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Project Arcade
Craig Maloney writes "Growing up, I found myself more than once in an arcade, be it in the mall, Meijer, or a free-standing building. The atmosphere was unmistakable: loud, with lots of activity, and people getting fully immersed and "in the zone" between them and their pixellated avatar. While playing an arcade game at home has been possible for many years now, the true arcade experience has been a little more elusive. There's something about having an upright video game cabinet, and playing on arcade hardware that gives the game that extra sense of being right in the arcades of my youth. There are many sites out there that have different plans for building a MAME arcade cabinet from scratch, but most read like a post-mortem for how the author pieced together their particular setup. What if you just want to convert an old (non-working, I hope) cabinet into a MAME arcade cabinet? Lots of information is out there, but where do you start? Project Arcade is an excellent introduction for building your own MAME arcade cabinet from scratch, and compiles lots of material into one comprehensive book." Read below for the rest of Craig's review.
Project Arcade
author
John St. Clair
pages
476
publisher
Wiley
rating
8/10
reviewer
Craig Maloney
ISBN
0-7645-5616-9
summary
An excellent primer for anyone who is looking to create their own MAME arcade cabinet.
Project Arcade is split up in to five parts. The first part describes the planning process, and comprises complete plans for building an arcade cabinet from scratch. The second, third, and fourth parts are a list of parts and design decisions for the hardware for your MAME arcade cabinet, from the control panel and computer, to the speakers and monitor. The fifth part is a summary of various "off-the-shelf" solutions for purchasing a complete MAME-ready arcade cabinet, as well as links to other "inspirational" projects. Obviously, if you're building the MAME arcade cabinet from the wood up, and outfitting it with your own hardware, then most of the book will be applicable to you. I found all sections to be very valuable, and regardless of which direction I take (build or buy) I'll be more informed when I finally devise my plans and make my purchases.
One thing that stood out in Project Arcade was the thoroughness of the book. Unlike some "build your own arcade books", Project Arcade contains complete plans for an arcade cabinet, from start to finish, including lists of all of the materials. I unfortunately didn't build the cabinet, and am not an expert on woodworking, but the plans looked complete and well thought out. At the very least, it left me with the impression that this was something that I could likely handle with some help. The part I am a little more familiar with (the electronics) was quite fascinating. The book catalogs a great deal of hardware available to the arcade-cabinet builder, and there were parts that I didn't know were available, such as screw-terminal keyboard adapters (no more taking apart cheap keyboards for me). The author details many different joysticks, trackballs, and button choices available, with thoughtful discussion on the pros and cons of each choice. I felt through most of the book like I was being guided by someone who was passionate about building excellent MAME arcade cabinets, and had a lot of knowledge to share. Even the section on pre-made cabinets was carefully put together, with the benefits of each cabinet design explained thoroughly. There are also copious amounts of photos, so you'll know exactly what it is you're looking at. Also, where applicable, there are diagrams and charts to aid and assist.
Unfortunately, the strengths of Project Arcade are also part of its weaknesses. There are a LOT of parts described in the book. After a few pages of the same type of part, my mind started to wander. While the descriptions are comprehensive and insightful, I found myself after a while thinking "I get it already". Detailed descriptions of taking apart keyboards and soldering to them to me seemed obvious, but I can see why the author decided to take the time to explain the process more thoroughly for those who may not be as comfortable taking apart something electronic. Also, the book focused mostly on the hardware for building a MAME arcade cabinet. I would have appreciated the same depth of discussion on the software available to complete the project, mostly because I think the author could have brought some very insightful recommendations on what software to use with the MAME arcade cabinet.
When I build my MAME cabinet, be it a conversion of an old (non-working) cabinet, or from scratch, Project Arcade will definitely be the book I use on that project. While the descriptions can be a bit verbose, the book delivers a very thorough and insightful perspective on what I should be looking for when envisioning what my completed MAME cabinet should be. Much like a do-it-yourself book for remodeling your bathroom, the book can only provide you guidance; the finished project is up to your creativity and imagination. Project Arcade is that guide to building yourself the perfect MAME arcade cabinet.
You can purchase Project Arcade from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Project Arcade is split up in to five parts. The first part describes the planning process, and comprises complete plans for building an arcade cabinet from scratch. The second, third, and fourth parts are a list of parts and design decisions for the hardware for your MAME arcade cabinet, from the control panel and computer, to the speakers and monitor. The fifth part is a summary of various "off-the-shelf" solutions for purchasing a complete MAME-ready arcade cabinet, as well as links to other "inspirational" projects. Obviously, if you're building the MAME arcade cabinet from the wood up, and outfitting it with your own hardware, then most of the book will be applicable to you. I found all sections to be very valuable, and regardless of which direction I take (build or buy) I'll be more informed when I finally devise my plans and make my purchases.
