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Mini Arcade Alert!


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22 minutes ago, Bill Loguidice said:

This is the response I got back:

I sent a reply back clarifying my query because I think they *may* have misunderstood when I asked them about the mirrored display.

Good news, I already got the reply back and it is mirrored on the Numskull. I assumed at the time it was based on the photos (which is why I pre-ordered), but it's certainly good to check:

 

Quote

Hello,

 

Yes, it has the exact same screen mirroring as the original arcade. Everything is exactly the same except for the size.

 

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24 minutes ago, ComputerSpaceFan said:

Out of curiosity, do you think if they tried to make Asteroids Deluxe this way the game would be viewable? I'm thinking more complex / detailed games just aren't going to be possible to see clearly with this design.

I guess so.. but my thought is it might not be all that great. 'Course, these are vector games you're talking about, so it's obviously a different animal as far as the display goes. The tiny screen could really make the emulated vector graphics small and thin so they'd probably have to jack up the line width or something.  But even with that I don't really think a game like Asteroids or Asteroids Deluxe would look very well emulated on such a tiny screen because you'd probably barely be able to see the ship's shots which are a single vector dot. They're tiny even when emulated in Mame (The original arcade game of course relied on vector monitor to give the shots a bright physical glow), so unless something could be done about that.. it might be hard to get right.

 

Even in the minimized screenshot below.. the shots on the left (emulated in Mame) are hard to see. The bright shots of the actual arcade game on the right, are a big part of the game's look in my opinion.

asteroids.thumb.jpg.eac6c1fa97c3b9265484147917a64b97.jpg

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30 minutes ago, NE146 said:

Even in the minimized screenshot below.. the shots on the left (emulated in Mame) are hard to see. The bright shots of the actual arcade game on the right, are a big part of the game's look in my opinion.

asteroids.thumb.jpg.eac6c1fa97c3b9265484147917a64b97.jpg

Hmm, I think the photo on the right is really an exaggeration (due to the lens/shutter speed of the camera) of what you actually see with your eyes when you're playing the real machine. But yeah, I think they will have to add some post-processing to provide a little glow around the vector lines to make the shots more easily visible. Also, using the mirror display setup I think will help with visibility since there will be a clear separation from the gameplay elements and the background.

I think the bottom line with these miniature consoles is, yes, they are playable - no, they're not ideal or ergonomically as comfortable as the full-size machines or even 3/4 size machines. But they are striking a balance between acceptable, casual playability and totally awesome miniaturization. The only one I have played a lot is the Replicade Centipede, and I have to jovially disagree with Negative 1, I think the trackball (trackmarble?) is surprisingly accurate. But then Negative 1's a scoreler who is accustomed to hours-long sessions that can break the game code or roll over the high score back to zero, and I am decidedly more like, "Oh wow, I broke 20,000!" But I feel that's down to my own lack of skill/ambition and I'm not really running into a wall of discomfort or feeling frustrated by the controls being inaccurate.

Edited by Zoyous
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13 minutes ago, Zoyous said:

Hmm, I think the photo on the right is really an exaggeration (due to the lens/shutter speed of the camera)

That's just a screenshot I took in a quick 10 second search  off of youtube for an example but even at that, it's very much not an exaggeration. :)  

 

I'm not sure when was the last time you were in front of a working Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe arcade cabinet, but short of that.. the best we can do on the internet is videos.. Here's another totally unrelated AD video. Same thing 4m26 seconds in. Every other video of Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe show the same thing. It's how Asteroids is.. bright glowy shots ?

 

Quote

But yeah, I think they will have to add some post-processing to provide a little glow around the vector lines to make the shots more easily visible. 

Yeah I think so for sure. If it's worth anything there is an emulator out there "AAE" which does in fact try to compensate the graphics around the shots. I believe they put an artificial halo around it along with artificial artifact trails among other things.. it aint half bad to be honest. 

