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Project Arcade
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Jul 25, 2007 01:45 PM
from the if-you-build-it-they-will-play dept.
from the if-you-build-it-they-will-play dept.
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.
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I'm curious... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.seizurerobots.com/)
Re:I'm curious... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.outpimp.com/?x=57020 | Last Journal: Wednesday September 12, @09:15PM)
Well, I don't think it is that large a concern. Many places out there will sell you a blank machine....but, it is easy to get a free 'wink' 'wink' CD on the side of the ROMs to run it.
It has only really been recently that some companies have started putting these old games out there for anyone to play with them again....until the MAME movement, they were largely lost, and many game still aren't commercially available.
I don't personally see anything wrong with it...the idea behind MAME was to save and preserve some early computing. I like to see it when my friends' kids play these old games...hoping it might show them that game PLAY is more important often than graphics or sound. To this day, I think Robotron is one of the most fun and intensive games made. I usually finish a session worn out, sweaty, and have either nearly ripped out the dual joysticks, or have severe tennis elbow.
Wild Gunman (Score:5, Funny)
"That's like a baby's toy!"
Re:I'm curious... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://thoughthead.com/)
I worked for 3 years as an arcade tech while I was in college, we'd have bins and bins of scrapped gameboards, most of them had good ROMs and were just tossed in a bin once the cabinet was converted to a more lucrative game. We then scavenged spare parts off these boards for when active machines had problems. It was a great resource for the arcade because when a obsolete proprietary Sega chip failed on still popular classic game X we could dig up the board from the old Sega game Y from the same year that we binned years ago and find the same chip on the similar board.
The arcade I worked at had a lot of classic machines and the head tech actually started reverse engineering and building hardware emulators from scratch for a lot of classics that would die frequently from design flaws. (he was a really bright guy, and IIRC he was the head of the EE department at RI tech, the arcade was just his part time summer job).
There are however quite a few games that were encrypted or had some other form of copy protection to keep arcade operators from cloning machines by dumping the roms to similar hardware from a cheaper game. Even still many of the popular classics have legal roms available for sale. I seem to recall at least one of those "classic games in a joystick" packages coming with a CD that included legal, MAME usable roms; or maybe I'm imagining things.
In any case there are legal ways to obtain roms... though personally I prefer to just use the original hardware too.
Answer from the author (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.arcadecontrols.com/)
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/ [projectarcade.com]
Build Your Own Arcade Controls
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/ [arcadecontrols.com]
I bought this a while back.... (Score:1, Insightful)
I would recommend it to anyone serious about building their own cabinet.
For more information.... (Score:2, Informative)
calling cmdrtaco (Score:2)
(http://www.badtech.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 22 2007, @09:15AM)
Many options (Score:1)
missing (Score:1, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday February 15 2007, @08:40PM)
Re:missing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:missing (Score:4, Interesting)
It won't replace the ego boost from the throngs of humans crowding over your shoulder in awe of your godlike playing skills, but the Arcade Ambience [hofle.com] project is a pretty good replacement for the background sounds of dozens of arcade machines.
Attention! It's all about the ATTENTION! (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://mute-net.sf.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 28 2005, @03:50AM)
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!
Great book and great site... (Score:1)
does the book cover (Score:4, Funny)
oh right this is slashdot sort of a moot point by in large really.
Pay for nice wood (Score:3, Informative)
Bah... (Score:2)
(http://www.fizzl.net/ | Last Journal: Wednesday November 24 2004, @07:26AM)
My own parts recommendations... (Score:3, Informative)
I'd also like to recommend the Opti-Pac [ultimarc.com] 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 [happcontrols.com] is really nice.
Hopefully it covers front-ends (Score:1)
(http://www.carljagt.com/)
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 [dribin.org]. You could also try Lemon Launcher [sourceforge.net], 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.
Am I missing something here? (Score:3, Interesting)
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, [ultimarc.com] 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 [hanaho.com] 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.
Front-ends were my worst problem (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.bobsroom.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 05 2006, @03:03PM)
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.
Ambience (Score:1)
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"...
My MAME Cabinet (Score:2)
(http://nuxx.net/)
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.
Great MAME cabinet project (Score:1, Informative)
One thing still missing (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
New Edition??? No, I guess not... (Score:2)
(http://1-4-4.home.comcast.net/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 01 2006, @03:16PM)
VIPER MAME arcade project (Score:1)
Nice (Score:1)
Does this really need a book? (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Monday April 03 2006, @07:23PM)
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.
Meh (Score:2)
(http://www.flying-rhenquest.net/)
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...
Besides being a few years late (2004) (Score:3, Informative)
(Last Journal: Friday June 15, @07:01AM)
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.
FYI (Score:5, Informative)
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.
A pixellated avatar? (Score:2)
Although already covered in Slashdot earlier ... (Score:1)
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
It's not a real standup arcade game (Score:2, Funny)
To be truly authentic.. (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing can truly replace a dedicated cabinet... (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://youtube.com/thedarkener)
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.
For the lazy ones... (Score:2)
Full sized MAME machines take up too much space... (Score:1)
http://storyid.freeshell.org/arcade [freeshell.org]
--storyid
Wow...what a useless book... (Score:2)
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!).
Play the real things! (Score:1)
The only time I've really gotten that "arcade feeling" from my youth in over 20 years.
Re:it would be nice ... (Score:2)
(http://gentoogeek.net/)
Re:it would be nice ... (Score:3, Informative)
Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator [mame.net]
Re:I know how to recapture the arcade experience! (Score:1)
(http://myatomic.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 19 2006, @12:31AM)
Qix: the home version (Score:1)
(http://myatomic.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 19 2006, @12:31AM)