One thing that stood out in Project Arcade was the thoroughness of the book. Unlike some "build your own arcade books", Project Arcade contains complete plans for an arcade cabinet, from start to finish, including lists of all of the materials. I unfortunately didn't build the cabinet, and am not an expert on woodworking, but the plans looked complete and well thought out. At the very least, it left me with the impression that this was something that I could likely handle with some help. The part I am a little more familiar with (the electronics) was quite fascinating. The book catalogs a great deal of hardware available to the arcade-cabinet builder, and there were parts that I didn't know were available, such as screw-terminal keyboard adapters (no more taking apart cheap keyboards for me). The author details many different joysticks, trackballs, and button choices available, with thoughtful discussion on the pros and cons of each choice. I felt through most of the book like I was being guided by someone who was passionate about building excellent MAME arcade cabinets, and had a lot of knowledge to share. Even the section on pre-made cabinets was carefully put together, with the benefits of each cabinet design explained thoroughly. There are also copious amounts of photos, so you'll know exactly what it is you're looking at. Also, where applicable, there are diagrams and charts to aid and assist.
Unfortunately, the strengths of Project Arcade are also part of its weaknesses. There are a LOT of parts described in the book. After a few pages of the same type of part, my mind started to wander. While the descriptions are comprehensive and insightful, I found myself after a while thinking "I get it already". Detailed descriptions of taking apart keyboards and soldering to them to me seemed obvious, but I can see why the author decided to take the time to explain the process more thoroughly for those who may not be as comfortable taking apart something electronic. Also, the book focused mostly on the hardware for building a MAME arcade cabinet. I would have appreciated the same depth of discussion on the software available to complete the project, mostly because I think the author could have brought some very insightful recommendations on what software to use with the MAME arcade cabinet.
When I build my MAME cabinet, be it a conversion of an old (non-working) cabinet, or from scratch, Project Arcade will definitely be the book I use on that project. While the descriptions can be a bit verbose, the book delivers a very thorough and insightful perspective on what I should be looking for when envisioning what my completed MAME cabinet should be. Much like a do-it-yourself book for remodeling your bathroom, the book can only provide you guidance; the finished project is up to your creativity and imagination. Project Arcade is that guide to building yourself the perfect MAME arcade cabinet.
You can purchase Project Arcade from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Does the book out anywhere that abandonware is a myth and that unless you already own an arcades' worth of authentic machines this project will involve copyright infringement? I'm not saying this is right or wrong, just that it would be irresponsible not to make readers aware of that issue.
I purchased an earlier version of this book, and I really enjoyed the presentation.
I would recommend it to anyone serious about building their own cabinet.
here are some for a lot less and some vintage too. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?satitle=a rcade+machine&fcl=3&fcol=ship-off&fsop=3&fsoo=2&fr pp=100/
The author of this book runs Arcadecontrols.com, which provides a lot more information on building an arcade machine.
... to see a definition of 'MAME' in the review. Too many acronyms people!
Rob built his own too: http://cmdrtaco.net/jubei/
Cthulhu Saves.
The way I see it, if you really are after duplicating a full arcade experience, go for this work. You will get some hands on experience (rather than just sitting in front of your computer all day), and will enjoy the result and the conjured memories fully. Assuming you can get hold of an old MAME arcade cabinet. Or, you could just build your own, make it look like the old ones, and live happily ever after. Even better, if you just want to play the old games, and have dismissed the memories of the actual arcade, you could write a clone of all those games in {_some programming language here_}. It has been done (a clone of 17 great acrade games in C++ by a friend of mine), and still provides that same remnicience opportunity by allowing you to make the games over. Of course, most of us will stick with the renovation and just use an old cabinet.
What's missing from the home experience isn't the cabinet, its the people and the loud environment. North Americans are more interested in being frugal than social.
Like others have said, the author of this book runs the site arcadecontrols.com, which has a very active community with tons of great info. I stumbled on the site a while back (before hearing about the book) and it has become a fun hobby (making arcades and such). We are just finishing our 5th arcade now (a custom cocktail cabinet). It just never gets old. I would suggest checking out the site to get a feel for the hobby and then buying the book once you're ready to build. Most of the content from the book is available in the forums on his site, but it is worth having a nice book with all of the info in a centralized easy to find location when you're ready to build.
how to convince your wife to let you have an arcade machine in the house???
oh right this is slashdot sort of a moot point by in large really.
