exactly you do so will depend on your particular encoder. Read the documentation for your particular model. However, it will probably involve you stripping the end of a piece of wire, twisting it if it is loose, folding it over, sticking it into a hole marked “G” or “GND” and then tightening the screw to secure the wire.

Next you need to attach the Ground Wire to your first Microswitch (and no, it does not matter which Microswitch you decide to consider your first, second, third, etc). Here is the trick, so listen carefully. You will be working with TWO pieces of wire at once:
* The first is the other end of the wire that is currently attached to the Encoder. Go ahead and strip that end.
* The second is a brand new piece of black wire that will, eventually, run from your first Microswitch to the second Microswitch. Go ahead and strip one end of that wire.

So now you should have two wires, both with stripped ends. Take those two wires, twist them together, fold them over, and insert both of them together into a [[Q| Female Quick Disconnect]]. Once they are both snugly inserted, go ahead and crimp them with your pliers.

You can now attach the Disconnect to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Common] prong on your first Microswitch. Just stick it on there, it should slide on and hold tight all by itself. Congratulations, one down, a bunch more to go.

To attach the Ground Wire to the second Microswitch, you just repeat the procedure. However, rather than starting with a wire with one end attached to the Encoder, you are starting with the wire with one end attached to your first Microswitch. You strip it, strip a new wire, twist them together, fold them over, stick both into a Disconnect, crimp, and attach to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Guess what - for the third you start with a wire with one end attached to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Rinse, lather, repeat until you get to your last Microswitch.

By the time you get to your last Microswitch, you should have a black wire that you can follow from your Encoder to the Common prong on every Microswitch on your Control Panel except one. Here is the trick to this last Microswitch – it just ends here. It does not loop back to the Encoder. It does not attach to the computer. It does not plug into a wall socket. It just ends with the last Microswitch. So simply strip the wire, twist it, fold it over, stick it all by itself into a Disconnect, crimp it, and slide the Disconnect over the Common prong on your last Microswitch. You are done with the Ground Wire.

==Installing the Hot Wire==
This is much simpler than installing the Ground Wire, simply because you are only running one wire from each Microswitch to the Encoder. Start by taking your piece of wire, stripping one end, twisting it, folding it over, inserting it into a Disconnect, and attaching it to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Normally Open] prong on your Microswitch. Now take the other end of the wire, strip it, twist it, fold it over, and attach it to your Encoder.

Here is the only tricky part – you need to determine where on your particular Encoder to attach it. That will depend first on which control you want to attach and second the design of your particular Encoder. I know what you are thinking – how hard can it be to determine which control I am working on at any particular time? Well, sometimes it is a little harder than you think. Remember, your control panel will probably be upside down when you are working on it, so on a standard 2 player layout Player 1 will be on the right and Player 2 on the left. Plus you will have been hooking up bunches and bunches of these wires, so they all start to look pretty similar after a while. So just take your time and check your work. Of course, if you do mess up, that is why we are using Disconnects which can be easily removed.

On your Encoder you will need to find the correct hole to which you will attach your wire. This is only a little challenging. While an Ultimarc encoder may have a slot for “Player 1 Start” labeled “1Start” the KeyWiz Max might have one labeled “I” – but do not worry. Either way, your Encoder will have a diagram to let you know which slot to use.

Once you figure out where to attach the wire, you basically just strip the end, insert it into the appropriate hole, and tighten the screw (no Disconnect this time). If you did everything correctly, that Microswitch should be ready to go. Again, take your time and check your work. If you do mess up just unscrew the wire and move it into the correct hole.

Once you are done connecting the Hot Wire, pat yourself on the back. You have just installed your Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks. They are ready to go.

Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks

2007-09-21T20:33:50Z

Dislecksea: /* Installing the Ground Wire */

==Generally==
The most numerous controls on your Control Panel will most likely be [[Pushbuttons| Push Buttons]]. They are comprised of two parts: the plastic button and the Microswitch. Since the plastic button is, well, just a plastic button we are going to focus our discussion on the Microswitch. However, understand that whenever we refer to pressing a Microswitch, we are also referring to pressing the button.

The second most numerous controls on your Control Panel are likely to be Joysticks. However, you need to understand that there are [[Joysticks| different kinds of joysticks]]. One type, referred to as Conventional Digital Joysticks, utilize the same Microswitches used by Push Buttons. Unlike Push Buttons, which utilize only 1 Microswitch, each Conventional Joystick will utilize 4 Microswitches – 1 each for up, down, left, and right. This 4 Microswitch layout is the same for both 4-way and 8-way joysticks – the diagonals (e.g., upper right) in 8-way joysticks are activated when 2 of the 4 Microswitches (e.g., up and right) are activated at the same time.

Wiring Microswitches for Push Buttons and Joysticks is done exactly the same. There are no significant differences. Since we are going to be talking so much about Microswitches, you should go learn [[Working with Microswitches| generally about Microswitches]].

==Installing the Ground Wire==
The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.

For start you need to attach the [[G| Ground Wire]] to the Encoder. Now, how exactly you do so will depend on your particular encoder. Read the documentation for your particular model. However, it will probably involve you stripping the end of a piece of wire, twisting it if it is loose, folding it over, sticking it into a hole marked “G” or “GND” and then tightening the screw to secure the wire.

Next you need to attach the Ground Wire to your first Microswitch (and no, it does not matter which Microswitch you decide to consider your first, second, third, etc). Here is the trick, so listen carefully. You will be working with TWO pieces of wire at once:
* The first is the other end of the wire that is currently attached to the Encoder. Go ahead and strip that end.
* The second is a brand new piece of black wire that will, eventually, run from your first Microswitch to the second Microswitch. Go ahead and strip one end of that wire.

So now you should have two wires, both with stripped ends. Take those two wires, twist them together, fold them over, and insert both of them together into the [[Q| Disconnect]]. Once they are both snugly inserted, go ahead and crimp them with your pliers.

You can now attach the Disconnect to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Common] prong on your first Microswitch. Just stick it on there, it should slide on and hold tight all by itself. Congratulations, one down, a bunch more to go.

To attach the Ground Wire to the second Microswitch, you just repeat the procedure. However, rather than starting with a wire with one end attached to the Encoder, you are starting with the wire with one end attached to your first Microswitch. You strip it, strip a new wire, twist them together, fold them over, stick both into a Disconnect, crimp, and attach to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Guess what - for the third you start with a wire with one end attached to the Common prong on your second Microswitch. Rinse, lather, repeat until you get to your last Microswitch.

By the time you get to your last Microswitch, you should have a black wire that you can follow from your Encoder to the Common prong on every Microswitch on your Control Panel except one. Here is the trick to this last Microswitch – it just ends here. It does not loop back to the Encoder. It does not attach to the computer. It does not plug into a wall socket. It just ends with the last Microswitch. So simply strip the wire, twist it, fold it over, stick it all by itself into a Disconnect, crimp it, and slide the Disconnect over the Common prong on your last Microswitch. You are done with the Ground Wire.

==Installing the Hot Wire==
This is much simpler than installing the Ground Wire, simply because you are only running one wire from each Microswitch to the Encoder. Start by taking your piece of wire, stripping one end, twisting it, folding it over, inserting it into a Disconnect, and attaching it to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Normally Open] prong on your Microswitch. Now take the other end of the wire, strip it, twist it, fold it over, and attach it to your Encoder.

Here is the only tricky part – you need to determine where on your particular Encoder to attach it. That will depend first on which control you want to attach and second the design of your particular Encoder. I know what you are thinking – how hard can it be to determine which control I am working on at any particular time? Well, sometimes it is a little harder than you think. Remember, your control panel will probably be upside down when you are working on it, so on a standard 2 player layout Player 1 will be on the right and Player 2 on the left. Plus you will have been hooking up bunches and bunches of these wires, so they all start to look pretty similar after a while. So just take your time and check your work. Of course, if you do mess up, that is why we are using Disconnects which can be easily removed.

On your Encoder you will need to find the correct hole to which you will attach your wire. This is only a little challenging. While an Ultimarc encoder may have a slot for “Player 1 Start” labeled “1Start” the KeyWiz Max might have one labeled “I” – but do not worry. Either way, your Encoder will have a diagram to let you know which slot to use.

Once you figure out where to attach the wire, you basically just strip the end, insert it into the appropriate hole, and tighten the screw (no Disconnect this time). If you did everything correctly, that Microswitch should be ready to go. Again, take your time and check your work. If you do mess up just unscrew the wire and move it into the correct hole.

Once you are done connecting the Hot Wire, pat yourself on the back. You have just installed your Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks. They are ready to go.

Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks

2007-09-21T20:30:42Z

Dislecksea:

==Generally==
The most numerous controls on your Control Panel will most likely be [[Pushbuttons| Push Buttons]]. They are comprised of two parts: the plastic button and the Microswitch. Since the plastic button is, well, just a plastic button we are going to focus our discussion on the Microswitch. However, understand that whenever we refer to pressing a Microswitch, we are also referring to pressing the button.

The second most numerous controls on your Control Panel are likely to be Joysticks. However, you need to understand that there are [[Joysticks| different kinds of joysticks]]. One type, referred to as Conventional Digital Joysticks, utilize the same Microswitches used by Push Buttons. Unlike Push Buttons, which utilize only 1 Microswitch, each Conventional Joystick will utilize 4 Microswitches – 1 each for up, down, left, and right. This 4 Microswitch layout is the same for both 4-way and 8-way joysticks – the diagonals (e.g., upper right) in 8-way joysticks are activated when 2 of the 4 Microswitches (e.g., up and right) are activated at the same time.

Wiring Microswitches for Push Buttons and Joysticks is done exactly the same. There are no significant differences. Since we are going to be talking so much about Microswitches, you should go learn [[Working with Microswitches| generally about Microswitches]].

==Installing the Ground Wire==
The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.

For start you need to attach the [[G| Ground Wire]] to the Encoder. Now, how exactly you do so will depend on your particular encoder. Read the documentation for your particular model. However, it will probably involve you stripping the end of a piece of wire, twisting it if it is loose, folding it over, sticking it into a hole marked “G” or “GND” and then tightening the screw to secure the wire.

Next you need to attach the Ground Wire to your first Microswitch (and no, it does not matter which Microswitch you decide to consider your first, second, third, etc). Here is the trick, so listen carefully. You will be working with TWO pieces of wire at once:
* The first is the other end of the wire that is currently attached to the Encoder. Go ahead and strip that end.
* The second is a brand new piece of black wire that will, eventually, run from your first Microswitch to the second Microswitch. Go ahead and strip one end of that wire.

So now you should have two wires, both with stripped ends. Take those two wires, twist them together, fold them over, and insert both of them together into the [[Q| Disconnect]]. Once they are both snugly inserted, go ahead and crimp them with your pliers.

You can now attach the Disconnect to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG COM] prong on your first Microswitch. Just stick it on there, it should slide on and hold tight all by itself. Congratulations, one down, a bunch more to go.

To attach the Ground Wire to the second Microswitch, you just repeat the procedure. However, rather than starting with a wire with one end attached to the Encoder, you are starting with the wire with one end attached to your first Microswitch. You strip it, strip a new wire, twist them together, fold them over, stick both into a Disconnect, crimp, and attach to the COM prong on your second Microswitch. Guess what - for the third you start with a wire with one end attached to the COM prong on your second Microswitch. Rinse, lather, repeat until you get to your last Microswitch.

By the time you get to your last Microswitch, you should have a black wire that you can follow from your Encoder to the COM prong on every Microswitch on your Control Panel except one. Here is the trick to this last Microswitch – it just ends here. It does not loop back to the Encoder. It does not attach to the computer. It does not plug into a wall socket. It just ends with the last Microswitch. So simply strip the wire, twist it, fold it over, stick it all by itself into a Disconnect, crimp it, and slide the Disconnect over the COM prong on your last Microswitch. You are done with the Ground Wire.

==Installing the Hot Wire==
This is much simpler than installing the Ground Wire, simply because you are only running one wire from each Microswitch to the Encoder. Start by taking your piece of wire, stripping one end, twisting it, folding it over, inserting it into a Disconnect, and attaching it to the [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Normally Open] prong on your Microswitch. Now take the other end of the wire, strip it, twist it, fold it over, and attach it to your Encoder.

Here is the only tricky part – you need to determine where on your particular Encoder to attach it. That will depend first on which control you want to attach and second the design of your particular Encoder. I know what you are thinking – how hard can it be to determine which control I am working on at any particular time? Well, sometimes it is a little harder than you think. Remember, your control panel will probably be upside down when you are working on it, so on a standard 2 player layout Player 1 will be on the right and Player 2 on the left. Plus you will have been hooking up bunches and bunches of these wires, so they all start to look pretty similar after a while. So just take your time and check your work. Of course, if you do mess up, that is why we are using Disconnects which can be easily removed.

On your Encoder you will need to find the correct hole to which you will attach your wire. This is only a little challenging. While an Ultimarc encoder may have a slot for “Player 1 Start” labeled “1Start” the KeyWiz Max might have one labeled “I” – but do not worry. Either way, your Encoder will have a diagram to let you know which slot to use.

Once you figure out where to attach the wire, you basically just strip the end, insert it into the appropriate hole, and tighten the screw (no Disconnect this time). If you did everything correctly, that Microswitch should be ready to go. Again, take your time and check your work. If you do mess up just unscrew the wire and move it into the correct hole.

Once you are done connecting the Hot Wire, pat yourself on the back. You have just installed your Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks. They are ready to go.

Pushbuttons

2007-09-21T20:11:30Z

Dislecksea: /* Microswitch Pushbuttons */

__NOTOC__
'''Pushbuttons''' are the simplest and most common form of control consisting of a momentary switch that makes contact when pressed.

== Microswitch Pushbuttons==
[[Image:Happ-horiz-pushbutton.gif|right|thumb|120px|Microswitch Pushbutton]]
Pushbuttons come in various shapes, sizes and configurations though the most common is the Industrias Lorenzo horizontal microswitch pushbutton (aka Happ Horizontal Pushbutton). Because they use a microswitch these buttons make a clicking noise on activation and deactivation that may seem a little alien to many old-school gamers. They comprise the following parts:
* Button plunger
* Button housing/bezel
* Spring
* Microswitch

The plunger top may be concave, flat or convex. The microswitch can be positioned horizontally or vertically. Most people prefer horizontal orientation as these tend to be more reliable ([[horizontal versus vertical pushbuttons|read why here.]]) Microswitch pushbuttons are probably the most popular type of button used in arcades. Because of this they can be found in almost any color both opaque and transparent. They can also be found with little men icons, generally used as start buttons for the player indicated.

These buttons are sold by numerous [[vendors]]. Common suppliers are [http://www.happcontrols.com/ Happ], [http://www.ultimarc.com Ultimarc], [http://www.fxbuttons.com FX Buttons] and [http://www.groovygamegear.com GroovyGameGear.]

Installation requires a 1 1/8" hole.

See Also - [[Working with Microswitches]].

==Leafswitch Pushbuttons==
{| align=right
| [[image:Leafswitch-button.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Buttons]]
| [[image:Leafswitch-holder.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Holders]]
| [[image:Leafswitch-palnuts.jpg|thumb|80px|Leafswitch Pal Nuts]]
|}
Before microswitch pushbuttons appeared, leafswitch pushbuttons were the standard and are still preferred by many people today. The main advantage to leafswitches over microswitches is that they are almost completely silent. They comprise the following parts:
* Button
* Button holder (usually with the actual leafswitch attached)
* Pal nut
As with most types of pushbuttons, they come in two lengths; long (1 7/8") for wooden panels and short (1 5/8") for metal panels.

It is occasionally difficult to find buttons of the appropriate color and the appropriate length for a particular project. In those situations, check [http://homearcade.org/BBBB/leafsw.html Leaf Switches & Button Solutions]by [http://homearcade.org/BBBB/index.html The Real Bob Roberts] for potential solutions.

