Networked MAME - Kaillera

t0qer writes: "Everyone knows about mame the multiple arcade machine emulator. Recently there has been a new addition to the mame lineup called Kaillera which is a net enabled version that allows you to play any mame game with anyone around the world. It's client/server based which makes for some very good performance. Linux server is available."

Comments

Re:I know this will be controversial, but...

[Chrimble]

Just because it's old doesn't necessarily mean it's any good! Nostalgia is all well and good for a few minutes here and there, but let's face it - the majority of games were (and still are) utter dross!

Throughout the history of gaming, genuinely excellent titles are few and far between. For every "Pac-Man", there's at least a dozen "Time Traveller"s.

The trouble with games today is that most of the simple, fun ideas were used up years ago, and so complexity has rather taken its place. Complexity can be fun too, but the number of "pick up and play" games has dwindled to a pathetic number these days... or at least, it seems to have. Maybe the ratio is now a "Doom" to every dozen2 "Daikatana"s...

Going back a bit, consider the game "Lemmings". Utterly brilliant game. Amusing. Fun. Then came the sequels. The trouble was, the original game had to be "extended". It was more complex. Your abilities changed. And the "fun" evaporated. This scenario is repeated again and again and again ad infinitum, the "fun" slowly boiled out of the original concept.

Take a concept like "Tetris". How do you improve that!? Which version of Tetris are you thinking about? Almost certainly, the original Gameboy implementation. Out of all of the hundreds/thousands of different versions, written over the past 15 years, we like the original Gameboy version best. Gameboy Tetris wasn't the first (by a long chalk!) of the game but had the best 'balance' by far. And the only feature of note they added to the GBC version (10 years later) was that your high scores were saved... They *didn't* mess with the basic game, although for some reason they made the music worse.

So, in my roundabout kind of a way, I agree with you 100%. Just felt like adding to the conversation 8). In AOLSpeak, "me too!".

PS. The game I've had most fun with of late is "Serious Sam" by Croteam. It's like Doom, but with a modern 3D engine attached. Believe you me, Doom 3's aquired the benchmark against which it will be judged in this game...)

Re:I know this will be controversial, but...

[Chyron]

Really, why are old games judged from this weird point of view? Since when are older, more simplistic games better? Is it because people are dying to show others that they are oldskool, and have fond memories of Pong, or something?

Personally, my favourite game supported by MAME is Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara. It's a surprisingly "deep" game, with a non-linear plot, things you can actually use your "points" (gold) for, spells, support for up to 4 players, etc? What does Pong give us? Well, uh, two players can move little paddles up and down. Fascinating.

I'm not trying to flame or troll here, I just honestly can't understand what people see in some of these older games. Yes, there are some stunningly good "old" games, but most of the "oldies" are tedious crap.
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