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Oh man this is sounding sweet, great work guys.

I hate to bother you, but can I put in a simple request..? Any chance of sorting out a mounting point for the LCD screen? I really hate having it dangling all over the place. Some holes to accommodate standoffs will do, so we can mount it somewhere.
 
Why no soft menu like MVS multi for selecting games?

What are the differences between CPS2 not having it and MVS multi having it?
 
Why no soft menu like MVS multi for selecting games?

What are the differences between CPS2 not having it and MVS multi having it?
About $300AUD :P

Seriously. It costs a LOT to develop a menu like that and for a system with 14 games (I think it's 14) it just doesn't make sense as opposed to a system with 300
 
Why no soft menu like MVS multi for selecting games?

What are the differences between CPS2 not having it and MVS multi having it?
About $300AUD :P

Seriously. It costs a LOT to develop a menu like that and for a system with 14 games (I think it's 14) it just doesn't make sense as opposed to a system with 300
28, according to system16.com -- 5 more if we're hoping for this to be easily extensible to Q-Sound games (I personally doubt it, but whatever)

Still nowhere near enough to rate a menu. I have 0 problems with an LCD for things with this small of a game list. Hell even DIPs is okay at this level, though personally I think they're unwieldy over 16 games.
 
Why no soft menu like MVS multi for selecting games?

What are the differences between CPS2 not having it and MVS multi having it?
About $300AUD :P

Seriously. It costs a LOT to develop a menu like that and for a system with 14 games (I think it's 14) it just doesn't make sense as opposed to a system with 300
Isn't there like 41 games for CPS2. Understandable for a small list of games but CPS2 has quite a few.
Menus are a pain in the ass.
Could be to develop, major pain in the ass when you want to scroll through games and can't visualise them or the LCD reverts back to the top of the list and need to scroll again.

Is anyone capable of making a menu for CPS2?
 
Actually, that would be handy re the CPS2 screen. If it's simple / trivial to update the firmware so that the LCD doesn't pop up the current game while trying to scroll through the list, that would be great. A minor inconvenience but if it can be remedied without much fuss that would be great.

Guessing there's some form of timer involved, perhaps it could be increased? E.g. upon cycle up / down button press detection, delay the 'currently playing...' string from appearing by a lengthier amount of time.

To be more inventive, what about one of those mini OLED screens? They're cheap, tiny and easier to mount, easier on the eye and a more attractive display, and can display multiple lines of text.
 
There's no need. I've never found it a problem to have the external screen

Alien vs Predator
Super SF2 New Challengers
X-Men vs Street Fighter
X-Men Children of the Atom
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes vs SF
Marvel vs Capcom
Cyberbots
Armoured Warriors
Mega Man The Power Battles
Mega Man 2 The Power Battles
Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo
Super SF2 Turbo
Progear
Mars Matrix
Dimahoo
Darkstalkers
Vampire Savior
Vampire Savior 2
Hyper SF2 Anniversary
Puzz Loop 2
SF Alpha
SF Alpha 2
SF Alpha 3
D&D Shadows
D&D Tower
Eco Fighters

26? Have I forgotten any? There's so many variations and versions of CPS2 games but not that many games. The quality of those games though is unbelievably good.
 
My count's got 40 playable on the DS kit (Jyangokushi requires extra hardware so no-go), albeit 2 of them are Quiz/Mahjong games so... why? So 38 useful games.

2p Horizontal
1944: The Loop Master
Capcom Sports Club
Cyberbots
Eco Fighters/Ultimate Ecology
Giga Wing
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition
Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter
Marvel Vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Mighty! Pang
Progear/Progear no Arashi
Puzz Loop 2
Quiz Nanairo Dreams: Nijiirotyou no Kiseki
Ring of Destruction/Super Muscle Bomber
Rockman: The Power Battle
Rockman 2: The Power Fighters/Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
Street Fighter Alpha/Street Fighter Zero
Street Fighter Alpha 2/Street Fighter Zero 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3/Street Fighter Zero 3
Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha
Super Gem Fighter/Pocket Fighter
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo/Super Puzzle Fighter 2X
Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo/Super Street Fighter 2X
Vampire: The Night Warriors/Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers Revenge/Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge
Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers Revenge
Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire
Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire
X-Men: Children of the Atom
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter

1p Horizontal
Janpai Puzzle Choukou

3p Horizontal
Alien Vs. Predator
Armored Warriors/Powered Gear

4p Horizontal
Battle Circuit
Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom

2p Vertical
19XX: The War Against Destiny
Dimahoo/Great Mahou Daisakusen
 
External screen is fine but if it can be refined / improved upon surely that's worthy of consideration? Such as using a smaller, better OLED screen or updating the firmware to add a little flair. E.g. Eliminating the 'now playing...' message while scrolling games, remembering the position of the last selected (not necessarily loaded / playing) game upon power cycle etc.
 
