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Thread: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

  1. #1
    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    I'm taking some time on my Sunday morning to give something back to the nerdy tech community for a change! I'm very bad at giving back to the general public. I'm an electronics technician turned software technician and I LOVE building crazy projects in my free time. I play with electronics and computers like they're space Lego and I'm pretty unstoppable when I get something into my head.

    I have enjoyed MUCH fun through the goodness of MAME over the years. I've made a couple of MAME arcade cabinets, including a custom coin box with LCD screen for MAME running on XBOX1, but I won't go further into that now. MAME arcade machines are wonderful but they aren't why I'm here today.

    A few months ago I discovered an awesome and nifty little program called MAME Hooker. It listens for outputs coming from ROMs that have outputs.
    I was playing trackball bowling with a trackball I'd just hacked and accidentally noticed the 'ticket dispenser settings' in the rom settings and BOOM. Off I went into redemption game tinker nirvana.
    It was then that I decided to embark on the quest to build my own completely emulated slot machine.

    Now RELAX, before I say any more, this machine has NO coin output, therefore you cannot actually gamble with it. AMUSEMENT ONLY. Duh
    (It IS possible. I could have totally made it work, period. I didn't have a coin hopper to install and it wasn't important to me to make that feature happen. Again, this is for purely emulated fun!)

    So, now, some details:
    Hardware:
    -Single-threaded P4 2.66Ghz CPU on a decent P4 socket 478 board, using on-board video, 512 RAM I think.
    -One hacked $5 USB game pad for MAME inputs. (this is the only input device under normal circumstances. Sure, you can attach a keyboard, mouse and network cable to it and surf the net, but it isn't for that. One USB game pad is the peripheral.)
    -PC power supply, IDE hard disk, speakers etc.
    -Home-made optical coin mechanism using a led, photo-diode, LM339 comparator chip, 2k trip-pot, nothing else, simple.
    -Home-made 12V lamp for the 'belly glass'. (from a flashlight, attached a molex)
    -one industrial 15" LCD donated by a fan. 24V (SWEET!)

    Software:
    -WinXP Pro
    -MAMEUI32
    -MameHooker

    This ROM is Treasure Bonus (subsino)

    The cabinet:
    Unfortunately, although I'm good at electronics, I'm not so strong with the carpentry. I didn't have proper tools, materials, or space, you see, to build this properly out of wood and acrylic and other nice bits.
    This is a mock-up until such time as I can get some parts properly cut by some generous friends. Doing this shell gave me a whole Saturday of fun and helped me plan what the final, actual cabinet will look like, so it's all good.
    It's made from some poster-board I found at work of some technical writing awards for the bigwigs. You can see some of their faces from the inside. Pretty funny.
    All held together with square dowel, lots of hot glue, a few nails and some staples.

    Now for the pics. Hope you all enjoy. I'll answer any questions anyone may have eventually, I promise.
    Attached Images Attached Images

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  3. #2
    Stuey - The RADministrator MrGneiss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Very nice!!

    "Blowing smoke rings at the moon."

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    Mr. Vintage wrkey's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    That's pretty awesome!

    An Elelctronics tech eh... I might have a project for ya! Please see my Spectra IV link:

    http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/show...101&pagenumber=
    Rusty Key

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    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Well, thank you very much Mr Gniess! And thanks also wrkey!

    I'm glad *someone* liked my project

    As I said, I don't do enough sharing. I do plenty of creating, little sharing

    As such, I have little experience in sharing, so maybe I just need to give the right people a chance to notice what they too can do with a little bit of properly motivated hobby energy.

    This is the only place I will post my Treasure Bonus because it's the place it belongs the most.

    Honestly, because it's a site about pachislos and pachinkos, I thought more people would go ape$hit over it

    Maybe it would make a difference if I told all of you reading this, that I too became very fascinated in pachinkos through my self guided research. I ended up with a modern one and a vintage one and a sweet Pink Panther pachislo and I'd say I'm addicted to searching for more at fair prices. Important to also note, my wife and I share a 1-bdrm apartment, so we HARDLY have room for my now 4 machines total! LOL

    Anyways, I do love to help people figure stuff out. Time is the only problem, for all of us.

    Now then, wrkey, that cocktail pinball is awesome!! Holy crap I've never seen such a cool pinball. I have a cocktail MAME machine that used to be a Mr. DO or something, but I've always wanted a pinball and never had the room. This is SWEET.
    I'll look at the thread more closely and offer any advice I may have.

    CHEERS!

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    Dr. Frankenpachi alstonj1's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    you might want to check out the mame community for the roms for the igt pe+ roms they are really much better than the old eight liners .If you have troble finding them send me an address and ill send what you need .
    Jeff

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    Super Turtle BigBearSteve's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Quote Originally Posted by SmusheR View Post
    I'm glad *someone* liked my project

    As I said, I don't do enough sharing. I do plenty of creating, little sharing

    Anyways, I do love to help people figure stuff out.
    I like it It's a very cool project.

    And if you want another project idea...

    Something that no one has been able to do yet...

    Spoiler
    My favorite color is Ham

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    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    "Figure out how to changes the sounds on a pachislo "

    ooh hooray, I actually feel like part of a community of techno-geekdom for a change!

    I'm sure that I'm not really sure what you mean.

    I made my own volume control mod the day we brought our Pink Panther pachislo home, because on the lowest of three volume settings, it was still super freakin' loud! (2K trim pot from my junk box and some improv connectors so I didn't have to cut any wires. I like to make my mods/changes reversible when possible and not modify the original equipment)

    This, at a glance, sounds to me like you wish to entirely change the sound scheme of a pachislo. Is that right? This sounds... mmm.. possible.. for certain.. but why?? Tell me what you are trying to do in no uncertain terms, and I'll play at it and then tell you how I succeeded

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    Super Turtle BigBearSteve's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Quote Originally Posted by SmusheR View Post
    "Figure out how to changes the sounds on a pachislo "

    ooh hooray, I actually feel like part of a community of techno-geekdom for a change!

