My A-Z of Mods

[Commando]

There seems to be less of the modding messages being posted lately.

To fill the void, i figured i might share the brief history of all my hardware hacks to date.

Each of these mods has been tested through extensive play on my 4P cocktail table over the past year.

The first 4 hacks speak for themselves..
1. New CPU P4 3.06GHz SL7NA
2. Hestsink (to suit the new CPU)
3. 1GB RAM
4. 160GB Seagate HDD

And then it starts getting interesting..
5. New IDE Extension cord
6. New Power supply*
* i found a spare power connection in my arcade table so i daisy-chained a couple Y cords to connect the HDD to that. Together with the IDE extension cord, this has allowed me to keep the HDD sitting exterior to the x-in-1 unit.
Previously it used to take me at least 1/2 hour just to access the HDD. Now with this mod in place, i can remove/swap the HDD in a matter of seconds.

7. Inno3D 256MB GF6200 low-rise GPU - this is the video card that enables play on 3D accelarated emulators. its a fairly low-range card when compared with other cards currently on the market, but it has several major advantages:
a) AGP slot - this is pretty much obselete technology these days, so finding a decent AGP card is getting harder everyday
b) its lowrise - seeing youre really limited for space in the x-in-1 setup, the smallr the card the better. same goes for how wide the card is i.e. how tall the heatsink/fan sits on top of the video card.
c) it doesnt require a secondary power suplly to power the fan, like a lot of other cards do thesedays. getting additional power to a video card would be really tough.
d) it has a decent modeler shader so will run the "Model 2" emulator - for games like daytona etc.

check out this link for a video card comparisons:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118-7.html

Another card that looks alright is the HIS Radeon HD 3650, however i personally dont have any experience with it, so can't confirm how it runs.

8. Adexelec AGPTX4-6 AGP 1.5V/3.3V 1U Riser Card - this is effectively a right hand bend in the AGP slot. This is required to fit the video card at 90 degrees to the slot, so you can squeeze the video card between the motherboard and the top board of the x-in-1
you can check out more commentary on my experiences on that here
http://www.xxxx-in-1.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=266&start=45

9. USB extension cord + 4 port USB hub (externally powered) - this sits outside my arcade table so i can plug in things to the unit without opening it up e.g. keyboard, mouse, pen drive etc. externally powered hubs seems to work better when all 4 ports are in use.

10. Wireless keyboard & mouse combo - this has been invaluable when i'm toying around with emulator setups, player controls, etc. i chose wireless just to reduce the

11. Griffin Tech Powermate volume control - this thing is basically a dial for adjusting the volume of the unit. seeing the volume control on the x-in-1 is really difficult to access, having this site on my table is a really simple alternative

12. Win XP Pro + Mala FE - the software and iinterface to bring it all together

13. Emulators and roms - i now have the following emulators and roms on my table:
- Mame 0.129 (hacked hi-score & nag-screen removal) - 2268 roms and approx. 30 seperate gameslists
- C64 - 15 roms
- SNES - 776 roms
- N46 - 132 roms
- NullDC - 13 roms
- Zinc - 71 roms
- Model 2 - 27 roms
- PC games - 4 games (SuperMarioWar, Virtua Tennis 1 & 3 and Armagetron)
- Visual Pinball - 98 tables

thats pretty much it in a nutshell!

If anyone has started modding the unit, but is having trouble with the software, i'm happy to share a copy of my drive.

Send us a PM to get the ball rolling!

[eliminat3r]

This sounds ultra cool mate, i cant wait to get my machine like this

I'd luv to get the DC going I still have around 30 or so DC games at home..... would be nice to get them on teh EMU...

Soul Calibur ....

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