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
"That's like a baby's toy!"
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I made a MAME cabinet a few years ago and I enjoyed it while I had it. The one recommendation I'd pass along to others is go ahead and splurge and get the nicest wood you can. I went cheap cheap cheap; bought the roughest, cheapest pieces of crap wood I could get. I never got over that disappointment. That and instead of dropping another $30 on paint, I used the glossy black paint we had lying around. Another big mistake, but cez la vie.
Nothing more than a slahvertisement for plywood ;)
Bot Assisted Blogging
The I-Pac from Ultimarc is a really nice screw-terminal-to-keyboard interface board, and the one I've used in my own arcade console. Its biggest benefit over a hacked-up keyboard is that it uses discrete I/O for all of its inputs, rather than matrix scanning like a keyboard does, so there's absolutely no limit to the number of simultaneous keypresses it can process.
I'd also like to recommend the Opti-Pac to connect trackballs, spinners, or optical joysticks that don't have built-in USB or PS/2 mouse interfaces.
And while I'm on the subject of spinners, the SlikStik Tornado Spinner is really nice.
Disclaimer: Haven't read the book, but I did put together a MAME cabinet now living in someone else's basement bar ... *cough*
I do hope there are useful pointers to graphical front-ends. No offense to the creators of various emulators out there, but the usability mileage of my MAME cab suffered greatly until I found a sexy, useful and simple front-end Game Launcher. You could also try Lemon Launcher, although I had only partial success.
While a little time consuming to setup all the ROMs, the PC now auto-runs Game Launcher, plays various "attract" mp3s and successfully launches MAME32 upon a button press. Now friends, family and even the smallset can easily choose and play games just by walking through the menu using those fun arcade sticks.
The author of this review asks, "What if you just want to convert an old (non-working, I hope) cabinet into a MAME arcade cabinet? Lots of information is out there, but where do you start?" Based on the review, the book seems to focus a lot on making your own replica cabinet from scratch.
If you want to build a cabinet from scratch, it sounds like this would be a fine book. If you want to convert an old cabinet, there are much easier solutions. Ultimarc, for example, produces several products that convert standard JAMMA interfaces to PC keyboard and video connections. JAMMA is the standard that arose to allow for easily changing games out in arcade cabinets.
I ultimately ended up with a HotRodSE connected to a home theater computer because I didn't have the space for a dedicated cabinet. Ultimarc's products, though, appear to allow for the joystick and buttons on a JAMMA cabinet to connect to a PS/2 interface and for the video connector to hook to VGA (refresh and resolutions on arcade machines are different from standard computer modes). They even sell an AGP or PCIe video card that appears to have a special RAMDAC so that you don't have to screw around with getting the weird video modes working.
I've never used Ultimarc's stuff, so I have no idea how well it would work. Assuming it's decent, the formula would be pretty simple: find an older Street Fighter cabinet in decent shape (functioning buttons and non-burned screen). They have six-button configs, which seems to be the most buttons used for the majority of games, thus saving you from having to cut holes for new buttons. Street Fighter was also ridiculously common but is old enough that you should be able to get the cabinet for a few hundred dollars if you're in/near a big city. Pull the board, plop in a computer, wire a couple of adapters, spend some time on a nice front end, and it shouldn't be too much work to have a functional MAME cabinet.
I took an old Street Fighter II box and re-did it as a MAME box a few years ago but for me, I wanted to do more than just the arcade games. I also included NES, and Atari stuff in it as well. I also liked the idea of running some of the well done remakes of classics (Activision's Space Invaders was done very well, as were some of the other remakes).
What I found was that pretty much every one of the launchers/front-ends I found sucked. I found nothing that allowed me to incorporate multiple emulators, and non-emulation apps, into one nice little launcher. Yes, there were some nice apps out there but nothing really worked overly well, and I was very disappointed. All I wanted was a long list of games, each with a screenshot, and a launch button. Nothing fancy.
I ended up writing my own little app which launches when the machine boots, and then kicks off whatever app/emu is required to launch the game.
For me, writing the app was part of my experience, but it would have been nice had I been able to just use something that already existed.
No matter how fast computers get, you'll always be waiting - Matt Klem
I don't have any links as my friend has not published anything about his experience but making a MAME arcade is cool and completely doable. The only thing is it takes money and time. My friend spent several thousand on the wood, tv, computer, controls, paint, etc. when he made his. He also spent lots of time tinkering and playing with things to get it to work properly. He is working on a second one now with a more complicatedly themed arcade box, better controls, etc. For him, it is a labor of love. He loves spending time in his shop, fabricating things and tinkering. The building of the arcade is its own hobby apart from playing video games.
