HyperSpeech: Text-to-speech addon for HyperSpin 1.x 0.9

[BoOgieman]

File Name: HyperSpeech: Text-to-speech addon for HyperSpin 1.x 0.9

File Submitter: Boogieman_nl

File Submitted: 08 May 2015

File Category: Add-Ons

Credits: Boogieman_nl

It's a Text-to-speech addon for HyperSpin that is will speak the system names, system biographs, game descriptions and MAME game bio's, but it also adds

speech for the events that HyperSpin send to LEDBlinky, like HS start/end, loading main menu wheel, loading system wheel, starting/ending games, start/end attraction mode and more.

The speech strings for the above events, but also the system bio's can be customized to your own likings and that's where people ou can put their own creativity into.

It is possible to enter a variety of text strings for each of the above mentioned LEDBlinky events.

These are then spoken random fashion to prevent boredom.

For speech optimization (pronouncement) and cleansing of the rubbish that exist in the descriptions, HyperSpeech does Regular Expression (RegEx) string replacements on each speech string.

There are however still situations where text is not being spoken right, the challenge then is to define the right regular expression strings to fix this globally or otherwise for each occurance.

I will update and finetune the HyperSpeech.dat file on a regular basis.

HyperSpeech uses the SAPI 5.x TTS interface and for the best HyperSpeech experience, I recommend the use of Loquendo or NeoSpeech voices.

(I've added support for Windows XP as well as it turned out that HyperSpeech is working on the SAPI 5.1 engine as well)

There is however, a significant difference in how certain voices and speech engines are interpreting and speaking the text you send.

For now I've decided to stick to the US Loquendo TTS voices and optimize speech for these voices with the RegEx'es in the HyperSpeech.dat file.

NOTE:

If you really want to add a little twist to HyperSpeech, route the Speech output through a voice morpher, and add effects to it to create a unique sounding voice.

Here's a video of HyperSpeech in effect in the HyperSpin main wheel:

Latest version:

HyperSpeech 0.9 (Added Windows XP support)

Previous versions:

HyperSpeech 0.8 (No more writing to a temp and now supports any video extension

HyperSpeech 0.7 (Supports Hyperspin 1.3: now scans for .mp4 system movies instead .flv's)

HyperSpeech 0.6 (For Hyperspin 1.2, fixed an issue with output to LEDBlinky)

Update:

I've now uploaded the AHK source files to the FTP for those who want to tweak, add features to it or just use some of my code for use in their own projects.

Click here to download this file

[relic]

cool sounds like 3d mame arcade good job cant wait to try this out heres a video of the proogram if no body knows about it

i would love to test it for you mate let me know if you want me to test it for you i dont mind at all this is a brilliant idea only thing i would suggest is turning down the volume of videos as the voice speaks over so that way many can hear whats its saying otherwise the videos defeats its purpose.

[BoOgieman]

I have been thinking about that also, I have lowered all volumes in HyperSpin to 50% at the moment to hear the voice better.

Implementing something like that would not be as easy as it seems, because of the asynchronous speech in HyperSpeech, I'll need to build some extra checks for detecting if the speech is active.

On the other hand almost nothing is impossible with AHK, so this will be on my todo list.

[BoOgieman]

Here's another video demonstrating speech of game descriptions and some random MAME game bio's.

You'll notice there is still work to do as some game game descrioptions are not yet spoken out right:

[djvj]

That's pretty cool, great job on it. I would prefer a smooth female voice though. You are providing a default female voice too right?

[BoOgieman]

That's pretty cool, great job on it. I would prefer a smooth female voice though. You are providing a default female voice too right?

Thanks djvj, you can use any TTS voice you like with HyperSpeech. The only thing is that each voice seems to have its flaws regarding pronouncation of text.

So you'll most likely need to tweak some regexes in the HyperSpeech.dat file to overcome the shortcomings.

Tomorrow I'll record another video for you with one of the female voices I have.

Heck, I can also morph that male voice to female if you're more into that

Sent from Android with Tapatalk

[THK]

Tomorrow I'll record another video for you with one of the female voices I have.

Heck, I can also morph that male voice to female if you're more into that

Nice! that I'd like to see!.. uhm, hear.

[djvj]

Ok just grabbed the files. First comment, I like to keep my hyperspin root folder as clean as possible and not keen on adding more files to it. Can't you add a path to your ini so I can place the entire package in its own folder? LEDBlinky can be placed in any folder, so I don't see why your tool needs to be in the root.

Same goes for the hyperspeech.ini. Why not keep it all together in one clean dir? Makes it more portable this way. I would probably install the TTS voices in the same dir too.

Not important, but just FYI, your readme txt looks pretty bad in notepad++, although fine in notepad. I never use notepad, so take a look at it when you get a sec to see what I mean, whitespace is translated differently. I just did a find/replace for all "]" and got rid of them.

Why are there soooo many extra lines in your ini? It's probably 3x longer then it has to be? Again, small stuff, but maybe it's only me that gets annoyed by the small stuff? You see how your HS inis look? Keep it tight!

Another thing, do not add keys into Settings\Settings.ini. This is an official ini file, where in HS2, you will not be able to add custom keys as HS2 will delete all unsupported keys on you. Move those ReadLEDBlinky keys into your ini if you want.

Ok so first launch, I hear the intro when I launch HS, but nothing plays when I move around the wheel. When I quit HS, I got the exit greeting. So it is working, but not when moving around the wheel. I didn't install the extra TTS voices yet, but I don't think that's the issue as I get the greetings. Is there anything I missed?

I noticed it is making tmp files over and over even when not moving in HS at all (I see 0kb files being made and deleted). This should not be necessary. Not a big deal on magnetic drives, but I try to avoid this type of behavior for users on SSDs.

When I launch HS, it is pulling sentences from [HSMainSelect], not [HSStart]. [HSEnd] gets read from properly though on shutdown.

I think one of the coolest things you added was the random sentences. This makes it never get boring.

[Hyperion]

This is so cool. This has added a whole new level to the Hyperspin experience! I'd like to add some extra pop culture trivia relevant to the dates the games or systems were released. Cool, cool, cool!!

[azzbarb]

This is so cool. This has added a whole new level to the Hyperspin experience! I'd like to add some extra pop culture trivia relevant to the dates the games or systems were released. Cool, cool, cool!!

i agree, everyone should add this to there set up as its so awesome

[brolly]

This looks pretty interesting, I particularly like the game descriptions reading, it would involve a lot of work to do this for all games, but I think it's a great idea and would work much better than trying to read everything from the screen. From what I've seen on the videos you did a great job, this is definitely something I can see myself using it.

I agree with djvj that everything should be contained on it's own folder, makes things much cleaner and easier to update.

[BoOgieman]

Hi djvj,

Thanks for the feedback, this is very useful for my learning curve.

I'm not a full-blood programmer, I started writing in AHK since HL 2.07 came along.

I only had some basic VB and DOS coding experience though, but learned a lot by reading other peoples scripts doing research.

Ok, my comments:

Ok just grabbed the files. First comment, I like to keep my hyperspin root folder as clean as possible and not keen on adding more files to it. Can't you add a path to your ini so I can place the entire package in its own folder? LEDBlinky can be placed in any folder, so I don't see why your tool needs to be in the root.

- I plan to put everything inside a folder named 'HyperSpeech', I need to adjust paths and stuf in the scripts for this

Same goes for the hyperspeech.ini. Why not keep it all together in one clean dir? Makes it more portable this way. I would probably install the TTS voices in the same dir too.

The ini file will also be in the HyperSpeech folder, but the TTS voice are installed in Windows by default.

For me it wouldn't make sense to put them with the rest of the files, unless I would use TTS dll's directly from the code.(this is on my figure out list)

But by all means do whatever you feel is right on your setup

Not important, but just FYI, your readme txt looks pretty bad in notepad++, although fine in notepad. I never use notepad, so take a look at it when you get a sec to see what I mean, whitespace is translated differently. I just did a find/replace for all "]" and got rid of them.

Uhm yeah... well... this is copied over quick and dirty from the top of the HyperSpeech.ahk script.

I did however take the time to take out the semicolumns

There will be a cleaner one soon.

Why are there soooo many extra lines in your ini? It's probably 3x longer then it has to be? Again, small stuff, but maybe it's only me that gets annoyed by the small stuff? You see how your HS inis look? Keep it tight!

Again agree.

