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In your case, the macro functionality is built into the controller, not the game or the operating system. But I thought the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles used a cryptographic challenge and response to ensure that only controllers approved by Microsoft can be used with Xbox games, specifically to avoid macros in the controller. How does the X-Arcade Xbox One adapter work around this?

I built a MAME cabinet from a pre-fab unit from Rec Room Masters https://www.recroommasters.com/ for my wife as a Christmas present. It was very easy to assemble (just bolts which are provided) To this shell, you add a controller (Tankstick) from X-Arcade http://www.xgaming.com/ . Lastly you add a monitor, computer, drive space for ROMS and speakers. I spent some extra for side arcade art and illuminated Marquee. As a front end for selecting games, I use Hyperspin http://hyperspin-fe.com/ . It's an amazing machine and is pretty affordable, especially if the Raspberry Pi can run the games.. My wife and I have spent countless hours on this. I also grabbed ROMS for almost every older home console ever made and play them on this as well..

I don't have the tools, space and skills required to build a cabinet from scratch. The hardest part is finding the ROMS which work with the MAME version that you use.

The reason piracy is the rule here is that it's almost impossible for a single home user to acquire the rights to use these ROMs. There are a few game vendors who have packaged up their ROM files to sell in that form. But those aren't normally aimed at an individual to buy; they're only packaged as a set of raw ROM files ffor resale as part of something else.

If you buy a fully legitimate arcade console with licensed games, what they will typically do is negotiate licenses to several sets of these packaged games from multiple manufacturers. For example, X-Arcade Machine includes 205 licensed games, for the most part collections such as Namco Muesum and Midway Arcade Treasure's Titles where the manufacturer has gone to the trouble of packaging the game ROMs for distribution--and therefore licensing. (Note that the quality of the joystick and buttons used in the X-Arcade hardware is considered low compared to what most DIY consoles aim for; don't consider the above a recommendation for buying one of them, they're just a good example here)

Packages such as Namco Muesum are available to buy on a wide variety of platforms. When you buy those, you're not directly given the ROMs though; you just get the right to play them as they are packaged for that platform. What I do to try and keep myself morally clean here is purchase any such collection that's available for the games I play on MAME.

I buy these collections, I bought all of the games I liked from StarROMs when they were available. But the ROMs I play on MAME, those are coming from the bootleg distributions; like a lot of things, the pirates provide the easiest to use packaging of the software. Until companies like Namco and Atari start selling ROM licenses directly, I don't know that it's possible to be legally clean here, unless you buy one of the packaged cabinets from a manufacturer who is big enough to have negotiated a resale license.

The reason piracy is the rule here is that it's almost impossible for a single home user to acquire the rights to use these ROMs. There are a few game vendors who have packaged up their ROM files to sell in that form. But those aren't normally aimed at an individual to buy; they're only packaged as a set of raw ROM files ffor resale as part of something else.

If you buy a fully legitimate arcade console with licensed games, what they will typically do is negotiate licenses to several sets of these packaged games from multiple manufacturers. For example, X-Arcade Machine includes 205 licensed games, for the most part collections such as Namco Muesum and Midway Arcade Treasure's Titles where the manufacturer has gone to the trouble of packaging the game ROMs for distribution--and therefore licensing. (Note that the quality of the joystick and buttons used in the X-Arcade hardware is considered low compared to what most DIY consoles aim for; don't consider the above a recommendation for buying one of them, they're just a good example here)

Packages such as Namco Muesum are available to buy on a wide variety of platforms. When you buy those, you're not directly given the ROMs though; you just get the right to play them as they are packaged for that platform. What I do to try and keep myself morally clean here is purchase any such collection that's available for the games I play on MAME.

I buy these collections, I bought all of the games I liked from StarROMs when they were available. But the ROMs I play on MAME, those are coming from the bootleg distributions; like a lot of things, the pirates provide the easiest to use packaging of the software. Until companies like Namco and Atari start selling ROM licenses directly, I don't know that it's possible to be legally clean here, unless you buy one of the packaged cabinets from a manufacturer who is big enough to have negotiated a resale license.

Fighter games are a very specific subgenre of the "Action" genre. On the other hand, FPS and RTS games are two of the major video game genres.

A critic can dismiss anything as "a very specific subgenre". One might dismiss first-person shooters as "a very specific subgenre" of shooters in general, claiming that (say) one of the Touhou Project shooters is a valid alternative to Halo 3. And RTS is "a very specific subgenre" of the strategy genre that also includes "various god games/tycoons" and turn-based games like Advance Wars. As I understand it, the "Action genre" potentially includes any game that is not turn-based and doesn't have a refractory period longer than a second to make it act turn-based (like Secret of Mana or those Final Fantasy games using ATB). This is so broad that "you don't need this Action game because a completely different Action game is available" stops making sense.

The fact that developers tailor their games for consoles does not mean that consoles are the superior way to play them.

It appears developers tailor their games this way for two reasons: 1. before around 2006, affordable monitors big enough for multiplayer were standard-definition and therefore not compatible with many PCs except through an obscure video scan converter, and 2. a PC game can't tell from which of the connected keyboards a keypress comes. So instead, PC fighting games are tailored for things like X-Arcade.

Yeah, I can also vouch for the X-arcade stuff it is fantasic, and can even be used on game consoles.

If you really want to get into it, they're compatible with real arcade parts (which you can order from other places), and can be used in something custom. I gutted an X-Arcade Dual for the circuit board (before it was available separately) and made some Mortal Kombat arcade controllers (that work with both the classics in MAME and the newer console games). ...Probably not within the original poster's budget. ...wasn't in my original budget either, but I couldn't resist.