==Atari Volcano Buttons==
{| align=right
| [[Image:SirPsVolcano.jpg|right|100px]]
|
{| cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0
|[[Image:Ataributton.gif|right|52px]]
|[[Image:Volcano switch black.jpg|right|56px]]
|}
|-
| [[Image:Volcano switchs red n blk1.jpg|right|100px]]
| [[Image:Volcano switch n lens.jpg|right|100px]]
|-
| [[Image:Volcano switch lens1.jpg|right|100px]]
| [[Image:Volcano switchs red n blk2.jpg|right|100px]]
|}
Also known as cone buttons, volcano buttons are comprised of:
* Microswitch
* Lens (plunger)
* Plastic mounting clip/brace
* Plastic or aluminium cone

These were used as player start buttons in many Atari cabinets, available with illuminated red and later solid black lenses. The red button lens would blink when a player inserted a coin and remain lit during gameplay. Taller cones were used on fire buttons of Missile Command.

The actual switch used appears to be a [http://www.cherrycorp.com/english/switches/submini/db.htm Cherry DB3] sub-miniature microswitch. This switch is still available from Cherry, however the plastic mounting clip and lenses have been out of production for some time. The plastic cones were re-produced by [http://www.gamecab.com/products.asp?cat=25 Gamecab], but have been unavailable for a while now.

[http://www.ram-controls.com/order-cones.html RAM Controls] is currently a source for these cones and switches. They not only manufacture and sell the cones in various heights and finishes but they are also a supplier of [http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Glossary NOS] switches.

[[Image:Eao 11-131.jpg|left|100px|EAO 11-131.825N switch with 11-931.2 red lens]]Charlie from Gamecab.com discovered that a company called EAO currently manufactures switch assemblies that are quite similar to the original Cherry P163 assemblies. They don't include an LED, but the neck is threaded the same as an Atari cone, so they work pretty well together. They are available from [http://www.newark.com/product-details/text/CD121/5134.html Newark In One].

Related BYOAC Forum threads: [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=11468 1] -
[http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=11123.0 2] - [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42155.0 3] - [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42509.0 4]

==See Also==
* [[Controls]]

[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Index]]

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T20:09:35Z

Dislecksea: /* The Anatomy of a Microswitch */

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard Encoders| Encoder]] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==

Each [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG Microswitch] has three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T20:09:16Z

Dislecksea: /* The Anatomy of a Microswitch */

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard Encoders| Encoder]] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==

Each [http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG| Microswitch] has three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T20:07:41Z

Dislecksea: /* The Anatomy of a Microswitch */

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard Encoders| Encoder]] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==

[[Image:Example.jpg]]

Each [[http://arcadecontrols.com/images/microswitch_closeup_labelled2.JPG| Microswitch]] has three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T19:57:59Z

Dislecksea: /* General Microswitch Concept */

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard Encoders| Encoder]] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==
Each Microswitch three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T19:57:46Z

Dislecksea: /* General Microswitch Concept */

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard Encoders| Encoder}] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==
Each Microswitch three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:55:30Z

Dislecksea: /* Generally */

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G| Ground Wire]] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use pin headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of [[Wire Strippers/Crimpers]] at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some [[Q| .187 Quick Female Disconnects]]. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:52:23Z

Dislecksea: /* Generally */

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G| Ground Wire]] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use pin headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of [[Wire Strippers/Crimpers]] at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some .187 Quick Female Disconnects. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:49:09Z

Dislecksea: /* Generally */

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G| Ground Wire]] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder]] that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use Pin Headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of Wire Strippers/Crimpers at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some .187 Quick Female Disconnects. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:48:28Z

Dislecksea:

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G| Ground Wire] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an [[Keyboard Encoder| Encoder] that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use Pin Headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of Wire Strippers/Crimpers at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some .187 Quick Female Disconnects. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:47:39Z

Dislecksea:

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G] Ground Wire] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an [[Keyboard Encoder] Encoder] that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use Pin Headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of Wire Strippers/Crimpers at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some .187 Quick Female Disconnects. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:45:45Z

Dislecksea:

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G] Ground Wire] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an Encoder that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use Pin Headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of Wire Strippers/Crimpers at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some .187 Quick Female Disconnects. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Working with Wire

2007-09-21T19:45:23Z

Dislecksea:

==Generally==
Wire is rated by its thickness – lower numbers mean thicker wire. A quick search of the web reveals that for BYOAC, people seem to prefer 18 gauge wire for the [[G} Ground Wire] and 22 gauge wire for all others. You should buy your wire in at least 2 colors – black for the Ground Wire and red for everything else. This will just help you keep everything clear in your head as you are wiring things together. Of course, you could use other colors as well – e.g., black and red for Microswitches, black and yellow for analog joysticks, black and green for your trackball, etc. Please note, this type of wire is good when using an Encoder that relies on “Screw” inputs (e.g., the Ultimarc PAC line or GGG’s KeyWiz MAX). Although the basic concepts will remain the same other Encoders may use Pin Headers or some other type of input and will require a slightly different wiring approach.

The wire comes in rolls or bunches anywhere from 10 feet to 50 feet long or longer, so you are going to have to cut it into several pieces. The length of the pieces will depend on the layout of your control panel. It is coated in insulation and you are going to have to “strip” off some of that insulation at both ends in order to use the wire.

This brings us to our first tip for working with wire: You really, really, really, should purchase a proper pair of Wire Strippers/Crimpers at the local hardware store. These pliers will help you cut wire, strip off the insulation, and crimping quick disconnects and you are going to be doing a whole lot of cutting, stripping, and crimping. This will make life a whole lot easier than using a knife, a razor blade, your teeth, etc.

The second tip for working with wire is that the average first timer who is reading this Wiki should avoid soldering. Of course, if you are an experienced BYOACer and have a steady hand, by all means feel free to solder away. However, soldering cleanly is a skill and its results are somewhat permanent; those of you building a Control Panel for the first time already have enough to worry about.

If you are not going to solder your wires and you are going to work with Microswitches you should also get some .187 Quick Female Disconnects. These little gems are sold in bags of 100 and allow you easily attach and detach wire from your Microswitches should something go wrong. Essentially, you stick the stripped end of a wire into a Disconnect and crimp it using your handy-dandy wire pliers (you did buy a pair, didn’t you?). By the way, crimp is just a fancy word for crush. You stick the wire in and crush the casing around it, thereby securing it to the Disconnect. Then you can just slip the Disconnect on and off of the Microswitch whenever you want.

Finally, if you are using an Encoder with Screw inputs, you will want a set of electronics screwdrivers. They are just little screwdrivers made for use on little screws (also good for working on glasses). The screws you will be working on probably will be too small for the everyday screwdrivers you have in your toolbox.

Glossary

2007-09-21T19:44:59Z

Dislecksea: /* G */

{{TOCabc}}
==A==
*'''[[Analog]]''', Analog data is data considered to be continuously variable -- that is, data that is not simply on or off (see ''digital''). Temperature is a good example of analog data.
*'''[[FYI:_Arcade_Authenticity|Arcade Authenticity]]''', A measure of how accurately a game visually compares to it's original arcade version (i.e. the original game PCB playing on the arcade monitor it was intended to).

==B==
*'''Bemani''', synonymous with the rythm and dance game genre. Originally from ''Be''at''Mani''a - the first rythm game in the genre.
*'''[[Bezel]]''', A shroud surrounding the monitor of an arcade cabinet so as to frame the monitor and hide the inner workings of the arcade cabinet.
*'''Bucking magnet''', A magnet that is glued to the back of a speaker magnet to counteract the magnetic field the speaker produces. Normally used to allow placement of speakers close to monitors without the speaker's magnetic field distorting the monitor's picture.
*'''BYOAC''' short for "Build Your Own Arcade Controls". Also the name of the [http://arcadecontrols.com/ website] and [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/ community] that spawned this Wiki.
*'''BYOACer''' a member of the Build Your Own Arcade Controls community.

==C==
* '''Cab''' Short for "Arcade ''cab''inet".
* '''[[Cabinet friendly software|Cabfriendly software]]''' Software that is easily operated on an arcade cabinet.
* '''Cap-kit''', [[Capacitor Kit]] - The capacitors (electronic components) on monitor circuit boards tend to go bad after a while, causing color and picture distortion. Replacing the capacitors (and other related electronic components) will often fix such problems. The collection of capacitors and other components that are needed to repair the monitor are referred to as a "cap-kit."
* '''CMYK''' CMYK is a color description scheme used in printing, and stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK. Mixing various amounts of these four colors produces the other colors needed in the printing process.
* '''Cockpit cabinet''' An arcade cabinet that is enclosed. The player sits inside the cabinet to play the game.
* '''Cocktail cabinet''' An arcade machine that is shaped like a small table. Players sit at the table and play the game looking down on the monitor. The monitor is oriented so that it is facing upwards.
* '''[[Coin Doors|Coin door]]''' A metal door on an arcade cabinet where players insert money or tokens to be able to play the game.
* '''COM''' Common - a connector on a microswitch that is always used, regardless of whether the other connector used is NC or NO.
* '''Control panel''' The panel of wood on an arcade cabinet or desktop arcade controller that is the home for the pushbuttons, joysticks, and other arcade controls used by the arcade machine.
* '''Console''' can have different meanings dependant of the context it is used in:
:#short for "Game console" (see glossary [[#G|G: Game console]])
:#The keyboard/screen combination from which a (remote) computer is operated
:#The commandline interface to directly issue basic commands to the computer's operating system (example: The DOS version of MAME is lauched from a DOS-console).
* '''CP''' Short for "[[Control panel]]"
* '''CPO''' Acronym for "Control Panel Overlay." A CPO is a piece of vinyl or similar material originally used to cover the metal or wood control panel, display control instructions and branded game art.
* '''CRT''' Cathode Ray Tube - a type of monitor with a glass tube. You are probably most familiar with a CRT monitor in the form of older televisions and computer monitors (non-LCD based).

==D==
*'''DDR''' Dance Dance Revolution. A series of dance arcade games made by Konami. The series is named ''Dancing Stage'' in Europe, however many Europeans refer to the games by the DDR name.
*'''Degaussing''' The process of demagnetizing (removing the magnetic field) of a monitor that can build up over time or occur from external sources, to remove the color or picture distortion caused by the field.
*'''Desktop arcade controller''' A box that holds arcade controls use to play video games. The box is usually somewhere around 3 feet in width and 1.5 feet deep, and is designed to sit on a desktop when played. Unlike a full arcade cabinet, a desktop arcade controller only holds the arcade controls and internal electronics. No monitors, speakers, or computer are part of a desktop arcade controller. Some people have designed a complete "arcade-in-a-box" that goes beyond this definition, including the computer inside the controller, but this is rare.
*'''Digital''' Digital data is data that is either on or off, one or zero, high or low. A pushbutton is a good example of data that is represented digitally. The button is either pressed, or not pressed. The amount that the pushbutton is pressed is not measured. A pushbutton that is pressed half-way down is still considered to be "off" until it makes final contact with the microswitch beneath it, at which point it is considered "on." Compare to ''Analog''.
*'''Diode''' A diode is a device that in simplest terms only allows electricity to flow in one direction. A diode has two ends: a cathode (-) and an anode (+). Current can only flow from the anode to the cathode, but not the other direction. [[Electronic_Components#Diodes| Diodes]] are sometimes used in [[keyboard_Hacks|keyboard hacks]].
*'''DIY''' Do It Yourself.
*'''DPI''' Dots Per Inch. Printing term used to describe the resolution of an image. For digital files, it may be better to think of DPI as pixels per inch.

==E==
*'''Emulator''' A piece of software designed to make one computer act as another computer or arcade hardware. See also [[Emulators]].
*'''Encoder''' An electronic component, usually a microchip, that takes analog or digital signals from a device and encodes it in a format that the computer is able to understand. See [[encoders]].
==F==
*'''Front End''' Software GUI used to launch game roms in one or more emulators
==G==
*'''Game console''' A video game system designed for home play with a TV (or occasionally a computer monitor). Systems such as the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation are game consoles.
*'''Game console controller''' The unit that plugs into a game console to control the game play. These are usually handheld pads with an analog mini-joystick that controls direction, a digital flat control wheel that serves the same function, and pushbuttons.
*'''Ground Wire''' The Ground Wire will carry electricity from the Encoder to each Microswitch. People usually use black wire for the Ground Wire.
*'''GUI''' Acronym for "Graphic User Interface". A front end is an example of a GUI for MAME. The basic MAME is without a GUI, MAME32 is a version with a GUI.

==H==
*'''Hack''' As used here, modifying a device to use it in a way that is different than originally intended. For instance, using the electronics of a mouse to connect an arcade trackball.
*'''High resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 31.5kHz.
==I==
*'''Isolation transformer''' A transformer that sits between the building electrical outlet and the monitor, isolating the monitor from the building electrical system.
==J==
*'''JAMMA''' - '''Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers' Association'''
A trade association based in Japan; it also the namesake of a trade show hosted in Japan; additionally, JAMMA is a wiring standard for arcade machines that allows for interchangability of video game PCBs without having to re-wire the arcade machine.
*'''Joystick''' Any of a large variety of devices used to control arcade machines. The joystick has a shaft that extends above the control panel that is manipulated by the player, activating switches (microswitch or leaf switch) at the base of the joystick beneath the control panel, thereby controlling game play.
==K==
*'''Keyboard blocking''' A technique used by keyboard manufacturers to prevent ''ghosting'' problems. After a certain number of keys are pressed at the same time, further keypresses are blocked.
*'''Keyboard Encoder''' - A device used to interpret signals from arcade buttons and joysticks into standard keystroke signals. See [[encoders]].
*'''Keyboard ghosting''' A problem that occurs in older keyboards that do not feature keyboard blocking in which phantom keystrokes are generated when too many keys are pressed at the same time. For instance, pressing "A" and "C" and "E" at the same time may generate a fourth phantom "T" keystroke.
*'''Keyboard matrix''' The grid in which a keyboard encoder maps keystrokes. The grid corresponds to the physical electronic traces on the keyboard circuit. A keyboard encoder that has a total of 20 keyboard traces can be arranged in a 10 x 10 matrix, allowing 100 total keystrokes. It can also be arranged in a 12 x 8 matrix, allowing 96 total keystrokes, or any other combination. The manner and method in which a keyboard matrix is designed varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
*'''Kill switch''' A switch that is designed to turn off a circuit when the button is released. Usually used as a precaution on the back door of arcade machines. When the back door is opened, the button is released, killing the power inside the arcade cabinet.
*'''KLOV''' The [http://www.klov.com Killer List of Video Games website].

==L==
*'''LCD Screen''' - '''L'''iquid '''C'''rystal '''D'''isplay. Some front ends support small LCDs, typically connected to one of the computer's serial ports, to display the name of the game that is currently running.
*'''[[pushbuttons#Leafswitch Pushbuttons|Leaf Switch]]''' - A switch type commonly used on older buttons and joysticks. It consisted of two metal contacts, that when united, completed a circuit.
*'''Leafs''' - Short form for ''leaf switch''
*'''Lexan''' An acrylic plastic used to protect control panels and occasionally as a protective barrier in front of a monitor, available in both clear and smoked varieties. See ''Plexiglas''.
*'''[[Light gun]]''' An amusement gun with optical electronics. The spot that is aimed at is determined optically by the gun electronics. Contrast with ''positional guns''.
*'''Low resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 15.75 kHz. Usually referred to as standard resolution.

==M==
*'''MAME''' Acronym for "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator". See also [[Arcade_Emulators#MAME|Arcade emulators]].
*'''Mame32''' Windows version of MAME with built in GUI
*'''Marquee''' Usually located at the top of an arcade machine, this is normally a back-lit colorful sign displaying the name of the video game. Marquees are designed to draw attention to the game.
*'''Medium resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 25 kHz.
*'''[[pushbuttons#Microswitch Pushbuttons|Microswitch]]''' A switch with three contacts, two of which are used at any one time. When the small button at the top of the switch is pressed (or released), a circuit is completed between the two contacts in use, activating the button. The three contacts are NC, NO, and COM. NO and COM are primarily used in arcade machine applications.
*'''Multimeter''' A multimeter is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several functions in one unit. The most basic instruments include an ammeter, voltmeter, and ohmmeter. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimeter Multimeter Wikipedia entry]

==N==
*'''NC''' Normally Closed - a connector on a microswitch used when a button is considered idle when it is pressed, and activated when it is not pressed. A kill-switch that disables an arcade machine when the back door is opened, releasing the pressure on the switch, is an example of a situation in which you would want to use the NC connector instead of the NO connector.
*'''NO''' Normally Open - a connector on a microswitch used when a button is considered idle when it is not pressed.
*'''NOS''' Acronym for "New Old-Stock." This term is most commonly used to describe original, unused vintage items for sale or auction. Many times unused stock may be found stored away untouched for years. NOS items are not reproductions, they were manufactured by the original manufacturer and should be close to perfect condition.
*'''NTSC''' A television standard mainly used in the US and Japan. It uses 525 lines and 60-fields (interlaced) per second giving 30fps. NTSC stands for National Television System Committee who set the TV standards in the US. It has a some colour issues which were corrected when PAL was developed, and TV engineers will refer to NTSC as "Never Twice the Same Colour".

