ApeXtreme - MAMEable?

[gprime]

Links:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1944&p=2 (good one)
http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/01/06/0424257.shtml?tid=127
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTcz

Pretty much an Xbox that doesnt hide the Windows part of it. APEX says they will allow editing the Windows XP interface, etc, allowing normal applications (like MAME?). Lots of USB 2.0 ports (i-Pac ). So basically, a computer at a really good price


EDIT:

Oh yeah S-Video out, Composite out, Audio Out, and maybe if we're lucky, hackable controllers  

[Sephroth57]

well they said a suggested price of around 400$ will be launch price which really isnt that cheap for what it is. I really dont see the point i could assemble a PC that would probably play games better plus do actual non gaming things for the same price with pricewatch.com parts. and that probably wouldnt be good for higher end MAME games since it uses processing power for its main speed and that thing doesnt look like its packing too many Ghz

[gprime]

Hrm, you have a good point. I never thought of that. Apparently the console is relying on it's video card for most of the games, so mame games might not run all that good. But considering it comes with a licensed WindowsXP OS + Videocard with S-Video + Controllers + Ethernet etc the price is pretty good.

Maybe the price will decline in the future to make it more affordable.

[nealj]

XP embedded would be really nice to have for a mame cabinet - it starts up much faster than standard xp and should handle "pull the plug" shutdowns as well.

[Lilwolf]

If they get it running well.. it should be pretty cool...  

The phantom is a cd-less computer that forces you to buy games from them over broadband.

These are embedded XP on different hardware that has a frontend to install you games for you.  So you put in a standard CD, it reads the begining and figures out what it is.  Installs it automatically and continues.

The question is if it will allow you to run games that they don't know how to install...   But other then that it should work just fine.

As for the speed of the computer.... Not the best for mame.  But should be usable for mame.  Most of the money is in the video card...