A couple of big pieces of news from GameEx and Spesoft.

Tom Speirs the creator of GameEx also wrote our primary API and Sync Tool.  He has done a lot of work on the service as well as GameEx integration and is announcing major improvements in the file matching system in regards to EmuMovies Sync.

Also GameEx is now Free! 

Official Announcement:

Quote

Big changes. Gone free.: The pandemic, losing my mother during it and dwindling interest from others along with a different situation personally has prompted me to make some significant changes and me wanting to make things purely a hobby again, albeit funded by me.

Everything is now free, including all variations of GameEx, the FTP, artwork download and GameEx Online.

I want to do things purely for the glory, hobby and community, once again.

Hopefully it will bring some renewed interest and a better purpose for me, while not having to worry about taxes, EU red tape and not much income to show for it.

I want to enjoy my work and not compete on a commercial level with free products and a commercial product that spends large amounts of money on marketing and employees.

I also want to give something back. We are all riding off the back of other peoples work and efforts and I want to have more admirable intentions going forward. I was primarily inspired by MAME and that has always been free.

I can afford the cost and hopefully I will get some new support and renewed interest because of my good intentions and I can continue to be motivated, if not more so.

Thank you to everyone who ever purchased something from me and all the support over the years. There has been many high points such as products being shown on Shark Tank twice, Pinball hall of fame and being featured in numerous books, publications and cover disks (if you are old enough to know what they are!)

I have two new free GameEx products in the pipeline and I am in no way slowing things down. Its just time to mix it up again..

Hopefully you will support me in going free for all but if you just purchased and are unhappy feel free to contact me for a refund.

Its all about the hobby and always should be.

Thank you.

Tom Speirs.

3D Arcade, a return

Back in the in the early 2003/ 2004 I found a 3D style front-end called 3D Arcade. I found it while surfing through Mameworld during this period. This is before Emumovies and the some of the better front-end existed. This is before Hyperspin, GameEX, Mgalaxy, Launchbox, so this is a long time ago. I have somewhat of a love hate relationship with this front-end because it was a nightmare to setup. The instructions described making gamelists a playlist of playlists ( yeah, it didn't make sense to me either.) But that wasn't why I downloaded it. when setup with all the arcade (which took an age because you had to download the individually and there were something like 400 plus different game models but it also, presented everything from arcades to pinballs and even decent recreations of old consoles. If you ran the exhibition location, you were greeted to a masterful location which you simply walk around the arcade where you see different rendered cabinets which when done right look fantastic. 

So, Why am I going on about something so old. Maybe I am a little nostalgic about this old system. Well it appears that this relic is being resurrected, Thanks in part to )p( and Skurdt over on the forums. This started with )p( wanting to learn Unity for his son so he could teach him the basics (his son is 13 so he is the right age to learn this stuff). I literally popped in to see if the project was still going and a new section saying 3d Arcade in unity greeted me. So this sparked my curiosity. So far they released a limited build with some basic groundwork for possibly a better version. While Unity has its own limitations its not as bad as directors with some paid extras that enabled it to work. So what have they done so far. surprisingly quite a bit for a preview build. But my main issues with this are the UI needs to be a lot more user friendly and a decent tutorial because the last was was very confusing with phases like "a playlist of playlists"

But the positives are a decent jukebox setup if configured right 

The pro's if this is pulled off

Decent maps with a possibly a chance to edit the cabinet setups 

A way to incorporate new innovations like online play and a change to share 

I will be looking at his project a lot more closely as a resurrected front-end from the past is coming back

Anyways if you want to help out visit here

http://3darcade.messageboard.nl/viewforum.php?f=15

If there any modeler that could help with creating some of the updated cabinets, any help would be greatly appreciated 

anyways just a quick one , anyways this is jackhammersalm signing off

Finally I return to writing and this one is a doozy. Something has been bothering me for a while now and here I finally lay down my point of view with the state of gaming and retrogaming in general, grab your popcorn because I feel like a rant because I am in one of those moods.

Flashback Challenge!

First off, I play most of my retrogames on emulation Because Collecting old consoles, carts and CD can be impractical due to space and Practicality of the tech breaking down over time and abuse. While old arcade machines find new life in specialised places which respect their heritage *cough* Arcade Club *cough*. Even the traveling circus of the replay events show us old arcade games have a part in the history of gaming. Even some of todays practices are based on the old nickel and diming of hard arcade games which ramped up the difficulty in order to get you to part with your money. Back then, it wasn't considered egregious for you to continue your games or simply play one more games. Recently, however, Lady Decade asked in one of her recent videos, Is emulation ethical.

That simple question has been a very grey area for years. Nintendo being one of the biggest culprits for copyright trolling. Nintendo has been trying for years to control the narrative in terms of their gaming history for years. But why, have they no interest in celebrating their history from the humble beginings, starting with their game and watch series followed with the first stab at the home console market with the Nes and the Collection of games that do with it followed by their foray into the 16 bit market with the SNES Then every console that followed it. Nintendo didn't always make good decisions, Well without Nintendo ditching the CD add on that sony was developing we wouldn't have the Sony Playstation. Without these mistakes we wouldn't have had the innovations we got during the 90's.

But let's get back to the arcade, Nintendo have had a few but not as many as you think, But companies like Atari, Namco Konami, Taito, Data East, Irem, SNK and Technos ruled the roost during this time. (Jack, What are you on about, get to the point rather than just prattling around). I loved the arcades during my childhood and whenever I went to one, it was an experience than just sitting in front of a screen with a controller. As I got older and Technology got better for the home console market, Arcades became more redundant over time because it was difficult to compete with with something that looked just as got as the arcade. In the late 90's (late '96 early '97. I was at university at the time) I learned about emulation in which I could play old arcade games on a PC. My first foray into arcade emulation was Nemesis.

MAME was just a Make Trax/ Crush Roller emulator at this time and slowly turned into a multi-pac emulator (This is before MAME was a thing). Multi emulators were few and far between (emulation really started to kick off around '99 to '00). An early multi emulator was Sparcade. This provided the building blocks towards an actual working frontend emulator. Finding Roms back then wasn't difficult but were limited, due to sporadic Rom dumps to bland and basic websites (no real effort, it was a simple link to files and that was it geocities was the most common site used for the early Rom dump days) but times were simpler as emulation was in its infancy. It got me thing about all the games I used to play during my youth. Finding Roms and the emulator to play them grew more interesting as MAME became more powerful with more Roms were supported.

I played on a console even owning and original Playstation and a Playstation 2 during a period of 5 years while slowly transitioning to PC during my first year of working full time during 2003. My taste returned to old arcade classics. I asked questions over the years, with the bonus of unlimited credits by simply pressing a number on the keyboard helped me complete a lot of old games I loved during my youth but I also found the controls on these old games when using a keyboard, a lot more floaty than I remember. It was the old analogue vs the digital factor because there were certain games that required sensitive movements (like driving games with use of a steering wheel). Later version of MAME (or more to the point MAMEUI back then it was mame32 included a cross-hair for shooting games and mouse support to cover the trackball games. One of those shooting games which required the cross-hair which I loved during my youth was 1987's operation wolf. This particular game was truly hard during my youth with the unique controls. While playing it through emulation, while still fun but a lot easier to complete. it didn't feel like the experience I remember. While I did have this game on the spectrum and there was a cross-hair on that, you expected the trade off on a home computer.

vs

But then again, The experience of operation wolf to me was actually quite, given the controller for this particular arcade was an Uzi 9mm with limited swivel and simple up and down motion a trigger and a small red button on the side that fired the rocket and it was a challenge to play. That experience stays with you as well, being a fan of both Rambo and Commando which were 2 staples of 80's entertainment I consumed when this game hit arcades. While this game help produce 2 sequels (one being operation Thunderbolt which added a second player and operation wolf 3 which changed the semi realistic uzi to a more generic gun controller, ironically the same gun controller was used for the arcade classic Space Gun but I always go back to operation wolf, but why. 6 levels, an single energy bar and a limited ammunition on a single credit. The challenge is seeing how far you could get on said credit with the kicker being the second level and the massive difficulty spike which many people put more credits in to get past it (Japanese version has a different view in which you do the first 4 missions in any order but the chances of being spotted increased until you took out the communications setup but the western version of the game has the spotted sequence as a random event). This is before consoles and computers gave a rivaling experience to the arcade.

