The Dead Media Notebook
Page 43
1.1 What does MAME mean? “MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.
1.2 Who made MAME? “The project was started months ago by Nicola Salmoria who made a lot of standalone emulators for various games. After doing those emulators, he started on the Multi-Pacman-Emulator, which emulated all the various Pacman clones. M.A.M.E. came after that, incorporating all the different emulators Nicola made into one single emulator itself and started adding support for a lot of other (new) games as well. Currently the project is being towed by Mirko Buffoni, and is being supported by various talented coders (including Nicola Salmoria himself as well) who submit game drivers for the project.
1.4 What is needed to run MAME? “MAME originated on the PC as a DOS emulator. However, since the MAME development team makes their sourcecode available to the public, it’s ported to nearly every suitable system around.
“I personally use a P90/16MB/WIN95 and the DOS version runs like a dream really on nearly all the games. Nicola developed MAME on a 486/DX100 so my guess is that it runs well enough on that as some sort of a minimum configuration.
1.6 Is the sourcecode available? “MAME always had its source code released right from the beginning, giving other people to take a look on how it’s made, contribute or how they could make their own emulator. Get the source code at the Official MAME page.
2.0 What are ROM images? “ROM images are the actual software packets stored on ROM (Read Only Memory) chips placed on a circuit board inside an arcade game cabinet. People having access to both the original PCBs and a (EP)ROM reader can read the images and transform them into chunks of code. MAME emulates various CPU’s and by using game specific drivers to address the ROM images, the software (ie. the ROMs) actually think they are working with the real thing. MAME emulates the real thing, and performs the tasks that were programmed into the ROMs.
3.1 What are the correct gamenames?
1942 3STOOGES AMIDAR AMIDARJP ANTEATER ARABIAN ASTDELUX ASTEROI2 ASTEROID ATLANTIS BAGMAN BLASTER BLUEPRNT BOBLBOBL BOMBJACK BOSCO BTIME BTIMEA BUBBLES BUBLBOBL BWIDOW BZONE BZONE2 CARNIVAL CAVENGER CCASTLES CCBOOT CCJAP CCLIMBER CENTIPED CKONG CKONGA CKONGJEU CKONGS COMMANDO CONGO CRUSH DEFENDER DESTERTH DIAMOND DIGDUG2 DIGDUGAT DIGDUGNM DKONG DKONG3 DKONGJP DKONGJR DOCASTLE DORUNRUN DOUNI DOWILD EARTHINV EGGS ELEVATOB ELEVATOR ELIM2 EXEDEXES FANTASY FANTAZIA FROGGER FROGGERS FROGSEGA FRONTLIN GALAGA GALAGABL GALAGANM GALAP1 GALAP4 GALAPX GALAXIAN GALLAG GALMIDW GALNAMCO GALTURBO GALXWARS GBERET GNG GNGCROSS GORF GRAVITAR GYRUSS HANGLY HUNCHY INVADERS INVDELUX INVRVNGE JAPIREM JBUGSEGA JHUNT JOUST JRPACMAN JUMPBUG JUNGLEK KANGAROO KICKRIDR KRULL KUNGFUB KUNGFUM LADYBUG LLANDER LOCOMOTN LOSTTOMB LRESCUE MAPPY MARIO MILLIPED MISSILE MOONCRSB MOONCRST MOONQSR MPATROL MPLANETS MRANGER MRDO MRDOT MRLO MSPACATK MSPACMAN MTRAP MYSTSTON NAMCOPAC NAUGHTYB NIBBLER PACMAN PACMANJP PACMOD PACNPAL PACPLUS PANIC PANICA PENGO PENGOA PENTA PEPPER2 PHOENIX PHOENIX3 PHOENIXA PHOENIXT PIRANHA PISCES PLEIADS POOYAN POPEYEBL PUCKMAN QBERT QBERTJP QBERTQUB QIX RALLYX REACTOR REDBARON RESCUE ROBBY ROBOTRON RUSHATCK SBAGMAN SCOBRA SCOBRAB SCOBRAK SCRAMBLE SEAWOLF2 SEICROSS SINISTAR SNAPJACK SONSON SPACDUEL SPACEATT SPACEFB SPACEPLT SPACEZAP SPACFURY SPLAT STARFORC STARGATE STARTREK STARWARS SUPERG SUPERPAC SXEVIOUS TACSCAN TEMPEST THEEND TIMEPLT TURPIN TURTLES TUTANKHM UNIWARS VANGUARD VENTURE VULGUS WARLORD WAROFBUG WARPWARP WOW WWESTERN XEVIOUS XEVIOUSN YARD YIEAR ZAXXON ZEKTOR
[2015 note: I thought this list was too good to leave out]
Source: Multi Arcade Machine Emulator FAQ
A Brief History of the Mattel Intellivision
From Bruce Sterling
“At the end of 1979, Mattel Electronics (a division of Mattel Toys) released a video game system known as Intellivision along with 12 video game cartridges. Poised as a competitor to the then king of the hill Atari 2600, Mattel Electronics called their new product ‘Intelligent Television,’ stemming largely from their marketing plans to release a compatible computer keyboard for their video games console. Mattel’s marketing was anything but intelligent and almost destroyed the company by 1984. In one sense the system was very successful, with over 3 million units sold and 125 games released before the system was discontinued by INTV Corp. in 1990.
