Whos handy with MAME and based in Dublin?

bombidol

Hey folks. I work in a bar and we have a spare big flatscreen. I'd love to set up an old PC running mame and some controllers so the staff and regulars can play some retro games. Every time I try and run ROMs on mame I get errors and im generally crap at that kind of thing. If I can provide the hardwear involved would anyone be interested in dropping in some evening and setting the system up for us? Theres a few pints in it for you! mail me on mahbrain@gmaildotcom
Thanks!

Gar

o1s1n

All that's wrong here is that your romset doesn't match your version of MAME.

To get it working you just need to download the most recent version of MAME and the most recent romset.

*snip* 'Google is your friend'

Good luck getting it working anyway. Sounds like a fun idea

Tallon

Where would one find this magical pub so I could 'test' your system?

Funkfield

Yeah, can you let us know when it's set up?

A bar? With Mame?

You, good sir, are a genius!

bombidol

Its the Thomas House on Thomas St.

purplec

hold a nerd meet and we could set it up very quickly if you supply the bev's

lol

Or alternatively get a cheap jamma cabinet and leave it on freeplay in a corner

eddhorse

Any progress on this yet?

LoGiE

Indeed, could be a good place for a meet up and a few games.

Tallon

LoGiE wrote: »

Indeed, could be a good place for a meet up and a few games.

This +10000

bombidol

hope to have it ready in a week or two. Scavaging parts from everywhere. Game pads ordered and 10 metre VGA cable found so far. Just need a small form factor PC but think I have a lead on one

Sparks43

Sounds good

Why not get some of the older consoles working on the bar tvs

A retro games evening with a pint of beer and pack of nuts count me in

Tallon

Are we all invited to the launch?

gflood

Pubs simply are not putting any effort into attracting customers into their premises. 5 years ago it was easy as people spent money they didn't have. But now its a different story. I travel to the States a lot and in every pub there are activities (snooker, darts, pinball, arcade cabs) that encourage punters to go in and stay and they also create a real atmosphere. A 'nerd' pub would be a really successful venture where people with same interests could go have beers and discuss their hobby.

I really hope you create such a place.

bombidol

Well this is one step towards something different dublin. As it stands, Thomas House is probably one of the best keep secrets in the city. I DJ there regularly as well as running events downstairs. The staff are all video game and comic book nerds and theres some hard drinkin' to be found in the place.
I have everything in place for the system now except for one crucial part. The PC. I need a small form factor PC that can sit on top of a DVD player and not be in the way.

gflood

Peats sell a small atom based PC (acer aspire) that will attach to the back of an LCD screen so it will be completely out of view and reach of the crazy punters. Check it out.

bombidol

Probably wouldnt last long to be honest. I need it behind the bar.

youcancallmeal

Some sort of shuttle or HTPC type form factor would be your best bet depending on how much room you have to work with? Seems to be hard to get them prebuilt these days though so you might be best off building one yourself or get someone to do it for you.

CiDeRmAn

Two X-Arcade controllers supporting 4 players at a time, a very robust setup.
A laptop behind the bar doing the grunt work, loaded with a nicely compatible version of MAME, don't have recent games on it or you will bring copyright issues down on yourself.
A cable to plug it into you pub audio system.
And thats it.
Set up the front end so the bartender selects the games, or set up a custom list of a handful that folk can play.
Then thats that.
As the pc is behind the bar you have control over credits etc, you don't have to map everything to the controllers.
But that would be really easy to set up.
The controls would be heavy enough not to walk out the door too.

gflood

Just Kensington lock it behind the TV (to the TV bracket) which I presume will be mounted.

jimi_t2

Yeah double x-arcade would be a reasonable choice, but if you just want to do a trial run you could chance using USB gamepads or similar HID controllers cheaply. If you're badly stuck I can give a hand setting up MAME when I'm in town some evening in the coming weeks.

bombidol

Have it all set up (minus the PC, using my laptop whenever im there). At the moment just using 2X USB game pads. If all goes well ill pick up some decent sticks. Ill let you all know on here when its rolling for the public.