When I was a child, games were a fun thing to play for a while and you loaded the next one you you had, compared to today where games are just another commodity to bet on, Games companies today, have lost sight of what got them there. They try justifying every decision they make not to the consumer but to the investors, which seems silly. The problem with such an endeavor is the lack of risk companies are willing to take because the primary focus of an investor is the expect growth on their investment. Here, in my honest opinion, lies the problem. The home market is not the same as the old arcade counterpart in which people put stupid amounts money into wooden boxes which played the favourite games and there were a lot of them.

(looks back at his hyperspin list)

Seeing the history,Being subject to the whims of investors makes you wonder why games companies are subjecting many end users to stupid pay to win scams to the unskilled or the can't be arsed player in order to get them to be badass. The term 'get gud' comes to mind . I love gaming but I don't have the time to grind like I used to but I rarely have the time to grind like i used to but I rarely buy said power ups because it takes away half the fun of playing.

Another component that annoys players today is the always online playm which is subject to another form of DRM which has been proven to be completely pointless. (Jack, you are going off track again).

OK, OK I will get to the point, playing old games via emulation sparks a question, not is it ethical to emulate games but is there a point to play something that takes a speed runner something like 20 minutes to complete (meaning no stops and finishing it in the shortest time possible so no detours). Emulation is a nice thing because now I can play everything from pinball machines (digital versions of classic pinball machines, while not the same does provide a wealth of entertainment because without it you have to find the tables, most of which are difficult to find in today's arcades or if you wanted to own said pinball machine, you need to find it maintain it and trust me those things are heavy) to the simple game and watch LCD machines which in some aspect are even harder to find in good condition. But still with all the modern games I have (my last steam library is 295 and I have not played about 3 quarters of the list) but I still go back to games like operation wolf, robocop, shinobi and Atari's star wars. technically you can get away with robocop and shinobi because you can stick the PCB for these games into a generic arcade cabinet and they will function just fine.

4 famous games of the 80's

But the other 2 however not so much I have already mentioned the particular feature of operation wolf with the controller being shaped in the form of an UZI 9mm sub machine gun. Atari's star wars arcade main feature was which was different compared to the generic arcade was the fact it used a yoke controller shaped like a futuristic steering wheel with fire buttons and the up and down axis were reversed, on emulation you simply used the keyboard or for a better experience, use the mouse. When you emulate something, you may preserve the game but you don't preserve the experience you had during your youth. Hence why we have events where people started to bring original hardware to these places. Having been to NERG back in 2014 and PLAY EXPO last year with a friend. I understood what gaming was again. Something big business seems to have forgotten nowadays. I think the only game that marries the old school feel with today's capabilities would be Studio MDHR's cuphead. This game simply puts old school animation from the 30's and 40's then adds the classic mechanics of side on shoot em ups like contra and sidearms. This could be simply put in an arcade and money would just hit home. while the home version is simply a boss rush game with unlimited lives. but even putting it in a cabinet would work question would be if you were to monetize this in an arcade, how would go about playing with one credit (either a time limit per level or the simple 3 lives factor). This would attract a lot of people.

Remember you could play all your favorite arcade games back in the 90's it was called the Sega Saturn. Here lies the second problem and Sega biggest failing. Sega back in the 80's and 90's were a solid arcade developer but were slow on the uptake of the home console market, While the Master system, Megadrive (genesis in the US due to legal reasons) and the gamegear were more of a response to Nintendo at the time. This is a secondary market for Sega as they raked in all their cash from arcades. But as the consoles became more powerful, their arcade division became less important. Sega had some of the most legendary developers under their banner like Yu Suzuki (creator of Outrun, afterburner and shenmue). The Sega Saturn was a marvel of a machine with a lot of arcade ports but it had one major problem, The Sony Playstation, the upstart console as result of Nintendo's major screw up by getting cold feet with its CD add-on when the Sega Mega CD failed, (well I would call it a failure because it had some iconic games) so that alone doesn't make it a complete failure or the fact their games get remastered (night trap). you would not have got the Sony Playstation if it was for Nintendo. It was the right console sold at the right place at the right time. Boasting a 20 game launch line up including the iconic wipeout (granted it was out on the Saturn but it was better on the Playstation) being a launch title. This system hit the ground running while Nintendo were working on their ultra64  setups with one game already using the hardware in the arcade (crusin' USA) followed by Killer Instinct. The mid 90's was an interesting for me (I used to hang around a game shops) as I saw games on consoles that were sublime and the tat that could rivals Ashen's tat (I swear Ashen's looks for such useless crap, just to gloat to simply say I have more tat than you). Back in mid to late 90's, we had it really good when it came to content. Finished games that were brilliant, if not they were slammed HARD! Back when games review meant something. Not like nowadays when  you see a game with a high rating then you discover you have been duped by a review copy which tends to feature stuff to get better rating (as proven in Black op 4 recently with a patch).

This article is turning more into a rant than just an article about games but the honest answer is this question has been eating up for a while now and Lady Decade finally brought out something, I have meaning to ask myself but in a different way because experiences are different. If may not be ethical in terms of copyright law but in terms preserving the past, I say within reason. There are unwritten rules within the emulation scene which many people break because they can. What these idiots don't realize they shine shine a light on the rest of us and that doesn't help. Right now, for me, experiences are everything nothing changes that with a traditional joystick and hard buttons vs playing with a hand controller which digital controls which doesn't translate well in some games, for instance driving games on an old controller was really a challenge because when you pressed left on a controller, you would careened said left into the nearest barrier rather than simply lightly going left. Another gerne that has been sort of rectified with the invention of the twin stick controller are said games with twin sticks (Games like Yie Ar Kung FU, Smash TV and Karate Champ). During these times, Controls varied from game to game whereas now, there is uniformity towards game controls. It's interesting how certain games win a generation of gaming with their scheme (perfect example, case in point in point street fighter 2) perfected the simple game control of light, medium and heavy attacks from punches and kicks.

While that control scheme dominated for a couple of years, another arcade simplified that control to just light and heavy attacks but added a block button as opposed to pressing back (like in street fighter), that game was the ESRB creating Mortal Kombat. This is when everyone started to prefect the art of joystick juggling (even me with scorpion I was semi unbeatable with the cheap combo of a roundhouse kick and a leg sweep but the infamous onw of the harpoon, upppercut, teleport combo which was a bastard to counter if you were on the receiving end of it. The fighting game had hit a new high because one on one combat was a solid win and you could play with a friend (I would normally lose because 9 times out 10 they were clearly better than me). But then you would have controllers that were more obscure like the tron controls. This was a dual control system because you have a full joystick with a fire button along with a spinner as well (to turn either your arm or the turret of the tank to take aim at enemies or pieces of the MCP). If you are a MAME completionist, next time you look at the extras, look at your control panel folder then see how many different controls methods. that is the experience you have playing a full arcade vs playing on a good computer.

Is it good to play these games still on an emulator, yes and no, yes because it brings back nostalgia of games played in a bygone age and no, because the experience is diminished by the experience of not playing it on original hardware? Console you can technically get away with because the control system is similar to that of a control pads while the arcades are more difficult to replicate. This brings me to another control method that was dumbed down for the PSP other consoles because it's control method was very obscure being the only had an up and down joystick, a button for thrust, a button for reverse, one for fire and another for bomb. I played an earlier version of MAME and the 4-way directional controller was implemented but as later versions of MAME pushed for a more faithful version of same game and that game was Defender, you found the controls were not what expected and was difficult to acclimate to on emulator. But these are the differences you don't notice on an emulator compared to a pull arcade cabinet. I'll be honest, |I have been in the scene over the past 20 years slowly commenting on the from retrogaming stand point which shows how old I am. Maybe i was spoilt for choice compared to today's gamers who more emphasis on graphics, style over substance. While the indie scene is booming, the big companies have sort of swindled because they be something they are not. A massive movie studio which provides interactive content. They forgot what games are. Perfect example is Electronic Arts (or unicronic arts if you use that phrase from the Jim Sterling which I actually agree with) back in the 90's they had licenses for everything movie, sport and had some good gaming development houses under their belts, But from 2005 onwards they have gone from reasonable publisher to one of the worst companies in America or the world by this point because they have consistently made mistake after mistake resulting in pissing off the fanbase (is this the gaming world or politics, right now I cannot tell the difference because they are more or less the same thing).

Their loot box fiasco with battlefront 2 which I warned against from the mement EA for the license from Lucasarts. EA has proven they have lost their way because they subject to the almighty investor which is not really a good sign, seeing they did have a huge back catalogue of games (including the god awful dark castle). But EA has gone from from being a company that produces games to a company that produces experiences and they manged to even get wrong because just by looking at battlefield V and the optics it created caused problems because it inserted Identity politics into a historically based game and that was forced onto the gaming industry but the SJW's who claim they are not represented. (Jack, go back on topic please, you are ranting about politics again :/). EA has had a couple of good ideas with indie developers over the past couple of years like A way out, which is an interesting concept and brilliant storytelling. Ideas like that are few and faw between. But it makes the problem with the gaming industry more prevalent. It's about the investors trying to find a get rich quick scheme from an unsuspecting player base which hasn't the time but the money just to skip certain aspects of the game.

