Proposed Set-Top MAME Emulation Console

BRock97 writes "An interesting post over at MAMEWorld discusses the possibility of the folks at HanaHo Games (the creators of the ArcadePC and the HotRod joystick) creating a set-top system that would run the MAME emulator and allow the user to play their collection of ROMS on a TV. From what has been posted, it sounds like the unit would be comparable to an XBox (with x86 inards), run an embedded OS (sounds like it would be Linux), and the company would fully support end user hacking of the unit (i.e. boot a DivX player). They would like to hit a target price of $200-$300 and would bundle as many ROMS as they have the right to. The company is requesting feedback." I tend to think MAME is best played in a cabinet (guess thats why I built one ;) but would love to see a mame set top box, but a custom box seems harder than simply using a dreamcast or x-box to do it. Course if they can do this with permission of the original ROM makers, this could be awesome.

Comments

Here is the "Obligitory post"...

[zoloto]

Time to burn some karma ...about imagining a certian cluster of these! /karma_burned

seriously... Could this be used also to load my nes/snes roms? Just a thought, the article didn't say.

Charge something nominal for ROMs?

[mgkimsal2]

What'd be cool is if there was an agreement between the major ROM copyright holders to allow some company to put all the old ROMs on one CD and sell, then split an amount between them. I'm thinking small amounts per CD (1-2 cents per game?) - a disc with 500 games may have to split $10 between the original copyright holders. Perhaps the administrative costs might be too high for some, but they'd be getting *something* instead of people continually 'stealing' their original work. Yes, I've got ROMs for VCS cartridges I bought, and C64 games, and even a few I never bought. If I want more, the only options I have are 'illegal' ones.

Someone give me an affordable, *legal* way to play those good old games I miss from the past, please.

ROM rights cost an arm and a leg...

[$$$$$exyGal]

...we would of course bundle this with as many ROMS as we can get the rights too...

Licensing ROMS is a very expensive deal, I wonder how they plan on paying for them? I'm pretty skeptical of this venture getting much further than that post (but I'm still hopeful).

--naked

Ok with me.

[handsomepete]

Considering the horsepower that's required to do everything post 1997, Xbox level hardware may not cut it for the folks who like the Metal Slug/Capcom Vs. games/etc. For those of us who just want to sit around and play Burgertime or the Ninja Turtles arcade game, I'm all for it.

I have a feeling this may cause more problems than it's worth, though. The last thing I want to see is some company decide that this is the last straw and really persue shutting down the mame project. I imagine getting permission from more than a couple companies to distribute rom images will be pretty hard, even if they're offered compensation. I can't get to the thread right now - what do the mamedevs think about all this?

Has anyone bought that single player X-arcade joystick?

Go For It

[RailGunner]

Since most "home" translations of popular classic games left a lot to be desired (Atari 2600 Pac-Man, anyone?), why not release a set-top box so people can easily relive their youth by playing classic games?

And yes, I know how easy it is to get MAME up and running, but face it. If you're reading slashdot, chances are you're in the top 5% of the technically inclined and setting up an emulator is *easy*. But, if you're mom and pop AOL who don't even know what type of sound or video card they have, let alone the processor speen and RAM, well then it becomes a more daunting task.

Though I have to wonder how much of a market there will be for this... considering how many publishers have released collections of their old games for the latest consoles already..

Permission?

[SealBeater]

Why would they need permisson of the original rom owners to do this? It's not like they needed permission to make the joysticks. Anyway, I think this would actually be a good idea, but one, is mame legal to sell? Would there be any issues with that? Also, I could see this coming in handy for cabinet builders, instead of specing out a computer, just grab this, grab some roms, and go to town. I am sure you could just insert this in the place of a computer inside a cabinet. They just have to make sure that its powerful enough to run all the cpu intensive roms, like Mortal Kombat 4 and the like. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

SealBeater

Re:Permission?

[Sancho]

Because they want to include as many roms as possible in the system itself. Clearly just to make and sell the unit isn't an issue, but what's a unit without games you can purchase for it/games that come with it?

Re:Permission?

