WOODONICS ARCADE : Old Web Page

WOODONICS ARCADE
Old Web Page

WOODONICS ARCADE

SECTION A Last Updated	September 28, 2006
Web Page Launch Date	March 2006
BEST Viewed by :	800 by 600 Pixels and above, see right click/ properties/ settings/ screen resolution
Nostalgia Items For Sale! Shipping Included ! woodonics@zoomshare.com
	Project Goal To Re-live the Excitement and Joy of the Video Arcade Era through the eyes of Children. Project Mission- Like with any project its hard to stay on topic. I had the original idea of using every emulator available playing every game imaginable. Well that may be Ok but it makes things complex and unstable. So my Project Mission evolved to keep things easy and simple so even a five year old would have no problems operating the Arcade. No easy task with all the complex temptations out there. Project Timeline - I started planning to build an Arcade in 2001 after finding an interesting Arcade web site. I took the great leap in 2003 by completing the original cabinet prototype. I used the cabinet prototype from 2003-2005 as a computer workstation . Although cool and compact its height made it uncomfortable for prolonged typing and mouse clicking. Funds permitting, in 2006 I modified the cabinet, installed the controls, added a new computer, coin slots, and the monitor Bezel. Quarters are required to my kids dismay in order to Play but a Mouse is not required. All the games can be played through the use of the joysticks and buttons. Since MAME 32 is automatically launched at startup the mouse/keyborad are not even required to launch/setup the ARCADE. The Hardware The computer was assembled with some spare parts I had in the barn: Duron 700 Raidon 128mb Video Card MSI 6378 Mainboard 128 MB memory 1 GB Hard Drive Server CASE 19 inch Flat Screen Monitor The Joysticks,Buttons, and Encoder are from Ultimarc in the UK and cost approximately $150 US. I opted for the wiring kit which was very economical.
Better than the real thing?...not that the kids remember the real thing. It was a little bit before their time. Unlike the original Mine is not made of partical board, its the real thing. 99% Wood.	The Software This part of the project was truly painful. I gave a test run on almost every MAME front end available. I also installed DOS, Windows 98, Windows XP, and Windows ME. Nothing seemed to work well for me. Windows 98 was unstable and didn't have great USB support for my PEN drives(Geek Sticks). I use these for quick updates and file transfers. DOS had memory management issues. Windows XP was sluggish with the hardware I have. Windows ME worked well, didn't require a lot of system resources but its install didn't leave me much room on my 1 GB hardrive for MAME. My solution was to use 98lite . If you are not familuar with 98lite, it is a free utility that does wonders installing Windows 98 or ME . I opted for the registered version but the free version still has many useful features. What it did for me was shrink Windows ME to a tiny stable footprint leaving enough space for MAME and its games. Windows ME without Explorer, or Outlook, Restore etc. is extremely stable and incrediably fast. 94% system resources free. I don't think I have every seen a number like that before with Windows. Windows ME, MAME 32 , and my favorite ROMS only use about 700MB . I decided to use MAME 32 as the front end because it the easiest to configure and use. In the spirit of keeping things simple and small I opted to use a game list in a large font without game screenshots/pics. As long as a child can read somewhat they can scroll through the list of games with the joy stick and click with a button which one they want . I also put MAME 32 in the start up sequence, so when the computer is booted it goes directly to this simple game list. This bypasses having to look at the Windows Desktop and find and click the MAME icon with the mouse. The Games Based on the Project Mission of simplification, instead of having a game list of the entire 6000 available arcade games. This would be alot like having 6000 channels on your TV. You would never find what you really wanted to watch. This would also be too overwelming for a five year old. So I developed a short list of about 250 of the best/most popular Arcade games.
I tried to use an Intellivision theme but the only place where this showed, was in the Bezel. See in colum above a picture of my arcade prototype in 2003. I removed the doors at the top and made an angled front rather the flat front shown in this Picture in order to better represent an actual Arcade cabinet. Any Questions or comments please take the time to give me a quick email. woodonics@zoomshare.com Thanks.	Unfinished Business The only thing left remaining to complete is the Marquee on top. I have been undecided on what to official name it. I am bent on naming it "Woodonics" but my kids prefer "Arcade". That name does match my Project Mission of keeping things simple. The Bezel The Bezel on the front of the Arcade is made with 2 sheets of plexiglass with photos of Intellivision Box Art sandwiched in between. The Controls This part of the project was time consuming . It took days to rotter the button and joystick holes and install the buttons and wiring. Lots of crimping involved. And just designing the button layout took alot of thought. I used Ultimarc controls. COIN UPS The Coin Ups was the last thing I completed. They are powered by the floppy disk drive in the computer and the coin signal returns to the keyboard emulator. This part was a bit tricky because it involved changing the voltage from 12v to 5v with the use of Zener Diodes. The Coin Ups are universal, meaning you can configure them to accept any coin. Of course I configured them to use Quarters. The Arcade Currency. The WEBPAGE I searched deligently for a free webpage to show off my Arcade project. Zoomshare was the easiest and most full featured I could find. And best of all it is FREE. This is my first web page , and I was up and running in about 1 hour. I had a steep learning curve not knowing anything about making a webpage. Wth Zoomshare all the tools are available and you don't need skills or knowledge of the FTTP/HTML stuff which I never could figure out anyway. To promote the webpage I joined several webrings and submited my Web Address to google. So amazingly if you type Woodonics in Google you get this page. Very cool. How is My ARCADE Project Different ? What makes my Arcade Project different from others is my use of real wood. That is probably also why it took such a long time to construct. The wood is simply clamped and glued together. I didn't use any screws or metal doo hickies . The controller unit is simply made of 2X4 lumber glued together and cut to shape. The sides are made of tongue and groove lumber, again clamped glued together. I stained the outside in white with 2 coats and then used 3 coats of diamond clear varathane. I stained this to prevent the wood from turning amber color with age. The other unique feature is the sliding Controller Top hiding the keyboard and mouse underneath. Usually Arcades use sliders for a keyboard/mouse only. The interior I painted with 2 coats of a nice soft blue color I had left over from painting the closet. Okay, so I did complicate things by adding about 1000 Super Nintendo Games. But Mario is nice clean Fun !
	end of section A