==O==
*'''OEM''' Acronym for "Original Equipment Manufacturer." An OEM was the originator of a specific part. Parts from an OEM should be more accurate than reproduction parts made for the aftermarket. Reproduction parts are usually not considered 100% fully interchangeable with parts from the OEM.
*'''Optical encoder''' The encoder that is the heart of a mouse or other optical device. It takes the data from the detector and sends the information to the computer.
==P==
*'''PAL''' A television standard widely used in Europe and Australia. PAL is based on the US NTSC standard, but unlike NTSC (used in the US and Japan) it uses 625 lines and 50-fields (interlaced) per second giving 25fps. Also, PAL stands for Phase Alternate Line, because the phase of the color carrier is alternated from line to line. This alternation helps cancel out phase errors, and gives a superior colour reproduction compared to NTSC ('hue' control is not needed on a PAL TV set) even though both are composite colour signals.
*'''PCB''' Printed Circuit Board - the circuit boards at the heart of an arcade machine.
*'''Plexiglas''' An acrylic plastic used to protect control panels and occasionally as a protective barrier in front of a monitor, available in both clear and smoked varieties. Plexiglas is a brand name that is often used as a generic term. Lexan is another brand of acrylic plastic that is often used.
*'''Positional gun''' An amusement gun with analog electronics, whose aim is determined by the position of two potentiometers (pots) at the base of the gun. As the gun is aimed, the potentiometers are moved, translating into horizontal and vertical positioning of the gun's aim.
*'''POT''' Short for potentiometer, a variable resistor whose resistance changes as a shaft is turned. A volume knob is an example of a potentiometer.
*'''Port''' A port can be either a connection on a computer circuit board or a remake of a game/application on another system than the first release. For example the arcade game Pac-Man was ported from the Arcade to various home computer systems.

==Q==
*'''Quick disconnects''' Small connectors used as method to connect wires to microswitches without the need to solder the wire directly to the microswitch. Usually abbreviated as QDs or MQDs (male quick disconnects) and FQDs (female quick disconnects).

==R==
*'''Raster graphics''' A raster-based graphic, such as a JPEG file, is composed of tiny dots, or pixels. Contrast it with ''vector graphics''.
*'''Raster monitor''' A monitor that draws images on screen as a series of dots. Contrast it with ''vector monitor''.
*'''Refresh rate''' The rate at which a monitor re-draws the images on the screen, broken into horizontal refresh rates and vertical refresh rates. Phosphors on the screen begin to lose their charge quickly and have to be refreshed to keep the image on the screen.
*'''Resolution''' The size of the screen display on a monitor. Most PC users will be familiar with 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 resolutions, although many other resolutions are possible. Arcade machine typically used much lower resolutions.
*'''Restrictor plate''' A metal plate that fits over a joystick, restricting its movement so that an eight-way joystick functions like a four-way joystick.
*'''RGB''' RGB is a color description scheme used for monitors and sometimes in printing, and stands for Red, Green, and Blue. Mixing various amounts of these three colors produces the other colors needed. Contrast with ''CMYK''.
*'''RGVAC''' Acronym for the usenet newsgroup [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting?hl=en rec.games.video.arcade.collecting]. This is a newsgroup for arcade collectors and those interested in restoring arcade cabinets to their original form. Regulars to the newsgroup aren't too fond of people that convert rarer arcade cabinets into ermulator cabinets.
*'''ROM''' Acronym for "Read Only Memory". ROMs contain program code, graphics and sound data that is used by the arcade hardware to run the games. Think of it as a CD on a chip. Many emulators require ROM image files to work. See Also [[ROMs]].

==S==
*'''SCART''' A connector found primarily on European televisions providing stereo sound and video inputs.
*'''Spinner''' An optical device used to control on-screen movement along a single axis, usually the X axis. As the spinner is turned the on-screen cursor (or arcade game image) is moved correspondingly.
*'''Standard resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 15.75 kHz.
==T==
*'''[[T-Molding]]''' A plastic strip placed around the edges of an arcade cabinet for protective and decorative purposes. The strip is shaped like a T, with the long part of the T fitting in a groove in the edges of the cabinet.
*'''Trackball''' An optical device used to control on-screen movement along the X and Y axes. As the ball is rolled the on-screen cursor (or arcade game image) is moved correspondingly.
*'''Trigger-grip joystick''' A joystick that has a fire button in the shaft.

==U==
*'''Upright cabinet''' An arcade machine that stands approximately six feet tall with the monitor facing the players while the player stands at the machine.
==V==
*'''Vector graphics''' A vector-based graphic is composed of a series of mathematically described lines that form shapes.
*'''Vector monitor''' A monitor that draws images on screen as a series of lines.
*'''VOM''' Acronym for Volt-Ohm-Milliemmeter. See multimeter entry.
==W==
''-No entries yet-''
==X==
''-No entries yet-''
==Y==
*'''YMMV''' Acronym for "Your Mileage May Vary," an idiom meaning: "if you attempt this procedure, your results may differ from my results." Common to message boards.
*'''Yoke''' Two meanings:
:# A flight yoke used to control flying games.
:# Part of a monitor's electronics resting behind the picture tube.

==Z==
''-No entries yet-''
==0..9==
*'''2-way joystick''' A joystick that only moves in 2 directions, left-right or up-down. Very few games used a 2-way joystick. [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=S&game_id=9662 Space Invaders (KLOV link)] is one such game.
*'''4-way joystick''' A joystick that moves in 4 directions, normally up-down-left-right. Some games, such as [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=Q&game_id=9182 Qbert (KLOV entry)], used a 4-way joystick rotated 45 degrees such that they movement was to the diagonals instead of straight up/down/left/right. Playing a 4-way based game with an 8-way joystick can be extremely frustrating.
*'''8-way joystick''' A joystick that moves in the 4 cardinal directions (up-down-left-right) and the diagonals as well. Playing an 8-way based game with a 4-way joystick can be extremely frustrating.
*'''49-way joystick''' A joystick that has 3 possible positions in each cardinal direction, plus a center position, allowing for a total of 49-different possible positions (7 on the X axis, 7 on the Y axis, 7*7=49).

[[Category:Index]]

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T19:39:21Z

Dislecksea: /* General Microswitch Concept */

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard Encoders] Encoder] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==
Each Microswitch three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

Working with Microswitches

2007-09-21T19:39:02Z

Dislecksea: The basics of how microswitches work.

==General Microswitch Concept==
First, try to understand how the whole Microswitch thing works.:
* The [[Keyboard_Encoders] Encoder] constantly sends a small amount of electricity through a wire that runs from the encoder to the first Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, to the next Microswitch, and so on. This wire is called the Ground Wire. You can think of it as a water pipe in your house. There is a constant flow of water in there waiting for you to turn on the faucet.
* For what we are going to do, you can think of the Microswitch as the faucet. Most of the time it is closed, and no water flows. Same thing here, most of the time the Microswitch is not pressed so the electricity does not flow. The moment you press the button, and thereby “turn on the faucet” electricity begins flowing.
* Finally, there is the receiving end of the Encoder. Each Microswitch has an individual wire, the Hot Wire, which runs directly back to a spot on the Encoder that is assigned to that Microswitch. Its job is to sense when electricity flows from the Microswitch and let the Encoder know which “faucets” are turned on and which ones are turned off. When one is turned on, the Encoder sends a signal back to the computer that looks just like a press on a keyboard.

So, suppose you only have 1 encoder and 1 Microswitch and that Microswitch is assigned to the number “1.” There is a Ground Wire carrying electricity from the Encoder to the Microswitch, and another to carry electricity back from the Microswitch to the “1” input on the Encoder. As long as the Microswitch is not pushed, the electricity goes from the Encoder to the Microswitch, but it stops there – in terms of our analogy the faucet is closed so there no way for the water to get out of the pipe. However, when the button is pressed (think of the faucet as open and water running) electricity can run from the Encoder, to the Microswitch, and back to the “1” input on the Encoder. The Encoder then sends a signal to the computer that looks just like you pressed the “1” key on your keyboard.

==The Anatomy of a Microswitch==
Each Microswitch three little metal prongs sticking out of it
* Normally Open (aka NO),
* Normally Closed (aka NC), and
* Common (aka COM).

For our purposes, just forget about Normally Closed. In the Microswitch world “Closed” means that electricity can flow freely. We would use it if we wanted to create a situation where our “faucet” was usually left turned on with water flowing and only turned off as long as we held the button down. That is not what we want, so we are going to forget about NC and focus on NO and COM.

Our goal is to allow a small amount of electricity to flow from the Encoder, through the Ground Wire, into the COM prong on the Microswitch, and (when activated) back out of the NO prong, through the Hot Wire, and finally back into a specific input on the Encoder.

For information on how exactly to do this see [[Wiring Push Buttons and Conventional Digital Joysticks]].

ROMs

2007-09-21T18:50:39Z

Dislecksea:

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip. For our purposes, this is the meaning we will go with.
* People sometimes call a collection of all of the software files necessary for a game a ROM. For example, they will refer to their “Tron ROM.” However, this is better referred to as a '''set''' as in a “Tron set'”.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in one zip file per game, known as a set. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A Set==

When you open a set, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a set may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple Sets of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each set contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple sets for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two sets both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called '''clones'''. If it is a split set or a non-merged set, as discussed below, the set for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two sets which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent sets. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone set. Instead, the clone set of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original set. When an emulator loads a cloned game, the set instructs it to utilize the programming in the clone set, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original set. When sets are organized this way the original set is called the “Parent” while the clone set is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child set unless it can also load the Parent set.

This structure of having Parent and Child sets is called having '''Split''' sets. They are split because the programming is split between the two sets and this is the most common way to store sets. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have '''Non-Merged''' sets. This means that both the original set and the clone set will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independently. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent set is present before you can play a clone set. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different set.

Finally, you can choose to have '''Merged''' sets. Merged sets are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original set and the clone set are merged into a new set. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

Mala JukeBox

2007-06-05T13:29:18Z

Dislecksea: /* JukeBox */

== JukeBox ==

'''How to activate and use the jukebox in Mala'''

''The jukebox is fairly simple to set up in Mala but it must be activated first.
''here are some steps to take to get your Mala jukebox up and running.''''

1. Right click the screen in Mala and browse the popup menu for the options.

2. Find the sound and music tab in the main options box and click it, this will now bring up the options for your music setup.

3. While in the main music options click the jukebox tab, this menu will alow you to activate your Mala jukebox by simply ticking the ( use jukebox )check box. Beneith the the jukebox check box you will see the ( browse base directory ) option, simply click the browsing tab and browse for your music folder.

'''using specific music for your layout'''''

''If you want to use specific music for the specific emulators heres how this is done.''''

1. Open up your Mala layout editor and open your desired layout file.

2. click the layout tab at the top of the screen and scroll down to the sounds option.
This will bring up the specific layout option sounds menu, now simply browse for the sounds you want in your layout (Note)''The sounds must be in the main Mala folder for this to work.''

3. Click into your main Mala program and right click the screen to bring up the main
options menu. Go to the gui tab, in this menu you will see ( use backround music from layout) check box, simply tick this box to use the sounds.

'''(Notes)'''

Make sure your music is in mp3 format, Mala does not read wma or wav for the jukebox.

When using the music from a Mala layout file the volume may change if you remove an emulator. Theres nothing wrong with the jukebox its simply a case of reseting the volume.

{{Mala-Wiki}}

ROMs

2007-05-25T15:54:22Z

Dislecksea:

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip. For our purposes, this is the meaning we will go with.
* People sometimes call a collection of all of the software files necessary for a game a ROM. For example, they will refer to their “Tron ROM.” However, this is better referred to as a '''set''' as in a “Tron set'”.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in one zip file per game, known as a set. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A Set==

When you open a set, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a set may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple Sets of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each set contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple sets for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two sets both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called '''clones'''. If it is a split set or a non-merged set, as discussed below, the set for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two sets which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent sets. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone set. Instead, the clone set of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original set. When an emulator loads a cloned game, the set instructs it to utilize the programming in the clone set, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original set. When set are organized this way the original set is called the “Parent” while the clone set is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child set unless it can also load the Parent set.

This structure of having Parent and Child sets is called having '''Split''' sets. They are split because the programming is split between the two sets and this is the most common way to store sets. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have '''Non-Merged''' sets. This means that both the original set and the clone set will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independently. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent set is present before you can play a clone set. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different set.

Finally, you can choose to have '''Merged''' sets. Merged sets are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original set and the clone set are merged into a new set. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

ROMs

2007-05-25T15:53:44Z

Dislecksea:

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip. For our purposes, this is the meaning we will go with.
* People sometimes call a collection of all of the software files necessary for a game a ROM. For example, they will refer to their “Tron ROM.” However, this is better referred to as a '''set''' as in a “Tron set'”.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in one zip file per game, known as a set. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A Set==

When you open a set, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a set may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple Sets of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each set contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple sets for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two sets both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called '''clones'''. If it is a split set or a non-merged set, as discussed below, the set for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split sets==
Having two sets which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent sets. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone set. Instead, the clone set of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original set. When an emulator loads a cloned game, the set instructs it to utilize the programming in the clone set, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original set. When set are organized this way the original set is called the “Parent” while the clone set is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child set unless it can also load the Parent set.

This structure of having Parent and Child sets is called having '''Split''' sets. They are split because the programming is split between the two sets and this is the most common way to store sets. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have '''Non-Merged''' sets. This means that both the original set and the clone set will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independently. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent set is present before you can play a clone set. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different set.

Finally, you can choose to have '''Merged''' sets. Merged sets are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original set and the clone set are merged into a new set. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

ROMs

2007-05-25T15:41:06Z

Dislecksea: /* Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets */

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* For emulation purposes a ROM means a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip.
* People sometimes call a collection of all of the software files, each containing the programming from an individual computer chip, necessary for a game a ROM. However, this is actually either called a '''ROM zip file''' or a '''Set'''.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in one zip file per game, known as a ROM zip file or Set. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A ROM ZIP File==

When you open a ROM zip file, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a ROM zip file may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple ROMs of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each ROM zip files contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple ROMs for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two ROMs both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called '''clones'''. The ROM zip file for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two Sets which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent Sets. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone zip file Instead, the clone version of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original. When the emulators load a cloned game, the ROM instructs them to utilize the programming in the clone zip file, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original game. When ROMs are set up this way the original game is called the “Parent” while the clone is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child Set unless it can also load the Parent Set.

This structure of having Parent and Child ROMs is called having '''Split''' ROMs. They are split because the programming is split between the two ROM zip files. This is the most common way to store ROMs. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have '''Non-Merged''' ROMs. This means that both the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independantly. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent Rom is present before you can play a clone. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different ROMs.

Finally, you can choose to have '''Merged''' ROMs. Merged ROMs are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file are merged into a new ROM zip file. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED ROM SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

ROMs

2007-05-25T15:39:19Z

Dislecksea:

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* For emulation purposes a ROM means a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip.
* People sometimes call a collection of all of the software files, each containing the programming from an individual computer chip, necessary for a game a ROM. However, this is actually either called a '''ROM zip file''' or a '''Set'''.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in one zip file per game, known as a ROM zip file or Set. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A ROM ZIP File==

When you open a ROM zip file, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a ROM zip file may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple ROMs of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each ROM zip files contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple ROMs for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two ROMs both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called '''clones'''. The ROM zip file for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two ROMs which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent ROMs. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone zip file Instead, the clone version of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original. When the emulators load a cloned game, the ROM instructs them to utilize the programming in the clone zip file, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original game. When ROMs are set up this way the original game is called the “Parent” while the clone is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child ROM unless it can also load the Parent ROM.

