Thinking about a bartop/megatouch project

[bishmasterb]

So I've got a good 17" touchscreen monitor and a small HP PIII system lying around and I was thinking of building a bartop/megatouch style game system.

Do the real Megatouch systems run on PC hardware? On Windows? Has anyone put together a software collection that will run on Windows nicely with a touchscreen and no keyboard?

[jace055]

I would be interested as well.  I just purcahsed a 15" touchscreen and I am looking for some games.  I do know all of the Megatouch games that are in MAME now are old and it will be years before the photohunt type games make it in. 

I know that getting a megatouch hard drive and software will NOT work in just any PC.  There are physical "keys" that the systems and the touchscreens use or they won't work.  The only way to play new games from the megatouch line is to buy a used system(about $600.00)

[bishmasterb]

Thanks for the info jace.

I didn't know that MAME emulated the Megatouch games; bummer about not having the newest games though.

I've also looked into several of the Yahoo/Popcap games, and while they seem appropriate for a touchscreen, they're not quite as simple and straightforward as the Megatouch games, and many of them require a keyboard for entering your name (which is required). My daughter and I play a Megatouch at the local pizza shop and it's fun because the games are so quick and simple.

I'm not that interested in purchasing a used Megatouch because I've got many of the components already, the cost, I'd like to build one myself and a used bartop is likely to be heavily used and abused.

[jace055]

I did find a FREE standalone FULLSCREEN photo hunt

http://www.magictouch.com/games.html

"spot the diff"  towards the bottom

[bishmasterb]

Cool find, I'll try some of those.

If it hasn't already been done, it would be nice to have a healthy collection of free touchscreen games bundled together with a nice front-end for a Windows based bartop.

[Firebat138]

nice Spot the difference game...

Did anyone ever compile a list of games...

[BadMouth]

The Megatouch games in MAME are ancient ones and beyond that, there are glitches such as the suits not showing up on cards.
You won't find any bootlegs of any games from the XL series up (when the popular games originated).  
Merit pursues  counterfeiters & bootleggers like no other company.

The newest touchscreen game in MAME is Touchmaster 8000, but it doesn't run very well on a PIII.
For anyone else who's interested in running it on a faster computer, you have to calibrate the screen like a light gun.
http://derrick.mameworld.info/lightgun/Act_Labs_Light_Guns_on_XP.html
(Don't enable the light gun, enable the mouse.  Touch the screen instead of shooting at it)

I finally broke down and bought an original machine, then built a second one using an original board w/key.
Paladin's build thread is extremely useful if you consider putting one together in this manner.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90631.0

I heard that the newest Megatouch machines have an expiration date.  
They stop working after a certain number of years, then you have to go back to Merit and pay to have them re-activated.
Not sure if it's true or not, but it sure sucks for the secondary market.

[sarge]

I heard that the newest Megatouch machines have an expiration date. 
They stop working after a certain number of years, then you have to go back to Merit and pay to have them re-activated.
Not sure if it's true or not, but it sure sucks for the secondary market.

Not true.  They just come out with an update every year with a partial update midway through the year.  There's no time limit on the update.  This is the last year they are making an update for their Force platform machines.  They are only doing yearly updates for their Ion platform games from here on.

[mlalena]

Some of the games in Java at http://www.lalena.com/Games/