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Games Entertainment

MAME on X-Box 183

Posted by CmdrTaco from the isn't-that-swell dept.
wht writes "Mame successfully running on an X-Box dev kit. The same guy also did a port for Playstation 2, which I'd love to get my hands on. I do have to say, I'd buy an X-Box if it makes a good, cheap Mame machine, with quality controllers easily available." Having mostly completed My MAME Cabinet I'd tend to agree that its all about controllers. And stuff like this is why the x-box is going to change things. Well, that and DOA3.
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MAME on X-Box More

MAME on X-Box

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  • how is DOA3 going to change things? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kaisyain ( 15013 ) on Wednesday August 22, 2001 @11:37AM (#2204453)
    Sure it looks cool and I'll buy it, but must everything (c.f. Enlightment story earlier) "change things"?
    • I think the backgrounds are going to look a little better. Also, you'll be able to get a complete workout by holding the 400-pound controller-from-hell for an extended period of time.

    • What? Haven't you heard? DOA3 on the X-Box is going to use WinCE-Boob 2001! This will give DOA3 the biggest, bounciest, boobiest boobs ever!
      Heck, everything's better with boobs, and better boobs makes it better better!
      heh.
      • X-Box is going to use WinCE-Boob 2001!

        That would be a lot funnier if the X-Box were actually going to be powered by WinCE, but it isn't.

        It uses a customized Win2k kernal.

        So, what you MEANT to say was that it's using Direct-Breast 2K, or more specifically, the Direct TripleD API.
    • Well, the X-box is going to change things certainly...it'll be the first time your game console will be able to double as a coffee table...
    • Sure it looks cool and I'll buy it, but must everything (c.f. Enlightment story earlier) "change things"?

      I think that Katz has convinced everyone that everyone must appeal to technological idealism to keep readers.

  • MAME has been running on X-Box for a few months now. I saw some screenshots somewhere from someone that has used the DevKit. Although, they worked for some commercial company. (probly did it on company time without the company knowing it :)

    At any rate, it's obviously a sure thing that it's gonna be available to all the hobby hacker/developers as soon as the X-Box is out. There will be so many people doing it just for fun (porting it MAME to X-Box) that a few people will probly give out their changes or maybe even get together on it. :)

    WHEEEEEEE! hehe
    • Link [otakunozoku.com] to the developer's site with news/pics back in June of MAME running on X-Box.

      It'll be really interesting to see how far XDK priveledged people can get with this before the X-Box is released even. :)

      And yeah, just to add my opinion along with everybody elses posts on here.... MAME [mame.net] KICKS ASS!
      • Ookey, I guess I failed on a few things here, like the obviousness of THIS LINK BEING THE SAME ONE POSTED IN THE ORIGINAL POST.

        Doh!

        Early morning syndrome. My bad. :D
  • Here [mail.nontrivial.org88] is my MAME machine.

    James

  • Heh... (Score:2)

    by tcc ( 140386 )
    That's funny, running MAME on the Xbox... kind of defeats the purpose of it's design :)
  • For $500 to $1200 you could get yourself a decent computer which also happens to run mame.
    • Very true, and I have. But some people will want to *gasp* play X-box games. The PC also can't replace a console that plugs right into your TV and just works. Controllers are another issue. I haven't seen the X-box controllers but I know my PC MAME experience got much better when I got my USB N64 controller adapter.

      -winterdrm

  • MAME (Score:2, Insightful)

    by The_Jazzman ( 45650 )
    MAME [mame.net] is a really, really, good thing - great emulation at almost no cost - thanks guys :-)

    I'm an avid supported of the open source movement, so I can't wait to see the X-Box - it's meant to be really impressive, and the change to stick something open-source [linux.org] on it is just too much to resist.

    I know someone who's developing for the X-Box and it's meant to be, like, *so* impressive, all these really cool built-in functions that address the chips without any effort from his programs (which are all written in perl [perl.org], naturally).