Initially there weren't any comments and extra lines in and it was fairly compact (aside from the blank lines in the speech strings)

I thought that maybe this was easier to read for a wider audience, so I've put that in right before I uploaded the stuff

Another thing, do not add keys into Settings\Settings.ini. This is an official ini file, where in HS2, you will not be able to add custom keys as HS2 will delete all unsupported keys on you. Move those ReadLEDBlinky keys into your ini if you want.

Thanks for the heads up on this one. This was initially in the HyperSpeech.ini file, but for some reason I decided to move that over...

I will change that...

Ok so first launch, I hear the intro when I launch HS, but nothing plays when I move around the wheel. When I quit HS, I got the exit greeting. So it is working, but not when moving around the wheel. I didn't install the extra TTS voices yet, but I don't think that's the issue as I get the greetings. Is there anything I missed?

Ok voices have nothing to with this.

Chances are that it has to do with the fact that 'Hyperspin.exe' or the partial path of the main menu video string is not found:

RunWait %comspec% /c %A_ScriptDir%\handle.exe -p Hyperspin.exe | findstr "\Media\Main Menu\Video\" > %tmpFile% ,,Hide

Also if you don't have any main menu video's than it is also not working as the handles to the video's are being checked.

Can you check with you setup please?

Anyway this is a good point, I did not take account for possible other main menu video paths...

I noticed it is making tmp files over and over even when not moving in HS at all (I see 0kb files being made and deleted). This should not be necessary. Not a big deal on magnetic drives, but I try to avoid this type of behavior for users on SSDs.[\QUOTE]

Well, as you can see this is because of the above event, which luckily only happens while being in the main menu wheel.

This a temporarily solution untill I've rewritten the code with stdout to output to a variable, which I'm still trying to figure out at the moment.

When I launch HS, it is pulling sentences from [HSMainSelect], not [HSStart]. [HSEnd] gets read from properly though on shutdown.[\QUOTE]

I know this, I've not found a solution for this other than to start HyperSpeech.exe before HyperSpin.

This is because when HS starts, it launches LEDBlinky that starts up HyperSpeech.exe.

Shorly after that it sends an event 1 trigger to HyperSpeech on wich HyperSpeech should react, but HyperSpeech is not completely ready yet or at least the SAPI speech object is not yet created.

I think one of the coolest things you added was the random sentences. This makes it never get boring.

Thanks, but let's get things working for you then...

BTW: I've also deleted the blank lines in this post, to make it a little more compact

[BoOgieman]

This is so cool. This has added a whole new level to the Hyperspin experience! I'd like to add some extra pop culture trivia relevant to the dates the games or systems were released. Cool, cool, cool!!

So attract mode chooses the game, A question pops ups up like "Who is the developer of this game" or "What year was this game released?".

Than multiple choice options appear, from which you must select your answer with the joystick within a given amount of time...

Hell... make it even a 2-4 player battle or online against other HyperSpinners.

what should we call it? Hyper Feud?

[jackhammersalm]

A very nice idea, truly nice if you like bells and whistles. concept is a good idea.

[djvj]

Boogie, on the install I was testing it with, I have no videos or themes, so if they are required, that makes sense then.

[BoOgieman]

Boogie, on the install I was testing it with, I have no videos or themes, so if they are required, that makes sense then.

Due to the fact that HyperSpin 1.x has no hooks to interface with and as it does not parse system names to LEDBlinky as events, the only way I could think of to detect what system is currently selected on the main wheel, is to check HyperSpin's file handles and search for a string that contains the path of the main menu video's.

This string is then analyzed and compared to every system in the main menu.xml.

If a match is found then HyperSpeech acts upon it.

This is why the temp file is created so often.

If you have a good solution to parse the output directly to a variable, please let me know and I will modify the script.

Anyways, Azzbarb confirmed it was working on his setup this afternoon, so that was kind of a relief.

There are some issues on 64bit Win7 setup with 32 bit TTS voices.

These are not recognized automatically , you need to enable the TTS voices first by using the 32bit SAPI control panel, by using this command:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl

In the mean time I've rewritten HyperSpeech and everything is now contained in a single folder 'HyperSpeech' that needs to be in the HyperSpin root folder.

Also I've tested a female voice from neo speech and discovered that a lot of the HyperSpeech.dat needs to be adjusted to make these voice sound proper.

I already mentioned that there are differences between each voice, but it seems that there are more differences in how text is interpreted between the voices of different companies.

Neo speech for instance does not work well with using apostrophes in the adjusted text the way loquendo does.

Hower I kinda do like the softness of the neo speech voice, but that'll be too much work for me now to dive into, so I'll stick to the 3 voices of loquendo for now.

The female voices of loquendo need less adjustment of the HyperSpeech.dat file because they use the same grammar rules.

[Jumpstile]

For some reason I cannot get the real LEDBlinky to start when I launch Hyperspin. I followed the directions exactly as you wrote them, but no go. I have the real LEDBlinky.exe in D:\Hyperspin\Utilities\LEDBlinky\LEDBlinky.exe. Here is my HyperSpeech.ini:

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------; HyperSpeech version 0.2 Settings File

; By Boogieman_NL

; This file must reside in your '[HyperSpin Root]\Settings' folder

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[LEDBlinky]

Active=true

Path=D:\Hyperspin\

RealLedBlinkyActive=true

RealLedBlinkyPath=D:\Hyperspin\Utilities\LEDBlinky\

[HyperSpeechSettings]

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Debug Mode

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

;

; DebugMode is the default setting for HyperSpeech to use at startup

; Valid options are 'true' and 'false'

;

; If DebugMode is set to 'true':

; - ReloadRegExHotkey is enabled

; - ReloadIniHotkey is enabled

; - DebugPopup Windows are enabled that show the optimized (RegExReplaced)

; strings when pressing the SpeakBioHotkey or the SpeakDescriptionHotkey

; This is useful when you are adding Regular Expression to optimize or

; change spoken text

DebugMode=false

; DebugPopupTimeout is the timeout before the popup automatically dissapears

; Set this to a value you find suitable, value is in seconds

DebugPopupTimeout=60

; Hotkeys

; -------

;

; DebugModeToggleHotkey toggles the debug mode on or of when HyperSpin is active

DebugModeToggleHotkey=F5

; SpeakBioHotkey activates the bio speech for systems and MAME game bios (History.dat is file is needed)

SpeakBioHotkey=F3

; SpeakDescriptionHotkey manually activates the game description speech

SpeakDescriptionHotkey=F4

; ReloadRegExHotkey triggers a reload of the HyperSpeech.dat file with the RegExReplace strings

ReloadRegExHotkey=F6

; ReloadIniHotkey triggers a reload of the HyperSpeech.ini file, strings and viriables are then reloaded

ReloadIniHotkey=F7

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Bio Settings

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

;

; AutoBioDelay is the delay time in miliseconds that HyperSpeech waits before

; speaking the selected system or MAME game bio

; If the value is set to 0, AutoBioDelay is turned off

AutoBioDelay=15000

; SystemBioEnabled turns the system bio speech on or off

SystemBioEnabled=true

; MAMEBioEnabled turns the MAME game bio speech on or off

MAMEBioEnabled=true

; MAMEHistoryDatPath is the path to the MAME history.dat file, needed for

; the MAME bio

MAMEHistoryDatPath=D:\Hyperspin\Emulators\MAME\history.dat

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Generic Settings

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; AttractModeSpeechEnabled enables or disables the speech events when attract

; mode kicks in or ends

AttractModeSpeechEnabled=true

; Volume is the TTS engines' speech volume, enter a value from 0 to 100

Volume=100

; DelayHSStartSpeech is an extra pause in miliseconds before the initial

; speech is started

; The initial speech might not work if HyperSpeech.exe is not started fast

; enough the first time and the speech engine object is not yet created

DelayHSStartSpeech= 0

; DelayMainSpeech is an extra pause in miliseconds before the speech when you

; enter the main wheel at startup

DelayMainSpeech= 0

; DelayGameSpeech is an extra pause in miliseconds before the game

; description is spoken

; You can tweak this value ifyou think speech occures too fast when browsing

; the wheel

DelayGameSpeech= 250

; DelaySystemSpeech is an extra pause in miliseconds before the system's

; description is spoken

; You could tweak this value ifyou think speech occures too fast when browsing

; the wheel

DelaySystemSpeech= 0

; System_PollInterval is the amount of time in miliseconds that must pass

; before HyperSpeech polls HyperSpin's file handles, to detect the currently

; selected system in the main menu wheel

; Tweak this value to your likings, but setting this value too low will make

; your system generate more disk i/o

System_PollInterval=500

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Custom Speech Strings

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; In the sections below you can enter the text you want to be spoken

; for the different types of LEDBlinky events

; If you enter more than 1 string for an event, then each time a randomly

; selected string is spoken

; Insert some blank lines of you think HyperSpeech should shut up more often

[HSStart]

Initiating startup sequence.

