Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – The Guru’s Rom Dump News.

The Guru’s Rom Dump News new web site is here.

The Guru’s new Blog is here.

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Is there space for a more informative and trendy arcade magazine title?

I believe that is an opening for a well researched and written magazine about arcade games and emulation that brings all the elements of the scene together.

Mostly online journalists, bloggers and writers of material about retro games write about games they enjoy themselves.

Arcade game bloggers and journalists either do not know where to access the most interesting material, or choose not to as the information on arcade websites can be difficult to comprehend.

Retro arcade games are prominent in todays mainstream culture but this is ignored by most online arcade titles.

Fashion labels regularly feature arcade games on geek T-shirts, clothing and fashion accessories. Pacman the pill muncher has become a symbol of the techno rave scene counterculture.

Original Arcade manufacturers such as Capcom Namco, Sega and Taito, have released back catalogue games as apps for the Apple  i Phone and i Pad and other platforms.

Taito is releasing an iCADE style Space Invader arcade cabinet for the i Pad. Online magazines do not review the latest hardware.

Full size arcade machines featured on the new Two and a half men TV show.

The popular movie King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters featured competetive arcade gaming in 2007.

Most Australian sites completely missed the Insert Coin(s) night.

Games have been part of popular music since Mi-Sex released Computer Games, yet this music does not feature in online gaming sites. Hexstatic documented the evolution of early arcade games in three of their music clips beginning with Extra Life. Everything But The Girl used samples from Namco’s Xevious in their single Future Of The Future. Images from Pacman featured when pop princess Kylie Minogue launched her single Better Than Today.

There is enough interest in retro gaming for a comprehensive online magazine written for discerning arcade enthusiasts.

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Arcade Games in Online Magazines.

Most online content about retro gaming aims to inform players about the games that are available. These articles contain historical information on the game, with photos and information on the game play.

Online blogs on retro arcade games often have arcade game themed pages with layouts that include enlarged images of characters, ships or game bosses along the page borders.

Digital images are used to identify arcade games in online posts, including photographs of game dedicated arcade machines with any accompanying artwork – marquees, bezels, title and game play screen shots and peculiar control panel layouts.

Discussions of arcade games often focus on the genre of the game, eg fighting, shmups, puzzle, The type of game play is important to enthusiasts of these specific styles of game.

Some bloggers identify particular cheats or programming flaws in the game play that the players can exploit.

Some sites follow the history of arcade game development discussing popular and innovative games have influenced the design of game play dynamics and sound of later arcade games. These sites often include information on game manufacturers and the significant historic game titles they have published.

Arcade machine collector sites discuss the rarity of original game hardware, buy and sell facilities; prices and sales reports.

Academic articles on the game emulation community talk about the effect of arcade games in the community; hacking code; copyright issues; the preservation of virtual worlds and the role of the gaming community in emulating and preserving arcade game culture.

The are specific emulation enthusiast sites with updated information on the  preservation progress  of arcade games, artwork  and arcade control panel hardware.

Arcade gamers monitor online classifieds and auction sites which have sections dedicated to arcade machines for games and spare parts.

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Arcade gaming and emulation research on those whom are involved.

The Australian Office of Film and Literature produced the paper Computer Games and Australians Today in 1999. It found that players in gaming arcades experienced satisfaction when playing games, and showed little or no aggression toward others. Players reported that the allure of arcade games was the challenge they presented.

The  University of California – Irvine academic Will Jordan in his paper From Rule-Breaking to Rom Hacking: Theorizing the Computer Game-as-Commodity argued gamers forming part of ROM-hacking communities were shifting the paradigm of computer games away from the structures of protected intellectual property.

Academics from the University of Maryland  included a survey with the International Game Developers Associations (IDGA) White Paper which was made available to the 2009 Game Developers Conference.

Ms Donahue from University of Maryland kindly emailed me an article (Donahue & Kraus)  presenting the survey findings which has been accepted for publishing by Digital Humanities Quarterly. 

The Maryland research showed gaming companies had no standards for preserving games. The survey revealed only 90% of game developers kept game binaries and source codes, while 83% saved the design tools and documentation used during game creation.  One developer told researchers ‘once the game platform was gone, so is the software.’

The Maryland academics found bit rot, media decay and hardware obsolescence presented issues in preserving decade old games. Their research showed that as gaming companies deserted redundant games and platforms, player communities were actively digitally archiving and preserving the games, sourcing material from the third of game enthusiasts which collected original game ephemera.

