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Emus And Do-It-Yourself Arcade Construction
Jake Pinsky writes: "3DGN posted a large emulation feature discussing arcade emulation, Super Nintendo emulation, and even Sega Genesis emulation. It's a nice look back on the games we used to play, and it even has places where you can get the ROMs. In the section on MAME (a popular arcade emulator), the writer even discusses building your own arcade machine, and there are some photographs of the one he hollowed out and put a computer in. There's nothing like having an arcade machine in your home that can play over 400 games..."
I'm still trying to get the quarters out of my 3.5" drive...
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My karma is still less than my age.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
How wise is it to post these kinds of stories? I really wish that Slashdot wouldn't.
.... Everybody and their mother are downloading from Napster. RIAA now has enough evidence to gain an injunction (albeit temporary).
Let's go over what we've learned, shall we? Nobody gave a crap about Napster, until it became public knowledge what Napster really was. Then 'lo and behold...
I enjoy emulators. These ancient games are why I became interested in computers to begin with. We all did. We wanted to program these games for ourselves... this was before Nintendo. So checking out the ROMs and source on these babies is a wet dream for me.
But, thanks to idiots and their concepts of intellectual properties (which is unconstitutional unless a patent is involved... don't believe me? Read the constitution) want money for doing nothing. And some marketing major is going to read these articles and say, "wow, what a good idea... we can charge for this. I'll take these articles to my boss and show him that there's a market for this stuff." We always get things taken away because we aren't smart enough TO KEEP OUR MOUTHS SHUT!
I guarantee you some MBA from Namco is going to file suit against MAME in the next few weeks.
Rule #1: If someone is having a good time, there's money to be made.
Rule #2: Anyone can make money, it takes a wise person to spend (and acquire) it well.
Therefore, any good time will be inevitably ruined by some greedy moron trying to make money. The only thing that protects us is that they're not involved in our world. They don't even know that emulators exist. So please, stop informing them!
The definitive site to learn how to build your own arcade machine, such as a MAME arcade machine which will allow you to play the classic 80s games:
Build Your Own Arcade Controls
But Im a wimpy geek that works 40 hours a week. I have no where near enough time to put one of these together. So I was going to find someone to do it for me. I found Arcade 2000. It seemed great, he seemed like a really nice guy. After a few weeks I was ready to order from him, then got an email from some former customers.
"Dont buy from Arcade 2000" they said. Upon further investigation, I realized this guy handn't shipped a single machine, and took over 6 months to give refunds, some didnt get refunds at all.
So what Im trying to say is: Dont buy from Arcade 2000 (or at least buy at your own risk), and I still want to buy an Arcade Machine, anyone know where I can get one?
My dad builds Perl tools for other developers and about 20 years ago had a modem and terminal at home - I was 6 or 7 - and he showed me how to play. I was hooked. Seriously, Larn is one of the greatest games ever. My question is, does anyone still play Larn? Or even know what it is?
La via sola al paradiso incommincia nel inferno
For a coupla hundred bucks get yourself a 25" or 27" television set (like the originals use) and then get a good quality TV out card like a Matrox G400 or an ATI Card -> these games aren't that hard on video cards - and then you have a MONSTER display for the cost of a good quality 17", and since the games were designed to run at these resolutions, you don't lose anything.
..don't panic
Oh, MAN I want a Gorf machine.... with the big flightstick... mmmm......
Why are these things so popular? Simple, because we all have favorite games and fondly remember the ones that drew us in and kept us up at night. The newer games have multimedia product value up to your artistic assets, but almost none of them seem to be able to push the same adrenaline buttons.
For me, it was Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe and Dungeon Master on the Amiga. Or Doom, Wing Commander 3 and Half-Life on the PC. Or Avenger on the VIC-20.
We want to experience the same rush we did the first time around, but it's just never the same. Much like your first kiss, even if the second is exactly the same, the experience has lost some of it's magic.
Go play Pong or Gorf. I'm going to go find something I haven't done and expand my experiences.
I know very little about Tristan A. Farnon, the creator of Leisure Town. However, I believe he can be contacted at correspondence@leisuretown.com (or at least that is the contact provided on his DNS entry).
I can't tell you how much it means to me to know that someone enjoyed the link I provided (and timothy the gun nut rejected).
Leisure Town
yours,
john
Trollin' for Art since 1992!
A tilt sensor is very easy to add to an cabinet. arcadecontrols.com has some details I believe, and at least one cabinet manu includes a tilt sensor with their product.
In the beginning Japan created the Sega and the Nintendo. Now the Nintendo was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Gamers of Japan were hovering near the television. And God said, "Let there be Super Tecmo Bowl," and there was Super Tecmo Bowl, and it was good.
Ignorence is blis.