Starting Hyperspin.

please wait...

Initialising system.

Energizing, please wait.

[HSEnd]

Shutting down Hyperspin, goodbye!

Thanks for playing,,, goodbye!

Shutting down!

Quitting Hyperspin. come back anytime.

Shutting down Hyperspin, see you next time

Allright, powering off!

As you wish, shutting down..

[HSGameStart]

Starting game.

Loading...

Launching game.

Get ready!

ok, starting game.

Here we go...

Allright! show'm how it's done!

[HSGameEnd]

Select another game

Choose another game, if you like

[HSAttractStart]

HyperSpin activated.

I'll choose something else...

Let's pick something else then

Spinning the wheel...

Spinning...

Let fate decide the next one

Ok, next pick

[HSAttractEnd]

HyperSpin deactivated...

Ok, let's see what came up here...

Nice!. .

Next up is

Check this out:. . .

Look at this. . .

How about:

Good. . .

Great. . .

Excellent. . .

[HSSystemSelect]

Switching to SYSTEM

SYSTEM wheel selected

loading SYSTEM wheel

SYSTEM is an excellent choice...

fantastic! choose a SYSTEM game from the wheel

Select a game from the wheel

Good.. switching to SYSTEM wheel

Loading.

okay, loading SYSTEM wheel

Allright, loading wheel

[HSMainSelect]

Hello retro gamer! Welcome to HyperSpin. Pick an old school system from the wheel and then select an awsome game to play.

Good! you're back... what system would you like to play?.

Hi! This is the HyperSpin Main Wheel. Please select a system from the wheel.

Welcome to HyperSpin! Select a system from the wheel.

Good to have you back. choose one of the vintage systems from the main wheel.

Hello again! Pick a system from the wheel

Welcome to HyperSpin! This is the Main Menu-wheel from where you can choose a system.

Hyperspin ready for duty. . . Select a system from the wheel.

Hyper Spin! Going back in time! choose a retro system from the wheel!

[HSMainReturn]

Ok, next system...

Maybe you'd like to play a different system?

Ok...Going back to the Main Menu Wheel...

Going back to the main menu wheel...

Let's pick a different system...

Pick a system from the wheel...

You're now back into the Hyper Spin main menu..

What would you like to choose now?..

Hyper Spin main wheel loaded.

Back to systems...

[HSSystemReturn]

Switching back to the SYSTEM wheel.

Going back to the SYSTEM wheel again.

Back to the SYSTEM games.

SYSTEM again

so much for picking an other system

you're right, let's pick a SYSTEM game again

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

; System Bios

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------

;

; You can create a section for each system you have in your setup

; The section names must be the same as the system names in your Main Menu.xml

; The Bios are also being 'RegExed' before spoken, there certain text will

; also be replaced, like most stuf in between ( )

; Please mind:

; When you use the words "The ", "Le " or "A " after a comma, then it will be

; placed at the beginning of the string and thus mess it up

; This still needs to be fix in the RegEx strings

[AAE Bio]

AAE is a primarily vector based arcade system emulator/simulator.

It strives to recreate the experience of playing the games as they were in the arcade, and requires the original game ROMS in order to run.

In some cases copies of the original sound files and artwork are required to complete the emulation experience.

It provides for simulation options that are not available in MAME, and offers several features that are not available in MAME due to their arcade preservation charter, such as advanced hardware based drawing and motion blur.

Although AAE is written to feel much like the MAME Documentation Project, it is a very different emulator, based in part on sources from the old emulator Retrocade.

[Amstrad GX4000 Bio]

The GX4000 was Amstrad's short-lived attempt to enter the games console market.

The console was released in Europe in 1990 and was an upgraded design based on the still-popular CPC technology.

The GX4000 shared hardware with Amstrad's CPC Plus computer line, which were released concurrently, this allowed the system to be compatible with the majority of CPC Plus software.

The GX4000 was both Amstrad's first, and only attempt at entering the console market. Whilst having enhanced graphics capabilities, it failed to gain popularity in the market, and was quickly discontinued, selling 15,000 units in total.

James Harding of The Times said that the console was "promptly outgunned by the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo – it failed the cardinal test of entrepreneurship: stamina."

[Atari 2600 Bio]

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc.

It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in.

The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F; however, the Atari 2600 receives credit for making the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public.

The console was originally sold as the Atari VCS, for Video Computer System.

Following the release of the Atari 5200, in 1982, the VCS was renamed "Atari 2600", after the unit's Atari part number, CX2600.

The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat and later Pac-Man.

The Atari 2600 was wildly successful, and during much of the 1980s, "Atari" was a synonym for this model in mainstream media and, by extension, for video games in general.

The Atari 2600 was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York in 2007.

In 2009, the Atari 2600 was named the second greatest video game console of all time by IGN, who cited its remarkable role as the console behind both the first video game boom and the video game crash of 1983, and called it "the console that our entire industry is built upon."

[Atari 5200 Bio]

The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, commonly known as the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari Inc. as a higher end complementary console for the popular Atari 2600.

The 5200 was created to compete with the Intellivision, but wound up more directly competing with the ColecoVision shortly after its release.

The 5200 was based on Atari Inc.'s existing 400/800 computers and the internal hardware was almost identical, although software was not directly compatible between the two systems.

The 5200's controllers have an analog joystick and a numeric keypad along with start, pause and reset buttons.

The 360-degree non-centering joystick was touted as offering more control than the eight-way joystick controller offered with the Atari 2600.

[Atari 7800 Bio]

The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in January 1986.

The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc.

The 7800 had originally been designed to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200 in 1984, but was temporarily shelved due to the sale of the company after the video game crash.

In January 1986, the 7800 was again released and would compete that year with the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Master System.

It had simple digital joysticks and was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600, the first console to have backward compatibility without the use of additional modules.

It was considered affordable at a price of US$ 140.

In 2009, IGN chose the 7800 to be their 17th best video game console of all time.

They justified this relatively low ranking with the summary statement: "Its delayed release, its cancelled peripherals, and a lack of financial backing from the company's new owners all combined to ensure that Atari 7800 would never see any success beyond being a sexier way of playing Atari 2600 titles."

[Atari Jaguar Bio]

The Atari Jaguar is a video game console that was released by Atari Corporation in 1993.

It was the last to be marketed under the Atari brand until the release of the Atari Flashback in 2004.

It was designed to surpass the Mega Drive/Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Panasonic 3DO in processing power.

Although launched one year earlier, it was eventually in competition with the Sega Saturn, the Sony PlayStation, and other consoles that made up the fifth generation of video game consoles.

The console was first released in New York City and San Francisco on November 23, 1993, and the rest of the country in early 1994.

Although it was promoted as the first 64-bit gaming system, the Jaguar proved to be a commercial failure and prompted Atari to leave the home video game console market

Despite its commercial failure, the Jaguar has a dedicated fan base that produces homebrew games for it.

It was the last console from an American company until the 2001 introduction of Microsoft's Xbox.

[Atari Lynx Bio]

The Atari Lynx is a 16-bit handheld game console that was released by Atari Corporation in 1989.

The Lynx holds the distinction of being the world's first handheld electronic game with a color LCD.

The system is also notable for its forward-looking features, advanced graphics, and ambidextrous layout.

The Lynx was released in 1989, the same year as Nintendo's best-selling, monochromatic Game Boy.

However, the Lynx failed to achieve the sales numbers required to attract quality third party developers, and was eventually abandoned.

Today, as with many older consoles, there is still a small group of devoted fans, creating and selling games for the system.

[bandai WonderSwan Mono Bio]

WonderSwan was a line of handheld game consoles produced in Japan by Bandai between 1999 and 2003.

It was developed by the late Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto and Bandai.

The WonderSwan was made to compete with the Neo Geo Pocket Color and the market leader Nintendo's Game Boy Color.

The original WonderSwan was later replaced by the WonderSwan Color; although some WonderSwan Color games are compatible with the original WonderSwan, many are designed exclusively for the WonderSwan Color and show a message such as "This cartridge is for WonderSwan Color only" when run on the original WonderSwan.