“The original Master Component was test marketed in Fresno, California in late 1979. The response was excellent, and Mattel went national with their new game system in late 1980. The first year’s production run of 200,000 units was completely sold out! To help enhance its marketability, Mattel also marketed the system in Sears stores as the Super Video Arcade, and at Radio Shack as the Tandyvision One in the early 1980’s.
“1980 was a turbulent year for the Intellivision. Mattel announced that an ‘inexpensive’ keyboard expansion would be available in 1981 for the master component to be dropped into. This was to turn the system into a powerful 64K home computer that could do everything from play games to balance your checkbook. There was a great deal of marketing money and press coverage devoted to this unit; a third of the box for the GTE/Sylvania Intellivision describes the features of this proposed expansion. Many people bought an Intellivision with plans to turn it into a computer when the expansion module was released.
“Months, then years passed and the original expansion keyboard was released only in a few test areas in late 1981. With the price too high and the initial reaction poor, the product was scrapped in 1982 before being released nationwide.
“1982 saw many changes in both the videogame industry and the Intellivision product line. A voice-synthesis module called Intellivoice made sound and speech and integral part of gameplay, through the use of special voice-enhanced cartridges. The Intellivision II was also released this year, which one company spokesperson described as ‘smaller and lighter than the original, yet with the same powerful 16-bit microprocessor.’ The new console was more compact than the first, and its grayish body made it look more like a sophisticated electronic device than the original design.
“1983 brought more promises from the folks at Mattel, the most significant of which being the Intellivision III. This was shown off at the January 1983 CES show, and lauded in the videogame mags for many months afterwards. In June of 1983 at the Summer CES show, Mattel announced it was killing the Intellivision III and including most of its high-profile features into their long-awaited computer expansion, the Entertainment Computer System.
“Probably the most ambitious effort the Intellivision team had undertaken, the Entertainment Computer System was comprised of a computer keyboard add-on, a 49-key music synthesizer, RAM expansion for the keyboard add-on to expand it to a full 64K RAM and 24K ROM, a data recorder to store programs, a 40-column thermal printer, and an adapter which would allow you to play Atari 2600 games on your Intellivision.
“The RAM expansion modules, data recorder, and thermal printer never made it past the drawing board, and the music synthesizer had but one software title to take advantage of its capabilities. While the 2600 adapter greatly expanded the library of available games, much of the steam this generated had already been stolen by Coleco’s own expansion module.
1984 would spell the end of the original Intellivision as the world knew it. T.E. Valeski, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Mattel Electronics, along with a group of investors, purchased the assets, trademarks, patents, and right to the Intellivision in January of 1984 for $16.5 million dollars. The purchase was backed by financing from Tangible Industries, a division of Revco Drug Stores. The newly formed company was originally called Intellivision, Inc., and later renamed INTV, Inc., after Valeski negotiated all rights from Revco in November of 1984. During the next two years, the new company would lie dormant while plans were being made for a re-emergence.
“In the fall of 1985, the INTV System III (also called the Super Pro System) appeared at Toys ‘R Us, Kiddie City, and in a mail order catalog sent to owners of the original Intellivision direct from INTV. The new console was of the same general design as the original master component, except it sported a fresh black plastic shell with brushed aluminum trim.
