Links to pretty cool software to play on cabinet

[TimO]

A quick note to TimO:

I wanted to put your site through it's paces so I did.  Many of the sites links are invalid. Why? Because you are allowing indirect linking to demos.  By that I mean you don't give a link to the homepage of the company, instead you give a link to the bulk downloads area of a game demo site.  Unfortunately game demo sites only keep demos online for about a month or so and then  they are gone.  

The safe bet is to link to the company/game's homepage.  Not a link to the file directly, but just the front page.  Those rarely change.  

Keep up the good work....  

HAC

Edit:

Something that's also of note is that your "needs trackball" status is completely off.  

For example, ball of steel has a completely mouse driven interface, not only that but you can't use keys to navigate either.  So obviously it does require a trackball to be played on an arcade cabinet.  Many of the other games are similar, e.g. they do indeed have remappable controls, but the keys to navigate through the menu to start the game are hard-coded, therefore the keys aren't remappable for all intenvise purposes.  

I'm not trying to rag on ya, I'm just offering some suggestions.  

I'll fix the links sometime this weekend. I had no idea that it worked that way or that the sites did that, so thanks.  

Also, on the trackball comment... A lot of the games work that way. When I say "Trackball Needed" I'm reffering to the actual game play, not the interface. I thought that people would catch on. So I'm left with two choices, 1) note every game as a "trackball/mouse needed" which seems pointless or 2) I'll put a note on the top of the page that says "the below statistics for each game reffer to the actual game play itself, not the interface."


Also, I'm never on this board. So if you have a suggestion for the site, or a game that you would like to submit to the site. Please email me or IM me on AIM. You can get it at http://www.timoproductions.com
Thank you.

[Howard_Casto]

I disagree.... saying that a trackball is needed for every game is far more useful.  You see, the whole idea is we want games you can actually play on an arcade cabinet..... not everbody has a trackball so all games that need more than your stock controls need to be noted.  If that requries a new field then that's fine, but nothing is more frustrating than downloading a game only to find out it won't work on your setup.  That was kind of the whole point of this thread, although the point seems to be lost to a lot of people, who post games that have no chance of being playable on a mame cab.  

[Muttley]

Dunno if this has come up already, but Gish looks like it'll work pretty well on a cab (not in a position to try it yet), but will need a trackball for some menu screens:

http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?gish.htm

Great little physics based 2D scroller/puzzle game.

Muttley

[SirPoonga]

Moonbase Commander form infogames.  Turn based strategy that just uses mouse control.

http://www.moonbasecommander.com/

[vputz]

Haven't tried it on my cab because it's a Windows game and my cab/HTPC is Linux-based, but "Dr. Blob's Organism" by Digital Eel and Cheapass Games would probably be a great candidate.  

Like Tempest, really, except that the gun stays fixed and the "tunnel" (in this case, a petri dish with a mutating cellular blob) is rotatable.  Instead of critters crawling up a tunnel, the blob grows (using an algorithm like Conway's Life) as you chip away at its edges.  Interesting powerups and a pretty frantic pace.  They have a demo at http://digital-eel.com/organism/files.htm.  Retail game is $10.

-->VPutz

[ErikRuud]

"Dr. Blob's Organism" looks pretty good, but the demo crashes my Win2k laptop when I exit the game.

[vputz]

"Dr. Blob's Organism" looks pretty good, but the demo crashes my Win2k laptop when I exit the game.


Weeeeird.  Never noticed any problem on XP.  You should write Digital Eel and whup 'em.

Nice seeing Mike the TV getting work as your avatar, BTW (grin)

-->VPutz

[rchadd]

Anyone know if the PC version of Worms playable on a cab without using a keyboard?

[Brax]

Has anyone mentioned Scorched Earth yet?

http://www.classicgaming.com/scorch/

I used to play this thing every day at lunch during work. What a simple and utterly competitive game!

Not sure if controls are remappable for a cabinet though, but what a great game.

[cbmeeks]

http://signaldev.com/pub/sotb.zip

HEHEHEHE.

Not a full game but a cheesy demo I did in Blitz Basic.  Would LOVE to see what it looked like running an a MAME box.

Someone run it and take some pics!!!   LMAO

-cb

[mlcampbe]

Anyone every tried Neverball and/or Neverputt from http://www.icculus.org/neverball/ with a mame cabinet?

It looks pretty cool and is very adicting at least to me. I don't know if it works with a joystick though.

[danny_galaga]

noticed mention of Armagetron earler in these posts. sounds great. I tried to download from various sources but no luck. am i not holding my tongue right or is it not available anymore? doesnt seem to pop up on winmx either...

