The Torgo Arcade Blog

Photos

Bobby T. — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:40:00 +0000

Someone asked, so here you go...

This is pretty much what I have so far. As you can see its not much to look at...

I'm using a VGA to TV adaptor, as I don't have a monitor. My final intent is to use a TV set, as a 23" TV is a heck of a lot cheaper than a 23" monitor...

It does have its drawbacks, however, as its hard to see text when actually using the windows side. I'm using VNC to do all my setting up, connecting from my MacBook.

I found that the RAM I had didn't work. I had standard PC100 RAM, and being this is a server it seems to require PC133 ECC RAM, which I placed an order for on eBay (4x256MB chips).

I'm not getting much time to work on the system, however, so the process is going to take a while. I'll continue to post here as progress is made (assuming I have time)...

What? Progress?

Bobby T. — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:15:00 +0000

It has been many months since my last update, and longer since progress was made, but that changed at the end of last week...

My wife gave me a call saying her work was getting rid of some old computers that were bought as backup servers (which in turn were never brought into use).

She asked if I wanted one, and I said yes. And I now have a somewhat decent machine to call my own. Its a Gateway PIII 1.2 GHz, which isn't the fastest of machines, but not to shabby either... It came with Windows 2000 Server, 256 MB of RAM, and no sound or 3D card.

Being I didn't even have a single login for the Win 2000 Server, I formatted the thing & installed XP Home. I had a copy I bought many years ago for use with Virtual PC, which I haven't run in years. I was unsure if it would transfer without issue, but it did, and I was up and running with XP in a couple of hours...

A good friend gave me a sound card he had from some time back, and it installed with no issues.

I'm stopping off at my storage center in order to pull 2 chips out of a blueberry iMac (remember those?). Those two should be the right kind and should give the machine 1 GIG of RAM...

The only thing I don't currently have a plan for is a 3D card. While not totally necessary, it definitely shouldn't hurt. I'll probably ask the friend who gave me the sound card if he has a 3D card laying around (I would be somewhat surprised if he didn't)...

Also, I did finally put the $25 forward for Maximus Arcade. It may take another day to get the registration code, however.

Ironically I have yet to try to run any ROMs on it, as I've been focused primarily on the overall interface. My biggest struggle has been the screensaver. As I've been trying to get a slightly altered copy of the Arcade84 video (google it) to play as a screensaver. There are, unfortuatnly, not a whole lot of free options when it comes to video playing savers, and I'm going with one I stumbled across a couple years ago... Only problem is it is a bit tepremental. You can seemingly set the settings once, then if you try to alter then the whole thing gets messed up and ceases to function. I may end up having to fork over money just to get a video playing saver that actually works, but I'd rather not...

At any rate, once I start actually trying to run emulators we'll see how it goes...

Not Progressing

Bobby T. — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:57:00 +0000

You probably have noticed if you've read this blog at all that I've not posted anything here in some time...
This is primarily because I've set asside this project for the time being...

I am hoping to pick this back up again at some point... But this will likely be a long time off... I'm still looking to get a computer to use in order to continue the project... The one I have is very low end so it only is capable of handling really old games...

I do conintue to maintain the ring though, so you can still submit your memberships if you are interested...

Actual Progress At Last!

Bobby T. — Tue, 28 Jun 2005 23:41:00 +0000

Well, after having the friend come over who gave me an old PC (but I couldn't get to work), He fixed it and it now boots! I have coppied some emulators over, however I did find (as I had expected) that the processor speed does greatly limit what can be played...

Namely I tried running that game named after a "glove" or "challenge" and found it ran, but slowed down noticably when getting into areas with lots of ghosts and other creatures common in the game filled the screen. But at the very least I have a base system to work off of, which is still progress none the less...

Being my wedding is just around the corner, I won't exactly be able to spend much time in the near future working on it, but at least I now have *something* to work on...

Oh, and for the record I'm still in the beginning of chapter two in Project Arcade... As I said, I don't read much... ;)

No Updates

Bobby T. — Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:24:00 +0000

Welp, it's been a while since my first post, and I've pretty much made NO progress... I am still visiting Thrift Stores on occasions looking for a computer, however my approching wedding has pretty much been the center of my resources as of late, so I've not been able to do much in way of my arcade project...

Ironically enough, I haven't even read any more of my Project Arcade book (as mentioned in the last post)... I've not given up on the project, just simply put it on hold...

Welcome!

Bobby T. — Thu, 12 May 2005 17:42:00 +0000

Welp, this is my first post here on the new Torgo Arcade Blog. As the description says this blog will be dedicated to my attempt to build an arcade cabinet... Many others have sites documenting their arcade building experience, so I figured I would do one -- in blog form...

At this point in time I'm solely in a conceptual stage. I have been reading my copy of Project Arcade... Being I'm not much of a reader I'm at the begining of chapter two...

I'm thinking I will go with the Ultimate Arcade II design... I need to find someone to build the cabinet as I don't do wood work & live in a small apartment & have no tools... I'm looking at family members at the moment, hopefully that will work, but we'll see...

My first task currently is precuring a computer... I need a PC to run an emulator, as I've found Macs don't handle the MAME emulator very well... There are also no really nice full screen front ends... I am a die-hard Mac user, but my experience is that it takes a fairly fast Mac to run some of the more advanced games at full screen sizes... I'm currently looking in to getting a PC from a Salvation Army Thrift Store... I had a friend give me a really old PC, but I can't seem to get it to boot... It's a 500 MHz machine, so it's a little slower than I want to use anyway... Also from what he said it's not capable of handling a modern video card. Oddly enough, it has a video card, then a VGA cable running to a seperate 3D card, then the VGA cable connects to that second card... Strange...

The front end I'm likely going to go with is Maximus Arcade, as it has been very easy to configure & get working... I've attempted other front ends but so far their either too hard to configure, or they simply don't work in a manner I'm comfortable with... Mamewah seems like it might be a good alternative, but I'm having a hard time getting it configured... I did find a site with a configuation tool, however it says it requires a verson of Mamewah that looks nothing like the current version number, so I've not spent much time playing with it...

At any rate, that's where I am currently... I will post again when I've made progress in any of the listed fronts, or if something comes up I feel needs commenting on from me...