Several new games accompanied the release of the new system, and 1985 would register over $6 million dollars in sales worldwide, indicating that INTV Corp. had indeed revived the Intellivision. INTV continued to market games and repair services through the mail with great success. Between 1985 and 1990 over 35 new games were released, bringing the Intellivision’s game library to a total of 125 titles.
“Many more changes were to come during the final six years of Intellivision’s useful life. In 1987, an improved master component called the INTV System IV was shown at the January CES, which sported detachable controllers and a timing device. Unfortunately, this never saw the light either. In the fall of 1988, INTV re- introduced the computer keyboard adapter through their mail order catalog on a limited quantity basis.
“In 1990, INTV discontinued retail sales of their games and equipment and sold them only through the mail channels. The change in marketing was due to agreements with Nintendo and Sega to become a software vendor for the NES, Game Boy and Genesis. In 1991, INTV sold out its stock of Intellivision games and consoles, and the company, along with the Intellivision, gradually faded into black.”
Source: Mattel Intellivision Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) by Larry Anderson Version 3.0, June 27th, 1995 “Copyright © 1995 Larry Anderson
Ghost Sites on the Web
From Morbus
[Bruce Sterling remarks: Steve Baldwin has an interesting hobby. He not only hunts down dead websites (as the following indicates) but he has entertaining and highly caustic things to say about them in his own website.]
[Morbus remarks: “Ghost Sites is a zine that guides you to the rotting corpses on the Internet. All those sites that haven’t been updated in years, or proclaim movies long dead, forgotten to the sands of time.”]
[The following text is by Steve Baldwin.] “Layoffs at Hotwired. A bloodbath rumored at CNet. Cool Site of the Day on the rocks. A cruel, winnowing ice storm is blowing through the Net, and many of yesterday’s once unassailable Web sites are fighting for their lives.
“Many say that the age of experimentalism is over, that it’s time for the Web to grow up and start earning a living, that the world won’t shed a tear for the legions of half-baked and half-cocked sites now lying in ruins.
“At Ghost Sites, we try to avoid long-winded discussions of how we got ourselves into this awful mess. We’re not here to speechify, we’re here to wield a shovel and play Taps for dead web sites. Someday, perhaps when the Web becomes civilized enough to bury its own dead, we’ll move on to happier pursuits.
“But not now. There’s too much digging to do.
“If you’re interested in this Ghost Sites thing, it is a project that I began in the summer of 1996 while I was working for Time-Warner’s Pathfinder. Late in the evening of July 4th, while piloting a small craft across Long Island Sound, I had what only can be described as an epiphany.
“From out of the depths came a cruel vision of the World Wide Web. It wasn’t a friendly place, an innocent place of community, commerce and chat. It was a great and utterly pitiless electronic ocean that swallowed up sites, careers, and venture capital like a ravenous killer whale. Great sites, sites like Mecklerweb and iGuide, were going down with all hands. Great fortunes were collapsing and proud content sites lay wrecked on the bottom. No one seemed to care. The future was a vast abyss, who would record these days of New Media folly, disaster and despair? “Back on shore, but still haunted by this vision, I launched Ghost Sites as a modest attempt to document the great disappearing fleet of web sites sinking beneath the waves. This project briefly made me spectacularly famous, and then I was quickly, and completely forgotten.
“By March of 1997, Ghost Sites had succumbed to the same deadly entropy that had settled over the Internet, and became a crewless wreck itself. For six cruel months, it drifted like a despised garbage barge, broke its keel in a summer squall, and finally washed up on Geocities.
“On an icy November morning, Morbus boarded the wreck, inspected the damage, and offered the captain a safe harbor. The bilge pump was started, and the squealing, rusty hull lifted off the sands again. It soon arrived here, in the dark, unquiet waters of Disobey.Com.
“If you want to see the article that made me briefly famous, check out ‘Ghosts in the Machine.’ I became so famous because of this article that there were women lining up to see me, I felt like Elvis! But then. the fall from grace.
Source: www.disobey.com/ghostsites/ [2015 note: Still alive, ish]
De Moura’s Wave Emitter
From Roberto de Sousa Causo
[Bruce Sterling remarks: One might feel a bit of skepticism for these nationalist claims of pre-eminence in radio, but I have to give this Brazilian journalist a lot of credit for his assertive title.]
“Marconi my Ass! Brazilian Radio Inventor Arrived Ahead” by Geraldo Nunes
“Brazilian Catholic priest Landell de Moura tested positively a radio device in Sao Paulo, in 1893, two years ahead of Marconi.