Anyway, his arcade is really awesome. It looks like a commercial arcade and it can play any arcade game ever made. It can be done.
I've used M.A.M.E, and it's great. Emulation beats a rewrite/port any day of the week.
The feel is totally authentic, because the emulator executes the original ROM code opcode by venerable opcode.
What I'd hope to see in a book by that title, is some advice on creating the atmosphere of the arcade.
My fond arcade memories are of dark rooms or halls, with black paint or wallpaper. I remember one called "Space Station something-or-other" that had murals on the wall of deep-space.
Back to my point: Suggestions for decorating.
How about a home-theater room that with a few curtain-pulls-or-other becomes an authentic-looking arcade?
How about a 5.1+ audio stream playing through your home-theatre system that generates appropriate background noise? Yes, it's almost like a bad laugh track. But, let's face it, you could have the best single-cabinet ever, and you are not going to capture the arcade atmosphere. Does playing a movie in your living room with an LCD projector make you feel like you are at the drive-in? - Rhetorical, the answer, were it solicited, would be "No. LCD in living room != drive in"
Without regard to the colossal waste of time and resources this would be, it would definitely be pretty cool... DEVO in 5...
P.S. Let me get this off my chest: "Finite" "Infinite" "Definitive" "Definitely"...
Here is info on my MAME Cabinet, if anyone is interested. That link also includes the control panel template I came up with, info about the hardware, software, an image of the whole OS setup which can simply be dropped on a Compact Flash card and booted, and a bunch of other things.
The cabinet was built completely from scratch, patterned off of a early 90s Data East cab.
Of course, I did this all back in the summer of 2000, so some of the electronics I used for it might be a bit dated. However, I think most of the info is still applicable.
http://nyty.ath.cx/arcade/index.html
Having to pay for each game, and taking pride in spending 15 minutes (or 45 minutes) on a single quarter (or any other coin).
I think it was the fact that I had to pay for each attempt that made me memorise most of Slapfight and R-Type. I've played both on MAME (R-Type on the Wii as well), and I don't have the same motivation. If I die, I die. Press 5 a few more times and have another go. It's also the amount invested so far that can make a difference (when you realise that you've already spent around $100 or $500 on this game, you're not going to leave it now, not without your name on the high score list.
This will never be replicated at home, even if you add the coin mechanism, because you know you still have the money there.
I'm not suggesting that money is the only incentive, and that you can't enjoy arcade games without it, but I do believe it's a big part of it.
This book is three years old, man - haven't people seen it by now?
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
blog during construction here - http://nyty.ath.cx/arcade/index.html
John ("Saint") did a great job on the book. Really happy with the way it turned out.
North Americans are anything but frugal! Here in the USA and in Canada people spend money like water, let food spoil, spend money on car detailing, botox, and sleepaway camp.
And all though I spend an large amount of time in the arcade in the 1980s there were better places to be social.
Skating Rink, corner store, the shopping center.
Of course in my day you could smoke in the arcade, buy dope, and check out rat tails and members only jackets and listen to Pat Benatar. Maybe that is why we do not go to them.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Am I the only one who saw the headline and thought "A Microsoft Project arcade game would SUCK"? Probably. Time to get the corporate hand out from up in there...
Most of the "post-mortem" reviews of DIY cabinets give far, far more than enough detail to reproduce them.
Why?
Because this involves a relatively easy task! If you have an old cabinet and can build a PC, buy an X-Arcade dual (and perhaps the trackball), and whip out your jigsaw. Half an hour of work (not counting the PC itself and finding romsets for your favorite games) will give you a decent base cabinet ready to roll. Add another hour if you want to go all out on decorations.
Peter Hirschberg. Take a look at his basement arcade!
How's that for ambiance?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Then of course there's the rule that in any given arcade at least a quarter of the machines have to have controls that are broken or unresponsive in some way. Can't forget that...
Plus arcades had their own unique smell, a combination of electronics, carpet cleaner and sweat.
Finally, I imagine it'd be hard to get the controls of various games just right. For most games it's not a huge issue but it's absolutely essential for games like Spy Hunter, Discs of Tron and 720 Degrees.
I think if you want to go on an all-out nostalgia trip you have to buy a bunch of cabinets (Including 3 or 4 with special controls) and set up a full arcade in your basement or somewhere. If it's still feasible, you should probably snag a couple of pinball machines, too...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
What's funny is that the hoodlums that hung out in arcades (me among them) were considered anti-social types. And you're right, it was a place to buy pot or whatever, but usually not the best place. More of a last resort.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I got this a few years ago when I was interested in building my own box (then had some financial problems with this). It was great, especially if you coupled it with their website. They go into the legalities of MAME a bit, but mostly focus on how to built the machine.
