Sbox Homemade Console

Anonymous Coward sent in: "I just ran across a very cool homemade emulation console. It emulates multiple machines, plays movies, plays mp3s, and uses Intel's new wireless gamepads to control everything. It's also cased in plexiglass and uses its own menuing software. The best I've seen yet!" His remote has a docking station.

Comments

Arcade cabs

[Bodero]

For those of you who want to build your own arcade cabs, just like the Sbox, you may want to check the Arcade@Home site at http://www.arcadeathome.com.
In addition to the MAME front-end of the same name, the site features a nice collection of pics and links to converted and custom-built cabinets. IIRC, the Plastic Cactus site linked from this page has a set of measured drawings that might be useful, and there are probably others too.

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. ;-)

Re:Arcade cabs

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you who want to build your own arcade cabs, just like the Sbox, you may want to check the Arcade@Home site at http://www.arcadeathome.com.

Or not. Arcade@Home is run by Tim Eckel, the same Tim Eckel (affectionately known as "Timmay" in emulation circles) who was previously covered (along with eFront) in a not-too-flattering light. He's also infamous for once abusing the MAME license (by offering his own version of MAME called MAME! that differed only in ways like removing the copyright notice at the beginning of MAME, which eventually led to the changing on the MAME license), childishly insulting people he doesn't agree with (like Gridle of the MAME team, or Penny Arcade's Gabe & Tycho) and for not only promising ROMs for download (or, as he puts it, a "link" to his "friend" who has them for download . . . funny, his "friend"'s server seems to have the same IP) but often (seemingly purposely) dedicating so little bandwidth to the downloads that all people get are the ads plastered on the download site. And once, a "hacker" (suuure) changed the search scripts on his site to DDoS Retrogames, an emulation site often critical of Eckel.

Please, let's not give this guy the ad revenue.

whoa, watch out for the law

[OO7david]

(satire)

This is like the box for copyright infringement. First it has all those old NES, SNES, Genisis, or arcade games that no one buys anymore, nor can find anywhere. It'll play those damn MP3's which, as we all know, just mentioning MP3's is illegal. Let's not forget that it plays movies, which are already illegal to watch in any other manner than what is already told to be correct. Lastly, let us not forget that it runs Windows in the unlicensed way; only the XBOX can have windows in console form.

Striker better quit while he's ahead.

(/satire)

This is also something else....

[AgentUmino]

That guy might seem a bit obsessed, but he's nothing. At least his setup can play multiple games. This guy built this custom setup just to play GT3, it's crazy. Check it out.

Bring out yer dead...

[malkavian]

It still amazes me that the big guys haven't cottoned on to the fact that if they did a VERY cheap 'pay to download' service on the ROMs, a lot of people wouldn't be that averse to paying a few dollars for a bunch of well outdated arcade games they loved, or old nintendo game, or whatever...
That way, they'd have a small revenue stream from obsolete games that nobody would normally buy these days at all...
And then a lot of people that are forced to use Warez ROMs 'cos they can't get hold of the game for love nor money anywhere other than warez sites can rest easy knowing they've done their bit for society and progress, and the company that produced the game in the first place doesn't have so much to gripe about.
Despite all this blabbering on about the requirement for copy protect, I think most people just want to pay once for something they use, and don't mind paying a fair price for what they do use...
I for one would love a nice easy, high bandwith site I could drop onto, pay a couple of dollars for a bundle of ancient games, and just enjoy.
I do like the stuff this guy's done with the box tho.. :)

Cheers,

Malk

Re:Bring out yer dead...

[Jace of Fuse!]

If it costs them nothing to sell it, why wouldn't they?

Costs aren't always monentary.

Take for example Super Mario Brothers Advance. SMB Advance is essentially just SMB2 with some new stuff thrown in. It will now make for a really nice hand-held title, but do you honstly think Nintendo could resell the title as an N64 remake, or a Gamecube remake? It can sell as a handheld title, simply because at the moment not everybody has a handheld PDA that will effectively emulate the GBA.

