Arcade Console Looking For Games
Community Forums/Showcase/Arcade Console Looking For Games
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| Hello everyone, my name is Ed Farias and I am the president/owner of www.arcadeinabox.com. We make high quality custom arcade consoles. I have also posted my info at GarageGames. If you have any questions at all please contact me at ed.farias@... or post in this thread. My plan is to get a good list of games that would work well with an Arcade style control set, and would bring that arcade feel back most of us had in our youth. We are not really in the business of producing games, at least not yet. What I want to try and do is get more of these great game out there, and the only way I know how is using my Arcade Boxes :). Below are a few simple guidelines that are important to the success of a game in this type of setup. First, the layout of the controller: ([url]www.arcadeinabox.com/paul1.jpg[/url] this is an example of common arcade control panel layout) 1 and 2 player 8 way joysticks (non analog). 6 buttons per player 1 and 2 player start buttons 1 and 2 player coin in buttons ESC button to exit game and return to the game list. 3" Arcade Style Trackball with 3 mouse buttons (LMB, MMB, and RMB) Arcade Spinner. All of these parts come from Happ Controls, the leader in arcade quality controls and buttons. The buttons interface to the computer with a keyboard interface board. These boards mimic keyboard presses, but at a much with a higher throughput and no chance of ghosting. The standard button layout is as follows Player 1 Joystick uses UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys for directions. Buttons 1-6 uses Left Control, Left Alt, Space, Left Shift, Z, X (In that order 1-6) 1p Start uses 1 (normal keyboard 1, not numpad) 1p coin in uses 5 (normal keybard 5, not numpad) Player 2 Joystick uses - R (up), F (down), G (right), D (left) for direction Buttons 1-6 uses A, S, Q, W, I, and K (in that order 1-6) 2p Start uses 2 (normal keyboard, not numpad) 2p Coin in uses 6 (normal keyboard, not numpad) ESC is used to exit the game. One big draw of the Arcade-in-a-Box is the ability to plug the box into any TV via Composite or S-Video, although VGA is also an option, but we want to work with the lowest common denominator here. 640x480 is the best with those TV connections, although 800x600 will work pretty good as well. The game should be locked into one resolution. All options screens should be removed as the game should just start right up. Having the user insert coins would be a great addition, but not needed at all. Just helps add to that arcade feel. You know all the buttons (keypresses) you have to work with, so you could do anything you like. If you want the player to have the ability to save, you could have a quick save on one button and quick load on another Just remember, that the whole purpose of an arcade style game, is there is no keyboard hooked up except for initial configuration. I am also looking for ideas on designing a way, in windows, to make these game available via download from the game menu itself. Sort of like Xbox Live Arcade, any ideas or help with that would be much appreciated. I don't want to put out the impression that I am a large company, that simply isn't true. I do the construction of all the boxes myself (with the help of computerized routers). I've been doing custom arcade cabinets and boxes for about 5 years now. I take great pride in my arcade boxes. Thanks for reading all of that :). Ed |
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| Im not home right now but when I get home Id like to email you about this I would be interested. |
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| Great, thanks ckob. I look forward to hearing from you. |
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| Sounds very cool. I might be interested in doing something especially for this platform, but nothing I have in the pipe currently would be a good fit. |
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| I have a few games sitting on my hard drive collecting dust that I could finish that would be perfect for this. |
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| Great, both of you. I look forward to hearing from you both. Send me an email any time as I am starting to create a list of developers that might be interested in this. |
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| Sounds interesting. Couple questions: - Presumably the trackball works off the mouse controls, but how would we read the spinner input? - Are you only interested in old school, 2D (sprite) type games, or flashy 3D ones, aswell? - Got any examples of the type/style of games you're after? - Presumably, most of your customers are only interested in running MAME etc. Do you think there really is a big enough market for new, custom games written specifically to run on your system? P.S. Respect! I've always wanted my own MAME cab. Maybe someday... :) |
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| Big10p, 1. The trackball and spinner both work off mouse controls. One is plugged in via usb, and one with the ps/2 port. The trackball, by default, has 3 buttons that act as your standard 3 mouse buttons in windows. The big difference with the spinner is windows still sees it as a mouse, but it only moves on the Horizontal (X) plain. 2. If a 3d game can be worked out with the control set, then I say go for it. Just remember that the player joysticks are not analog, only 8 way directional. 3. Nothing specific really, I'm leaving that up to the individual developers. Remakes of classic games are always a good way to start, of course with a different name and mondernized graphics. :) 4. Yes, MAME is the big draw. Problem is the copyrights to the roms, and I am tired of trying to deal with a way around it. I don't provide any roms, so having a turnkey type setup is pretty much out of the question. Except for the few roms from www.starroms.com that I can provide legally. As far as a market, I don't really know. I'm seeing the success of Xbox Live arcade and thinking there must be a market out there for this. But if a developer is a making a game anyway, it probably won't take a lot of work to change it a bit to be arcade controls friendly, so the time and effort put into should be worth it, hopefully. What I am thinking about is designing a sort of webportal where users can either purchase games on CD and install them on their arcade boxes/cabinets. Or if their box is online they can download the games directly. The back end of the website will have an area for each developer where they can upload their games, set pricing and manage the tech support aspect. Whether a small amount of the purchase ammount will go to the site for bandwidth and maintenance will be determined by the one doing the site. I have a few friends in mind that are extremely good at doing web stuff, so we'll see. I hope I answered your questions. |
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| But if a developer is a making a game anyway, it probably won't take a lot of work to change it a bit to be arcade controls friendly, so the time and effort put into should be worth it, hopefully. Oh, I see. It would be pretty easy to do a version of an existing game that works with your system. I thought you were after games exclusively for your system, that couldn't be sold elsewhere. That's why I was a bit worried about how big the market was. :) What I am thinking about is designing a sort of webportal where users can either purchase games on CD and install them on their arcade boxes/cabinets. Or if their box is online they can download the games directly. The back end of the website will have an area for each developer where they can upload their games, set pricing and manage the tech support aspect. Whether a small amount of the purchase ammount will go to the site for bandwidth and maintenance will be determined by the one doing the site. I have a few friends in mind that are extremely good at doing web stuff, so we'll see. I like the idea of having a portal to seamlessly download and play the games. That could be quite a good revenue stream, I guess. That would depend on how many of your systems are out there, though. Can you give us a rough idea of units sold?P.S. I'm currently thinking about continuing development on a 'snake' type game. There's a very early WIP available here: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=56206 I'm planning on updating it to proper 3D, in order to get better graphics than the 2D version. Is this the type of game that would interest you? I think it would play very nicely, using the spinner. ;) |