I run mame on my desktop, which is ok, but I always (and still) want a spin, real joysticks, a flight stick, and the great old games. I've learned you can put multiple simulators on a machine and run stuff like old Apple II games up to fairly recent PC games.
This book is not comprehensive is everything you can do, but it gives you a great start if this is a hobby you would like to do. Well worth the price. And definintly check out their website. You could easily spend hours there.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Yes it does: no less than five pages (342-346) are devoted to legal issues surrounding obtaining the necessary ROMs, which is what I believe you are referring to.
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
For 15 years I repaired arcade games and pinball machines. In that time I must've installed a couple thousand 'conversion kits' to make over an old game into a new one. I left that industry in 1997, but I doubt things have changed much: converting an old game into a new one is much cheaper than buying a whole new game.
* Old arcade game cabinets (with or without working games in them, or even with non-working games in them) can be purchased; similarly, brand-new cabinets, manufactured with installing a new game kit in them are available. It's much easier and cheaper to renovate an old cabinet than it is to try to build one from scratch, that's for sure.
* Arcade-style buttons, joysticks, trackballs, etc. can also be purchased brand-new and used. Common controls like 4- and 8-way joysticks and standard pushbuttons are much, much cheaper than you'd think and readily availble.
* Older or "classic" arcade game PC boards can be had for a song from reputable companies. Most of the business the last company I worked for was buying and selling used hardware. While using an emulator is kinda cool (used to have an Asteroids emulator back in the day), nothing plays quite like the originals. Wiring up most of the old classic games isn't that difficult, most have one single harness connector and require +5 and +12 volts, monitor (RGB plus sync), speaker, and controls. Some multi-board sets are more difficult, but a decent company will sell it used with some sort of workable wiring harness and documentation showing cabinet wiring (I used to generate my own documentation if there was none available).
* Newer games (hopefully, all still) use a standard 56-pin wiring harness, which allows you to switch games as easily as pulling one PC board and installing another, no (or minimal) rewiring necessary. Where I worked, I started manufacturing adapters from the older games to the newer wiring harness standard, to facilitate selling older games to people and vendors that wanted them.
* Commentary on the legality of ROM images: last time I checked, even something as old and ubiquitous as Pac Man was still of great interest to Namco, and they'd sue your pants off if they discovered you pirating them. Piracy of arcade game hardware and software always was and probably still is a big problem for the arcade game industry; I'd see knock-off arcade games all the time. Copyright holders would sue the living daylights out of anyone trafficking in such things -- although I kept a library (past tense!) of EPROM/ROM/PAL images around for repair purposes, and you can likely still download them from the 'net.
No, my friend, you've missed the boat on this one. The "arcade experience" was standing in front of Gorgar, with its immense vocabulary of seven words, and immersing yourself in pure physics joy. Other than Asteroids and Galaga, there really aren't many video games that can even remotely hold a candle to pinball.
Ok, so this topic of DIY Arcade Cabinets has already been covered here, it's always a nice topic to cover once in awhile since now millions of geeks have made their own cabinets (myself included).
... that is, until it finally some hot-shot lawyer comes around and makes a statement that all home Arcade Machines are up to no good, stealing, copyrights, blah blah ...
I believe this book has been published for quite some time now. I ran across it on Amazon awhile back. The book does go over the legality matters of ROMS and such, but most people will ignore all the "possible" legal issues and still continue to download ROMS. I mean, how many people do you know who have a DIY arcade machine and and claim they've bought all 6000+ games? When asked how they got them, well, the Internet of course. And then that idea spawns others to build an arcade machine and they download ROMS and it'll be endless cycle
If you want to convert an old cabinet, there are much easier solutions. Ultimarc, for example, produces several products that convert standard JAMMA interfaces to PC keyboard and video connections...Ultimarc's products, though, appear to allow for the joystick and buttons on a JAMMA cabinet to connect to a PS/2 interface and for the video connector to hook to VGA (refresh and resolutions on arcade machines are different from standard computer modes). They even sell an AGP or PCIe video card that appears to have a special RAMDAC so that you don't have to screw around with getting the weird video modes working....I've never used Ultimarc's stuff, so I have no idea how well it would work. Assuming it's decent, the formula would be pretty simple:
It all works very well indeed. I have an IPAC interface, an ArcadeVGA card, a video amplifier and an UltraStick 360 (USB arcade-style joystick mappable to analogue). This went into a two-player six button Electrocoin cabinet along with a P800, speakers and a wireless adapter for remote admin. The ArcadeVGA allows direct connection to a 15Khz monitor such as the Hanterax 9000 that came with my Electrocoin - no messing around. Resoldering the buttons to connect to the IPAC was easy, and the default IPAC controls map to the default MAME key configurations as well. Top it all off with a MAMEWah front end and my home arcade machine is doing very well for itself.