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On 8/11/2020 at 11:16 AM, Zoyous said:

Hmm, I think the photo on the right is really an exaggeration (due to the lens/shutter speed of the camera) of what you actually see with your eyes when you're playing the real machine. But yeah, I think they will have to add some post-processing to provide a little glow around the vector lines to make the shots more easily visible. Also, using the mirror display setup I think will help with visibility since there will be a clear separation from the gameplay elements and the background.

I think the bottom line with these miniature consoles is, yes, they are playable - no, they're not ideal or ergonomically as comfortable as the full-size machines or even 3/4 size machines. But they are striking a balance between acceptable, casual playability and totally awesome miniaturization. The only one I have played a lot is the Replicade Centipede, and I have to jovially disagree with Negative 1, I think the trackball (trackmarble?) is surprisingly accurate. But then Negative 1's a scoreler who is accustomed to hours-long sessions that can break the game code or roll over the high score back to zero, and I am decidedly more like, "Oh wow, I broke 20,000!" But I feel that's down to my own lack of skill/ambition and I'm not really running into a wall of discomfort or feeling frustrated by the controls being inaccurate.

On the Vectrex, the homebrew Asteroids does have the large glowing shots.  Definitely not an exaggeration on a real vector monitor.  Unfortunately, I think it might not look great on the small screen. The graphics on the Arcade1up Asteroids look pretty bad and on my Legends Ultimate they look even worse.  The only way they look decent is if you emulate with AdvanceMame, and even then, it's not the same without the real vector glow.

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On 8/1/2020 at 6:06 PM, BitMerge6502 said:

 

81Vvs-nykXL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

Warning about Oregon Trail Micro Arcade:

I've encountered some bugs in the game that make the game unplayable. When I say "unplayable" I don't mean "unenjoyable", there are some severe problems with the software that make the game unwinnable. I sent a message to Super Impulse about the issue on their FB page. They said that the dev team would reach out to me. So far, they have not. This is a serious consumer quality issue to me because the unit is basically useless. Here is a copy of my original message to them:

 

"I just received my Oregon Trail Micro Arcade from Amazon. I discovered this version of the game has several severe bugs in the software. The first bug occurs when you are hunting for food. No matter what you shoot (or nothing at all) you still get 900lbs of food. The second error is more critical, and makes the game impossible to get to Oregon. I haven't yet completely figured out how it works, but It has something to do with "stopping to rest". When you stop to rest, the calendar date will relfect that time has passed, and your food supply will decrease while resting, but doing so does not improve your health. This results in your party dying before you can reach the halfway point of the game. No mater what other choices you make during gameplay, you will apparently starve and die of very poor health, and no other way to heal. It seems as though your food counter decreases, however you are not actually consuming the food".

 

- After playing the game more, I am fairly well convinced that as each "day" passes in the game, food is not being consumed and counted to your overall health status. From the time you start the game, your health steadily decreases rapidly no matter what choices you make. So this isn't a variance on the game difficulty, it is simply some variable/flag in the software that isn't being passed properly. The same with the hunting problem.

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Wow I knew that Tetris was coming, didn't know it was out yet though.  That's shockingly well done, original music, high score even on battery removal still retained, and the classic moves/modes of the old Gameboy release too.  The only annoyance is the tiresome beep every space the blocks make as they fall to the bottom when pushed (ugh!)  I must have that.  I don't even buy these things anymore, made the exception for Spy Hunter and this I would too.

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12 hours ago, negative1 said:

replicade dragons lair, i like the mini laserdisc player:

I backed this on Kickstarter, so I'm looking forward to receiving it (relatively) soon! It's got video out and a USB controller port so it can be played more comfortably, too.

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1 hour ago, Zoyous said:

I backed this on Kickstarter, so I'm looking forward to receiving it (relatively) soon! It's got video out and a USB controller port so it can be played more comfortably, too.

doesn't that defeat the purpose of the machine.

 

i still think they're not meant for people to play on.

 

later

-1

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1 hour ago, negative1 said:

doesn't that defeat the purpose of the machine.

 

i still think they're not meant for people to play on.