[IG-88]

I think you can get it from this site:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/armagetron/armagetron-windows-0.2.5.2.exe?use_mirror=optusnet

seems to work for me  

[danny_galaga]

ok, im a doofus. every place i try and download it from says 'this file appears to be a web page, possibly an error message'. what gives? why cant it just be a normal file like anything else? why is life so hard? if a tree falls in the forest, could anyone give a @^%$&^%#?

[IG-88]

If you want I can try and email it to you. It's like a 1.2 mb file tho. Let me know.

[danny_galaga]

If you want I can try and email it to you. It's like a 1.2 mb file tho. Let me know.

sure. i cant seem to get it any other way... email:

blah

this has a few meg spare. thanks for your help!

[Hamselv]

Has anyone tried the 3D fighter game called BioFreaks? Somehow I think that game would be great on a cab.

I remember playing it on Win98, but I haven't been able to make it work properly in XP (something about OpenGL/Glide).

*EDIT*
Ok, so I didn't know that the game was actually an arcade game from Midway....

Supposedly it is not even all that good, but I must say I kinda liked it on the PC. Has anyone tried the MAME'd version, if it is fully functional yet?

[Lilwolf]

btw, biofreaks selling super cheap on
http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/cgi-bin/buy/online-item_id-B00005C7O1-search_type-Used-searchus.html

a few bucks... might be worth it.

edit - Never Mind - That was the playstation version.. (epsxe?)

[SirPoonga]

http://www.geocities.com/wolronweb/Pitfall.html

[Generic Eric]

Nothing new to add, but has any tried that game Jets & Guns?

AWSOME side scrolling shooter.  I hope the development hasn't stopped.  I have almost beat level one.  79% completed.  Very cool.  If anyone knows of another game like this, let me know.

[Chris]

Oh yea I got this one.. called icy tower, a kind of ice climbing remake on snes. Its simple but can be really adictive

http://www.freelunchdesign.com/games.shtml

I have Happyland Adventures, from the same site, on my cab.  The only problems it has in a cab are that it requires a keyboard for high score entry, and you can't load custom maps without a mouse.  Other than that, it's cab friendly.

[Howard_Casto]

Has anyone tried the 3D fighter game called BioFreaks? Somehow I think that game would be great on a cab.

The top three worst fighters of all time:

3.  Tattooed Assassins

2.  War Gods

1.  Bio Freaks

This isn't just my opinon, but the opinon of virtually every gaming magazine out there.  There is bad, and then there is Bio Freaks.  

[grumble]

Sega Virtual Tennis is really fun and feels like an arcade game (you can remap controls, etc)

I remembered playing a virtual pool game in high school (probably about 94) that would be perfect on the cabinet. I've seen lots of modern virtual pool games but I haven't found one yet that isn't a buggy piece of crap. Anybody know of a good one?

I forget the name but I picked up one of those ultimate Mahjongg(sp?) games at Wally-World for $5.00 and it's a lot of fun to play with the trackball.

[Generic Eric]

Nothing new to add, but has any tried that game Jets & Guns?

AWSOME side scrolling shooter.  I hope the development hasn't stopped.  I have almost beat level one.  79% completed.  Very cool.  If anyone knows of another game like this, let me know.

I sent the programmers of Jets and Guns an email asking about the progress.  There should be a full release in November, if memory serves.  Geez this is an awsome game.  FINALLY GOT to the Boss level (99)%.  What a fun game.  If you haven't tried it yet, its worth the download!

[MrBond]

Has anyone mentioned Scorched Earth yet?

http://www.classicgaming.com/scorch/

I used to play this thing every day at lunch during work. What a simple and utterly competitive game!

Not sure if controls are remappable for a cabinet though, but what a great game.

Just for kicks, try Scorched 3d, the new 3d remake of the original scorched earth!  It even has online play!  I wish the original had online capabilities.  (and yeah, it was mentioned, but I know some don't read the whole topic)
http://scorched3d.sourceforge.net/

[Felsir]

I found a really weird 'shooter' game. It's called "every extend"...
http://nagoya.cool.ne.jp/o_mega/product/e2.html The site is in japanese, the download is a .lzh file (you might need winrar to unpack it). The game is in english tho.
Once you get past the japanse website barrier you're in for a very fun (and new) game.

I've been playing this game the last three hours and I think I'm hooked...

You control a small 'ship' on the playfield, and cubes slowly float into the screen. You can blow yourself up to create an explosion that make the cubes explode. The exploding cubes generate another explosion and you cause a chain reaction. This extends the time you can play. You get a new 'ship' and the fun start over. You may not touch the cubes or the lasers that some cubes shoot. There are also some powerups thrown in for good measure.

[SpamMe]

Ooh, every extend is really nice. Shame you can't remap that z button (but that's a wrapper thing, right?), and that the game asks if you want to run it full screen every time you start it up instead of reading from an ini.