    My only problem is that I don't exactly agree with games-playing - I think that there are so many other ways to spend your time that sitting in front of a computer screen is all rather sad. This is what annoys me most about the whole open-source movement, is that you're expected to give up your own free time to write code. Why do that ? I'd rather be down the pub or going out for a walk. Leave it to those who get paid for it is what I say.

    Yeah, Mame [mame.net] rocks!

    • >My only problem is that I don't exactly agree with games-playing - I think that there are so many other ways to spend your time that sitting in front of a computer screen is all rather sad


      Yeah, I agree! I must read several thousand Slashdot comments every day from people who I think spend too much time playing computer games. Stop wasting your valuable time people! Start working on your Slashdot karma!

    • I wonder if the X-box might make a decent homebrew platform... I've been looking for a dev kit for a system w/ 4 controllers for a long time.
      • Dreamcast has 4 controllers, it will be $79 soon (if not already) and supports WinCE (and can run NetBSD if you're looking for *nix). What are you waiting for?

        psxndc

      • I've been looking for a dev kit for a system w/ 4 controllers for a long time.

        Here's Allegro [sourceforge.net]. If you use DirectPad Pro to plug two Super NES controllers into your parallel port and then you plug in two USB controllers, you have four pads, enough to make a Mario Party clone.

        NES also supports four controllers through the Four Score adapter. Read More on how to develop for NES [parodius.com].

        • Hmmm... Actually, how many just plain USB sticks could I get going on a PC?
          • Various Joypads from Microsoft are recognized in numbers of up to 16 devices. Most games that allow any kind of control customization allow you to select the device. Mame32 is no exception.

            One of the best controllers for use in MAME on Windows is current the Sidewinder Gamepad Pro [microsoft.com]. There are others that are very good as well, but this one works very well with most MAME titles, features eight fire buttons and 1 shift button, and the D-Pad is both proportionate or digital which allows it to be used for just about any type of game.

            In fact, I also use it with just about every other DirectInput powered emulator.

            So a more useful answer is that if you had 4 of these controllers, you could very easily play Guantlet with 3 of your friends provided you had enough USB ports.
  • So what's new? Microsoft products are constantly getting maimed . Just type iis or windows into the search box here [securityfocus.com], for starters.
  • Anybody know where I can find a copy of that? This guy says he won't distribute it online, only in person. That would be an extremely cool piece of software to have, given that the N64 has some sweet-ass games (Kart64 and Smashbros come to mind). Dang, he makes it all sound so easy.
    • You can't play N64 games with MAME. It stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Arcade only. kthx :)

      Although someone will probly do an N64 emu on the X-Box as well (NEMU probly) since they're already working in Windows and the X-Box isn't a far stretch to port to from Windows.

      MAME does support well over 3000 arcade games though. :)

      Oh, a more interesting piece of knowledge... There's a port of MAME for N64 too. Only plays 88 games (there wasn't any more room on the menu screen for game names ^_^). It has some slowdown issues and whatnot.

      Happy gaming!
      • If you go to the link, the person who did the MAME port also did a port of an N64 emulator. So your post is frivalous.

      • You can't play N64 games with MAME. It stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Arcade only. kthx :)

        Some arcade games such as Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA ran on "Nintendo Ultra 64," an arcade system very similar to the N64 console. It wouldn't be that hard to emulate N64 if you're already emulating U64, just as it wouldn't be hard to emulate NES if you're already emulating Nintendo's VS Unisystem and PlayChoice (both essentially NES with a coin slot).

      • You can't play N64 games with MAME. It stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Arcade only. kthx :)

        That division line between arcade and console is so blurred now, that it's very feasible that someone could change that overnight.

        All it would take to create support for NES memory mappers, the Genesis hardware, or the SNES (and maybe even later than these systems) would be to write the proper (I believe Mame uses a modular driver design now days, rihgt?) driver.

        Essentially, all of the required hardware to be emulated by those consoles has already been done in emulating the various arcade machines.

