Retro Gaming

[Dr. Vegetable]

Retro games rock.

I have a pretty decent (though not complete) Atari 2600 cartridge collection. I have a pile of other vintage consoles and early PCs in the collection. I always buy those $20 re-issues that have 4 or 5 games loaded in a joystick that you connect to your TV set. That is how I discovered Bosconian.

I scoured ebay to get a working Sega Genesis just so I could play Toe Jam and Earl.

I'm also into the real vintage coin-operated machines. I have Tempest, Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Galaga tables, and a couple of pinball machines. Tempest is the one video game in the bunch that simply cannot be emulated - you've gotta have that vector (EDIT: not raster!) display to really get sucked into that game.

The Atari Complete collection for iPad is pretty decent, at least for the titles whose controls map well to the touchscreen.

[FORMULA73]

I still fire up X Wing on my PC, now and then. What a great fucking game.

[Speng]

I remember playing a game on early PCs called Descent. It was amazing. Did anyone else ever play it?

That game was great, it gave me motion sickness though. Did you ever play the original Syndicate? That was an awesome game.

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I have a pretty decent (though not complete) Atari 2600 cartridge collection.

There's so many freaking games for the 2600, getting a complete collection would be a major accomplishment.

I haven't fired up my Genesis in awhile, I loved playing Mortal Combat on that thing, punching in the code to get the blood and gore of course.

I always wanted to get some real coin-op machines. My dream is to get a sit down Star Wars arcade game, that thing was awesome!

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I still fire up X Wing on my PC, now and then. What a great fucking game.

That's one I haven't played in forever, that and Tie Fighter. One of these days I'll have to dig out my old PC, the one with a joystick port to plug in the Flightstick, and give those a spin.

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I still fire up X Wing on my PC, now and then. What a great fucking game.

That's one I haven't played in forever, that and Tie Fighter. One of these days I'll have to dig out my old PC, the one with a joystick port to plug in the Flightstick, and give those a spin.

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I always buy those $20 re-issues that have 4 or 5 games loaded in a joystick that you connect to your TV set.

A few years ago, coincidently on my Birthday, I scored an Atari Flashback 2 on Craigslist for $5.

[Dr. Vegetable]

I always wanted to get some real coin-op machines. My dream is to get a sit down Star Wars arcade game, that thing was awesome!

Star Wars is a great game - close descendant from Tempest after Black Widow and Major Havoc. I am actually sitting on a small stockpile of circuit boards for Star Wars (among others) so shoot me a PM if you ever decide to come over to the Dark Side of retro arcade lunacy.

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Atari Flashback is cool. Does yours play plug-in cartridges, or just the pre-loaded titles?

[Speng]

Cool, thanks!

My Atari Flashback is just the pre-loaded one. I was looking at the hack to make it play cartridges, but I don't need another system to play 2600 games. That and the one hack I was looking at looked pretty dumb, the way the cartridge stuck out of the system.

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I'm also into the real vintage coin-operated machines. I have Tempest, Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Galaga tables, and a couple of pinball machines. Tempest is the one video game in the bunch that simply cannot be emulated - you've gotta have that vector (EDIT: not raster!) display to really get sucked into that game.

You've got a lot of my favorites right there.

I was tinkering with the idea of doing a MAME cabinet. I'm not big on emulators for the retro consoles but, done correctly, it's cool for the old coin-ops.

[(ad)]

If you spend a little time tweaking an emulator and getting the controls to work properly, they're a good option I'd you don't have the space to get a collection of consoles and/or old computers.
I do get that is not the same as the original equipment, but if they're working properly it's easy to forget that fact.
Do you really want to lose all that time swapping disks playing Monkey Island?
I've had limited success with MAME stuff though, I must admit.

[Dr. Vegetable]

MAME is awesome. I have plans (and even some parts) to build a MAME cabinet. The only tricky part is locating ROMs for the old games. Most titles work very well/true to the original if you configure the controls properly.

[(ad)]

^ do it!!
i should add, my average results are quite likely due to using outdated apps on my outdated mac.
years ago a friend of mine had an old PC dedicated to the task, and he left it at my place; this made for a pretty crappy time to start a new job.
there was a lot of tetris and ramparts-related rage, and not enough sleep...

[Hooch]

Speaking of retro, I have this old guy sitting in my storage room with junk packed on top and below it...



I'm sure he needs alot of help to get going again but I think I'm going to make it part of my current basement renovation project and reintroduce him to the family.

[Speng]

I'm sure he needs alot of help to get going again but I think I'm going to make it part of my current basement renovation project and reintroduce him to the family.

That's a sweet pinball machine, that would be great to get restored and back in play!

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MAME is awesome. I have plans (and even some parts) to build a MAME cabinet. The only tricky part is locating ROMs for the old games. Most titles work very well/true to the original if you configure the controls properly.

I've seen so many old arcade cabinets either free or dirt cheap lately on Craigslist. Last week some guy was giving away two Asteroids cabinets, with enough parts to make one fully operational game.