[Martoon]

Nothing new to add, but has any tried that game Jets & Guns?

Ya gotta love a character named "Erecta Von Hamburger"  

[Bgnome]

I disagree.... saying that a trackball is needed for every game is far more useful.  You see, the whole idea is we want games you can actually play on an arcade cabinet..... not everbody has a trackball so all games that need more than your stock controls need to be noted.  If that requries a new field then that's fine, but nothing is more frustrating than downloading a game only to find out it won't work on your setup.  That was kind of the whole point of this thread, although the point seems to be lost to a lot of people, who post games that have no chance of being playable on a mame cab.  

personally, i am interested in which games CAN be played with a mouse/trackball..  ive got a few games, but it is hard to tell which schmups support the trackball without having to download and try all of them..

[Mr. Dude]

I just tried the PC version of Crazy Taxi out on my cab and it works pretty good.  It has remappable controls and doesn't require the use of a mouse, for those who don't have a trackball installed.  

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah but you really can't play crazy taxi without analog controls.  


I don't think you guys really got my statment.  Wheather or not the MENUS need a trackball or hardcoded are important things to know, while what the game itself uses are less important unless they are hardcoded.  

Just like my Dogg Hunt game I just finished..... it requires a trackball or lightgun, but it isn't fun to play without those anyway.

[str1der]

Yeah but you really can't play crazy taxi without analog controls.  


I don't think you guys really got my statment.  Wheather or not the MENUS need a trackball or hardcoded are important things to know, while what the game itself uses are less important unless they are hardcoded.  

Just like my Dogg Hunt game I just finished..... it requires a trackball or lightgun, but it isn't fun to play without those anyway.

I'm not sure about Crazy Taxi but Simpson's Road Rage controls great on my cabinet. I thought they were pretty similar. My son has a blast with it.

[Mr. Dude]

Yeah but you really can't play crazy taxi without analog controls.  


I don't think you guys really got my statment.  Wheather or not the MENUS need a trackball or hardcoded are important things to know, while what the game itself uses are less important unless they are hardcoded.  

Just like my Dogg Hunt game I just finished..... it requires a trackball or lightgun, but it isn't fun to play without those anyway.

 , sorry I don't catch your drift Howard.  Crazy Taxi plays awesome on my cabinet with a regular 8 way joystick.  Are sure you've played the PC Version?  I use the joystick up to go forward, back for breaks and left and right for steering.  You only need two buttons during gameplay as well which is another great feature, one to put the car in drive and another to put the car in reverse.  It does require a start button as well during the main menu and all the controls are completely remappable, so once again I highly recommend this game for play on a cabinet.        

p.s. You're right Str1der Crazy Taxi and the Simpsons Road Rage are very similar.

[Howard_Casto]

Well, technically you can, but it ruins the experience and is far less fun to play.  Just like technically you can play analog console games on a mame cabinet, but it just feels horrible.  

[str1der]

Well, technically you can, but it ruins the experience and is far less fun to play.  Just like technically you can play analog console games on a mame cabinet, but it just feels horrible.  

I guess I'm a little confused. It's been 10 years since I last had an analog controller on my PC. So how would I be playing these PC games with one?

[math0ne]

Check this one out... pretty good fighter... configurable controls etc... fun stuff...




http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4782

Download at the above link... its freeware by the way...

[papaschtroumpf]

looks great! compatible with MAME style controls

[papaschtroumpf]

A  recent thread about what non-mame stuff people have on their cabinet, led to a conversation with my wife, who said she wanted puzzle games (I curerntly have all of the MAME puzzle games filtered out).

In addition to the MAME ones (some of them will still get filtered out becasue they suck), she requested Bejewled from popcap games. It turns out that if you have a trackball if works well on a cabinet.

I then looked for aditional puzzle games on the PC for m cab.

Alchemy from popcap game works well with a trackball too (it was on the same free after rebates CD that I got Bejewled on).

- "Tower of the Ancients" from Small Rockets works with just a joystick and buttons, although you need to have both Space and Enter keys mapped.  Demo available from the small rockets web page. Works fine on XP despite the initial warning, which is often not the case for older Small Rockets products.

[CGRemakes]

I don't think this one has been posted, but this is a great freeware vertical shooter that plays great on cabs.  It has a very arcade feel to it.

http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~yosshin/my_works/CH010912.EXE

(picture is from GameHippo)

[Mr. Dude]

Hey math0ne,
That game looks sooo sweet!!!  I downloaded the file though and I can't seem to get it to work.  I get all kinds of error messages when I unzip it and the when I click on the EXE to play it... it runs fine up till the main menu and then gives me more errors and escapes out of the game!  If you can give any word of advise I'd appreciate it, I really want to play this game.