This structure of having Parent and Child ROMs is called having '''Split''' ROMs. They are split because the programming is split between the two ROM zip files. This is the most common way to store ROMs. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have '''Non-Merged''' ROMs. This means that both the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independantly. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent Rom is present before you can play a clone. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different ROMs.

Finally, you can choose to have '''Merged''' ROMs. Merged ROMs are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file are merged into a new ROM zip file. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED ROM SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

ROMs

2007-05-25T15:33:09Z

Dislecksea: /* Emulators and ROMs Generally */

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a collection of software files each containing the programming from an individual computer chip. In this case, multiple software files are normally stored together in a .zip file which will contain all of the programming necessary to run a single game.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in one zip file per game, known as a ROM zip file or Set. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A ROM ZIP File==

When you open a ROM zip file, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a ROM zip file may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple ROMs of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each ROM zip contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple ROMs for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two ROMs both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called “clones.” The ROM zip file for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two ROMs which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent ROMs. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone zip file Instead, the clone version of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original. When the emulators load a cloned game, the ROM instructs them to utilize the programming in the clone zip file, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original game. When ROMs are set up this way the original game is called the “Parent” while the clone is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child ROM unless it can also load the Parent ROM.

This structure of having Parent and Child ROMs is called having “Split” ROMs. They are split because the programming is split between the two ROM zip files. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have “Non-Merged” ROMs. This means that both the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independantly. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent Rom is present before you can play a clone. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different ROMs.

Finally, you can choose to have “Merged” ROMs. Merged ROMs are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file are merged into a new ROM zip file. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED ROM SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

Software

2007-05-25T15:17:08Z

Dislecksea: /* ROM images */

__NOTOC__
{{Portal|name=Software}}
[[Image:Typical-software.png|right|260px]]
A variety of '''Software''' and '''Emulators''' allow you to play a huge number of arcade, console and PC games on a computer. The software used as a foundation of a home arcade machine generally consists of an ''emulator(s)'' to run specific games (called ''roms'') on a computer and a ''front-end'' to provide a menu system to allow players to select from a list of games. Recently, the desire for multiple uses of an arcade cabinet and/or enhancing the game-playing experience have brought about the use of additional software, perhaps to play a PC game, allow use of the cabinet as a jukebox, or for lighting and configuration enhancements.

Software has gone through great leaps and bounds since the inception of this hobby. As an example, in the late 90's, a common route many people were choosing was the [http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/ PC2Jamma] method originally conceived and implemented by Brian Lewis. Typically, MAME was used as a game emulator, ArcadeOS as the front-end, and DOS as the operating system, since this allowed the use of real arcade monitors. Since then, hardware has been developed to make using an arcade monitor from other operating systems simple, and more complex front-ends and emulators have been developed to utilize PC hardware better.

==Arcade, Console and Computer Emulators==
* [[Arcade Emulators]]
* [[Game Consoles]]
* [[Handheld Consoles]]
* [[Home Computers]]
* [[Computer Components]]
* [[Other Emulation]]
* [[Simulators]]
* [[Pinball]]
* [[TV Games]] - Hardware based small devices, that hold retrogames

==Front-Ends & Menu Systems==
* [[Front-Ends]]
** [[Screens, Titles & Extras]]
** [[Wrappers|Wrappers]]
* [[Hiding Windows]] - How to hide Windows.

==Jukebox, Music and Multimedia==
* [[Jukebox Software]]
** [[CD Ripping]]
* [[Multimedia Software]]

==ROM images==
Emulators require ROM image files to work. The ROM files contain game data such as program code, grahics and sound.

* [[ROMs]]

Be aware that many ROM images contain copyrighted material. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_Status_of_ROMs this] Wikipedia section for more information about the ''legal status of ROM images''. '''Note that it is not allowed to post ROM image requests on the BYOAC forum. Many other arcade hobby related sites follow this rule too.'''

==ROM Managment==

There are a variety of utilities out there for managing your roms. They can let you see what you are missing, rename your roms, re-organise etc..etc...

A widely used and powerful utility is [[ClrMamePro]]

== PC Games ==
If you have a PC powering your cabinet, you might as well try a few other games to play on it.
* [[Cabfriendly games]]
** [[Arcade Games]]
** [[Classic Games]]
** [[Pinball]]
** [[Simulators]]
** [[Remakes]]

==See Also==
* [[Design applications]]
* [[Utilities|Various software utility]] - Various utilities for your arcadcab

[[Category:Portals]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

ROMs

2007-05-25T15:15:53Z

Dislecksea: /* The Files Inside A ROM ZIP File */

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a collection of software files each containing the programming from an individual computer chip. In this case, multiple software files are normally stored together in a .zip file which will contain all of the programming necessary to run a single game.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in a zip file, known as a ROM. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside (And Not Inside) A ROM ZIP File==

When you open a ROM zip file, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

It should also be noted that for some games, a ROM zip file may not contain everything you need to run that game:
* Parent/Clone ROMs - Just keep reading. This is covered below.
* BIOS ROMs - Some games had [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS BOIS] programming that was common to all of the games that ran on a particular machine. This programming was not included on the individual game PCBs and was instead installed elsewhere in the cabinet. However, the emulator still will require both the game ROM and the BIOS ROM in order to play the game. Essentially, this is similar to the parent/child relationship discussed below and the BOIS ROMs should be saved along with the games they will support.
*Compressed Hunks of Data (CHDs) - Some more modern games did not rely solely on PCBs and ROM chips. They used hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. CHDs are basically files that contain the programming that was on those hard drives, CD drives, and laserdiscs. You can find out if a particular game requires a CHD by doing a deluxe search at [http://www.mameworld.net/maws/ MAWS].
* Other Stuff - Some games had non-digital elements that were part of the game play. For example, Discs of Tron had a physical background that has been digitally [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork/dotron.png emulated]. Likewise, someone has [http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/journey.html emulated] an audio tape (remember those?) that played music at a the end of a mission in Journey. The game may still play without this additional stuff, but it will not be exactly the same. See Also [[Screens, Titles & Extras]].

==Multiple ROMs of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each ROM zip contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple ROMs for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two ROMs both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called “clones.” The ROM zip file for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two ROMs which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent ROMs. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone zip file Instead, the clone version of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original. When the emulators load a cloned game, the ROM instructs them to utilize the programming in the clone zip file, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original game. When ROMs are set up this way the original game is called the “Parent” while the clone is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child ROM unless it can also load the Parent ROM.

This structure of having Parent and Child ROMs is called having “Split” ROMs. They are split because the programming is split between the two ROM zip files. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have “Non-Merged” ROMs. This means that both the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independantly. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent Rom is present before you can play a clone. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different ROMs.

Finally, you can choose to have “Merged” ROMs. Merged ROMs are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file are merged into a new ROM zip file. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED ROM SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

Glossary

2007-05-25T14:41:08Z

Dislecksea: /* R */

{{TOCabc}}
==A==
*'''[[Analog]]''', Analog data is data considered to be continuously variable -- that is, data that is not simply on or off (see ''digital''). Temperature is a good example of analog data.
*'''[[FYI:_Arcade_Authenticity|Arcade Authenticity]]''', A measure of how accurately a game visually compares to it's original arcade version (i.e. the original game PCB playing on the arcade monitor it was intended to).

==B==
*'''Bemani''', synonymous with the rythm and dance game genre. Originally from ''Be''at''Mani''a - the first rythm game in the genre.
*'''[[Bezel]]''', A shroud surrounding the monitor of an arcade cabinet so as to frame the monitor and hide the inner workings of the arcade cabinet.
*'''Bucking magnet''', A magnet that is glued to the back of a speaker magnet to counteract the magnetic field the speaker produces. Normally used to allow placement of speakers close to monitors without the speaker's magnetic field distorting the monitor's picture.
*'''BYOAC''' short for "Build Your Own Arcade Controls". Also the name of the [http://arcadecontrols.com/ website] and [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/ community] that spawned this Wiki.
*'''BYOACer''' a member of the Build Your Own Arcade Controls community.

==C==
* '''Cab''' Short for "Arcade ''cab''inet".
* '''[[Cabinet friendly software|Cabfriendly software]]''' Software that is easily operated on an arcade cabinet.
* '''Cap-kit''', [[Capacitor Kit]] - The capacitors (electronic components) on monitor circuit boards tend to go bad after a while, causing color and picture distortion. Replacing the capacitors (and other related electronic components) will often fix such problems. The collection of capacitors and other components that are needed to repair the monitor are referred to as a "cap-kit."
* '''CMYK''' CMYK is a color description scheme used in printing, and stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK. Mixing various amounts of these four colors produces the other colors needed in the printing process.
* '''Cockpit cabinet''' An arcade cabinet that is enclosed. The player sits inside the cabinet to play the game.
* '''Cocktail cabinet''' An arcade machine that is shaped like a small table. Players sit at the table and play the game looking down on the monitor. The monitor is oriented so that it is facing upwards.
* '''[[Coin Doors|Coin door]]''' A metal door on an arcade cabinet where players insert money or tokens to be able to play the game.
* '''COM''' Common - a connector on a microswitch that is always used, regardless of whether the other connector used is NC or NO.
* '''Control panel''' The panel of wood on an arcade cabinet or desktop arcade controller that is the home for the pushbuttons, joysticks, and other arcade controls used by the arcade machine.
* '''Console''' can have different meanings dependant of the context it is used in:
:#short for "Game console" (see glossary [[#G|G: Game console]])
:#The keyboard/screen combination from which a (remote) computer is operated
:#The commandline interface to directly issue basic commands to the computer's operating system (example: The DOS version of MAME is lauched from a DOS-console).
* '''CP''' Short for "[[Control panel]]"
* '''CPO''' Acronym for "Control Panel Overlay." A CPO is a piece of vinyl or similar material originally used to cover the metal or wood control panel, display control instructions and branded game art.
* '''CRT''' Cathode Ray Tube - a type of monitor with a glass tube. You are probably most familiar with a CRT monitor in the form of older televisions and computer monitors (non-LCD based).

==D==
*'''DDR''' Dance Dance Revolution. A series of dance arcade games made by Konami. The series is named ''Dancing Stage'' in Europe, however many Europeans refer to the games by the DDR name.
*'''Degaussing''' The process of demagnetizing (removing the magnetic field) of a monitor that can build up over time or occur from external sources, to remove the color or picture distortion caused by the field.
*'''Desktop arcade controller''' A box that holds arcade controls use to play video games. The box is usually somewhere around 3 feet in width and 1.5 feet deep, and is designed to sit on a desktop when played. Unlike a full arcade cabinet, a desktop arcade controller only holds the arcade controls and internal electronics. No monitors, speakers, or computer are part of a desktop arcade controller. Some people have designed a complete "arcade-in-a-box" that goes beyond this definition, including the computer inside the controller, but this is rare.
*'''Digital''' Digital data is data that is either on or off, one or zero, high or low. A pushbutton is a good example of data that is represented digitally. The button is either pressed, or not pressed. The amount that the pushbutton is pressed is not measured. A pushbutton that is pressed half-way down is still considered to be "off" until it makes final contact with the microswitch beneath it, at which point it is considered "on." Compare to ''Analog''.
*'''Diode''' A diode is a device that in simplest terms only allows electricity to flow in one direction. A diode has two ends: a cathode (-) and an anode (+). Current can only flow from the anode to the cathode, but not the other direction. [[Electronic_Components#Diodes| Diodes]] are sometimes used in [[keyboard_Hacks|keyboard hacks]].
*'''DIY''' Do It Yourself.
*'''DPI''' Dots Per Inch. Printing term used to describe the resolution of an image. For digital files, it may be better to think of DPI as pixels per inch.

==E==
*'''Emulator''' A piece of software designed to make one computer act as another computer or arcade hardware. See also [[Emulators]].
*'''Encoder''' An electronic component, usually a microchip, that takes analog or digital signals from a device and encodes it in a format that the computer is able to understand. See [[encoders]].
==F==
*'''Front End''' Software GUI used to launch game roms in one or more emulators
==G==
*'''Game console''' A video game system designed for home play with a TV (or occasionally a computer monitor). Systems such as the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation are game consoles.
*'''Game console controller''' The unit that plugs into a game console to control the game play. These are usually handheld pads with an analog mini-joystick that controls direction, a digital flat control wheel that serves the same function, and pushbuttons.
*'''GUI''' Acronym for "Graphic User Interface". A front end is an example of a GUI for MAME. The basic MAME is without a GUI, MAME32 is a version with a GUI.
==H==
*'''Hack''' As used here, modifying a device to use it in a way that is different than originally intended. For instance, using the electronics of a mouse to connect an arcade trackball.
*'''High resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 31.5kHz.
==I==
*'''Isolation transformer''' A transformer that sits between the building electrical outlet and the monitor, isolating the monitor from the building electrical system.
==J==
*'''JAMMA''' - '''Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers' Association'''
A trade association based in Japan; it also the namesake of a trade show hosted in Japan; additionally, JAMMA is a wiring standard for arcade machines that allows for interchangability of video game PCBs without having to re-wire the arcade machine.
*'''Joystick''' Any of a large variety of devices used to control arcade machines. The joystick has a shaft that extends above the control panel that is manipulated by the player, activating switches (microswitch or leaf switch) at the base of the joystick beneath the control panel, thereby controlling game play.
==K==
*'''Keyboard blocking''' A technique used by keyboard manufacturers to prevent ''ghosting'' problems. After a certain number of keys are pressed at the same time, further keypresses are blocked.
*'''Keyboard Encoder''' - A device used to interpret signals from arcade buttons and joysticks into standard keystroke signals. See [[encoders]].
*'''Keyboard ghosting''' A problem that occurs in older keyboards that do not feature keyboard blocking in which phantom keystrokes are generated when too many keys are pressed at the same time. For instance, pressing "A" and "C" and "E" at the same time may generate a fourth phantom "T" keystroke.
*'''Keyboard matrix''' The grid in which a keyboard encoder maps keystrokes. The grid corresponds to the physical electronic traces on the keyboard circuit. A keyboard encoder that has a total of 20 keyboard traces can be arranged in a 10 x 10 matrix, allowing 100 total keystrokes. It can also be arranged in a 12 x 8 matrix, allowing 96 total keystrokes, or any other combination. The manner and method in which a keyboard matrix is designed varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
*'''Kill switch''' A switch that is designed to turn off a circuit when the button is released. Usually used as a precaution on the back door of arcade machines. When the back door is opened, the button is released, killing the power inside the arcade cabinet.
*'''KLOV''' The [http://www.klov.com Killer List of Video Games website].

==L==
*'''LCD Screen''' - '''L'''iquid '''C'''rystal '''D'''isplay. Some front ends support small LCDs, typically connected to one of the computer's serial ports, to display the name of the game that is currently running.
*'''[[pushbuttons#Leafswitch Pushbuttons|Leaf Switch]]''' - A switch type commonly used on older buttons and joysticks. It consisted of two metal contacts, that when united, completed a circuit.
*'''Leafs''' - Short form for ''leaf switch''
*'''Lexan''' An acrylic plastic used to protect control panels and occasionally as a protective barrier in front of a monitor, available in both clear and smoked varieties. See ''Plexiglas''.
*'''[[Light gun]]''' An amusement gun with optical electronics. The spot that is aimed at is determined optically by the gun electronics. Contrast with ''positional guns''.
*'''Low resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 15.75 kHz. Usually referred to as standard resolution.

