Tuesday, January 14, 2014

CannonBoard Hardware Update

Colin Davies has been making solid progress on the CannonBoard project. This is the plug and play hardware interface that allows you to cleanly swap a modern PC into an original OutRun cabinet and run CannonBall.

"The audio is now hooked up to the original connectors. There is also a power supply input and dummy experimental load resistors to keep the Outrun PSU happy as it requires a minimum load (about 1 amp / 5 watts). This is important to balance the 5v for reliability and for the rest of the electronics on board to function. It will be optional whether the board runs from the Outrun 5v or the Arduino 5v."

The analog inputs still need to be hooked up; you can see the I/O layout below.



Soon we'll be at a point where we can start running some tests with CannonBall.



6 comments:

Kungfu Steve said...

Please leave a 3 pin output for a headphone jack to use with Stereoscopic 3d glasses... Outrun really deserves this treatment, and arcade monitors are capable of doing this just fine, as seen with Continental Circuit 3D. The glasses can be got on ebay for dirt cheap.

Unknown said...


Completely different subject. Do you want that the latest version of mameui has outrun enhanced edition on it..

yt said...

3D - I'd like to implement this on a 3DS really, so no glasses are needed. Unless M2 get there first.

MAMEUI - It's cool that it's supported, but CannonBall is possibly a better way to go if you want the enhancements on a PC. :-) Although MAME clearly has better support for peripherals and some cool video filters.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I'll stick with cannonball..

Kungfu Steve said...

I realize that some people have trouble with 3d glasses.. but I do hope you add stereo3d for the PC version as well.

3ds is just too small for a moving sim chair with a true arcade monitor on it...

There are other options too, such as using an Oculus Rift, 3d Projectors, glasses free lenticular lcds...

You can also put two displays at 90 degrees to each other, and place a half silvered mirror in between them... which also creates glasses free 3d.

But Imo, glasses are fine by me. Lenticular displays are too limited in what distances and angles you can use... And no LCD is going to produce the effect found in an Imax theatre... or even a 3d projector with a +8ft wide screen. The larger the area... the deeper the depth, and the further objects can pop out of the screen.

I have a theory that certain peoples eyes are further apart, or closer together.. which makes certain 3d media experiences poor for some. (headaches, nausea, limited or exaggerated depth.

A periscope style device, which is able to adjust the horizontal eye distance, would probably solve this problem.

I think its less of a problem with live games, rather than fixed media, like movies.

But anyways, there is really no comparison to a 3ds, to a real arcade monitor with 3d glasses. The depth and details are far greater, and will drop your jaw. You will forget all about the glasses in mere seconds of gameplay.

Also, LCDs just dont to Outrun, or any other classic for that matter, Justice.

The beauty about the PCB version, is that its dead simple to add flawless support for 3d glasses... with no need for specialized drivers.

Still, it would be good to have PC options as well.

Continental Circuit is amazing in 3d.. but the game is just average in play, and the graphical shading / look.. is kind of generic.

Outrun is so much more artistic and beautiful, and really deserves the Stereo eye treatment. (on a Large display, not a tiny toy, and with Real arcade / quality analog controls)

I really hope you will attempt a stereo output mode. It would be such a shame if it was never realized.