What got you into emulation and gaming

[AK45]

i was having a think today as to what i can say had sent me on the lifetime task of emulation and and remembered many things but i think this is what started the ball rolling and has never stopped since i switched the game on well apart from needing batteries lol,i just wonder what is everybody elses favorite memories of handheld games from the past or early day consoles  anyhow i wonder what else got everone interested in gaming and emulation

 

thanks AK45

[Metalzoic]

I have no real interest in emulation.

A couple years ago I suddenly thought "It would be cool to build a Pac-Man Championship DX arcade machine"... that day I stumbled across Hyperspin etc... and about 3 months or so later I had finished a cab, custom sideart/marquee done and had a fully running HS arcade/PC setup finished.

 

I've been into gaming since the Atari 2600 was new and I've owned almost every US released system (and many non-US systems) since (never owned an Intellivision or Wii U though). Owned & managed my Game/rental/import stores for 12 years, been to every E3 up until 2008, been to the Tokyo game show, been to a lot of CES shows. Have BF1 running in the background and will be picking up my Switch on Friday. I also have a Neo-Geo MVS, an original Mario Bros arcade, a commercial Harvard airhockey table and a JJP Hobbit pinball machine in my home. Games are fun. 

 

[BATTLEDONKEY]

I was in grade 2 when I was introduced to the commoner 64 by my teacher and I was hooked instantly playing all these games they had at school. Soon after I got an NES for christmas and my cousin a master system, everyday we were either playing Super Mario Bros or Double Dragon on his master system. I bought the Genesis after saving up money for awhile, would have been faster if I hadn't been pumping quarters into arcade machines all the time lol, and have owned most mainstream consoles since then.

 

I've always known about emulation, but never really cared until I was building an HTPC and setting up media browser (now emby) and thought to myself, how cool would it be to not only have all my movies and TV shows at the press of a button, but also video games too.

 

I started doing some research and was surprised to see how well most systems were emulated and how easy it was to set up most of it. Moving forward a few years, I stumble across this video on YouTube about hyperspin and holy wow, I liked the clean interface on my HTPC, but this is something else, it looks spectacular and it just begs for attention of anyone who walks past it n sees it. Back to the drawing board I went, reading up as much info as I could, it always seemed a bit daunting so I put it on the back burner up until about 2 years ago when I decided to give it a shot and I'm so happy I did. Hyperspin, with rocketlauncher provides so much flexibility that I never knew was possible, to have a completely seamless interface without the need to ever pull out a keyboard and mouse.

 

The tinkering hasn't stopped since I got it up and running, I'm constantly updating different things, and trying out different little things to hopefully get everything perfect some day. The plan is also to build a full size cabinet in the future, I'm mostly wanting just 1 wheel of all arcade games on the cabinet, but who knows what I'll decide later on. I still consider myself very new to this so I haven't jumped in with both feet yet.

 

I wish I could do artwork like some of the talented people here on this site, but unfortunately I dont have the skills or programs to do it, so I do my best to help answer questions here on the message boards that I have knowledge about, and hopefully give someone the help to enjoy their hyperspin setups like I have been enjoying mine.

 

If all goes well with a cabinet build in the future, the next step would be a virtual pinball cabinet sitting next to it, but that seems so much more daunting lol

[thatman84]

A while after selling my PS3 because I was getting fed up with current gen consoles I wanted to play THPS again.

the iOS app only worked on older versions and I thought there must be a way on PC....

that was 2yrs ago and I had not heard of any emulators, frontends or even ROM's

now I'm going to games history school!! 

I have managed to play games from systems I never even knew existed, never had the money for and games I played as a kid. Love it

 

 

[AK45]

all you guys that have replied have contributed greatly to the scene and the artwork i see from you guys are second to none i wish i had the talent some of you have for understanding the emulators and having the creativity for bezels wheels and the themes but i guess thats why i come here everyday and try to learn a bit and work things out without posting to much as most of the problems i run into are already in the forums, thankyou guys for everything you do and i know there are countless others like gigapig brolly simplyaustin and bleasy i am so sorry for not mentioning the others  but beleive me guys you all are a great value to the different projects and all  can say is a massive thumbs up guys and please carry on ..

AK45

[gigapig]

I wanted to say that I was born in an arcade which could have been true but there were no video arcade machines in 1970.

The non British members of the forum may not be familiar with the adult practice of leaving your kids in the car, in a pub car park  with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps  (chips) while your parents went in the pub and got pissed (inebriated.) Well on one occasion we got to go in and the pub had a Moon Cresta machine, well me and my brother were hooked, we stared at the attract mode and managed to blag a few 10 pence pieces (quarters.)

The rest is history and loved it ever since. Always wanted that Astro Wars handheld but did get a Munchman and Invaders from Space. Convinced my Mum to get us a second hand ZX81 and then later an  Atari 2600 and ZX Spectrum. In fact I have just received another Spectrum signed by the Oliver Twins makers of the Dizzy games. That was part of a Kickstarter.

Been a member of PD since 2005 and before that I spent hours downloading ROMs using Get Right, using Mame32ui and terrible PC controllers.

I'm more addicted to emulation than ever, it just gets better and better,  the amount people put into this hobby is mind blowing and I am eternally grateful to everyone who keeps my childhood memories alive.