        The 6502, the 68000, the Z80, they're all emulated there in MAME, and very well, in fact.

        As for everything else, such as SuperFX and the like, there has been so much work done in emulating those for other (opened sourced) emulators, including console emulation (other than NeoGeo) is probably a matter of choice for the MAME team more so than any technical limitation.

    • Anybody know where I can find a copy of that?

      I'm sure some enterprising leech^H^H^H^H^Hpeople will be selling it on eBay real soon.

  • DOA3 (Score:1)

    by Bostik ( 92589 )

    Would that stand for Dead On Arrival, 3rd time? - Now, why does this suddenly ring a bell...

  • Really, who thinks of doing stupid stuff like this? *not meant to be a troll/flame or whatever, things jsut start to get ridiculous after a while*
  • This is a good thing that they have it available and running, however, I almost expect the modern consoles to run MAME anyway.
    If you think about it, the last few major systems (save Nintendo) have been capable of running MAME simply because people have been able to hack the box. Since the X-BOX is basically an x86 box running some variation of Windows (read: not entirely difficult for the MAME32 development people to port), it would be surprising if it didn't work.


    Regardless, not that I own any "modern" consoles (last one I bought was the NES), I am glad to see MAME available on it. Beats playing Zoo Keeper on my laptop screen :)

    • Actually, I noted this in another reply as well. I have a Z64 (cart copier/dev unit/backup/whatever) for my N64 and a MAME ROM that one of the earlier N64 hackers put together.

      So, N64 did too run MAME. :) Granted it was only 88 games (all the would fit on one screen for a simple text based menu) and it had slow down, but it was definitely capable of running it. :)
  • I've been playing Street Fighter Alpha 2 on my Athlon system for several days now. (I can almost beat Ryu with Rose...)

    At any rate, one would expect Microsoft to be seeking relationships with Capcom and many other game developers. I *know* they've been courting Square. If Mame X-Box kits that can play the arcade versions of Capcom (and other) games are available on the internet... and let's be honest, despite the fact that they constitute copyright infringement, it's so easy to get Mame roms its laughable... Capcom might not be so willing to do business or release new games for Xbox.

    Even if the good folks at Capcom could care less, MS has proven that they're willing to fight copyright infringement every step of the way.
    • I'll focus mainly on Capcom since you mentioned them by name, but it applies to Square as well (though they would mainly have issues with NES/SNES or PSX emulators).


      Capcom and other such companies are smart enough to realize that there's really nothing Bill can do to stop this. MAME has already been ported to many consoles (including the PSX, N64, PS2) and it has never hurt Capcom's relationship with any
      of the companies involved.


      And...Capcom, in fact, is one of the cooler companies when it comes to retro gaming. They have an authorized set of legal ROMs of their classic games that is packed in when you buy the HotRod arcade-style controller. Not the same as being pro-ROMs-all-over-the-net, but a hell of a lot better than the attitude of most companies who won't sell a game anymore but still go overboard in protecting their copyright of it.

  • So, does it sing "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" as it's booting?

    Again, more coffee needed.

    DanH
  • I thought Microsoft was trying really hard to keep people from hacking the X-Box by adding alternate OS's, accessing the hardware internals, etc. If this is still the case, how does one expect to put MAME on it and all the games that go with it?


    Unless X-Box is running IIS, it might be pretty hard to hack. :)

    • This is correct. Xbox does not use a standard filesystem on the discs (they don't read on a PC), it's designed not to read CD-Rs, and the Win32 varient it uses isn't real compatible with the normal verison (the exe format is different among other things).

      Microsoft *very much* wants to discourage homebrew development, to the point that they're ready to pounce on anyone who manages to hack around the above issues with the DMCA.
      • Where did you get this information? I would like to read a little bit more in-depth about these features.

      • So, like the original PC that IBM made, Microsoft is taking basically off the shelf components and creating a new platform. Like the IBM had it's original proprietary BIOS which Compaq reverse engineered, the Xbox has a different file system, CD and skewed OS. Big deal it'll get hacked for sure.

