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3D Megadoodoo posted:You ALMOST got it. All arcade games are objectively really bad, so no sane person wants to play them or ports of them after they've been exposed to good computer games. That's why literally everyone dropped the Atari 2600 immediately when they got a Commodore 64 or MSX or even a Sinclair Spectrum or whatever a few years later, and never looked back. Didn't happen with later systems; a lot of normal people would/do still sometimes dig out their NES or PS2 and play some even though they already had/have Xboxes or PS4s or whatever; the Atwri 2600 players of today are 100% "gamers". But then a few years ago I went to Funspot in New Hampshire and drat man I could go back there a dozen times. It is all about remembering that arcade games are like everything else, mostly garbage with a few wonderful things that should be cherished, like playing Out Run while hearing Gorf's INSERT COIN nearby
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Mar 5, 2022 17:09
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I spent several hundred dollars making a tiny home arcade last year before realizing that what I missed was the friends I made there, not the games
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Mar 5, 2022 18:18
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flavor.flv posted:I spent several hundred dollars making a tiny home arcade last year before realizing that what I missed was the friends I made there, not the games how small were these friends?
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Mar 5, 2022 18:20
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And what where they made of?
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Mar 5, 2022 18:22
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Oh, pretty small. But of course, we all thought we were so grown up, didn't we? Smoking behind the mall, drinking coffee and the occasional stolen beer. Bragging about our imagined future lives, when we got out of that stuffy little town. We had the whole world to conquer I haven't spoken to Ben in ten years. Heard from his wife on facebook that he got cancer. Said I'd pray for him. That was a lie, though. Been a lot longer than that since I've talked to god.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:28
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Up in the Portland, OR area they have arcades called Wunderland - last time I was there, you’d pay a nominal cover, but then the games took nickels instead of quarters, and they had a bunch of games set to free play. I think that’s really the best way to enjoy arcades - you don’t feel bad wasting money on a terrible game because it’s probably free, and the good games are cheap enough that you don’t mind feeding the beast. I have no idea if they’re still around - this is probably where someone swoops in and says they closed up and left all the games to be destroyed by roving gangs of teens, or that they now charge $1.00/play on swipe cards and all the machines are now Dead Storm Pirates.
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Mar 5, 2022 18:41
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flavor.flv posted:Oh, pretty small. But of course, we all thought we were so grown up, didn't we? (muffled Bruce Springsteen song playing)
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Mar 5, 2022 19:03
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I never really play my home arcade machine but I've set it up to start random MAME games and leave them in attract mode for 10 minutes before moving to another one. I like leaving it on in the background, it's really nice when you suddenly hear a sound or music you remember from your childhood.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:11
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Blue Moonlight posted:Up in the Portland, OR area they have arcades called Wunderland - last time I was there, you’d pay a nominal cover, but then the games took nickels instead of quarters, and they had a bunch of games set to free play. Yeah my local is similar, you buy a drink and get a wristband and all the games are free play except pinball which is a buck. It’s also Billy Mitchell’s local so he’s sometimes in there playing Donkey Kong. One day I’ll get my selfie.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:31
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EL BROMANCE posted:Yeah my local is similar, you buy a drink and get a wristband and all the games are free play except pinball which is a buck. It's Billy Mitchell, just photoshop it and claim it's real.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:50
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Pinball machines need a lot more maintenance compared to arcade machines so it makes sense they make you pay per game. If you've ever tried to catch a pinball with your hand you'd be surprised how much force is behind the shots and it causes switches to bend, plastics to break, solder joints can crack from vibration and cause dangling wires under the playfield that short out on stuff.. Rubber will perish and has to be replaced regularly for the game to play well and so on. They are fun to repair though, it's a shame home pinball has become so expensive!