My only gripe isn't with Ultimarc, it's with the speakers I chose. They have excellent sound quality, no problem there, but they need switching by pressing two buttons simultaneously. I'd like to find some good speakers that can be left in an on position constantly, and will just react to whether power is being supplied or not. All suggestions welcome.
The other thing I'd like is a driver for the ArcadeVGA under Linux. At the moment my home arcade is based on Windows 2000 - the only install of Windows in the house, bar a virtual one I use for running Quicken. I'd like to move over to a Linux solution, but I've read mixed things about the ArcadeVGA under Linux. It works, but there appears to be an amount of faff getting the right resolutions recognised and avoiding that is exactly why I bought an ArcadeVGA in the first place.
All in all though - Ultimarc make excellent products which make refitting a cabinet into a MAME box an entirely straight forward affair. The owner has also been helpful advising me on a few things too. No connection, just a satisfied customer.
Cheers,
Ian
And the smell... that was in a whole other zone...
I'd recommend the A-PAC as this uses the USB gamepads as the discrete controllers to program. This is much simpler to set up and you don't have to worry about ghosting keys. Its also good if you don't want the arcade machine and you make a desktop arcade box, you can use it for other PC games that use gamepads.
It's not a real stand up arcade game unless it has cigarette burns on it by the player 1 & 2 buttons.
You need to invite strangers to your house while you are playing, who will annoyingly hang around the machine hoping for a free go.
Go to an arcade. Am I the only person who thought of that? There are still a few out there, and if people would un-lazy, un-stupid, and un-cheap enough to go to them every once in a while, they could be saved.
I own a Double Dragon arcade cabinet and am in the process of restoring it... For the ones who truly want to re-live the 'good old days', especially with a favorite game, you can't beat a dedicated cabinet (READ: *not* MAME).
The reason is simple: You get the cabinet's original dimensions, artwork (side-art, bezel art, banner art, control panel art) that was half the reason you loved the game in the first place. There was nothing like scanning an arcade for your favorite game and seeing it, all lit up, ready for you to pump in a few quarters.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I found building my mame machines to be a lot of fun. I converted a Tekken 3 into a full fledged mame machine. I did spend much time getting the controls just right. Using 8 way joysticks in 4 way games will really frustrate a person. I found the Ultimarc 360s to be the easy solution. The key is to have the game switch joystic modes automatically. Another key to the arcade experience is to throw at least one Pinball machine in the room. Respect!
is when some fucktard used to get pissed when he lost at the arcade and just had to smash his fist into the controls. Then the controls would be broken. I would lose a good dollar or two to machines that were fucked up by people who could'nt control themselfs because you could'nt tell if somthing was fucked up on the control scheme before you played. BASTARDS
This one is cool.
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/tardis
In a geeky sort of way.
While we are at the topic of arcade cabinets, does anybody have a good recommendation for an simple arcade stick for those that just want to play games on their PC without building their own cabinet?
I do cover the legalities of ROMs and such in the book. I attempted to distinguish between the moral issue of using ROMs (short version: That's a personal decision for you to make) and the legal issue of using ROMs (that for the most part it involves a copyright violation). I mention the various clearly legal ways to get ROMs (the alas defunct StarRoms service for instance, compilations you can buy, etc), and the grey area (are you entitled to use a ROM if you own the board set, for instance).
One point I want to make though is that the book is not about building a MAME cabinet. You'll never hear me refer to one as a MAME cabinet. It's about building an arcade cabinet that runs various software which is an important distinction. Most people will run MAME, of course, however there are hundreds and hundreds of other software games that you can run legally that don't involved copyright violations. Digital Leisure games, Atari releases for the PC, shareware/freeware games that are replicas or similar to arcade games, retroremakes.com, Dance Dance Revolution, the open source dance pad game I can't recall the name of, Williams Classics if you can find it, etc. The two top games as far as my kids are concerned on the cabinet I built are Jazz Jackrabbit and a game called "Best Friends" (retro64.com).
At any rate, thanks for the review Craig and the comments everyone!