That particluar player is not really a player but someone that's bored of just watching TV and just wants to kill a few minutes living a power fantasy (this exact case was the point behind the whole battlefront II debacle when a player got a super overpowered character like darth maul the buying of loot boxes rather than just playing the game). Purists (to a degree like myself)believe in the philosophy of progressing through a game to its natural conclusion in the process getting better at actually playing, unlocking content along the way. That was how we used to do it, Which leaves the question when did games companies get so greedy. Straight answer, When mobile phones started to become as powerful as computers and started to produce trashy games while simple to play had an inflated sense of difficulty in order to trick players into paying to pass certain levels. I think that's how it started  and with the introduction of CEO's, who sole philosophy is to find ways to cut corners and generate money (like getting blood out of a stone like the vampire's they are). This is when we started to see the dynamic shift games being just games to games being a live service. Games  started to appear less and less frequent and flagship brands were being bled out every year with less and less content in them or just to meet the deadline then sold later as DLC (Borderlines 2 had a stupid amount of DLC) or in an incomplete state  and playerbase that is understanding of the concept (Minecraft made its reputation while being very playable and had a fair amount of work to do also was work in progress or early access). These 2 games alone were animolies to the normal ways of things. The internet is both a gift and a curse because it provided a way out ofr developers to just put a game out the door without being tested or even checked of bugs.

Arcades were played for hours by people that built them, while the concepts were simple, they were also finished products. Unlike today, where a finished product is a broken buggy piece of crap that is glitched to all hell (see fallout '76 for this) I am technically scared to buy full priced games today. I may make one risk each year for a full  rpiced triple A product. Normally by skills of picking them pays off but there are times where I live to regret that decision (Aliens: Colonial Marines)

Games in general should be fun, Not grindy, boring chores which in order for you to enjoy, you need to pay extra after dropping an large amount of money to start with ($60 or £45 to £50 on the uk side). It worked in the arcades because we saw it as a challenge and we knew we were limited by the pile of coins in our hands which was eaten by the machines of the time one that said pile of coins was gone, we walked away. Nowaday, its either a credit card or digital currency (digital store currency). That limit is a little more obfuscated than before, blurring the lines and that's after you spend a stupic amount of money upfront. The problem with today's gaming industry is that it gone corporate which in turn has creativity out and now is driven by focus groups which consists of about a 100 random people which doesn't reflect much of anything. When the industry headed down this path, sooner or later the industry will implode and the publishers who only see the money will find that the bllod will be harder to suck out of the wallets of their player base. So they will go back to acyually creating more games or become extinct. (unicronic arts I am not sure there is a matrix of leadership big enough to stop that company from destroying anymore developers). These major publishers need to stop milking said cashcows to death and create more games. I really don't know what the future holds anymore for gaming.

That being said, who said retro doesn't sell. Just look at the nintendo classic and its various counterparts. While simply a way to engage with the uber nerds among us. It show, while cynical in their approach. There is a market for it and don't tell me they do not use emulation because they do. Perhaps I am becoming jaded when it comes to gaming in generalbut I know one thing. Emulation has shown hte beginnings of gaming and how how it has evoloved from the simple Pong all the way up to the remake Doom which was are make done right.

All I want in life is a good fun experience, something that pleases me, gives me genuine emotion and most of all something I truly enjoy. it seems games companies and consumers have differences of opinion here. So, I go back to emulation and enjoy games from a bygone era that were more complete than the crap we see today. This is jackhammersalm, finishing his article or rant and more than likely returning to an emulated game or going sleep in a corner. Either would help me right now.

This version is packed with awesome new features and updates:

• WebRadio added to available background music sources. Thousands of web radio directly available from the mGalaxy interface.
• Extended gamepad/joystick controller compatibility (no more limited to Xbox 360 controller only)
• Mouse compatible interface (no more limited to keyboard or gamepad)
• Theme customization: all themes now come with a setting panel.
• mGalaxy_Updater: new application to update/patch mGalaxy on new release.
• mGalaxy_Runway: Runway now trims logo images with a transparent pixel border.
• mGalaxy_Runway : auto folder assignment.
   

More info and download on http://www.mgalaxy.com

Proudly presented to you by Spesoft in partnership with Headsoft and FlashBang Studio.

Some of the features you’ll see in v1.01:

*** Features ***

Pre-configured system profiles for 200+ emulators
3 default themes (Default, Blue and Black)
Supports multiple orientations and aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9, horizontal & vertical)
Multiple list display modes (List, Grid, Page, Carousel, Wheel and CoverFlow)
Multiple game lists (All, Completed, Favourites, NextToPlay, Played and RecentlyPlayed)
Databases for every system
Auto emulator app and asset download
Full system auditing and game list editor
MAME Software List support
Advanced MAME filtering system (Genre, Category, Manufacturer, Year, Orientation, Rotation, Controls, Players, Buttons, Alternating, Mirrored, Service, Tilt and Cocktail)
Advanced System filtering (Publisher, Developer, Year, Category and Players)
Other Filter Flags (File, Video, Region, Language and Media)
Advanced emulator launch and logging system
Steam game import
Stats (LastTimePlayed, HasPlayed, HasRecentlyPlayed, HasNeverPlayed, TotalTimePlayed, TimesPlayed, HasCompleted, IsFavorite, IsNextToPlay)
2D & 3D object support
32 and 64-bit support
Frame-based animation
Theme skinning system
Bitmap font support with editor
Extensions (including scripts and plugins)
Advanced variable system (all accessible via your custom Extensions)
Write your own Extensions in C# or VB.NET, Have access to Evo libraries directly!
Free extensions including hardware support for UltraStik, ServoStik, LEDWiz, PacDrive, U-HID, Blue-HID, Nano-LED, PacLED64, I-Pac Ultimate I/O, BetaBrite etc. All open source!
Command.dat support (Fighting game move lists)
Built-in manual and asset viewer
Auto image mounting
Much, much more!
 

*** Q & A ***

Q: Why did it take so long?

A: This has been a long time coming and that’s because we’ve spent extra time adding the features you wanted into the next evolution of gaming front ends!

Q: Who created it?

A: This is the most advanced FE ever written by the best in the scene. In development for over 5 years by coders with over 25 years in FE and arcade app development combined!

Q: Why did you create it?

A: This is a creation born out of love and passion for the retro arcade and emulation community. The cost was great but it’s our gift to you and this is only the beginning!

Q: Where is feature X your promo video promised?

A: We have included every feature we promised except for the Theme Editor. It’s still in production. Let us know if you’re interested!

Q: What about native HyperSpin theme rendering?

A: It’s in there we just don’t think it’s that important. We’re not trying to be HyperSpin but we’re fans of the project – hi Bill!

Q: What about RocketLauncher?

A: While we think it’s a pretty cool project we think if you’re paying for a FE like ours it should all be integrated. That’s why our Setup Wizard does everything! No 3rd party tools required!

Q: What’s the future of GameEx Evolution?

A: Very bright! But we need your support and for us to succeed we need your help to get the word out. So don’t just sit there, tell everyone the good news!

Q: I need help or have a question!

A: Great! Please visit our GameEx Evolution Forums

*** GameEx Evolution is: ***

Developed by Headsoft (headsoft.com.au)

Ben Baker (Headkaze) [Code, Design and Artwork]

Published by Spesoft (spesoft.com)

Tom Speirs [Sales, Code, Testing and Support]

With Help from FlashBang Studio (flashbangstudio.uk)

Michael Ware (Greatflash) [Database, Code, Artwork, Testing and Support]

And Hanka Design (hanka-design.com)

Markus Hanka [Logo, Early UI Design Prototypes]

Full Credits: gameex/com/evo-credits

*** Thanks ***

Also thanks to our staff for all their amazing and continued work on our forums over the years:

Adultery, Carny_Priest, DazzleHP, Draco, freezy, GimmeClassics, hansolo77, nullPointer, rablack97, RedDog, stigzler, Tempest, tthurman and zeenon

Download GameEx Evolution here

Introducing PinballX 2.50, GameEx and GameEx Arcade Edition 15.00

Big updates for the season.

These are mainly performance improvement related releases with general optimizations to key functions as well as rendering and the executable compiles.