The WonderSwan are playable both vertically and horizontally, and feature a fairly large library of games, including numerous first-party titles based on licensed anime properties, with significant third-party support from Square and Capcom.

As it was a console designed essentially for the Japanese market, most of the games are in Japanese, with only a few featuring English text

[bandai WonderSwan Color Bio]

The WonderSwan Color was released on December 9, 2000 in Japan, and was a moderate success.

The original WonderSwan had only a black and white screen.

Although the WonderSwan Color was slightly larger and heavier (7 mm and 2 g) compared to the original WonderSwan, the color version featured 512KB[1] of RAM and a larger color LCD screen.

In addition, the WonderSwan Color is compatible with the original WonderSwan library of games.

Prior to WonderSwan's release, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly in the Japanese video game handheld market.

After the release of the WonderSwan Color, Bandai took approximately 8% of the market share in Japan partly due to its low price of ¥6800 Japanese yen (approximately $59 USD).

Another reason for the WonderSwan's success in Japan was the fact that Bandai managed to get a deal with Square to port over the original Famicom Final Fantasy games with improved graphics and controls.

However, with the popularity of the Game Boy Advance and the reconciliation between Square and Nintendo, the WonderSwan Color and its successor, the SwanCrystal, quickly lost its competitive advantage.

They were discontinued in 2003.

[ColecoVision Bio]

The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console which was released in August 1982.

The ColecoVision offered near-arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, and the means to expand the system's basic hardware.

Released with a catalog of 12 launch titles, with an additional ten games announced for 1982, approximately 145 titles in total were published as ROM cartridges for the system between 1982 and 1984.

River West Brands currently owns the ColecoVision brand name.

In 2009, IGN named the ColecoVision their 12th best video game console out of their list of 25, citing "its incredible accuracy in bringing current-generation arcade hits home."

[Commodore 64 Bio]

The Commodore 64, commonly called C64, was an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International.

Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$ 595.

Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes of RAM, and had favourable sound and graphical specifications when compared to contemporary systems such as the Apple II, at a price that was well below the circa US$ 1200 demanded by Apple.

During the C64's lifetime, sales totalled between 12.5 and 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.

For a substantial period of time 1983–1986, the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC compatibles, Apple Inc. computers, and Atari 8-bit family computers.

Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in a 1989 interview "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years."

Part of its success was because it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores.

Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost.

It is sometimes compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative mass-production.

Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications, and games.

[Commodore Amiga Bio]

The Amiga 500 - also known as the A500 or its code name "Rock Lobster" - was the first “low-end” Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer.

It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987 - at the same time as the high-end Amiga 2000 - and competed directly against the Atari 520ST.

The Amiga 500 represented a return to Commodore's roots by being sold in the same mass retail outlets as the Commodore 64 - to which it was a spiritual successor - as opposed to the computer-store-only Amiga 1000.

The original Amiga 500 proved to be Commodore’s best-selling Amiga model, enjoying particular success in Europe.

Although popular with hobbyists, arguably its most widespread use was as a gaming machine, where its advanced graphics and sound for the time were of significant benefit.

[Daphne Bio]

DAPHNE is an arcade emulator application that emulates a variety of laserdisc video games with the intent of preserving these games and making the play experience as faithful to the originals as possible.

The developer calls DAPHNE the "First Ever Multiple Arcade Laserdisc Emulator" "FEMALE".

The software is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, and consists of a command-line emulator with a graphical frontend to make configuring and launching easier.

DAPHNE is capable of displaying the games' full-motion video by playing MPEG video files on the computer or by driving certain models of laserdisc player directly via a serial interface.

As with other arcade machine emulators, ROM images are also required to play the games.

These may be ROM images from the original arcade machines, or alternatively fans of two of the most popular laserdisc arcade games, Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, have created updated ROMs that alter the gameplay, correct bugs and reintroduce removed sequences.

[DICE Bio]

DICE is a discrete logic simulator, for old arcade games without a CPU.

It works by simulating each logic chip on the board individually.

The first game to be simulated was Pong, followed by Atari Rebound, Atari Gotcha and Space Race.

[Fairchild Channel F Bio]

The Fairchild Channel F is a game console released by Fairchild Semiconductor, in August 1976 at the retail price of $169.95.

It has the distinction of being the first programmable ROM cartridge–based video game console, and the first console to use a microprocessor.

It was launched as the Video Entertainment System, or VES, but when Atari released their VCS the next year, Fairchild renamed its machine.

By 1977, the Fairchild Channel F had sold 250,000 units and was second-place behind the VCS.

[Future Pinball Bio]

Future Pinball is a freeware 3D pinball editing and gaming application for Microsoft Windows.

Similar to Visual Pinball, Future Pinball is a simulator and editor, but does not emulate hardware found in physical pinball machines.

Tables are designed using 3D models found within the editor, and rendered using a 3D real-time engine.

Pinball table layout, graphic design, and audio are provided by users during the construction and development of table design.

Usage of original pinball ROM code is not allowed.

[GCE Vectrex Bio]

The Vectrex is a vector display-based video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering.

It was licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric, and then by Milton Bradley Company after their purchase of GCE.

It was released in November 1982 at a retail price of $199; as Milton Bradley took over international marketing the price dropped to $150 and then $100 shortly before the video game crash of 1983.

The Vectrex exited the market in early 1984.

Unlike other non-portable video game consoles, which connected to televisions and rendered raster graphics, the Vectrex has an integrated vector monitor which displays vector graphics.

The monochrome Vectrex uses plastic screen overlays to simulate color and various static graphics and decorations.

At the time, many of the most popular arcade games used vector displays, and through a licensing deal with Cinematronics, GCE was able to produce high-quality versions of arcade games such as Space Wars and Armor Attack.

Vectrex comes with a built-in game, the Asteroids-like MineStorm.

Two peripherals were also available for the Vectrex, a light pen and a 3D imager.

The Vectrex was also released in Japan under the name Bandai Vectrex Kousokusen.

While it is a mainstay of disc-based console systems today, the Vectrex was part of the first generation of console systems to feature a boot screen, which also included the Atari 5200 and Colecovision.

[Magnavox Odyssey 2 Bio]

The Magnavox Odyssey 2, known in Europe as the Philips Videopac G7000, in Brazil as the Philips Odyssey, in the United States as the Magnavox Odyssey 2 and the Philips Odyssey 2, and also by many other names, is a video game console released in 1978.

In the early 1970s, Magnavox was an innovator in the home video game industry.

They succeeded in bringing the first home video game system to market, the Odyssey, which was quickly followed by a number of later models, each with a few technological improvements.

In 1978, Magnavox, now a subsidiary of North American Philips, released the Odyssey 2, its new second-generation video game console.

In 2009, the video game website IGN named the Odyssey 2 the 21st greatest video game console, out of its list of 25.

[MAME Bio]

MAME, an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is an emulator application designed to recreate

the hardware of classic arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms.

The intention is to preserve gaming history by preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten.

The aim of MAME is to be a reference to the inner workings of the emulated arcade machines;

The ability to actually play the games is considered "a nice side effect".

The first public MAME release 0.1 was on February 5, 1997, by Nicola Salmoria.

The emulator now supports over seven thousand unique games and ten thousand actual ROM image sets,

though not all of the supported games are playable.

[Mattel Intellivision Bio]

The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979.

Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor,the Atari 2600.

The word intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television".

Over 3 million Intellivision units were sold and a total of 125 games were released for the console.

In 2009, video game website IGN named the Intellivision the No. 14 greatest video game console of all time.

[NEC PC Engine Bio]

The PC Engine is a Japanese version of the Turbo Graphics 16, and was a collaborative effort between the relatively young Hudson Soft (founded in 1973) and NEC.

NEC's interest in entering the lucrative video game market coincided with Hudson's failed attempt to sell designs for advanced graphics chips to Nintendo.

The PC Engine is a very small video game console, due primarily to a very efficient three-chip architecture and its use of "Hu- Cards".

The cards were about the size of a credit card, similar to the card format used by the Sega Master System for budget games.

However, unlike the Sega Master System, the Turbo Graphics 16 used Hu- Cards exclusively.

Turbo Graphics 16 featured a Western Design Center 65SC02 processor and a custom 16 bit graphics processor, as well as a custom video color encoder chip, all designed by Hudson.

The Turbo Graphics 16 was the first console to have an optional CD module, allowing the standard benefits of the CD medium such as more storage, cheaper media costs, and redbook audio.