I've played enough pinball simulators to know-- until force feedback tech gets a lot better than it is now, pinball emulators will always be a sad shadow of the real thing. Any good player can feel the kickers and the bumpers when they fire, can nudge the machine when they fire to put some extra kick into it, and so forth. I've seen some decently-designed tables in emulators (Timeshock comes to mind), but until force-feedback gets better than just the controller shaking in your hand (ala the pinball machine Earthshaker from 1989), we'll never have good pinball emulation.
Ask a race driver about the force feedback from the video games Hard Drivin' and Race Drivin'; they'll tell you it's a bit better than say Pole Position, but still far short. Same concept here.
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At least mafia-owned pizzarias make excellent pizza. Compare to Bill Gates.
Just when I thought that Eastern Michigan University was good at something other than bowling.
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My karma is still less than my age.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
Funny, I can't seem to recall that one (no clinton jokes please). Do you remember the name? (It wasn't the one where the robot tried to hide itself, was it? the robot without the three laws?)
I'll have to check the book when I get home, but I don't think that was a part of I, Robot. Remember, it was just a collection of short stories strung together to form a larger future history. It's really neat how the stories are unrelated and all stand well on their own, but become a breathtaking conclusion when put together on their own. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury did the same thing, but it was a bit more depressing. OTOH, I, Robot can also be quite depressing too, as the human race kind of loses its free will at the end.
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Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
Hanaho looks pretty cool, but someone needs to make a pre-fab cabinet like this that you can add your own monitor to... The price is $798 for the low-end box, but that's including a 19" monitor...
ideally it would be a box that would let you rotate your monitor 90 degrees so you could do the different orientation games realistically.
SNK is not ceasing its US arcade operations. Metal Slug 3 has been quite a good seller, as I recall. I can't seem to find a link, but only the NGPC is ceasing distribution in the US and europe.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Whoa... never knew that the little birdies could pull *that* off. I mean, how do they hold the tools to even build the case?
Raptor
Raptor
"Procrastination is great. It gives me a lot more time to do things that I'm never going to do."
Back when i was VERY young, our house had a rec room in the basement, complete with bar and.....
an arcade game.
It was a very old one, Car Polo(made in 1977) to be exact. it was like a cocktail cabinet(monitor faced up), but 4 people stood up and had steering wheels and a gas pedal. Basically, it was playing Tennis with cars.
I have no idea how anyone got it downstairs since this cabinet was H U G E. Eventually the game died, but for some reason we kept the monitor after for awhile.
I would love to have one of those mini-cabinets like they had at the Minnesota State fair, but would be more than happy with a used cocktail for MAME. Now getting it situiated in my apartment would be a problem. Oh well, it would make a nice dining table.
I'd be happy with just a pre-83 marquee to stick on top of my monitor at work.
Do yourself a favor: Buy an old Jamma Cabinet that needs some TLC(maybe $150 tops) and buy boards!
Where does one buy boards?
OM*G, am I really that dumb?
(the obvious answer is no, I just pretend. In the movies. Yeah, that's it.)
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Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
I'm waiting for a pinball emulator. Hopefully realistic enough so you can whack the side of your monitor and get a "TILT!" message.
.. isn't that a Who song?
P.S. "Pinball Emu"
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
I like the Neo-Geo mention -- didn't those things used to cost something like $500 for the machine and $120 / game or something? I remember being about 11 years old when that came out, and utterly in awe of its very being. The price made it all the more desirable. Naturally, I never knew or even heard of anybody owning one. I bet I could get one real cheap now. :)
Anybody have any memories of these things? Anybody every actually *own* one?
-Waldo
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So have a lot of sites. I can't see the one referenced (the filter nazis) but other than that there is Zophar's Domain that has been a good resource for a long time.
Rom sites don't stay up long though usually...
I just read that story three times in a row, and i can't find a single reference to an emu. And i can't imagine that one would be any good at constructing an arcade console.
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
You don't need a monitor with some of the cards. I'm using a Asus TNT2 card with TV out and it even shows you the bios startups, not using linux (Mame32 runs faster, and has a nicer gui, from what I can tell), so I can't speak of X support, but you can definately completely do away with the monitor with one of these cards..
..don't panic
Playing the game on a PC and standing in front of the real deal are 2 totally different things. Horz and Vert monitors, control layout, joysticks, buttons and cabinet looks have a lot to do with the overall experience of playing a game.
If you want to see some old school games or take a trip down memory lane, then yeah, the emulators are cool. But for the overall experience they fall short.
Try playing a game like Robotron emulated..lame. Now try standing in front the real deal and playing...takes your nerves and sends them through a blender...big difference.
They have their place. Long as it's not taking up floor space for the real deal.
I've actually built one of these things. And I'm not the only one :)
Check out http://arcadeathome.efront.com/pics.phtml
for lots of examples.
Also, check out http://www.hanaho.com for some pre-built cabinets and controls.
It's cool to be able to tell your friends you've got over 10 nintendo games ;)
Legend of Zelda and Contra just look wrong on a crisp $700 21. However, they look perfectly in line with the original when I use the composite line out on my cheap ($25) Trident or my slightly less cheap ($90) ATI, and connect it to my nice $200 27 TV.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Were those on the C64. All this 3D stuff is tedius even to look at. Give me M.U.L.E. anyday.