This should hopefully result in better FPS and speed improvements throughout although obviously it will be more noticeable on lower end machines.

With GameEx several other areas have been improved for performance such as the Jukebox, loading Game Info, the Movie Library and getting Meta Data.

In addition the YouTube feature is now working again and the Move Library has been improved significantly. Getting Meta Data for the movie library is now much quicker to and downloading music artist and album images is working again.

I also made the decision to make the Media Library and DVD/BluRays on disk features free for all users and no longer a registered version feature.

I am toying with the idea of releasing a sub version of GameEx without gaming features, purely as a free HTPC solution. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

In preparation for the season I, and behalf of all of my loyal team and friends who work alongside me wish you all the best, happy thanksgiving, happy Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa and Merry Christmas!.

-tspeirs

mGalaxy v6.3 is out!
New theme, Mame database creation further simplified, ‘history.dat’ support,...

•    New “Fruit Machine” theme added to meet the need of a growing number of users for a slot machine theme.
•    mGalaxy_Runway: Database > Mame database creation further simplified.
•    mGalaxy_Runway: Database > ‘history.dat’ support added to Mame DB.
•    mGalaxy_Runway: Database > Image preview while scraping from databases.
•    mGalaxy_Runway: When duplicating a system, you now get the option to copy user files (database, favorites, top10,…) from the ‘original’ system to the ‘duplicated’ system.

More info and download on http://www.mgalaxy.com

 The Return Of A legend

I've seen a lot of things within this scene so a little history lesson is in order here before I get to my point of the article. When you think of Nintendo recently, you think of Copyright claims on YouTube videos, half arse production of retrogaming goodness and outstanding first party games. But back in the early 1980's they only had arcades machines and playing cards in Japan and really wanted to expand but after a few setbacks in the 60's trying to make toys. But with the advent of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) being used in digital watches and calculators and Gunpei Yokai, who watched someone playing with a calculator on a train because he was bored. In effect he created mobile gaming with this series of games called the game and watch series. The first one being Ball, which was released April 20 1980 ( I was 4 at the time when this came out). It was quite successful and over a period of 10 years they released 47 in total spread out to 1 every 6 months. While some sold more than a million creating the wave of the future there were some that sold less than 10,000. There were some absolute gems here. Some of the designs of the dual screen Game and Watch series inspired the design of the Nintendo DS but they were not the only one that were going it Tomytronics, Mattel, Vtech and grandstand even radio shack (Tandy in the UK) had LCD pocket games. These were considered expensive at the time compared to today when it considered pocket money. I have had a game and watch system (Donkey Kong JR) and Tomytronics Tron and PacMan. I loved being 8 years old at this point. These were before I got a Sega Master System. Gaming has always been part of my DNA so these little trips down memory lane are a real treat. 

Right fast forward to 2004 I have my first real computer which I built myself (thanks from a load I got off of a gameshop owner I had at the time). One of the sites I usually frequented at was Retrogames.com, A site I'm sorry to say hasn't been updated in about a year because everybody changed (hell even me because back in 2011 I started writing for the facebook page which at the time rgm2000 and I started but now its the official page. Slowly it became the Hyperspin report which most Hyperspinners will remember before I moved on the the 3rd level.net (which was both a blessing and a curse because I realised how hard it was to maintain a site this well and regularly)) back to the story, I noticed MADrigals name on the link page above the .TZX vault page. I thought nothing of it at the time until 2007 I was finally curious to see what the link was about. What I found was a cave of wonders. I had never in my wildest dream would expect to see these emulated. While possibly in the S3 phase these were detailed and very playable back then in windows XP but you could see the world you never thought existed other than arcade and console ROMS. Someone had taken the time and care to restore classic old tech like the black and white LCD displays of old into a computer like a desktop app. I saw all my favorites with the exception with the widescreen LCD Donkey Kong junior. But from what was there, it was impressive.

(sorry for the sound differential I'm still learning and I also ramble because this is off the cuff, I should really write what I am going to say)

Fast forward to recently I noticed MADrigal had surfaced on the Hyperspin forums in the 3rd party app section. and what he put there made my jaw drop. MADrigal has started to make his LCD simulators with backgrounds, making them cabinet friendly, even stream friendly. He made a reasonable config file so you can edit the fullscreen and windowed mode (windowed mode is the same as S3 and 4 which is just an app on you background. They run on windows 10 very well (they worked on my netbook/tablet combination). He has put the latest Betas on the Hyperspin forums. He has released 17 so far and that has only been the beginning and only got 42 more to go. But what we got so far with the betas are outstanding.

This man is a Legend because he has made these on his own, flying solo here up until recently when MAME finally added these to their every growing collection. But MADrigal sir, you are a legend and you truly have my respect with these classics and hurry up with TRON dude (JOKE!)

If you want to have a look at these look HERE!

well this is Jackhammersalm signing off

XMatch is the official Spesoft and GameEx artwork matching utility for matching your artwork and video files to your game filenames.

• Common sense matching. Not overzealous.
• Reports on non matches.
• Ability to use a single media file to replace anything not matched.
• Same matching logic as EmuMovies Sync
• Simple to use. Only the needed features

Download here.

Requires the .net framework 2/3.5. If file will not launch install the required .net framework.

GameEx is offering GameEx lifetime premium licenses at half price.

Just use coupon code: 64E58 in the store at https://www.gameex.info

This sale is for a limited time.

Thanks
Tom Speirs.

Introducing GameEx Arcade Edition.

GameEx Arcade Edition is a derivative version of GameEx that is optimized for arcade controls and machines.

It is lighter, has cosmetic improvements and supports the new EmuMovies video themes.

It supports MAME and arcade systems and has the following feature differences over the normal GameEx version.

GameEx Arcade Edition notable features:

• Supports video themes.
• Less code. Lighter. Less options.
• Optimized cosmetics for TV and arcade displays.
• Good support for low resolutions (640 x 480) out of the box.
• Does not look like windows. Does look a little like HyperSpin.

The video themes and all the content is available at EmuMovies and an automatic downloader is included with the front end.

Download at GameEx.info

Introducing VPDB.

With three years in the making I am pleased to introduce to you VPDB.

VPDB is a collaboration between developer freezy with sponsorship from Spesoft/GameEx (creator of the PinballX and GameEx front ends).

Completely free to its users and contributors for the foreseeable future, VPDB is an innovative new project where people can share their digital pinball table recreations and everything else related to virtual pinball.

With this project comes innovation and change. We need your support to make it a success as without users and contributors it is nothing. However, if you cannot give that please at least respect the effort, time and skill that has gone into this project.

We have tried to do something pretty cool here out of passion for the digital pinball community, and it's just the beginning: VPDB comes with an open API that allows any application to plug-in easily. The website is just the first example of what's possible.

There is more to come!

https://vpdb.io

(We are still in beta phase but ready for you to come over and use).

Number #4

This weekend was my long weekend and my friends decided to come down from Newcastle and ironically it happened to be on the weekend of this event. This is my third event now and I brought friend to their first. This day proved to be a lot more interesting compared the the previous 2 times I came. This event was the most crowded event I've been too. If you don't believe me just look at my first video.

The first part is just a simple introduction to the event and me shilling the event as I always do ( I make no apologies about this). While I introduced the main man Zee (the organizer of the event with the use of a gamers pub (yes they exist and it got my friends thinking as well why there wasn't a place like this up north).  Anyways I did  play a few games this time including double dash which I never played before. I plan on doing a podcast soon with Zee about retrogames and modern games and how the love and hate of video games define us. but going back on subject. We came to this event and boy was it fun ( as proof of this next video)

I give another tour of the venue. Why I do not know I do this but unlike last time the pub got a fully working Tekken 3 machine which is an awesome machine in itself. I admit the emulated system they use for the projector is actually quite good but I forgot how much I hate Atomic FE as a front-end. it looks terrible and isn't all that interesting to look at but it's functional. But really getting back on subject The event was an exciting mix of older gamers and younger being introduced to older systems.

this 3rd video starts me looking at a Megadrive which was Streets of rage 3 (which I thought was the weakest of the 3). I loved the first one, was ok on the second one and the third one was the same as 2 which didn't please me because sequels are supposed to add something new to the series and with 3 they didn't do that. However I got talking to a pinball machine repair person while there and we got talking about old machines including pinball machines. I was talking to him for about 20 minutes before I had to leave. I hope to talk to this gentleman again sometime. I got his website address and looked at it. its for reconditioned and new pinball machines hire and maintenance site which I would like to look at because When I get money I will buy a a dataeast star wars Pinball Machine because its a decent cab in my eyes. Anyways I plan coming onto this subject again another time I plan on doing a podcast with this pinball engineer. for you pinball heads out there in the UK this is the guys website   http://pinballmachines.co.uk/

Anyways, that's enough from me today. I hope you give me a shout out and most of all stay frosty and play those classics as they never DIE!