==M==
*'''MAME''' Acronym for "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator". See also [[Arcade_Emulators#MAME|Arcade emulators]].
*'''Mame32''' Windows version of MAME with built in GUI
*'''Marquee''' Usually located at the top of an arcade machine, this is normally a back-lit colorful sign displaying the name of the video game. Marquees are designed to draw attention to the game.
*'''Medium resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 25 kHz.
*'''[[pushbuttons#Microswitch Pushbuttons|Microswitch]]''' A switch with three contacts, two of which are used at any one time. When the small button at the top of the switch is pressed (or released), a circuit is completed between the two contacts in use, activating the button. The three contacts are NC, NO, and COM. NO and COM are primarily used in arcade machine applications.
*'''Multimeter''' A multimeter is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several functions in one unit. The most basic instruments include an ammeter, voltmeter, and ohmmeter. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimeter Multimeter Wikipedia entry]

==N==
*'''NC''' Normally Closed - a connector on a microswitch used when a button is considered idle when it is pressed, and activated when it is not pressed. A kill-switch that disables an arcade machine when the back door is opened, releasing the pressure on the switch, is an example of a situation in which you would want to use the NC connector instead of the NO connector.
*'''NO''' Normally Open - a connector on a microswitch used when a button is considered idle when it is not pressed.
*'''NOS''' Acronym for "New Old-Stock." This term is most commonly used to describe original, unused vintage items for sale or auction. Many times unused stock may be found stored away untouched for years. NOS items are not reproductions, they were manufactured by the original manufacturer and should be close to perfect condition.
*'''NTSC''' A television standard mainly used in the US and Japan. It uses 525 lines and 60-fields (interlaced) per second giving 30fps. NTSC stands for National Television System Committee who set the TV standards in the US. It has a some colour issues which were corrected when PAL was developed, and TV engineers will refer to NTSC as "Never Twice the Same Colour".

==O==
*'''OEM''' Acronym for "Original Equipment Manufacturer." An OEM was the originator of a specific part. Parts from an OEM should be more accurate than reproduction parts made for the aftermarket. Reproduction parts are usually not considered 100% fully interchangeable with parts from the OEM.
*'''Optical encoder''' The encoder that is the heart of a mouse or other optical device. It takes the data from the detector and sends the information to the computer.
==P==
*'''PAL''' A television standard widely used in Europe and Australia. PAL is based on the US NTSC standard, but unlike NTSC (used in the US and Japan) it uses 625 lines and 50-fields (interlaced) per second giving 25fps. Also, PAL stands for Phase Alternate Line, because the phase of the color carrier is alternated from line to line. This alternation helps cancel out phase errors, and gives a superior colour reproduction compared to NTSC ('hue' control is not needed on a PAL TV set) even though both are composite colour signals.
*'''PCB''' Printed Circuit Board - the circuit boards at the heart of an arcade machine.
*'''Plexiglas''' An acrylic plastic used to protect control panels and occasionally as a protective barrier in front of a monitor, available in both clear and smoked varieties. Plexiglas is a brand name that is often used as a generic term. Lexan is another brand of acrylic plastic that is often used.
*'''Positional gun''' An amusement gun with analog electronics, whose aim is determined by the position of two potentiometers (pots) at the base of the gun. As the gun is aimed, the potentiometers are moved, translating into horizontal and vertical positioning of the gun's aim.
*'''POT''' Short for potentiometer, a variable resistor whose resistance changes as a shaft is turned. A volume knob is an example of a potentiometer.
*'''Port''' A port can be either a connection on a computer circuit board or a remake of a game/application on another system than the first release. For example the arcade game Pac-Man was ported from the Arcade to various home computer systems.

==Q==
*'''Quick disconnects''' Small connectors used as method to connect wires to microswitches without the need to solder the wire directly to the microswitch. Usually abbreviated as QDs or MQDs (male quick disconnects) and FQDs (female quick disconnects).

==R==
*'''Raster graphics''' A raster-based graphic, such as a JPEG file, is composed of tiny dots, or pixels. Contrast it with ''vector graphics''.
*'''Raster monitor''' A monitor that draws images on screen as a series of dots. Contrast it with ''vector monitor''.
*'''Refresh rate''' The rate at which a monitor re-draws the images on the screen, broken into horizontal refresh rates and vertical refresh rates. Phosphors on the screen begin to lose their charge quickly and have to be refreshed to keep the image on the screen.
*'''Resolution''' The size of the screen display on a monitor. Most PC users will be familiar with 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 resolutions, although many other resolutions are possible. Arcade machine typically used much lower resolutions.
*'''Restrictor plate''' A metal plate that fits over a joystick, restricting its movement so that an eight-way joystick functions like a four-way joystick.
*'''RGB''' RGB is a color description scheme used for monitors and sometimes in printing, and stands for Red, Green, and Blue. Mixing various amounts of these three colors produces the other colors needed. Contrast with ''CMYK''.
*'''RGVAC''' Acronym for the usenet newsgroup [http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting?hl=en rec.games.video.arcade.collecting]. This is a newsgroup for arcade collectors and those interested in restoring arcade cabinets to their original form. Regulars to the newsgroup aren't too fond of people that convert rarer arcade cabinets into ermulator cabinets.
*'''ROM''' Acronym for "Read Only Memory". ROMs contain program code, graphics and sound data that is used by the arcade hardware to run the games. Think of it as a CD on a chip. Many emulators require ROM image files to work. See Also [[ROMs]].

==S==
*'''SCART''' A connector found primarily on European televisions providing stereo sound and video inputs.
*'''Spinner''' An optical device used to control on-screen movement along a single axis, usually the X axis. As the spinner is turned the on-screen cursor (or arcade game image) is moved correspondingly.
*'''Standard resolution''' A monitor with a refresh rate of 15.75 kHz.
==T==
*'''[[T-Molding]]''' A plastic strip placed around the edges of an arcade cabinet for protective and decorative purposes. The strip is shaped like a T, with the long part of the T fitting in a groove in the edges of the cabinet.
*'''Trackball''' An optical device used to control on-screen movement along the X and Y axes. As the ball is rolled the on-screen cursor (or arcade game image) is moved correspondingly.
*'''Trigger-grip joystick''' A joystick that has a fire button in the shaft.

==U==
*'''Upright cabinet''' An arcade machine that stands approximately six feet tall with the monitor facing the players while the player stands at the machine.
==V==
*'''Vector graphics''' A vector-based graphic is composed of a series of mathematically described lines that form shapes.
*'''Vector monitor''' A monitor that draws images on screen as a series of lines.
*'''VOM''' Acronym for Volt-Ohm-Milliemmeter. See multimeter entry.
==W==
''-No entries yet-''
==X==
''-No entries yet-''
==Y==
*'''YMMV''' Acronym for "Your Mileage May Vary," an idiom meaning: "if you attempt this procedure, your results may differ from my results." Common to message boards.
*'''Yoke''' Two meanings:
:# A flight yoke used to control flying games.
:# Part of a monitor's electronics resting behind the picture tube.

==Z==
''-No entries yet-''
==0..9==
*'''2-way joystick''' A joystick that only moves in 2 directions, left-right or up-down. Very few games used a 2-way joystick. [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=S&game_id=9662 Space Invaders (KLOV link)] is one such game.
*'''4-way joystick''' A joystick that moves in 4 directions, normally up-down-left-right. Some games, such as [http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=Q&game_id=9182 Qbert (KLOV entry)], used a 4-way joystick rotated 45 degrees such that they movement was to the diagonals instead of straight up/down/left/right. Playing a 4-way based game with an 8-way joystick can be extremely frustrating.
*'''8-way joystick''' A joystick that moves in the 4 cardinal directions (up-down-left-right) and the diagonals as well. Playing an 8-way based game with a 4-way joystick can be extremely frustrating.
*'''49-way joystick''' A joystick that has 3 possible positions in each cardinal direction, plus a center position, allowing for a total of 49-different possible positions (7 on the X axis, 7 on the Y axis, 7*7=49).

[[Category:Index]]

Software

2007-05-25T14:39:09Z

Dislecksea: /* ROM images */

__NOTOC__
{{Portal|name=Software}}
[[Image:Typical-software.png|right|260px]]
A variety of '''Software''' and '''Emulators''' allow you to play a huge number of arcade, console and PC games on a computer. The software used as a foundation of a home arcade machine generally consists of an ''emulator(s)'' to run specific games (called ''roms'') on a computer and a ''front-end'' to provide a menu system to allow players to select from a list of games. Recently, the desire for multiple uses of an arcade cabinet and/or enhancing the game-playing experience have brought about the use of additional software, perhaps to play a PC game, allow use of the cabinet as a jukebox, or for lighting and configuration enhancements.

Software has gone through great leaps and bounds since the inception of this hobby. As an example, in the late 90's, a common route many people were choosing was the [http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/ PC2Jamma] method originally conceived and implemented by Brian Lewis. Typically, MAME was used as a game emulator, ArcadeOS as the front-end, and DOS as the operating system, since this allowed the use of real arcade monitors. Since then, hardware has been developed to make using an arcade monitor from other operating systems simple, and more complex front-ends and emulators have been developed to utilize PC hardware better.

==Arcade, Console and Computer Emulators==
* [[Arcade Emulators]]
* [[Game Consoles]]
* [[Handheld Consoles]]
* [[Home Computers]]
* [[Computer Components]]
* [[Other Emulation]]
* [[Simulators]]
* [[Pinball]]
* [[TV Games]] - Hardware based small devices, that hold retrogames

==Front-Ends & Menu Systems==
* [[Front-Ends]]
** [[Screens, Titles & Extras]]
** [[Wrappers|Wrappers]]
* [[Hiding Windows]] - How to hide Windows.

==Jukebox, Music and Multimedia==
* [[Jukebox Software]]
** [[CD Ripping]]
* [[Multimedia Software]]

==ROM images==
Emulators require [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image ROM image] files to work. The ROM files contain game data such as program code, grahics and sound.

* [[ROMs]]

Be aware that many ROM images contain copyrighted material. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_Status_of_ROMs this] Wikipedia section for more information about the ''legal status of ROM images''. '''Note that it is not allowed to post ROM image requests on the BYOAC forum. Many other arcade hobby related sites follow this rule too.'''

==ROM Managment==

There are a variety of utilities out there for managing your roms. They can let you see what you are missing, rename your roms, re-organise etc..etc...

A widely used and powerful utility is [[ClrMamePro]]

== PC Games ==
If you have a PC powering your cabinet, you might as well try a few other games to play on it.
* [[Cabfriendly games]]
** [[Arcade Games]]
** [[Classic Games]]
** [[Pinball]]
** [[Simulators]]
** [[Remakes]]

==See Also==
* [[Design applications]]
* [[Utilities|Various software utility]] - Various utilities for your arcadcab

[[Category:Portals]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Software

2007-05-25T14:38:22Z

Dislecksea: /* ROM images */

__NOTOC__
{{Portal|name=Software}}
[[Image:Typical-software.png|right|260px]]
A variety of '''Software''' and '''Emulators''' allow you to play a huge number of arcade, console and PC games on a computer. The software used as a foundation of a home arcade machine generally consists of an ''emulator(s)'' to run specific games (called ''roms'') on a computer and a ''front-end'' to provide a menu system to allow players to select from a list of games. Recently, the desire for multiple uses of an arcade cabinet and/or enhancing the game-playing experience have brought about the use of additional software, perhaps to play a PC game, allow use of the cabinet as a jukebox, or for lighting and configuration enhancements.

Software has gone through great leaps and bounds since the inception of this hobby. As an example, in the late 90's, a common route many people were choosing was the [http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/ PC2Jamma] method originally conceived and implemented by Brian Lewis. Typically, MAME was used as a game emulator, ArcadeOS as the front-end, and DOS as the operating system, since this allowed the use of real arcade monitors. Since then, hardware has been developed to make using an arcade monitor from other operating systems simple, and more complex front-ends and emulators have been developed to utilize PC hardware better.

==Arcade, Console and Computer Emulators==
* [[Arcade Emulators]]
* [[Game Consoles]]
* [[Handheld Consoles]]
* [[Home Computers]]
* [[Computer Components]]
* [[Other Emulation]]
* [[Simulators]]
* [[Pinball]]
* [[TV Games]] - Hardware based small devices, that hold retrogames

==Front-Ends & Menu Systems==
* [[Front-Ends]]
** [[Screens, Titles & Extras]]
** [[Wrappers|Wrappers]]
* [[Hiding Windows]] - How to hide Windows.

==Jukebox, Music and Multimedia==
* [[Jukebox Software]]
** [[CD Ripping]]
* [[Multimedia Software]]

==ROM images==
* [[ROMs]]
Emulators require [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image ROM image] files to work. The ROM files contain game data such as program code, grahics and sound.

Be aware that many ROM images contain copyrighted material. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_Status_of_ROMs this] Wikipedia section for more information about the ''legal status of ROM images''. '''Note that it is not allowed to post ROM image requests on the BYOAC forum. Many other arcade hobby related sites follow this rule too.'''

==ROM Managment==

There are a variety of utilities out there for managing your roms. They can let you see what you are missing, rename your roms, re-organise etc..etc...

A widely used and powerful utility is [[ClrMamePro]]

== PC Games ==
If you have a PC powering your cabinet, you might as well try a few other games to play on it.
* [[Cabfriendly games]]
** [[Arcade Games]]
** [[Classic Games]]
** [[Pinball]]
** [[Simulators]]
** [[Remakes]]

==See Also==
* [[Design applications]]
* [[Utilities|Various software utility]] - Various utilities for your arcadcab

[[Category:Portals]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

ROMs

2007-05-25T14:36:19Z

Dislecksea:

People tend to use the term '''ROM''' and its plural '''ROMs''' pretty casually. Therefore, it has come to have several meanings:
* ROM stands for Read Only Memory.
* A ROM can mean an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a software file containing the programming from an individual computer chip.
* A ROM can mean a collection of software files each containing the programming from an individual computer chip. In this case, multiple software files are normally stored together in a .zip file which will contain all of the programming necessary to run a single game.

Confusing enough? To explain we need to delve a little deeper.

==The History of ROMs==
To actually understand what a ROM is, you need to understand a little history. Unlike PC games today, the arcade games we are talking about mostly are not software as we think of it today. These games generally did not involve floppy drives, hard drives, CDs, or DVDs. They involved computer chips that were encoded with the programming that makes up the game. These chips were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_Only_Memory Read Only Memory] chips – hence, the name ROMs.

These chips were mounted onto a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printed_circuit_board Printed Circuitry Board (PCB)] which, in turn, was plugged into the hardware built into a cabinet. Thus, the cabinet was largely generic in terms of software, and the PCB with the ROMs loaded on it made it into a particular game. So, if you took the Donkey Kong PCB (and hence, the Donkey Kong chips) out of a Donkey Kong cabinet, and replaced it with a Galaga PCB (and hence, the Galaga chips) the cabinet would now play Galaga instead of Donkey Kong. Arcade owners really did do this, it was known as “converting” a cabinet. So as you can see, it was this collection of computer chips that made the game the game, rather than the rest of the machinery.

Sometimes it is easier to think about in terms of the early home consoles. Do you remember pulling that River Raid cartridge out of your [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 Atari 2600 console] and popping in that Adventure cartridge? Guess what was inside the cartridge? Computer chips. The 2600 was the same as the generic cabinet and the cartridge was the PCB. It was not significantly different from how a arcade cabinet worked.

==Emulators and ROMs Generally==
Emulators are modern software programs created to mimic the generic hardware that made up the console or was loaded into these cabinets. However, that is all that it is – generic hardware. No programming for Pac Man, Tron, River Raid, or Adventure. So in order to run a game, the emulator needs access to the programming that was encoded onto those computer chips.

This is where ROMs come in. Some members of the emulation community have developed a way to extract the programming from the original computer chips and turn them into a modern software files. These modern software files usually are bundled together in a zip file, known as a ROM. This process is known as “dumping” a PCB. So when someone says that they have “dumped Tron” they are saying that they took a Tron PCB and extracted the programming from the computer chips installed on that PCB. Of course, it is actually much more difficult to get a working ROM from a PCB but we do not need to get into that here.

By the way, this process of dumping is what is so great about playing on an emulator. You are not playing a game that is similar to the original. You are actually playing the original game – line of code by line of code, it is identical.