These academics credited preservation undertaken by gaming communities with providing a ‘skeleton key for unlocking the complexities of digital conservation.’

Reference

Kraus, Kari and Rachel Donahue. ““Do You Want toSave Your Progress?”: The Role of Professional and Player Communities in Preserving Virtual Worlds.” Forthcoming. Digital Humanities Quarterly. <http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/>

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Insert Coin(s) at Oxford Art Factory as online news

During the past decade home computing technology has improved and game producers have targeted game development to this emerging multi-million dollar market.

Ten years ago it was different, the gaming arcades had more expensive, higher powered cutting edge gaming computers, and game producers designed titles for them.

Gamers would make pilgrimages to the amusement arcades for a day of hardcore gaming, and spending their spare cash.

When Segaworld in Sydney closed it’s doors in 2003 it signalled the end of era for large amusement parlours in Sydney, and the shift to personal computers for gaming.

During August 2011 a Sydney trendy nightclub the Oxford Art Factory advertised  the Insert Coin(s) party with a theme inspired by amusement arcades, with a cover charge of just ten dollars with free arcade games all night.

On the 18th of August Stephanie Bendixsen asked the public “Do you like games? Music? Drinking? Perhaps all at the same time?” on her Google + account. She linked this to a moshtix ad.

On 6 September 2011 Tracey Lien’s article appeared in Kotaku magazine inviting their readers to the Insert Coin(s) party was on at Oxford Arts Factory the following day.

On September 8 2011 the Oxford Art Factory uploaded a Twitpic from Insert Coin(s) their @the_OAF twitter account.

Leigh Harris wrote a column about Insert Coin(s) which appeared in the MCV Computer Market & Video Games Magazine (UK) online magazine on Friday 9 September.

On the 10 September Anchorman Mazda blogged about  his visit to the retro Insert Coin(s) party.

The Australian online magazine Gameplayer ran a story about the Insert Coin(s) party on September 13, 2011.

Shane a photographer from Sydney who works for Moshtix uploaded photos that he took of Insert Coin(s) on his tumblr account on September 13, 2011.

On Sept 14, 2011 Aaron Hobbs uploaded edited video footage on Vimeo of the Insert Coin(s) party.

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Who are the key online sources of information?

There are a range of retro arcade gaming sites online:

The  MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator)  Development Team has an RSS feed.

Individual MAME developers are known as MAME Devs or Devs. Their Work In Progress (WIP) pages are accessible here.

Arbee’s (R. Belmont) posts updates of MAME source code. R. Belmont  comments on MAME World’s forums.

MAME World has RSS feeds for MAME News and MAME Chat forums.

The coordinator of the MAME project Kale’s (Angelo Salese) WIP has an RSS feed.

Arcade gamers can contribute undumped games into MAME via The Guru’s Rom Dump News in West Australia.

The Arcade At Home website is home to former coordinator of the MAME Development team Aaron Giles.

MAWS has searchable information on games within MAME.

The Video Arcade Preservation Society (VAPS) feature rare arcade machines.

System 16 is the online museum of arcade motherboards.

Invasive attacks on arcade motherboard protection chips are documented on Dr Decapitator’s WIP page and RSS feeds.

The  International Game Developers Association (IGDA)  Preservation Special Interest Group (SIG) produce academic literature on retro gaming.

Twin Galaxies update validated arcade game high scores on twitter.

Jeff Rothe has several free arcade Word Press themes.  Jeff’s blog has RSS feeds and twitter.

Mamezac is an arcade gaming blog.

UK Magazine Retro Gamer has a blog and RSS feed.

The Australian arcade forum is Aussie Arcade.

The Retro Gaming Australia blog has twitter and RSS feeds.

Australian online gaming magazine Kotaku has an RSS feed and twitter.

Gameplayer is an Australian online magazine with broken links to RSS and twitter.

Retrospekt is an Australian online gaming magazine.

Sydney nightclub Oxford Art Factory has a facebook page for its video arcade themed night Insert Coins(s).

Stephanie Bendixsen, host of ABC TV’s Good Game has twitter and public facebook and Google+ accounts.

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Preservation Special Interest Group (SIG)

There isn’t a particular online scholar or journalist that writes about retro games.  The Preservation Special Interest Group (SIG) offers retro gamers leading edge analysis and information. The group is a member of the  International Game Developers Association (IGDA). and part of the Preserving Virtual Worlds Project for the U.S Library of Congress.

