PC-Based Gaming Console (home made)

[leech]

I've been thinking lately... What sort of hardware should I throw into this project. I was thinking of making a custom case for this, but I was wanting something more along the lines of a Playstation 2 size, rather than a mini-tower or something. I did find a G550 in a low profile card... Though from reading on here, the G400 has the best TV out.

The use for this will be for Mame, console emulators and old computer emulators. Kind of a nostalgia in a box... Also I'm going to get it to play DVD's. I plan on building this off of Linux as well.

I do have a Marvel G400 that could be used for this, would the TV out on that work well enough? (And will it work in Linux? I think it does, but have never tried it....) Also, I'm not sure if I can just find one of those mini boards that come in those shuttle cases to use for my own project, or do I have to buy the board with the case?

Also of course would be the question of speed. I think probably 98% of all Mame games, or computer emulators would run fine and even with room to spare on a 1ghz Pentium 3.

Any advice on this? Of course this project will probably take quite some time to put together, and eventually I'm going to get proper controllers for it as well... All in the name of fun

Leech

[TransformX]

for mame, get the best cpu possible.
for old PC games, get a nice P-II 400 and a voodoo II

[leech]

The only game so far I've tried to run under mame that runs like ass (even on my 3.06ghz Pentium 4) is Cruisin' USA (and Cruisin' World of course) but that's because Mame tries to emulate just the hardware, and don't use anything like OpenGL for acceleration... according to one thing I read, it'll take at least a 4ghz processor to run it at decent frame rates... pretty sad, I'd say... Can't really think of any others that would require more than 1ghz. Though I'm sure there are a few I'm not aware of...

Leech

[Wombat]

There IS a MameGL.

[leech]

Yeah, but I have NEVER gotten it to work... and from what I have seen of it, all it does is show a 3D cabinet that rotates around... Granted, the only time I've tried the MameGL is with xmame....

Leech

[TnT]

Although I've lost some respect for Antec, they have a new case out that is Shuttle shaped except slight larger so that it fits mATX boards and full height cards. It's called Aria.

If you got money to spend on controllers I'd check out the Logitech Cordless Rumble Pads. Although I haven't read about its Linux support.

Check out http://www.happypenguin.org for Linux games.

[GNEP]

Look for a few threads at silentpcreview for comments on the Antec Aria - whilst initially well received the impression I get is that it is suffering (at least initially) from a few quality control problems - eg stripped screw threads etc.

But I am thinking of putting a quiet sitting-room type PC together which will probably have similar requiremets as yours leech... and apart from making a custom cabinet for such a thing, something like the Aria might be just the thing. That or the Shuttle Zen (quiet being quite a priority...).

[MultimediaMan]

There are several games MAME doesn't handle well...but those it does, it does exceedingly well. (I wish it supported World Grand Prix's monitor "tilting", but hey...)

I love playing the classics... Darius, Defender, Duck Hunt, Robotron 2084 all still fun after 20+ years.

[leech]

A friend of mine built a full Arcade cabinet and put a PC in it with of course all the buttons and joysticks (though the two things I can think of that it's missing is a Trackball for games like centipede, and a light gun for all those shooting games..) It just rocks, funnest thing in the world to play. He even set it up with four controllers (each with 6 buttons) so that all the four player games like Xmen and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be played properly.

Eventually I'd like to do the same, though lack of money at the moment is stopping me....

Leech

[MultimediaMan]

There are many How-To's with building an arcade-style gaming cabinet. All of the parts (Buttons, Joysticks, Trackballs) are available online nowadays. I'm probably going to build one myself (Arcade Cabinet) in the not-too-distant future.

My Matrox G400 MAX will have the honor of being the Video Card (As if there were another choice?), along with an SIS-based Athlon Motherboard.

[spadnos]

A trackball for centipede, huh - What about Extremely Important games like Marble Madness?

Also, a paddle control for Tempest-like games is a must.

(Of course, this comes from someone with almost no MAME experience, and no custom gaming cabinet )

- Steve

[leech]

Damn my ignorant hide! How could I forget Marble Madness??? Yeah, those rotary things for Tempest... That game is a pain to play on that though... Just like Joust originally only had a two-way joystick. (Then of course there's the original Defender which only had four buttons for movement/shooting.... or was it more. Can't recall at this time.. I do know it was buttons only though, no joystick.)

Leech

[leech]

My Silly friend had heard at the time that the ATI card he has in there had the best TV-Out... but I dont' remember if that was before the G400 came out or not...

Leech

[Wombat]

You could go play with this: http://sourceforge.net/projects/knoppixmame

Though Knoppix 3.4 is out, so this may be updated in the next few weeks.

[leech]

Yeah, I knew about that project. Pretty sweet, I'd say. While experimenting with xmamegl I did manage to discover another problem with Matrox's Parhelia drivers for linux.... I tried it full screen and X blew up... It worked (slowly) in windowed mode...

Leech