Hi guys! Finally I've made a little ROMs pack for "Arcade Box Super" with a selection of 382 titles tested and working by me, I've included all the classic and most played arcade games of ever, games not in the list probably are not famous enough or simply do not work (great excluded for example is "The New Zealand Story", too many lag and aggressive frameskip make the characters disappear).

At the end of the next post you can find a download link but before use my ROMs pack please read it all.

First of all what I could find out about this device…

THE 1099 INCLUDED GAMES

With “Pandora's Box” we were already accustomed to seeing lists filled with clones and duplicates of the same games but here the situation is much worse because these are many, a lot of games have different names (ex. "Bubble Bobble" is "Magic Bobble") and most ROMs use the file name instead of the game title (ex. “Super Mario Bros.” is “suprmrio”). In addition the selection of games is less accurate and certainly not tested, for example all the vector games like "Asteroids" do not work (nothing appears on the screen) but some titles are present anyway, or in driving games there is no possibility to change gear.

Fortunately, the ability to use ROMs on USB sticks allows you to create a custom game list but, unfortunately, losing the functions of preview and display of the game name instead of the file name.

EMULATION (HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE)

The device use an hacked version of MAME 0.139 based on Linux and installed on a board that, unlike the "Pandora's Box", has no micro-SD card, for this reason it is not possible in any way to interface with the device to fully understand the structure, modify the settings or update the internal list of games. All you can do can be done directly on the external USB stick.

The hardware is not powerful enough to be able to run all the games, many of which do not start or are extremely slow to be played, many of the classics, however, run correctly at full speed.

Regarding the software instead, after numerous tests and attempts I managed to understand how and what of the original emulator works on this device and this is the result…

     ini files

They are not supported, each presetting cannot be changed.

     cfg files

Are supported and I used them for remapping controller buttons of some games, unfortunately joystick remapping do not work.

     nvram files

Are supported but not always the emulator can write them on the USB stick, so I left create the necessary files to MAME for Windows, where required, by starting one by one all the games in the ROMs pack, files that will be copied later on the USB stick with the ROMs.

In this way, the loading of some games is faster (skipping the board control) and allowing the start of “Williams” games that would otherwise hang during loading.

     Samples

Are fully supported and included in my ROMs pack.

     Artworks

Are supported to overwhelming majority of games and I used them to force correct games aspect ratio but with some titles there is no way to make them work (see “Generic Artwork Beezel” section).

     Folder structure

The emulator root is in a folder called "GAME" that will be placed on the USB stick root used for this purpose but, unlike MAME for Windows, there is no a specific folder for the ROMs, consequently the ROMs and support subfolders (like “artworks” or “samples”) will be placed all inside the folder “GAME”.

     Ex.

GAME

|- artwork

|- cfg

|- nvram

|- samples

|- 1942.zip

|- atetris.zip

|- gng.zip

|- …

     Games sorting

The games are sorted on the screen in the same order as they are copied to the USB stick, for example if you copy "outrun" first and then "atetris" on the screen will be displayed "outrun" before and then "atetris".

GENERIC ARTWORK BEEZEL

"Arcade Box Super” has the screen fill as default and uneditable setting with the result of distorted images on 16:9 wide screens.

To solve the problem with horizontal screen games you can set the screen aspect ratio to 4:3 without however solving the problem with a 3:4 aspect ratio vertical screen. For this reason I have made six type of generic beezel for correct aspect ratio on 16:9 wide screens and to fill the screen black bands with MAME logo:

     3-4 (1 screen)

     4-3 (1 screen)

     4-3 (2 screens)

     4-3 (2 screens – gapless)

     4-3 (2 screens – cocktail)

     4-3 (3 screens – gapless)

In my games collection artworks have been used in this way:

     4-3 (2 screens)

Lode Runner – The Dig Fight (loderndf)

Punch-Out!! (punchout)

Super Punch-Out!! (spnchout)

     4-3 (2 screens – gapless)

<unused>

     4-3 (2 screens – cocktail)

Tehkan World Cup (tehkanwc)

     4-3 (3 screens – gapless)

Buggy Boy/Speed Buggy (buggyboy)

Darius (darius)

Darius II (darius2)

     3-4 (1 screen)

     4-3 (1 screen)

Any other vertical (3:4) or horizontal (4:3) games except those marked in yellow that do not support artworks (fortunately they are all horizontal and you can solve by setting the screen aspect ratio to 4:3).