External screen is fine but if it can be refined / improved upon surely that's worthy of consideration? Such as using a smaller, better OLED screen or updating the firmware to add a little flair. E.g. Eliminating the 'now playing...' message while scrolling games, remembering the position of the last selected (not necessarily loaded / playing) game upon power cycle etc.
You're not wrong, but our geniuses have limited time with which to tinker. While there are still other multis to be made (and there will always be other multis to be made), I for one would like them to not waste brainpower on a relatively minor improvement to something that already works well enough.
 
Speaking specifically about the cps2 multi, zero complaints here! I absolutely love it and use it daily... It's a solid finalised design so contemplating some minuscule refinement shouldn't detract from anything.

I guess your point is that you don't want to see our clever devs squandering time on a working product which will take time away from products currently in development, on which I have to agree.

Just tossing some ideas around, food for thought etc. :)
 
I can understand that the menus are a pain in the ass, but is not necessary a menu with animations, music, screensots, scrolls an other things.
I don't have any programing knowledge, but, it would be possible a simple and funcional menu, with the basic functions? Something like a Super Everdrive's menu. Is that a pain in the ass too?, It would be factible?

I like the LCD Screen, but it think that a simple menu it would be great.
 
Here's the problem, @Darksoft or @Mitsurugi-w or @Apocalypse can probably confirm if I'm wrong on any of this.

It's not as simple as writing a menu to select a game because the LCD screen is attached to an Arduino which is in turn operating an FPGA (multiple FPGAs?) on the multi board

In order to have your on screen menu you have to write an interface for the 68k on the CPS1 or CPS2 to talk to that FPGA and give it the same instructions that the Arduino does.

You have to fit that menu and those instructions into a small enough space that the game you want to load can still address and use all the memory space it requires since if your menu is in any of that space, it'll crash.

Given how much code is going to be required just to interface with the FPGA ignoring the code to actually have the menu itself and the code to all the FPGA to load each of your 30+ games - your chances of fitting it into the quite possibly zero memory space left when loading the largest game on the system (Hyper SF2 Anniversary)

The MVS was designed from the ground up to have a menu and the Chinese bootleg carts had already done it, so there was a blueprint in place for a menu system and proof the memory space existed to make it work.

The Chinese bootleg CPS1 and CPS2 boards used an external screen. I just don't think it would be possible to have an OSD without adding additional memory to the multi B board and booting that first, then booting from the flash ROMs once they're loaded.

It would be an enormous task and a significant increase in price both in design and testing and manufacturing cost to make it happen
 
The original Chinese cps1 14-in-1 has an onscreen menu but it uses a jamma pass-through daughter board to accomplish this.

Which is why I suggested not worrying about an onscreen menu, but instead refining the LCD screen approach. E.g. OLED multi line screen, smaller, easier to mount etc.
 
The original Chinese cps1 14-in-1 has an onscreen menu but it uses a jamma pass-through daughter board to accomplish this.

Which is why I suggested not worrying about an onscreen menu, but instead refining the LCD screen approach. E.g. OLED multi line screen, smaller, easier to mount etc.
Yeah the little OLED screen would be nice, I think that's what aje_fr uses isn't it?

My thing above was more for the people who are asking why there isn't an OSD :)
 
I'm not sure what Frenchy is using but I'm really loving those OLED screens. They look great and are easier to read on any angle / lighting conditions. Being multi lined and smaller is a huge plus as well. They're cheap and easy to interface to via a cheap Arduino board.
 
It's not as simple as writing a menu to select a game because the LCD screen is attached to an Arduino which is in turn operating an FPGA (multiple FPGAs?) on the multi board
That's one of the reasons. You need to make a menu and design the cart in such a way that it allows to communicate using some unused memory space range.


You have to fit that menu and those instructions into a small enough space that the game you want to load can still address and use all the memory space it requires since if your menu is in any of that space, it'll crash.
If we would add a menu (that we won't) it would be stored in a different Flahs rom and bankswitched whenever we call it, so not a memory issue here, rather a more complex, time consuming design if we have a menu. With the LCD, we simply send signals to the ARM of what we want to choose and once we hit OK, it will hold the reset low, load the game and release it. Easy peasy.
 
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