The efficient design, backing of many of Japan's major software producers, and the additional CD ROM capabilities gave the PC Engine a very wide variety of software, with several hundred games for both the Hu- Card and CD formats.

The PC Engine initially performed well in Japan, beating Nintendo's Famicom in sales soon after its release, with no fewer than twelve console models released from nine teen 87 to nine teen 93.

Despite the system's early success, it started to lose ground to the Super Famicom.

NEC made one final effort to resuscitate PC Engine with the release of the Arcade Card expansion, bringing the total amount of RAM up to a then massive- 2048K.

Some Arcade Card games were conversions of popular Neo Geo titles.

New games were released for the PC Engine up until 1999.)

[NEC PC-FX Bio]

The PC-FX is a video game console released in Japan on December 23, 1994 by NEC Corporation.

It is the 32-bit successor to NEC's PC Engine which is known in the US as the TurboGrafx-16.

The PC-FX uses CD-ROMs as its storage medium, following on from the expansion released for its predecessor, which originally used HuCards.

The game controller resembles that of the Mega Drive in shape, only with more buttons and it is virtually identical to a DUO-RX controller except for the fact that the rapid fire switches have been changed into mode A/B switches.

The PC-FX's computer-like design was unusual for consoles at the time.

It stands upright like a tower computer while other contemporary consoles lay flat.

Another interesting feature is its three expansion ports, as expansion ports are relatively underused in consoles and therefore their inclusion increased the price without offering a great deal to the end user.

However it was one of the first consoles to feature an optional mouse which made strategy games like Farland Story FX and Power Dolls FX more accessible to play on TV.

Unlike nearly any other console, except for the 3DO and CD-i, the PC-FX was also available as an internal PC card for NEC PC-98 and AT/IBM PC compatibles.

This PC card came with two CDs of software to help the user program games for the PC-FX.

However, compatibility issues prevented games developed with this software from actually running on the console.

[NEC SuperGrafx Bio]

The SuperGrafx is video game console created by NEC.

It is an upgraded version of the PC Engine, known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America, released exclusively in Japan, primarily in response to the Super Famicom "Super Nintendo Entertainment System outside of Japan" by Nintendo.

Originally announced as the PC Engine 2, the machine was purported to be a true 16-bit system with improved graphics and audio capabilities over the original PC Engine.

Expected to be released in 1990, the SuperGrafx was rushed to market, debuting several months earlier in late 1989 with only modest improvements over the original PC Engine.

Only seven games were produced which took advantage of the improved SuperGrafx hardware, and two of those could be played on a regular PC Engine, however the SuperGrafx is backwards compatible with all PC Engine and PC Engine CD-ROM games, bringing the compatible software total up to nearly 700.

The system was not widely adopted and is largely seen as a commercial failure.

[NEC TurboGrafx-16 Bio]

TurboGrafx-16, fully titled as TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem and known in Japan as the PC Engine, is a video game console developed by Hudson Soft and NEC, released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in North America on August 29, 1989.

The TurboGrafx-16 has an 8-bit CPU and a dual 16-bit GPU; and is capable of displaying 482 colors simultaneously, out of 512.

With dimensions of 14 cm × 14 cm × 3.8 cm or 5.5 inch × 5.5 inch × 1.5 inch, the NEC PC Engine holds the record for the world's smallest game console ever made.

In the United Kingdom, Telegames released a slightly altered version of the US model simply as the TurboGrafx around 1990 in extremely limited quantities.

Although there was no full-scale PAL region release of the system, imported PC Engine consoles were largely available in France and Benelux through major retailers thanks to the unlicensed importer Sodi peng.

In 2009, the TurboGrafx-16 was ranked as the 13th greatest video game console of all time by IGN, despite citing a lack of third party support and the absence of a second controller port.

[NEC TurboGrafx-CD Bio]

The TurboGrafx-16 was the first video game console to have a CD-ROM peripheral, which was first released as the PC-Engine CD-ROM add-on in Japan in April 1988, and then released in the United States as the TurboGrafx-CD in 1990.

This was the first time that CD-ROM discs were used as a storage medium for video games.

The TurboGrafx-CD debuted on August 1, 1990 at a prohibitive $399.99.

Monster Lair and Fighting Street were the initial TurboGrafx-CD titles.

Ys Book I & II soon followed.

However, the TurboGrafx-CD catalog grew at a very slow rate compared to the library of TurboChip titles.

The TurboGrafx-CD came packaged in a very large box, 85% of which was filled with protective styrofoam inserts.

By some accounts, no other video game console has been packaged in such an overkill manner.

The TurboGrafx-CD did however come with a large plastic "carrying case" that could comfortably hold the TurboGrafx-16 base system, TurboGrafx-CD, all AC adapters, 2 – 3 controllers, and a few games.

Although the TurboGrafx-CD library was relatively small, American gamers could draw from a wide range of Japanese software since there was no region protection on TG-CD / PC Engine CD-ROM software.

Many mail order and some brick-and-mortar import stores advertised Japanese PCE CD and HuCard titles in the video game publications of the era.

[Nintendo Game Boy Bio]

The Game Boy, is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo.

It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America in August 1989, and in Europe on September 28, 1990.

It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line, and was created by Gunpei Yokoi and Nintendo Research & Development 1—the same staff who had designed the Game & Watch series as well as several popular games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The Game Boy is Nintendo's second handheld system following the Game & Watch series introduced in 1980, and it combined features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game & Watch and its B&W.

It was originally bundled with the puzzle game Tetris.

Despite many other technologically superior handheld consoles introduced during its lifetime, the Game Boy was a tremendous success.

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide.

Upon its release in the United States, it sold its entire shipment of one million units within weeks.

[Nintendo Game Boy Color Bio]

The Game Boy Color is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 18, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom.

It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket.

As with the original Game Boy, it has an 8-bit processor.

The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide.

[Nintendo Game Boy Advance Bio]

The Game Boy Advance, often shortened to GBA, is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo.

It is the successor to the Game Boy Color.

It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China on June 8, 2004.

[Nintendo Virtual Boy Bio]

The Virtual Boy was a table-top video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo.

It was the first video game console that was supposed to be capable of displaying "true 3D graphics" out of the box, in a form of virtual reality.

Whereas most video games use monocular cues to achieve the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional screen, the Virtual Boy creates an illusion of depth through the effect known as parallax.

In a manner similar to using a head-mounted display, the user looks into an eyepiece made of neoprene on the front of the machine, and then an eyeglass-style projector allows viewing of the mono chromatic red image.

It was released on July 21, 1995 in Japan and August 14, 1995 in North America at a price of around US$180.

It was not released in PAL markets.

It met with a lukewarm reception that was unaffected by continued price drops.

Nintendo discontinued it the following year

[Nintendo Arcade Systems Bio]

Nintendo's share in the Arcade business relied primarily on the Nintendo VS System and the PlayChoice-10 systems.

The Nintendo VS System is a coin-operated video game platform designed for two-player competitive play using the VS UniSystem or VS DualSystem, arcade system boards based on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Many of these stand-up or sit-down arcade machines had two screens and controls joined at an angle.

These games were arcade ports of home video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, thus they could be sold cheaply to arcades in the late 1980s.

The PlayChoice-10 is an arcade machine which can consist of as many as 10 different games previously available only on the Nintendo Entertainment System home console.

The games for this system are in the modular form of circuit boards which are plugged into one of the ten open slots on the PlayChoice-10's motherboard.

[Nintendo Famicom Disk System Bio]

The Family Computer Disk System, sometimes called the Famicom Disk System, the Disk System, or simply the FDS, was released on February 21, 1986 by Nintendo as a peripheral for the Famicom console in Japan.

It was a unit that used proprietary floppy disks, called "Disk Cards", for data storage.

It was announced, but not released, for the North American/PAL Nintendo Entertainment System.

Through its entire production span, 1986–2003, 4.44 million units were sold.

The device was connected to the Famicom deck by plugging a modified cartridge known as the RAM Adapter into the system's cartridge port, which attached via a supplied cable to the disk drive.

The RAM adapter contained 32 kilobytes (KB) of RAM for temporary program storage, 8 KB of RAM for tile and sprite data storage, and an ASIC known as the 2C33.

The ASIC acted as a disk controller for the floppy drive, and also included additional sound hardware featuring primitive wavetable synthesis and FM synthesis capabilities.

The Disk Cards used were double-sided, with a total capacity of 112 KB per disk.

Many games spanned both sides of a disk, requiring the user to switch sides at some point during gameplay.