--- John St.Clair
Project Arcade
http://www.projectarcade.com/
Build Your Own Arcade Controls
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/
--- saint
Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Oh yes, I was one of those 14/15 year old kids that could totally wipe the floor with you on Defender, Stargate, or Blaster - and I relished the crowd. Back then, Williams Electronics was the shit - the single best game company in the world (next to Atari, IMHO), and Eugene Jarvis (programmer of the Defender/Robotron series) was my personal hero. My best friend's poison was Robotron - NO ONE ever beat him. I once monopolized a cocktail Defender machine in a mall arcade for over 8 hours drawing a HUGE crowd. After the 6th hour, I had enough ships to simply stand up and use the restroom, get a drink, watch other people try and play the 300th+ wave (whatever it was rolled over to at the time), and then after a 1/2 hour or so, took control again.
I was kicked out of almost every local arcade and pizza place. The smart asses at one Italian-owned pizza place in Philly invited me back in a few days after they had kicked me out. 'Hey! Youa, COME IN! COME IN! You cana play, that's a nice boy...' I soon found out why they were all smiles - they had jacked up the difficulty settings on their Stargate machine - almost no Inviso, extra lives at 40,000, not 25,000, etc. Still, I lasted about an hour and a half on a single quarter and they weren't as smiley when I left that night.
For a 14 year old boy, there's no better ego booster than doing something very few people could and being recognized for it. Later, I entered (and won) a regional contest on Stargate - I still have the cheesy t-shirt.
Yeah, it was all about the attention I got. To this day I love to perform - I run a small school network and always try to be the 'answer man' when it comes to anything remotely related to computers and on the weekends, I play with my classic rock band, 'Dizzy Lizyrd'. ROCK ON!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
So I've built two full sized machines, and I've sold both of them...they just take up a lot of space that the significant other isn't always crazy about (even if it's in the garage). The solution is to build just the control panel, and put all the guts inside. Here are a couple of pics...the trackball is all wired in, the right and left mouse buttons work, there's an expansion port (and 4x USB hub for controllers) on the side (hookup a second one for 4 player games ;), RCA, S-Video, ethernet, wifi, etc. It's the only way to go...hehe, too bad I'm never satisfied, now I'm planning to sell this one and build an even smaller one, probably half-inch stock to cut down the weight and so forth. Good times.
http://storyid.freeshell.org/arcade
--storyid
Seriously...if people wanna bitch about arcades being pretty much non-existant just get outa the country, and go visit Japan. I'm there atm. Actually I can walk downstairs, and theres a bad ass arcade thats better than anything in the US right now, and it's in Fing Hiroshima!!!
If Americans really want arcades they'll show their love with money. So far Americans would assume play games at home, and steal games via MAME (things this book pushes). Thing that Arcades in the US really missed is those sutpid assed claw machines. Those can really rake in the cash when you are like me, and would like to see something for your troubles/want easy gifts. Seriously, not this stuffed animal crap we have in the US too. I'm talking stuff from anime, videogames, movies, etc. I spend maybe $4-$5 for $20+ items, and feel good because I have something tangible (looking at a stack of Evangelion crap I won today).
Plus there is that thing where the Japanese do know how to make FAR better arcade games, and update the current games in the arcade far more often than American vendors will (The Gundam 0083 RTS card based game is teh fucking WIN!).
Regardless of the consensus that owning a board and ripping a ROM makes it legal for you to play it, it is stll illegal. Fair Use does not apply to ROM chips. You have the right to back up the ROM but you cannot use the ROM off any medium other than the one it was intended for, ie the Game Board.
There are however ways to obtain legal roms. Buying an Xgaming Joystick and you are provided with 6 fully licensed roms Gautlet, Joust, Defender, Robotron, Smash TV and Rampage.
There is also 1 rom placed in the public doamin by the author and 2 more of questionable origin. See the MAME site for more info.
--
David
Not to mention that you can use these 'MAME' cabinets to play hundreds of other LEGAL PC based computer games like Quake, Unreal etc or any other game that fits into the cabinet paradigm.
Qix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qix Bitches, that's all I have to say about that.
crap.
A little off topic, but once a year here in San Jose, CA. There's something called California Extreme: http://www.caextreme.org/ which is a convention of classic arcade machine collectors. Basically they rent out an exhibition hall in San Jose and bring all their games set to free play. For $15-$20 you get to play all the arcade games you want, all day, as much as you want. And they're all the original cabinets, which means you don't have to come up with some ridiculous way to play Discs of Tron with the wrong controls.
The only time I've really gotten that "arcade feeling" from my youth in over 20 years.
So, your legal argument to support your position is "regardless what any goddamn bastard lawyer tells us, we listen to morality and common sense" ?
