Best MAME setup *ever*

Years ago, (*brag*... way before it was trendy), in like 1999 or so,  I built my own MAME arcade cabinet conversion. Pic here.

Since then, I've seen a bunch of people do home arcade machine setups, either as arcade cabinets or as coffee tables and the like.

However, this one, built into a bar, is full of The Win. The contest is now over. I can't imagine how anyone will top it, short of perhaps building it into Angelina Jolie's backside or something. :-)

(Seriously though, it could be improved. Trackball, spinner, for starters. Rotatable monitor is another idea)

(Thanks Alice!)

Indie Game Worth Checking Out

The Wonderful End of the World is an indie game that is very, well, Katamari-esque is how it's best put.

However, it's worth downloading and checking out if for no other reason than the brilliant 'Arcadia' level (level 2) included in the demo. Fantastic.

Sweet MAME table idea

I built a MAME cabinet about 13-14 years ago - long before you could buy them and before you could buy USB 'arcade quality' controllers (it may have been before USB itself for that matter!). I got rid of it when moving up to Seattle, as I didn't have room for all my arcade cabs in the house here.

I haven't thought about building another until I saw this link (via boingboing) for a cool 'hideaway' version. This was done on an IKEA dining room table, but I think it could be done similarly in a living room coffee table.

Hmm... I've been looking for a reason to buy that router attachment for my table saw...

Healthy gaming

Dropping by the local mall here in Mississauga, I noticed the following sign

So I went in to check it out, and saw that it was a fitness club for kids all geared around interactive machines & games. PS2's hooked up to stationary bikes (stop pedalling and they switch off), DDR-style dance pad games, 3 motion sensing kung fu game, etc.

Here's a cell phone pick of the stations inside:

Very cool!

The Arcade, the Artist and the Algorithm

Raph Koster pointed to this lovely set of images from artist Rosemarie Fiore, that are all long-exposure shots of old arcade games (mostly old color vector games, though Qix was a raster setup, IIRC).

It occurred to me that you could probably get similar shots by getting the source code to MAME, and either switching off back-buffer clears while doing some post processing on the back buffer. Not sure you'd have the same beauty in the final result though.