==The Files Inside A ROM ZIP File==

When you open a ROM zip file, you will notice that there are several files in there. That is because the programming necessary for a game spanned across several chips and, therefore, the original PCB for that particular game had several computer chips installed on it. When the PCB was dumped, each of those computer chips was extracted into its own file. You may wonder why we don’t combine all of those separate files into one big file for each game. Remember, emulation is about keeping the game original, and since the original game had its program broken up across all of those chips, our emulator is going to expect the program to be broken up across all of those chips.

==Multiple ROMs of the Same Game (Clones)==
Now that you know that each ROM zip contains the files that represent a game, you are ready to learn why we have multiple ROMs for the same game. The main reason - they are not exactly the same game. They are slightly different. One may have the instructions in English and one in Japanese. One may be a better dump than another. One may allow adjustment of the number of lives and one may not. One may have Mario’s overalls in red, one in blue.

Remember how the PCB contained several chips, each containing some portion of the game’s programming? Well, by breaking the program down this way it was possible for the manufacturer to make slight changes to the game without replacing all of the chips on the PCB. They only had to replace one or a few.

For example, suppose that after Donkey Kong’s release the programmers decided to change Mario’s overalls from red to blue. Hypothetically, the color of Mario’s overalls may have been stored on a chip called C, while the levels were stored on another chip called A, and the music was on yet another chip called B. So the programmers change the program so that Mario now wears blue overalls, create a new chip called C-Blue, and from that point forward put chips A, B, and C-Blue on all Donkey Kong PCBs.

Then twenty five years pass and someone in Italy dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C chip. A year later someone in Australia dumps a Donkey Kong PCB with the C-Blue chip on it. We now have two ROMs both of which are for Donkey Kong, but are slightly different when you play them.

These slightly different versions of an original game are called “clones.” The ROM zip file for each clone will have its own specific filename and the name listed in your front end may be different. For example, there are two ROMs for the game 10-Yard Fight. One, called 10yard.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (World)" while the other, called 10yardj.zip, is named "10-Yard Fight (Japan)." Presumably, 10yardj.zip contains some code specifically developed for the game’s release in Japan.

==Parent & Child ROMs and Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets==
Having two ROMs which share the majority, but not all, of their programming brings us to one of the more confusing aspects of dealing with ROMs: Merged, Non-Merged, and Split Sets. You see, back in the 1990s when you could only download at 56k, it was fairly tedious to download the most recent ROMs. Therefore, the emulation developers came up with a way to save bandwidth.

The space saving solution involved not storing the duplicative part of the programming into each and every clone zip file Instead, the clone version of a game would only contain the files for those chips that differed from the original. When the emulators load a cloned game, the ROM instructs them to utilize the programming in the clone zip file, but otherwise utilize the programming in the original game. When ROMs are set up this way the original game is called the “Parent” while the clone is called the “Child.” It is important to note that because it only contains a portion of the total program required for a game, an emulator cannot successfully load a Child ROM unless it can also load the Parent ROM.

This structure of having Parent and Child ROMs is called having “Split” ROMs. They are split because the programming is split between the two ROM zip files. However, there is no rule that you have to do things this way.

Another option is to have “Non-Merged” ROMs. This means that both the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file will each contain all of the programming necessary to run independantly. As a result, you never have to ensure that a Parent Rom is present before you can play a clone. However, you should be aware that this approach uses up the most space on your hard disk since the same files will appear in several different ROMs.

Finally, you can choose to have “Merged” ROMs. Merged ROMs are exactly what they sound like. The files from the original ROM zip file and the clone ROM zip file are merged into a new ROM zip file. [REQUEST – CAN SOMEONE PLEASE IDENTIFY THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE OF MERGED ROM SETS]

==External Links==
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image Wikipedia Article on ROMs]

[[Category:Software]]

Screens, Titles & Extras

2007-05-24T17:32:15Z

Dislecksea: /* Element combinations */

Many front-ends are able to display many different kinds of media elements for all the games from each system (arcade, consoles, handhelds, computers, etc). Generally, most systems will have the basic elements of screens and titles. Certain systems will have different elements that other systems don't have and vice versa. See also the [[MAME#Mame Support_Files]] page, some of those projects overlap.
==Element examples==
===Artwork===
[[Image:artwork.png|right|thumb|Bezel artwork for Ms. Pacman]]Artwork is primarily used for arcade systems. Generally bezel overlays are the most common type of artwork, however some arcade games have artwork that is lit from behind that corresponds with game play (Gorf, Lunar Lander, etc).

Most of the time, a mask file will accompany the artwork. The mask is used by emulators to fuse the artwork in with the gameplay.

Front-ends generally don't use artwork, but some people like the option of showing this element. The mask file would most likely not be used in front-ends.
:http://crashtest.retrogames.com/
 

===Boxes===
[[Image:box.jpg|right|thumb|Atari 2600 Asteriods box]]Boxes are scans of game boxes from consoles, computers and handhelds. It can be another element added to the front-end layouts. It's rare to find used games that still come with the box. It's a rather unqiue element to add to front-end layouts as it can definately bring back forgotten nostalgic images from 'archive oblivion' that were simply thrown away after opening the game.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/scans.htm
 
===Cabinets===
[[Image:cabinet.png|right|thumb|Simpsons arcade cabinet]]Cabinets are pictures taken of arcade cabinets. It's a very common element in front-ends due to the popular synergy of not only playing the game itself but also witnessing the nostalgic looks of the machine some people once stood in front of for endless hours inserting countless quarters into.
[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Cabinets]
 

===Cartridges===
[[Image:cartridge.jpg|right|thumb|Nintendo cartridge for Super Mario Bros. 2]]Cartridges are scans of the front of console game cartridges, SMC, HuCards, etc. Cartridge scans can come in two flavors - some people prefer to have just the scans of label cropped from the rest of the cartridge, but more common the entire cartridge is scanned. The latter takes a purist perspective because, for example, while most cartridges for the NES were grey, there was the occasional cart like Zelda which had a gold chrome finish.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/carts.htm
 

===Control Panels===
[[Image:controlpanel.png|right|thumb|Donkey Kong arcade control panel]]Control Panels (commonly referred to as cpanels) are pictures taken of control panels. Obviously, arcade cabinets will have control panels which can be a good item to display in front-end layouts to help remind the player what the controls looked like for the game-play.
:http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mamepanel.html
 

===Flyers===
[[Image:flyer.jpg|right|thumb|Promotional flyer from the arcade game Galaga]]Flyers are scans of flyers from the arcade indsutry for arcade games. Flyers were used as promotional items to increase the sales of games. They often show captured screenshots, pictures of the cabinet, descriptions of the game play, and concept art.
[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/ Download flyers]
 

===History===
History is a single element added to a front-end or emulator that shows historical information about each game. The most well known version of this element is maintained for MAME. The History.dat can be downloaded an fused in with the pre-gameplay experience. These history files general show:
*Description: A summary description of the game.
*Technical: All info about CPUs, Sound chips, etc.
*Trivia: All interesting information about the game.
*Updates: All differences between different/alternate versions/revisions.
*Scoring: Scoring details.
*Tips and tricks: Various tipbits to assist gameplay.
*Series: All other games in a serie are listed here.
*Staff: Programmers, designers, composers, etc.
*Ports: All ported version are listed here.
*Sources: Information sources for the game.
An accurate History.dat for MAME maintained by Alexis Bousiges and contributors can be found at [http://www.arcade-history.com/history_database.php Arcade History].
 

===Icons===
Icons are front-end specific. Not all front-ends use them, and not every system has icons. MAME32 is the most common system to utilize icons.

Icons tend to be used for point and click GUI front-ends, rather than ones with Windows hidden or use arcade controls to select games.

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Icons]
 

===Manuals===
Manuals are scans of manuals that came with the game. Most of the time, each page is scanned and merged into one seemless document, usually Adbobe PDFs. Not all systems have manuals, but it can be a nice addition to display them with external applications so the player can easily refresh his/her memory of the game-play.
 
===Marquees===
[[Image:marquee.png|right|thumb|Centiped arcade marquee]]Marquees are unique to arcade cabinets. When merged into layouts, it can be a very attractive combination of elements for bringing something special to game selection in the front-end.
[http://emam.mameworld.net/ Download Marquees]
 
===Movies===
Movies are brief movie captures of game play from systems. They are an excellent addition to front-ends as they add a dynamic element to the layouts.
 

A couple of BYOAC members have spent the time to create movies of gameplay and attract sequences for every (parent) game in mame. More info and links to obtain/share them in this [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=45467.0 thread.]

===Samples===
Samples are sound files, mostly from arcade games, that could not be emulated or when emulated, from a purist perspective, did not sound like it used to in the "good-ol-days". Emulators are the primary users of the sample files. While this may seem out of place in the front-end catagory, the conveniant thing about the sample element is that it's easy to add these memorable sounds into the front-end experience.
 

===Screens===
[[Image:screen.png|right|thumb|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade screen shot]]Screens (also known as"snapshots" or "screenshots") are screen captures of the actual game in play. Where Titles tend to only have one posible screen capture, Screens can be captured at any moment of the game. Ideally, the Screen will be taken at an addtractive moment in the game-play.

Screens are the most common of front-end elements.

[http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/screenshots.htm Download Console & Pinball Screenshots]

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ MAME Screenshots]
 

===Titles===
[[Image:title.png|right|thumb|Defender arcade title shot]]Title screen captures are taken at the introduction screens of games. The Title generally shows the name of the game, some credits, "insert coin" or "select number of players" type of things. Almost every game has some sort of Title to capture. Some very early games did not have Titles and the game-play was all that was displayed.
[http://www.mametitles.com/ Download Titles]
 
==Element combinations==
Below are common combinations for screens, titles and extras of different systems. Other elements such as icons, samples, and information files are also available, but tend to be front-end or emulator specific.

{| align="center" valign="top" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" style="background:white; color:black; border:1px solid silver;"
|- style="background:navy; color:white; writing-mode:tb-rl;"
|
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Artwork
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cabinets
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Controlpanels
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Flyers
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Marquees
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Movies
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Screens
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Titles
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Boxes
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Manuals
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cartriges

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Arcade
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 
| 
| 

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Consoles
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Handhelds
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Computers
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 

|}

==See Also==
* [[Software]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Screens, Titles & Extras

2007-05-24T17:30:33Z

Dislecksea: /* Icons */

Many front-ends are able to display many different kinds of media elements for all the games from each system (arcade, consoles, handhelds, computers, etc). Generally, most systems will have the basic elements of screens and titles. Certain systems will have different elements that other systems don't have and vice versa. See also the [[MAME#Mame Support_Files]] page, some of those projects overlap.
==Element examples==
===Artwork===
[[Image:artwork.png|right|thumb|Bezel artwork for Ms. Pacman]]Artwork is primarily used for arcade systems. Generally bezel overlays are the most common type of artwork, however some arcade games have artwork that is lit from behind that corresponds with game play (Gorf, Lunar Lander, etc).

Most of the time, a mask file will accompany the artwork. The mask is used by emulators to fuse the artwork in with the gameplay.

Front-ends generally don't use artwork, but some people like the option of showing this element. The mask file would most likely not be used in front-ends.
:http://crashtest.retrogames.com/
 

===Boxes===
[[Image:box.jpg|right|thumb|Atari 2600 Asteriods box]]Boxes are scans of game boxes from consoles, computers and handhelds. It can be another element added to the front-end layouts. It's rare to find used games that still come with the box. It's a rather unqiue element to add to front-end layouts as it can definately bring back forgotten nostalgic images from 'archive oblivion' that were simply thrown away after opening the game.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/scans.htm
 
===Cabinets===
[[Image:cabinet.png|right|thumb|Simpsons arcade cabinet]]Cabinets are pictures taken of arcade cabinets. It's a very common element in front-ends due to the popular synergy of not only playing the game itself but also witnessing the nostalgic looks of the machine some people once stood in front of for endless hours inserting countless quarters into.
[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Cabinets]
 

===Cartridges===
[[Image:cartridge.jpg|right|thumb|Nintendo cartridge for Super Mario Bros. 2]]Cartridges are scans of the front of console game cartridges, SMC, HuCards, etc. Cartridge scans can come in two flavors - some people prefer to have just the scans of label cropped from the rest of the cartridge, but more common the entire cartridge is scanned. The latter takes a purist perspective because, for example, while most cartridges for the NES were grey, there was the occasional cart like Zelda which had a gold chrome finish.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/carts.htm
 

===Control Panels===
[[Image:controlpanel.png|right|thumb|Donkey Kong arcade control panel]]Control Panels (commonly referred to as cpanels) are pictures taken of control panels. Obviously, arcade cabinets will have control panels which can be a good item to display in front-end layouts to help remind the player what the controls looked like for the game-play.
:http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mamepanel.html
 

===Flyers===
[[Image:flyer.jpg|right|thumb|Promotional flyer from the arcade game Galaga]]Flyers are scans of flyers from the arcade indsutry for arcade games. Flyers were used as promotional items to increase the sales of games. They often show captured screenshots, pictures of the cabinet, descriptions of the game play, and concept art.
[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/ Download flyers]
 

===History===
History is a single element added to a front-end or emulator that shows historical information about each game. The most well known version of this element is maintained for MAME. The History.dat can be downloaded an fused in with the pre-gameplay experience. These history files general show:
*Description: A summary description of the game.
*Technical: All info about CPUs, Sound chips, etc.
*Trivia: All interesting information about the game.
*Updates: All differences between different/alternate versions/revisions.
*Scoring: Scoring details.
*Tips and tricks: Various tipbits to assist gameplay.
*Series: All other games in a serie are listed here.
*Staff: Programmers, designers, composers, etc.
*Ports: All ported version are listed here.
*Sources: Information sources for the game.
An accurate History.dat for MAME maintained by Alexis Bousiges and contributors can be found at [http://www.arcade-history.com/history_database.php Arcade History].
 

===Icons===
Icons are front-end specific. Not all front-ends use them, and not every system has icons. MAME32 is the most common system to utilize icons.

Icons tend to be used for point and click GUI front-ends, rather than ones with Windows hidden or use arcade controls to select games.

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Icons]
 

===Manuals===
Manuals are scans of manuals that came with the game. Most of the time, each page is scanned and merged into one seemless document, usually Adbobe PDFs. Not all systems have manuals, but it can be a nice addition to display them with external applications so the player can easily refresh his/her memory of the game-play.
 
===Marquees===
[[Image:marquee.png|right|thumb|Centiped arcade marquee]]Marquees are unique to arcade cabinets. When merged into layouts, it can be a very attractive combination of elements for bringing something special to game selection in the front-end.
[http://emam.mameworld.net/ Download Marquees]
 
===Movies===
Movies are brief movie captures of game play from systems. They are an excellent addition to front-ends as they add a dynamic element to the layouts.
 

A couple of BYOAC members have spent the time to create movies of gameplay and attract sequences for every (parent) game in mame. More info and links to obtain/share them in this [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=45467.0 thread.]

===Samples===
Samples are sound files, mostly from arcade games, that could not be emulated or when emulated, from a purist perspective, did not sound like it used to in the "good-ol-days". Emulators are the primary users of the sample files. While this may seem out of place in the front-end catagory, the conveniant thing about the sample element is that it's easy to add these memorable sounds into the front-end experience.
 

===Screens===
[[Image:screen.png|right|thumb|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade screen shot]]Screens (also known as"snapshots" or "screenshots") are screen captures of the actual game in play. Where Titles tend to only have one posible screen capture, Screens can be captured at any moment of the game. Ideally, the Screen will be taken at an addtractive moment in the game-play.

Screens are the most common of front-end elements.

[http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/screenshots.htm Download Console & Pinball Screenshots]

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ MAME Screenshots]
 

===Titles===
[[Image:title.png|right|thumb|Defender arcade title shot]]Title screen captures are taken at the introduction screens of games. The Title generally shows the name of the game, some credits, "insert coin" or "select number of players" type of things. Almost every game has some sort of Title to capture. Some very early games did not have Titles and the game-play was all that was displayed.
[http://www.mametitles.com/ Download Titles]
 
==Element combinations==
Below are common combinations for screens, titles and extras of different systems. Other elements such as icons, samples, and information file are also available, but tend to be front-end or emulator specific.

