Talk:FAQ

Links to review:

1. restoration --04:34, 11 December 2013 (EST)~
2. basics --Felsir Felsir (talk) 07:09, 11 December 2013 (EST)
3. Arcade_Cabinet Felsir (talk) 05:35, 12 December 2013 (EST)
4. Driving_Controls Felsir (talk) 05:39, 17 December 2013 (EST)
5. Lighting (currently only deals with marquee, should eventually include all lighting options and branch out to specialized pages) Felsir (talk) 10:17, 18 December 2013 (EST)

The list of emulators is outdated/incomplete (new stuff has arrived since the old wiki!). Once the FAQ is done, I think the emulator section will be my top priority (as this is where I struggled the most when setting up my own cabinet).Felsir (talk) 07:44, 8 January 2014 (EST)

Topics to fix/review:

"USB gamepads/controllers" needs supporting text.

"What type of encoder(s) do I need?" needs supporting text.

"Soldering" needs supporting text.

"LED controllers" needs supporting text.

"Displays, Types of connections" needs supporting text.

"Displays, Input lag (Not response time)" needs supporting text.

Images to find/make/fix:

Types of Cabs (small) -- Banner with Sketchup line drawing of each sub-type with human figure for scale.

I made these: Felsir (talk) 06:02, 8 January 2014 (EST)

Perfect! PL1 (talk) 18:26, 8 January 2014 (EST)

What is JAMMA/JAMMA+? -- Pic of 56-pin JAMMA connector.

Mounting joysticks -- 4-player "straight" vs. "angled" joysticks.

Mounting options -- Diagram showing Top-mount, Under-mount (non-recessed), Under-mount (recessed), Threaded inserts, and Support blocks.

How do I wire microswitches to an encoder? -- Diagram or picture showing three microswitches wired to an encoder and a daisy-chain ground.

Single-Color and RGB LED buttons -- Pic showing the lighting and switch wiring.

Screenshots of Command Line MAME and GUI MAME to illustrate different "flavors" of MAME.

Push button images

What about this? Felsir (talk) 06:43, 8 January 2014 (EST)

Looks great! Might want to crop it a bit, but otherwise the image is perfect. Embedded as a thumbnail. PL1 (talk) 18:26, 8 January 2014 (EST)

Clrmamepro

I think this is too detailed for the FAQ, but it should be moved to a section dedicated to MAME. I've copied it here so it won't be lost :-)Felsir (talk) 07:43, 8 January 2014 (EST) Use clrmamepro http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/ or your emulator's "Audit" function (if available) to check the version and filenames of ROMs compared to your emulator program version.

IMHO, the concept of ROM versions/auditing tools really should be mentioned in the FAQ. A detailed tutorial would be too in-depth, but many noobs will not understand why some games work and others don't when using mismatched ROM sets and emulator versions. "I update other software and the old files work fine, why doesn't MAME work that way?" At a minimum, the FAQ should give them the relevant terms so they can search for answers or ask an intelligent question in the forums. PL1 (talk) 18:56, 8 January 2014 (EST)

Ah yes, from the "why doesn't my rom work" perspective suits well in te FAQ. I've put it back in. Felsir (talk) 06:52, 9 January 2014 (EST)

Different build versions/"flavors" of MAME

As Badmouth pointed out here, it might be a good idea to introduce the concept of different versions, patched versions (like NoNag), builds, and offshoots of MAME to help people get the right version and/or ask better questions. PL1 (talk) 04:24, 9 January 2014 (EST)

What are the different "flavors" of MAME?

• MAME - The command line program that the other variants are based on.
• NoNag(?) patched - Suppresses error messages that are useful when troubleshooting.
• MAME32, MAMEUI, or MAMEUIFX - Graphic User Interface (GUI) versions of MAME.
• HBMAME(?) - Dedicated to homebrew "hacks"
• GroovyMAME

I've put the section in. In addition I made a wikipage for those additional flavors: MAME Flavors. Felsir (talk) 07:21, 9 January 2014 (EST)