        The main difference is the DMCA. What could IBM have done to Compaq if the DMCA existed then? Is reverse engineering considered circumventing copyright protection?

        We'd all be using IBMs probably and be talking about the "IBM Xbox", instead of M$.

        -Russ
  • I knew it! People are going port stuff to X-box..and look at this. Come on, the X-box is a computer. Maybe someone can have a console cluster. You have Playstation 2 running Apache, and X-box running something else..maybe not IIS because you don't want to get rooted while playing a game like street fighter or something.
  • Hmmm, I still think I want a HotRod SE [hanaho.com]. The price is a bit high (they can be found for ~$150) but what you get in return is a very nice rig, for fighting games especially. It would definitely make those Street Fighter battles on Kaillera more fun.

    • I have a hotrod, and it is without question the best purchase I have ever made. I got it on a special discount price of $100. Also... check out this site. [x-arcade.com] It isn't ready yet, but they claim it will be compatible with all systems via an adapter. Seems like it would be pretty sexy.

      Captain_Frisk
    • It will never truly feel like an authentic arcade controller - not unless you can arrange for two hundred random strangers with sweaty palms to come and play it between the times you're using it.
  • "The screenshots below were taken with a Kodak Digital DC240 camera in very poor lighting conditions in a hurry."

    Too bad he wasn't using a DC 290, otherwise he could've just played Ghosts 'n' Goblins on his digital camera using MAMED [mame.net].

    Still, a cool hack. I'd particularly enjoy the idea of playing all those SNK fighters on the XBox. He only mentions "out the bug was in beta 14 of the M.A.M.E. source code that has since been fixed in the beta 16 release, so my M.A.M.E. source is up to date, and a few latent bugs got fixed automagically.", so I presume that he's using MAME 0.37. Wonder how it works with CPS2 emulation...

    Mmm...Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the XBox...

    Wait, um...did I just say that? I meant "I love Linux!".

  • Retro gaming takes off (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mr_Silver ( 213637 ) on Wednesday August 22, 2001 @11:51AM (#2204536)
    Not so long ago I posted this [google.com] to alt.games.video.box.

    I felt that the XBox could be a perfect medium for retro gaming because since it is based around the Windows PC it would be easier to port emulators across to it.

    Imagine the possibilities, you could have MAME, Magic Engine, possibly even Amiga emulators running on a console which can sit plugged into your lounge TV.

    However this could all be scuppered if Microsofts licence prevents this sort of thing, or the XBox won't read CDR's.

    Personally I'm not a big games fan but if I can run Amiga, PC Engine and MAME games under it then I would be very very happy.

    What do others think? Will we see a resurgence of retro gaming should there be no problems with unofficial porting of applications?

    • Even if the XBOX doesn't support standard CDRs out of the gate, its a pretty sure bet someone will figure out a way to distribute unautorized software for it, be it via a mod that enables standard CDRs, using the network capability, or some other mechanism.


      Essentially every console that has come out has had a small underground of hackers that figure out ways to creating unauthorized content/demos/emulator ports for the system, and the XBOX is a far easier target than most because it is relatively very similar to the PC architecture.

      • If it doesn't support CDRs, that's not such a bad thing. It does support Broadband, and I guess it won't be too hard to run your own programs from the HDD, providing they can get there somehow.
      • From what I've heard, the XBox only boots from DVD-9, and requires some sort of crypto authentication check in the bios. Microsoft has an open challenge out that "Anyone who gets Linux booting on the XBox has a job waiting for them at Microsoft". (some reward, eh?) Meaning that they feel that it's darn well impossible.