Building my own cab ( The Box of Dreams as my wife calls it) is the cherry on the cake and I would encourage anyone who is thinking about it to go for it.

@Metalzoic lucky boy going to all those shows and TGS.

[AK45]

hi gigapig i would just like to say to you a massive thankyou for the tutorials that are on youtube you make they are very easy to follow and understand and makes my emulation life easier and better. maybe one day i will start my own cab but for now i want learn the in and outs of how emulators run and the bezel side of things that go with the games as tp me that is what makes the game a lot better seeing the game with bezels also i followed your tutorial and now have scanlines which i know to some people they dont like them but i guess its just down to personal choice of how players want there screens to look.

AK45

 

[Agrajag]

There wasn't an arcade where I grew up but the local community centre had a couple of machines that were changed occasionally, so I was exposed to the likes of Space Invaders and Pac-Man back when they were state of the art.

I also had access to arcade games when on holiday, including on board the ferry. I remember playing Pooyan in Holland and Rally-X on the way to Denmark!

My home gaming started on a cousin's Binatone Pong console, then my parents bought a ZX81 followed by a Spectrum and, an Atari ST, and by the end of the 80s I was buying my own computers and consoles and it's all snowballed from there.

The first emulators I tried were for the ZX81 and Spectrum, running on the ST, which was pretty mind blowing at the time.

[AK45]

4 hours ago, Agrajag said:

Binatone Pong console

thats what i had as well with tennis ,squash and various other games basically the same thing lol

[shitoken]

Every one having a loving memory, OK Guys here is the history of mine living in another part of the Globe.
Since I am belongs to 80' in this part of the world we do not know much about of Atari, or other US Systems.

We are most into Japanese systems.

My mother was very strict and never buy any games for us, as a kid when we really want something but cannot get it what options do we left with (Steal money from mother purse or steal from shops)

Kungfu & Ninja was my 1st handheld owned game

Donkey Hockey never owned but I love this game and use to play at my friend house.

Donkey Kong was my 2nd owned and got it stolen by someone.

Bandai Ghost House 1989 was my 3rd owned and snatched away by my by bad friends.
Finally with long long search few months ago I got this back from ebay and this is a very rare system.

Surprisingly my mother bought me Nintendo Game boy after released & today I am still having it because as I said she never buy anything like that for me.

Game gear was my second shot and sold it out to buy other systems. Regret!!!

I started loving consoles since my friend invited me to see his new Nintendo Famicom with Super Mario.
We play every weekend. After all this I become addicted & buy myself Sega Genesis and SNES by doing part time job but not Famicom I do not know why too but really love it. 

HERE IS MY ARCADE HISTORY

We used to have arcade centers all around like Combini stores 24HRS. That was the best time we had in our life.

Mother used to go work early morning and as soon she left,  I will rush out to arcade for playing my favourite SF2 & challenging others. Most played Final Fight, Outrun, SF1, Tetris, Snowman, 1941 , NEOGEO, etc we have huge arcade centers here those time. Once finished my coins will go back and get dress up for school.  Before entering the schools we will meet our friends in arcade centers  near the school and challenge each other what a loving time.

I have started learning emulation games  10 years ago and use to having alot of Japanese roms from WINMX Shared by Japanese communities

I am not much into modern 3D Games or Mobile Games.

Last but not least I am very satisfy with the amount of memories I got back by the help of Hyperspin Frontend & other third party tools & all members. Thank you to all my friends here & developers.

Please keep Hyperspin rock n roll. Never give up this frontend. Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Metalzoic]

Hey I had a little Donkey Kong machine sort-just like that! Didn't remember until I saw that picture

[ninja2bceen]

Was looking for a golden tee machine and found out how expensive they were. Looked into alternative methods to play golden tee and the blinds on emulation were lifted. That was about 4 years ago and I like to say that emulation found me rather than i found it lol. 4 years later I have nearly a complete set up, ended up getting a Goldentee live cabinet after everything is said and done and an arcade cabinet. Never did I think about the scene until good ol Goldentee got in my brain after a gatlinberg trip that had a cabin with golden tee complete and a pinball machine. I'm itching for a pinball machine now [emoji39]

[rastan]

The getting into gaming question..... Arcades probably sparked that fire! that and of course the early cheap pong type consoles that we had as well as the Atari2600 and Colecovision Era. Then came the Commodore 64 era and the NES era, etc. as for Emulation.. my early memories of Emulation comes from the AMIGA 500 era when people used to run the ROMS from the Amiga to a SNES console with whatever that device was. . around this time I remember getting a gameboy emulator on the Amiga and there were NES emulators which required a beefy Amiga to run. I remember selling my Amiga 500 (wish I didn't) and got a 386 beast that could actually run the emulators that were out at the time.. can't remember the names of them all but they were mostly multi arcade emulators and single ones for the old school games like donkey kong, pac man, etc. then I remember mame popping on the scene and of course the early console emulators.

I will say that back in the days it was always a dream to be able to run software from other computers and even on the Amiga they had a IBM board that could allow you to run some MS DOS stuff... other than that I remember people being into Eproms and stuff like that... stuff like copying cartridges on the commodore 64 and making it so you could play them from disc.. not exactly emulation but the same idea.... copying the boards and running them from disk.