Arcade IO Emulator

[MightyMikeUk]

Hi people,

It's my first time posting here. Some of you may know my from my work on Teknoparrot FFBArcadePlugin, outputblaster and FFBBlaster.

In the background over the past couple years I've been building a project called Arcade IO Emulator for myself really.

It means I can leave all my original hardware in my arcade cabs, but swap in a modern pc if I fancy with no wire cutting or hardware mods.

Just connect cables to pc and away you go.

I wrote this around raw thrills cabs originally, it's what I have personally and it works flawlessly allowing controls, outputs and ffb to work as a game controller etc.

Recently I have added support for golden tee cabs, namco JVS, sega Europa and taito boards.

I don't actually own any if these, so no idea if they work. Or if there's even a need to emulate them like this, I've just used my work on ffb etc in the past to basically emulate everything from code

So..... If you have any cabs and can give me a hand testing I'd be really appreciative

If you have a raw thrills cab this just works, it's pretty cool

Either way you can grab it here
https://github.com/mightymikem/arcadeioemulator

I do charge for this software, one off fee, but defo up for some freebies if you can help test those new systems I've added with me

Also love to know if there's any other boards people would like me to add

Thanks peeps

Mike

 

[MickyMac]

Oh wow this is incredible.

You got all that working on JVS with a RS-485 to USB adapter?

Personally I've got twin cabinet (old 1990's namco ridge racer). I made a DIY harness (using parts like 50pin and 60pin jae connectors) and soldered it to the wires on a an ultimarc UHID device so it's plug an play between the original boards (ridge racer) and the PC. Works fantastic with a lovely hyperspin list of all the driving games.

When I retro fitted FFB wheel to one side and that's where it became an issue. UHID doesn't support force feed back so I picked up a "universal FFB controller" on facebook from sebarcade.


The other cabinet I have is an after burner climax (JVS) with a left right roll motor. I wonder could I get your softwre going with the RS-485 to USB adapter and play the original after burner and space harrier in it


Also did you see fellow UK John Bennetts motion mame with a pico pi as the controller for the motor system? Maybe potential of some collaboration overlap here with your solution to support motor functions?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS6S-6oyBeE

 

[MightyMikeUk]

Hey Micky

On JVS ill be honest, i've no idea lol. I only have Raw Thrills stuff myself and that all works, Golden Tee boards also working with real hardware, but JVS i only just added and I only have one tester, trying it today in fact.

So in terms of how its connected to the PC etc, i GUESS its via that RS-485 adapter, which i "believe" allows it be detected in windows as a COM port.

If thats the case, should work fine

Some stuff has seperate FFB boards, in which case ive added support for, if i remember, namco and sega boards so far.
Taito looks to use extended JVS for FFB, so i think its covered. Might have that wrong way around tho.

If you or anyone would like a go, let me know. I really need help on those boards i dont have.

 

[MightyMikeUk]

Also on the motion controls, technically if there's motion motors/contollers, and they interfaceswith a PC somehow, should be able to support it natively. Again, no idea, haven't got access to the hardware (wish i did) but keen to work with anyone who does.

I do work on FFBBlaster with TP, how cool would it be to add motion outputs to that, that then interface directly with the real hardware. Pretty sure thats do-able.

Basically my mission here, where possible, is to make all this hardware work without cutting cables, having to buy extra controllers, etc

 

[njz3]

It would be nice to get more details on the hardware part of the cabinets you support (usb ?).
The Backforcefeeder software already supports all DC motor (pwm), sega model 1/2/3 cabinets and Midi/RS422/RS4232 servoboards from Sega and Taito (usb converter needed). Recently I have added support for Sega io board 4 (usb). JVS is on my todo list, so that's where I am interested by your developments and how you interface them.

 

[MightyMikeUk]

Ive not had anyone test the JVS stuff yet, so no idea if it works or not. I only just added it myself too. So we shall see, if it does, and after probably another few hours of testing with real hardware, i'll let you know.

From my very limited, and almost definately wrong knowledge, there are many different implementations of JVS, right? And how they connected originally etc, pass through boards etc? So what i've done, maybe will only work with some, and not others.

As i mentioned in the original post, ive built most of this project from my real cabinets, and also other peoples, and all works great. But JVS i used my FFBBlaster experience to construct this, so yeah, no idea yet

If anyone has any JVS cabs etc, LET ME KNOW

 

[wwc0]

I've got a Maximum Tune 1 single cabinet that I've been wanting to add PC emulation to and wouldn't mind testing...but I'm fairly new to all this. I would assume that I need an interface board to connect from the PC to the JVS system. Would you (or anyone) know what board I would need to do this?

I believe this cabinet is a Namco JVS system...it does have a separate Namco card for the force feedback (STR V315)