Do you honestly think Nintenod could sell SMB1, SMB2, and SMB3 all on one disc as a collection for the Gamecube? No, probably not. Most likely not, due to the fact that a large percent of the market that still loves those games already has them illegally on their PCs.

If Nintendo COULD get away with doing it, it's only because there isn't a larger number of people pirating roms. The number of ROMZ pirates grows ever day. For the moment, it's still not nearly as mainstream as MP3 piracy. If we're lucky, it'll stay fairly obscure and won't draw any real legal attention.

Also one must consider that games aren't like music. People consume them like food and move on. Someone can very easily justify buying a CD when they already have the MP3s, just to have the physical medium. Video games, for whatever reason, haven't felt like "physical medium" since the first ROM image got pulled off of a Cartrige and uploaded to the 'net.

I still buy my video games. I still spend more money on video games than any other expense I have, and one could say that's almost obsessive. (I wonder sometimes myself). But I also know that not everybody buys their PC titles, fewer still buy old games, and even less go out looking for rare SNES, GENESIS, or N64 carts to add to their collections.

As much as I enjoy going to Classic Gaming and snatching down a rom image or two, I fully understand why some companies such as Nintendo and Sega don't want their ROMS being distributed. I also understand why they make a good point in "some cases".

And that's just the thing. "Some Cases". Some games have much higher replay/resell/remarketability value than others. Some of the publishers are gone, others strive on today. But it's those few gems that could resurface as modern products that set the argument for Copyright holders keeping a tight grip on their titles. Nintendo is about to show exactly what they "want to do" with those old titles" when they re-release them on the GBA.

I was all over Super Mario All Stars when it came out on the SNES. Do you think such a thing is ever going to surface on the Gamecube with piracy all but having destroyed the marketability of older titles? Dream on.

I think THAT alone should answer the question "why wouldn't they"?

Re:Just an opinion...

[rneches]

As pointed out by prevoius posters, it is often impossible to obtain legitimate copies of many of those games. Also, there are many, many cool games that were never released in the US. I even have a few such Japan-only roms that someone with a hex editor and a death wish took the trouble to translate into English - there's no way you could get that "legitimatly".

Personally, I wouldn't have any problem paying [a reasonable price] for ROMs, but the option simply isn't available. You see, owning a copyright on a non-confidential item gives the owner the right to require that I pay for my copy of the item. It does not give the owner the right to deny me access to the item if I want it. So, if Nintendo and Sega refuse to sell their old games, then they'll have to live with the fact that trading ROMs is protected by the first amendment. If they feel like dragging people into court for copyright infringement, all the accused have to say is "I would have paid for it, but I was denyed the opportunity to do so," and malicious intent becomes impossible to prove, and the case is moot. I know it's not quite that simple, but I don't see a rational counter argument.

Re:Just an opinion...

[nougatmachine]

Not to mention the fact that if something is not being sold any more, there is no signifigant loss being made to, as a random example, Nintendo, every time I "pirate" Donkey Kong Junior.

This is my beef with anyone who knocks down emulating classic systems: getting the darn games is nearly impossible because companies hoard them until they release a re-hash or a bundled emulator (like Namco Museum). If I could get ahold of legal roms, if they were being sold, than at least this kind of argument would be revelent, in much the same way the file-sharing debate is relevant to labels and artists. But Spy Hunter?!

IANAL, but I believe this kind of work can only become public domain after 75 years, if the original creator does not renew copyright. The problem is, that law was created before arcade and console games, which have a tendency to become obsolete much faster than, for example, The Fellowship Of The Ring. For printed literature this makes perfect sense, but surely there is a more reasonable way we can govern interactive gaming copyright issues.

Avoid arcadeathome.com at all cost.

[Augusto]

For the reasons already explained in another post, plus the site is the worst offender when it comes to annoying popups and requirements for clicking on a million links before reaching anything meaningfull.

For real info on building your own cabinet go to:

http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

For the latest arcade ROMs go to :

http://mame.dk - This is the site the arcadeathome guy tried to eliminate from the face of the earth.