A few games used two full disks or four sides.

The Disk System was capable of running on six C-cell batteries or the supplied AC adapter.

Batteries would usually last five months with daily game play.

The battery option was included due to the likelihood of a standard set of AC plugs already being occupied by a Famicom and a television.

[Nintendo Entertainment System Bio]

The Nintendo Entertainment System, also abbreviated as: "NES", or simply called "Nintendo", is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987.

In most of Asia, including Japan (where it was first launched in 1983), China, Vietnam, Singapore, the Middle East and Hong Kong, it was released as the Family Computer, commonly shortened as either the Famicom, or abbreviated to FC.

In South Korea, it was known as the Hyundai Comboy and was distributed by Hynix which then was known as Hyundai Electronics.

It was succeeded by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Once the best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983, and set the standard for subsequent consoles of its generation.

With the NES, Nintendo introduced a now-standard business model of licensing third-party developers, authorizing them to produce and distribute software for Nintendo's platform.

In 2009, the Nintendo Entertainment System was named the single greatest video game console in history by IGN, out of a field of 25.

[super Nintendo Entertainment System Bio]

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (also known as the Super NES, SNES or Super Nintendo) is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo between 1990 and 1993.

In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the Super Famicom, or, SFC for short.

In South Korea, it is known as the Super Comboy and was distributed by Hyundai Electronics.

Although each version is essentially the same, several forms of regional lockout prevent the different versions from being compatible with one another.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is Nintendo's second home console, following the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other consoles at the time.

Additionally, development of a variety of enhancement chips, which were integrated on game circuit boards, helped to keep it competitive in the marketplace.

The SNES was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era, despite its relatively late start and the fierce competition it faced in North America and Europe from Sega's Genesis/Mega Drive console.

The SNES remained popular well into the 32-bit era, and continues to be popular among fans, collectors, retro gamers, and emulation enthusiasts, some of whom are still making homebrew ROM images.

[Nintendo 64 Bio]

The Nintendo 64, often referred to as N64, is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market.

Named for its 64-bit central processing unit, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil.

It is Nintendo's last home console to use ROM cartridges to store games; handhelds in the Game Boy line, however, continued to use Game Paks.

As part of the fifth generation of gaming, it primarily competed with the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.

The N64 was discontinued in 2002 in Japan, North America and PAL regions by the launch of Nintendo's GameCube.

The N64 was released with two launch games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, and a third in Japan, Saikyo Habu Shogi.

The N64's suggested retail price was US$199 at its launch and it was later marketed with the slogan "Get N, or get Out!".

The console was released in at least eight variants with different colors and sizes.

An assortment of limited edition controllers were sold or used as contest prizes during the N64's lifespan.

The N64 sold 32.93 million units worldwide, and in 2009 it was named the 9th greatest video game console by IGN, out of a field of 25.

Of the consoles in the fifth generation, the Nintendo 64 was the latest to be released, and it was also the most technologically advanced.

One of its technical drawbacks was a limited texture cache, which could only hold textures of small dimensions and reduced color depth, which had to be stretched to cover larger in-game surfaces.

More significantly, the N64 still relied upon ROM cartridges, which were constrained by small capacity (particularly in an era when games became more complex and their contents took up more memory) and high production expenses, compared to the Compact Disc format used by its chief competitors.

As a result of the N64's storage media limitations, many third-party publishers that previously supported Nintendo's past consoles would reduce or stop publishing games; the N64's most successful titles came from first-party or second-party studios.

[Panasonic 3DO Bio]

The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, often called simply 3DO, is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993.

Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar.

The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by Dave Needle and R. J. Mical of New Technology Group.

The system was conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins.

Despite a highly promoted launch and a host of cutting-edge technologies, the 3DO's high price, limited third-party developer support, and an over-saturated console market prevented the system from achieving success comparable to competitors Sega and Nintendo.

This console was released in North America on October 4, 1993, Japan on March 20, 1994 and in Europe in 1994.

Since its discontinuation, the 3DO has been frequently derided by video game historians.

Citing a lack of decent exclusives and an "astronomical asking price", in 2009 video game website IGN chose the 3DO as its 22nd greatest video game console of all time, slightly higher than the Atari Jaguar but lower than its four other major competitors: the SNES (4th best), the Sega Mega Drive (5th), the Sony PlayStation (7th), and the Sega Saturn (18th).[4]

[Pop Cap Bio]

PopCap Games is an American video game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington, United States, and it is a subsidiary of Electronic Arts.

It was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and currently employs about 400 people.

Most of Popcap's games can be played free in a limited form, with the full version available for a fee.

PopCap’s flagship title Bejeweled has sold more than 50 million units across all major platforms and continues to sell another copy of itself every 4.3 seconds.

PopCap games are available for Web, PC and Mac, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Zeebo, Cell Phones, PDAs, iPod Classic, iOS, Android, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Windows Phone, and other mobile devices.

[RCA Studio II Bio]

The RCA Studio II is a video game console made by RCA that debuted in January 1977.

The graphics of Studio II games were black and white and resembled those of earlier Pong consoles and their clones.

The Studio II also did not have joysticks or similar game controllers but instead used two ten button keypads that were built into the console itself.

This made two player games difficult because the players would be forced to hold the console and sit extremely close.

The console was capable of making simple beep sounds with slight variations in tone and length.

One distinct feature of the Studio II was its five built-in games.

Another was its use of a switchbox that relayed both the modulated RF signal of the console's video to the television set while powering the console with DC power.

This type of switchbox would not be seen again until the Atari 5200.

The Studio II was not a successful product; the previously released Fairchild Channel F made it obsolete at launch and it suffered a final decisive blow when the superior Atari 2600 console was released only 10 months later.

It was discontinued in 1979.

The name "Studio II" is a reference to RCA's then-famous recording studios.

The RCA Studio II was named as to represent a second studio in which artists could create productions for RCA.

[sammy Atomiswave Bio]

The Atomiswave is a custom arcade system board and cabinet from Sammy Corporation.

It is based on Sega's NAOMI system board, thus it's common to see the "Sega" logo on its boot up screen.

The Atomiswave uses interchangeable game cartridges and the cabinet's control panel can be easily switched out with different control sets, including dual joysticks, dual lightguns and a steering wheel.

With the retirement of the aging Neo Geo MVS system, SNK Playmore chose the Atomiswave as its next system to develop games for.

In a contract with Sammy, SNK Playmore agreed to develop five games for the Atomiswave system.

Metal Slug 6 was SNK Playmore's fifth game for the Atomiswave, after which SNK moved on to a Taito Type X2 arcade board.

[sega Game Gear Bio]

The Sega Game Gear (????? Gemu Gia?) was Sega's first handheld game console.

Based on an 8-bit processor, it was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress.

Work began on the console in 1989 under the codename "Project Mercury", following Sega's policy at the time of codenaming their systems after planets.

The system was released in Japan on October 6, 1990, North America, Europe and Argentina in 1991, and Australia in 1992.

The launch price was $150 USD and £145 GBP.

Sega dropped support for the Game Gear on April 30, 1997.

[sega SG-1000 Bio]

The SG-1000, which stands for Sega Game 1000, was a cartridge-based video game console manufactured by Sega.

This system marked Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business, and while the system was not popular, it provided the basis for the more successful Sega Master System.

[sega Master System Bio]

The Master System, abbreviated to SMS, is a third-generation video game console that was manufactured and released by Sega in 1985 in Japan, as the Sega Mark III, 1986 in North America and 1987 in Europe.

The original SMS could play both cartridges and the credit card-sized "Sega Cards," which retailed for cheaper prices than cartridges but had lower storage capacity.

The SMS also featured accessories such as a light gun and 3D glasses which were designed to work with a range of specially coded games.

The Master System was released as a direct competitor to the Nintendo Entertainment System in the third videogame generation.

The SMS was technically superior to the NES, which predated its release by nine months in North America,but failed to overturn Nintendo's significant market share advantage in Japan and North America.

In the European, Oceanic and Brazilian markets, this console allowed Sega to outsell Nintendo, due to its wider availability.

It enjoyed over a decade of life in those territories and was supported in Europe up until 1996.

Up until 1994, it was the console with the largest active installed user base in Western Europe, peaking at 6.25 million units in 1993.

The console was redesigned several times both for marketing purposes and to add features, most notably in Brazil.

The later Sega Game Gear is effectively a hand-held Master System, with a few enhancements.

