So, one of the things I want to do at a convention is to have some old-school video games… but I’m looking for feedback on WHAT to do.
One option – and easily the hardest and most expensive for me – is to have 1-2 systems running MAME with USB controllers.
That means getting to play classic arcade games – Shinobi Showdown, Midway: 1942, Metal Slug, Dig Dug, Moon Patrol – right there like we used to back in the day. I can see this being a LOT of fun.
But it also means having to have monitors/displays. While I have some old CPUs that I can use (temporarily), I don’t have the large monitors such a setup would require, let alone enough USB D-Pads to preconfigure.
Another possibility would be using the boxes to run servers of classic games:
and do it over either a local wireless LAN I set up with a router or inside the hotel’s network.
I have those two games above because there are free (and legal) solutions for people to install it on their own computers so we can just play at the con with custom maps and the shareware version of the game. And since there’s a dedicated server version, we could definitely run a few instances so there’s both co-op and PvP running. And since they’re source ports of old games, folks wouldn’t need to have a high-end system to run it at all.
We could also do some games like these:
but I don’t think there’s a dedicated server mode available for it, and it would require people to buy the game to (legally) participate.
And honestly, if we’re going the high-end route, I’d rather play this free game:
which is also cross platform, unlike the Blizzard games.
What do you all think? Would you like to have an old-school LAN party? Or arcade games? Or both?
And yes, of course it’s literary.
:: bows ::
Please let me know what you think below!