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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..."
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!
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?
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
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'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.
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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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
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.
Hmm... I haven't been able to accomplish that, but whenever I play "Roll 'em Up" (a cross-platform pinball game), I can kick my case and get messagess... I'm still wondering why this stupid game calls a tilt a "kernel panic".
Free BeOS, runs from a Linux partition
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.....
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!
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