In 2009, the Master System was named the 20th best video game console of all time by the video gaming website IGN, behind both its competitors, the Atari 7800, ranked 17th best and the Nintendo Entertainment System, 1st.

They cited the Master System's small games library, coupled with the highly uneven quality of the few games that were released: "Months could go by between major releases and that made a dud on the Master System feel even more painful.

[sega Genesis Bio]

The Sega Genesis, also known as Sega Mega Drive, is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega.

It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as Mega Drive, then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Eur rope, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive.

The reason for the two names is that Sega was unable to secure legal rights to the Mega Drive name in North America.

The Sega Genesis is Sega's third console and the successor to the Sega Master System with which it has backward compatibility when the separately sold Power Base Converter is installed.

The Sega Genesis was the first of its generation to achieve notable market share in continental Europe and North America, where it competed against a wide range of platforms, including both dedicated gaming consoles and home computer systems.

Two years later, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the competition between the two would dominate the 16-bit era of video gaming.

The console began production in Japan in 1988 and ended with the last new licensed game being released in 2002 in Brazil.

The Sega Genesis was Sega's most successful console; though Sega has never released a total sales figure quote.

Several add-ons were created including the Sega CD and Sega 32X which extended its capabilities.

[sega CD Bio]

The Sega Mega-CD, which was released as the Sega CD in North America, is an add-on device for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis video game console, designed and produced by Sega.

The device adds a CD-ROM drive to the console, allowing the user to play CD-based games and providing additional hardware functionality.

It can also play audio CD's and CD+G discs.

The development of the Mega-CD was confidential; game developers were not made aware of what exactly they were working on until the add-on was finally revealed at the Tokyo Toy Show in Japan.

The Mega-CD was designed to compete with the PC Engine CD (TurboGrafx-16 CD) in Japan, which had a separate CD-ROM drive.

The first version of the Mega-CD sits underneath the Mega Drive console and loads CDs via a motorized tray.

A second version places a top-loading CD-ROM drive to the right of the console and is intended primarily for use with the redesigned Mega Drive II. Both versions of the Mega-CD are compatible with the initial two versions of the Mega Drive console, but not with the Mega Drive 3 or Genesis 3.

[sega 32X Bio]

The Sega 32X, codenamed Project Mars, is an add-on for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis video game console.

Its aim was to increase the lifespan of the aging Mega Drive/Genesis system, which was facing increasingly stiff competition from the SNES.

While connecting it to Mega Drive did increase its capabilities, reluctance to adapt due to the previous failure of the Mega-CD and the upcoming Sega Saturn system led to low sales and a short lifespan.

[sega Model 2 Bio]

The Sega Model 2 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1993.

Like the Model 1, it was developed in cooperation with Martin Marietta, and was a further advancement of the earlier Model 1 system.

The most noticeable improvement was texture mapping, which enabled polygons to be painted with bitmap images, as opposed to the limited monotone flat shading that Model 1 supported.

Despite its high pricetag, the Model 2 platform was very successful.

It featured some of the highest grossing arcade games of all time: Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtual-On Cyber Troopers, the House of the Dead, and Dead or Alive, to name a few.

[sega Model 3 Bio]

The Sega Model 3 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1996.

It was the final culmination of Sega's partnership with Lockheed Martin, using the company's Real3D division to design the graphical hardware.

Upon release, the Model 3 was easily the most powerful arcade system board in existence, capable of over one million polygons per second.

The hardware went through several "steppings," which increased the clock speed of the CPU, as well as minor changes to the board architecture.

Well known Model 3 games include Virtua Fighter 3 (1996), Sega Super GT (1996), Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders (1997), Sega Bass Fishing (1997), Daytona USA 2 (1998), Sega Rally 2 (1998), and The Ocean Hunter (1998), although it is the rarest of them.

[sega Saturn Bio]

The Sega Saturn is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe.

The system was discontinued in North America and Europe in 1998, and in 2000 in Japan.

The Saturn sold 9.5 million units worldwide.

While its installed base in the United States ended at 2 million, its installed base in Japan was more than 6 million units.

While it was popular in Japan, the Saturn failed to gain a similar market share in North America and Europe against its main competitors: Sony's PlayStation and later the Nintendo 64.

In 2009, video game website IGN chose the Saturn to be their 18th best video game console of all time, out of their list of 25.

[sega Dreamcast Bio]

The Dreamcast is a video game console which was released by Sega in November 1998 in Japan and in late 1999 in other territories.

It was the first entry in the sixth generation of video game consoles, preceding its rivals: Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube.

10.6 million units were sold worldwide, as of 2002.

Dreamcast sales were positive during launch, but when Sony announced the PlayStation 2, sales of the Dreamcast plummeted.

When the PS2 was launched, it became very popular, and the Dreamcast lost much of its momentum.

Sega later came to the realization that it did not have the resources to compete.

The Dreamcast was discontinued as early as March 2001, which marked Sega's withdrawal from the console hardware business altogether.

Support of the system continued in Europe and Oceania until the end of 2002, while in Japan, consoles were still sold until 2007 and new licensed games continued to be released.

Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast was widely hailed as ahead of its time.

It saw the release of many new game series which have been considered creative and innovative, such as Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, and Shenmue, which was the most expensive game produced at the time.[7] The console itself is still held in high regard for pioneering online console gaming; it was the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for online play.

As of 2012, the Dreamcast is still supported via small independent companies such as RedSpotGames and the GOAT Store.

[sega Naomi Bio]

First demonstrated in 1998 at JAMMA, the Sega Naomi, which is abbreviation of "New Arcade Operation Machine Idea", is the successor to the Sega Model 3 hardware.

A development of the Dreamcast home game console, the NAOMI and Dreamcast share the same hardware components: Hitachi SH-4 CPU, PowerVR Series 2 GPU, and Yamaha AICA based sound system.

NAOMI has twice as much system memory, twice as much video memory, and 4X as much sound memory.

Multiple NAOMI boards can be 'stacked' together to improve graphics performance, or to support multiple-monitor output.

A special game cabinet for the NAOMI, NAOMI Universal Cabinet, houses up to sixteen boards for this purpose.

The other key difference between NAOMI and Dreamcast lies in the game-media.

The Dreamcast reads game data from GD-ROM optical disc, while the NAOMI arcade-board features 168 MB of solid-state ROMs or GD-ROMs using a custom DIMM board and GD-ROM drive.

In operation, the Naomi GD-ROM is read only once at system powerup, downloading the disc's contents to the DIMM-Board RAM.

Once the download is complete, the game executes out of RAM, thereby reducing mechanical wear on the GD-ROM drive.

Unlike Sega's previous arcade platforms and most other arcade platforms in the industry, NAOMI is widely licensed for use by other game publishers including Sega, Namco Bandai, Capcom, Sammy and Tecmo Koei.

Games such as Mazan, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Dead or Alive 2 and Guilty Gear XX were all developed by third-party licensees of the NAOMI platform. An offshoot version of the NAOMI hardware is Atomiswave by Sammy Corporation.

After nine years of hardware production, and with new game titles coming in 2008 like Melty Blood: Actress Again and Akatsuki Blitzkampf AC, NAOMI is considered to be one of the longest running arcade platforms ever and is comparable in longevity with the Neo-Geo MVS.

[sNK Neo Geo MVS Bio]

The Neo Geo is a cartridge-based arcade system board and home video game console released on January 31, 1990 by Japanese game company SNK.

Being in the Fourth generation of Gaming, it was the first system in the former Neo Geo family, which only lived through the 1990s.

The hardware featured comparatively colourful 2D graphics.

The MVS, or "Multi Video System", as the Neo Geo was known to the coin-operated arcade game industry, offered arcade operators the ability to put up to six different arcade titles into a single cabinet, a key economic consideration for operators with limited floorspace.

With its games stored on self-contained cartridges, a game-cabinet could be exchanged for a different game-title by swapping the game's ROM-cartridge and cabinet artwork.

Several popular franchise-series, including Fatal Fury, the King of Fighters, Metal Slug and Samurai Shodown, were released for the platform.

The Neo Geo system was also marketed as a very costly home console, commonly referred to today as the AES (Advanced Entertainment System).

The Neo Geo was marketed as 24-bit, though it was technically a parallel processing 16-bit system with an 8-bit Zilog Z80 as coprocessor.

The coprocessor was used as a CPU, and for sound processing.

The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis also had similar co-processors, but neither Sega nor Nintendo claimed they were 24-bit.

The Neo Geo was ranked 19th out of the 25 best video game consoles of all time by the video game website IGN in 2009.