        This could be interesting, because if the XBox boot sequence is reverse engineered or bypassed, it would be perfectly legal to sell non-licenced software for the thing in the US. (see Activision/Atari and Accolade+EA?/Sega)
        • This could be interesting, because if the XBox boot sequence is reverse engineered or bypassed, it would be perfectly legal to sell non-licenced software for the thing in the US. (see Activision/Atari and Accolade+EA?/Sega)


          I think the DMCA would supercede that ruling. When those cases were originally decided, it didn't exist..But now, breaking the crypto or otherwise circumventing it would be a clear violation of the DMCA..So unless the DMCA is eliminated, it would be illegal to do this.


          In any case, recent history has shown that the more impossible a company thinks it is to bypass their security, the more likely it will be found to be a fairly simple procedure once the technology is out in the wild. If Microsoft really dared people to hack the XBox, they are silly.

          • I have no doubt that you are right, and M$ probably will use the DMCA to try and stop any XBox hack. Exactly how they will justify it will be interesting, though. I mean, what copyrighted material would they be protecting? At best they could claim that they were protecting the BIOS. Such claims would be excellent for DMCA foes, since clearly there is no actual or even potential copyright infringment taking place. Unlike other DMCA cases, where the activities have created the possibility or even a likelihood of infringement, this potential case would have no such tarnish. It would be clear that the DMCA was being applied to enforce arbitrary use restrictions which have no basis in copyright law.

            The main problem with the DMCA would be laid open for all to see: It allows copyright holders to legislate what is and is not "legal" use of their product, and summon the executive branch to enforce whatever "laws" they dream up.
    • Will we see a resurgence of retro gaming should there be no problems with unofficial porting of applications?

      sure, but only among the people who own (heh heh heh) the original roms ~_^

    • Personally I'm not a big games fan but if I can run Amiga, PC Engine and MAME games under it then I would be very very happy.

      This statement confuses me. How can you not be a big fan of games, yet want to play console (and old computer) emulators, which are basically game machines? Did you perhaps mean "I'm not a big fan of [today's] games"? That I can understand. :^)

      Back on topic...I'm not sure I think that the Xbox is any more suited to running emulators than the PS2 or Dreamcast. Yes, there might be more source code in common (provided the emulator devs are all using Visual Studio or whatnot) and thus easier to just recompile, but any source code (written in C or C++) should be fairly easy to port provided most of what you're doing is 2D stuff. (I'm under the impression, perhaps wrong, that 2D is easy and 3D is harder on, for example, the PS2.)

      It is interesting to note, however, that the discussion of emulators has moved completely out of the realm of "Is it legal to own ROMs?" to "When will the next platform be supported?" I mean, the premise of running these games on a PC legally is that you own the ROMs and have a right to run them.

      Of course if MAME on any console took off, I'd be surprised if someone didn't get slapped with a big ol' lawsuit right quick. Either the MAME devs or the ROM distributors or even ...the console maker itself! Hmmm...maybe MAME on the Xbox isn't so bad. :^D
    • What do others think? Will we see a resurgence of retro gaming should there be no problems with unofficial porting of applications?

      We've already been seeing it. The old timey games relied on playability instead of rendered movies, hit soundtracks, and massive ad campaigns. That's why the HDTV in our living room, despite being attached to a PS2 and other fine products, is usually seen sporting Metroid, Metal Gear, or any of the other classics via Nesticle.

  • Open Source fans might not get to close to this one. MAME loses a great deal of its appeal without mostly illegal ROMs to use on it. (There might be some legal ones, but the majority aren't.) And although most of the ROMs might seem like 'abandonware', it is taking away modern-day money from some commercial releases. (No one thought circa-1995 machines could do arcade emulation til the Williams Arcade Pack came out.) Some of the coolest things I found for my "new" ps one and my Dreamcast are multiplayer classics like Gauntlet, Super Sprint, and arcade Warlords.
    Something like MAME for Xbox is a double threat, bridging the PC/Console divide.

    <karmawhore>On the other hand... mame.dk [www.mame.dk] is a helluva resource.</karmawhore> It's almost as good as Killer List of Videogames [klov.com] for screenshots, and better for other reasons...
    • There is none.