Section B (Information and Problems/Solutions)

Section B Last Update	September 28, 2006
*PROBLEM*	SOLUTION
HELP ! I Can't find my CD.	Use Paragon CD Emulator. This puts all your your CD/DVD's on your hard drive, whithin easy reach. Great for large CD ROM or music collections.
I am a writer and Windows is distracting me from my creative potential.	Often Windows has many distractions for a writer, be it emails or simply the rich visual experience. For those serious writers who want to concentrate on their art or hobbie and not loose valuable ideas it is often necessary to regress to a pre-windows environment. Some alternatives are DeskMate 3.69 , Microsoft Word for DOS, Wordperfect for DOS, or my favourite PEDIT. PEDIT is an advanced/modernized DOS editor with word wrap/spell checker and other uncommon features not usually found in a DOS word processor. More importantly its free and its small enough to fit on a floppy disk leaving lots of room for your writing files or in my case DOS itself. (See my DOS 6.22 boot disk project with PEDIT). Check the Lightspeed webpage for downloads or do a search on Google. Note: Pedit with work under Windows 95/98/ME/XP in full screen. The other older DOS wordprocessors may or may not work, or partially work, depending on your systems configurations. Put pure DOS remains the most stable OS to date and by using a DOS boot desk you have all the advantages of DOS without altering your present Windows system.
I want a Star Trek LCARS operating system for my laptop.	Yes, it is possible and is the ultimate Nerd asperation. LCARS 24 is the solution and it also doubles as night light and alarm clock. The only disadvantage is LCARS 24 requires a DOS environment not windows. Although I find it does work well under Windows 98/ME it will freeze under Windows XP. So inorder to take full advantage of the LCARS24 GUI, one must have a dedicated DOS laptop/desktop. (SEE my LCARS24 and WIndows 3.1 RAMDRIVE INSTALLATION PROJECT for an alternative installation)
My modem wont work with Linux.	You are not alone with this problem. Your best solution is to get a US robotics serial hardware modem. They are compatible with any operating system and do not require any additional software or drivers. Check Ebay for a good deal.
I have 6 computers in my house running six different operating systems.	I suggest choosing your best computer and discarding the rest. If you use removable hard drive racks you can use as many different operating systems as you like in the same computer. This saves alot of valuable space.
What's the Best Linux distro for a Linux beginner?	Linux Puppy is the easiest to learn and configure. And you don't even need a hard drive. All you need is 256 mb of ram a 500 CPU, a CD ROM, and a geek stick.
Windows 98/ME are too large and crash prone.	Use 98lite to trim the fat and create stability.
I got a 400 page Text Ebook now what do I do with it ?	Use a portable Ebook reader like Ebookwise Reader. It saves the eyes. Or if you insist on reading on your monitor Tom's ebook reader is the best. This is free and is small enough to install on a floppy disk, making it very portable. It even remembers the last page you read. Free is always good, and ebooks where supposed to be economical anyway !
I want to make a multi-boot system with 4 different operating systems.	This is possible but I don't recommend it. There are many things that can go wrong and you are at risk of loosing your data. I suggest using removable hard drive racks if you are using more than 1 operating system. It's affordable and simple. You can pick up racks and spare hard drives economically on Ebay.
I lost all my interesting DOS and Windows 3.1 software. Help!	Try looking for it @ Interesting DOS Programs, or @ Lightspeed and if you want other DOS or Win 3.1 related applications and information try Here.
What's Microsoft BOB and why should I care?	This is the operating system launched between Win 3.1 and Windows 95. It was a complete sales flop for Microsoft. But if you are adventurious you can download it here. I have tried it in the past and it is very cute, and original, but very useless, hense the "sales flop" . But if you have never seen it , I would recommend at least one quick look at the way GUI's could have been.
Are there any other Nova Scotians attempting to build an Arcade Project ?	Yup, He just bought himself some X-ARCADE Controls and is looking for an Arcade Cabinet to refurbish. You can see his progress here.
I need step by step ADVISE on building my ARCADE ! Help!!!!	Arcade Paradise was a very helpful resource in planning and building my Arcade project. With the detailed information on the Arcade Paradise web site and John's prompt replies to my many stupid e-mails I was able to complete this project in 2006. Have a look at Arcade Paradise 3.
Do Nerds go to Heaven ?	Have a look here or here.
Is William Shatner a Nerd or just a Dumb Canadian ?	You be the Judge, he is trying to get onto the Internet with his new computer. Good luck Mr. Shatner and NO I don't want to buy your new Polka CD.
I'm an Unemployed Canadian, where do I look for work ?	Federal Government, Job Bank, Provincial Government
I like to read but I have no Money where can I get FREE ebooks?	The Gutenburg project has 18,000+ public domain books in TXT and HTML format for FREE download. They have been busy scanning books with a team of volunteers since 1971. See link above on the best Ebook Readers available.
I am a Nerd who is unemployed are there any programs that may help me get back to work?	YES. Skills Development, SelfEmployment EmploymentBenefits, Targeted Wage Subsidies, Job Creation Partnerships,
Email me your problems /solutions or comments and I will add it too this page.	woodonics@zoomshare.com