{| align="center" valign="top" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" style="background:white; color:black; border:1px solid silver;"
|- style="background:navy; color:white; writing-mode:tb-rl;"
|
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Artwork
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cabinets
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Controlpanels
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Flyers
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Marquees
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Movies
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Screens
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Titles
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Boxes
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Manuals
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cartriges

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Arcade
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 
| 
| 

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Consoles
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Handhelds
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Computers
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 

|}

==See Also==
* [[Software]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Screens, Titles & Extras

2007-05-24T17:29:00Z

Dislecksea: /* History */

Many front-ends are able to display many different kinds of media elements for all the games from each system (arcade, consoles, handhelds, computers, etc). Generally, most systems will have the basic elements of screens and titles. Certain systems will have different elements that other systems don't have and vice versa. See also the [[MAME#Mame Support_Files]] page, some of those projects overlap.
==Element examples==
===Artwork===
[[Image:artwork.png|right|thumb|Bezel artwork for Ms. Pacman]]Artwork is primarily used for arcade systems. Generally bezel overlays are the most common type of artwork, however some arcade games have artwork that is lit from behind that corresponds with game play (Gorf, Lunar Lander, etc).

Most of the time, a mask file will accompany the artwork. The mask is used by emulators to fuse the artwork in with the gameplay.

Front-ends generally don't use artwork, but some people like the option of showing this element. The mask file would most likely not be used in front-ends.
:http://crashtest.retrogames.com/
 

===Boxes===
[[Image:box.jpg|right|thumb|Atari 2600 Asteriods box]]Boxes are scans of game boxes from consoles, computers and handhelds. It can be another element added to the front-end layouts. It's rare to find used games that still come with the box. It's a rather unqiue element to add to front-end layouts as it can definately bring back forgotten nostalgic images from 'archive oblivion' that were simply thrown away after opening the game.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/scans.htm
 
===Cabinets===
[[Image:cabinet.png|right|thumb|Simpsons arcade cabinet]]Cabinets are pictures taken of arcade cabinets. It's a very common element in front-ends due to the popular synergy of not only playing the game itself but also witnessing the nostalgic looks of the machine some people once stood in front of for endless hours inserting countless quarters into.
[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Cabinets]
 

===Cartridges===
[[Image:cartridge.jpg|right|thumb|Nintendo cartridge for Super Mario Bros. 2]]Cartridges are scans of the front of console game cartridges, SMC, HuCards, etc. Cartridge scans can come in two flavors - some people prefer to have just the scans of label cropped from the rest of the cartridge, but more common the entire cartridge is scanned. The latter takes a purist perspective because, for example, while most cartridges for the NES were grey, there was the occasional cart like Zelda which had a gold chrome finish.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/carts.htm
 

===Control Panels===
[[Image:controlpanel.png|right|thumb|Donkey Kong arcade control panel]]Control Panels (commonly referred to as cpanels) are pictures taken of control panels. Obviously, arcade cabinets will have control panels which can be a good item to display in front-end layouts to help remind the player what the controls looked like for the game-play.
:http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mamepanel.html
 

===Flyers===
[[Image:flyer.jpg|right|thumb|Promotional flyer from the arcade game Galaga]]Flyers are scans of flyers from the arcade indsutry for arcade games. Flyers were used as promotional items to increase the sales of games. They often show captured screenshots, pictures of the cabinet, descriptions of the game play, and concept art.
[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/ Download flyers]
 

===History===
History is a single element added to a front-end or emulator that shows historical information about each game. The most well known version of this element is maintained for MAME. The History.dat can be downloaded an fused in with the pre-gameplay experience. These history files general show:
*Description: A summary description of the game.
*Technical: All info about CPUs, Sound chips, etc.
*Trivia: All interesting information about the game.
*Updates: All differences between different/alternate versions/revisions.
*Scoring: Scoring details.
*Tips and tricks: Various tipbits to assist gameplay.
*Series: All other games in a serie are listed here.
*Staff: Programmers, designers, composers, etc.
*Ports: All ported version are listed here.
*Sources: Information sources for the game.
An accurate History.dat for MAME maintained by Alexis Bousiges and contributors can be found at [http://www.arcade-history.com/history_database.php Arcade History].
 

===Icons===
Icons are front-end specific. Not all front-ends use them, and not ever systems has icons. MAME32 is the most common system utilize icons.

Icons tend to be used for point and click GUI front-ends, rather than ones with Windows hidden or use arcade controls to select games.

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Icons]
 

===Manuals===
Manuals are scans of manuals that came with the game. Most of the time, each page is scanned and merged into one seemless document, usually Adbobe PDFs. Not all systems have manuals, but it can be a nice addition to display them with external applications so the player can easily refresh his/her memory of the game-play.
 
===Marquees===
[[Image:marquee.png|right|thumb|Centiped arcade marquee]]Marquees are unique to arcade cabinets. When merged into layouts, it can be a very attractive combination of elements for bringing something special to game selection in the front-end.
[http://emam.mameworld.net/ Download Marquees]
 
===Movies===
Movies are brief movie captures of game play from systems. They are an excellent addition to front-ends as they add a dynamic element to the layouts.
 

A couple of BYOAC members have spent the time to create movies of gameplay and attract sequences for every (parent) game in mame. More info and links to obtain/share them in this [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=45467.0 thread.]

===Samples===
Samples are sound files, mostly from arcade games, that could not be emulated or when emulated, from a purist perspective, did not sound like it used to in the "good-ol-days". Emulators are the primary users of the sample files. While this may seem out of place in the front-end catagory, the conveniant thing about the sample element is that it's easy to add these memorable sounds into the front-end experience.
 

===Screens===
[[Image:screen.png|right|thumb|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade screen shot]]Screens (also known as"snapshots" or "screenshots") are screen captures of the actual game in play. Where Titles tend to only have one posible screen capture, Screens can be captured at any moment of the game. Ideally, the Screen will be taken at an addtractive moment in the game-play.

Screens are the most common of front-end elements.

[http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/screenshots.htm Download Console & Pinball Screenshots]

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ MAME Screenshots]
 

===Titles===
[[Image:title.png|right|thumb|Defender arcade title shot]]Title screen captures are taken at the introduction screens of games. The Title generally shows the name of the game, some credits, "insert coin" or "select number of players" type of things. Almost every game has some sort of Title to capture. Some very early games did not have Titles and the game-play was all that was displayed.
[http://www.mametitles.com/ Download Titles]
 
==Element combinations==
Below are common combinations for screens, titles and extras of different systems. Other elements such as icons, samples, and information file are also available, but tend to be front-end or emulator specific.

{| align="center" valign="top" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" style="background:white; color:black; border:1px solid silver;"
|- style="background:navy; color:white; writing-mode:tb-rl;"
|
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Artwork
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cabinets
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Controlpanels
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Flyers
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Marquees
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Movies
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Screens
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Titles
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Boxes
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Manuals
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cartriges

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Arcade
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 
| 
| 

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Consoles
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Handhelds
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Computers
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 

|}

==See Also==
* [[Software]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Screens, Titles & Extras

2007-05-24T15:14:53Z

Dislecksea:

Many front-ends are able to display many different kinds of media elements for all the games from each system (arcade, consoles, handhelds, computers, etc). Generally, most systems will have the basic elements of screens and titles. Certain systems will have different elements that other systems don't have and vice versa. See also the [[MAME#Mame Support_Files]] page, some of those projects overlap.
==Element examples==
===Artwork===
[[Image:artwork.png|right|thumb|Bezel artwork for Ms. Pacman]]Artwork is primarily used for arcade systems. Generally bezel overlays are the most common type of artwork, however some arcade games have artwork that is lit from behind that corresponds with game play (Gorf, Lunar Lander, etc).

Most of the time, a mask file will accompany the artwork. The mask is used by emulators to fuse the artwork in with the gameplay.

Front-ends generally don't use artwork, but some people like the option of showing this element. The mask file would most likely not be used in front-ends.
:http://crashtest.retrogames.com/
 

===Boxes===
[[Image:box.jpg|right|thumb|Atari 2600 Asteriods box]]Boxes are scans of game boxes from consoles, computers and handhelds. It can be another element added to the front-end layouts. It's rare to find used games that still come with the box. It's a rather unqiue element to add to front-end layouts as it can definately bring back forgotten nostalgic images from 'archive oblivion' that were simply thrown away after opening the game.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/scans.htm
 
===Cabinets===
[[Image:cabinet.png|right|thumb|Simpsons arcade cabinet]]Cabinets are pictures taken of arcade cabinets. It's a very common element in front-ends due to the popular synergy of not only playing the game itself but also witnessing the nostalgic looks of the machine some people once stood in front of for endless hours inserting countless quarters into.
[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Cabinets]
 

===Cartridges===
[[Image:cartridge.jpg|right|thumb|Nintendo cartridge for Super Mario Bros. 2]]Cartridges are scans of the front of console game cartridges, SMC, HuCards, etc. Cartridge scans can come in two flavors - some people prefer to have just the scans of label cropped from the rest of the cartridge, but more common the entire cartridge is scanned. The latter takes a purist perspective because, for example, while most cartridges for the NES were grey, there was the occasional cart like Zelda which had a gold chrome finish.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/carts.htm
 

===Control Panels===
[[Image:controlpanel.png|right|thumb|Donkey Kong arcade control panel]]Control Panels (commonly referred to as cpanels) are pictures taken of control panels. Obviously, arcade cabinets will have control panels which can be a good item to display in front-end layouts to help remind the player what the controls looked like for the game-play.
:http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mamepanel.html
 

===Flyers===
[[Image:flyer.jpg|right|thumb|Promotional flyer from the arcade game Galaga]]Flyers are scans of flyers from the arcade indsutry for arcade games. Flyers were used as promotional items to increase the sales of games. They often show captured screenshots, pictures of the cabinet, descriptions of the game play, and concept art.
[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/ Download flyers]
 

===History===
History is a single element added to a front-end or emulator that shows historical information about each game. The most well know version of this element is maintained for MAME. The History.dat can be downloaded an fused in with the pre-gameplay experience. These history files general show:
*Description: A summary description of the game.
*Technical: All info about CPUs, Sound chips, etc.
*Trivia: All interesting information about the game.
*Updates: All differences between different/alternate versions/revisions.
*Scoring: Scoring details.
*Tips and tricks: Various tipbits to assist gameplay.
*Series: All other games in a serie are listed here.
*Staff: Programmers, designers, composers, etc.
*Ports: All ported version are listed here.
*Sources: Information sources for the game.
An accurate History.dat for MAME maintained by Alexis Bousiges and contributors can be found at [http://www.arcade-history.com/history_database.php Arcade History].
 

===Icons===
Icons are front-end specific. Not all front-ends use them, and not ever systems has icons. MAME32 is the most common system utilize icons.

Icons tend to be used for point and click GUI front-ends, rather than ones with Windows hidden or use arcade controls to select games.

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Icons]
 

===Manuals===
Manuals are scans of manuals that came with the game. Most of the time, each page is scanned and merged into one seemless document, usually Adbobe PDFs. Not all systems have manuals, but it can be a nice addition to display them with external applications so the player can easily refresh his/her memory of the game-play.
 
===Marquees===
[[Image:marquee.png|right|thumb|Centiped arcade marquee]]Marquees are unique to arcade cabinets. When merged into layouts, it can be a very attractive combination of elements for bringing something special to game selection in the front-end.
[http://emam.mameworld.net/ Download Marquees]
 
===Movies===
Movies are brief movie captures of game play from systems. They are an excellent addition to front-ends as they add a dynamic element to the layouts.
 

A couple of BYOAC members have spent the time to create movies of gameplay and attract sequences for every (parent) game in mame. More info and links to obtain/share them in this [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=45467.0 thread.]

===Samples===
Samples are sound files, mostly from arcade games, that could not be emulated or when emulated, from a purist perspective, did not sound like it used to in the "good-ol-days". Emulators are the primary users of the sample files. While this may seem out of place in the front-end catagory, the conveniant thing about the sample element is that it's easy to add these memorable sounds into the front-end experience.
 

===Screens===
[[Image:screen.png|right|thumb|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade screen shot]]Screens (also known as"snapshots" or "screenshots") are screen captures of the actual game in play. Where Titles tend to only have one posible screen capture, Screens can be captured at any moment of the game. Ideally, the Screen will be taken at an addtractive moment in the game-play.

Screens are the most common of front-end elements.

[http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/screenshots.htm Download Console & Pinball Screenshots]

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ MAME Screenshots]
 

===Titles===
[[Image:title.png|right|thumb|Defender arcade title shot]]Title screen captures are taken at the introduction screens of games. The Title generally shows the name of the game, some credits, "insert coin" or "select number of players" type of things. Almost every game has some sort of Title to capture. Some very early games did not have Titles and the game-play was all that was displayed.
[http://www.mametitles.com/ Download Titles]
 
==Element combinations==
Below are common combinations for screens, titles and extras of different systems. Other elements such as icons, samples, and information file are also available, but tend to be front-end or emulator specific.

{| align="center" valign="top" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" style="background:white; color:black; border:1px solid silver;"
|- style="background:navy; color:white; writing-mode:tb-rl;"
|
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Artwork
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cabinets
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Controlpanels
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Flyers
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Marquees
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Movies
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Screens
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Titles
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Boxes
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Manuals
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cartriges

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Arcade
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 
| 
| 

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Consoles
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Handhelds
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Computers
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 

|}

==See Also==
* [[Software]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Screens, Titles & Extras

2007-05-24T15:11:40Z

Dislecksea:

Many front-ends are able to display many different kinds of media elements for all the games from each system (arcade, consoles, handhelds, computers, etc). Generally, most systems will have the basic elements of screens and titles. Certain systems will have different elements that other systems don't have and vice versa. See also the [[MAME#Mame Support_Files]] page, some of those projects overlap.
==Element examples==
===Artwork===
[[Image:artwork.png|right|thumb|Bezel artwork for Ms. Pacman]]Artwork is primarily used for arcade systems. Generally bezel overlays are the most common type of artwork, however some arcade games have artwork that is lit from behind that corresponds with game play (Gorf, Lunar Lander, etc).

Most of the time, a mask file will accompany the artwork. The mask is used by emulators to fuse the artwork in with the gameplay.

Front-ends generally don't use artwork, but some people like the option of showing this element. The mask file would most likely not be used in front-ends.
:http://crashtest.retrogames.com/
 

===Boxes===
[[Image:box.jpg|right|thumb|Atari 2600 Asteriods box]]Boxes are scans of game boxes from consoles, computers and handhelds. It can be another element added to the front-end layouts. It's rare to find used games that still come with the box. It's a rather unqiue element to add to front-end layouts as it can definately bring back forgotten nostalgic images from 'archive oblivion' that were simply thrown away after opening the game.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/scans.htm
 
===Cabinets===
[[Image:cabinet.png|right|thumb|Simpsons arcade cabinet]]Cabinets are pictures taken of arcade cabinets. It's a very common element in front-ends due to the popular synergy of not only playing the game itself but also witnessing the nostalgic looks of the machine some people once stood in front of for endless hours inserting countless quarters into.
[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Cabinets]
 

===Cartridges===
[[Image:cartridge.jpg|right|thumb|Nintendo cartridge for Super Mario Bros. 2]]Cartridges are scans of the front of console game cartridges, SMC, HuCards, etc. Cartridge scans can come in two flavors - some people prefer to have just the scans of label cropped from the rest of the cartridge, but more common the entire cartridge is scanned. The latter takes a purist perspective because, for example, while most cartridges for the NES were grey, there was the occasional cart like Zelda which had a gold chrome finish.
:http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/carts.htm
 

===Control Panels===
[[Image:controlpanel.png|right|thumb|Donkey Kong arcade control panel]]Control Panels (commonly referred to as cpanels) are pictures taken of control panels. Obviously, arcade cabinets will have control panels which can be a good item to display in front-end layouts to help remind the player what the controls looked like for the game-play.
:http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mamepanel.html
 

===Flyers===
[[Image:flyer.jpg|right|thumb|Promotional flyer from the arcade game Galaga]]Flyers are scans of flyers from the arcade indsutry for arcade games. Flyers were used as promotional items to increase the sales of games. They often show captured screenshots, pictures of the cabinet, descriptions of the game play, and concept art.
[http://www.arcadeflyers.com/ Download flyers]
 

===History===
History is a single element added to a front-end or emulator that shows historical information about each game. The most well know version of this element is maintained for MAME. The History.dat can be downloaded an fused in with the pre-gameplay experience. These history files general show:
*Description: A summary description of the game.
*Technical: All info about CPUs, Sound chips, etc.
*Trivia: All interesting information about the game.
*Updates: All differences between different/alternate versions/revisions.
*Scoring: Scoring details.
*Tips and tricks: Various tipbits to assist gameplay.
*Series: All other games in a serie are listed here.
*Staff: Programmers, designers, composers, etc.
*Ports: All ported version are listed here.
*Sources: Information sources for the game.
An accurate History.dat for MAME maintained by Alexis Bousiges and contributors can be found at [http://www.arcade-history.com/history_database.php Arcade History].
 

