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7 Years ago… I started reading about building my own arcade machine.

January 27th, 2009

This thread started it all. It’s interesting to see myself come full circle and actually want to still do something like this.

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Rebio and Darren

January 23rd, 2009

So I’ve been cranking away the past week to get a PC up and running again. I’ve decided to take full advantage of Microsoft releasing the Beta for windows 7 in the mean time. I borrowed a PC from Pete and a laptop from another buddy, which I then went ahead and installed Windows 7(beta) on both. And I have to say. I’ve been impressed.

Rebio:
This was a nightmare at first. The Network card that was already inside of it, a NetGear 10/100 network card’s drivers didn’t automatically pop up. So I had to do a LOT of searching to try and find Vista drivers, which I had to do on a separate PC. Then after I did get the drivers, the PC still wouldn’t let me connect to the internet. After that little problem I then put in another NetGear network card which did the exact same thing once I installed the drivers. At this point I gave up. I didn’t have the right video drivers nor did I have sound. As much as I liked the way Windows 7 looks, it wasn’t worth the hassle.

Darren:
Darren(the name I gave the laptop) was a virus filled PITA for my buddy. There was absolutely no use for it at all, so I decided to wipe it clean and install Windows 7 (hopefully to be more successful). Unfortunately I had network issues once again. At first I was ready to just give up again and write Windows 7 off as a bust. But, I decided to take the laptop home and try it on my home network. SUCCESS! As soon as I plugged it in my home network not only did it just plain as day work. It started downloading drivers for everything automatically. The wireless internet started working. The resolution automatically changed for the better. MAN this was great!

Rebio Revisted:
SO! I knew there had to be some other issue then. I then tried plugging my cable modem directly into Rebio. SUCCESS! Why didn’t I think of that before!? Windows 7 jumped online and started downloading all of my graphic drivers and going nuts. It found everything no problem EXCEPT the two network cards. It was great for a temporary fix. I can now install things to work on the machine and not have too much to worry about. BUT! I didn’t stop there! I decided to go through all of my old computer parts till I found a wireless card I bought years ago. It’s not super fast (It’s wireless B) but it gets the job done. I popped that puppy in and I’m good to go with that machine as well!

Needless to say when I finally build my new computers(I plan on building two machines now) I will finally be willing to install a new OS. I HAVE to skip over Vista which annoyed me every time I’ve used it. And with all the similarities I’ve seen between the two (Windows 7 and Windows Vista) I think Microsoft pretty much got it right this time. I’ll keep you all updated on my progress.

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Down again…

January 11th, 2009

My PC started acting stupid once again. I am NOT happy. I just replaced my video card with a worse card. Now osmething else is going wrong. I think it may be time to replace the hard drive… which is something you cannot do with an OEM version of windows XP.

I doubt I can hang around long enough for Windows7 to come out. I may have to start piecing together my new computer in haste. Which is never a good idea. We’ll have to see.

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MaG Fest 09

January 5th, 2009

MaGFest :: The Music and Game Festival.

I actually attended again this year, but this year I tackled all 4 days. Going from the 1st to the 4th. I had a great time and have plenty of stories to tell.

One thing that stands out in my head is… If you’re the Indiana Jones of gaming finding rare imports and things like that. Don’t be a jerk and play against people just to smash them off of the game without them even knowing what’s going on. That happened when I tried out Capcom versus Tatsunoko. I mean the guy heard me sit down and say “I never played this before” and he remained quiet. Then proceeded to thrash me without saying a word.

Moving on, I found that this would probably be the best place for me to release any new games that I 100% complete. Anything that I go all out and do such as “Dig”,”Donnie Bomber” or “Golem Golem Golem”. There’s a huge game area where I could probably fit a few if not one arcade machine. There’s already a bunch set up all over. More details on that later.

I’ve also seen that the “Donnie Bomber” shirts from like 5 years ago might’ve sold at MaGFest so I’m going to talk to my shirt dude and see if I can get a few printed out for next year.

It’s weird now that I am home and blogging about this, I finally have a chance to read all of the RSS feeds that I missed over the holiday to see that one of the sites I read was actually there. I had no clue what was happening in that corner…

… When I saw that corner it made me think to myself that I still want to build an arcade game, (as in a game in an arcade cabinet). On the other side of the room they had people play Street Fighter 4 which made me wonder if a brand new game could survive on pizza shops and malls alone. If the price of the machine isn’t $4,000 and the game was simple enough that average Joe can walk up and play it, how much would/could it make. I see plenty of games in bars still.

Overall I had a fantastic time at MaGFest. I will be there again next year, I just have to figure out everything that I am bringing to the convention and start making those preparations now.

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