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| Wow, fun game Big. I could really see that working great with a spinner, but having the joystick work as well is a great idea. That way if somone opts not to purchase a spinner with their unit, they can still play the game. As far as units sold, there not many of my units out there right now. Even though I have been doing this for a while, I've stayed relatively quiet it about it until now. There are probably around 20 of my all in one units out there right now. However, in the big picture this could be something that anyone building arcade machines would be interested in. There are lots of companies out there that make and sell full size arcade cabinets as well and we would try to bring as many in as possible. I'm launching a pretty big marketing pull here very soon, this is why I am trying to get as much coordinated as possible. Attack of the Show on G4tv has shown a lot of interest in checking out one of my boxes, so if I can have this setup by the time that happens, that would be a huge plus not only for me, but for all your developers out there. I am also working on a deal with an arcade shop in Canada that will possibly be requesting 5-10 boxes per month. We'll see how that pans out. Most of this stuff is happening now without me even doing a lot of marketing. |
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| @ArcadeED, What I am thinking about is designing a sort of webportal where users can either purchase games on CD and install them on their arcade boxes/cabinets. Or if their box is online they can download the games directly. The back end of the website will have an area for each developer where they can upload their games, set pricing and manage the tech support aspect. Whether a small amount of the purchase ammount will go to the site for bandwidth and maintenance will be determined by the one doing the site. I have a few friends in mind that are extremely good at doing web stuff, so we'll see. Now we need to talk.... |
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| lol, I was just about to mention your name, Indie. Especially being the marketing guru you are. :) One last (nosey) question, Ed: Do you do this as a fulltime job, or more as a hobby thing, at the moment? |
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| I am also looking for ideas on designing a way, in windows, to make these game available via download from the game menu itself. Sort of like Xbox Live Arcade, any ideas or help with that would be much appreciated. This *SCREAMS* opportunity...... |
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| That's why I'm interested! ;) |
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| Indie, I just checked out your website and now I am even more excited :) Big, part time thing right now. But a lot of things are making it bigger than that. I'm currently a network system admin :) |
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| Ed, I'll email you a bit later tonight. Tim. |
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| I'm currently a network system admin :) Ah, now I see why you'd want to change your career. :P |
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| ArcadeEd, may I cc Indiepath when I email you later? |
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| Sure Joe, whatever makes you more comfortable. I really think we need to try and have something setup to colaborate this. I can setup a seperate section of my forums if that will work best. Since I posted here and at GarageGames, I'm getting feedback from both places, although a bit more from here at the moment. Tim- Sounds Great Big- I actually really enjoy my job. I love the people I work with, it's only about a 30 person office and I am the only IT guy. With that said, if I could do this and be finacially stable, don't think for a second I wouldn't quit LOL. I have a meeting this afternoon with a lawyer to discuss a few things, one is getting myself LLCed. I'm going to bring this into the equation as well to see if there is anything else I need to do. And please, everyone just call me Ed :) |
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| Heh, it has nothing to do with comfort. Hell, I don't know him (incidentally, Indiepath, are you cool with me cc'ing you?) It's just that it sounds like he'd be interested in my message to you. |
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| Ahh ok, I guess what I meant is, I have no issues with anyone CCing anyone else. If you have a family member you want to CC, feel free :). I have no secrets, and I have no other motives here :). |
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| Yeah, please copy me in. My interests are a possible tie-in with my expansion plans for cloverleafgames.com & 360shooters.com, and using igLoader as the software delivery and launch mechanism. You mentioned no physical coin-slot, no reason why you can't have a virtual one on a website for pay-per-play games. |
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| Oh I see, yeah that is a great idea. I have one question, can igloader be used to deliver games on cd, iso or download fasion as well? A good portions of the systems might not be online, and some systems will not even have a trackball to act as a mouse, which is why it's important to build everything around the lowest common denominator, that being 2 arcade sticks, 6 buttons each, plus start buttons, coin in buttons and esc button. Maybe you'll answer this in the email later as we discuss. It would be nice have them available CD with a custom install that will work hand and hand with the games Front End. (System used to display all the games, launch games etc>) |
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| i could easily convert my game to using the two joysticks, if you're interested that is... www.charliesgames.co.uk just a couple of quick questions: 1, what kind of hardware do your machines use? 2, are they ALL connected to the internet? (my game will feature online hi-scores etc) cheers charlie |
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| <updated post> Hi Ed, I think you will find the latest version of RetroSphere is M.A.M.E. compatible (addition of 640x480 mode, menu select key is assignable to say the "1" key etc) - if you are interested in trialling the new M.A.M.E. cabinet compliant version please drop us a line at info@... We are currently working with the M.A.M.E. community to ensure that RetroSphere is 100% compatible and as soon as we (and they) are happy with the modifications we have made to ensure that it will run on arcade cabinets beautifully and seemlessly it will be released. Several games mags and highly regarded arcade specific sites are scheduled for reviews/promotions when the new version is available. RetroSphere is a retro game (think Trailblazer for the new age) and it fully compatible with arcade cabinets. Check it out here http://www.boiledsweets.com/RetroSphere/index.php Also it ought to be noted that we have built our own M.A.M.E. cabinet using Happ controls... |
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| Charlie, nice looking game. I give a try later on. The systems are typically Celeron 3.06ghz or AMD 2800+ cpus with 512mb of ram, and a 64mb GeForce video card. If you need more info, let me know. Take note that a lot of users will be playing these games on standard televisions and not Monitors. So 640x480 graphics would be ideal, though 800x600 will probably work fine as well. Not all users are connected to the internet, that is their choice. The arcade units themselves do come with network cards so the user can get online if they choose too. Boiled. I actually had no idea you could make games MAME compatible, that is pretty awesome news. I'll send you an email. |
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| I've uploaded a tech sheet that might help answer some questions, or at least to print out to give you some guildlines when designing for an arcade controls type system www.arcadeinabox.com/games/aiabtechsheet.doc Any questions, please let me know. |
