NESpresso: Random Thoughts \ #009: MAMEcast

This random thought is somewhat sponsored by MAME... as it's their program that is responsible for this idea. As you may already know, Video Games have been around for about 30 years now & some of the older games, unfortunately, are dwindling away as their hardware is slowly degrading to non-operating status. MAME, however, is an emulator that is designed to preserve the classics in "software" form (aka ROMs), which also makes them playable. If MAME can make the classics playable again, why can't you design an arcade-sized machine that allow users to play the games as they're coin-op?

Enter the MAMEcast "Gaming Jukebox"! The MAMEcast allows players to select a game from a list of available games & play them like their original coin-op counterparts for $.25 / $.50 (pending on the community / area standard) a game. The MAMEcast will use a computer (Linux / Windows OS) w/ arcade style controls (like the Hotrod SE controller or something custom-made). The first version of MAMEcast will support 2 monitors (one for the user & one for the attendant) & will require an attendant (an arcade employee) to select/change the games, but everything else will be done with the machine. The attendant will have the keyboard & a monitor so they can punch in the game through the command line OR use MAME32's selector without the player seeing what they're doing & the game will be broadcasted to the player's monitor.

Version two of MAMEcast will only have one monitor, so the player will have to select the game they want to play by themselves. However, the selector program will be user-friendly & mask the actual workings that's going on with the system. It'll have a friendly loading screen stating something like "Please wait a minute while MAMEcast is preparing Pac-Man..." where you replace "Pac-Man" with the game you're loading up & have a progress bar at the bottom of the screen. There would also have to have an external credit counter (similar to some of the NeoGeo machines) so your credits will transfer from one game to another. This is, however, not part of MAME's design as it treats each game separately & you'll lose all credits when changing games. This will be something that would have to be remedied BEFORE version two of MAMEcast is released. Version one of MAMEcast wouldn't be required as the attendant can check how many credits there are on the game before switching & manually carry them over to the next game that's loaded.

This is only an idea at the moment, but if I ever considered on starting my own arcade (which will cost me around $50,000 for the machines as some of the classics easily go for $1,000 on auctions)... MAMEcast would be a cool idea machine to have & it would be a machine that I wouldn't mind that my employees would allow their friends to play on for free (as to giving their friends free tokens) as it wouldn't cost too much to construct the MAMEcast machine & it would be very easy for them to have their finger slip on that "service coin" key. I would most likely have at least 2 MAMEcast machines that have joysticks (since the majority of the games use it), 1 MAMEcast machine with a trackball (for games like Centipede, Marble Madness & Crystal Palace) & 1 MAMEcast machine with a dial (for games like Circus, Arkanoid & Tempest) so I cover the majority of all the games that MAME covers.

I know the one nagging problem in creating the MAMEcast machines is the legal aspect of the machine. The machine would be a good perpetrator for copyright infringement since MAMEcast would be running in an Emulator-ROM relationship. I know that MAME cabinets to exist, but not in the commercial aspect that I'm running with on this thought. If I could get away with this (or at least strike a deal with the arcade companies), it would be THE ENVY of all the arcades here.

Update: It seems that somebody else had the similar idea before me... The makers of the Slikstik controller ( www.slikstik.com ) had the same idea & has created a cabinet / controller combo that you can buy. Their controllers cost between $250 & $500 on their own (depending on the style & features), but their cabinet/controller combos cost between $1,500 - $2,000 a piece (depending on the size of the cabinet & the size/style of the controller) PLUS shipping. They do, however, built the cabinet & the controller before shipping it to you. The monitor & the computer to use with their cabinet is not included so you can use pretty much whatever you like.

One thing that you can do with their higher-end Slikstik controllers is configure the trackball to be used with your computer outside the arcade games & use the computer like a public terminal... granted you have a WiFi card installed in your computer to keep things nice & neat... otherwise, you'll possibly ruin the looks of the arcade cabinet by having an ethernet cable run out of the top (through the exaust holes).