Hello you all.
Anyone ever build an acrade machine that play's MSX games?
With Arcade I meam a machine like pac-man.
What would be easier, making such a machine, running the software from an (PC) emulator or using the real MSX hardware.
I'm thinking about of building such a thing, but i'm curious if earlier attempts were made.
At present I have a PII 333 laptop that I can use to run an emulator.
I also have 2 MSX 8250 machines, a IDE interface, colour monitor, FMPAC, MUSIC Module and SCC and... a joystick (the 2 button, red with black one).
Problem(s):
1) I dont have a slot expander;
2) Running games from a harddisk will be slow;
3) only 128 kilobytes in the MSX;
4) the laptop might not perform perfectly;
5) .....(cant remember more at this moment)

It seems it won't be so easy... you can check this guys
www.marcianitos.org/turecreativa.htm

specially this example :\
www.marcianitos.org/turecreativa/recrenadjia.htm

(it's in spanish, sorry)

I almost made such "msx arcade" but then decided to make a "normal" mame arcade...The easiest way is to use your laptop I think and connect a trackball for navigation on your laptop, maybe a wireless is best (build in the trackball on some free space on the desk of your arcade) but on the other hand i think P2 333mhz is a little to slow for a windows emulator so you can choose as option a dos msx emulator then you dont need the trackball but you will need a (wireless) keyboard for navigation in dos (take a black one and put him on top of your arcade, nobody will notice!)

It's probabaly not too hard using hardware. The MSX system in particular should be very much suited for this.

1) It's small, compact, and doesn't require ventilation.
2) It can connect directly to a TV.
3) It can use the speakers already in the TV for sound.
4) It has seperate sound out if you also want to use an amplifier.
5) When using ROMs, it boots like a dream, no intervention required.
6) The controls are very simple, it's very easy to make 'arcade-like' controls for it.

Apart from that, using an NMS8250 it would also be easy to make a connector on a side of the machine in case you need to connect a keyboard. Anyhow, it's (imho) not too hard to make an arcade system out of one. (Salamander, anyone?) Having said that, this doesn't change the fact that you'll be spending at least a couple of weekends on it, and that it'll cost you around $500. I'd say you'd need around $300 for a nice 25" TV, another $100 for all the electronics (such as controls) and another $100 for all the wood and other stuff you'll need. Make sure you want to spend that kind of cash before you start tearing your good old MSX apart... Of course if you already have an old TV lying around, things become a little cheaper...

[quote]It's probabaly not too hard using hardware. The MSX system in particular should be very much suited for this.

2) It can connect directly to a TV.
quote]

if you use your laptop you can easely mount a flatscreen monitor, a TV doesn't like to be mounting almost horizontal! have you think how you get a big (heavy weight!) TV in a small arcade machine ? Its the same problem with crt monitors there just to big !!

Almost every Arcade in the world uses CRT displays. The weight is not a problem at all, by the way. A very heavy 25" TV will weigh something in the order of 25kg. A couple of 2x4" pieces of wood can easily hold that weight. Not to mention the cost of a reasonably big TFT...

Grr... I forgot how big these machines are... Ohwell.. plenty of wood in the store
For the screen... I have a philips colour MSX monitor and the TFT panel of the laptop is 15".
My biggest concern is...
How will games run PII and using an emulator (FMpac, SCC).
How would I run games <italic> easily </italic> fom harddisk when using an MSX.
I kinda left the MSX world when the harddisk became common.

Well, if you're gonna invest all that money to make an arcade, I would definately consider looking for a nice TV to put in there. It would be a shame to build a cabinet just to fit an old 13" monitor in there. Perhaps you can find a nice TV at some 2nd hand store? I doubt you can get proper emulation done on that PII tho. You would have to find some kind of joystick to adapt to PC as well, since the 'standard' Arcade kits they sell are terribly expensive.

well... actually (concerning the weight), my Iiyama Vision Master Pro 450 19" CRT already weighs around 25kg, let alone a 25"...

Dunno, my 28" widescreen philips TV weighs 31kg and my 17" monitor weighs 19kg... perhaps your CRT is a little on the heavy side? (or my TV on the light side) Well, anyway... Even if it weighs 40kg it's still not a problem, just a matter of properly designing the cabinet.

I would consider buying JAMMA-compatible cabinet. This way you can use real arcade games as well, if you like to.

Making external JAMMA compatible connector to Phillips MSX2 should not be a too big task as it already has SCART connector etc. No need of changeing monitors etc. compatible tasks.

These links may be interesting...

http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter.html
http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/

the biggest problem of using a "heavy" tv or monitor is not the weight but the size of it...(my 21 inch NEC crt monitor is 55 cm long and 45 kg...) measure up your arcade cabinet and then your tv and you will see, its takes almost all the space of your cabinet (if it will fit at all!) and it will heat up your laptop and itself to very high temperatures in a closed cabinet so thats are 3 big benefits when using an tft monitor: little weight, no heating up at all, very compact...for the controls on my mame arcade i use the original controls with a I-pac but i dont know if that can work with a msx emulator ...

And I-PAC2 would probably work for an MSX 'arcade' indeed. It should pretty much work with any emu, since it 'emulates' the keyboard and can be reconfigged at will. The problem here is more the specs of the laptop than hooking up the controls tho. There are limits to what a PII can do when it comes to emulation. Perhaps an old DOS emulator would do the trick though.

When it comes to TV/CRT vs TFT. It's all a matter of what you want in the end, I guess... If you want a full size arcade machine, CRT would definately be the way to go. If you want something small however, TFT might be better indeed. Personally I don't see the point of making a small arcade machine tho, but maybe that's just me...

why do u need such expancive ipac? bus some cheap usb game controllers and reverse engeneer them by hooking up arcade parts to it

www.happcontrols.com

Quote:

why do u need such expancive ipac? bus some cheap usb game controllers and reverse engeneer them by hooking up arcade parts to it www.happcontrols.com

here more info over this i-pac, i dont think 35 euro is much money and usb controllers are not as trustable as a dedicated (emulated) keyboard ! It will cost you the same at the end, but hey who am I ?

http://www.ultimarc.com/ipac1.html