Today's entry into my rough guide is a relative newcomer in terms of front-ends. So without further adieu, its time to introduce you all to

LAUNCHBOX

I've been following this project for a year since I got a registered license for this to see everything and my first impressions of this wasn't the best because certain features wasn't in it yet I made a video which I handed to the developer who in turn ACTUALLY listened to me. The issues I had with 5.2 (that was when I first looked at it). First off, there was no tool tips. which is annoying another thing was its MAME naming conventions (it made 2 mistakes and major ones at that). When I did that last december, I gave a first impressions video to the developer. He used it and worked out the kinks out of it. Right now we are at version 6.11 and boy it has come a long way in a year. First off Jason (the developer) has gone out of his way to fix the glitches from the older version like naming conventions of MAME (which was one of my pet peeves with the project). Made in visual studio and has both ScummVM and DosBOX pre-installed with its configuration tools (I used this for my looking back at sparcade). First thing I noticed when I first fired up LaunchBox its welcome message was quite encouraging.

Add dos games, add steam and other platform games (like origin and uplay and considering you get free games off them just jump on them for freebies ir if you game games on their platforms as well). Add ROM files which is pretty self explanatory. finally adding window games themselves. With a introduction like that, There isn't so much stuff you can't do. The use of DOSbox and ScummVM are what makes this front-end different compared to normal front-ends because its a simple point and click or a click and drag. Everything else is self explanatory or automatically found via the game databases the system uses (this includes GamesDB which I have no end of complaints about). But this is only part of the story. If you purchase a license for LaunchBox, you get another mode and this baby is call BIGBOX.

BIGBOX is what you really use once you have finished screwing around with everything tinkering with setting and making sure you can play it comfortably. it looks nice and actually is well thought out. While not as flashy as something like Hyperspin or other off the wall Front-ends. LaunchBox's BIGBOX mode was designed for ease of use and true functionality. don't get me wrong, you can launch everything from Launchbox itself but its more designed to actually edit your settings and configure you setup.

It still has issues but they are few and far between and you can actively see LaunchBox being developed by Jason on twitch.tv. He does a stream every so often when he can and he interacts towards his followers and users of LaunchBox here. You can actually approach him compared to most developers. I have talked to him as well. I have emailed the man myself during the 5.2 issues. The developer is a good person trying to deliver a solid product and but to me it still needs work but given time this is going in the right direction.

Ok so here are the pros and cons of LaunchBox.

OK the pros

• Quite detailed in giving information
• auto finds the inforamtion to the game you have inserted into the system.
• DOSBOX and ScummVM Native.
• Quite feature rich in terms of adding games.
• constantly updated
• BIGBOX MODE (on with paid registation)

Not the cons

• pay for product that unlocks all features (BIGBOX)
• The menu can be a bit intimidating if you are not used to it
• LaunchBox has issues with certain games

While it has issues with this front-end and its a paid application but I'll be honest it actually worth the money considering the amount of work put into this. and I saw from version 5.2 to now and I see this project going places but it needs to fall into the trap of adding  too much too quickly without compromising the core system. While though it has issue it's still has soo much potential as well and with the developer being so transparent as well help this product immeasurably.

This is a rough look at it considering I'm a hyperspin-phile and I don't disagree this project is going places. Anyways that it for another part to my rough guide and my next up on the bat is

Thats right I will be covering this in my next part of my rough guide.

My Rough Guide

To Front-ends

I had a big article which covers all the front-ends out but due to a page error it all got wiped. So rather than give up. I will do it in pieces, giving you my opinion. I will cover everything front-end with pros and cons for everything about said front-end. I have used a fair few over the years and so without further adieu, I'm going to re-review my first excursion into proper immersion and I've already written about this in another article. But I may as well cover this in more detail so lets start with

First of 3d arcade between 2004 to 2009 was actually quite an experience because this community was quite vibrant with content creators and users alike. The engine was designed in Adobe Director (which is ancient now) by )p( who for the most part created it a Galaxian like front-end in which you shot the game you want to play however it evolved into 3D Arcade. )p( created a simple map of a circular room in which you put arcade in. The first official version of this front-end was released on an i-modernist website host on 24/4/2002 with version 0.6 its first arcade model released by Zakk (with a real media RM video file) in the w3d format (which ended up being the format to the arcade models for future releases), By this point there are a template of the base arcade model in which you could add a marquee and picture snaps. Its interesting how the early going on contributor was Zakk. But as the following versions, )p( went out of his way by adding a first person walking simulator (not FPS which is stated). but it wasn't until this 0.65 when this was implemented and )p( also added this point to everything is skinnable, let me rephrase that the first person part of the front-end had the ability to be skinned with anything you wanted (objects within the system) and this was still 2002. Personally I didn't join the community until 2003 when I built my first computer and a few months in i started looking for a front-end (with the advice of Jennatek) I found I liked this first because it represented something visual which wasn't a list format but I saw this as a screenshot

So with my 512k broadband modem (yes we have come a long way since those days). Then I discovered the major flaw in the plan. Configuration is different kettle of fish. While it looks good with the content, its' major let down is a serious learning curve in which you have to navigate the selset menu's which are not very well explained or well thought out. This is before youtube guides and the written guide is confusing at best (when you read  for adding music is a playlist of playlists). While the learning the system takes a lot of time (in my case about 2 years when I came back to it). While the system has it flaws, The positives are (as the front-end is still available and works on windows 7) quite extensive with voodooscientist little cinema arcade which is a beautiful location ( I believe this was inspiration for NewRetroArcade:NEON). This is a good map because its' shows multiple different applications to use within a single map. While limited technology made it simple and cumbersome with things like delays between picture and sound, you got the gist of the experience. Another Map that was spacious and quite detailed was the exhibition hall. which showed a multi-level setup with some beautiful touches

Pictures from VoodooScientist lounge. It features a home theater, A karaoke lounge, A bowling alley (non functional). I believe this was the inspiration for NewRetroArcade:Neon

The second arcade location

The Exhibition Hall

These 2 locations are what sold me, but this is where my first experiences were bad as configuring this thing is a challenge and during that time I wasn't a patient person during 2003/2004. I have gone back to this a few years later. I learned to put music within this thing (I thought that was a victory back then). But my second time returning to this was interesting because I learned a few things. By 2007 there was a DVD release which featured The front-end, artwork, maquee and arcade models and emulators (no roms, emulation general rule) the only problem with it is that the configuration is actually still an issue even with the DVD edition. Since I changed over the Hyperspin in 2009. There are video tutorials out there. This one is most promient

Ok may as well go with the pros and cons of this front-end

PROS

• Has multiple modes
• its 3D environment was the first of its kind with front-ends
• Has quite a repository of models and locations
• the DVD edition come packaged with emulators of the times

CONS

• The main project has lost its main developer ()p( is gone onto bigger things)
• A pain in the ass to configure from scratch
• Has not aged well considering this could be better in the long run
• The community is dying out (there is a hardcore contingent there)

In closing with front-ends like NewRetroArcade:Neon and Anarchy Arcade, 3D Arcade has turned into a child of its time, while graphically it still has the art assets to make it different conpared to NewRetroArcade and is still is a tad easier to configure than Anarchy Arcade. I personally think this deserves a remake with the maps intact because seeing this in something like the unreal 4 engine would be amazing. The question is who would be crazy enough to remake this system and at least tweak the configuration UI because that was 3D arcades biggest downfall.

Next Front-end guide for is LaunchBox

yes here is the video from the show and trust me if I have more time, I would at least play crazy taxi (which I was terrible at) But again limited time to play anything because real life interferes with everything. There is not much more I can say really other it is entertaining. I really need more time to sort everything but that's never going to happen unless its on a weekday and most of all my wife can sort out the kids. But time I got was interesting and I couldn't wait to just jump in hence why I played crazy taxi. I'll try and do a better one next month. Anyways I will try and workout a plan for you guys during my next article and yes I will transfer RANDOM GAME! from the 3rdlevel.net to here now. But if you are in the London area during this time when the next one is showing I'll put a heads up for those of us in the UK. thats it for now but if you want a closer look

look at their website

http://www.superretrogamer.com

they also are on google and facebook.

They have a discord as well but you will be able to find it on your own.