      "it is taking away modern-day money from some commercial releases."

      So if I'm spending all day playing Galaga on MAME, and don't buy WunderGameX because of it, it should be illegal for me to play Galaga unless I buy the rom myself? And how exactly would whoever made Galaga be compensated should I obtain a ROM and use it 'legally', considering it's so old it would probably come from a non-working unit in a warehouse? Why should my choices be limited and the benefits of the electronic age be denied to me because of some corporations potential to profit by selling me something I clearly don't need anyway? Screw them. This whole 'potential sales' thing as an excuse to cripple the digital age is bullshit. If they don't want us using the software and A/V they're making today 20 years from now, they had better put in some kind of killer, uncrackable expiration. Aint gonna happen.

      LEXX
  • Just buy a real arcade game. They cost almost nothing and games cost from $10-$100. With a Jamma cabinet you can put most games made after 1986 in it without changes and you can get converters for most games made before 1986.

    I have 6 cabinets that can hold 7 games at a time total and about 30 boards for less than $400.
    Having a real arcade monitor and having the game run without color problems and many many other glitches that mame has is much better than mame in my opinion.
    • While the idea is great to just build your own cabinet I don't see money as the enemy here. I happen to live in a 1 bedroom apartment and my server rack and computer desk take up enough room as it is. I just don't have the space to build such a cabinet and put it in my abode.

      For those of us less fortunate peoples who don't have the room X-Box makes an attractive alternative to a PC. I don't like playing console based games on the PC, and as said in previous posts the 733Mhz would do quite nicely

      DocWatson - DALnet #linux
    • Are obviously not married.

      I have one arcade cabinet in my home, and I can tell you now, the wife is less than happy about it's presence.
      • Actually, I'm engaged and have been living with my fiancee for 6 months.. She doesn't have a problem with the cabinets and enjoys going to the arcade auctions. One of the games, a badlands, even belongs to her. I'm not sure why people always assume I don't have a signifigant other. *sigh*

  • heck (Score:2)

    by British ( 51765 )
    Heck, if MAME ran stable and I could get easy access to early '80s game ROMs on the X-Box, that would be reason enough for me to buy one. Forget the new games, I'd prefer to play classic games.
  • (A few years back) And didn't this is great news. Now I don't need to bother.
    Right now, using my laptop with TV-out as a stopgap measure.

    Presently, dreamcast is starting to run many MAME supported games rather well. [mame.net]
    MAMED

    (Hope it's not /.'ed. :)
    I too was not planning on X-box, but if it can do MAME, It's mine. With a 733 CPU to run most games at full speed, hard drive to store the roms.......
    This is great news all in all....

  • Although I've never actually had one in my hands, I honestly think the controllers of the Xbox are going to be horrible !
    It comes short on many features in my opinion :

    4 Analog buttons are just not enough and I feel all uncomfortable just by pondering how I'm gonna fit that Xbox monstrocity in my hand ;-)
    And the left analog joystick should be in one line with the left one, especially if you're gonna play something like quake3.

    Just look at the picture [xbox.com] and start to wonder how in earth you're gonna cope with the 'thing'

    And when there are perfect examples of how 6 trigger buttons ( and the 4 normal buttons plus 2 buttons incorporated in the analog joysticks) can be fitted on a gamepad without needing a second index finger, it's really a shame the Microsoft guys are gonna put such a bad ( but funky ) designed pad on the Xbox.
    It's okay for MAME to have only 4 buttons , but imagine trying to play Xwingalliance with the 'thing' ;-)

    Check out this gamepad [thrustmaster.com]. In my opinion the best gamepaddesign available ( for its cheap pricetag compared to available MS pads )
    You get 12 programmable buttons (which means that almost any free finger could be on a button in an instant), forcefeedback, and a very good design.
    It's basic design was copied from the PS gamepad , but it sits much better in your hand than that one.