[len_harms]

Thats a fairly new thing belive it or not. Up until the PlayStation came out, all consoles came with at least 1 game. Maybe not an AWSOME game, but at least a playable one. They usually also came with 2 controlers.

If I remember correctly the original PlayStation had 0 controlers and 0 games in the box. They did this because an extra 30 bucks put them past a certian 'price point'. Plus they can charge 30 for a game, then 25-30 per controler. They are make even more money on something you will definatly want. The sentiment at the time was who would buy a console that didnt even come with a game. Aparently a lot of people...

Also if you just bought a system and it didnt come with 2 controlers and a game you got fairly hosed. There are some pretty good bundle packs out there.

Also keep in mind not everyone has a smoking conection into their house. On a 56k modem downloading the whole mame set would take about 17 days. If your going full blast at it. Its that big. And thats being generous that you get 5k per second and no disconects.

I think the biggest challange will be for them to get the price point of the hardware down. Then secondly getting permision from the game companies. The game companies should jump at it. They probably havent made money on some of these games in years. If they ever broke even on em at all. If they include a dvd with all the roms on it will be gravy...

The next problem may be MAME itself. Its licence does not allow for distribution of roms with the exes.

Why?

[NetJunkie]

I have MAME on my XBox right now. Go buy an XBox and chip it. Just run the ROMs right off the HD.

No need to design some whole new system to do this stuff.

Bundling

[mgkimsal2]

Replying to own post:

What'd be SMART - if they were to do it - is for a company to bundle all its old games together and ship it with MAME. I thought Activisin did something like this, but EA hasn't done it. Yes, it's not MAME, but there are C64 emulators available. If they'd ship all their old classics (Skyfox, Archon, Seven Cities, etc) *with* an emulator, it'd certainly sell. Huge amounts? Maybe not, but the development cost is practically nill.

What do you mean a custom box seems harder?!

[autopr0n]

Steps for getting an Xbox to play Mame games:

Find grey-market chip for your xbox on the 'net
order it
wait
open up your Xbox, solder it in
burn the right CD, with all the games you want to play


Steps in using a dedicated MAME console:

Use it.

Yeah, seems so much harder.

Seriously this thing seems a lot simpler. I already have an x-box, but I might be more intrested in this, since for *me* this will be a lot simpler. And I lost the urge to dick around with computers just for the 'fun' of of it a few years ago.

MAME doesn't allow distribution of roms

[Virtex]

They would have to get the permission of the MAME developers as well. If you read the license that comes with MAME, it forbids distribution together with roms.

Chances are... 0.0%

[Mulletproof]

"Course if they can do this with permission of the original ROM makers, this could be awesome."

Nintendo is still making money off of selling trading cards with classic games imbedded on them. How many incarniations of the Classic Gaming CD (which contains 10 games, taking up less than 10% of the disk) have you seen? Care to by the sequel?

No, they're gonna have to shell out for the permission to use those ROMs.

MythGame

[Yebyen]

It's worth noting that MythTV (PVR software) already has a "MythGame" addon, which is a mame frontend. MythTV is designed with control from an IR remote in mind, so it would make a really good candidate as software for a set-top box. Now, if you'll excuse me, *unpauses CSI*.

Re:I can do this myself

[clontzman]

I'm guess it's because releasing 30 games for $40 could really hurt their bottom line, since one of the main thing that drives new game sales is that you've played through your existing games already. If you've got hundreds of hours of gameplay for $40, what's the incentive for you to buy more games?

I'm not saying I agree, but I imagine that's what's preventing Nintendo from putting every Super Mario game onto a single disc. You might never have to buy a game again.

Re:Vertical games?

[AtariDatacenter]

I know you're being funny. But to address it seriously, for any good size TV, that is physically not very realistic. Additionally, the yoke (or something) gets out of alignment when a TV is placed on its side, and you get some big colored splotches on the screen.

Although, I must say, it'd be interesting to see 'veritcal' and 'horizontal' home console gaming. ;)

Re:HOW much???

[hikousen]

Retail cost of a DVD-ROM is $50. My guess is the wholesale costs would be about $20. There's enough room for $20. There's no hard drive available for that, either.