 

later

-1

No, the purpose is to play Dragon's Lair. They're just providing more ways of doing it. Dragon's Lair is purely a test of memorization and timing, not dexterity, so it should be beatable even using the miniature controls. Bonus: I can plug it into my MAME cabinet and use full-size controls and screen, too. Admit this is cool! ?

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59 minutes ago, Zoyous said:

No, the purpose is to play Dragon's Lair. They're just providing more ways of doing it. Dragon's Lair is purely a test of memorization and timing, not dexterity, so it should be beatable even using the miniature controls. Bonus: I can plug it into my MAME cabinet and use full-size controls and screen, too. Admit this is cool! ?

dragons lair is available on plenty of other consoles and pcs, so why would i want a minuature version that is hindered by

tiny controls. if you're going to play it on a tv, with another controller, there's already plenty of ways to do that, without

spending that much money.

 

later

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2 hours ago, negative1 said:

dragons lair is available on plenty of other consoles and pcs, so why would i want a minuature version that is hindered by

tiny controls. if you're going to play it on a tv, with another controller, there's already plenty of ways to do that, without

spending that much money.

It's not hindered by tiny controls; you can plug in any controls you like. This is as comfortably playable as anything else, plus an awesome thing to enjoy as an accurate miniature (which is where most of the expense is derived). If you appreciate the design of the cabinets themselves, and don't have the space for the full-size ones, then it's a cool item.

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14 hours ago, Zoyous said:

It's not hindered by tiny controls; you can plug in any controls you like. This is as comfortably playable as anything else, plus an awesome thing to enjoy as an accurate miniature (which is where most of the expense is derived). If you appreciate the design of the cabinets themselves, and don't have the space for the full-size ones, then it's a cool item.

i await videos of people playing it all the way through to the end.

 

however, its a short game, so it might actually be possible. the problem with all of these,

you need a really light touch, because otherwise the machine moves when you are trying

to play on them.

 

later

-1

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I saw one of the new, reproduction Tiger Handhelds at Book A Million yesterday. They had two of them, but both were X-Men and I never was interested in that game. I will say this, they are exact looking reproductions from what I could tell and I would have bought the Transformers one if that had been there.

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On 8/11/2020 at 7:26 AM, ComputerSpaceFan said:

Out of curiosity, do you think if they tried to make Asteroids Deluxe this way the game would be viewable? I'm thinking more complex / detailed games just aren't going to be possible to see clearly with this design.

My Space Invaders arrived and I love it! (working on a video review right now)

Just to answer my own question, Asteroids Deluxe could definitely be done in this small factor form, no problem at all so let's keep our fingers crossed one comes someday.

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I got one of those Tetris mini tabletop cabs yesterday, quite happy with it in hand as it lives up to the video review online that's for certain.  I was kind of surprised to  actually walk into the first store I tried and saw it just sitting there.  Either they're better seeded, I got lucky, or the virus is scaring the scalpers off (or it's too 'cheap' for them when they can nail people on Switches instead for far more.)  I love the control and handling, the sfx get a bit obnoxious with the beep per space, but if you do use the hard drop that doesn't happen.

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On 8/22/2020 at 3:02 PM, ComputerSpaceFan said:

My two cents' worth if anyone's interested

Cool man. I dug your video. Although I'm curious who'd you hear that the moon background isn't as detailed as it is in the arcade. Granted it may not be exactly 1-1 due to the size.. but it's more or less a faithful visual of the original arcade's moon.

 

Maybe they're thinking of the Midway moon background? Out of the 4 moon backgrounds, that one had craters, etc. ?

 

 

All Space Invaders Backgrounds2.png

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18 hours ago, NE146 said:

Cool man. I dug your video. Although I'm curious who'd you hear that the moon background isn't as detailed as it is in the arcade.

 

All Space Invaders Backgrounds2.png

Thanks! Not to be a tattle-tale but Willie from ArcadeUSA said it in one of his videos. Personally I think the moon looks fine, especially for how small it is.

Really crossing my fingers for an Asteroids Deluxe in this style one day.

 

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