Widescreen conversion and BB1 games

[Yoeddy1]

Hey guys,

Question for y'all...

I have a BB1 cab with an NXT2 MPU in it.  If I put a widescreen LCD in as my main and one in the top box, what happens if I put my NXT1 MPU back in and try to play a "Classic" like Big Money Cheese Caper or Super Jackpot Party?  Will the monitor still display the games in 4:3 mode with black bars on the sides, stretch the image, or not even play anymore?

I'm asking because once I make the move to widescreen, I guess I wouldn't have a need for some of my games or my NXT1 MPU any longer.

Thanks,
Jason

[coolwavepic]

It will stretch the image. Also if you run games on NXT 2 with OS SSG E1.11, that OS will also stretch the image.

[coolwavepic]

Here is an example of 19" game running on a 22" monitor

[Yoeddy1]

Oh cool!  So they will still work.  I suppose that some of the top box images for "classic" games would not show on the top box monitor though right?  For example Big Money Cheese Caper would play on the lower screen fine, but the top box would be blank?

Jason

[coolwavepic]

That is correct. Nothing would show on the top screen except for the tse games. In my picture, I use a raspberry pi connected to my monitor and make my own top monitor images. Same with goldfish 2 and Alice.

[T]

Ok Charles, so your post about a Raspberry PI got me a little curious. Went to Amazon and had to buy one. Would you mind explaining or laying out what you are doing for the BB1 games that will be blank at top monitor? I know you are simply plugging the monitor into the Raspberry and pulling up the photo to display but, where are you getting the pictures and is there any loopholes I need to know before trying this. I don't have many BB1 games but it sure would be nice to have them displayed on top Monitor.
 
Also: If a person has a TSE board connected like I do, I assume I cannot just put images on a CF and insert into TSE board right? I think someone told me this previously. Any help or info is appreciated Charles.
 

That is correct. Nothing would show on the top screen except for the tse games. In my picture, I use a raspberry pi connected to my monitor and make my own top monitor images. Same with goldfish 2 and Alice.

[coolwavepic]

I have not tried to "hack" the TSE board... interesting tho....


As far as the raspberry Pi, I want to create a special thread on how I do it very soon. There are a few bugs I want to work out to make it easier for people who don't have the patience to do a bit of programming. The hardest part is creating the images. I want the closest thing to the original glass as possible.


You can setup the raspberry pi with a program called SCREENLY and a OS that boots directly into screenly. Screenly will slide show images, videos, and webpages.


For goldfish 2 and Alice, I went to my local casino and took pictures/videos of the top boxes. I am into video production and know how to animate things like the goldfish moving up and down or superimposing the Alice top box animations into a still picture from the casino. For those two games, they're about a 2 minute looping videos of the animations.


Again, I will start another thread with the instructions.

[coolwavepic]

Here is the Alice video playing on the 2nd monitor
https://youtu.be/zXJJ4Ngj-XY


Goldfish 2
https://youtu.be/Oh1Wcjg0MqQ

[T]

Great, thanks for the info. Look forward to your instructions when you can get around to it.
One day I was running Hitchcock then switched to Invaders from Planet Moolah. When all said and done I had Invaders in bottom screen
and Hitchcock on Top monitor

I have not tried to "hack" the TSE board... interesting tho....


As far as the raspberry Pi, I want to create a special thread on how I do it very soon. There are a few bugs I want to work out to make it easier for people who don't have the patience to do a bit of programming. The hardest part is creating the images. I want the closest thing to the original glass as possible.


You can setup the raspberry pi with a program called SCREENLY and a OS that boots directly into screenly. Screenly will slide show images, videos, and webpages.


For goldfish 2 and Alice, I went to my local casino and took pictures/videos of the top boxes. I am into video production and know how to animate things like the goldfish moving up and down or superimposing the Alice top box animations into a still picture from the casino. For those two games, they're about a 2 minute looping videos of the animations.


Again, I will start another thread with the instructions.

[coolwavepic]

Just so you know, they have updated Invaders from Planet Moolah twice. One that runs on OS H10 (dual screen and OLED compatable) and another one that moves the volume button to the bottom (no clue on what OS version this one is)

[T]

That's funny you say that because I was in our local Casino the other day and noticed Invaders running on a BB2 (looked like) with an OLED button panel. I need to get that version. I still have other BB1 games that may not be updated. I will look and see what all I have.

Just so you know, they have updated Invaders from Planet Moolah twice. One that runs on OS H10 (dual screen and OLED compatable) and another one that moves the volume button to the bottom (no clue on what OS version this one is)

[rickhunter]

Great, thanks for the info. Look forward to your instructions when you can get around to it.
One day I was running Hitchcock then switched to Invaders from Planet Moolah. When all said and done I had Invaders in bottom screen
and Hitchcock on Top monitor

Yes, that is normal since you didn't change the software in the tsetse board.  If you had goldfish in the tsetse you would have had goldfish on the top screen.  The only way to change things around is by unpluging the vga monitor from the tsetse and hooking it up to a media player of some sort for the top image (like a raspberry pi).


For the record, the image for the top monitor can be extracted from the CF card for those titles that are bb2 compatible.  If you have a linux system running, it is pretty easy as you can just plug the cf card into a reader and look for the directory with the images. If you don't have linux, it gets a bit more complicated.

[Yoeddy1]

So I'm going to see what happens if I put in my Big Money Cheese Caper game in my NXT 2.  If I have an image for the top glass, what size does it have to be in pixels (width and height)?  I have a media player in my machine that plays the Alice videos that Charles made (thanks again Charles), and this device will also display photos. 

Thanks,
Jason

[Yoeddy1]

Um, yeah, I forgot, that game won't work on an NXT2.  I'll have to try it on my NXT1 sometime.  Need to know the number of pixels for a top monitor image though if anyone knows.

Thanks,
Jason

[coolwavepic]

1680x1050. I bet your media player doesn't support that resolution???

[Yoeddy1]

1680x1050. I bet your media player doesn't support that resolution???

On VGA, I think there are 2...1024x768, and one higher...can't remember what it is.  With your videos, I had to have it set to 1024x768.

Jason

[coolwavepic]

OK because when I made those videos, I set the resolution to match the monitor.

[Yoeddy1]

OK because when I made those videos, I set the resolution to match the monitor.

Yeah, and there are some modes like "Fit to screen", "Stretch", "Crop", etc. that I can adjust.  Looks great once dialed in.

Jason