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| Backend development has begun on my site to implement a store that will be a bit unique. (And this is not the current website you are seeing, that site is old looking and a new one is being designed by a professional as we speak). Remember, this will be setup specifically for games designed to run on arcade style setups. I'll link a tech sheet to the bottom of this blog that you can download. It will give you a lot of information about what the system can and can't do. The plan right now is as follows. Developers will be able to create an account. From their admin page they can upload games, set pricing, and manage their tech support inquiries. The admin page will also include stat tracking so they know exactly how many times their games were viewed and purchased. When you upload your game there will be some options like Game Type, Controllers used, 1p or 2p etc. Plus a little section for you to write a nice summary about your game. Your games will not be available right after uploading them. They will be briefly tested on a working arcade cabinet, and setup with a custom install that is compatible with the system. The site owner (me) will then send payments via paypal at the end of each Month to each individual developer. I can send checks as well. I chose to do it this way for a few reasons. 1. You know exactly how well your game is doing, sales wise. and 2. You know I didn't just buy copy from you and installing on every arcade box I sell. 3. Having the money sent directly from paypal was a good idea, except if more that one game was purchased from seperate developers it gets pretty messy. I want to support the indie community as much as I can. I am not looking to make money off your hard work. With that said, a small fee (probably a dollar or two) per sale will go to me for server maintenance and bandwidth. If that fee turns out to be more than needed, then we will do stuff to get more people to the site via advertising, contests, etc. I have a few thoughts and questions though, as I am sure all of you do. Are you comfortable with a plan like this? If not, why not? How do you currently restrict piracy with your games? I have a few options I am thinking of, but just wanted to get your thoughts first as some of you might have a great way of doing it already. Is there any other feature you would like to see? Thanks again, and here is the above mentioned tech sheet. www.arcadeinabox.com/games/aiabtechsheet.doc One side note, I am not looking for exclusive rights to games. Just creating another vehicle to help them sell. |
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| Hmmmm...... This is a unique idea :) |
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| I want to support the indie community as much as I can. I am not looking to make money off your hard work. With that said, a small fee (probably a dollar or two) per sale will go to me for server maintenance and bandwidth. If that fee turns out to be more than needed, then we will do stuff to get more people to the site via advertising, contests, etc. Well a lot of games only sell for a few dollars so this might put people off... |
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| How do you currently restrict piracy with your games? I have a few options I am thinking of, but just wanted to get your thoughts first as some of you might have a great way of doing it already. Usually with some kind of security wrapper that requires a key to be entered to unlock the game. Problem is that you don't have a keyboard so this method is pretty useless. |
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| When someone buys a full version we send them a full copy. If someone wants to copy it then it impossible to prevent them. Even StarForce 3 (expensive and uncopyable) has been cracked by pirates so the indie developer relies solely on trust. Even a key system is pretty pointless as there are countless sites that list keys etc. |
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| Starforce? *spit* |
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| Even a key system is pretty pointless as there are countless sites that list keys etc. How do you propose to demo your software then? And did you know that you can blacklist keys! |
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| We build 2 versions. A demo and a full. Anyone can download and share the demo version. When you want to buy you get to download the full version. Yes you can blacklist keys but always new keys will be available. I've seen key generators that can generate countless keys... Seems to me it's down to trust and honesty at the end of the day. |
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| Boiled- Maybe we will go with a percentage based "Commission" per sale then, that would make more sense. I'm reading all the points on piracy and here are a few thoughts. Remember, assume a keyboard is not there, but joystick and buttons are a keyboard to the PC. So we could make the unlock codes something like (Up, Down, Button2, Button4, Left, Button3). Etc. I'm starting work on the universal installer and was looking for feedback of whether to use some sort of unlock codes or not. Ed |
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| ArcadED please check you email... |
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| Boiled, I just responed with some results. Thanks. |
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| We build 2 versions. A demo and a full. Anyone can download and share the demo version. When you want to buy you get to download the full version. How do you get the Demo version and/Or the full version into the unit? How do you uninstall the Demo when you purchase the full version? How do you install stuff? How do you pay for stuff when you can't enter a credit card number or a Paypal login? I'm not trying to be difficult here, I'm attempting to be practical as these are problems that need to be overcome. |
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| It's fine Tim, these are all things that need addressing. Probably the best way to, I think, is make the Demos a downloable ISO that when burned, and inserted into the cabinet it will instal the demo. On the full versions, during the install it can check for the existance of the demo, and if it's there uninstall it first. The online shopping cart will accept checks and money orders as well. If there are other options I need to look into besides that, I would be more than happy too. I know there is a system called world pay as well. |
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| To enter info on the site (credit card numbers etc.) couldn't you have a simple alphanumeric 'pad' web app controlled by the joystick input? Kind of like arcade machines allow you to enter high score names - just move a cursor around and hit a button to select. |
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| Oh, I think I see where the confusion is coming from on this. My initial site is just going to have the ability to buy the games from the internet and download ISO to install on the arcade machine. Not a direct download to the arcade machine yet. Once we get the installer all worked out, and web system working like we want, we'll try implementing something for directo downloads to the arcade boxes that are online. I figure we should start simple, and work on upgrading from there. |
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| Very nice! |
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| @ArcadEd, I really wish I had the time to help out, this is quite an exciting idea. If you need a complete portal solution with payment stuff, game delivery and real-time reporting drop me a line. I'm sure we could do a deal for a copy of the cloverleaf games source code :D |
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| Ed: Oh, see. I thought you were after a system to download straight to the box. I, personally, think this should be the ultimate goal, as I imagine you'd get far more casual purchases this way. So much more user-friendly/easier than downloading and burning to a CD. I'll be very interested to see how all this pans out. Best of luck. :) |
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| Yeah, that is the ultimate goal. If the user wants to use the service they will need to have their arcade machine online to do so. In today's day and age that really isn't a lot to ask of users. My boxes do come with a network card, and the front usb ports make it easy to install a wireless usb network card if they want to. So we'll start with the store and then start to develop a fully integrated system after that :). |
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| How much does it weight once assembled? |
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| GoSse, The slimline box weighs about 35-40 pounds with all the internal PC guts istalled. This also depends on what is on the control panel. Trackball requires a bigger control panel, and a bit more weight all the way around. But 35-40lbs is a good average guess. |
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| I'm working on a game of my own (using another engine until I can figure out if I have to rebuy blitz since I bought blitz basic). So hopefully, my game will give everyone a good idea of how to try an approach a few things. Website and Insaller are still first priorities though. |
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| ArcadEd, Check my website, my games are designed for an arcade cabinet like this ;) Contact me for infos ! |
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| Wow Reno, very cool. I like your artistic approach to the graphics. Just one question for you, do you have english translated versions? If not, how much work would it be? Thanks, downloading some demos now. I notice the demos have a language option, very nice. I checked out the Alice game first, you know that game would be really cool with spinner support as well. |
