nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category games

(SOLD) For Sale: MAME Cabinet

January 3, 2017

Up for sale is my MAME Cabinet. As documented on this wiki article I built this cabinet from a pile of lumber in the style of a late 1980s Data East cabinet, then outfitted it to be an extremely solid, quality MAME cabinet. Over the past few years I haven’t found the interest to keep working on it and now it’s time to sell.

Price is US$700, to be picked up at my house in Shelby Township.

Purchasing just the keyboard encoder, controls, coin door, and supplies for finishing the control panel would cost nearly this much.

Click on the photo above (or here (photo gallery retired)) for more photos of the cabinet taken in early 2017. Please take a look at this article for information on exactly what went into the cabinet, and this photo gallery (photo gallery retired) for some photos of it throughout the years.

This cabinet currently does not have a monitor installed, and the PC is a bit outdated (it was last powered on ~3 years ago), but all of the arcade-specific parts of the cabinet are in great shape. All controls feel good and are connected to a Hagstrom KE72-T encoder (no ghosting), the control panel can quickly disconnect from the main cabinet for ease of transport, and the monitor support bracket will make it easy to install a new display. Prior to listing this for sale I was planning to install a ~24″ widescreen LCD. Proper arcade game-type T-molding is installed along all edges and the cabinet has numerous handles, leveling feet, and roller wheels to make moving it easy.

Part specifics can be found on the wiki article; almost everything was purchased from Happ Controls and thus is full arcade quality. The control panel is topped with Formica and features eight buttons per player, some MAME-specific buttons for adjusting in-game controls (DIP switches, volume, etc), and there are three hidden buttons on the sides to act as coin inputs. The Millipede-sized real-arcade trackball serves as a normal mouse, and a wireless Logitech keyboard is included.

The cabinet features a temperature-controlled vent fan, internal power strip, speaker amplifier, remote bezel light switch, remote power and reset buttons, and quick-disconnects for all internal connections. PC-mounting points inside are ATX-spec to make installing a bare motherboard easy. The control panel is removable, held in place with thumb screws making transportation even easier.

Please contact me at steve@nuxx.net if you are interested in buying my MAME Cabinet. It was built with extreme care and well loved, but it’s time for me to let it go.

EDIT: This has been sold. Thanks, Luke!

electronicsgames

Magnetic Shaving Derby

August 22, 2008

Screenshot of nyarla's game Magnetic Shaving Derby.

For those of you with an R4 or other method of playing homebrew on the DS, I strongly suggest you check out nyarla‘s in-development game Magnetic Shaving Derby.

It is currently up to version 0.5, and here is a direct link to the zipped .nds file (mirror on nuxx.net).

I think it could still use a bit of work, but it’s a really fun quick-play game. It would definitely be interesting if there was something like a bonus scrotum shaving round, a goatee / sideburn bonus, and maybe slightly different control of the magnet / blade, but as it stands it’s a pretty darn fun game.

UPDATE: I’ve been told that there’s another version coming soon, so keep an eye on nyarla’s site for more info.

games

Korg DS-10 Synthesizer for Nintendo DS

July 27, 2008

Korg DS-10 running on my DS.

In case you were wondering, yes, the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer for Nintendo DS is excellent. It’s awesome. Fun, very easy to understand, the works. I can’t wait until it’s released in the US so that I can have multiple copies running.

The only thing I can’t figure out is what the SMT/HLD setting on the Kaos Pad is supposed to do. Oh, and it does seem like some of the settings (in particular those on the patch panel) don’t do anything until one slightly turns a knob, but that may be intentional.

This sounds excellent on headphones. I can’t wait to see what people come up with using it. Hopefully there is a good way to trade songs beyond peered DS’.

games

!!!

December 23, 2007

Well, there goes my working MAME machine. Things were going well, with Windows 2000 having been installed so that I could use the win32 binary of a new version of MAME. I wanted to change the BIOS logo, so I first ran the BIOS updater from MSI to get the latest BIOS on there (the version I was going to add a new image to), and things just stopped.

The damned MSI bios updater has killed this board. The on-board diagnostic LEDs simply light as all red, which is (supposedly) indicative of a defective CPU. Bah.

Also, I’ve noticed that for the last few days the power at my house has been running at 59.9 MHz lately, not 60. I find that odd.

