Play Classic Video Games In NY, At Home

Iphtashu Fitz writes "If you'd like to play classic arcade games from the 1980s, then it might be time for you to take a trip to New York, according to Wired News, since the American Museum of the Moving Image is holding an exhibition called Blip! where you can play a selection of the classics, including some of those referenced in an earlier exhibition. Also mentioned on their site is the X-Arcade cabinet for playing arcade-style classics at home through emulation." Much easier than building your own cabinet.

Comments

No Pac Man I hear!

[andy666]

I read in Wired that the Pac Man people wouldn't agree to being in it.

Re:No Pac Man I hear!

[jcoleman]

Ms. Pac Man actually had more machines produced, was a bigger seller, and was a bigger profit-maker. The thing was that girls played Ms. Pac Man too.

Original article text

[RobertB-DC]

As part of my Ghosts of Slashdot project, I grabbed a copy of this article before it went "live". There was a Slashdot outage at about that time, so I don't know if CmdrTaco & co. decided to change the text, or if it was lost and had to be re-created.

Same submitter, same "dept."... just the title and story text has changed.

Play Those Classic Video Games Virtually Anywhere
Posted by CmdrTaco in The Mysterious Future!
from the emulating-the-classics dept.
Iphtashu Fitz writes "If you're like me your introduction to video games decades ago was something like the Atari 2600, and you also pumped untold hundreds of quarters into arcade games like Space Invaders, Defender, and Asteroids. Well according to a Wired News article you can now play these and many more of those classic games in their original format on your PC, Mac, Playstation, XBox, or Gamecube. X-Arcade has an emulator & arcade-style interface that they claim will let you play over 4000 of the classic games on any of these modern gaming systems. Or if you'd prefer to play the actual arcade games from the 1980's then it might be time for you to take a trip to New York where the American Museum of the Moving Image is holding an exhibition where you can play these classics. Game emulators can be found linked from the museums website as well as through Retrogames." Much easier than building your own Cabinet.

Ouch

[FortKnox]

From the X-Arcade site:
Want to download Mame Rom games directly?
Easiest = Using Kazaa, or P2P engine
Type MAME in a software search.
Download Any MAME Related Searches

Encouraging people to pirate roms. That can't be good for business (well, good for business until the government comes knocking).

Or am I out of the loop and its all alright now?

Instead of buying the x-arcade cabinet

[goldcd]

Rescue an unloved genuine arcade cabinet, pop in a PC made out of all those bits and pieces you have lying around your house and join them together with bits from http://www.ultimarc.com/
Appreciate that special aroma in your home and the genuine cigartte burns around the joysticks.

Ten games? Try 200.

[pashdown]

Ten games? Come to the yearly California Extreme and see all those plus another 190 vids and pins.

Easier, but less expensive? Or nicer?

[2Flower]

The X-Arcade cab is basically just a big wooden box, plus a nastily looking inserted X-Arcade double stick. (You can see the outlines of the arcade-shaped panel in the giant blocky panel. Ugh.) No PC or monitor are included. All that for 1000 bucks.

You might be better off buying an ancient cab and gutting it, or building your own. I built a wooden cab right to my size (I have a physical disability, dwarfism) and it kicks much booty as a result. Having a customized cab, or an authentic cab with new guts, seems a better way to go than a generic black cab branded with X-Arcade logos and a somewhat questionable price tag.

I HATE emulators

[stratjakt]

They are NOT the same. There are subtle differences in every game I've played. Noone notices since they dont have the original to compare too.

If you really love arcade games, collect and restore the machines. I only have room for 3 or 4 upright cabinets, but I pick up old ones, restore them, play them till I'm bored of it, then sell them and start over.

I usually turn enough profit to buy everyone I know a gummi bear.

But, there are tons of subtle differences. Midi tempos are usually off, colors are off. The games dont look the same emulated, even through a real arcade monitor..

Emulation is really neat, technically.. But if you truly love the old classics, keep the old classics around. Rescue that beat up SFII cabinet from the pizza shop, clean it up, repair/replace the controls.. Give it a little elbow grease..

MAME cabinets are just so... ghetto.. Especially when people try and cram every possible control into them.. Two sticks, 12 buttons each, trackballs, spinners, meh.. They look retarded. Many real cabinets were works of functional art.. Look at an old defender control panel.. Designed to function for only one game..

Or vindicators, a cabinet shaped like a giant tank with two crazy throttle levers for control.

Re:I HATE emulators

[PhoenixFlare]

Slight inaccuracies the emulator(s) may have, but they're still worlds better than most of the collections/re-releases out for consoles these days.

The Gamecube version of Namco Museum comes to mind - for some reason, even at the largest display mode, all the games (except Pole Position and the original Galaga) are at about 80-90% of original size on the screen, not to mention being rather fuzzy. In contrast, I can fire up MAME and play all of them on my monitor with the correct sizes and resolution.

It's nice that you can restore and sell cabinets, but not everyone has the extra cash to spend on buying them in the first place, not to mention the skill to restore them.

Emulators are really the closest the majority of gamers can get to the originals, and I would hazard a guess that it's close enough for many.

Re:I HATE emulators

[JSkills]

Ghetto? What the hell dude? If you're clever enough and have the dedication to put together a MAME cabinet that plays hundreds of games - why do you feel the need to put it down like that?

I used to own an arcade version of the "Main Event" - a pretty cool four player wrestling game. I loved it. Problem was - it was the same game and the cabinet took up a lot of room just for one game. Who the hell has room to collect several cabinets? Sorry if we're all not flush with cash and square footage like you ...

dude

[Naikrovek]

hah you can buy an arcade with a MUCH bigger screen for half the price at www.arcade-infinity.com. Looks like the site is down at the moment - if it doesn't return you can google for "Japanese JAMMA cabinet" and that should find you something useful.

the guy that runs http://arcade.madsmurf.com/ can probably point you towards a cabinet vendor.

I'm not an owner of that company or investor or anything other than a very happy customer.

shipping is kind of expensive but the arcade cabs are very cheap in my experience. slap a windows PC in there and a couple bits from www.ultimarc.com (arcadeVGA adapter and the J-PAC) and you have every thing you need but the roms to play thousands of arcade games on this arcade.

and there are a lot more than one type of cabinet - there are stand-up cabs, sit down cabs, two seater sega cabs, cabinets with dual monitors, cabinets with giant projection screen monitors, all kinds of stuff.

have a look. they're good stuff.

what no link to byoac?

[enrico_suave]

ArcadeControls.com (BYOAC site) for shame!

And man is the x-arcade "cabinet" just an ugly expensive bookshelf for a TV and PC with a shelf for one of their undersized controllers, or what?

E.

PS I of course like my cabinet better: UberCade =P

Ouch

[netfool]

You know your old when people start putting your old toys in a museum.

The Best Collection of Arcade Games and Pinball

[Transfan76]

That I know of is at Weirs Beach at FunSpot You name a game, they have it there most likely. From old school Asteroids to new games that you actually have to move your body to play. Anytime I go there it's a blast!

Just buy a junked cabinet

[Shiifty]

$1000 is steep for a cabinet that doesn't even look like a real arcade machine. You have to add a PC and a TV to make it work.

You can buy a scrapped cabinet for less than $100, or free if you know where to look. They typically include a coin door which is a real eye catcher, and just need a washing up. Attach a pre-made control panel ($100?) or make your own, drop in a TV + PC and Bob's your uncle.