MAME – Play classic Arcade games, the one you used to feed coins with

     

Remember Pac Man, Mortal Kombat, Metal Slug, Galaga, Marvel vs Capcom, or House of The Dead 3? They were fun, but as the gaming technology advances forward, they put the dust on those classic arcade cabinet leaving them as ancient artifacts of the gaming history. So we rarely get to see these cabinets in public nowadays. I tried to find to find places that has arcades, but so far the only place I’ve heard is in Century Theaters, and they rarely have button mashing games; just only shooting games with a plastic gun, and racing games; no games for hard core fighters, or button mashers(They used to, but they have to meet the demands for the new wave of generation, and so on). Maybe because people these days don’t have any interests in fighting, or button-mashing games; or maybe the arcade owner knows that there is a way to play them for free, which their thought is that they won’t profit as much as shooting, physical(Like throwing a basketball), pinball or racing games; so they don’t take their chances. Well Anyway, in the future; the world will forget the classic arcade games, so I’ll tell you how you can play those games on your computer for free.

Play Doom for free – ZDoom

You remember the classic PC game, Doom? Want to play it? Want to play it with improved graphic? I’ll show you how, it’ll be easy and it’s free. You’ll need two things: Zdoom, and the Doom.wad. I’ll show you how to get Zdoom.
To get ZDoom

1. Click here
2. Download the latest version of Zdoom (as of now 2.2.0)
3. After you download it, extract it anywhere where you are sure to play and not move the folder(after placing the wad)

Ok, now you’ll need to get the .wad. You can get it by purchasing a copy of any doom PC game, extracting through DOS, and finding the .wad file. Or, get it for free.

New FCEUltra isn’t that great

I just checked out those NES emulator, and the new versions wasn’t great as the old one. The new version is good if you want to play famicon disk roms. So if you are going to play NES games, don’t use the new one. Luckily; I still have the old version, and I’ve uploaded it. Click here to download it. I hope the next new version can improve. Enjoy!

10-18-09 Update! Megaupload is better.

Newgrounds

Newgrounds, the flash portal, long ago known for flash movies and games through the format of, .swf(shock wave flash). Newgrounds let user review a game, music, post, or movie. Some reviews can be helpful and some/most are ridiculous, mean, and unnecessary. Anyway, the reason why I show you Newgrounds is because they have some good games to play with you gamepad and joy2key, that if the mouse isn’t heavily relied. StarFire is a great game. In the past, Newgrounds undergo some chaos, but now, I don’t know whether it’s minimized or strengthen(I haven’t been there in a long time). So don’t get mad when seeing a flash movie you don’t like, or wasted time. Some bad flash(Turd Of The Week) are really funny, and the user are still yet mad out of nothing. You can learn a thing or two in Newgrounds I think. It’s a community so yeah, you’ll meet different people.

If you’ve found a game that you like on Newgrounds, there is a way you can save it on your hard drive, and play it with a bigger size on your monitor. If you use Fire Fox:

1. go to the page of your favorite game/movie
2. click play this game/movie or pop-up (if you have flashblock click the flash circle to let it run(if you don’t have flashblock, then move on)
3. right click anywhere on the page(except the flash portion, which is the game/movie, which will say “play” or “About adobe flash player”)
4. click on “Go to page info” or press “I”
5. go to Media
6. find a file that ends with “.swf” or if it’s found in the Embed type tag
7. and click save as…
8. hit enter
9. wait for the download to complete
10. you’ve download the flash, now, open a new window for firefox(ctrl and N or T)
11. don’t maximize it yet, drag and drop the .swf file into the empty space of the new window you just opened

And there you go! You can play it on a big window, now press maximize and have fun.

Ok, I just went to Newgrounds and saw some review. There are all still idiots in elementary school. Don’t bother saving them, they are doomed, save yourself. Other than user, it’s still great. If you find an abusive review go here, flag them, do it a lot, and you’ll get some ng prestige. TOTW have a lot of abusive reviews.

Play ANY game/movie on your computer with a gamepad

You’ve found a game online that you liked or you enjoyed. You want to sit back and play it like you’re playing a game console, not in front of a monitor which could ruin your eyesight; and a keyboard, with your hand sitting on the table. Well, that’s just me. Some games don’t have joystick configuration, and some(like .swf, flash games) games don’t have. Well now, I’ll show how you can turn your joystick input into keyboard input, better known as…

Joy2key

• This program is free.
• Read if you want.

1. Scroll all the way down.
2. Download the application.
3. Extract the folder out, anywhere is fine.
4. Open the folder.
5. Run Joy2key (Make sure you’ve got a gamepad plugged in).

Make sure you know your button’s number, if not, go to control panel and search for gamepad/hardware.

Before you go on, click in the Others tab, and check the Use POV switch option. If you have more than one analog stick, check the Use Axes other than X and Y.