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| I just thought I would keep you all updated on some stuff. My new site looks like it might be done this weekend. I'll give it a good work through for about a week before it goes live. I think I picked a frontEnd to use. http://www.atomicFE.com With some modifications by the developer, it will have the ability to launch .lnk (shortcut files). It can also build a list of games to display based on all the lnk files in one directory. So, on install a shortcut to the game will be placed in this directory. This all for the arcade-in-a-box specific installs. So basically, my box will boot up and XP will automatically launch this frontEnd listing the games. This is just the beginning, so i'll let you know more as I start playing around with it. That's all I know for now :). |
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| ArcadEd, want to have a CUSTOM screensaver for your boxes that will amaze and show your companies logo too? Check out.. www.boiledsweets.com/Vorboils |
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| Boiled, normally I was say heck yah. But the FrontEnd i'll be using actually has a screen saver built into it. A windows screensave, or seperate application screensaver might interface with that interface. BTW, I know you have been working hard on Qoob. Have you gotten anymore done on RetroSphere :). |
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| I have been a little head down in qoob - i'll take a look at RetroSphere and remind myself where I am... |
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| NP, I was just curious. |
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| Just wanted to let everyone know that I am still around and still very serious about this :). My new website is pretty much up. We are just working out the legistics of the online store to include your software. http://www.arcadeinabox.com I am considering setting up a seperate domain for the software side. I wanted my site to be very professional looking, but with that I think it takes a bit of the funfactor out of the software aspect. So a seperate site might be the way to go. I'll let everyone know how this progresses. I also have an email list of everyone that has shown interest, so if you want to be added to that list, just send me an email at ed.farias@... . I'd like to send out emails as things progress and ask questions to those that have shown interest. |
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| Dunno if a High-Def version of the "Arcade in the Box" would have any significance to the signs of the times. There would have to be one that reads the 1280x720 resolution at least for a widescreen arcade console. Just like the XBox 360 and the upcoming PS3, I would believe that your console may start to shape up to the newest technology. I could probably get my project in gear, even tho it's a 2D game with 3D polygons used throughout, I do have plans to get my game looking widescreen soon. Hope that I can be a third-party game developer, but to have someone publish a game of mine to get it onto that console, that may take some thinking. One thing's for sure tho, porting a game from Blitz into your console would be a lot easier than porting to an XBox, Pocket PC, or a PS2. Of course, with Pocket PC you would have to convert a Blitz Game into Visual C++ code to do the API stuff. |
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| Iron Bob, Yeah, HD is an option on my boxes via Component out. There is also a standard VGA port on the back as well. It will become a standard option, the backplate will have Composite, S-Video and Component Out, plus the VGA port. I should mention, that I always think it's wise to program for the lowest common denominator. A lot of users, especially those with arcade cabinets (that is another market to tap) use cheap TVs and Arcade Monitors. Just something to think about. |
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| That's okay, the games I develop are usually built differently for different uses. Like, I build many versions of one game. One for just the standard keyboard and mouse, a 4:3 resolution, like 800x600, another one using the same resolution using a game controller like an XBox/X360 controller, or a PS2-style controller, PC gamepad, etc... (Different versions of the game, depending on your joystick that you're using), and since I do have a 32" widescreen that's attached to my desktop, I usually go for the gusto, and go all out to 1280x720 (which is mainly the resolution that X360 uses for their high-end games). I usually use my laptop to develop the 4:3 versions of the games around a keyboard, and maybe a regular PC game controller. I use my desktop to develop a game around a console joystick or to develop a widescreen resolution game. That's usually where I separate my game development styles. I'll let you know if I find a publisher to port some games into your arcade cabinet. I'm just in the development stages, and it's probably best that I find a third-party publisher at this point in time. |
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| Sounds good Bob, and I wish you the best of luck :). I think your approach is the best way. |
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Well, here's the title picture to use on the top "marquee" part of your cabinet, at least I got this far: Hope this would help. |
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| That looks awesome. I can see it in the corner of an arcade now ;) |
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| Just think of "Plasmorg" as a retro-style arcade game with a new millenium twist to it. You'll see what I mean, "When It's Done." Doesn't that "WID" line sound familiar? If you've been hanging around the 3D Realms forum site, it should sound VERY familiar... Hehe, different topic there, sorry. Back on the topic at hand, seems like this may look like a great idea for a revival of the arcade as we've known it, and this seems like something for you to test out. I'm probably pushing for an Easter completion on my original Beta version of Plasmorg with the keyboard and mouse version. The joystick/gamepad versions may come out towards May, possibly, to give you an idea, my game's going to be programmed around this joystick: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3504720 (The Logitech Dual Action), that, and maybe a second XBox/X360-style joystick version. Not too sure if I'm gonna port this to any game console, that would require converting the code to C++. I'll see how far I get with this. Thanks for your enthusiasm. |
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| And thank you, and I hope you have lots of success with your game. I would love to start doing the coin-op thing too. That is the business plan for the future, but hopefully not that far into the future. If I can keep the cost of the units to a reasonable price point, I'm hoping restaurants, bars, etc. might take the risk to try them out. Maybe even drop a few into local places here to get a feel for the cashflow they would bring in. There is a lot going on in my business plan right now, but a lot of it is centering around the indie development community. If the games are not there, then their really isn't a point. But I have been very impressed with arcade style games coming out of blitz and dxgame engines, that I figure why not give it a shot. Plus, give these smaller developers a shot. You figure, if a place of business bought a full size cabinet unit from me (say 2,000-2500 for base unit) and an exclusive license to one of your games. (200- 1000 dollars or whatever). Now, if that machine brings in only 10 dollars a day, it would take a year to pay it off. 10 dollars a day doesn't seem like much to be in a high traffic area. But again, those are my hopes :). |
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| Sounds great. To me, it would be just as easy programming a Blitz Game around a PC Joystick/Gamepad, since most arcade cabinets seem to use this format more. A keyboard version would be good too, but maybe doing a gamepad-style setup would fit the model more. |
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| Remember, Most arcade cabinets, like my boxes for example, do use a keyboard interface. The PC sees the controllers and buttons as keyboard presses. But the interface card is designed to remove all the flaws of normal keyboards. LIke not being able to more than 3 keys at once, etc. And the trackball and spinners are just seen as mice to windows. |
