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MAME Ported to (Chipped) Xbox

Posted by timothy on from the please-confirm-over dept.

metallik writes: "A version of MAME for the Xbox game console has just been released. This release will only run on Xbox consoles equipped with a mod chip. MAME is the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, one of the more successful open source projects out there. It emulates over 3800 arcade machines, from Space Invaders to Mortal Kombat III, many of them perfectly. This is probably only the first of many such PC software projects to be ported to modded Xboxes. At $199 (plus modchip), the Xbox will soon be an extremely attractive set-top box (if not for the reasons Microsoft wanted it to be...)" A while ago, we posted about getting MAME to run on a developer-kit Xbox, but since mod chips are now available, this sounds like a more practical approach. Update: 06/23 18:40 GMT by T : Note: Thanks to Santeri Saarimaa for a note that the project is now hosted here instead.

7 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. TiVO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What about TiVO software on a chipped Xbox? Anybody know if there are projects to create such a beast, because I'm sure it would multiply Xbox sales several-fold.

  2. Re:Arcade operators by Sabalon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I dunno...I think it's the fact that almost all arcade games seem to be clones that are killing it. Like the 2600 days, in the 80s, games had limited graphics, so you had to have decent "plots" and gameplay.

    Now, it's all who can remember 50 joystick/button combos to dismember the opponent. So what...big deal...seen it once, seen it all. How about some originality.

  3. Re:Arcade operators by Fred+IV · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That sort of thing is what will destroy the arcade games industry :-(

    Sorry, you can't kill something that's already dead. If anything, such a move would help your local arcade by making it easy for them to put some of the classics in front of people again.

    ...MAME is nice but this is not enough of an incentive for me to throw more money at Microsoft. Death to the X-Box!.

  4. Re:Kinda sad, in a way by andi75 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There's a reason for this. Writing games is abismally hard. You need a whole team of people (programmer, game designer, texture artist, modeller, sound artist, musician) *from the beginning*. Otherwise your game won't catch any interest.

    Also, don't expect your users to provide any support from the programming side. You'll have to be very lucky to get any usable patches.

    I know a bit about what I'm talking, I've written a fairly successful game (though it's rather limited in gameplay). I was lucky in a way that the art I use in the game was either easy to replace by users (textures) or was already lying around (people had already built 3d models of tron vehicles) so that was only a matter of integration. However, obtaining decent sound effects has proven to be much much harder, and I'm still not happy with the currect state of affairs.

    Nonetheless, writing games can be very rewarding (I get a lot of fan mail), so don't let that stop you.

    - Andreas

  5. Xtender vs. Messiah vs. Enigmah by jcsehak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Which mod chip to get? Anyone have any experience intalling them? Anyone care to do (or point to) a comparison?

    --

    c-hack.com |
  6. MicroSoft will lock people from Online Gaming. by Viewsonic · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Just a guess that software will actively look to see if your machine is modded or not and lock you out if it is since they cant verify if you actually bought the software or not.

  7. Homebrew modchips by DrJAKing · · Score: 3, Interesting

    www.modshack.co.uk have details of how to make your own modchip, even using a mobo or network adaptor to do the programming.