Almost forgot: some people will say "yeah but those are expensive." My response: I've had over a decade of use on my pair, and they are still working flawlessly today. Just imagine the number of crap sticks (like those cheaply made piece of crap "Street Fighter IV Fighting Sticks" that wandered out from Crapcom for 360 and PS3, and ONLY work on their respective consoles) you'd buy over the years keeping up.

Pay a little more up-front to have something high-quality, that has a lifetime warranty on parts, that you can easily repair yourself without voiding the warranty, and that is cheaply upgradable to work when you update your console. It's well worth it.

if its MAME you're mostly looking at you want this:

http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/product/x-arcade-solo-joystick/?utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=googlebase&cvsfa=2340&cvsfe=2&cvsfhu=58474d2d534f4c4f

expensive but appears to have a nice arcade style joystick its pretty expensive though. personally i think my joypad works fine for MAME, an old atari pad would stink for something like street fighter or mortal Kombat anyway

You want one of these... http://www.xgaming.com/store/category/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arcade_(joystick) and http://www.xgaming.com/store/category/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/

This is pretty expensive, but it seems like what you're looking for
http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/product/x-arcade-dual-joystick/

of course you could always find an old arcade cabinet and gut it and wire the controls to a serial cable or some other connector to your PC but that's a bit beyond me.

The answer is the mighty (expensive) X-Arcade joystick. Buy two of the two-player models or four single-player models and you'll be set for four players: from one-button games to eight-button games and trackball games like Millipede. And they have plenty of adapters, so you can use them with non-serial or non-USB systems as well. I know they have adapters for Dreamcast (out-of-stock, *sigh*), GameCube/Wii, XBOX/360, PS2/3, etc. I wish I knew of a superior - cheaper or "more universal" (NES, Genesis/MegaDrive, SNES, and such) quality joystick - but as with most goods, the high-quality gear requires high-caliber materials, workmanship, knowledge, and engineering, so you have to pay the price for them.

I run MAME at home, and have a nice controller (particularly good for Robotron), but I'm also lucky enough to live not far from a classic games 'museum'. I make a couple of pilgrimages there a year.

Note: I do NOT want to load WINE or any other required-to-work with other operating system process or application on my Linux box. Either it runs in Linux or I simply do NOT want to play it. Why emulate another operating system and slow my system down...no thank you, I would rather not play that game.

I really loved the way Apache (and Apache II - Helicopter game on the MacIntosh II and MacIntosh IISE computers) and Battlezone (DOS) games made you feel like you were flying through the screen. Always wanted to be surrounded by monitors that would give me a 360 degree view as I flew around. One day....

War/Empire, the version I am thinking of is the really old original one from the IBM mainframe / TSO user days. It was far from fancy, just a pixel and a 50/50 shot at winning any battle. However apply that to multiple planets via the internet and a game server and wow...I played one where you had clans and cities that you built online in a world with my sons last Christmas, it was fun...and granted we used my Asus Eee PC to play it, so the operating system, graphics adapter, sound, etc... did not matter.

Anyone else know of some games for Linux where you fly a tank (i.e. like BattleZone), fly a plane or jet or helicopter (i.e. like Apache and Apache II) and it actually feels like you are flying visually...those are the ones I like!

The peer around a corner and shoot games bore me. But let me fly a vehicle and okay, lets go...lol. Any for Linux?

For reasons completely unknown to me, the USB guitars from RB for the XBox don't even work with the USB hub that comes with RB on the Wii.

You can blame Micro$oft for that one - their "not-quite-USB" controllers utilize a so-called "security" signing system that prevents so-called "unauthorized" peripherals from working, and M$ are being assholes about letting any but a few companies that have paid a butt-ton for near-monopoly access to the platform make anything.

For another example: M$ completely refuses to allow X-Arcade sticks to work, despite numerous attempts by the makers to PAY for the privilege of making an adapter.

And that pisses me off. I'd LOVE to play certain Live Arcade titles with a real arcade stick, for crying out loud.

Obviously it doesn't piss you off that much. After all you're still happy to give M$ a chunk of money for the XBox and the games that you buy to play on it.

If you don't like the way a company treats its customers (or it's employees or shareholders for that matter) then don't support them by giving them money. Otherwise STFU!

For reasons completely unknown to me, the USB guitars from RB for the XBox don't even work with the USB hub that comes with RB on the Wii.

You can blame Micro$oft for that one - their "not-quite-USB" controllers utilize a so-called "security" signing system that prevents so-called "unauthorized" peripherals from working, and M$ are being assholes about letting any but a few companies that have paid a butt-ton for near-monopoly access to the platform make anything.

For another example: M$ completely refuses to allow X-Arcade sticks to work, despite numerous attempts by the makers to PAY for the privilege of making an adapter.

And that pisses me off. I'd LOVE to play certain Live Arcade titles with a real arcade stick, for crying out loud.

Build or find an arcade cabinet and use one of the computers as a MAME emulator. You can use an old monitor or TV for a bigger display, and you can even build an arcade-style joystick by taking apart a cheap PS2 controller and hooking up arcade buttons to it. There are lots of places that sell the buttons as well as plenty of tutorials on how to build joystick controllers. Here's a couple sites: http://www.xgaming.com/arcade_buttons.shtml http://wrongcrowd.com/arcade/parts.shtml

Steel Battalion
Guitar Hero
X Gaming
Bass Fishing
DDR
Samba De Amigo
Taiko Drum Master
Beatmania
Light gun

You can't combine all or even two of these controllers without killing game play.

... one of these? Just get the USB model, and there you go.

(for Canadians who want one, try here)