been offline a few days mostly

[ceagle]

Yesterday I spent most of my computer time rebuilding and tweaking some of the sites I am consigned to run (which had to move due to the hosting / IP changes), and the rest of the time tutoring on the DreamWeaver interface.
Today, after the Thanksgiving stuff, I spent most all my time exploring and setting up the M.E.S.S. emulation system for zillions of ole-time video games. The way this topic came up is that where we went for dinner, they are hooked on the old favorite Asteroids game, and that brought up the topic "why not go one step further and try out that Uber-Cool "Space Wars" game, which was an advanced two-player Asteroids-type game?"
We couldn't find an online emulator for that, but apparently this M.E.S.S. would play a downloadable one, and a lot more :>

The hours then racked up... *ruffle*... Apparently this emulator does not like older Direct-3D installs... odd! I would've thought the older stuff would run better on older stuff!
I tried it on two systems, and neither worked, but the third try (on my Vista system) finally worked! (after I did a few small tweaks)

The best I can guess is it's related to the Direct-3D version, but there may be other elements in play as well. The XP system gave three errors, the ME system gave one error, and the Vista system gave two separate errors at different times, but then ran after I moved some files around (which didn't work in the other systems). I still haven't been able to adjust some game parameters, but the essentials seem to work.. *wags tail*

Any of you had fun with M.E.S.S. and MAME? :D

EDIT: online emulator found! (minus some features, but gives the general idea.. see comments section)..

Comments

[orv.livejournal.com]

I have MAME set up on the computer that's attached to our TV. MAME + TV + two USB joysticks = instant nostalgia. :)

Part of the appeal of older video games is they're so simple. They're great for casual gaming or party gaming because you can understand the gameplay and controls within a few seconds, in most cases, and it's not a long time commitment to play like most modern games are.

ooo... a comment!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*fuffles yer fedders* ... That must be a neat setup there!
I set this one up to do the Space Wars one, and here's the page I used for part of the help:

http://www.computerspacefan.com/SpaceWarSim.htm

It's really a gas to watch it, but it'll be REALLY fun once I get that second person on it, and, I wanna find out how to make the environmental physics adjustments, and haven't quite figured that out yet.

Strangely enough, I wasn't getting the search terms right yesterday, so it wasn't until today I found an online simulator:

http://spacewar.oversigma.com/

It looks good, and gives the general idea.. but again, can't find a way to do those physics customizations that make it so varied and extra fun :D
Those details are in the readme file of that spacewar.rim.zip file at that link, and tell about the ones I remember, like changing gravity levels, power levels, bouncing off walls or going through them, etc.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

You obviously never played Impossible mission and Last Ninja 2,
Damn they were hard!! And you couldn't save XD

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I was a Commodore Vic20 and Commodore 64 boy in my kitten years, before going to Sega Master System II, Super Nintendo, Playstation, Playstation II, Playstation III, PC :) Gameboy (numerous reincarnations) Sega Game gear.