Space Invaders returning to arcades...

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri Dec 5 17:45:07 2003

On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 19:40, Bryan Pope wrote:
> And thusly Jason McBrien spake:
> >
> > My brother-in-law's MAME cabinet features a 27" screen, dual

> Sounds like a nice spring project!! Is there any good places on the web
> that sell/have plans for arcade cabinets?

Indeed it does! I have a 'proper' old goldfish-bowl style 19" ex-Sun
monitor that's reserved for just such a cabinet one day, when space
permits (as I want the authentic feel of the cabinet too, not a newer
flat screen). I had it running happily with the DOS version of MAME a
couple of years ago (which also had the advantage over Windows / Linux
that it could just be switched off without the need to be shut down)

Last time I had a serious look at this (and had a homebrew cocktail
cabinet machine up and running with a 15" screen) there were ROMs and
plans aplenty out on the 'net for download. One problem I found was that
I could find nowhere in the UK to supply the 'proper' big round
pushbutton controls as used on the old arcade machines - all the ones
sold here were too small.

I had a quick look on the 'net about a year ago though, and it seems
like all the old game manufacturers had got upset over copyright issues
and virtually all of the ROM sites had been shut down. I guess they
hadn't given up on the idea of making a huge profit on this again one
day, and now it looks like that day may be here...

> How does it serve the MP3s? Over ethernet or something else?

I'm curious on that too - another project I was wondering about as I'm
fed up hauling CDs out to the garage when I'm working there and them
getting all dusty..

> > I wonder what's in those new boxes.. Think it's just an embedded micro
> > running an emulator? Fewer parts == cheaper to build.

Maybe they still have a stockpile of the original Z80 (and friends)
boards and are just dropping those straight in... :-)

cheers

Jules
Received on Fri Dec 05 2003 - 17:45:07 GMT