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| Great, so my original keyboard version will be yours for the taking once that's released. Then for my gamepad version, maybe I'll hold off on the joystick/gamepad version, and try converting that one to C++ to be ported onto game consoles (if anyone cares to port games to consoles like the X360, or a PS3, or even the Revolution (which may be the best console for arcade games, anyway)). Should be interesting having two different versions of my game. Actually, the Revolution wouldn't be a hard console for homebrew games, since the SDK is gonna be rather cheap, just like the console itself. Nintendo's not nearly as money hungry as Sony and Microsoft are, so that'll be good. Highly doubt that Blitz would work on game consoles, but with your arcade cabinet, I'll most certainly provide you with my original release, which will be sometime, hopefully Easter, maybe later, depending on how the game looks. Maybe have you as a beta tester to see how it would work, and how the game would sell in your cabinet (hopefully you or I won't fluke like Atari did in the 80s). It seems like you got a deal, my true development may start as early as daytime, all I did now were the media contents, the sounds and graphics, etc... |
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| Sounds Great! And I would be than happy to beta test the game for you. |
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| Great. Today's the day I start true development, hopefully I got the keybindings right, because you said that your cabinet can only handle certain key controls. I'm gonna have to abide by those in order to make this work. Ahh, I see that you don't use the Right Ctrl or Right Alt as well as Left Ctrl and Alt, so I'll have to eliminate those. I'll have to revise the key control graphics. I'll do a different diagram to comply to this one. Here we go. |
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Okay, I got the image of the keyboard controls. The highlighted keys in green are the ones you say are to be used, and I assigned a function in the diagram (I have yet to do this in the actual code soon). Let's see if this is to your specifications: |
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| Looks good. Only change is. 1 = Player 1 Start 5 = Credit/Coin In |
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| Well, I guess there's no Pause Option. Well, I suppose it's best to have two different keyboard versions, the second one'll be without the "Pause" function. Maybe a diagram of your joystick for the cabinet may be of some help, then I'll write a help menu based on your diagram (the help diagram will be displayed before the start of the game, after the player inserts a coin). |
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| Well P is standard for pause, but it's directly associated with a button. On the control panels, holding the 1P button acts as a shift key. With combinations of other buttons cause other key presses. So you could program P as pause. |
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| Okay, on your version, "P" will be pause, but then again the "Pause/Break" key is usually the big one used, maybe make a version that uses both P and Pause/Break, even tho only P will work on your cabinet. On top of that, I was thinking of using the "F1" key as a reference key for those who wanted to know how to play the game, that would display that screen above for only 5 seconds, then return to the game automatically. I may make the controls a little more limited, since the ones in green sort of duplicate themselves a bit. This was really meant to be an Atari or NES-style game, but then again, this has that "new millenium" feel to it as well. It's gonna be a challenge to see how everything goes. |
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| Well here are some other keys are used with the Shift Funtion. TAB Tilde ~ Enter So any of those could be used for something as well ;). |
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Here's a revision of the keybindings, however, keep in mind, this is the original keyboard version for the PC. As for your cabinet, I'll have to redefine a second version of this game for that. There's going to be two different keyboard versions, since this one is meant as a home console version. However, that being said, here's the home console keyboard version:  Now, after reworking around your specifications, here's probably what you're going to end up with:  These are the two versions of the keyboard version that I'm proposing. How do these look like to you (assuming that you would be the game's publisher as well)? |
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| The Keyboard layout looks fine. As for the publisher part, that is still to be determined. Probably in the future, but not at first. However, using my webspace, badwidth and marketing to sell your game. I don't want any part of owning rights to any of the games. I just want to help get them out there to promote both my product, and the games. The nice thing from the developer side is the games won't only work for my boxes. They will work on the thousands of home made, and retail purchased MAME compliant cabinets out there. :). And that's the marketing I will be pushing for you. What exactly does a publisher do? I always assumed the publisher basically took care of the marketing, packaging and distribution of the games. Is this correct? If it is, then maybe that is the way I am leaning, but without owning/purchasing the copyright to the games. |
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| For right now, the publishing to your arcade cabinet was where I was going. As for the PC, I may try doing self-publishing for the Console PC version. Before seeing any publishers trying to port this into an XBox 360, PS3, Nintendo, or what have you, the popularity may as well build up on this in some of those establishments you want to try this in. It would also have to be converted to C++ (primarily VC++ or Dev-C++), and that may give me a headache. However, the Blitz development will be a hot sword through tofu, and you'll soon see chunks of the code soon (I'm doing the opening sequence now for the console version, and should be doing the Arcade version shortly). |
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| Okay, I see that you have it said that the best graphics resolution for games should be at 640x480, and that seems to be confirmed, and that's what I got for your version, and I have 800x600 for the standard PC version for those with higher-end displays. Now, with that out of the way. I don't know if you made mention about what type of sound quality you are pushing for your arcade cabinet, either. Obviously I know that most cabinets can't produce Dolby-quality sound, but I have my sound effects and background music set at 44.1K Stereo 16-bit, which is basically CD Quality (which is what most home consoles/PCs seem to use anymore). However, should this quality be reduced for your arcade, or will it handle this sound quality resolution? |
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| Bob, The output is regular stereo via White/Red RCA jacks. I don't really see the point of going beyond that for Arcade style games. :). |
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| Okay, that's great. Although it's set at stereo, basically, is 44.1K 16-bit a little steep, still? What's the maximum quality that you would allow for, basically? Perhaps pushing the envelope may or may not be the best idea, but there is a way to consider the sound limitations. The graphics now are 640x480, which is what you would be looking for in that department. Maybe I'll look at 22.5K 16-bit Stereo, for the arcade version, would that be something to look into?, or would 8-bit Stereo be suited more? |
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| I don't think having the higher quality sound will effect much. Although the systems use onboard sound, they are capable of 5.1 via SPIF output (Fiber). I wouldn't worry about 44.1k sound much. The system specs should be able to handle it just fine. My personal system has the same onboard sound used in the arcade boxes, and I've never had an issue with sound. It's even hookedup to my receiver with SPIF for movies, and it works fine in dolby digital 5.1 |
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Okay, so I'll leave that alone. It's basically the graphics resolutions that may have to be watered down a little, obviously. I happen to have the code ready for the opening sequence, I'm not too sure if this will lock the player in on requiring a coin insert or not, I've tried to come up with the code that'll only proceed to the next screen when the coin is dropped, or the 5 key is pressed (same thing). Not too sure if I set the opening sequence up right (the first part of the development). Here it is:
; ArcadeIntro.bb - This demonstrates what the opening sequence to the game "Plasmorg" will do for the coin-operated arcade
; This is only a test sequence, and may be subject to change in the final product.