On their site retro gamers can find information on:

– The design of games.
– Games as a legitimate form of art.
– The role of games in culture.
– Games as a source of fun.
– Ownership of games.  Consumers, producers and distributors.

The SIG issued Before It’s Too Late: A Digital Game Preservation White Paper at the 2009  Game Developers Conference. In the form of a government white paper is was designed to stimulate ideas and comments about the future of retro games, and set out the reasons why old electronic games should be preserved.

One concern raised is intellectual property rights of game developers. These rights could present legal problems for those who emulate and archive the written code in retro games.

The White Paper argues that despite copyright of retro electronic games being held by game developers and publishers, the games industry should support efforts by the emulation community because:

– Magnetic or floppy disks have a limited life.
– CD or optical disks suffer from abrasion and chemical deterioration.
– Read-only memory (ROM) cartridges require preservation because suicide batteries delete back-up memory.
– Programmable ROM cartridges lose data from leaking charged electrons.
– Migration of obsolete components and software through emulation.
– Legal support requirement for those in the game industry; museums, academic institutions, archivists and developers to save old games during this migration.
– Tracking copyright – ownership of games.
– Issues for archivists in preserving recent games include encryption keys, installation licences, and virtual worlds stored on servers used in Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs).

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – Best Australian arcade blogs, web pages and online magazines to follow.

Online coverage of retro gaming in Australia is covered in various ways. There are individual blogs, facebook pages, forums, classifieds, websites for operators, resellers and manufacturers, and online magazines partially covering the retro gaming scene. Online sites such as eBay and Quicksales that have arcade machines and parts for sale.

For arcade  enthusiasts, collectors and operators of amusement machines Aussie Arcade is a the Australian forum dedicated to various types of amusement machines.  The site is divided into forums catering for the specialist interests of individual members. There is a classified section with advertisements from members and online traders.

Aussie Arcade has sections with advice on building and repairing vintage arcade machines. The forum has sections with advice on setting an emulator up on a home computer,

For people interested in MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) emulation news, The Guru’s Rom Dump News (https://gurudumps.otenko.com/)is the blog of one of the global MAME Development team. The West Australian is known globally for his expertise with arcade motherboards and hardware.  The Guru uses this blog as a diary to record his progress in extracting information from arcade hardware, and to request rare and undumped arcade games and protection devices from other arcade enthusiasts.

The Guru’s site has interesting information about his specific area of interest. The Guru asks visitors for donations to assist with the purchase of arcade games and dumping equipment.

The Guru’s site has had more than 830,000 visitors.

For retro gamers Kotaku The Gamer’s Guide is a an Australian online gaming magazine with a retro gaming section. Kotaku occasionally has some Australian arcade stories but mostly links to international media releases of old console games. Kotaku is on twitter, facebook and is available as an RSS feed.

Retro Arcade Gaming and Emulation (RAGE) Magazine – What is retro arcade gaming and emulation?

Retro gamers either play games on original game hardware or run emulators on their personal computers, consoles and portable devices with original game roms downloaded from internet sites.

The world of retro arcade gaming is expanding. Younger people have become fans of retro arcade gaming from exposure to the MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) project.

MAME software is free and the emulator has been ported to most modern gaming devices. MAME can even be launched from within the Google Chrome web browser.

A global arcade gaming community of enthusiasts that contribute to the MAME project. This project aims to document the history of arcade games and preserve arcade gaming for future generations.  The MAME development team emulates old arcade hardware into software that can be run on modern computers and electronic devices.

My collection consists of two Hankin Deluxe cocktail arcade machines, an aftermarket joystick and a mod-chipped X box running MAME OX and many arcade motherboards.

At first I collected original hardware from the golden era of arcades (1980’s) to play at home. Later I bought rare games and contributed them to the MAME project, sending them to ‘The Guru’, a member of the MAME team who resides in West Australia. The ‘Guru’ dumps the game board roms, and these roms are emulated into the MAME program by coders from the MAME development team. These roms are then made freely available to the public.

New products are being launched by the major gaming houses such as Capcom, Namco, Sega and Taito  as interest in the genre increases. Consumers can buy specialised gaming accessories online from companies such as Xgaming, Ion Audio and Atari to enhance their retro gaming experience.

Reproduction arcade machines complete with icade 60 game arcade boards are available in Australia for the X Gen home games room.