Home Arcade

[TheHermit]

It would be super cool if someone were to release a dedicated product with all the code stuff embedded. I imagine licencing for the games would be the most difficult aspect of bringing something like that for sale, as well as the demand would be pretty limited.

Open sourced asteroids laser projector build:



He also shares ILD file player code.

[buffo]

I imagine licensing for the games would be the most difficult aspect of bringing something like that for sale, as well as the demand would be pretty limited.

I know that Pangolin paid for a license so they could include laser Asteroids with their LD-2000 bundle back in the day. No idea how much it cost them, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap.

If you own a set of the original Atari rom chips out of an Asteroids arcade cabinet, that should give you the right to run the game in LaserMame (or any other emulator), but those might be hard to find these days.

There are lots of companies that sell "DIY Vintage Arcade Kits" on-line that consist of a cabinet, monitor, PC, and a panel with joysticks and buttons, along with all the software you need, but they don't supply the rom images for any of the supported games. The idea is that the end user is supposed to buy or license those, but of course, most people just buy the kit and then download pirated copies of the rom images and install them on the hardware that came with the kit.

Now that I think about it though - I've seen several vintage arcade machines in big box retail stores recently (Costco, Sam's Club, Best Buy, etc) that have a few dozen game titles included. Those have to be legitimate, licensed products (those retailers wouldn't take the chance otherwise), so maybe the licensing fee isn't so bad these days.?.

Then too, if you bought one of those cabinets from Costco, that should give you the right to run the rom image for those games on another emulator like LaserMame... So that might be another way around the copyright issue.

Adam

[bargainscoffee]

That is a fantastic use of the basement — three years of work really shows, and the glow wall idea is a great way to keep the room usable without spoiling the arcade feel. It also sounds ideal for friends and family, rather than a room that only gets used now and then.

For long evenings in a room like that, I would also think about ventilation, good seating for spectators, and keeping drinks well away from the machines. A small drinks corner away from the pinballs and wiring helps avoid spills, and a labelled power strip plus a spare set of fuses can save a lot of trouble if something trips mid-game. I stocked a similar corner at home after finding a useful supplier through this website, and it has made hosting much easier.

Thanks for sharing the photos — it looks like a room people will enjoy for years.