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Mar 5, 2022 19:52
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Cojawfee posted:It's Billy Mitchell, just photoshop it and claim it's real. Ha, the cab itself even has a sticker stating it’s not Mame. r u ready to WALK posted:Pinball machines need a lot more maintenance compared to arcade machines so it makes sense they make you pay per game. If you've ever tried to catch a pinball with your hand you'd be surprised how much force is behind the shots and it causes switches to bend, plastics to break, solder joints can crack from vibration and cause dangling wires under the playfield that short out on stuff.. Rubber will perish and has to be replaced regularly for the game to play well and so on. Yup that’s the reason they give, it’s definitely fair. Apparently there’s a ‘secret’ pinball room there now which is neat, I’ll have to find it next visit. I have one high score in the whole place, and naturally it’s for erotic photo hunt on one of those bar top game things.
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Mar 5, 2022 19:57
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Mar 5, 2022 20:27
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Love it. Put a CD drive in that bad boy and boom -- cupholder.
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Mar 5, 2022 20:36
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My first experience of video games was one of those pong multi game knock off things when I must have been three years old, it blew me away, just the fact that you were controlling something on the telly. I don't think you can recreate those first time wow effects, like the first time I played After Burner in the full hydraulic cabinet, there was just so much going in it was like sensory overload.
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Mar 5, 2022 22:12
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An arcade I used to go to as a kid has a memorial website that has been up for years. It was one of my favorite places for the couple years we spent living on the East coast. http://arniesplacearcade.com/pictures.html
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Mar 5, 2022 22:13
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Is there a "old programmable calculators" thread?
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Mar 5, 2022 22:41
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Is there a "old programmable calculators" thread? Here or pyf obsolete technology.
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Mar 6, 2022 21:53
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Humphreys posted:I haven't heard of this, thanks! I will try to track a copy down. Racing the Beam is freely available as an e-book on archive.org https://archive.org/details/The.MIT.Press.Racing.the.Beam.The.Atari.Video.Computer.System
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Mar 7, 2022 12:46
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axolotl farmer posted:Racing the Beam is freely available as an e-book on archive.org Thanks! I'll try for a physical copy first. It's really the only way I will actually read a book.
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Mar 7, 2022 14:01
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Humphreys posted:try for a physical copy aka "print out a bunch of books on the good laser printer at work then three hole punch them and put them in a binder so you can read them at work too"
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Mar 7, 2022 15:35
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3D Megadoodoo posted:You ALMOST got it. All arcade games are objectively really bad, so no sane person wants to play them or ports of them after they've been exposed to good computer games. That's why literally everyone dropped the Atari 2600 immediately when they got a Commodore 64 or MSX or even a Sinclair Spectrum or whatever a few years later, and never looked back. Didn't happen with later systems; a lot of normal people would/do still sometimes dig out their NES or PS2 and play some even though they already had/have Xboxes or PS4s or whatever; the Atwri 2600 players of today are 100% "gamers". I do fire up the 2600 emulator now and then (which takes all of two clicks), but I admit that's 100% driven by childhood nostalgia, and not because of anything inherently enjoyable about the games themselves. Most of them now seem either ridiculously easy or ridiculously hard (usually due to frustratingly-bad controls). Only a few games land in a pleasantly challenging in-between -- Moonsweeper and Pitfall 2 spring to mind.
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Mar 7, 2022 19:13
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 In which our hero builds an 8" crt-style monitor for his x86 firewall-powered tower PC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98UtLCUynns
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Mar 7, 2022 20:14
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Speakers as big as his monitor!
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Mar 7, 2022 20:29
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Just reaching out since there's more people that have a common interest here, I'm looking for an AT case for a build. Ebay is slim pickings at the moment. Thanks!
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Mar 7, 2022 21:03
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Somewhat realted to the mini-CRT-lookalike: Reminds me of jamhamster's efforts to build a curved lens which can be placed in front of an LCD to emulate CRT screens. He took down a post last year due to Hackaday's lack of attribution (I think) but recently posted a new attempt, this time putting a big chunk of acrylic on a lathe. Results are pretty impressive so far:    He did start with a 250x250x25 sheet of acrylic, which is gonna be $100-120 in my neck of the woods... Then again, reason doesn't really enter into any of what this thread is about.