[sNK Neo Geo CD Bio]

Neo Geo CD is a game console from SNK that was released in 1994, four years after its cartridge-based equivalent, in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs.

It is the second console of the Neo Geo family. The system was originally priced at US$300 new.

The unit's 1X CD-ROM drive was slow, making loading times very long as a result, with the system loading up to 56 Mbit of data with every load.

Neo Geo CD game prices were low at $50, in contrast to Neo Geo AES game cartridges, which cost as much as $300. The system can also play Audio CDs.

All three versions of the system have no region-lock.

The Neo Geo CD was bundled with a control pad instead of a joystick like the AES version.

However, the original AES joystick could be used with all three Neo Geo CD models, instead of the included control pads.

[sNK Neo Geo Pocket Bio]

The Neo Geo Pocket is a monochrome handheld video game console released by SNK. It was the company's first handheld system and is part of the Neo Geo family. It debuted in Japan in late 1998, however saw no western release, being exclusive to Japan and smaller Asian markets such as Hong Kong.

The Neo Geo Pocket is considered to be an unsuccessful console. Lower than expected sales resulted in its discontinuation in 1999, and was immediately succeeded by the Neo Geo Pocket Color, a full color device allowing the system to compete more easily with the dominant Game Boy Color handheld.

The majority of the Neo Geo Pocket's library is forwards compatible with that of the Neo Geo Pocket Color (though games will play in monochrome), and likewise all Neo Geo Pocket games can be played on the color system (bar The Last Blade: Beyond the Destiny).

Though the system enjoyed only a short life, there were some significant games released on the system such as Samurai Shodown, and King of Fighters R-1.

Only ten games were released for the system; Melan Chan's Growth Diary, Puzzle Link, Pocket Tennis, Neo Cup 98, Neo Cup 98 plus, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Master of Syougi, Neo Cherry Master and Baseball Stars.

[sNK Neo Geo Pocket Color Bio]

The Neo Geo Pocket Color, is a 16-bit colour handheld video game console manufactured by SNK.

It is a successor to SNK's monochrome Neo Geo Pocket handheld which debuted in 1998 in Japan.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color was released on March 16, 1999 in Japan, August 6, 1999 in North America, and some time in 1999 in Europe.

The Neo Geo Pocket Color was SNK's last video game console, and is backwards compatible with the Neo Geo Pocket.

In 2000, following SNK's purchase by Japanese pachinko manufacturer Aruze, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was dropped from both the North American and European markets.

It did, however, last until 2001 in Japan, with a total of 2 million units sold.

[sony Playstation Bio]

The PlayStation, officially abbreviated as PS; unofficially referred to as the PSX or PS1, is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994.

The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices.

In 2000, a re-designed, "slim" version was released, called the PS one, replacing the original grey console, and also being renamed to avoid confusion with its successor, the newly-released PlayStation 2.

The PlayStation was the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch.[10] The last game for the system was FIFA Football 2005 released in October 2004, and the last PSone units were sold on Christmas 2004 for a total of 102 million units shipped.

Games continued to sell until Sony ceased production of PlayStation games on March 23, 2006; eleven years after it was released, and just over half a year before the release of the PlayStation 3.

[VTech CreatiVision Bio]

The Video Technology CreatiVision was a hybrid computer and video game console introduced by VTech in 1981.

The hybrid unit was similar in concept to computers such as the APF Imagination Machine, the older VideoBrain Family Computer, and to a lesser extent the Intellivision game console and Coleco Adam computer, all of which anticipated the trend of video game consoles becoming more like low-end computers.

The CreatiVision was distributed in many European countries, in South Africa, in Israel under the Educat 2002 name, as well as in Australia under the Dick Smith Wizzard name.

Other names for the system (all officially produced by VTech themselves) include the FunVision Computer Video Games System, Hanimex Rameses and VZ 2000.

All CreatiVision and similar clones were designed for use with PAL standard television sets, except the Japanese CreatiVision (distributed by Cheryco) which was NTSC and is nowadays much sought after by collectors.

The CreatiVision console sported an 8-bit Rockwell 6502 CPU at a speed of 2 MHz, 1KB of RAM and 16KB of Video RAM, and had a graphics resolution of 256 × 192 with 16 colors and 32 sprites. The console had 2 integrated joystick/membrane keypad controllers (much like the ColecoVision) which, when set in a special compartment on top of the console, could be used as a computer keyboard.

The CreatiVision had interfaces for a cassette player, an extra rubber keyboard, floppy disk drive, parallel I/O interface, modem (likely unreleased), Centronics printer and one memory expansion module for use with the Basic language cartridge.

The CreatiVision was discontinued in late 1985/early 1986. A computer was produced by VTech in 1984-1986, based on CreatiVision hardware and compatible with most of the games: Laser 2001, which sold in Europe and Australia. It was also available in Finland through Salora, with the name of Manager.

The Manager had a specific keyboard with Finnish layout and characters set.

[Watara Supervision Bio]

The Watara Supervision (also known as the QuickShot Supervision in the UK) is a monochrome handheld game console, originating from Asia, and introduced in 1992 as a cut-price competitor for Nintendo's Game Boy.

It came packaged with a game called Crystball, which is similar to Breakout.

One unique feature of the Supervision was that it could be linked up to a television via a link cable.

Games played in this way would display in four colors, much like Nintendo's Super Game Boy add-on for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

A full color TV link was also in the works, but because of the Supervision's failure to make a major impression among gamers it was cancelled, along with the games which were in development for it.

Though the machine garnered some attention at launch, it was ultimately unsuccessful in unseating the Game Boy from its position as the world's most popular handheld.

Reasons commonly cited are the poor quality screen which was prone to blurring and made following the action difficult, a general lack of games and the simplistic nature of those that were released.

Yet another problem was that most of the games that were available were developed in Taiwan or Hong Kong, meaning that fans of big-name Western and Japanese developers were underwhelmed by the apparent lack of support from these companies.

Only a tiny handful of games were developed by third parties, including Sachen and the British developer B.I.T.S..

Up against Nintendo's list of popular franchises, "Zelda, Mario, Metroid" and those of its third parties "Castlevania, Mega Man" - all of which eventually surfaced on the Game Boy - the Supervision's games were of little interest to most.

[Zinc Bio]

ZiNc is an emulator for arcade video games based on Sony PlayStation hardware. This includes systems from Capcom, Taito, Konami, Tecmo, and Namco, among others.

These games are also supported in MAME, but ZiNc can frequently run them faster and with graphics and sound enhancements.

HyperSpeech IS working, but my LED buttons are not...

- J*

[BoOgieman]

J dude,

Copy those two realledblinky settings in the hyperspeech.ini over to settings.ini.

The version of hyperspeech you use checks the settings.ini.

Sent from Android with Tapatalk

[Jumpstile]

LOL, I'm a dumbass. Ok, did that, and it works much better... Going to do some playing with it some more tonight, but LEDBlinky seems to be working just fine.

- J*

[Hyperion]

So attract mode chooses the game, A question pops ups up like "Who is the developer of this game" or "What year was this game released?".

Than multiple choice options appear, from which you must select your answer with the joystick within a given amount of time...

Hell... make it even a 2-4 player battle or online against other HyperSpinners.

what should we call it? Hyper Feud?

I wasn't thinking about trivia questions but that's an interesting idea! Effectively turning Hyperspin into a game in itself.

[Trnzaddict]

Boogie, I really love this app but I'm having the same problem as djvj. Well, HyperSpeech speaks the Mame game description, but it will NOT speak any system name when on my main menu. I have full themes and videos too so it should be recognizing what main menu wheel I'm on but it won't say it.

[Ind_noobling]

This is awesome!!!

[BoOgieman]

Boogie, I really love this app but I'm having the same problem as djvj. Well, HyperSpeech speaks the Mame game description, but it will NOT speak any system name when on my main menu. I have full themes and videos too so it should be recognizing what main menu wheel I'm on but it won't say it.

Make sure you have the system videos in the\Media\Main Menu\Video folder because this is the path that is checked...

Sent from Android with Tapatalk

[BoOgieman]

LOL, I'm a dumbass. Ok, did that, and it works much better... Going to do some playing with it some more tonight, but LEDBlinky seems to be working just fine.

- J*

J, how's the response of your LEDs with HyperSpeech being in between?

Sent from Android with Tapatalk

[Jumpstile]

Its pretty good. I don't really notice much of a delay.

- J*