     Cocktail Games

In the games originally conceived for arcade cocktail cabinet the two players were facing each other on a screen placed on a horizontal plane, which is why on the screens placed on a vertical plane (such as the monitors or domestic televisions) the player 2 controls are inverted.

In the “Arcade Box Super” you can remap only the functions of the individual buttons but not of the two joysticks, which is why I created a generic beezel for cocktail games with the game screen duplicated and rotated 180° for the player 2.

CUSTOM ARTWORK

I have made specific artworks to better adapt to the characteristics of some games, in particular for those who used a plastic backdrops because without it the game action would take place on a black screen:

     4-3 (backdrops)

Boot Hill (boothill)

For this game I have made a mixed artwork with my generic beezel for 16:9 wide screen and the originals beezel/backdrop resized and clarify. I have also edited original lay file proportioning the values to the new layout.

In this game only I have included the original beezel because the very old characters graphics is really scary and the beezel helps to make it smaller with a more pleasant effect.

Space Invaders / Space Invaders M (invaders)

For this game I have made a 16:9 artwork backdrop with the originals backdrop, resized and clarify to fit in a wide screen. I have also edited original lay file proportioning the values to the new layout.

Space Invaders Part II (invadpt2)

For this game I have made a 16:9 artwork backdrop with the originals backdrops from "Deluxe" clone, resized and clarify to fit in a wide screen and overlapping them in a single image. I have also edited original lay file proportioning the values to the new layout.

     4-3 (cropped)

Double Dragon (ddragon)

Double Dragon II – The Revenge (ddragon2)

These two games have a small black frame around the screen that has been cut editing the generic beezel lay file to maximize the playing area. The change will only be noted for a small cut in the titles screens that unlike the game area extend across the whole screen.

CUSTOM CONTROLLER BUTTONS

I remapped the buttons of some games to enable features that are indispensable for their correct execution but disabled by default, such as for example changing gears in driving games or clockwise/counterclockwise rotation of the character in games like "Forgotten Worlds".

In some cases I simply remapped the buttons for a more comfortable use of the game.

"Arcade Box Super" unfortunately does not support the remapping of the two joysticks for this reason in the double stick games I remapped the buttons 2 – 5 – 1 – 3 to simulate respectively the movement UP – DOWN – LEFT – RIGHT of the secondary stick.

THE ROMS PACK

The ROMs pack for "Arcade Box Super" includes a selection of 382 games, tested and working by me, complete with:

     "Artworks

To fix games aspect ratio.

     "Samples"

For hear the sounds in some old games.

     "nvram"

To fix the loading of "Williams" games and skipping some check board in games load.

     "cfg"

For customizing controllers buttons of some games (see "Custom Controller Buttons" section).

With the exception of three titles only parent ROMs were used. The clones included in the package are:

     “Karate Champ (VS version)” (kchampvs)

Two-player version of the original game, however included.

     “King of Fighters '99 – Millennium Battle, The” (kof99e)

Earlier version, the parent was not working.

     “Rampart” (rampart2p)

Jooystick version, the original was for trackball.

All the romset was rebuilded in unmerged mode and verified with clrmamepro.

With the main pack (romset.7z) you can also download a small archive (support_files.7z) containing an Excel sheet with the games lists, a batch file for the correct sorting of games list on the USB stick and my generic beezel to use with other games not in my ROMs pack.

THE GAMES LISTS

In this Excel sheet you can find three lists:

     Games Selection List

In this list are listed the 382 games of the ROMs pack sorted by game title (and not by file name) and combining the titles belonging to the same series.

For example immediately after "Pang" (the main title of the series is listed in alphabetical order with the loose titles) there will be "Super Pang" and finally "Pang! 3".

     Custom Controller Buttons

In this list are listed the games with a customized controller buttons.

     Original Games List

In this list are listed the 1099 games preloaded in the device.

THE BATCH FILE

To sort the games on screen in the same way as they are sorted on the Excel sheet list, create a folder on the PC desktop (or wherever you prefer), extract the two archives in it, edit the batch file with the text editor (right mouse button -> edit) replacing the letter X: with the letter of your USB flash drive (menu edit -> replace -> replace all).

Save, close and run the batch file.

GENERIC BEEZEL WITH THE NEW ADDED GAMES

If you add a new games in your USB stick, simply copy the right generic beezel in “artworks” folder and rename it with the same name of new rom file.

DOWNLOAD FROM OUR EVERYTHING ELSE PAGE

Title=”Arcade Box Super Romset”