If you don’t know the axis, fill each and every button command with a unique key on your keyboard. Open up note pad, and press every button until you know what button dose what, and then go back and find the character used for the button input.

Once you finish setting things up, press the minimize for it to hide in the tray at the lower right, and you can do whatever you want with your gamepad.

By now, you should now that this application can do more than gaming: watching movies, presenting slide show, operating your computer, and much more use of it. Open up your movie player and find out its key shortcut, configure it with joy2key with your gamepad, and you get a wired-remote; which is like watching a DVD with the PlayStation 2. If you get a wireless gamepad(like this one), you could use it like a remote controller with joy2key (which in my experience, is awesome). Joy2key is not limited to keyboard input, you can also to right or left click, drag your cursor(especially with the axes), adjust auto-firing, use more than one gamepad, or switch its input configuration files(that means you can have more sets of inputs. I never tried it, but it could confuse you while switching, unless you know what configurations you are switching to).

To save the configuration, press the close button(not alt+f4), and re-open the program.

 

Joy2Key is great, but this program will not work with most Mass Multiplayer Online games(unless you get a bypass code for the MMO, and you know computer programming, it’s possible but will fall under [Black Hat/Tip Hacking] to the game administrator, but to me, it isn’t fair because I don’t want to play an MMORPG which has a lot of foot work with a keyboard. But with the mouse stroke ability which can be adjusted to movie any pixel without the axis, I can understand, but still it sucks.) MMOs such as, MapleStory(I don’t like this game), GunBound, Soldier Strike, and games that runs an anti-hacking program, which are included in the games I’ve mention. Maybe it would be best if you made a gamepad that uses it keyboard inputs instead of joystick input. Oh well, you can’t play most online games(unless it’s .swf/flash).

Imagine this, Outside, It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s cloudy, and it’s sprinkling/raining. Your monitor facing toward you, you snuggle up in your warm soft bed, you hold your wireless gamepad with joy2key on, you carry a 1 Liter bottle of your favorite drink, your head rest on a big soft pillow, and you play
your favorite games/emulator/.swf until your eyelids are weighing down. You shut down the computer, you go to sleep, the alarm wakes you up, and you go to work/school. Pretty neat stuff, I’ve had that experience, but the angle of my head to see the screen bended my throat, I would have to do my homework first, and I’ve lost my glasses, which I can’t do this stuff anymore!

Comment here if you have any question. Well, have fun with joy2key, next post, I’ll tell you about a website called Newgrounds.com where you can play their games for free. With joy2key it will be fun.

Gamepad Review

Gamepad review:
Here are some of the gamepads I’ve used when playing games.

Gravis Gamepad Pro

Nice gamepad, it’s comfortable, it has a detachable joystick for the dpad, 10 buttons and 1 directional pad, it looks like a PlayStation controller without the two analog stick, it’s my first gamepad I bought, and I don’t know anything good to say. If you keep on pressing the button, in a week or less, it’s going to start making loud noise that can get annoying during gameplay. And if you press it hard, it’s going to stick for a second unless you turn it upside down, or give the gamepad a hard tap. Sometimes when it does, it’s doesn’t hold the input, and when that happens, to press that button you just have to touch the button being hold, which it’s pretty cool for me, but that touching could pop up the button, which can get annoying when you’re going to punch that button again. The dpad are really sensitive, because whenever you hold up, you could end up going up-right or up-left so easily. I ended up rocking left and right to balance my movement in the game. The company who makes them gives you a warranty incase something wrong happens, but you can’t open the the gamepad. A small screw driver will unlock the gamepad it self. There were these white-clear plastic thing with a black circle that are sandwiched between the circuit board and the button. Because they were being used alot, they were the problem. So I switched it with the start button because I know I wouldn’t tap that button alot. But weeks later (depending on how much time I’ve played the emulators) another button was making noise, and so I switched it with the select button. Then, weeks later it happened again, and I can’t switch with either 4 shoulder buttons because they different, so I’m stuck with that button. And then days after that it started to stick when I press the button hard. I didn’t like this gamepad, so I bought another type of gamepad, but I broke it, so this is my only gamepad as of now. I only use it for the left side of the controller which consist, the Dpad, the 2 shoulder button, and the select button. It felt like I’m using the Wii nunchuck with my left hand. It was fun using it that way to play Doom games, whereas my right hand uses the mouse for shooting, using, switching weapon(you have to get use to it) and looking left and right. I wouldn’t use this gamepad, the button sticking and making noise are annoying to ruin the gameplay. The cord is made out of lead, so be careful with it. I don’t know what would you do, but I wash my hands before and after the use of the gamepad.

Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 with Vibration Feedback

This gamepad is awesome, the dpad accuracy is great, but it makes noise which is annoying, I suggest you get, but do not drop it on the floor alot of time. Mine’s just lost its left stick calibration by sticking down. So I break it because I can and I regret it. Wireless a excellent, there’s a way you can watch movies from a distance with one of those.

