Software
The software for the MiniBox has been developed using Atmel AVR Studio 3.10. The AVR Studio 3.10 software can be downloaded for free from Atmel.
To be able to download the software to the Atmel processor, I bought an Atmel STK200 Starter Kit (1MB pdf-manual). It costs around $50, so it's pretty cheap.
However, we have designed the MiniBox so that it is possible to download the code to the Atmel CPU without the need of a special programmer. The software is downloaded to the Atmel CPU via the PC's parallel port using a special cable. You can download this software with instructions about how to build the needed cable from the Download page.
If you don't like this idea, you have to buy some sort of programmer to be able to download the software into the Atmel CPU. An Atmel STK200 Starter Kit can be used for this.
You can download the software needed to make the MiniBox work from the Download page.
The default button mapping for the MiniBox has been optimized for usage with MAME. Here is a description of the default button mapping for the MiniBox:
| Button no | Key | Scan code* | MAME function |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Up | 83 (53) | Player 1, Up |
| 2 | Down | 84 (54) | Player 1, Down |
| 3 | Left | 79 (4F) | Player 1, Left |
| 4 | Right | 89 (59) | Player 1, Right |
| 5 | Left Control | 58 (3A) | Player 1, Button 1 |
| 6 | Left Alt | 60 (3C) | Player 1, Button 2 |
| 7 | Space | 61 (3D) | Player 1, Button 3 |
| 8 | Left Shift | 44 (2C) | Player 1, Button 4 |
| 9 | R | 20 (14) | Player 2, Up |
| 10 | F | 34 (22) | Player 2, Down |
| 11 | D | 33 (21) | Player 2, Left |
| 12 | G | 35 (23) | Player 2, Right |
| 13 | A | 31 (1F) | Player 2, Button 1 |
| 14 | S | 32 (20) | Player 2, Button 2 |
| 15 | Q | 17 (11) | Player 2, Button 3 |
| 16 | W | 18 (12) | Player 2, Button 4 |
| 17 | 1 | 2 (02) | 1 Player Start |
| 18 | 2 | 3 (03) | 2 Players Start |
| 19 | 5 | 6 (06) | Coin 1 |
| 20 | 6 | 7 (07) | Coin 2 |
| 21 | Escape | 110 (6E) | Exit Emulator |
| 22 | Enter | 43 (2B) | |
| 23 | Tab | 16 (10) | Toggle Configuration Menu |
| 24 | P | 26 (1A) | Pause |
| 25 | T | 21 (15) | Tilt |
| 26 | Z | 46 (2E) | Player 1, Button 5 |
| 27 | X | 47 (2F) | Player 1, Button 6 |
| 28 | Right Ctrl | 64 (40) | Player 3, Button 1 |
| 29 | 3 | 4 (04) | 3 Players Start |
| 30 | 4 | 5 (05) | 4 Players Start |
| 31 | 7 | 8 (08) | Coin 3 |
| 32 | 8 | 9 (09) | Coin 4 |
* = Values within parenthesis are hexadecimal.
The MiniBox is capable of re-mapping all these buttons to whatever the user wants.
There are a few keys that the MiniBox does not support at the moment. They are:
|
|
Print Screen (scan code 125) |
|
|
Pause (scan code 127) |
|
|
Left Windows key |
|
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Right Windows key |
|
|
Right Menu key |
PC software
For some reason the graphical version of the button configuration program (Bbxgui.exe) does not work with the MiniBox (and it is written to configure 64 buttons, so that is a bit to much anyway), So when you want to configure the MiniBox, you have to use the ButtonBox Scripting Tool (Bbxscr.exe).
Look here for more information about the ButtonBox Scripting Tool.