    I'm sure that I'm not really sure what you mean.

    I made my own volume control mod the day we brought our Pink Panther pachislo home, because on the lowest of three volume settings, it was still super freakin' loud! (2K trim pot from my junk box and some improv connectors so I didn't have to cut any wires. I like to make my mods/changes reversible when possible and not modify the original equipment)

    This, at a glance, sounds to me like you wish to entirely change the sound scheme of a pachislo. Is that right? This sounds... mmm.. possible.. for certain.. but why?? Tell me what you are trying to do in no uncertain terms, and I'll play at it and then tell you how I succeeded
    I'm talking custom sound bytes (bits? bites?)

    http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/pach...islo-here.html

    Sayings like "Freakin' Sweet" or "I Farted" when you get a free spin or bonus round.

    Something besides the same pachi sounds.
    My favorite color is Ham

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    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Arright.. it doesn't sound so crazy when you put it that way, thanks for confirming that's exactly what you freakin' meant .. lol

    As I say, er, this sounds.. definitely possible!!

    There must be some voltages/signals in there somewhere that one could get at that occur when there is a free spin or bonus, I mean HEY (thinking as I type), the audio board must be getting a unique signal for each case to do make the existing sound sequences.

    If I can find em, I could certainly use them to do something external. That something, being custom sounds, would definitely require a PC. PC is such a useful building block for this sort of crazy-ass mod. For this, any crappy lappy with a parallel port would do.

    I think I need a second pachislo to screw around with. Not really ready to start frankensteining my Pink Panther to that degree.

    Neat idea!

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    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Quote Originally Posted by alstonj1 View Post
    you might want to check out the mame community for the roms for the igt pe+ roms they are really much better than the old eight liners .If you have troble finding them send me an address and ill send what you need .
    Thanks for the idea. Actually, I've done quite a bit of searching and tried quite a few roms out before settling on the one I did. It's weird but I like the game play quite a bit compared to some of the ones with better graphics that I've seen. Also the MameHooker thing works with many roms but I wouldn't say most of them, so there's that constraint. Light up buttons are a must for me. When I build the real box for it I'll use nicer led lit buttons. The ones you see were harvested from another hosed device for functional testing and ended up getting used in the proto.

    Just for my own knowledge however, if you could please drop me some titles of your favorites, in case I missed something cool, that'd be great!

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    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Quote Originally Posted by BigBearSteve View Post
    I'm talking custom sound bytes (bits? bites?)

    http://www.pachitalk.com/forums/pach...islo-here.html

    Sayings like "Freakin' Sweet" or "I Farted" when you get a free spin or bonus round.

    Something besides the same pachi sounds.
    Arright, thanks for confirming.

    I'd still say YES this is totally possible and wouldn't even be that hard I think. Obviously there must be some signals/voltages in there that specifically happen when you get a bonus or fever. As I consider this, hmm, there must be signals going to the audio part of the circuit in the pachi for each of these conditions to make the existing sounds happen.

    We could certainly wire into and use these to do something external, if we could find them. Shouldn't take too much poking.

    From there, I'd say use a PC and some hacked input device to play your sound bytes. Depending on what's happening in the pachislo when these actions happen, you may need a wee bit of electronics to interface to the PC. I guess I'd use xpadder to do some hotkeys or something once I got the inputs in there.

    TOTALLY doable and sounds like a fun challenge! I wish I had a second pachi to mess around with. I really don't wanna frankenstein my Pink Panther just yet..

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    PachiTalk Hostess dattia's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    I think your project looks great! Welcome to PachiTalk!
    Dawn

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    Scowlin' Jean Hornigold hanabi's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Wow I love the cute little slot machine MAME project!!

    Even though I don't always understand all the techie stuff, i do appreciate reading the posts and admiring the pics!!

    I even have a little mame? type machine arcade thingy myself, but it was bought as it is and I'm scared to do anything more than flick the power switch and play it
    Angie ...
    Pachinkos, Pachislos, Coffee, Papercraft Ninja, Pinball

    I ran away with the Steampunk Circus!
    I was hiding in a room in my mind...
    You crush the lily in my soul...



  19. #14
    Tokie Owens SmusheR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Quote Originally Posted by hanabi View Post
    Wow I love the cute little slot machine MAME project!!

    Even though I don't always understand all the techie stuff, i do appreciate reading the posts and admiring the pics!!

    I even have a little mame? type machine arcade thingy myself, but it was bought as it is and I'm scared to do anything more than flick the power switch and play it
    Thanks Hanabi!!

    I was wondering when you'd turn up and have a peek. Hooray! I had a feeling you'd like this!

    I suppose you're right to be a bit nervous to tamper. I admit these things are more creator friendly than 'user' friendly. Hehe. I love creating stuff.

    Thanks Dattia! Thanks for taking a look and for the warm welcome. I'm on a success high at work right now and it fuels my personal technical creativity, so I appreciate the votes of confidence!!

    Sometimes I wonder if the stuff I do is more silly than cool or vice-versa, but I admit it never really stops me from pursuing what I find fun and interesting, be it custom MAME creations or kitchen science

    Thanks!

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    Tokie Owens Niro007's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Awesome project... I know it's an old post but has anyone made more of this projects?

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    Chicken Fried Steak takethecastle57's Avatar
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    Default Re: Scratch-Built slot machine using MAME. Thought you all should see!

    Bump

    Progress on the MAME Pachislo ??

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGkwhzCZYv0
    When things don't go right the 1st time , Step back ,Take a break and come back renewed. RGS

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