Hori fighting stick ex2

This arcade stick is awesome for playing arcade or fighting games. I’ve been using it for 4 months, and the stick is starting to get a little less tight. If you check out this blog you can mod it to your liking. There is a way you can hook it up to your pc! I tell you one day. I play it with street fighter 2 hyper fighter, on the SNES, and I had fun with it. If you’re going to play it then I’ll tell you how to configurate the arcade stick with street fighter one day. I bought the stick for $59.99 and I found it worthy.
In time, the stick will get loose, and lose it’s tight. To fix this, I found this post that mods the fighting stick. You can find another mod that customize the buttons color by going to the Champion Edition blog.

Logitech Rumblepad 2 Vibration Feedback Gamepad or Logitech Dual Action Game Pad USB

It’s ok, but I didn’t like. I don’t know much about, I forgot about it 3.5 years ago. But it broke.

Well that’s all the gamepads I’ve tried. Here are some gamepads worth checking out:
Genius MaxFire Pandora Pro
Logitech Precision plug and play gamepad
Logitech ChillStream gamepad for pc
Microsoft Xbox360 wireless control

ROM Sites I trust

RomUlation Great rom, fast, but limited download for PSX games(Point system)
The old computer Great rom site, has DOS and C64 games, free
EmuAsylum Great rom site, has a limit download per day
CoolROM good rom site, free
EmuVortex great for gba I guess
ROM-World good rom site, free
emuparadise Enter with Pop-up blocker!, free, variety of roms
Rom Hustler Good choice, but some ROMS are removed, enter with pop up blocker, free

Just don’t click anything the will direct you to top50, it’s a malware. I got this from Fald, and mattiator from SiteAdvisor.com

I always had a fear of clicking the links in Google’s “roms” search. Because I knew that this emulator was good that a lot of people would download roms. And there’s any opportunity to send virus.

That SiteAdvisor add-on for Fire fox will be useful.

Play games from Atari2600, NES, SNES, GameBoy DS, PlayStation and more!

Here is the definition for Emulate:
Strive to equal or match, especially by imitating; “He is emulating the skating skills of his older sister”(credit goes to Google dictionary.)

Before we go further into that part you should know this:
-Emulator is to Video game console(SNES, Gameboy, sega genesis, ds, etc), while ROMS is to video game cartridge/cd.
-Because you’re doing this stuff for free, you have to be careful with the law. Only download roms if you’ve own the original game for the emulator you are playing (for the PlayStation emulator, you’ll need the PlayStation System). So do this at your own will. It’s legal to download the rom that you don’t own, but you must delete within 24 hours. But this stuff is like napster or limewire, nothing will happen, but do keep in mind that you can get in trouble in with the law. (credit goes to Rocafella from ud)

Emulators

This is where you can download emulators. On the left of the page, click any video game brand. Then you’ll be given a list of emulators to download, the top one are the best. Click on it, and download the emulator. There is no installation require, just extract the download with winrar or the kind that your pc has, and you’re done. I suggest you create a folder for it to get organized. Now, let’s talk about roms.

Roms

If you search “roms” or roms on google, chances are that some of the websites may give you malware or trojans. That’s why you should use firefox and the SiteAdvisor Add-on. You could search for roms right now, but I’ll make it easier on you by providing the rom site that I use.
RomUlation(sign up required, but still great for downloading non ps roms)
EmuAsylum
ROM Hustler
So, after you download your favorite roms, put them in a folder were you’ll keep them (nes rom, snes rom, atari rom), but that’s just my suggestion. Ok, first open the emulator, configurate the game input from your keyboard (You can also use a gamepad, I’ll suggest some one day) and you’re ready to have fun!
I’ll update more rom site here, or I’ll make a new post out of it.

If you dowloaded a .rar that has roms, don’t extract it all, just double click the .rar file. WinRAR will be open,  and you can choose which rom to extract, instead of extracing them all, and not using the rest. Some roms have codes on it. I don’t know all of it, but I did ask peope from RomUlation forum about it. They don’t know much of it, but they say that files that has “[!]” on it’s name is a rom you should use. If the rom has “[b1]” or anything with “b”, it means bad dump, and that’s not the rom to choose.

If you’re going to play Playstation games, it’s best if you get a flash drive or something for VRAM (virtual ram). The better your computer, the smoother the computer will play it.
And if you want to play Super Mario Bros (1) then download “super mario bros./duck hunt” rom instead, because smb1 doesn’t work, why? Well the faq included in the FCEultra.zip states what’s wrong with it. I just checked out, they updated it, and called it FCEUX. I didn’t notice and I’ll try it out.
If you ever need help in a game, go to GameFaqs.

Ok, have fun and relive the past while you can!