Project : Arcade - Games

Of course, the project wouldn't be complete if there was no games. An arcade machine with any games? Yeah.

Well, of course I had the choice to go for a Jamma system, but being limited to a single game, or the hassle of swapping them out, didn't interest me. I wanted a more complete system, a full retro-game system. The laptop was outfit with a few games so I could play on the go, and the gaming machine for most of the online and higher requirements ones. So my arcade machine was to run the rest, the older games and emulators.

The controls don't need to be too complicated for most of those :
Arcade : Typically 2 to 6 buttons.
NES/GameBoy : 2 buttons
Master System / Game Gear : 2 buttons
SNES : 4 buttons, 2 shoulders
Genesis/32X : 3 buttons (or 6 depending on the game)
Gameboy Advance : 2 Buttons + 2 shoulder
Turbografx : I'm not sure, but judging from a few games, probably 2.
PS1 : This is the one that causes me the most troubles. But normally 4 + 4 shoulders.

In this planning stage, I need to consider what kind of controls and games I want to put in. I want a 4 Player setup, even if I don't get friends to play often, only so I don't kick myself later for not doing it in the first place. Since it's at planning stage, may as well do it right from the start.

But then there's the button configuration. There's a standard 7 button layout that would work fine, but I was thinking of adding one more for the 8th, so I cover all bases with the PS1 games. But thing is, not all PS1 games will fit the controls either. Some games would require the shoulder buttons to be easier to reach, yet alot of games can probably work fine with the arcade setup, as long as they don't need analog. Yet games like Street Fighter don't need the 8 buttons either, only 6, the last two being used as combo buttons (like 3 punches).

Some setups only give 4 buttons to the player 3 and 4, because most 4-player arcade games only need that many (X-Men, TMNT, Simpsons...), but if I want to put in 4 Players PS1 games, I'd need all 6 and maybe 8 depending. So that's why I'm thinking of going for 8 at this point.

But back to the games. Most of the above can be found in ROM collections on the net, which makes it easier, since they were cart based. Disc based games are too big to collect, but only a few select ones are truly needed. My first choice of PS1 is Street Fighter Alpha 3, which is actually superior to the Arcade version in some ways, like added game modes (Survival, Dramatic...). Others are better on the Arcade because of PS1 limitations, such as Marvel vs Capcom that took out the tag team battles entirely.

For the other games, complete collections of ROMs pretty much is all that is needed. Out of those I trimmed out the other languages, kept mostly the English USA and World versions (avoiding duplicates as much as possible). I also have ordered a set of discs with complete ROM sets of Arcade games.

The biggest problem with arcade roms is the file system. Whereas the SNES, for example, had only one ROM file that contained all of the data, the Arcade games work through a parent system. Usually the USA or World versions are much smaller in size because all they contain is the patched data, more or less the translated files. The actual game files are found on the parent ROM, usually the Japanese version. Sometimes you also need revisions to make them work, which leads to a mess of files, sometimes 4 or 5 rom sets to make one work properly. With a complete disc set, I shouldn't run into missing files at least.

Link to DVD sets : MameDVDs
Link to complete ROM sets : EmuParadise

EmuParadise also has several sections for emulators and other files that you may like for system, such as front ends, data files and fan translations.

More on the control panel next time.