1996 I was at university studying something I was not going to use in later life (simply because I lost interest and for your information I was studying craft baking at University). Interesting, so how did this craft baker become the writer to the hyperspin report and the3rdlevel dot net. Easy my friends were computer science students and most were into the computer scene. My first emulator I was ever introduced to was a spectrum one, not an arcade. I had a talk to these friends and my first taste of emulation was a Nemesis Emulator (while not perfect yet it was very playable and I remember playing this in the computer labs at the time. I was also hanging out of a games shop during this time also (Turbo Games). So during my late teens early 20's I loved games and gaming.

But I didn't have a PC to play any games on. I basically lived round my friends (jennatek) and my uncles place during these years. Emulation during the early Windows / MS-DOS days were confined to a bunch of single game emulators and a couple of multi-game Emulators(please bare in mind MAME wasn't as big as it is now back then it was just a PAC-MAN emulator and only really played a handful of games. My first taste was Sparcade on MS-DOS, it played something like 30 games at the time, which was quite a feat ( we are talking 1996 here) and they played classics like space invaders, slapfight, phoenix and airwolf. This was my first taste of emulation and it was good. I played this at jen's most of the time.

it wasn't until I left Uni when I really put myself into the scene as a gamer. Sparcade had served me for a year but it didn't emulate the one game I really wanted at the time,

Yes, that's right, the vector game version of Star Wars (and yes I would love to own a cabinet, Do not care what size either). Why this game you may ask, Being a huge Star Wars nerd, this still held up (even with the release of X-Wing and Tie Fighter). I loved the pace of this game as it was fast, solid gameplay and there was also something about shooting tie fighters. By 1998 the first of the Vector games were starting to be introduced and That meant Star wars had hit home computers and windows 95. By 1990, I was living out of my uncles place my boring 4 walls and Jens at the time. But over time Mame had over a 1000 arcade classics but not the 1988-1995 yet. Games like Wrestlefest, WWF SuperStar and the like, Another Emulator Beat MAME to that punch as it cover most of Taito and thechnos and that emulator was Raine. it was the first emulator to do and garnered quite a follow. during the next year a lot of people developed for MAME and games were coming at an alarming rate. They had taken to releasing Beta versions rather than the what you get today. You realise when you play random games on mame without knowing what you are playing. sometimes you remember I have played this. Here's the problem I have, I have a hell of a memory when it comes to games. But with Emulation you didn't have things we take for granted today. First of Zip Support, for those of us that were in the 90's we had to unzip the game into it's own folder in which you dumped the roms folder into. Those early years were a pain in the backside. If you wanted the play NeoGeo games the emulator at that point was NEO-rage before MAME covered that in the 2000's. Most of us during our youth remember playing arcades games. One game I played on another emulator before MAME was Image Fight and that first game out on the M72 Emulator. What is Image Fight (what is that, well, Image Fight is a vertical shump which had to me an interesting feature, you fighter transformed into 3 different modes which had different rates of file and maneuverability).

While my personal taste in games in games is best described ecliptic. But my tastes are like a lot of people's and MAME has provided a lot of games in which I adore in my life. While MAME has provided a lot of games in the past 10 years and Mame is nearly 20 years old now. it's amazing when MAME first came out, it only played 6 games and the first was Pac-Man. This is for the fallen who pathed the way from the beginning till now.

NEO-Rage (covered by MAME 35B11)

Retrocade

M72

Raine (Yes I know it's still around but its not as popular)

System16

Sparcade

Callus

These emulators are the forefathers to MAME has become today. There are alternatives to MAME that play games MAME still can't yet. But the future is always bright when it comes to preserving our history with the internet. I look to the future and I see less variety in terms of emulators, as older emulators are no longer supported or have reached the pinnacle of their particular emulation choice (meka for the master systems being one).  We have a wide selection of multiple system Emulators (including MAME and Retroarch) which makes single systems obsolete which is a little disappointing because you knew what you could get with each emulators (there are certain exceptions like supermodel which is a model 3 emulator which specialises in Star Wars Trilogy). Looking back and even if you look in rocketlauncher the amount of emulators there are out there and some still in development (retroarch being core based and covering all systems including mame with it's core system. When you look at games today with their brilliant graphics get sometimes their gameplay is what kills a game dead. But when you back even to computers like the spectrum there were a lot more challenges in terms of actually creating an actual game with minimal graphics but solid gameplay. Game ports back then were interesting because nothing until something like 1985 were officially licensed until those times. There were some licensed games like movie tie-in or some arcade port around that point. I'm going off point, here but I bringing the point the people that game retrogames now are people, who have played game during at this period never forgot what we played and why we love them as well. But if you look back toward what emulators came before you maybe surprised because there many people with the same goals, just different ways of doing things.

If I missed anything then correct me and I'll edit and credit you for the correction. but please this is my opinion, so don't shoot the messenger (IE me)

3DNES Review

First off I want to get this off my chest, not everything in the UNITY Engine is terrible. It's got a bad reputation for delivering crappy end product that people just poop out at an alarming rate. However this project caught my attention originally on a facebook post a couple of months ago then reignited when Simply Austin brought it back to my attention. So I thought screw it lets have a look at this. Demo's shown on youtube show the potential. But actually getting it to work properly on your own, that's a different kettle of fish. First off you are greeted with this screen. Made with Unity personal edition (after you finish with the base setup of resolution and pad and key bindings). curious why would anyone use unity to make an emulator. Well first off you have options on the standby screen (before you actually load an emulator)

This is the first screen you are greeted with once you boot this up for the first time. it doesn't look like much but it shows you this isn't a normal emulator because it has auto detecting for the 3D aspect of any rom. you play it as is but looks graphically interesting  as it creates a 3d environment from just basic information. There are profiles created for certain games. What started as a webpage app got converted into an actual emulator, in which version stand at 1 b3 (unless you pay for early releases). What makes this different compared to normal NES emulators. For starters, this

  and this and finally this.

All this looks impressive but it's takes time to set up to properly as you have to create profiles for each game to get the best results. if you run this straight out of the box it will appear a little glitchy and can be a little unstable. But if you onto their forum, There is something like 72 different configuration files already set up, While they are there, they are not perfect yet. If you can find the time to actually do configuration files yourself, you may find you do a better job than the actual user config files on the site. This does have promise but still needs a lot of work in order to be perfect. but what I am seeing so far even out of the box has promise. I'll be looking into this project a little more over the coming months, But I will look at it with a dose of cynicism as well. If you want to look it up go HERE!

A little history lesson

I got my first major PC build in 2003 which I bought the parts off of a friend and then built the system. I was heavily into retrogaming and emuation back then in between playing MMO star wars galaxies and various PC games I acquired via any means. I was always interested in frontend. Jennatek and I have been friends for about 20 years and I value her opinion. She pointed me into the direction of my first frontend which was via arcadecontrols.com 3d arcade

3D Arcade

Let me point this out right now, the community for this is not as bustling as it once was as development died a few years ago when director was not longer updated. designed during the XP era, this frontend was quite unique as it was the only one of it's kind and the developer, plus a group of crazy but very talented artists and modellers showed the world what was possible. While it looks impressive there were gaping big problems with it as well. First the configuration of this made Hyperspin look like a piece of cake. The way this was presented in it's read me was a playlist of playlists. Which made no sense at the time. but I got some stuff configured but the cabinets look all generic without artwork well the other problem was also it's biggest strength and that was the individual and unique arcade machines they had created on their system. Another advantage is the use of difference locations. 

For instance, the Time out Tunnel which had a it's own little sub corridor for effect

The level of detail back in 2007 to 2009 was spectacular in their arcades. the other advantage was the use of multiple emulators like Mame. Kega, BSnes, Visual Pinball with Pinmame before the whole project was merged with MAME. But walking into this out of the box was a REAL! learning curve. But you have 6 or seven different locations. These systems used a either a screen videos or screen cap to show what was playing and also the name of the marquee which if you had the extras for would show the actual marquee file said file (Hyperspin's wheel art would do just as well here if not a little better). But there are a lot of reasons why this should would well but really didn't for me.

First off, the configuration tool was a real nightmare to use because it made no real sense it took me 2 years to properly learn how to use it, even then I didn't scratch the surface. There were a lot of parameters to fill in which also made it quite detailed for the time. But after a few years you could have got a DVD edition which included the marquee files and everything EXCEPT roms. But has time went on and during one of the website downtime sessions which happened once a year for 2 weeks on this occasion, I went elsewhere which lead me to my home on Hyperspin. But I never forgot my roots.