UPDATE: I just remembered that I had another one of these boards here, but a bad one. I just swapped BIOS chips and poof, things work again. Damned MSI.

computersgamesmoved from livejournal

The Turd

November 24, 2007

My Xbox 360 is a turd. I just submitted a request for repair, which means that Microsoft should now be sending me a $0 repair kit so that I can have the privilege of not playing games on it for a month while it is (hopefully) put in the state it should have originally been in. That is, working properly.

Quality control like this is the main reason why Microsot won’t be able to make a hand held gaming device any time soon. If consoles are failing this regularly when they aren’t moved about, there’s no way MS can compete in the DS (and PSP) market of regularly dropped in bags / knocked around devices.

Also, here is sparkly part of the DIA from last night, and here is some tasty aloo gobi I ate at Rangoli Express on the way home from work a few evenings back.

foodgamesmoved from livejournal

Connect360

August 26, 2007

For those of you like me who are new to the Xbox 360, and who also have Macs as their main machines, check out Connect360. It shares out your iTunes stuff automatically so that the music on it can be used in the 360.

I just finished getting the Professor of Giraffeology achievement (score at least 10 million in the tutorial) with ~16mil while listening to some Analord. That worked quite well. Even though the music in SG is good, having something you really know seems to make it even better.

Now it’s time to start thinking about leaving for work, as I’m supposed to be there from 2pm until things get done, and I want to return some stuff to Radio Shack and get some lunch on the way. (Probably a BK veggie burger, as they are decent and salty foods are sounding good. Last week I had purchased some phono plugs at Radio Shack and I can’t get them open. They don’t unscrew and pulling with pliars just deforms the connector. Stupid Radio Shack parts.)

computersgamesmoved from livejournal

Consumer Posts

August 24, 2007

Some interesting points regarding consumer goods…

Joy Dish Soap:

For years I had a giant bottle of some Dawn-branded dish detergent. It worked great. Eventually it ran out, so while at the store I bought a bottle of some Lemon-scented Joy. Well, you know that musty / moldy / mildewy smell that dish clothes and sponges get when they are left to sit in a too-moist state for too long?

For some reason since switching to Joy, I’ve had my dishwashing sponge turn rancid once a week. Previously with Dawn I could use the same sponge until the scrubby side had worn flat and it was replaced because of wear, not stink.

Currently, after having been replaced a week ago, the sponge smells so bad that I can’t wash dishes with it, lest the stink permeate my hands for the next 24 hours. (Washing doesn’t get it off.) I guess I’ll be buying some Dawn on the way home and throwing out another perfectly good sponge.

Space Giraffe:

It really is a fun game. It will absolutely, completely piss you off until you understand what is going on, but after that it’s a good bit of fun. Definitely worth the 400 points. It’s one of those games where once you get it you want to keep playing it. Too bad I had to go to bed last night… I wanted to play more this morning, but I was close to running late for work.

Other XBLA Demos I’ve Tried:

· Alien Hominid HD: Like the original, but without the bugs (it’s playable!), better graphics make the cartoony-ness even better, and still absurdly hard.
· Beautiful Katamari: A HD version of Katamari Damacy, which is good. What is bad is that instead of cheesy, poor translations there is intentionally bad English in the dialogs, reminiscent of LOLCATS type crap. Hopefully it doesn’t cost more than $30.
· Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved: Fun, Robotron-like (but not), hard, cheap. I forgot to actually buy the full version last night so I’ll do that tonight.
· Viva Piñata: Cute, just not fun for me. Seems like Danielle would like it. Basically you maintain a garden in order to attract very well rendered piñatas. There may be more, but I only gave the demo about 30 minutes.

Xbox 360 UI:

This is typical Microsoft crap. It is not easy to find where demos vs. downloaded XBLA games vs. whatever else is located. I don’t understand why I shouldn’t be able to be in the downloadable game store, where it says that I have already downloaded the game, and start it from there. Instead you hit a button and it tells you how to launch the game. (Go to this menu, then that, then pick this.) It’s somewhat shiny, but a bit too busy for me. Also, I don’t like the built-in banner ads, even if they are just for other games.

iPod w/ Apple Lossless

Sounds really, really good. The DAC in the iPod is actually pretty nice. However, battery life on an iPod is greatly decreased when using lossless. I think this is because the iPod has (if I remember right) a 32MB buffer which it fills before spinning the disc down. This is plenty big for a couple of lossy tracks to fit in, but not lossless. Therefore the disc has to spin up a lot more. Perhaps this will be changed in future iPods.

To work around this I might make a new iPod cable with built-in charging bits for use on my desk along with the headphone amp.

acquired thingsgamesmoved from livejournal