Main > Main Forum
Emulation speeds?
vidmouse:
More like 1000's not 100's. :applaud:
I believe all the systems you listed can be emulated.
One you left off the list that I would highly recommend
is Visual Pinball -- simulates real pinball tables.
We'd be able to help you better if we knew a little more
about what you're planning:
1) Do you have a picture of the gutted cab you want to convert?
2) What computer (specs) are you thinking of using -- (or can afford,
if you are starting from scratch)?
3) What kind of controls do you want to have (ie. primarily for
fighting games, shooter games, trackball games...?)
severdhed:
be aware also that if you have a pc ready to go, you can try the emulators on it before you ever start building the cabinet. that way you will know what to expect. one thing i have found is that while it seems like a good idea to have dozens of emulators and thousands of games on your cabinet, you end up not playing any of them for more than a few minutes because you are constantly wanting to try a new one. i had 5 or 6 emulators on my cabinet when i first built it, but it was just too much. too many games to go through, too many controls to work out. it ended up being overwhelming for anyone who tried to play it. they walked up to the frankenpanel i had, they had no idea how to work anything, and i spent most of my time explaining how to do things, how to switch emulators and stupid crap like that. now, i have mame, with about 50 games. less controls, less admin buttons, cleaner front end, and a selection of really good games. now when someone walks up to it, they can figure it out with very little effort...and the games actually get played this way.
my wife is a big pacman fan, but she couldnt figure out how to work the cabinet before...now it is easy for her.
when i first started out, i wanted a cabinet that could do it all, but over time i have found that a cabinet that does a few things really well is better.
but i'm sure that wont be the case for everyone.
good luck with your project. please keeps us updated, and post lots of pics
wonkalow:
Ok, I've cut the list back some to something more practical.
Atari 2600
Sega genesis
NES
SNES
Dreamcast
Mame
Here's a pic of my cabinet..
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4410/dscn0109nh5dp3.jpg
Sorry it's a little small, hopefully big enough to see. I know its a fairly odd shape, but I like it and think it'll work out ok.
For the computer, I was thinking something fairly simple but new parts nothing out of date or extremly slow, the cheapest new computer I can build if that makes any sense. I've been worried about speeds and realism so much that I havnt had much chance yet to see what pc specs I needed. I kinda assumed (which I see now is wrong) that anything fairly new has to be able to run them fine as the systems that ran these games originally are 10-20 years old, so something new should have no problems.
I'm not planning on anything special for the controls, just buttons, 2 joysticks (2 player cabinet) and maybe upgrading with 2 LED guns. No trackballs, or spinners or anything like that.
Where I live, TONS of people come over, so if this works out right it'll get alot of use and tons of games will get use. I dont mind having to setup all the controls for each emulator, im not scared of the hard work, im just really worried about speeds/realism, to me that will kill the whole thing. Mainly id like to see the classics, and most of the fighting games work good.
I might give that a shot. Building the PC first and trying them out, but I tried running a couple MAME games off my main PC (time crisis I believe it was) and it was so unbearably slow.. I didnt tweak the emulator or anything though
Paul Olson:
I agree with severedhed, try to keep it simple or you will spend much more time messing with and explaining the setup than you ever will playing the games. There are a lot of games that don't work right, and I guarantee that your guests will be able to find every one of them :banghead:. There are probably thousands of games that work perfect and can be set up correctly. Choose a limited number of these to be available to your friends. Too much choice can be overwhelming.
Have fun!
telengard:
--- Quote from: pcolson on July 21, 2007, 01:20:39 pm ---I agree with severedhed, try to keep it simple or you will spend much more time messing with and explaining the setup than you ever will playing the games. There are a lot of games that don't work right, and I guarantee that your guests will be able to find every one of them :banghead:. There are probably thousands of games that work perfect and can be set up correctly. Choose a limited number of these to be available to your friends. Too much choice can be overwhelming.
Have fun!
--- End quote ---
I agree with everyone also. I'd personally start with MAME (tons of games right there) mostly because it will be the easiest to get setup in the cabinet. Other emulators are do-able but may need more fiddling with. I have a set top box that runs about 14 different system emulators in it and some of them were quite a pain getting to work with just a gamepad from the couch. I run all of the ones you mentioned except for the Dreamcast.
A word about the more recent mame releases. Something not too long ago was re-written/re-done and performance for some of the oldies has dropped so if you like the classics be sure to put a beefy computer in there. Going back to a previous rev is also an option.
~telengard