Im thinking of building a games station for me games room, does anybody know where to get old games from? things like pac man, space invaders, donkey kong and so on. The only ones i can find are played online and i want to install them on a XP computer
Try Mame.
found it and it looks bloody confusing
ok, now this is something I can help with. You will need a front end, depending on the speed of your PC you may want to go for something like Mamewah or Mala. I personally use Mala on my stand up, full size arcade machine.
Now, Mame is a breeze to set up with Mala. You'll need ROMS (the games) so PM me for the best site on the planet for the ROMS for mame. Free to join etc.
It took me about 3 year to master a full set up and I'm talking about MAME, N64, SNES, NES....the list goes on, but as I say it took me 3 years to master it all. This includes the full re-wire of the Jamma loom etc, etc.
I am guessing you are going for a touchscreen machine? Perhaps an old arcade machine and re-work it all. If it's the latter you'll need a Jpac for the conversion from a button press from the old machine, through the JPAC to a keypress to a PC. It sounds complicated, but it's really not that difficult once you get your head around it.
Feel free to PM me and I can talk you through the whole lot, where to go, what to get and before you know it you'll have it all set up.
I'm an Admin at www.aussiearcade.com.au
Had arcade and mame cabs for years. My garage currently holds 3 upright cabs, 1 cocktail cab and a racing cab. All running mame and many other emulators.
All your info needs are here:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Main_Page
Brad
I built an arcade style machine and obtained most of the parts - buttons, joysticks, coin box etc from http://www.gremlinsolutions.co.uk/products/cabbuildno2.htm you will also need an Ipac interface to connect the buttons to your keyboard port. there are many emulators available and numerous games roms. I built my machine to emulate the snes . try looking here for other emulators and games http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1j3rHf/vimm.net/?p=vault/ they have a large selection available there are many websites where you can get plans and help to build a console
It'd be real easy to forget using a computer & just buy a 60 in 1 arcade classic PCB.
ive played with all the FE's that are easily found by popularity and i can tell you there is none better then hyperspin..of course this is just my opinion but it is by far the most attractive FE out there..jmo
also mame is your answer for games via pc..a good place to start is BYOAC.com..(you will not find roms here nor be allowed to ask for them)but he offers a book that will pretty much walk you through a build, if you were to choose to go that far, and have information to links and sites necesarry to start your adventure into mame..
and oh what an adventure you will have! haha....better take a week off work just to get the jist of it..but once you do you'll wish you found it sooner!! wahahaha good luck
Thanks to everyone who helped, ive got my game machine almost up and running now