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Mar 7, 2022 21:41
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Oh wow, I recall their earlier efforts were fraught with issues. Lathing an absolutely massive slab of acrylic though? 
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Mar 7, 2022 22:16
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This macintosh classic is still the nicest LCD retrofit I've seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mMaO6ULuSk He cut the original glass tube and ground away the phosphor coating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3grAxKGzBt0
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Mar 7, 2022 22:38
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Holy poo poo, don't CRT tubes implode when you try to cut into them?
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Mar 7, 2022 22:55
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Cojawfee posted:Holy poo poo, don't CRT tubes implode when you try to cut into them? No that's prince Albert's drops.
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Mar 8, 2022 00:14
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They can definitely implode with a lot of force but there is a trick to releasing the vacuum safely i think. There is a tiny tube in the centre of the neck between the pins that was used to suck the air out, if you manage to open that it will slowly suck in air until the pressure equalises. Definitely do it outdoors, with eye protection and thick gloves and clothes. Glass shrapnel is a great way to lose your eyesight....
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Mar 8, 2022 07:33
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if you're cutting with a cutoff wheel, just cut somewhere thick or drill a hole first.
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Mar 8, 2022 16:42
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r u ready to WALK posted:They can definitely implode with a lot of force but there is a trick to releasing the vacuum safely i think. There was a bit on the back of an old TV I had, and I was curious, and pulled on it a bit and it came loose with very little force, and then there was a very nice hiss. I left it in the cold cellar for the next tenants to find because it didn't loving work after that.
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Mar 8, 2022 16:59
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I had and loved this drat case
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Mar 9, 2022 02:22
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:I had and loved this drat case same. put a 700mhz Athlon with 128MB of RAM in mine. voodoo3 to start out, eventually replaced it with a geforce 2 ti
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Mar 9, 2022 04:19
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Is there an easy way (i.e. adapter cable) to convert from CGA/EGA to VGA (or composite even)? I rescued a Leading Edge Model D, an ancient 8088 machine from the shredder today, and I'd like to get it going again, but it only outputs video over a 9-pin cable that I have to assume is CGA/EGA.
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Mar 10, 2022 22:39
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Is there an easy way (i.e. adapter cable) to convert from CGA/EGA to VGA (or composite even)? I rescued a Leading Edge Model D, an ancient 8088 machine from the shredder today, and I'd like to get it going again, but it only outputs video over a 9-pin cable that I have to assume is CGA/EGA. If you are not hard set on VGA there is CGA to HDMI. https://texelec.com/product/rgbtohdmi-ttl/
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Mar 11, 2022 00:56
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Yeah I’ll take CGA to anything really
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Mar 11, 2022 00:57
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Is there an easy way (i.e. adapter cable) to convert from CGA/EGA to VGA (or composite even)? I rescued a Leading Edge Model D, an ancient 8088 machine from the shredder today, and I'd like to get it going again, but it only outputs video over a 9-pin cable that I have to assume is CGA/EGA. That was my first computer! It had two 5.25" floppies because I couldn't afford the $500 20Mb hard drive.
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Mar 11, 2022 02:00
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What with the price spike on retrocomputing stuff, there's a mountain of hardware I wish I hadn't disposed of. Piles of 486s, DX2s, DX4s, AMD 5x86s, Pentium Overdrives in both 63 mHz and 83 mHz flavors, every imaginable stepping of Pentiums from 75 mHz to 266 mHz, K5's, K6's, motherboards and memory to fit all of it, Trident and S3 and ATI Rage cards of every flavor, and so. many. damned. soundcards of every possible make. SCSI cards by the bucket, and every bit of network gear I had that wasn't 100baseTX. So much stuff that's apparently worth money now. All because Grandma told me to clear out the closet in the guest bedroom so she could put her quilting stuff in it. e. One shining jewel of a K6-2 433 mounted to a voltage regulator board that would run in a Socket 5 system, used to upgrade a Packard Bell. Like tears in the rain. rndmnmbr has a new favorite as of 10:17 on Mar 11, 2022 |
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