; (c)2006, Robert A. Morin
; -----
; Set the appropriate graphics resolution
Graphics 640,480 ; Meant for older CRT monitors/arcade units
; MEDIA CONTENT
; IMAGES AND GRAPHICS
coinimage = LoadImage ("coin.bmp")
copyrightimage = LoadImage ("copyright.bmp")
logoimage = LoadImage ("logo.bmp")
presentimage = LoadImage ("presents.bmp")
productimage = LoadImage ("produce.bmp")
titleimage = LoadImage ("title.bmp")
epilogueimage = LoadImage ("epilogue.bmp")
helpimage = LoadImage ("arcade.bmp")
; END IMAGES
; SOUNDS AND MUSIC
confirmsound = LoadSound ("plop.wav")
whooshsound = LoadSound ("whoosh.wav")
thememusic = LoadSound ("combat.mp3")
; END SOUNDS AND MUSIC
; Start the Opening Sequence
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage coinimage,0,0 ; Display the screen for the player to insert a coin
startkey = WaitKey()
If startkey=KeyHit(6) ; Wait for the user to drop a coin to proceed
PlaySound confirmsound ; Confirm that the player inserted a coin
EndIf
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage copyrightimage,0,0 ; Display the copyright/legal information
Delay 5000 ; Wait five seconds, then proceed
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage logoimage,0,0 ; Display the RAM Digital Media Logo
PlaySound whooshsound ; Play the "Whoosh" logo sound
Delay 5000 ; Wait five seconds
Cls ; Clear the screen
PlaySound thememusic ; Play and loop the theme/background music through the entire game
LoopSound thememusic
DrawImage presentimage,0,0 ; Display the "RAM Digital Media Presents" screen
Delay 5000 ; Wait five seconds
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage productimage,0,0 ; Draw the image "A Robert A. Morin Production" screen
Delay 5000 ; Wait five seconds
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage titleimage,0,0 ; Display the game title screen
resume = WaitKey()
If resume=KeyHit (2) ; Wait for the player to press START
PlaySound confirmsound ; Confirm the button/keypress
EndIf
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage epilogueimage,0,0 ; Display the epilogue/storyline
continue = WaitKey()
If continue=KeyHit (2) ; Wait for the player to press START
PlaySound confirmsound ; Confirm the button/keypress
EndIf
Cls ; Clear the screen
DrawImage helpimage,0,0 ; Display the keyboard/control diagram
games = WaitKey()
If games=KeyHit (2) ; Wait for the player to press START
PlaySound confirmsound ; Confirm the button/keypress
EndIf
End ; Since this is only a presentation of the opening sequence, end program for demo
I'll just write the code in small batches for different functions. That's the way I always programmed. I usually write one part of the game, and then another, then I just do final program code assembly at the end, and make it all come together. Seems like this may be the best way to start. The WaitKey function sounds somewhat generic, not too sure if there's a better way to lock in the start and coin-in functions to make the program only respond to those keys at all. Also, I know that the keyboard control map is in there, you can replace that with the diagram of the arcade control map. I just used that, because most of my game programs are influenced by XBox games that use the controller map to tell you how to play the game. I've been trying to get into console programming, but unless I know about the arcade controls, there's really no way to tell the player what buttons to press to shoot or move about. There should be a way to tell the primary fire vs. the secondary fire buttons on that arcade control panel. The D-Pad is the way to move about, obviously. That, of course the coin drop, and the button to continue to the next screen, pause the game, and everything else. The Start key is the continue and pause button, as we well know (just like a home game console). This may not be a hard task, just need to know how to make the computer only respond to the "5" key or the "1" key during those "WaitKey()" commands, and not any of the other buttons (don't want a glitch that lets the player play without paying). There's gotta be a better way around making the PC only let you play when the 5 is pressed or the coin is dropped... |
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| Bob, I'll try to get an image made up that can be used for "help" screens. |
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| Okay. Now that we're on that topic, I may make a few changes, since the 1 key is the start key, that'll probably wind up being the "Pause" key. I'm probably gonna use the Left Shift, Z and X buttons as difficulty setting keys instead, that's probably going to make things better. The Left Ctrl and Alt are still going to be the weapon buttons, and the Space Bar will be the Reference key. I may try that approach. Left Shift = Easy, Z = Medium, X = Difficult (should make sense to use them in that order). Any other posts, I'll start making a separate thread with the "Plasmorg" project once it nears completion. I may release the Arcade version first, and concentrate on that, and then I'll work on a PC Joystick version after the fact. That's the best way to release them. |
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| Sounds good Bob. I'm working on the new website now and it's coming along good. The store is finished for selling the games, just finishing up the dev backend part. I'm not sure how soon I'm going to dive into the coin-op arena. Probably going to wait until I get the current business established a bit more. But your game will be exactly the same, you will just charge more for it being it's a "For Profit" license :). |
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| Sounds great. Well, I'm going to announce when my game's getting close to being gold in another thread, and I'll probably develop a general PC version of the game right now, just to see how far this gets as a freeware PC game at first, if that succeeds, then I'll probably give the coin-op arcade version a go from then on. |
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| Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. The site is just about finished, www.iRetroGames.com is the site consumers will know. Developers will still use www.aiabgames.com to register, add games, check stats, etc. The dev backend pull stats directly from the store database. I'm also on the lookout for games that may not have been developed for this particular market, but can be configured to work with the home arcade setup. Each game will have an icon saying if it's Arcade Ready out of the box, or can be configured to work. If it can be configured, info on configuring it will be provided. |
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| cool, thanks for the update |
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| ArcadEd, I think I may have a new game for you - it's freeware and will be out in the next day or so... |
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| Well, right now, I have different plans for my game. I'm looking at basically porting my game to GBA SP (once converted to C++), as well as a Blitz version for PC. I may still do an arcade version for you, but that all depends on how well the game turns out at the last minute. I basically took Plasmorg into a brand new direction now, so it's hard to tell what I'm gonna do. |
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| Sounds good everyone. The basic premise of the site is still the same. One difference now is I am browsing the web finding games that CAN work on arcade cabinets. For example I've added 4 games to the site from retro64. These games all work great with a trackball setup. These are also setup to be sold through their affiliate. All I am doing is finding games that can work, and listing the information that is important to an arcade customer. So the site is still specific in the games we carry, as long as they can work with the tech sheet. Back to surfing :). I need to find some joystick games, everything seems mouse orientated ;). |
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| Why, sure, after all, my plans now are to develop my game around an XBox 360 controller for right now. I will eventually move on to learning code for Game Boy Advance porting, and try to do a handheld game. However, to develop this game for arcade would be even better, just better hope you can take a 2D, top-down platform shooter. That's probably what I'm gonna have to do for right now. At least it's better than nothing... |
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| Interesting, I have a racing game that could work well in this. Doesnt require a wheel really, a pad, or joystick would work fine. I posted the demo here http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=59290 |
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| Cool, checking it out now. |