Nearly as addicting was Ralph Reed's (not sure if he isn't the religious zealot) BattleMech on the Amiga. (I still play from time to time, tho I need a new mouse.)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What about Atari Star Wars (also 1983) and Atari's Battle Zone Cabinet (1981). Didn't they use polygons?
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I don't know if I'd actaully want something like this. The feeling of having an old original arcade game in my house would be intresting, but having something that could just emulate one of the older games like that? What's wrong with just owning a Super Nintendo or Genesis.. .and if you wanna make money off it charge your friends (Watch em go fast). I think having the old arcade game would be much better. It'd be nice to look and see the artwork of an old Street Fighter II or Wrestlefest arcade game on the side. Oh welps, I guess I'm just in the older odder generation.
Who's the black private dick, who's a sex machine for all the chicks?
i went out and bought a cabinet, 2 joysticks,
:) and a 14" monitor that i had (max
.71dot-pitch monitor, p3-600) plus
8 buttons (1p start, 2p start, 3buttons/player)
for $25
stuck my sister's amd K6-300 in it (she was out
of town
resolution 640x480).
another $40 later (2 keyboards and a mouse) i
had a working arcade box.
it's a blast, i don't think i've played a "normal"
computer game since. plus it's great for partys.
now if i could only get my pinball machine to
display the scores correctly....
You could build a _really_ nice cabinet for about
$800 (19"
you could use it as an mp3 jukebox (just add
an irman) if it's next to a stereo!
you could get more use out of it by making it
the ipmasq box for the house...
the only problem w/ my cab is that it makes too
much noise (i spin down my hd, no powersupply fan
only the cpu fan) when the TV and stereo are
off in the living room. if only Via would release
their latest Cyrix chip that can run w/ only
a heat sink.....
When I got an ATI TV tuner card and an ATI Rage with TV output, giving me the ability to watch TV on my TV, through a $2000 computer.
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Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.
I'm curious if anyone has built a dedicated emulator machine, and if so what CPU/Video Card combination is ideal.
I'm curious, as running some games, such as Gradius 3 (which I have a masochistic love of), are *really* slow in parts. Like 10 FPS or so. (Average FPS when running Gradius 3 is about 17, as opposed to the 60 FPS or so in 1943).
I'm in the process of testing my skillz by building an arcade joystick. (Thanks be to http://www.arcadecontrols.speedh ost.com/ and Happ Controls for information and parts respectively). If this is successful, I would like to find and strip down an old console. But I'm not going to do it if all the games I want to play run like shit =)
More to the points, are there any tips/advice for speeding up MAME and/or other emulators? Specific video settings, etc?
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You remember that great scene in I, Robot (by Asimov) where the robot had to walk around a big tiled floor to change all the tile colors while someone was trying to zap him with lasers, don't you? The arcade was a perfectly faithful adaptation of the story, and totally preserved the deep and meaningful plotline.
Yeah, that kind of stuff really makes you think about whether our machines will someday develop to the point where they have souls of their own.
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Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not a turnip.
What's this thing that SlashDot as for flightless birds that live in the Southern Hemisphere?
I mean, emus aren't even cute and cuddly like penguins. Though according to the Encyclopedia Britannica emu meat tastes like beef, which is curious for a bird, since so many non-birds have meat that tastes like chicken.
Help
Work for Change & GET PAID!
How much did you pay for your several full size uprights? I'll bet it was more than the $0 I paid to download MAME and a bunch of ROMS.
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"Rock over London... Rock on Chicago..." -Wesley Willis
the price i quoted included a wellsgarner monitor.
these are VGA monitors that have the same
dot-pitch as arcade monitors, but you can still
use them to boot X (or windows if you have to)
i think the url is: www.wellsgarner.com but it doesn't seem to be working... better than dealing with TV-out and not=TVout, when do you switch, having two displays hooked up...etc. _maybe_ w/ the matroxfb stuff you could set the frequency of the console to work with a vga->rgb converter and see your boot messages on the TV otherwise it gets to be tough...
Does this have any relation to the famous I, Robot by Asimov? That is one classic book. Just from the tiny screenshot, it looks like the only connection is the name. Was the name licensed? Did they just use it to get people interested in the game? If anyone has ever played this game, please respond with your thoughts.
BTW, if you haven't read I, Robot, READ IT!. It is a classic.
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Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
I shall spend $5,000 for a multimedia computer, outfit it with top of the line speakers and subwoofers! Now, I will purchase a bass-boosting seat for added realism! Then, I will purchase additional monitors to place around me to give me 180 degree+ field of vision!
m l
Then I'll load up PacMan.
This reminds me an awful lot about the linked Onion article:
http://www.theonion.com/onion3308/realtimetv.ht
Titled: New $5,000 Multimedia Computer System Downloads Real-Time TV Programs, Displays Them On Monitor