But before that development was slowly dying because )p( had really left the group to pursue real life things like watching his son grow up. So development had stopped for the system itself but it didn't stop there, by my last count there are 18 different locations and something like 400 plus different arcade models to play with plus skins and various other options. Everything is skinable to a degree and it shows with some of the arcade skins for the pinball tables which had a generic table which could be skinned. Perfect setting for that was the Derino's damned dungeon in which you had a large winding arcade which showed off the capabilities of the frontend also.

while the video shows just basic arcades its only when I added the actual models to extra effect when you see the sheer scale of the and you can see the the difference with just a few cabinet (while my video is crappy with a bad mic) the video just shows what kind of frontend 3D arcade was. it waas ahead of it's time. so why did it fail so much it didn't for a which because it had a wow factor which everything from GameEX to AtomicFE tried to do differently while both are functional (well GameEX was functional and AtomicFE Crashed on me a few times and I gave up with it).  After 4 years of trying to go back and trying to configures this thing again, during one of the sites downages (due to Mameworld going for a name change to .info). I started looking elsewhere and which finally lead me to my home of Hyperspin which I am a valued member. However I didn't give up on this project. it had a DVD release also a few new arcades locations added (which included Flynn's Place from Tron which was in it's 3rd beta according to the forums). While the forums have a few hardcore members, it's not as bustling as it was circa 2007/2008. 

This brings me to my second introduction

THIS IS

Well about 2 to 3 years ago, I found this project somewhere and it was called Smarcade Anarchy edition and it's developer made this in the source engine. While it has limitation, it has proven it could hang with the big boys. He tried to kickstarter this and he wasn't successful, while he could sell the product because the money for a source licence is something like $10,000 so he released it for free. This isn't like the first Frontend, which specialized in console and arcade stuff. This is more of a Visual Desktop which you could customize the rooms to tailor your tastes. Everything is editable and I mean anything. it's a bit of a learning curve but once you got everything it's rather simple to edit everything and anything

don't believe me just look at : WheresThePunch

Video

Unlike 3d arcade this both a VR experience and a visual desktop. I was and still am impressed with this frontend as it's specializes in virually everything and you can set games and video even youtube and MP3 files to different Items which can act as links to said programs or files. Adding files and taking them away are easy compared to something like 3D arcade. It was interesting but there are issues with it but not that many. Why did it not succeed in the kickstarter. Simple lack of publicity and not enough word of mouth. But it's a free app and its not difficult to pick up so give it a look.  By the way, Steam workshop support is second to none here and the just look at their website themselves.

http://www.anarchyarcade.com/

OK this leaves me to the latest member of the 3D environments with

That's right I've just covered this and this is a frontend with a few extra minigames. This started life as a learning experience for a 5 man development team which later called themselves DigitalCyberCherries. The concept was simple, to have an arcade environment which was reminiscent of old fashioned arcades. Designed as a VR experience and it was a good experience, but while Anarchy arcade failed to garner support, DigitalCyberCherries wet the appetite of various members of community of emulation. I have reviewed it in my previous article I would look at that. But despite being 25 buck for just 2 maps and a configuration setup which is simple to use but you can see where this experience going. While the earlier version of this have copyrighted material and if you have original 2.0 and 3.0 of newretroarcade I would get those models there and look into the discussions where you can find some marquees and sideart. Personally this needs to have steam workshop support.

if you don't believe me that this hasn't got potential just look at simply austin's video

This shows some of the artwork changes Austin actually made change within the experience in which he added some actual marquee and CP artwork which showed a different system control there. There are generic joystick setups. but you get the experience. while the VIVE needs some tweaking on it's controller system. The reports that the left controller which controlled the directional controls doesn't work well but that's for VIVE users who use the motion controls.

anyways that's enough of the little history lessons from my personal view, If i have missed anything please don't forget to mention it in the comments anyways time for me to head off and start something else.

About late 2014, I saw a new frontend on my facebook feed, this was the first version of NewRetroArcade, my curiosity was peeked. So I downloaded the package and installed it onto my desktop (my this point I will remind you I was using this on my old 7 year old potato). I ran the program and I was greeted by a corridor, which ran at about 15 fps and I blame the fact I have not upgraded my machine is something like years but the premise was there a walk around experience which gave a player a look around a small arcade with extra things to do.

• You could find tapes and play them in the boombox radio (this could be editable)
• You could actually tune in to the online radio station (preconfigured by the developer to 80's style music)
• You could play Darts, ten pin bowling or shoot hoops in separate games
• Almost everything was able to be picked up (bottles, cigs, phone's, tapes and gameboys (yes there were playable gameboys)
• The Arcades where quite detailed.

Please bare in mind this isn't my first rodeo when it comes with 3D environments for gaming experiences. but this felt the most complete and right now this does set the tone to anyone following this experience. That was the classic version which when released on steam became the Tech Demo. They didn't change a thing. So why are they selling the experience for 35 bucks, well a few reasons actually. The Demo was the to simply wet the appetite and boy did they. while it introduced new people to a arcade experience, to the veterans, including another developer who I often speak with. When I covered this a year ago, the whole project was designed by 5 guys who were learn how to use unreal 4. To me this a mixture of passion, craziness and sheer brilliance, while the concept has been done before on other engines, this one stands out because it looks stunning with the lighting effects and the level of detail in the surroundings. Despite all the praise, I will nitpick about the control panels a bit for being a tad generic. other than that, that's about it. if you don't believe me just have a look

  That's just a load of skinned arcade machines. while the models are limited to 2 or 3 styles, the artwork could be added quite easily with the use of paint.net or gimp or even photoshop. it's interesting because to counter the copyrighted artwork they did a lot of generic artwork and screencaps to put as placeholders and when you first look round you think what the hell. Ok you have downloaded but where are these arcade games you are on about. you are forgetting the first rule of emulations in itself, you CANNOT distribute Emulators and roms in the same pack but to anyone here, this isn't that hard to locate the roms, But Jack, it still doesn't work, What is the problem here.

First off, the emulator built into NewRetroArcade is Libertro (retroarch), thats right you need the cores for said emulators, and the roms. now the interesting part, where is each system going. you need to go into the arcade builder

Yep, this thing, which is not that difficult to set up. while this picture is a little dated because they added an actual emulator to use as well in NEON, this is pretty much everything you use to configure the classic and best of all you see that pink circle in the picture, that is where you will find the machine you select to be in that position.

Right that's enough of the classic map so what do you get for 25 bucks apart from this demo. Good question? and having recently refunded no mans sky after no engaging me in the way it was suppose to and the frame drops killed my mod I decided to get this for me and my best friend (jennatek). Right now we both went into a multiplayer session. Yes first case and point it's multiplayer a good start, second thing is the intro screen

Why does it look like an 80's version of the matrix, simply put I think that was the point being the design choice (this was designed for the vive and the dk 2 also but runs just as well on a simple setup). with this intro screen you are greeted with 6 options

• Single player
• Multi player
• Options
• Custiomise
• Credits
• Quit

All pretty self explanatory with the exception of customize, Customise is an other in the multiplayer to have an additional item on top of you virtualboy (ie a hat or cap. It looks weird but it serves the purpose to distinguish between the players. While there are limitations to the emulation currently ie. netplay. you can play some of the custom games which are available like aimbot which is a like a fps cross between doom and goldeneye64. There is also a house of the dead clone in the VIP room with the playable SNES clone (original model and the gameboy models were changed to avoid Nintendo NAZI approach to gaming in general, which is a shame because those models were amazing) but with the classic map we got this.

A new arcade which is a little bigger than the classic build and they also added a lot more activities to do as well as the 3 main one from the classic arcade that being air hockey

In this room alone with the air hockey, have the zombie problem 2 arcade (their own minigame which is a homage to house of the dead) there is a guitar and a min drum machine in here too. There are quite a few distraction before you configure the arcades themselves like the one punch machines you see, also the whack a mole as well. the map is a little larger and left a couple of easter eggs also near the bar ( if they are crazy enough to do that ). The emulation side of this especially the lighting issues for the gameboy was particularly impressive (yes I had 2 gameboys to play multiplayer with friends with) and the fact that a dot matrix screen with no backlight (which is why the gameboy had a 25 hour battery life compared to the lynx and the gamegears measly 3 hours of battery life. This is not a game but a VR experience which for us arcade buffs which is an experience. Is it worth 25 buck for me person, yes it is but for the casual I'm not so sure, but who knows I give it a shot. 

Jack, is there anything you would love to see out of this project, yeah steam workshop support for starters. To help with arcade cabinet construction and maybe some new maps. Better netpay with emulation but that's more to do with libertro rather than newretroarcade. Finally a video guide but I know my good friend SimplyAustin is thinking of doing one sooner or later.