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| One big draw of the Arcade-in-a-Box is the ability to plug the box into any TV via Composite or S-Video, although VGA is also an option, but we want to work with the lowest common denominator here. 640x480 is the best with those TV connections, although 800x600 will work pretty good as well. The game should be locked into one resolution. If it has TV out then does it have a fixed refresh rate, and if so then what? |
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| I setup my boxes at 60 hertz |
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| ArcadeEd, check out my KeePeeUppy thread, this could be a good free game... |
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| Hey buddy, that's really cool little trackball game. I'd love to install it on my boxes and/or even offer it for free on the site. Only one thing is keeping it from being just right. The Y or N option to connect to the server. If you can make that a Mouse click instead, the game would be completely trackball/mouse friendly. Otherwise, players would have to have the Y and N keys on their control panels, which most do not. Ed |
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| ArcadeEd, no worries! I'll get it sorted today... |
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| Sounds great. I have some tech locked down for my Plasmorg project now, and seems like it'll be cool to get started on developing a nice Nintendo-style game out of Plasmorg. I'm most certainly getting the ball rolling now. A nice platform shooter like mine may have a chance in an arcade cabinet, I'm quite sure... |
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| ArcadeED, replaced the Y/N with buttons as you suggested and just about the upload the new version when I realised you need to be able to enter your name (when you get a high score) withouh access to a keyboard. So I'm gonna have to create an onscreen keyboard that can be driven with the mouse. This may take a few more days... Please advise... |
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| Boiled, Yeah, that would be ideal. Or even old arcade style, you have 3 letters you can use, and either moving the joystick or mouse rotates through the alphabet, hit a key to lock in that letter and go to the next. I think either way will be fine. Since it's a trackball game, using an on screen keyboard would work great too. Thanks. Let me know if you want to host the download so you can track download numbers, or if you want me too. |
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| 3 letters - nah - lets go bonkers. I have created the entire keyboard in individual images - each key can be rotated, zoomed, wobbled, scaled, alpha'd colored etc!!! I little over the top but I've been meaning to do this for a while. Each key is hand created in photoshop!  KeePeeUppy is now 110% mouse driven! New version out today (just waiting for the musician to loop the new music). Now I have a proposal - do you think it unreasonable to charge £1 for each downoad of this? How many customers do you have and how many do you think would be willing to part with a measly £1 for such an addictive and great game ?? |
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| Now I have a proposal - do you think it unreasonable to charge £1 for each downoad of this? How many customers do you have and how many do you think would be willing to part with a measly £1 for such an addictive and great game ?? I'm not sure how you would manage this since payment providers take a percentage OR a minimum fee. I think you'd actually end up owing your payment provider money! |
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| IndiePath, I know -- it's a killer! But I thought that ArcadeEd may have so many transactions that this could be possible. This is why I decided to release the current version as freeware -- think there is a market for it at £5? |
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| ArcadeED sorry to hijack your thread... IndiePath - PayPal charge 3.4% + 20pence so if I price it at say £1 then I'll get £0.66 or so... |
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| Well, my Plasmorg project's tech is causing Illegal Memory Access crashes, so it may take a while to get a successful arcade version of my game done, even the PC version... It would be a sweet game if it weren't for this... |
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| Sorry for the delayed response. Boiled, that is completely your call if you want to charge. Right now, my site is not active at all, but that's because no one in the arcade community knows about it, but that will change in the next few days. Also, with great thanks to Indiepath, my first press release about the site will be going out as soon as I finish reading through it a few more times and making sure it all sounds good. Say you sell the game for 1.00 88% commission goes to you (.88) Which leaves me in a hole of about 20 cents :). I do need to change my model a bit for paypal sales. Probably 80 percent for cc orders and 90 for check/money order. With that scenario, 5 dollars would be ok. Did I make any sense? haha |
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| Hmm, I'm considering redesigning my game in VB 6 or VB 2005, somewhere along those lines. I'm sort of wondering if there would be any support for any games written in Visual Studio as well as Blitz, if worse comes to worse... I mean, VS uses the mouse a lot, which would help with the trackball. However, to add the keyboard support would be a slight bit more difficult, but I believe that can be done, too... I can see VB gaming being made popular, albeit slower. What's your opinion on that issue? |
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| RAM, you might want to check out Dxgame. It's actually what I use for my game development because I have a strong VB background anyway. I don't want to post the link here, but just google dxgame. There are a few people using that engine to create games that will work for this market. Me included ;) |
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| Yeah, on top of that, I dunno if this was covered, but did VS 2005 have any backwards compatibility to VB 6, or was VS 2005 completely different altogether? I mean, it's taking me some time to adapt to that, but I have been great with Blitz up until this major crash of mine. |
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| That I am not sure. I know they have guides for getting dxgame setup in a .net and 2005 environment. You might check out the forums and ask what you want to do. Someone can probably help you over there. |
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| Boiled, I should mention. If you want to make it cost a dollar, and sell it either on your own site or via the game, that's fine. I don't require that you sell the game through me at all. I can just link the buy button to your buy page like I do with the affiliate stuff currently on there. Ed |
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| ArcadeEd, OK heres the deal. The new version is out and is 100% mouse drivable. It remains free too! I have added an option to allow generous users to donate a small amount if they feel like. http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=59588 |
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| Sorry for the late delay. I'll get it up on the site tomorrow, thanks boiled. One more thing, do you want me to host the download file, or just link it to your site? It's your call. Ed |
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| I don't mind either way, with a link at least you always get the latest version as I am prone to adding new features and releasing on a regular basis. In fact the next version is 99% ready! |
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| Well, one things for sure with my game project, it's expected to be a click, click, clicker... Visual Basic's games are known to be "mouse happy" indeed. I may port it into BlitzMax at the last minute for Windows and/or Linux after the fact. I may as well add the keyboard element to the game, hopefully, if your arcade can accept more mouse than keyboard commands, then a right click would be used for the coin insert, and the left mouse would be used for clicking all the buttons, possibly? |
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| RAM, not sure I follow. Some people have trackballs on their cabinets, some don't. In the case of my systems it's an option. My trackballs are setup with the three mouse buttons. But I'm a bit confused on the vb mouse thing. The first small game I created with dxgame requires 0 mouse. Has a title screen that shows high scores, pressing 5 inserts coins. If 1 (start) is press and coins > 1 then it starts. Esc exits the game. |