Get thee to the courts, next Chief Justice, for who could argue that !
Abandonware IS A FACT - a patent/copyright CANNOT EXIST in reality when all parties involved died and the holding corporation dissolved.
Who, then, owns the copyright? Care to provide a reference in the US Code to this 'abandonment' provision?
they die intestate and their assets are free to distribute. The same concept applies to corporations
Now you're making stuff up - that's just not correct.
If the owner of the copyright is an individual, then that copyright is part of the normal estate, and is distributed to heirs like other property. If the individual is truely intestate, then their property gets escheated to the state - the state would then own the copyright, and could do with it what it sees fit (including releasing the copyright to the public domain, or asserting damage claims against infringers).
If the owner is a corporation, then either corporation was dissolved correctly, and the net assets (including the copyright) were distributed as a liquidating dividend to the shareholders (or the company entered liquidating bankruptcy and the copyright is now owned by a creditor). If the corporation wasn't properly dissolved, then the copyright is owned by a dormant, non-operating shell, with the copyright is in legal limbo.
But this doesn't cause the copyright to vanish or be relased to public domain. Absent the copyright holder releasing the copyright, or the copyright expiring per statue, the copyright is owned by SOMEONE.
Sincerely,
- your local Intellectual Property Fascist corporation asstroturfer
- a/k/a reasonable person who may agree with your position, but doesn't like people talking out of their ass and giving incorrect information about stuff they know nothing about.
The reason is simple: You get the cabinet's original dimensions, artwork (side-art, bezel art, banner art, control panel art) that was half the reason you loved the game in the first place. There was nothing like scanning an arcade for your favorite game and seeing it, all lit up, ready for you to pump in a few quarters.
I think you're a bit confused here - MAME is a software arcade emulator, the only thing it has to do with a "cabinet" is I/O and a place to house things. There's nothing to stop me (technically) from building a PC, installing MAME and Double Dragon ROM images, and wiring that up to a gutted Double Dragon cabinet and having pretty much the same experience (yes, you can even wire up the coin box if you desire) as playing a DD machine with original DD arcade motherboard(s) inside.
MAME has very little to do with cabinet dimensions, artwork, lights, or coin slots.
Now, that said, having a nice Double-Dragon cabinet is pretty sweet, but so is having one cabinet that will play 4 player Gauntlet (4 stations), Gyruss (37-way stick), Tempest (spinner), Missile Command (trackball), and Time Crisis (gun). No, it wont have that totally immersive nostalgia effect, but it also wont take up the entire garage.
Mine cost me ~$2k and 12 months of labor in the end to construct (and it has all those in one cabinet). While that sounds expensive, I bet buying/refurbishing all of those machines would have come pretty close.
I'll second the comment that building the cabinet was easy (even for a neophyte like me) compared with wrestling with a front-end, especially after installing multiple emulators. Given the dynamic state of software compared to hardware (AFAIK, iPac is still the de-facto standard and haven't changed much in the last 5 years), I can see why the author would choose not to spend much time on that side of things.
I know exactly what MAME is, what it does, etc... My point was that if you had a *favorite* game(s), and you really wanted the full arcade experience, you need to have the artwork (preferably the original cabinet that the game was built for). It's just more true to the game. But that's just collectors - the typical tech enthusiast/Slashdotter that likes video games probably wouldn't want to go that far, and would like many more games than just one in its original dedicated cabinet.
$2k? Wow. Must be a nice setup...I don't plan on spending more than $300 total restoring my game, although it was in fair condition, and I'm doing all of the stripping/re-painting myself. But that's part of the fun. I'm even thinking about seeing how to upgrade the CPU in the DD JAMMA board, to make it not lag so much...but that's a bit beyond my expertise.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Atari v. JS&A concerned the sale of devices that make chip-to-chip copies for "backup" purposes, not chip-to-disk copies for emulation purposes. Backups fall under 117(a)(2), and the court in Atari found that 117(a)(2) does not cover chip-to-chip backups. The copies used in emulation, on the other hand, are not backups; they are an "adaptation ... created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine" per 117(a)(1). Compare Vault v. Quaid, 847 F.2d 255 (5th Cir. 1988), which the page on Patent Arcade mentions but does not analyze.
In addition, Atari happened in the Northern District of Illinois, which is within the 7th Circuit, and to my knowledge was not appealed; Vault happened in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. A split between federal circuits is prime material for a review by the Supreme Court.
I think the best compromize would be to build 5 MAME machines, each with a different control scheme, and on each load up all the games that use that particular scheme. For example, the trackball machine would play both Missle Command and Centipede.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz