2006 News Archive
Sunday 24th December |
Well, it's almost that time of the year again, the one that we've been planning for the last 6 months, and that we'll be paying for, for the next 6 months! seriously Christmas means something different to everyone, so whatever it means to you, take care, and enjoy it!
My Christmas Message:
Having worked in retail years ago, I thought I'd share a few thoughts with you on it...
I can appreciate what's it like at this time of year dealing with the general public, who can at times be extremely rude, and unappreciative, just like many of their employers.Those working in retail, are also very much exploited at this time of year, now more than ever, so please remember this when you rush to the shops on Boxing Day for bargain!
I was very suprised to learn how a store like an M&S, with it's upmarket and glitzy image, can, behind scenes be so exploitive and scrooge like, forcing many employee's to work all hours, for regular pay, no wonder they've at last had a very successful year.
Having been a manager as well, maybe employers should remember what a difference to your profitability and productivity, a reward to your employee's at Christmas makes.Those who do, benefit from staff who feel appreciated, and more likely to help when you need it, those who don't, will have staff with a couldn't care less attitude, which ultimately will affect the performance of your business.
I fixed the link to the Games Room, sorry it's been broken for about a week!
You never know, there may be some emulation goodies for Christmas, but no sign of anything yet, so I guess this'll probably be my last update until the New Year.
Merry Christmas to you all, see you again soon!
Tuesday 12 December |
Yes Folks, I'm still here, just had way too little free time on my hands lately, what with getting ready for Christmas, school concerts, helping out my dad, decorating and countless other real life things which have to take priority.
Fruity's
How would you like to own this, a real working slot fruit machines, with all the bells & whistles? ....
Well my Aladdin slot machine is now up for sale on Ebay, courtesy of Mr Coinop for £85.00 including 500 tokens, would make a great present for all the family, these are seriously fun, and this has great lights, sounds, and music, as well as a large animated dot matrix LED display.
Interested? Then click here, only a few days to go!
Mame™
Mame v0.111 was released just yesterday, this is an official release, not source change release
dubbed, the 'Too much free disk space' release!
Wish I had, I'm down to my last 50 gb, hmm big deal, I remember my first PC had a 1.1gb HDD, and it taking ages to fill, that was before Mame came along!
From here you access all the main Mame goodies...
Mame (Windows command line version) - Download here
Mame (Windows command line version & DOS Version) - Download here
Mame (Windows GUI version Mame32) - Download here
Mame (Windows command line & Mame32 processor optimised builds) - Download here - Mirror
The games? well you may be able to find a torrent here
Tuesday 7th November |
Hope everyone enjoyed their fireworks over the weekend, I know our local display went very well, and the weather stayed clear, but cold.The only porblems these days, is that people seem to let off fireworks for about 4 weeks afterwards, which drives everyone mad!
MAME™
The 'Rock Duck' release
A new official release of the big one yesterday, now brings Mame to version v.110
You can download from the following...
Windows (command line version) & Source
You could also try MameDEV, but I couldn't access the site for some reason, may be down?
You can also download processor optimised builds here
Finally if you prefer the Windows GUI version, you can get Mame32 here
ClrMamePro
This excellant utility has a new release, and some new .DAT files, all of which can be found here
Well, that's it for this mini update, still I managed to beat MameWorld with the release news, must be a first!
Tuesday 31st October |
Another month passed without an update, sorry folks, I had problems with the billing to my host again, but these problems are hopefully now resolved.
It's Halloween tonight people, so that means get prepared for the trick or treater's, so either switch off your lights, pull your curtains, and turn off the TV, and hide behind the sofa, or, install some trip wires, and barb wire around your house, with metal grids over your windows, either way enjoy it!
So what's been happening over the last month, well, personally I'm doing my best to try and prepapre for Christmas early, and have infact now almost finished present shopping!, not bad for a thirtysomething old guy huh? and then there's all the food and booze, so I've set myself a budget, and will gradually get a bit at a time, mainly because I can't afford to leave it all until the last minute, having said that, I will probably do the same as every other year, and spend far too much, on things that we don't need, and then spend the rest of next year paying for it, but then I'm sure I'm not alone, am I? because we all try and do the best we can for our families.Right that's it, no more about Christmas, as it's turning into a blog! and this is a retro gaming site, so let's take a look at what's new....
Before I start, just have to mention that I got a chance to play House Of The Dead 4, well done Sega, it's a great game.
Vids:
MAME™ has seen an intermediate release, version 0.109u4, which you can download here.Personally I don't bother with these source change releases, and prefer to wait until the official release, habit over the years I suppose, but you can find out the changes in this release here.
To celebrate Halloween, MrDo has chosen today to release some new artwork, which unsuprisingly perhaps, happens to be Ghosts & Goblins, and Ghouls & Ghosts.You can grab these and many others from his excellant Mame Artwork site.Although Mame has supported artwork for sometime, it's only as of version v0.107 that support was added for High Resolution artwork, so it seems it's not just TV's going HD these days, but even Mame!.
TAFA has had some manufacturer restructuring, resulting in a more accurate archive resource.They've also added a whole lot of flyers over the last months, so the archive now stands at 5000 unique flyers, an amazing achievement, and one which you should deffinately take a look at.
Roman released a new version of ClrMamePro v3.94c, to find out what's new and download the new utility, visit the home of ClrMamePro here.
Well, time is against me at the moment, so I'm afraid that will conclude this update, but I'll try and squeeze some more in over this coming weekend.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Saturday 30th September |
Vids:
The big one gets an official update, yes folks, Mame v.109 has now been released, dubbed the 'Die Hard with sound' release, which I'm sure will please a lot of people.Here is the links to all the new goodies...
From the official Mame website:
Click here to find out all that is new with this release, including the intermediate source changes.
Click here for all of the official downloads, including Windows command line, DOS, and Pentium Pro optimized
Other ports / versions
Click here if you prefer the Windows GUI version, Mame32 (N.B.requires Fileplanet account)
Click here for processor optimized builds of both the Windows command line, and Windows GUI versions
You might also find these sites useful for updating your ROMs
First stop should be www.clrmame.com to obtain all the latest .DAT files for use with ClrMamePro, and if you haven't already the utility itself, which is really a must have these days.And then the following DDL/Torrent sites..
Monday 25th September |
Can't believe I missed a week, erm sorry 2 weeks, mind you things have been a little hectic lately to say the least, and I've been away for the weekend, for a nice little break, anyway now I'm here ,might as well make a very small update..
A little late with this, but Shane Monroe has released the August edition of his excellant Retrogaming Radio show, in which he covers a whole range of gaming topics.If you've never listened before, and like this show, you'll be pleased to know he offers a back catalogue of previous shows.I remember Shane from his Insert Coin site days, ie prior to Monroeworld.com, and he always manages to give an interesting view on gaming topics, but just don't mention MS to him!
Are you bored with the ringtone on your phone, and fed up with paying £££'s for a new one? well why not show your support for the great retro games of the past, and grab yourself a classic arcade game ringtone from Arcade Tones.They've got a great choice, and well, it's different!.I came across this site whilst researching what's new in the retro gaming world.
Ah yes, a new version of ClrMamePro was released just over a week ago, 3.91a, you can find out all about the changes here.This an excellant ROM utility which I use a lot, and together with .DAT files can keep your romsets up to date, or make them compatible with older emulators.
An updated version of the Missile Command cabinet for use with 3D arcade was released by Fossil, and is awesome!, go take a look at this and all the others in the models section.
Thursday 7th Septemeber |
Quick update to the ROM archive, added Centipede, Checkman, Crush Roller
I'm pleased to announce the addition of a new game to my games room , Crush Roller.It's a classic arcade game that I remember well, which looks very simple, and yet is quite hard to complete a level with a good score.
So why not hang out in the games room for a while, and try some of the great real arcade games, and if you like it, tell your friends.
Wednesday 6th Septemeber |
I've finally managed to resume work on updating the ROM Archive.This update is to games E-F, and includes the following...
E: Eswat - Cyber Police, Elevator Action, Enduro Racer, Empire Strikes Back, Exciting Soccer, Express Raider, Extra Inning
F: F1 Dream, Fantasy, Fighting Hawk, Fire Truck, Fly Boy/Fast Freddie, Flying Shark, Food Fight, Frogger, Funny Mouse
Fruity's:
Firstly, I've updated the Fruit Machine emulation links within the menu on the left, as many are no more (R.I.P), some have changed, and there's a few new ones, or at least to me anyway.
Pook has released an excellant WDX of Monte Carlo, something which he has been working on in the background for about 2 years!
Pachislo:
One of my Pachislo machines, Aladdin (Sammy) will be up for sale shortly... Click here to see the machine in action on a bonus round, courtesy of Discount Home Slot Machines
If you live in Herts, Beds or Bucks, and might be interested in buying let me know!
I'm looking for £120 o.n.o, it's in excellant condition, and will include 500 tokens.I've also fitted some potentiometers, which although very fiddly help with lowering the volume, although if that's not an issue, then they can be removed easily.
Saturday 2nd Septemeber |
I can't believe it's been 2 months since my last update, sorry! been busy with RL, keeping my son occupied during the summer holidays, Birthdays, changing cars, things going wrong etc
General:
Before I start, just a quick update to the info I gave on the C64 Plug & Play on my last update (below).Since the release of the new catalogue, they have reduced them further to £4.99!! an absolute bargain, so grab one if you can, however I did find that it is missing some of the hidden features, compared to the US or older? version, but you can still access the real C64 mode.Having used it a few times, I decided to dust of one of my real C64's, and set it up for use, so I could show my son, what I grew up with, although actually I started with a Vic20, and at school I had previously discovered computing via a demonstration of a CBM PET, and use of the schools Research Z80? and ZX81.I was firstly amazed that everything still worked, and even more amazed that all the tapes I tried loaded first time, must have got the head alignment just right.Anyway after a while I wondered if I could still remember all the screen codes, and so on, and write a basic game, which I did, a variation of Atari super breakout, with adjustable skill, and multiple levels.It was very enjoyable, not so much playing the end result, as actually writing it, something I miss doing on modern systems, as I don't actually know how to program using C or anything.I'll have to learn sometime, anyway steering of course here, basically go an get yourself one of those units, not the best game selection in the world, although it does have some real gems, and it is a real C64 inside, not an NES based chip.
Vids:
Well it looks like everyone else is taking a rest as well, or maybe people are losing interest, I don't know, but was suprised that Retrogames hasn't been updated.Anyway here are the major releases that have happened..
This release doesn't add any new games, but there is a whole lot of updates and changes.
Mame version 0.108 (Latest official release)
Click here to see what's new
Other ports of this version are also available, including the Windows GUI version, Mame32
The source updates are currently at version 0.108 u2, click here to see what's new
3D Arcade:
For those like me that use the amazing 3Darcade frontend, you might be interested to know that Btribble has been real busy, and has released a whole batch of new models over the last weeks, and there's also a new arcade available, called Moon Street
AGEMAME:
The gambling game spin off version of Mame has also been updated, now at version 0.36, it's also available as GUI version, AGEMAME32 click here for more information.Haven't tried this in a while, so it'll be interesting to see how this has developed.
Fruity's:
Still popular is the world of Fruit Machine emulation, which over the last few months has seen a whole load of new layouts released, checkout Fruit Forums for all the details.
I didn't realise that Pandy has his own site, http://pandy.fruitemu.co.uk/index.php, and of course his passion is the Barcrest MPU3 machines, but lot's of others as well.It would seem that there has been an update to his, and my favourite MPU3 machine, Line Up, now a 1280 DX, shame my TFT only does 1024!
Well, that concludes this update, I hope to be able to resume more regular updates, in a week or so.
Thursday 29th June |
I don't normally cover computer emulation on my site, but I think it's worth sharing with you something which you really can't afford to miss, if like me, you have ever owned a Commodore 64.Yes, it was the worlds best selling computer, and even here in the UK, around 6 million of us owned one at some time, and a great many people still have them in use even in this age of high technology.
Personally, I have managed to hold on to most of the computers from past, but the one that I will always treasure is my old C64, even though I also have a Web.It C64 as well (a 386/486 based computer with built in lotus utilities, internet access, and C64 emulation, looking a bit like a laptop in size.Unfortutely, It's all boxed up and stored with the rest, and so like most I rely on the C64 emulators, but it's never quite the same as using the real thing...
Then a couple of years ago, this comes along...
Yes, it's another of those rather nifty Plug & Play controllers, with built in games, only this one was very different, because inside it, is essentially a C64 on a chip (which I'm pleased to say was designed by a woman!), and so the games haven't been recreated (ie: Namco Plug & Play controllers), they are the originals.So is all that I wanted to share with you? no, because I'm sure you probably already knew that, but have you got one? if not, now is the time, because Argos has reduced them to just £7.99, and I've heard of some places clearing them at £5 .... is that it? ... No!
So you've now got one of these things, and you know there's a real Commodore 64 inside this thing, so what? well it can be hacked!. Infact you can quite easily hook up a keyboard, disc drive, and use it like an original C64, and if you can't hook a keyboard up, it even has a virtual on screen keyboard.Great, but how's it done? Well luckily, I've found some very interesting sites, dedicated to hacking this controller, and here's some of the best.
http://www.dtvhacking.info/ - excellant site, covering the NTSC and PAL (UK) versions, complete with video guides!
http://www.kahlin.net/daniel/dtv/index.php - Daniel Kahlin's site with lots of interesting little projects
http://jledger.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=dtvhacking - Dedicated DTV (Direct to TV) hacking forum
All this will probably be of little interest to the kids of today, my son turned 5 last week, and got some games for 'his' DS!, he also has a Duron PC, and now a Spiderman Plug & Play TV game, and almost exclusive use of 'my' XBOX, still having a dad whose a big kid himself (With my home 'mini' arcade, large electronic game, computer, and console collection) probably has something to do with this!.Although from my own experience, I know that playing games alone does not make for a very happy, satisfying, or healthy existence, so moderation is very important.Fortunately, he enjoys many different things, especially school (I wonder how long this will last?), so I don't feel too concerned.Now, as a father myself, I find it funny how games have developed into something that such a wide group of ages enjoy now, wheras in my teens, it was only teens who were intereted!
Tuesday 20th June |
For those that have tried visiting this site over the last few weeks, only to be greeted with an admin message, my sincere apologies, there was a problem with the billing! hopefully it is now resolved, and as you can obviously see everything is back to normal, whatever that is.
There isn't a lot to report, mainly due to the very nice weather, and of course the football, speaking of which, England play Sweden tonight, so don't miss it, lets just hope they play better than they have been.
There will be more updates to follow to this site again soon, so keep watching.
Tuesday 23rd May |
*Update* Had a little bit of free time this evening, and so managed an update to the ROM archive.Continuing on alphabetically, we're now at D, so the following sets/merged sets were added....
Well it looks like another 'monthly' update this time, at the moment my sons really ill, and so I'm afraid that takes priority over anything else, even games!
Vids:
Last week the current Mame release cycle came to end, with the release of Mame v0.106.It has infact since had a minor update, but this has screwed up a few things, so if you want a stable release, stick with v0.106.
To find out what's new, click here
To download the latest Source or Windows command line versions, click here
Or if you prefer the Windows GUI version, Mame32, then click here
Wish there was a different way to play Mame, well as an alternative, do you still have your Dreamcast lurking around somewhere? If so congratulations, you still own one of the best consoles ever created, but more than that, it's time to dust it down, and get burning a CDR, because Chui's Dreamcast projects we now have amongst lots of other goodies, MAME4ALL, and adaptation of the GP2X version.You can download this, and any of his other great projects here.Please not this emulator is designed to use Mames V0.35/0.36 romsets, not current ones, so I guess you'll need ClrMamePro and a DAT file, or maybe RomBuilder? personally I haven't had time to try making these yet, although I have successfully made sets for other older emulators, like System 16, Callus, etc as I still use them on a low end PII.
Wow, looks like there was a huge update at TAFA (The Arcade Flyers Archive) with now less than 72 additions, great work.I have to say the flyer for the Virtual Pinball sure looks unusual, whatever next?
Another place that seems to have had a lot of new additions, is my favourite frontend, 3D Arcade, with loads of new models, and Pinball skins available, and of course for those with limited resources, in terms of PC horsepower, and internet connection, take a look at the diet cab 3D models.If you haven't yet tried 3D arcade, you're missing out on possibly the best bit of gaming software aside from an emulator, it's not easy to setup, and not really suited to arcade cabinet, but the incredible results make it well worth while.
Pin's:
Do you know what, I haven't tried Visual Pinball for ages, so I downloaded the latest versions, got it all setup, and the started looking for some tables, in particular my all time favourite Xenon (see above), which was one of the few wide bodied tables that Bally produced, and this was the first to feature a female voice.I was all set to grab the version I'd tried before, and then noticed that Scapino, had done a version of it, and it's amazing (see for yourself, click here for a HiRes screenshot), it really is the next best thing to the actual table itself, and then I found out he's done quite a few, all absolutely stunning, so if this is news to you to, then visit his website here.It's amazed me how much the Pinball emulation scene has progressed, and one which I'll certainly be keeping an eye on from now on.
Well I guess that's it for this update, more to come soon, promise!
Monday 24th April |
Sorry for the lack of updates this month, things have been rather hectic, and my sons been very ill.
Over the Easter break, I visited an arcade at a seaside funfair, with some nice old machines, and so you'll find the following machines added to the coin op game museum... Animal Antics, Roulette, and Wheel'A'Winner, unfortunately I only had my mobile with me and not my camera at the time, so the pictures are at VGA res.
Normal service will resume soon, in the meantime, why not have some fun in my online arcade.
Tuesday 14th March |
Started work on the new Handheld & Tabletop game museum, which will eventually house my collection of games, past and present for you to view, for now, I've added some the LCD Game & Watch games, so why not take a look.
Sunday 12th March |
Everythings rather quiet in the world of emulation this week it seems, so here's another update to the ROM archive..
Upped the following merged and verified sets: Bad Dudes Vs Dragonninja, Bagman, Balloon Bomber, Berzerk, Blaster, Blue Print, Blue Shark, Boot Hill, Burnin' Rubber, Basketball, Burger Time, Bubbles, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Buggy Challenge, Battle Zone, and updated the Bomb Jack set.
Tuesday 7th March |
Managed to upload a few more roms to the archive..
I would have done more, if it weren't for the fact that I decided to upload merged sets, and provide all the details, and there's about 20 PuckMans! (better known as Pac Man to most).Anyway, I hope you appreciate the extra details I've included, it's quite a time consuming (I'm still using HTML remember!) but I thought it would make for a much better ROM archive.Merged sets if you don't know by the way, are romsets which include all of the additional roms required by the other versions/clones/bootlegs etc of the game.
Vids:
Looking for an awesome frontend? it has to be 3D Arcade (previously Emulaxian) in which you can create your own virtual arcade, using 3D cabinet models, which you can then walk around.I spent about a year trying to recreate an arcade I used to spend a lot of my school days in, and the result was amazing, well I thought so!.Anyway the reason I decided to mention it, is that I just paid a visit to see what new models are available and noticed it was updated to version 0.95.If you'd like to download it, then visit the 3D arcade site, although I must point out that it's not suitable for those on either Dialup, or with anything less than a 1ghz PC, and a very good graphics card.
Friday 3rd March |
Added the Monaco GP roms to the archive, I have renamed them for use with Sname.It is not included within Mame since it is only simulated, due to the fact it used discrete circuitry, and therefore can't at present be emulated.The simulation within in Sname is actually very good, although there are collision detection problems, and it requires sound samples, although I haven't been able to get these to work, maybe that's because SnameW doesn't work well in XP?.
Vids:
Mash has released mameinfo.dat v0.104u4 for the latest version of Mame.
Wednesday 1st March |
Well it's the start of a new month, and what better way to start than with a new game, there is a clue to it's identity in the menu on the left, give up? OK, if you get yourself into Daves Arcade Games Room, you can now play Pooyan, a very underated classic arcade game, which is harder than it looks.
Revised the Intro page, and updated to the new colour scheme.
I'm aware that the tabletop electronic game museum isn't working at the moment, and I've lost the details for the site it's hosted on.To be honest it's probably no bad thing, because it was extremely out of date, and most of the images were made using a camcorder connected to video capture card, long before digital camera's became affordable.So when I get a chance, I'll redo that section with all new images, of my collection at present, and will also host it here to prevent any problems.
What do you think of my site now, like the appearance, enjoy the newly added games room? email me your thoughts or suggestions
Vids
Just to mention that ClrMamePro received another update, and is now at version 3.84a
Tuesday 28th February |
Pancake Day! hmm nice.
Well so far everything seems to be going alright with the conversion, although doing everything by hand is rather time consuming, so it make take a little while to complete.
Vids
First of all a new addition to the Arcade Game Room, Circus Charlie, a great simplistic looking game, although actually a bit of a challenge.I've also updated the graphics of the games, so that when you play it's like playing on a mini game cabinet, you'll see what I mean, hope you like it.Obviously this also means that the romset is now also available from the ROMs archive, as a merged set.
Forgot to mention that ClrMamePro was updated to version 3.84
If you keep the 'dont' create dummy clones' option enabled and have chds in subfolders, you might see some "wrong merged" entries for the former 'fake clones'. Move the chd to the parent folder and remove the empty subfolder then.
Example: calspeeda is 100% identical to calspeed, if you keep the chds in subfolderrs called calspeeda and calspeed, move the calspeeda.chd in calspeed to the calspeed folder (since that's the parent) and remove the empty chd-subfolder calspeeda.
Another warning about enabling the 'parse merge tags' option. Older MAME versions had WRONG merge tag information. So when you scan old MAME version you may run into big trouble using that option. Next clrmamepro version will get some additional test if the merge tags are correct or not.
Sunday 26th February |
I've decided to remove the frames layout where possible, as it's affecting people find my site correctly, as most are only finding individual parts not the complete site.I'm also aware that some of the pages need updating as well to the new layout, which I'm working on currently, so it has a uniformed appearance.
Some minor work completed in the game room, and the main pages.
Vids
I now have a complete romset for Mame v.104 and so will be able to commence updating the ROMs archive.I have added a merged set for Puckman, better known to most as Pac Man, which of course it later became, and includes all clones and variants.
Nice to see Mameworld has returned, I was getting worried for a while, especially since we've already lost so many great sites.
Thursday 19th February |
I've started work on the ROM archive again, which is now hosted locally.It'll take a long time to get it back to it's former glory, as even though I now have 2mb ADSL connection, I don't have a lot of time.Today I've added the ROMs for the Daphne Emulator, these are from my 4 disc set, so a couple are missing, and of course remember you'll need the MPEGs as well!
Fruity's
It's well worth taking a look over at www.fruit-emu.com, as there has been quite a few releases over the last few weeks, not to mention the release of MFME 3.2, which I'll be adding to Reel Fruity, reel soon, sorry couldn't resist it.
Thursday 9th February |
I've chosen to wait until today for a special reason, today is the 9th, which is very apt, because this week Mame became 9 years old!.It's an incredible achievement, especially if you, like me remember how it all started, and the early releases.I guess we all take it for granted now, but what we shouldn't is the amount of time and effort people are still prepared to put into developing it, and what better way to demonstrate this, than with a new release...
Just to let you know, I got my new speaker cable, and can verify that some games in the games room, do not have sound, this is normal, due to incomplete emulation via CottAGE.