“This is a story of individual vision and collective shortsightness. Back in 19th century Brazil, the only way you could become a scientist was by first becoming a member of the Catholic Church. That was what Landell de Moura (born in January 21, 1861, dead July 30 1928) did in 1879, in order to be accepted at the Gregorian University in Italy. There he met Guglielmo Marconi, who was then studying the telegraph, while Moura went to researching radio transmission.
“Back in Brazil he was met with indifference by local Church officials. After insisting on his projects for some time and suffering a lot of transferral from one town to another, he ended up in Sao Paulo, capital of a State with the same name, a city in which he found means to build his ‘emissor de ondas’ or wave emitter.
“In 1893, in the Paulista Avenue, he tested his emissor de ondas, contacting a receiver installed at Alto de Santana, a place 8 kilometers from the emitter site. This was two years ahead of Marconi, and while Marconi’s device could work only with morse code, Moura’s emissor de ondas could really transmit the human voice.
“Moura proceeded to get a patent registered in Sao Paulo, and other three in the US, among them were a hertzian wave transmitter, a wireless telephone and telegraph.
“Yet his discoveries and inventions were badly received by the Church intelligentsia in Brazil, which claimed talking from place to place without a wire could only be a ‘Devil’s deed.’ When looking for government support Landell de Moura was treated as a crazy dumb idiot, and in 1904 his patents expired.
“Eventually, in the 20s, the radio was introduced in Brazil and become a major cultural feature, and everybody of course honored Marconi for that.”
Source: Marconi uma Ova!, an article by Geraldo Nunes in the weekly magazine of the newspaper Diario Popular Number 48, October 5, 1997. The article was based in Reynaldo C. Tavare’s book, Historias que o Radio Nao Contou.
Nixie indicator tube displays
From Tom Jennings
Nixie indicators (aka “Nixie tubes”) were an all- electronic display device developed by Burroughs Corp in 1954 from a design by the Haydu brothers a year earlier. Nixies were a novel use of tried-and-true technologies, vacuum tube packaging of gaseous-discharge lamps (“neon lamps”) shaped into alphanumeric symbols. Until the late ‘60’s when supplanted by LEDs (then LCDs), Nixies were the premier display technology for low-bandwidth information. A Nixie contained up to 12 symbols; most commonly digits 0 through 9, others with sign (+, -), decimal point or even alphas. Characters were cursive, discrete, fully formed, and a bright orange color.
Nixies were nicely synergistic, bridging the pre- computer world with the post. For the first time, instrumentation could display numbers as people drew them, nicely formed digits in a linear left-to-right string, with leading sign and decimal point.
They were a monolithic electronic device rather than a mechanical assembly or array of lamps. Texas Instruments and others made TTL integrated-circuit interfaces for them, the 7440 and 7441.
Decimal tubes performed functions otherwise requiring a chassis full of tubes and discrete components. A decimal tube “effectively replac[es] 18 transistors (10 high voltage ones) and forty diodes”, a Good Thing in 1954.
The design life of decimal counting tubes was fairly long, late 40’s through early 60’s. Gaseous decimal counting tubes were also a medium unto themselves. They directly displayed their internal state via visibly-glowing electrodes, which commercial equipment used to advantage, mainly in counters and scalers.
Korean Horse Post
From Gary Gach
“The Horse Relay Station (Pabal) “Horse relay stations were a communication system established to deliver emergency military secret documents promptly from the central government to the border.
“Relaying information about an enemy’s position using beacon or smoke was limited when it was cloudy or foggy. Thus the horse relay station system supplemented the beacon and fire system. It originated as a military secret service, established by the Sung dynasty in order to attack the Jurchen dynasty.
“There were three types of delivery. The poch’e and kopgakch’e were a type of communication in which a man delivers a message by running, and mach’e was a type of communication in which a horse was used. This system was further developed during Yuan and Ming dynasties of China.
“During the Japanese Invasion, the Ming China’s military dispatched messages to the Choson dynasty using the relay station. Kim Ung-nam, a consular representative, and Han Chun-gyom, the royal secretary, suggested in adopting a similar system. It was then adopted and 194 stations were established. Three main sectors, West, North, and South were established. They were further subdivided into regions. There was a stop station every twenty or thirty ri for jockeys.