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Photos of my Home Arcade Machine from when it first arrived back in February of 2006
I had recently blogged about and posted photos of the current state of my home arcade machine and the surrounding area. I've been going through my network backup drive and came across some interesting photos from when I first got the machine in February of 2006 that I never did anything with. When it was shipped, several wires inside got knocked loose and I was planning on documenting the restoration and the internals in great detail. That never happened, but I did take a few photos in anticipation of that. These are those photos (this is back when we were living in our previous house). I'm not going to describe each photo like I did in the previous blog entry, but they should still be interesting nonetheless for those wanted to know just a bit more about what's going on inside of the thing. When I power the coin slot in the future, I'll take updated photos, but these should suffice for now. Click here for the album of 38 photos or here for the slide show. Enjoy.
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Comments
Front ends are a hassle
I have to agree with you, Bill - I found that front ends mostly took far too long to configure properly, so I ran with the short cut options. Besides, when you get into the old PC DOS games and such (using DOS-Box and D-Fend), they all need to be configured differently as you play them.
I use MAME32 for the MAME games, and just drop the games I play the most in the Favorites filter, and run from that. Other than that, it's a desktop shortcut for the other emus.
It's not the fault of those putting out the emus, it's just not worth the time. I'd rather be playing NOW then spend too much time configuring a FE to run the game anyway.
Having said that, I wonder if there's an econimcal way to write one in QBasic or DarkBasic...
Mr Custard was working on a great looking front-end a while ago
Mr Custard was working on a great looking front-end a while ago. I think he was using Delphi or something like that. The front-end was for Mame32 and it was a clone of the Wii Channel interface. It used the Mame-screenshots and displayed the names from the mame-gamelist underneath.
It looked great but it wasn't very handy with all the mame-roms displayed. He even did some tricky memory caching so that the memory would only contain the games and screenshots of the area displayed. I believe he gave up on it because of the continuous changes the mame emulator has been going through, especially since version 0.1xx.
I have yet to come across a nice interface on the PC - I did see a rather nice one on a hacked xbox running some variant of mame called Coinops.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Front Ends
I experimented a great deal with front ends when I first got my cabinet. I've found that they were more trouble then they were worth. Some didn't work with everything, others didn't allow full configuration, etc. Since the trackball functions the same as a mouse and the joysticks as arrow keys, there's no particular disadvantage to keeping the game/emulator/media shortcuts on the desktop.
This one was the most promising of all the ones I tried, but it had trouble keeping my MAME32 settings and it's own settings were not satisfactory for MAME: http://www.gameex.net/ . Of course that was two years ago, so it's probably worth it to give it one more try, particularly since I have a license for it.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Thanks!
So what paint did you use on it - did you cover the surface of the paint with some sort of varnish?
A very cool sit-down cabinet with all controls ready to be used. Do you use some sort of front end to access all the emulators and programs?
I lack the space for a cabinet like that as I have created a TV-set/console lounge like thing in my study.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Thank you! It took a long time to get this thing to this point, including one aborted attempt (I'll spare you the gory details), that set me back about 3 weeks.
Yes, the computer comes out without dismantling too much - everything above it is hooked up via USB (Ipac, Opti-Pac and direct USB hookups), so it's really easy if the computer suffers a problem (or you need more RAM or HD space because you've got too much going on down there - ahem). Wireless networking comes in really handy too.
The paint is just this stuff that Home Depot said is good for MDF - 2 layer coats of primer (actually, I sanded them in between), and then 5 or 6 cots of that red stuff (just a water-based paint, not really semi-gloss). As I mentioned, I wasn't very happy with the way the paint turned out - I had taken my time with every thing else, but then I hurried through the painting a bit. With MDF, you have to do a LOT more sanding than I did. Live and learn.
There are many front-end programs to access the emulators, but the problem with using one of those with MY setup is that the control panel needs to be specifically configured for each emulator (for instance, the MAME programming for the control panel is different than the Commodore 64 emulator), and the software that programs the control panel needs to be loaded every time you want to change emulators. So I just created a bunch of shortcuts to run all the emulators, and different key assignments for the control panel.
Perhaps not as elegant as using the front-ends, but it works for me!
There are certainly a ton of different plans out there for space-limited setups, should you want to investigate this kind of thing. One of my friends built one into his laundry room door (the door still operates like a door, no less), and though I wonder about all that weight on it, it really seems to work. (I would definitely recommend the flat screen for that, though!)
Impressive!
Statsman1 - you did an awesome job. I like the way the PC is sitting below it is easy to take it out and replace it with a more powerful machine if needed. You could even use a laptop with your cab. You're far from hopeless at woodworking - this looks great!
So what paint did you use on it - did you cover the surface of the paint with some sort of varnish?
A very cool sit-down cabinet with all controls ready to be used. Do you use some sort of front end to access all the emulators and programs?
I lack the space for a cabinet like that as I have created a TV-set/console lounge like thing in my study.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Lode Runner Redux
My favorite was always the Apple II version. I don't know why, it might be just comfort - that was the first one I ever played.
I might go and look at other versions, just to give them a try.
My vote for best Lode Runner
Tough call. My vote would be for either the original 8-bit versions on Apple II, Atari 8-bit or C-64, or the two player simultaneous Sierra version released for Windows, PS1, etc.: http://www.mobygames.com/game/lode-runner-the-legend-returns . I still have to say that I'm fond of playing the original 8-bit computer versions the most. I'm not nearly as fond of the arcade versions or the Japanese console releases.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
What would you guys say is
What would you guys say is the best-ever version of Lode Runner? I'm kinda wanting to crank it up as well.
Lode Runner
I recall that there was a "Lode Runner 3D" released for the Commodore and Atari back then, but I have no recollection of playing it. However, most reviews of this version were harsh.
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
There truly are tons of versions of Lode Runner. I believe the 3D one you're referring to was published by Synapse as "Lode Runner's Rescue" (I believe at one point in its development it was called "Lode Runner's Daughter" if I remember from my youth): http://www.chasethechuckwagon.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000063824 . The first true 3D Lode Runner was probably Lode Runner on the Nintendo 64. It's not a bad game actually, though it's a blurry mess on anything less than an S-Video connection. If I'm reminded at some point after I'm done with the TRS-80 stuff, I'd love to go through all the Lode Runners in my collection along with whatever you guys played either first hand or through emulation. It would be fun to do a collective Lode Runner-athon...
(I also agree that I don't like the multi-screen Lode Runners or the ones with chunky graphics. Lode Runner is best confined to a single screen with tiny characters!)
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Lode Runner
Daggone this site! Now I need to dig up Lode Runner and replay it!
Lode Runner was one of my all-time faves on both the Apple II and Atari 800 versions, and I created many of my own levels for it back in the day (at least 50!), and my friends loved my levels, preferring them to some of the comercial level disks!
I didn't much care for the Japanese arcade version, even though (first hand experience) I recall seeing the Lode Runner arcade game being swamped by Japanese gamers, so much so that I didn't get a chance to play it much. It was a really big hit there, but I didn't much like the fact that a) they made Lode Runner "cutesey," b) the graphics were too "big," making the levels less challenging, and c) you couldn't design your own levels (obviously). When I did get to play the arcade version, I surprised my fellow Japanese gamers at how good I was at it right off the bat. They didn't know that Lode Runner existed previously as a computer game, and that I was comparatively an "expert" at the game. "These Americans are GOOD at video games!" they would think! :-)
I recall that there was a "Lode Runner 3D" released for the Commodore and Atari back then, but I have no recollection of playing it. However, most reviews of this version were harsh.
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
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