I recently was doing some work with some videos. Things were working just fine at one point, but then I installed the latest version of JRiver Media Center (version 13).

Whammo. My videos wouldn't play anymore. Well, actually, they'd play audio, but the video was just black.

I thought it was the particular app I was using, so I tried Media Center, and Microsoft's Media Player. Same result.

From past experiences, I figured something had hosed a codec (codecs are utility libraries installed on your machine that code and decode video and audio files, each format has it's own codec).

But, where to start looking?

So, I did some googling and found a great page that lists all the various FOURCC codes for codecs:

http://www.fourcc.org/fcccodec.htm

From that, I found a little app you run against a specific AVI to determine what codec it uses, called GSPOT:

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/index.htm

Running that against the AVI in question yielded the XVID codec.

Alternatively, just view the AVI in a hex editor and look at the header in the file:

You should be able to pick out the four character CC code fairly readily.

Then, from the table at FOURCC, I went to the xvid codec page:
http://www.xvidmovies.com/codec/
Downloaded and installed. Presto! Videos with audio and video again!

It's just that simple :)

Here's an example of the "When software doesn't work right, it can cost loads and load of time" type bug.

I'm using an Ultimarc WinIPAC controller board for a project I'm working on. This is an awesome little controller board that looks like a USB keyboard, and supports mapping of up to 56 switch inputs to any normal keyboard key. It also has LED outputs for driving LED's or other applicable circuits.

Anyway, the IPAC comes with a simple keyboard mapper/programmer that you use to layout your buttons, then assign which key to which button and finally to upload the mapping to the IPAC (It saves the mapping in non-volatile ram on the board, which is even more fantastic).

Anyway, I'd mapped a particular key to the ENTER key, as shown here.

But when I was testing all my mappings out, it didn't work. Actually, it'd flash sometimes but not consistently. Every other key worked flawlessly.

I spent the better part of 3 hours trying to debug what the heck was happening, swapping wires, using a test meter to verify connections, switch operation, etc.

I even pulled the latest version of their website, but still no joy.

In the end, I discovered that it's the WinIPAC software  that doesn't quite handle ENTER keypresses properly. I opened up NOTEPAD and just started pressing buttons and all of them, including the switch I had mapped to ENTER, worked perfectly.

<sigh>

<UPDATE> I emailed with Andy at Ultimarc (these guys get back to you quickly! Very nice support). Anyway, his comment was that the WinIPAC software isn't intended as a test application, only for programming.

I pointed out that if that's the case, there really ought to be a warning somewhere to that effect, especially if you map keys whose actions can't be displayed properly in the application. My rationale was, well, it DOES properly display keyboard status for virtually all the mappable keys so why wouldn't any normal person assume it could be used as a test app? But, in the end, it's easy enough to use notepad for those tested, IF you know enough to realize you need to!

Here's a slick little gizmo.

The VIA ArtiGo mini pc.

It's a full PC, with space for a 2.5" HD, onboard graphics and audio, and up to 1 GB ram. And it fits in a 5.25" harddrive bay.

I know, I know, there are case modders out there making still smaller PC's, but this one's 300$ at Fry's, no added bother, headaches, or a Dremel necessary.

The specs are decent, but I wouldn't want to code on it. However, you could probably make a decent Mame cab out of just about anything you have lying around and I'm guessing this would be plenty powerful enough to drive it, not to mention it'd fit just about anywhere without even a second glance.

If you're putting together an Arcade cabinet or if you just like the ambience of an old arcade parlor while hacking away at some code, you might get a kick from Andy Hofle's Arcade Ambience project.

Basically, Andy took recordings of playing dozens of arcade machines, remixed them, adjusting volumes, pans, etc, and ended up with several, very large, mp3 tracks of background ambience that sounds very much like stepping into an old arcade. What's even better, the tracks are so large (at 70+mb each), they effectively don't loop, so you don't get that been there, heard that feeling that's typical of ambient tracks.

Couple that with an arcade front end that can play an arbitrary mp3 looped as background sounds, and couple that with a recent audio card that supports multiple simultaneous channels, and you get all the ambience of walking into an arcade while playing any emulator, Visual Pinball table, etc.

Take one Bally pinball plunger off EBay (7.99$)

Hack together a plate and attach a roller microswitch to it (4.95$ at Happ, but 1.98$ at Fry's)

Position things such that the switch is pressed when the plunger is at rest, but when you pull back on the plunger, the switch releases, like so:

(it's a vertical picture, normally the plunger sits horizontally)

Then wire the NC (normally closed) connection to an Ultimarc IPAC as just another pushbutton.

Finish up with a couple of Competition pushbuttons mounted to the side of your desk (or some other convenient place).

Now, load up Visual Pinball, grab a few table files (the Black Hole table is especially nice), crank the volume way up, and line up some quarters on the lip of your monitor, just for some ambience.

Viola!

All (ok, most) of the arcade goodness of the early eighties in a fraction of the space. This nifty thing is, wired up this way, when you pull back on the plunger, the switch is released, which, because of wiring it to the NC connection, has the effect of pressing and holding that button, until you release the plunger. This exactly models the Visual Pinball concept of pressing the Enter key and holding down on it longer to "pull farther back" on the plunger. Granted, it's not as exact as, say, a cog driven mouse wheel hack, but it seems to be pretty accurate so far and it was a heck of a lot simpler.

Next? Hook a tilt plumb bob

to several contacts to simulate a full-on tilt mechanism (Visual Pinball supports tilt-left and tilt-right keys, not sure about other pinball sims).

Ok, nothing to do with Visual Basic, but, you gotta come up for air sometimes!

It's been a while since a video game really wowed me.

I mean, there's lots of slick 1st person shooters out there now and with some of the heavy iron running around now, the graphics can make "Toy Story" almost look like "Dragon' Lair."

Still, nice graphics only go so far. And 1st person shooters are starting to see a little stale.

Then I stumbled into Grid Wars 2. Holy cow. I mean, seriously.

World of Stuart summed it up thusly in his review; "THIS is a video game."

Go there for some wicked screenshots (far better than what I've put up here) and a link to download. You can't get it from Marc Incitti's site anymore <sigh>. Apparently, it's a bit too much like "Geometry Wars" for the comfort of its creator. Grab your copy while you can.

I've never played it's progenitor, but Grid Wars 2 definitely brings the frenetic back to video games. Plus, some subtle scoring tricks that WOS discusses in his writeup that make it all the more interesting. And there seems to be no end to the unique powerups that pop (get 150 bad guys, 3 black holes, 4 snakes, with quad cannons, side fire, fast fire and bouncing shots going all at once, and you'll swear your screen is about to catch fire).

And, come to think of it, there is a little bit of VB goodness here, or rather BASIC goodness. It's opensource, and written in BlitzMax, a pseudo-basic, game programming platform form Blitz Research. Plus, the install is unbelievably sweet. A zip file. Just unzip somewhere and run the EXE. T'would be a blessed day that Office trod down that path.  

I've been looking for a good template to build an arcade control panel from (you know, joysticks, buttons, trackball, etc, using real, arcade quality components).

My goals are pretty lofty:

• a 4 player panel
• Spinner, Flight stick, etc
• 2 trackballs
• Diagonal stick
• USB and/or PS2 compatible
• Gotta have a little real wood somewhere (but not the top, that just doesn't seem to look right)
• Able to "plug into" a full-on cabinet one day (though I may never get there)
• Preferably one piece (seems more stable and resilient to the beating it's likely to get)
• But not one big flat vast prairie of formica, like the SlickStick:

There are a lot of designs out there, including:

• Rototron, with 2 revolving panels (and wow, just wow)
• a full copper cabinet (steam punk chic)
• a Tardis shaped MAME cabinet (weird, just weird)
• a modular control panel (very nice, if somewhat complicated approach, plus for 4 players, two have to use xbox style control pads, gah!)
• a whole revolving control panel (nice but quite complex)

However, to me, Jeff Allen's is hands down the most interesting.

He came up with a split level panel that puts the most often used sticks and buttons, plus the trackball on the lower level, and the lesser used controls, like the spinner, flight stick, etc slightly elevated so you're not constantly banging into the other controls. This is Jeff's picture:

I think I'll pass on the red t-mold, but other than that this seems like very flexible and usable, yet clean and simple, design. Plus, I could easily see that top panel being "hot swappable", if I ever decided to go for a real driving wheel or yoke, etc