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| Boiled, I'll make to get this on iRetroGames before my press release goes out. I'll probably just show some screen shots, and put up a description and then the download button will just link to you main page. That way people can see your donate link as well. |
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| Cool! Many thanks. |
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| Okay, maybe I'll design the arcade version in Blitz (hoping that the game project won't crash a second time), and I'll do another version in Visual Basic for the PC and Pocket PC community (yes, I'm doing the second version in VB 2005). If need be, I'll see if Nintendo's "Virtual Console" would be a good place, using the Wii Zapper for this game (remember that article from Nintendo's website saying that indie developers were just as welcome as the classic download titles?). Sounds like an arcade version will be in the works after all, may do a version in BlitzMax for the Linux community, that has yet to be determined... |
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| @RAM ... No offence but if you spent more time coding and less time gibbering about your Plasmorg game and the many platforms you'll be porting it too maybe you'd have something to show for it ;) Stick to one language, get a working prototype at least and then consider porting based on the interest/feedback you get. I'm sure you're more than capable so best of luck to you. Time to practice what I preach :) Stevie |
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| Okay, VB 2005 it is, now that I have a foundation in mind to turn this into a Duck Hunt/Tetris hybrid-style game, it should come together. I may even submit my idea to Nintendo of America for their Virtual Console, before it's all said and done. I'll get on it. Most of my content media is complete, just gonna lock the code onto it now. |
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| It says "coming soon" in your sig... Erm when exactly is soon? |
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| :D That was old, I'm coming up with a new banner for my new project. That was done when I tried to get a build done in Blitz, but it crashed, sorry to say, so I'm going back to my old language, which was Visual Basic (I used VB 6 before, but since having Visual Studio 2005, I changed up). I'll get back to a Blitz version for the Arcade guy after my VB version is done. I'm locking down the splash/launch screen now (after having done all the content media for it, which took about a week to perfect). |
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| hmm, Didnt you just start using that pic in your sig like a week or 2 ago? That would be old then. :P |
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| There, on top of that, expect these types of Rubik-cube style targets to shoot at (was going to use Tetris blocks, but that would be infringing on ELORG's part). I'll see how far I can get with cube clusters like these... |
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| Just curious, I really don't care one way or another, but wouldn't it be better for you to have your own thread about your game? If people have no interest in this topic, they might not even hear about it. Just my 2 cents. |
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| Well, this IS regarding an eventual arcade cabinet version of my game for you. Don't get me wrong here... Man, I must be like George Broussard with Duke Nukem Forever, but it will be done. |
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| Make your own thread or worklog or whatever. And maybe listen to Stevie G also, walk the talk, finish your project. The only reason I am posting here right now is that I am unable to work on my project as a I am at someone elses computer, and blitz and all my files are on my home computer. |
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| did some figuring, and RAM DM has posted almost 1/10 of this thread, and about 92% of those posts included telling us about your game over and over, and how great it is, and how many platforms your going to make it for, and what its going to look like. Considering theres 130 some odd posts in this thread, thats quite alot of advertising. Now dont get me wrong, thats all nice and such, but this would be better read in a worklog or in this thread or a different one you created. Ed, you may want to start (yet) another thread on this next time you have news, this ones getting tiring to read, just goes to show what a great idea you have i guess |
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| Sorry ArcadEd ... LOL .. I remember that thread .. RAM, you basically talked to yourself for most of it ... first sign of insanity ;) This is what the work log is for as n8r2k points out! I don't normally get annoyed but I was trying to be lighthearted about this earlier. IMHO you've bloated this thread with a lot of crap that hardly anyone will be arsed reading. This isn't really fair on the guy who started it as it is an excellent idea. When you have something tangible show us a demo, until then noone is really gonna show much interest in your ever changing ideas. Stevie |
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| Yeah, alright, I guess that more jab and less code's not gonna make it... Then again, dumping and rebuilding the project a dozen times doens't make things better, either. I almost held up the white flag, but turned to Miyamoto's designs. Sorry about any inconvenience, I'll get back to topic of Arcade in a Box ASAP. Thanks for that... |
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| NO problem all. I agree though, I'll start a new thread here in a bit, as my press release is about to go out about the site. Just as soon as I get KeePeeUppy on the site like I promised boiled. I'm really curious to see how the press release turns out, and why kind of media/developers it hits. I'll keep you all posted in a new thread coming soon :). (Yeah, in like 10 minutes :) |
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| hey, i noticed you lowered the commision price. Cool, if i ever got a game ready for this i didnt figure on selling it for much anyway. |
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| Yeah, it was kind of worded badly before as well. You get 80 percent if sold by credit card and 90 percent if sold by check :). New thread coming soon. |
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| ArcadEd, did you ever use RetroSphere? |
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| Boiled, If I remember right, I was waiting for a few more changes from you. It was so long ago, I'm having a hard time remembering now. I remember you added mouse support. I'll check out the latest version here in a bit. |
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| ArcadeEd? |
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| Yeah, I hold the white flag on my project, so all I'm gonna do is suggest on other projects and run base code that caters to the arcade community for other developers. Now I'm more open to suggest on others behalf for arcade cabinet development. My forte was really in media development in the first place, not entire projects, so you'll probably see animation and sound snippets from me more than gaming projects in the near future. Sorry for the inconvenience over the past half a year or so. I can see that RetroSphere is going to be well worth the port, just better make sure that it'll be worth beta testing before making it ready for arcades. Mouse support is good for other technologies as well. Of course, mouse support in the 3D world would be a little on the thoughful side, and would add to the challenge, IMHO. Was this what you were shooting for? |
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| RetroSphere does not need to be ported. We made a couple of specific changes to support a trackball that's all. |
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| Sounds great... I'll be looking forward to supporting you with any entertaining background animations or music loops, or any little media-based detail... All in all, it's a great project you're doing. Keep it up! |
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| Sorry boiled. I kind of forgot about this thread after I started the other one :). Is the version available on your site the trackball version as well? |
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| YUP |
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| OK, I'll take a look this weekend and get it up on the site. I'll just use your links to purchase and to download if that is ok with you. |
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