Just wondering if anyone knew exactly what equipment is used to make a time-based console arcade setup. I remember playing SSF4 (before AE) at Chinatown Fair in NYC and paying $1 for 2 minutes of time on the setup. The console within the cab was a xbox360 so when time ran out on the meter it cut off the usb signal for the controllers. It worked pretty well since winner stayed on - next challenger paid to keep the game going. I heard the same type of setup is used at southtown arcade in the bay area. Thanks…
$1 for 2 minutes sounds like a rip-off. What if your match doesn’t last 2 minutes? You just automatically lose due to the real life timer? And who pays for $1 per match anyways?
Time based is dumb for fighters. A better option (one that a couple of places I know use) is to lock the Start button until someone puts in a quarter, then let it be active for enough time for someone to go in and select a character to play. Replicates the old arcade feel much better.
But how do you prevent players from simply pressing start, exiting to versus mode, and playing there? It’s unlikely, but you never know. I’ve always been curious as to how to setup these console cabs to replicate the arcade experience as closely as possible, without having to worry about people trying to steal some free time on those setups.
Imo, the future of arcades are console cabs. Running and maintaining an arcade nowadays is WAY too expensive, especially considering each game can cost several thousand dollars just for an update, not including buying an actual cab. It’s far cheaper to just throw in consoles in exciting cabs.
I’ll need to check how they do it here. But in the place I go to, the only way you can select characters is via the Start button, so there’s probably a bit of more involved than just disabling start.
even if one was to wire the control panel with no ps/home button, and the start buttons on both players pcbs hooked to a coin mech, it would still be flawed because players could exit to other modes and get “free time”
thats why arcade games are arcade games, they are programmed for the pay per play
Time based Relay. Coin activates a relay that shuts off at a set amount of time. You can have this set to the controls. When the Relay’s timer expires, it cuts the common ground line going back to the PCB making that player unable to use there controls. This can be done in a manner using 2 relays that 1st and 2nd player are independent of each other.
With a time based relay, it does not mater what mode the player exits or goes to.
With the setups at the place I go to, since the cabs are all six buttons, I’m thinking that there simply is no button for A (and Guide) so that Start is the only way to navigate.
Sadly those arcade cabs that do exist like that in the US. And they are not that uncommon. Alot of Arcade owners and managers prefer time based systems over pay to play as even good players have to dish out tons of quarters to play. Both Nintendo and Sega made multi-game cabs that were like this. As well as using this exact same mention I mentioned above on Consoles ion arcade cabs and cab like set ups.
IMO, for fighters at least, a more traditional arcade model could work. By letting a player sit on the cab as long as they’re good enough, you have a better chance of guaranteeing that some one is sitting on the cab for other folks to play against. Also, this itself prevents people from going to versus simply because, after the first match, both players have to pay again.
That’s pretty much the case at A2G where I go to. In fact, most people actually line up in the cabs where there are people playing. If there’s no guarantee that there will be comp on a cab, people won’t play on it.
im pretty sure CF didn’t work the way described in this topic. it was (timed) pay to play, but the majority of the time i saw the game being idle, it was usually on either practice or versus modes.
i remember the setup quite vividly. it was 2 homemade cabs with a samsung display. it was originally a Vanilla Arcade SF4 board inside the setup but when Super came out they swapped the Arcade board for a xbox360 and put in the time based system. Im guessing Henry Cen built it so he can probably answer the original question…
reviving an old thread here… had some time this summer to visit Austin Texas and of course i went to fubarduck’s Arcade UFO. He was using DELTA 32 Cabs with xbox360s inside that were also time based. The controls were activated by swiping a NFC card that you loaded credits onto. Anyone know how this is achieved? Or is it a kit you can install into any cab? here’s a pic for reference you’ll see the red card reader on the right side of the control panel.
There’s hardware to do this that you can buy, usually from China.
We have setups here for that. For example, TimeZone has USFIV cabs that are wired so that, when the time runs out, the start and A buttons are disabled (and the panel is wired so that A isn’t used for LK).
EDIT:
What you’re looking for is something like this.