  • Quality controllers? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by thePfhitz ( 446594 )
    "...I do have to say, I'd buy an X-Box if it makes a good, cheap Mame machine, with quality controllers easily available."

    The controller [xbox.com] that comes with the X-Box looks like it's going to be a pain to hold. Seems like your hands would have to angle in at odd angles to hold the controller comfortably. Other controllers [xbox.com] look a bit better (onscreen, at least), but I wish that there was some object shown with the controller (a hand, perhaps? would that have been too hard to include with something that you'd use with your, dare I say, hands?) to show some sort of scale.

    • The X-box controllers are big, but that's not what makes them so horrible. The button placement is really poor, and the spacing is just off enough to make it unnatural to use.
  • I have been playing MAME for years and would love to see it on the Xbox. DT [designtechnica.com] will prolly talk about this soon too.
  • If you're looking for Quality Controllers, go for GameCube. The X-Box controllers are huge and clunky, and the buttons are too small. They are nothing like the terrific SideWinder series Microsoft makes, which is baffling.

    The GameCube controller is like Butter. I mean, it is extremely comfortable, and every button is easily accessible and has good tactile feel. Ok, every button except the inexplicibly hard to reach "Z Button".

    What I really don't understand is why someone would pay $300 to play emulated games on a cutting edge console ... You could run it on a cheap pentium computer with a cheap sidewinder controller.
  • On the issue of controlers, a company known as Kernel [kernel.com] offers an adaptor that allows various console joysticks to be used on a Mac using a USB port. While it is marketed towards the Mac, there should in theory be nothing stopping it being used with any other USB aware operating system. There may be other companies selling such adapters, but I am not aware of them.
  • Xbox will be great because we can now finally play 10 year old games?

    Uhhmm... Why do I feel that's bizzare?

    --
    JonasH (rasher)
    • Well, back in the days of early arcade games, not all games were racing simulators that lasted 1 minute, or fighting games. I'd say bring on the classic arcade games of yesteryear for truly innovative(at the time) and creative games.

      Mind you, it had its share of Space Invaders ripoffs and Pac Man ripoffs, but there were plenty of others that have yet to be duplicated today.
  • Mame cabinets are really fun. Seeing as you can
    pick up a duron 900 for $50 or so these days,
    they're also cheap!

    http://www.beimborn.com/mame

    is my project, soon to be linuxed
  • Besides MAME in the Xbox, there's also AGI in Dreamcast [inebraska.com], using the Sarien [sourceforge.net] engine.

    So, who's going to port Stella to PS2?

  • So that Natalie Portman and I can have something to do other than screwing like rabbits
  • Correct me if I'm wrong, but X-box uses USB ports for their controllers. I'd imagine that would allow for a large array of controllers and keyboards and the like. Esspecially since the OS is somewhat of a Windows kernel.

    • USB != HID (Score:2, Informative)

      by yerricde ( 125198 )

      Correct me if I'm wrong, but X-box uses USB ports for their controllers. I'd imagine that would allow for a large array of controllers and keyboards and the like.

      The Xbox system uses controller ports electrically identical to USB but speaks not the standard USB Human Interface Device protocol but a proprietary encrypted protocol. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides security through obscurity: even though 17 USC 1201 gives an exception for reverse engineering for interoperability, Microsoft has an unlimited legal budget to bring baseless lawsuits against any independent vendor of Xbox-compatible hardware and filibuster them as long as possible to drain the little guy's legal fund.

  • X-box MAME is not going to happen for a while.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gridle ( 17502 ) on Wednesday August 22, 2001 @01:18PM (#2204761)
    There's no point in raving about this until somebody develops an alternative to the official Microsoft X-box developers' [fuckedcompany.com] kit. Under the developers' kit license, there is simply no way Otaku could release his port of MAME to the world. Probably the company he works for wouldn't like to see their expensive and NDA-affected devkit being used in such a manner either.

