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Eric
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 2485
Location: California |
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 Pac Man on GameTap |
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Note: Here is the link I used to signup: GameTap
Wanting to play some old-school video games, I decided to give GameTap a try. Using the link above I was able to get a month for free by signing up for one month.
Downloading the 40mb gametap_setup.exe file took about 3 minutes for me(I have a high speed cable internet connection).
The install wizard was fairly standard and quick.
Initializing GameTap took some time but the status bar was comforting(I've been having some internet connection issues recently so it was nice to see that thing making progress).
Adding to the GameTap library also took a few minutes but again the status bar was a big help.
Pac Man was the first game I played and it looked just like the arcade version. 
It was a lot of fun and I made it past the first screen without losing any men. The up-down-left-right arrows are different from a joystick but I'm getting used to them. 
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| Wed Oct 25, 2006 1:19 pm |
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DeadPeopleAllOver
Card Tricks Contest IX Champ
Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 1291
Location: Columbia, South Carolina |
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If you're looking to play old school video games, you should try using MAME, which is an arcade emulator. Virtually every single arcade game ever made on right on your computer. Not to mention emulators for popular game systems (Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Atari, etc.). A good thing about emulators is that you don't need to install anything on your computer.
_________________
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http://theeman.p8.se/Fusion.wmv |
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| Wed Oct 25, 2006 3:14 pm |
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Eric
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 2485
Location: California |
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If you're looking to play old school video games, you should try using MAME, which is an arcade emulator. Virtually every single arcade game ever made on right on your computer. Not to mention emulators for popular game systems (Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Atari, etc.). A good thing about emulators is that you don't need to install anything on your computer. |
My friend has an emulator and it is awesome. The only problem is that his controller gets confused on games like Pac Man that only have 4 directions (up,down,left,right).
One of the reasons I wanted to get GameTap was to play video games on my laptop without having to fuss with our xbox or our tv.
GameTap says other controllers can be used:
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USB Controller
If installed, you can also navigate GameTap using almost any USB controller:
Use the control mechanism (joypad, stick, etc.) to move the onscreen pointer and highlight objects. Press your assigned select button to select the highlighted object. When a menu appears, just highlight a menu item and press the select button to continue.
You can buy a USB controller at most gaming and computer stores for just a few dollars. |
So I went to Best Buy this afternoon and bought a Logitech Dual Action Controller for $22.99. Installing it was easy but my mouse froze when I was almost done and I couldn't get my joystick to function as a mouse. After using the keyboard to reboot everything was cool. I went back into GameTap and played Pac Man again but this time I used the Logitech joystick.
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| Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:06 pm |
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TheEMan
Chip Tricks VI, VII, VIII, IX Champ
Joined: 10 Jul 2005
Posts: 1088
Location: Sweden, Borås |
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| Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:43 am |
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Chipmaster
Card Tricks II, Chip Tricks III Champ
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 790
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But why would you use GameTap when MAME is free and better. Not only that but the games are in most cases emulated with 100% accuracy. Also, there are over 3000 games to choose from.
MAME is the best choice....I used to build custom arcade controllers and cabinets for it.
_________________
There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
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| Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:38 am |
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DeadPeopleAllOver
Card Tricks Contest IX Champ
Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 1291
Location: Columbia, South Carolina |
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| Sun Oct 29, 2006 6:37 am |
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Chipmaster
Card Tricks II, Chip Tricks III Champ
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 790
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MAME is the best choice....I used to build custom arcade controllers and cabinets for it. |
Sweet, dude. I had kicked the idea around of building one too. They now have some pretty nice controllers available around the internet. |
Yeah, there are plenty of vendors out there now. It's been going on for quite some time now....it's been about 8-9 years since I was selling them.
Let me know if you have any questions I might be able to help with.
_________________
There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
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| Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:25 pm |
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Eric
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 2485
Location: California |
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My friend has an emulator for hix xbox but we didn't talk specifics.
GameTap is nice but it doesn't have all the old-school games like Punch-Out that my friend has on his emulator.
How long does it take to get MAME working on a typical laptop? I visited the http://www.mame.net/downmain.html page but I'm not sure where to start.
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| Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:34 am |
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Chipmaster
Card Tricks II, Chip Tricks III Champ
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 790
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My friend has an emulator for hix xbox but we didn't talk specifics.
GameTap.com/e.asp?e=5&id=2227]GameTap[/url] is nice but it doesn't have all the old-school games like Punch-Out that my friend has on his emulator.
How long does it take to get MAME working on a typical laptop? I visited the http://www.mame.net/downmain.html page but I'm not sure where to start. |
For the X-Box emulator you need a modified X-Box. Which is easy these days as you can modify it with only software in under 10 minutes....you used to have to get a mod chip which required taking the machine apart and soldering skills to wire the chip to the motherboard. I probably did 100 Playstation 1's this way back in the day!
You can have MAME running in minutes. I would suggest getting MAME32. It is a Windows version and does not require a frontend.
As far as roms are concerned I am not even sure what websites to get them from these days as a do all of my downloading from Usenet...I would reccommend this source as opposed to that P to P trash. But if you can find a website that has them then that is fine. If you want 'every' rom to date even though you will never touch 90% of them then usenet is the way to go. Your one other option is MAME rom burning services. There are legitimate people out there that if you send them the DVD's they will burn all of the roms for you....for MAME and many other emulators as well.
All of the MAME roms will take up about 4 DVD's. If you get the .CHD files then you looking at about another 12 DVD's.
_________________
There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
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| Mon Oct 30, 2006 4:38 am |
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DeadPeopleAllOver
Card Tricks Contest IX Champ
Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 1291
Location: Columbia, South Carolina |
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Just to follow up what Andy said, the best place to get roms (games) is from a newsgroup (usenet). There are websites that have roms, but they usually get taken down due to the "legal issue". I used to have some great websites, but I just checked them out and they aren't up and running. I wouldn't even bother trying to do a google search or anything, because they're nearly impossible to find. The sites I used to have were french and spanish sites.
If you're new to emulators and roms, it can be quite confusing to get the emulators up and running. One thing for sure, make sure you have a decent video card on your laptop, and a fairly beefy system.
The newer game systems don't have good emulators for the PC yet (PS2, XBox). Older game systems (i.e. Atari, Nintendo 8-bit, etc.) have great emulators with very few flaws.
If you need help setting something up, let me know. I would also recommend MAME32. Andy had mentioned that you don't need a front end (a front end is basically an executable program that makes running the emulator much easier). True, you don't need one, but I use one just because the GUI is more eye-pleasing. The front ends allow you to see information on your games, thumbnail pictures, etc. My favorite frontend program is Arcade.exe
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAr8aujosLw
http://theeman.p8.se/Fusion.wmv |
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| Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:21 am |
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Eric
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Posts: 2485
Location: California |
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My xbox is a few years old now (it isn't a 360). I'd rather get setup to run games on my laptop(running xp). What should I download to get that going?
So I guess getting games is best through usenet groups.
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| Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:38 am |
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Chipmaster
Card Tricks II, Chip Tricks III Champ
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
Posts: 790
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My xbox is a few years old now (it isn't a 360). I'd rather get setup to run games on my laptop(running xp). What should I download to get that going?
So I guess getting games is best through usenet groups. |
I don't feel like typing for a hour to teach you how to use the newsgroups (usenet)
Gimme your address and I will send you the dvds!!!
_________________
There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
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| Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:31 am |
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