I'm not sure if you need to target specific IO boards (@invzim would know), but if you choose the most common ones from Sega and Taito, I think you have like 90% covered. The game could trigger an output when you're low on health or when a boss appears. Ops could wire them up to warning signs, like in Dariusburst.
3P, 1P, 2P, 4P may be the way to go. Will see when the time comes if something like that would end up too confusing, but if labeled well may be ok.
Very interested to hear more about Jeff Minter visualizer? Is this something that would involve Jeff? Or just something similar to what he has done?
My thoughts with asking about the lighting thing is that most JVS io boards already support outputs so utilizing that would be extremely minimal effort. Even on standard Japanese cabinets the existing IO probably already supports output so just doing even at minimum lit controlled buttons would be simple to put in the cab and would make the EXA that much cooler.
JVS does not support dynamic lighting like you are thinking and what we have planned. We plan to involve Jeff per his schedule.
Very interested in seeing anything from Minter, any chance of his involvement in game production too? I wouldnt be surprised if the mindware exa titles got a little inspiration from Jeffs style.
Most JVS have at least a few outputs to at minimum flash a start button when a credit is inserted. That was the only point I was trying to make with the hope that more would be supported.
However as an example, after burner climax has game controlled RGB LED lighting on the marquee that is only controlled through 3 outputs on a standard JVS IO board connected directly to the LED's.
Requires a JVS compatible arcade cabinet with a DVI-D input or a JAMMA cabinet (31kHz only) using a JVS IO board and a downscaler.
Is the video output analogue when switched to 480p? For example can you run it in a NNC with a DVI-DSUB adapter like Type X or do you need something else? I don't understand the downscaler comment.
Requires a JVS compatible arcade cabinet with a DVI-D input or a JAMMA cabinet (31kHz only) using a JVS IO board and a downscaler.
Is the video output analogue when switched to 480p? For example can you run it in a NNC with a DVI-DSUB adapter like Type X or do you need something else? I don't understand the downscaler comment.
No modern GPU outputs analog video anymore so a DAC is required to do so. In the hardware test menu, you can select which resolution to output in.
Normally, the connector monitor will be queried for its native resolution via EDID and then automatically set but older monitors and a number of video converters do not provide an accurate answer so you will have to manually set in these cases.