    The MAME open source license -- although not GPL (but comparable) -- also requires the release of all port-relevant source code, which I very much believe Microsoft's X-box developers' kit license forbids even if he was able to release it in binary form. Hint: You do not want to get into trouble with the MAME mafia by forgetting the release of source code.

    Not to mention that MAME can already be considered as a violation of DMCA in terms of the decryption algorithms that are in the source code [mame.net], so the less attention there is from big companies, the better.

    Besides, X-box is beginning to be underpowered in MAME's case. You can get a cheap Duron setup for a MAME cabinet for much less effort and pain than getting an X-box -- with the force-bundled games worth of hundreds of dollars -- and waiting for a MAME port to get released, which really is not going to happen for a while. Microsoft has gone to some lengths to prevent homebrewn stuff, for example by changing APIs and executable file formats.

    Since we're still on-topic, I see mame.net [mame.net] just added a nice MAME development history chart [mame.net] which makes for a good Windows and/or Linux background too. Enjoy.
  • I'd love to see those screen shots, but they're being pulled off a Cable Modem box in San Diego, and @home must be having problems. Maybe the first sign of the end... [slashdot.org] (sigh)

    BTW - this is taking way too long to post - I've received two 500 errors from /. checking the link and previewing...
    • I heard that recently @home (at least in San Diego) has begun blocking various ports, including port 80. That would explain the problem.
      • Oh Yeah...they haven't blocked them here (my cable connection comes from Muskegon, MI) but that may be just a matter of time. No matter - I changed my http port a long time back.

  • Quick question for CmdrTaco (or anyone who knows the answer...)

    On the picture of your MAME box [geocities.com], there's some kind of plug (?) right about the top four button of the control panel (I circled it in red). Just out of curiousity, what the hell is this thing? A power cord?

    Anyone know? Thanks.
  • Ah, perhaps now with a stronger long-term memory Video Gaming will be able to be classified as an art form along the lines of that which gave us the Great Train Robbery and Mario Brothers the Movie. It's always been hard to share classic gaming experiences because no modern system would stoop to playing Gauntlet or Crossed Swords. Now, perhaps with a system powerful and compatible enough to run MAME, and probably NESticle, GenSX, and the rest of the modern emulators, classic gaming won't be relegated to simply those computer users who don't mind using keyboards instead of joypads and scavaging the web for viable rom download sites. Now classic gaming can be extended to all people with connections in Hong Kong or friends willing to burn copies of compliation CD's, along with the mod chips required to play them. Which, unfortunately, is not exactly a sizable portion of the population at large. While the idea is fun, this is not exactly going to change the gaming world.

    How much do you suppose it would cost to buy licences from older gaming companies for their titles, get a Microsoft developer's licence, and sell the results to a publisher?
  • ... someone put Linux 2.4.x, or FreeBSD 4.3 on XBox. Lokigames would have fun with that. :)
  • Alright, so you have MAME on the X-Box. Oooh, the unhackable X-Box gots an emu... While that's a great thing look at the obvious.

    X-Box is how much at launch? $300 or some sh*t?

    Dreamcasts are much less, I bought mine for $60 (refurb)

    Anyway, the DC can emulate the NES near-perfectly (NesterDC), SNES well (ngine or DreamSNES), Game Boy/Game Boy Color well (Boob!Boy), MAME okay/well (MAMED or MAMEDC), and a bushel/barrel/ton of other emu's for other systems... and thats not including the ports of other games (DOOMDC and QUAKE are the firsts) you can emulate many systems, for only $60 and the cost of a few CD's.

    So if anyone is looking for a cheap alternative to a new system, and wants good emulation on your TV, go get a dreamcast.
  • Strange... cmdrTaco's site was blocked by the websence firewall nazi's at work with a reason code/category of "adult content"...

    Now that I am at home looking at it, i'm truly baffled... Must have been all the talk of joysticks and drooling over old arcade games that did it =P

    *shrug*

    If this becomes do-able (i.e. source released, etc...) on the commercial X-box putting it in a stand up arcade box may be a solid idea...

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