I would recommend this if you enjoy walking around arcade in a VR environment. Setting it up is a little tricky and finding the artwork is a bit of a challenge but I will help you as much as I can via SimplyAustins channel when I pass the helping hand to him. anyways remember when I said this wasn't my first rodeo into 3D environments. For that you can read the next part of this.

While emulation is the primary source of news here, there are times we need to see that retrogaming is very much alive and a social event, earlier tonight I went to the Secret Weapon in Stratford east London. OK the Secret Weapon is a gamer's pub, yes that's right, a gamer's pub. Which is a rare thing in east London but I hear there are 2. But this appeared about 2 days ago on my Facebook stream, I looked at it

https://www.facebook.com/events/1652471658404314/

So I went earlier tonight and I wasn't disappointed. It's a surprising change because I know my gaming event. First off the first thing I ever noticed, was an old Cocktail machine working (running an Icade board)

Granted it an old Galaxian machine but it was working with a working coin mech.

The pub in question is formerly the princess of wales in Stratford (a place where I grew up). it was shut down about year ago and about 9 months ago it was rechristened the "SECRET WEAPON " why I never knew until tonight. Gamers have started to take over the old pub scene and "SECRET WEAPON" is the second such pub I know (their first one is in Dalston which I will adventure to another time) but this was my first gaming meet. this little evdeavour was started by its' organizer about 6 weeks ago and cost me 5 quid to enter (included a free drink in my case it was a cider) 

I did a quick periscope of the show but I know it will only last a month

[video]https://www.periscope.tv/w/1ypKdoDPmgaxW[/video]

that was a quick tour of the place but I will be looking to attend more without the interference of family commitments (yeah like thats going to happen) but I've got a couple more pictures to show you. But my periscope was really first time I've ever done it properly for gaming related news. Other Photos include

 I may have been there for an hour but in that hour I saw a a different world in which my friends would happily go to. While the consoles are ranging from XBOX and PS2 and SNES it paints a good picture of my social life in East London.

Tell me what you think....

The mGalaxy front end has been updated to version 6 and this looks to be a pretty extensive update.  Looks like we have improved emulator support,  an attract mode, multiple monitor support and more.  Give this new version a try and let us know what you think in the comments.  Continue reading for a full list of features and fixes included in this release.

Incredible amount of new features into v6.0!!

• Automatic script handling.
  No more need to handle scripts installation! No more need to worry whether an emulator needs a script or not to work, mGalaxy will manage it by itself!
• RetroArch added to available systems.
• Command window hidden.
  The command window may now be hidden when the emulator is launched (for systems allowing it, like ‘Mame’ for instance)
• Uppercase and lower case rom file extensions are now allowed.
• Screensaver/Attract Mode.
• Theme switching (Premium).
  Set one (different) theme per system.
• Localization (French, German, Portuguese for now!).
• mGalaxy_Runway system creation setup revised.
  You now drag and drop the system you need (as many instances as you want) to build your system list (this would allow you, for instance, to create 3 different MAME systems!)
• Systems window: filtering on arcade/computer/console.
• mGalaxy_Runway: box/marquee images support (for themes allowing this functionality).
• Scroll speed setting.
  Let you define the scrolling speed of the list when direction keys are held.
• Pre-Launch settings.
  Allows you to launch another application/script/document before launching game (for instance, to auto load map to ‘Ultimarc Ultrastik 360’)
• Child lock (per key/button).
  When set, the key/button has to be held for 3 seconds to run.
• Compatible with every screen resolution (e.g. 640x480px).
• mGalaxy_Runway: database creator (with resume functionality).
• mGalaxy_Runway: database editor (Premium).
• mGalaxy_Runway: data/media export (database, favorites, roms, snaps, boxes, videos).
• Multiple monitor support.
• Command Help panel.
  Displays all the actions available and their corresponding key/button shortcut
• mGalaxy_Runway: Mame database creation updated

Spread the news !!
More info and download on http://www.mgalaxy.com

From http://gameex.com

Besides being a supposed massive retooling of the GameEx front-end, little has been made public about what to expect.

That all changed when last week when the team over at GameEx released a teaser video, giving us our first look at whats in store for us classic gaming junkies. The first thing that stands out is things look much crisper. Text and graphics seem to pop off of the screen. New views have been added, cover flow stands out as one I am excited to try, though its shown with screenshots and I want to get some box art in there. Touch screen support looks as if it will be great as well.

There are some hints at 3D modeling functionality and advanced scripting. One thing that is going to probably jump out at the end is the apparent support for themes and skins from other front-ends. Hyperspin and possibly Maximus Arcade (RIP). GameEx has always been one of the most feature rich front-ends available and enjoys a nice permanent home on my media center PC in the living room. This "Evolution" may be just that and hopefully I will be able to get my hands on a BETA build at some point and report further. In the meantime take two minutes to watch this official teaser.

source: http://www.gameex.com/News.aspx

And now ladies and gentlemen allow me to be the first to introduce you to HyperSync 3.5 series; you're one and only one stop shop for all the media to make your jaws drop! HyperSync 3.5 is the culmination of sixteen people working side by side, eleven months of work, a total of over 300 thousand lines of code, and a hell of a lot of beauty! You can download the consumer release now, and start using it right away! HyperSync consumer release is the first public release of HyperSync 3.5 to come out to the general public, HyperSync 3.5 will be metamorphed into version 4.0 by next months end with an expected three minor updates until that time. By using HyperSync 3.5 you understand that the application is still considered beta, albeit late beta (meaning it has undergone hundreds of hours beta testing and rewrites.)

Getting Started

• Download the official release
  
• Extract the ZIP file anywhere on your PC (do not extract RAW files to root HyperSpin directory)
  
• Double click the application icon to launch HyperSync
  
• Once HyperSync is opened click on folders and select your HyperSpin root directory, and your media folder (typically /media)
  
• Click on the account information tile under 'home' and enter in your HyperSpin and EmuMovies forum password (click login on both instances)
  
• Now get started linking your systems.
  

Linking Systems

• Click on the 'media configuration' tile located under home
  
• In just a few moments the configuration utility will load, to the left you will see a tile view of all of the systems on HyperBase
  
• Systems that you have already linked will be colored, otherwise they will be grey
  
• Click on a system tile and click 'Yes' when asked if you would like to setup that system
  
• After a moment all of the media options will be downloaded, you can preview these items by clicking preview as well
  
• Go through and setup all of your system media that you wish to synchronize
  
• Make sure SYNC SYSTEM is toggled ON, as well as SYSTEM INTROS if you wish to synchronize system intro videos
  
• Make sure that you have selected the system from the drop-down menu you want the system synced to, and click set
  
• Repeat all steps above for every system you wish to sync
  
• Click OK when finished
  

Running a Sync

• Click on the sync tab, select a system, select a media type, click sync & enjoy.
  

Words to the Wise

HyperSync undergoes a 'sanity check' every time you click sync whereby it checks every database for consistency, errors as well as missing databases. If a database is found to be missing HyperSync will automatically download the appropriate database (if found on HyperList.) If a database is damaged then HyperSync will notify you that the database is damaged and give you the chance to download said database, if you choose no that system will be excluded from the synchronization.

By using HyperSync it does not mean throwing caution to the wind, or not reading the instructions clearly. If you missuse HyperSync as with any media synchronization utility there is a chance for data corruption. So, please take your time, be patient and level-headed.

Notable Features

• Automatic updating
  
• Automatic error submission
  
• Automatic database updating
  
• Fully integrated into HyperList, EmuMovies and HyperBase
  
• Super fast post syncs (no more waiting for hours.)
  

Special Points

Any member level can now synchronize certain systems. For the special release of HyperSync 3.5 gold members can synchronize the following systems for the next 7 days:

• NEC TurboGrafx-16
  
• Atari 2600
  
• Atari Lynx
  

So, take advantage of this while it's still available. Every so often we will open up select systems to all member classes for free synchronization. Please note that this does not include EmuMovies.com content.

Final Words

As most of you know my time is stretched super thin between the 9 to 5 job I work and the sheer amount of projects that I have going on, if you have a minor issue with HyperSync please email me with your username to: ronharsh360@gmail.com so I can add you to the bug tracker. I typically only come on the forums about once every three days or so, so do not expect an immediate response. If you are a part of the bug tracker I usually answer questions within thirty minutes or so, as I am always on there.

I have had a lot of fun making this application, and I hope you enjoy using it.

HyperSync 3.5 Released @ HyperSpin Official Site