===Icons===
Icons are front-end specific. Not all front-ends use them, and not ever systems has icons. MAME is the most common systems to have icons for a front-end.

Icons tend to be used for point and click GUI front-ends rather than ones with Windows hidden that use arcade controls to select games.

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ Download Icons]
 

===Manuals===
Manuals are scans of manuals that came with the game. Most of the time, each page is scanned and merged into one seemless document, usually Adbobe PDFs. Not all systems have manuals, but it can be a nice addition to display them with external applications so the player can easily refresh his/her memory of the game-play.
 
===Marquees===
[[Image:marquee.png|right|thumb|Centiped arcade marquee]]Marquees are unique to arcade cabinets. When merged into layouts, it can be a very attractive combination of elements for bringing something special to game selection in the front-end.
[http://emam.mameworld.net/ Download Marquees]
 
===Movies===
Movies are brief movie captures of game play from systems. They are an excellent addition to front-ends as they add a dynamic element to the layouts.
 

A couple of BYOAC members have spent the time to create movies of gameplay and attract sequences for every (parent) game in mame. More info and links to obtain/share them in this [http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=45467.0 thread.]

===Samples===
Samples are sound files, mostly from arcade games, that could not be emulated or when emulated, from a purist perspective, did not sound like it used to in the "good-ol-days". Emulators are the primary users of the sample files. While this may seem out of place in the front-end catagory, the conveniant thing about the sample element is that it's easy to add these memorable sounds into the front-end experience.
 

===Screens===
[[Image:screen.png|right|thumb|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade screen shot]]Screens (also known as"snapshots" or "screenshots") are screen captures of the actual game in play. Where Titles tend to only have one posible screen capture, Screens can be captured at any moment of the game. Ideally, the Screen will be taken at an addtractive moment in the game-play.

Screens are the most common of front-end elements.

[http://localarcade.com/screenshotarchive/screenshots.htm Download Console & Pinball Screenshots]

[http://mame32qa.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ MAME Screenshots]
 

===Titles===
[[Image:title.png|right|thumb|Defender arcade title shot]]Title screen captures are taken at the introduction screens of games. The Title generally shows the name of the game, some credits, "insert coin" or "select number of players" type of things. Almost every game has some sort of Title to capture. Some very early games did not have Titles and the game-play was all that was displayed.
[http://www.mametitles.com/ Download Titles]
 
==Element combinations==
Below are common combinations for screens, titles and extras of different systems. Other elements such as icons, samples, and information file are also available, but tend to be front-end or emulator specific.

{| align="center" valign="top" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" style="background:white; color:black; border:1px solid silver;"
|- style="background:navy; color:white; writing-mode:tb-rl;"
|
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Artwork
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cabinets
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Controlpanels
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Flyers
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Marquees
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Movies
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Screens
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Titles
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Boxes
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Manuals
| style="writing-mode:tb-rl;text-align:right;"|Cartriges

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Arcade
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 
| 
| 

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Consoles
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Handhelds
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>

|-
| style="background:navy; color:white;"|Computers
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
|<center>'''•'''</center>
| 

|}

==See Also==
* [[Software]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Encoders

2007-05-24T14:34:19Z

Dislecksea:

An '''encoder''' is a specialized device that interprets presses and movements by your arcade controls and passes them along to be used by a computer. They can interpret keyboard, mouse, or gamepad commands, depending on the type and capability of the encoder. They depend on an external switch, such as a [[Pushbutton]] to register commands.

Basically, you can think about an encoder as a bridge between the buttons (joysticks, tackballs, spinners, etc.) on your control panel and the computer on which the emulator runs. For example, suppose that you press the "Player 1 Start" button on your control panel. When you do, a signal is sent down some wires running from the button to a particular input on the encoder. Now, the encoder has been set up so that whenever it receives a signal in that particular input, it then sends a signal to the computer (via either a PS/2 or USB cable) that is identical to the signal sent by a regular keybaord when you press the "1" key. So, to the computer your "Player 1 Start" button looks just like a "1" key on a keyboard. In our particular example this is good, because the emulator on your computer was waiting for you to press the "1" key to start your particular game.

Encoders are available from several [[vendors]] including:
- GroovyGameGear
- Hagstrom Electronics
- ThrustVector Controls
- Ultimate Arcade Controls (Ultimarc)

It is worth noting that some controls from specific vendors may not require a separate encoder to function. For example, the Apache Blackhawk Spinner comes with a built in encoder for the spinner so that you can just plug it directly into your USB port. It is also worth noting that some controls from specific vendors, in addition to not requiring a separate encoder to function, may be able to act as an encoder for other controls. For example, the Utramarc Ultrastik 360 joystick can act as an encoder for up to 8 buttons.

There are four types of encoders presently available:
*[[Keyboard Encoders]]
*[[Gamepad Encoders]]
*[[Rotary Encoders]]
*[[Optical Encoders|Optical (Mouse) Encoders]]

==See Also==
* [[Controls]]

[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Index]]

Control panel

2007-05-24T14:31:11Z

Dislecksea:

__NOTOC__
The '''control panel''' is the players' desktop. It's the area where [[Controls]] including the [[Pushbuttons|buttons]], [[joysticks]], [[trackballs]] and [[Spinners|spinner controls]] are located.
 

==Layout==
[[Image:Cabinet1.jpg|right]]
The control panel layout is usually determined by the game(s) available for the cabinet. If a cabinet is dedicated or restored to one game, the panel would include only the required buttons. If multiple games are to be played, the panel must have all controls nessecary to play those games and accomodate amount of the players able to play simultaneously. This creates a limitation for many control panels as many games require unique controls and layouts. [[Static Control Panels]] have a fixed layout, [[Swappable Control Panels]] allow the entire control panel to be switched as a unit, [[Rotating Control Panels]] have more than one panel mounted on a rotating mechanism to change panels and [[Modular Control Panels]] let you swap and rearrange individual controls on a panel to provide maximum game flexiblity.

===Administration [[Pushbuttons]] Ideas===
A layout sometimes includes a few "administration" type buttons, which are buttons that would not normally appear on a true arcade machine. For example, even though true arcade machines did not have "Pause" buttons you may choose to have one since many emulators allow for this option. However, as an alternative, instead of adding buttons for these functions, you can choose to a. use a hidden/wireless keyboard/mouse to perform these functions or b. use the "shift" function of an encoder to let the existing buttons also act as administration buttons. Here are some buttons people have used in the past:
*Escape/Quit/Exit
*Pause
*Coin button(s)
*Save Game
*Load Game
*Mouse Buttons
*Next List (used for frontends like [[Mamewah]])
*Random Game (also used for frontends like [[Mamewah]])

==Artwork==
The control panel is a flat surface immediately visible to the player. This give lots of posibilities to decorate - ranging from instructions with each control, grouping frames or distinct player 1 vs. player 2 graphics. It can also be used to continue the graphic trend from the [[sideart]].

==See also==
* [[Controls]]
* [[Arcade Cabinet]]
* [[Static Control Panels]]
* [[Swappable Control Panels]]
* [[Rotating Control Panels]]
* [[Modular Control Panels]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Basics]]
[[Category:Index]]

Control panel

2007-05-24T14:25:12Z

Dislecksea:

__NOTOC__
The '''control panel''' is the players' desktop. It's the area where [[Controls]] including the [[Pushbuttons|buttons]], [[joysticks]], [[trackballs]] and [[Spinners|spinner controls]] are located.
 

==Layout==
[[Image:Cabinet1.jpg|right]]
The control panel layout is usually determined by the game(s) available for the cabinet. If a cabinet is dedicated or restored to one game, the panel would include only the required buttons. If multiple games are to be played, the panel must have all controls nessecary to play those games and accomodate amount of the players able to play simultaneously. This creates a limitation for many control panels as many games require unique controls and layouts. [[Static Control Panels]] have a fixed layout, [[Swappable Control Panels]] allow the entire control panel to be switched as a unit, [[Rotating Control Panels]] have more than one panel mounted on a rotating mechanism to change panels and [[Modular Control Panels]] let you swap and rearrange individual controls on a panel to provide maximum game flexiblity.

===Administration [[Pushbuttons]] Ideas===
A layout sometimes includes a few "administration" type buttons, which are buttons that would not normally appear on a true arcade machine. For example, even though true arcade machines did not have "Pause" buttons you may choose to have one since many emulators allow for this option. However, if you prefer you can, instead of adding buttons for these functions, choose to a. use a hidden/wireless keyboard/mouse to perform these functions or b. use the "shift" function of an encoder to let the existing buttons also act as administration buttons. Here are some buttons people have used in the past:
*Escape/Quit/Exit
*Pause
*Coin button(s)
*Save Game
*Load Game
*Mouse Buttons
*Next List (used for frontends like [[Mamewah]])
*Random Game (also used for frontends like [[Mamewah]])

==Artwork==
The control panel is a flat surface immediately visible to the player. This give lots of posibilities to decorate - ranging from instructions with each control, grouping frames or distinct player 1 vs. player 2 graphics. It can also be used to continue the graphic trend from the [[sideart]].

==See also==
* [[Controls]]
* [[Arcade Cabinet]]
* [[Static Control Panels]]
* [[Swappable Control Panels]]
* [[Rotating Control Panels]]
* [[Modular Control Panels]]

[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Basics]]
[[Category:Index]]

Divemaster127

2007-05-24T14:14:42Z

Dislecksea:

'''BYOAC Thread:''' http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=47066.msg452405#msg452405

Divemaster127 is a BYOAC forum member who is a Happ distributor. Since he buys from Happ directly, he charges a reasonable amount for shipping. If ordering from Happ directly, the shipping costs can be prohibitive. Also, he sells arcade parts from Ultimarc.

{{New_Review_Template|Name=JONTHEBOMB
|Comments=Divemaster127 is found in the Buy \ Sell \ Trade Forum at BYOAC.

To order from Divemaster127:

* Just send a personal Message (PM) of what you want.
* He will send you an pm back with the shipping cost and total.
* You Paypal him the money.
* The items will be at your door before you know it.

I have ordered items from Divemaster127 twice. He will answer any questions you have and is a great seller.

|Rating=Highly Recommended
}}

{{New_Review_Template|Name=Dislecksea
|Comments=Found Divemaster127 at the Buy \ Sell \ Trade Forum at BYOAC.

Ordered a bunch of stuff from him rather than directly from Happ. He was timely, packed everything well, and was cheaper to boot. He also answered a couple of questions that I posed to him to help me pick out the correct items. Good to work with.

|Rating=Highly Recommended
}}
==See Also==
* [[Vendors]]

[[Category:Vendors]]
[[Category:Rating]]

Software

2007-05-22T19:34:58Z

Dislecksea:

__NOTOC__
{{Portal|name=Software}}
[[Image:Typical-software.png|right|260px]]
A variety of '''Software''' and '''Emulators''' allow you to play a huge number of arcade, console and PC games on a computer. The software used as a foundation of a home arcade machine generally consists of an ''emulator(s)'' to run specific games (called ''roms'') on a computer and a ''front-end'' to provide a menu system to allow players to select from a list of games. Recently, the desire for multiple uses of an arcade cabinet and/or enhancing the game-playing experience have brought about the use of additional software, perhaps to play a PC game, allow use of the cabinet as a jukebox, or for lighting and configuration enhancements.

Software has gone through great leaps and bounds since the inception of this hobby. As an example, in the late 90's, a common route many people were choosing was the [http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/ PC2Jamma] method originally conceived and implemented by Brian Lewis. Typically, MAME was used as a game emulator, ArcadeOS as the front-end, and DOS as the operating system, since this allowed the use of real arcade monitors. Since then, hardware has been developed to make using an arcade monitor from other operating systems simple, and more complex front-ends and emulators have been developed to utilize PC hardware better.

==Arcade, Console and Computer Emulators==
* [[Arcade Emulators]]
* [[Game Consoles]]
* [[Handheld Consoles]]
* [[Home Computers]]
* [[Computer Components]]
* [[Other Emulation]]
* [[Simulators]]
* [[Pinball]]
* [[TV Games]] - Hardware based small devices, that hold retrogames

==Front-Ends & Menu Systems==
* [[Front-Ends]]
** [[Screens, Titles & Extras]]
** [[Wrappers|Wrappers]]
* [[Hiding Windows]] - How to hide Windows.

==Jukebox, Music and Multimedia==
* [[Jukebox Software]]
** [[CD Ripping]]
* [[Multimedia Software]]

==ROM images==
Emulators require [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image ROM image] files to work. The ROM files contain game data such as program code, grahics and sound. Be aware that many ROM images contain copyrighted material. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM_image#Legal_Status_of_ROMs this] Wikipedia section for more information about the ''legal status of ROM images''. Note that it is not allowed to post ROM image requests on the BYOAC forum. Many other arcade hobby related sites follow this rule too.

==ROM Managment==

There are a variety of utilities out there for managing your roms. They can let you see what you are missing, rename your roms, re-organise etc..etc...

A widely used and powerful utility is [[ClrMamePro]]

== PC Games ==
If you have a PC powering your cabinet, you might as well try a few other games to play on it.
* [[Cabfriendly games]]
** [[Arcade Games]]
** [[Classic Games]]
** [[Pinball]]
** [[Simulators]]
** [[Remakes]]

==See Also==
* [[Design applications]]
* [[Utilities|Various software utility]] - Various utilities for your arcadcab

[[Category:Portals]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Software]]

Encoders

2007-05-22T19:19:36Z

Dislecksea:

An '''encoder''' is a specialized device that interprets presses and movements by your arcade controls and passes them along to be used by a computer. They can interpret keyboard, mouse, or gamepad commands, depending on the type and capability of the encoder. They depend on an external switch, such as a [[Pushbutton]] to register commands.

Basically, you can think about an encoder as a bridge between the buttons (joysticks, tackballs, spinners, etc.) on your control panel and the computer on which the emulator runs. For example, suppose that you press the "Player 1 Start" button on your control panel. When you do, a signal is sent down some wires running from the button to a particular input on the encoder. Now, the encoder has been set up so that whenever it receives a signal in that particular input, it then sends a signal to the computer via either a PS/2 or USB cable that is identical to the signal sent by a regular keybaord when you press the "1" key. So, to the computer your "Player 1 Start" button looks just like a "1" key on a keyboard. In our particular example this is good, because the emulator on your computer was waiting for you to press the "1" key to start your particular game.

Encoders are available from several [[vendors]] including:
- GroovyGameGear
- Hagstrom Electronics
- ThrustVector Controls
- Ultimate Arcade Controls (Ultimarc)

It is worth noting that some controls from specific vendors may not require a separate encoder to function. For example, the Apache Blackhawk Spinner comes with a built in encoder for the spinner so that you can just plug it directly into your USB port. It is also worth noting that some controls from specific vendors, in addition to not requiring a separate encoder to function, may be able to act as an encoder for other controls. For example, the Utramarc Ultrastik 360 can act as an encoder for up to 8 buttons.

There are four types of encoders presently available:
*[[Keyboard Encoders]]
*[[Gamepad Encoders]]
*[[Rotary Encoders]]
*[[Optical Encoders|Optical (Mouse) Encoders]]

==See Also==
* [[Controls]]

[[Category:Controls]]
[[Category:Index]]