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Double Screen Suggestions


Road Hog Mad
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Looking at making another slot machine (home build), this time a full size one as I have the room.

I'll be using all the kit out of my current machine and transferring it to a full size machine, I'll have space for another monitor, I don't particularly want to go down the split screen avenue, although its nice idea to have the reels at the bottom and board at the top I don't think it would be practical and I can see issues arising with it, i.e. constant faffing to make things work.

I'll have my main screen in the top glass but would have space for another monitor in the bottom glass, any suggestions what I could do it? This is a wasted space otherwise, does it even have to be a monitor?

 

Fanks.

453535763_8750995244913973_3987369943071021956_n.jpg

Edited by Road Hog Mad
Stewpid
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Doesn't have to be a monitor now, some of my ideas from the past :

1) Large panel for additional buttons, maybe speakers, maybe volume control / tone controls e.t.c. for amplifier,

2) Storage compartment - maybe for keyboard, mouse, e.t.c? Maybe a door that lifts, or possibly even a drawer.

3) Bit like the above - possibly a mini fridge?

4) A second screen for something like arcade games running off a cheap Raspberry Pi, so you could have fruits on the top monitor, and a bit of cold console emulation on the bottom, independent of it?

5) As above but a jukebox software or similar on the bottom screen!

The options really are limitless. I did like the idea of a lower screen for the bottom half of a layout but never investigated and am still not fully sure how both Windows and MFME would respond to a rectangular image drawn across two screens of different resolution and orientation.

 

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Happy non-gambler since 1st January 2025!
(if anyone else needs or wants to quit, I recommend Allen Carr's 'Easyway to Stop Gambling'.

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Mini Fridge, brill idea, dunno if practical though, I like the idea of retro games like pacman etc.

EDIT.. Just looked in to RetroPie, with another monitor in the 'reel' area I think it would be tight squeeze fitting a monitor and controls for it.

Edited by Road Hog Mad
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18 minutes ago, Road Hog Mad said:

Mini Fridge, brill idea, dunno if practical though, I like the idea of retro games like pacman etc.

EDIT.. Just looked in to RetroPie, with another monitor in the 'reel' area I think it would be tight squeeze fitting a monitor and controls for it.

Yeah, I guess it depends on the era. I'd be thinking about say a single 8 joystick and maybe like 10 buttons max? 

Speaking of which I'm going to break my arcade bar-top cab next and just repurpose the Rpi4 as a little external emulation console.

Happy non-gambler since 1st January 2025!
(if anyone else needs or wants to quit, I recommend Allen Carr's 'Easyway to Stop Gambling'.

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55 minutes ago, slotsmagic said:

Speaking of which I'm going to break my arcade bar-top cab next and just repurpose the Rpi4 as a little external emulation console.

You are busy 🤣 I can see you have some bits for sale on facebook have you managed to sell most of it ? Don’t suppose you’re selling the eprom reader/dumper you had ? Seems you are getting rid of everything fruity. If not is it still ok if I send you some to be dumped.Maybe next week wife is giving me ear ache she sick of seeing them 🤣.

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1 hour ago, Road Hog Mad said:

EDIT.. Just looked in to RetroPie, with another monitor in the 'reel' area I think it would be tight squeeze fitting a monitor and controls for it.

I think you’d have room for a small monitor and a joystick and a few buttons. 

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1 hour ago, Ginge said:

You are busy 🤣 I can see you have some bits for sale on facebook have you managed to sell most of it ? Don’t suppose you’re selling the eprom reader/dumper you had ? Seems you are getting rid of everything fruity. If not is it still ok if I send you some to be dumped.Maybe next week wife is giving me ear ache she sick of seeing them 🤣.

I don't have any use for the EPROM dumper now, nor the UV eraser, although I'd happily hold on to it for dumping ROMs for emulation? I mean I guess the dumper / burner may actually be useful for things like socketed BIOS chips on PCs since it's got loads of adapters :)

Yeah on Facebook I've got a couple of hoppers and a PSU, as well as some of my Astra / Novomatic Firefox bits and a few bits left over from the T7s. All the metalwork has now been taken away by my old pizza delivery man! Had no idea he was into scrap metal but he saved me carting stuff off to the tip and if he can make a few quid for my laziness that's great :D

Edited by slotsmagic
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Happy non-gambler since 1st January 2025!
(if anyone else needs or wants to quit, I recommend Allen Carr's 'Easyway to Stop Gambling'.

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22 minutes ago, leprinco said:

What would be the complexity for MFME to support two windows natively ? 
The ful game would be rendered exactly same in two windows with possibility to have a crop region by window ?
 

I can't think of many games that run in two separate windows. MFME is capable of scaling a single layout window across multiple displays, but I can't imagine it would let you effectively split a game into multiple windows, and I've never tried running different resolutions across multiple windows. Even if that did work I would expect it would require each layout to be significantly modified to make it work.

The only games that natively support separate windows would be multiplayer titles, and that's only as each 'window' is in fact a separate machine, so each window is performing a separate emulation of it's own machine, rather than trying to break a single machine into separate parts.

Happy non-gambler since 1st January 2025!
(if anyone else needs or wants to quit, I recommend Allen Carr's 'Easyway to Stop Gambling'.

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I have tested this configuration :
image.png.fea71e06e0cfcf8d288a3616dedaa59c.png
I tried with "dual screen mode" checked and unchecked.
As shown in the image, I am not able to extend the size of the window bigger than the height of the first monitor, so impossible to make a single window covering the surface of two monitors
Then the idea to duplicate the display and have a first window cropped on the top part, full screen displayed on first monitor, 
and a second window cropped on the below part for the second monitor

There are some layouts that are "flat" that are well fit for this separation, and I will priviledge these ones.

IMG_20240913_135651 cannot expand.jpg

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22 minutes ago, leprinco said:

I have tested this configuration....
....

I respond to my own question, all detail here and it works.

 

So now i think I have my process for dual screen mode: I will choose an height ratio based on my monitors to split top and bottom part and relayout / flatten the layout of games so that they nicely render on my two screens...

A bit long but worth to try ;)

 

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