Eugene Jarvis interview

[solfood]

awesome article/interview with Jarvis, the creator of Robotron and Defender etc.

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/03/02/eugene_jarvis/index_np.html

[solfood]

and he thinks MAME and emulation are groovy.

[JamesS]

Unfortunately I do not have a Salon membership.

[CitznFish]

Unfortunately I do not have a Salon membership.

I believe membership is free, you just need to watch a 30 second commercial before entering. WE designed part of our web site the same way using Ultramercial (not that you asked...)



Subscribe now, or get a free day pass...

[solfood]

yeah...just watch the 30 second ad from Powells bookstore (and receive a coupon!) and you can read the interview.

[Stingray]

Normally I just skip over anything online that requires me to watch an ad first, but I made an exeption in this case. It was worth the qucik ad.

-S

[Jakobud]

I think we need a Slashdot forum here for all the Slashdot posts that get reposted here.

[Edgedamage]

and he thinks MAME and emulation are groovy.

Well yah any cool genuis wants his best work to last forever.

[solfood]

i figured that even though we're all geeks here, we might have some geeks that don't slashdot.  

my coworkers joked on me when they saw that I had slashdot, craigslist, gizmodo, pricewatch, newegg and a slew of linux and mame sites bookmarked.  

[OSCAR]

and he thinks MAME and emulation are groovy.

A friend of mine knows Eugene and has had him over to his house before for an arcade party.  Eugene refused to play Robotron on his MAME cab with a 27" D9200 monitor, saying "It's just not right".  

My friend told me that Eugene spent the evening playing his pins, Joust/Multi-Williams cab, and other non-Williams games on the MAME cab.  Heh...

[Edgedamage]

Dammm I thought I was too fussy about robotron!!!

[Dave_K.]

A friend of mine knows Eugene and has had him over to his house before for an arcade party.  Eugene refused to play Robotron on his MAME cab with a 27" D9200 monitor, saying "It's just not right".  

Its not the D9200 monitor or mame, but that your friend probably didn't have  a pair of wico leafswitch joysticks.  It just aint the same without a pair of those red ball top leafswitch sticks.

[OSCAR]

Its not the D9200 monitor or mame, but that your friend probably didn't have  a pair of wico leafswitch joysticks.  It just aint the same without a pair of those red ball top leafswitch sticks.

I am inclined to agree, you can't play Robotron without Wico leafs.  However, he did specifically mention that the the 27" monitor was too large and didn't look right.  Many true Robotron fans actually prefer a 19" screen, there is too much happening on the screen to take it all in on a 27" when you are standing that close to it.

[Sasquatch!]

The "Williams Arcade Classics" CD has a bunch of interviews (text and videos), and it has some with Jarvis.  I liked his attitude in those.  He seemed like a "krazy kat".  

[paigeoliver]

Its not the D9200 monitor or mame, but that your friend probably didn't have  a pair of wico leafswitch joysticks.  It just aint the same without a pair of those red ball top leafswitch sticks.

I am inclined to agree, you can't play Robotron without Wico leafs.  However, he did specifically mention that the the 27" monitor was too large and didn't look right.  Many true Robotron fans actually prefer a 19" screen, there is too much happening on the screen to take it all in on a 27" when you are standing that close to it.

Amen, you want a terrible Robotron experience? Then go play it on the average Ultracade (27" display and Happ supers). My scores are more than triple at home with Wicos and a standard sized display.

[FractalWalk]

"I am inclined to agree, you can't play Robotron without Wico leafs. "


Can you get Wico red-ball 8-way leafs anywhere other than eBay?

[paigeoliver]

I think Bob Roberts USED to carry them, although I believe I bought his last set a while back.

Ebay is your best bet. They are ALWAYS on ebay. Both used, NOS, repro ones (which are not quite as good), and can often be found in complete control panels, which is often the best way to pick them up (just look for a butt ugly control panel with a pair of red balltops on them, 9 times out of 10 they will be Wicos.

They were also available in other colors, but all the other colors are super rare.

[FractalWalk]

They were also available in other colors, but all the other colors are super rare.

I believe I saw a single blue one on eBay last night. I'm blocked by my company's firewall right now, so I can't post a link.