Computer System
Old System
I started running a
166 mHz Pentium. 128M RAM, 20x CDROM, 10
Gig hard drive, Sound Blaster 16. Not much but
the hardware it is emulating many times ran at a
blazing 5mHz. I included this information
for those of you out there thinking you need a
newer machine to start these projects . . .
think again. You will have a hard time
running some of the games . . but look into some
of the platform optimized or dos Mame builds
made exclusively for speed on "not so
powerful" hardware. Bottom line is
you need the cabinet, video and control hardware
setup's later even when you upgrade the machine,
so build away.
This is the most important
part of the machine. You want S-Video
out. I tested this against composite and the
S Video supplied a much sharper image with less
bleed, particularly in the red colors and vector
games like Star Wars.
Go with atleast 20 gig so
that you can add other platforms like Sega Genesis
and Super Nintendo, plus several of the games such
as Killer Instinct and Area 51 have disk images
which require around a gig of hard disk
space. Disk space is cheap and a good 60 gig
should hold everything you need from operating
system to emulator to front end to rom images and
screen shots.
Install a network card and
connect it to the Internet if possible.
Anyone who has been in this hobby long enough can
tell you that there are constantly new releases of
ROM images, screen shots, emulation software etc.
. . The internet connection makes updates a
breeze.
After operating with and
without a keyboard, I can say it is worth while to
add a keyboard and secondary mouse. I say
secondary because I use the Happ Trackball as my
primary mouse device.
Take the time to install a
set of speakers with a volume control and on/off
switch. The volume can vary quite a bit from
game to game and the software keys to change
volume may vary from emulator to emulator.
This allows you to quite the machine down when it
is running it's screen saver, arcade background
noise.
