Video Game Nestalgia

[Nick]

I know that Brad has set up a rather awesome computer-based gaming cabinet:
http://randomland.net/brad <- Blog posts about said cabinet.

Anyone else do any nostalgic gaming?
Recently some family members have been showing interest in reliving some old video game memories. I am going to try and set them up something to use on their big-screen. I was looking into MESS (emulates hundreds of old consoles and computers) for the emulator. We still have several dozen Atari and Sega games and no working hardware to run them. This would be a nice alternative to buying a used console and hoping it survives a while. 

Brad, what front-end are you using for MAME? I remember it being rather friendly to use, but I cant seem to find anything like it. 

[zourtney]

"Video Game Nesgalgia" <-- was that on purpose?

Google Search: nestalgia.

[Nick]

Haha! No, it wasn't. But I am going to leave it that way.

[Brad]

It is called MALA. Works for mame and other emulators too. Not to hard to set up and there a bunch of layouts available or you can make your own.

[Brad]

So I have been looking for some classicish pc games to put on my arcade machine. There are some "cabinet-friendly" games that I think would add some "spice" to my arcade game selection.

Some games I am considering:
Commander Keen (awesome shareware platformer)
Duke Nukem (2d shareware version)
Doom (plated with a keyboard anyway I don't think a joystick would be to bad)
Grand Theft Auto 1 & 2 (2d top down, released as freeware now)
Millenipede (freeware updated version of centipede/millipede)
Jazz Jackrabbit (another shareware platformer)

There are some issues with keyboard requirement issues mostly in saving and highscores. I have a few work around ideas.let me know if you can think of any other possibilities.

Also there is a fighting game engine which also people to create 90s era fighting games with a ton of characters from different games or other crazy things. I'll probably make another thread about it if I decide that it is cool enough for me.

[zourtney]

I like fighting games on the arcade system. It just seems like a good fit. I know you have a "few" already though. I think we need to do some more..."testing"

[Nick]

I have a number of controller options you can try out if interested. I have my USB gamepad and an adaptor for using the PS2 controllers on the computer. They might work well for the fighters. Also you can use a bluetooth adapter and govepie to have wii motes and wii classic controllers on the PC.