Friday 18 January 2008

I love Open Source!

I'm a big open source fan. I use Ubuntu on every server, desktop and laptop I own. I don't dual boot with another operating system, such as Microsoft Windows or any of Apple OS's. I used to use Windows solely, and used to point, laugh, and make silly faces at people who used Linux, but I had an epiphany around summer 2006 when I was due to attend a conference on Open Source in Brussels, Belgium. I installed Ubuntu on my laptop that I took with me, and from that point on, I was hooked.

For this arcade machine, I'm going to need some software:

  • an operating system

    • some me it has to be Linux, preferably Ubuntu or some variant



  • some version of MAME (the application that runs the games)

    • on ubuntu/linux the application is called xmame



  • a GUI

    • it's not obvious when you first start looking into all this that the mame program does not have an interface to run the games from, it's a command line program that you need to type in order to run a game.

    • as such, this makes the idea of using a semi-authentic cabinet a bit tricky unless you're going to put a keyboard in it somewhere, or...

    • get a program to run "the program that runs the games" that you can operate from arcade controls




I have to use Linux - it's in my blood. Don't let this put you off if you're not used to using Linux - it's nowhere near as difficult to use as it used to be. Also, there is loads in this blog that might be useful to you without you looking at the software.
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

2 comments:

  1. retrogamer12 February 2008 at 09:30

    It seems like we mostly have had the same idea at the same time (you are a little ahead of me). I too use Ubuntu for the mame machine. Sofar i use Kxmame, but I am not sure if it will be in the final build. Have hacked the keyboard layouts, ordered the parts I need (only one player version in the start - costs money).

    ReplyDelete
  2. uowmag12 February 2008 at 09:39

    Indeed!

    I've put together a "pilot" OS in the form of a cut-down version of Xubuntu (better performance and boot time over Ubuntu) and stripped out pretty much everything - every app, every service I don't need (printing, logging, bluetooth, office apps, etc.) and left it pretty raw - just a working desktop with nothing much more than a terminal and a text editor.

    kxmame was one of the interfaces I looked at, and whilst it is a worthy application, it's not what I'm looking for. I have chosen to build my own interface (gMame - available at Sourceforge) as I found all of the others too bulky - I want something VERY streamlined - just a simple list that fires off a game when I push one of the buttons.

    There is obviously an arguement that Java isn't very streamlined or performance orientated language, but it's the language I know best (and not that very well) second to PHP.

    I just want something that works just as an Arcade Machine (no alternate operations in the background) boots in the fastest possible time, and doesn't need a keyboard or mouse other than initial configuration.

    Sorry - that started out as a reply and became more of a posting. Sorry.

    Hope you find more useful things later on - let me know if there's anything you'd like me to address either personally or through the blog.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)