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I have a PC that I decided to employ as an all-out entertainment hub:

Games: GameCube, X-box, & PS2 are connected to it via a VGA box. In addition to this I've got arcade and console emulators.

TV:Yesterday I bought a Hauppauge PVR-150 $99 - $20 MIR)at MicroCenter. I tried out SageTV which downloads my local cable company's TV guide and gives me PVR capabilities.

Music:I use iTunes to organize my music. I have some decent PC speakers, but if I want to listen to some music in the living room, I connect an RCA cable from the line-out jack on my laptop to my stereo system. I share the music wirelessly using iTunes on my PCs with my wireless router.

Of course my PC organizes photos and video files, e-books, etc. In short, my PC handles home media to my satisfaction, saves space, and allows me to modify it to my taste.

Real-world test: Arcade@Home

Surf around for a while. It has pages that tell you that you can't access the content if you block pop-ups. Silly, really, seeing as there's about 4 million other emulation sites, most of which are better.

I've seen this utilized around the emu scene (i.e. Arcade At Home) a lot.

First Post?

If popups are disabled, the download won't start, and you'll get a fairly polite message stating you ought not to block the advertisement.

I'm not sure I'd use this blocker-blocker on my own site, since it's bound to annoy the shit out of some people. But it does kind of work.

The whole thing kind of reminds me of that hitchhiking device in HHGttG, you know, the one that was perpetually being improved by half the galaxy's engineers while the other half attempted to block it?

If popups are disabled, the download won't start, and you'll get a fairly polite message stating you ought not to block the advertisement.

I'm not sure I'd use this blocker-blocker on my own site, since it's bound to annoy the shit out of some people. But it does kind of work.

The whole thing kind of reminds me of that hitchhiking device in HHGttG, you know, the one that was perpetually being improved by half the galaxy's engineers while the other half attempted to block it?

Some sites have begun fighting back against anti-popup software. There is now anti-anti-ad software. A good example of this script is here.

Some sites have begun fighting back against anti-popup software. There is now anti-anti-ad software. A good example of this script is here.

A lot of the games were the same, but the technology behind them was not. If you compare the Atari 2600 version of Asteroids, Pac Man, or Star Wars with the arcade version, you will see light-years of difference.

Some examples:

Asteroids on the Atari 2600 (Raster graphics)

Asteroids in the arcade (Vector graphics)

Atari 2600 Pac Man (Raster)

Arcade Pac Man Plus (Also Raster, no shots of the original, but the graphics are the same)

Atari 2600 Star Wars(Raster)

Arcade Star Wars (Vector)

haaa!! i've been telling my friends that i'm gonna do this for 4 years. Kinda funny that its reported on by slashdot, there are tons of people that have done this? has this been posted just cause he is selling it? If so, hmmmm.

as an aside, did cmdrtaco make that cabinet or is he hosting it for someone else? If you made it, props to ya, i think its the coolest project out there, and not too expensive, or hard to do. And the reward is great!

if anyone needs some more info, the forums and site at www.arcadeathome.com

There's also the very nice Build Your Own Arcade Machine site: http://plaza.powersurfr.com/kevin/arcade/

Both of these sites are geared toward creating cabinets for use with emulation, but if that's not what you're after I'm sure they could be adapted for true arcade hardware. I've been thinking of building something like an Sbox myself, someday when I magically become competent with power tools. ;-)

http://www.arcadeathome.com has message boards as well as links to homebuilt projects some including plans.

http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm has message boards and is more focused on building the control panel from arcade parts easily purchased online. Also with examples.

Vermifax

Having roms for MAME is illegal unless you own the original.

I do have a rather large collection of MAME roms but I still think it's nice of midway to let people play them legally for free

What would have been really cool is if MAME released the roms.

Another nice place for roms is www.arcadeathome.com

Take a look at Arcade At Home. On the left hand side is a link for "Cabinet Pics". It leads you to a page that shows at least fifty people doing just what you said -- building there own arcade machine all built around a PC and an emulator (usually MAME because of the huge number of games it supports). They all use real arcade buttons and joysticks (dials and trackballs even) that are mapped to keyboard commands. Playing a machine like this that is done right would be no different that sitting in an arcade pumping quarters. If you don't want to go all out, you can just use your PC and get a good controller (not a gravis pad or sidewinder that is) like the HotRod.

The reason all the games are from Capcom is because Capcom is the only company so far to release their older video games into the public domain. All the other companies (including those who make the classic games you mentioned) haven't released their games even though they are fifteen or so years old and obviously are no longer generating revenue. If you want to play the classic games you mentioned, Ultracade is not what you want anyway, check out MAME at Vintage Gaming or Arcade At Home.

Hee hee!

New Microsoft Keyboard:
Microsoft today released a radical new keyboard, that trims down the number of keys to just the ones used most often. Some claim that the keys on this keyboard are the only ones they ever use while running Windows 98. Shown was the PS/2 version, but a USB model is also available. Check it out at the link below.

Keyboard pic

and there are already spoofs of the hoax: http://arcadeathome.com/nikonmame/