"Games won't get the same respect as movies by selling more copies"

December 2nd, 2012, 00:53 Posted By: wraggster

Let us explain. Late last year, Hirshberg deflected Call Of Duty's role in glorifying violence by focusing on the 'free pass' given to movies. "There's a sense that games are more exploitive in a way that The Hurt Locker isn't," says Hirshberg. "The producers didn't create The Hurt Locker as a public service; they did it to tell a story that they thought needed to be told. And, yet, that's not viewed as exploiting current events."In short, games don't get the same respect as movies, Hirshberg argues. It's a fair observation, but the worrying part, is how he thinks games will become more accepted. Rather than try to contextualise violence, or say something more important (or indeed, anything), Hirshberg suggests games will gain respect by... selling more copies.
"I don't know if there is a way for us to accelerate that process [gaining mainstream acceptance] through content," Hirshberg says. "There's a way to accelerate it through continued success, through continued engagement and commitment to quality, by making great games that people want to play. The more people play, the more mainstream and accepted games will become."
So, let's get this straight: games shouldn't try to earn respect - but wait until they're ubiquitous and no one's left to complain? Sorry Eric, but that's where Mr Willis was ahead of the curve. Respect, as any middle class street hoodlum will tell you, isn't given, but earned.
<figure style="font: 14px/21px sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 620px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; clear: both; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: none; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="article-image article-image- article-image-620"></figure>However you slice up any of Modern Warfare 3's many, many noisy levels, its most astonishing insight is 'war is bad' or - and prepare to have the very nature of your existence questioned - 'war is confusing'. You could play the levels in any order and the plot wouldn't make a lot less sense, and an hour after finishing it, all you remember are the explosions and the Eiffel tower, as opposed to that bit with explosions in that street, or in the tunnel...No, wait, was that MW2? Even the 'shocking' bits are legacy inclusions from the genuinely provocative Call Of Duty 4 - its devs reduced to ticking the 'controversy' box like sad industrial robots riveting imaginary doors years after the factory's closure.
Wait. Tell a lie. There's one bit of Modern Warfare 3 that we do remember. The bit at the end where you wear the heavy-duty bomb disposal suit that was made famous in... The Hurt Locker. Oh.
There's a place for dumb, noisy, games, but it's not their place to complain if they're not taken seriously. Movies are often 'excused' of their violence, as part of a wider message or context, but one recent example suggests the same could be true for games. 2K's daring, Spec Ops: The Line - with its scenes of torture and killing innocents - passed through the notoriously strict German censors uncut, who described the game as 'anti-war'. 2K's game makes players confront their role, not as soldiers, but killers, and the true impacts of their actions.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...g-more-copies/

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Raspberry Pi Quadcopter

December 2nd, 2012, 00:25 Posted By: wraggster

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but that doesn’t diminish the awesomeness of [Matthew]‘s Raspberry Pi-powered quadcopter.
[Matthew]‘s quadcopter is similar to all the other flying drones we’ve seen before with one important difference – all the processing, from reading the gyroscopes to computing exactly how much power to give each motor – is handled by a Raspberry Pi. This task is usually the domain of a microcontroller, as these calculations need to happen in real-time. The Linux distro [Matt] is running on his Pi has a lot more overhead than a simple AVR or ARM microcontroller, so doing everything that needs to be done in real-time isn’t guaranteed. With a bit of clever programming, [Matthew] managed to make sure all the necessary tasks were taken care of in time. It’s still not a real-time operating system, but for this project at least, it’s good enough.
Since the Raspberry Pi in [Matthew]‘s quadcopter is much more powerful than a microcontroller, there’s plenty of head room to SSH into the ‘copter while it’s flying. There may even be enough processing power to stream video to a web server; we honestly can’t wait to see what [Matthew] does with his flying Linux computer in the future.
You can check out [Matthew]‘s code over on the git or watch a few flight test videos over on his youtube.

http://hackaday.com/2012/12/01/raspberry-pi-quadcopter/

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Plan 9 on the Raspberry Pi

December 2nd, 2012, 00:23 Posted By: wraggster


Yet another operating system has been ported to the Raspberry Pi. No, it’s not Haiku, sadly, but it is something just as weird and interesting. This time it’s Plan 9 from Bell Labs, an 80′s era OS from the same company that brought you C and Unix.
As a research operating system, Plan 9 has a bunch of really weird, but useful features. For one, everything about a computer running Plan 9 is distributed; the memory can be running on one machine, the processor on another, and the display can run on yet another machine. This modularity gives Plan 9 the honorable title of, ‘more Unix than Unix’.
Another great feature, although somewhat of a historical note, is that Plan 9′s graphics capabilities are written into the kernel, unlike Linux and X where the display manager is floating around in user space.
It’s an interesting system, and if you’ve got enough Raspis to build your own supercomputer you might want to install Plan 9 on a few of your nodes, just to see what the future computer of ages past looked like.

http://hackaday.com/2012/12/01/plan-...-raspberry-pi/

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Raspberry Pi's $25 Model A Hits Production Line

December 2nd, 2012, 00:20 Posted By: wraggster

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced that the cheaper variant of the Raspberry Pi — the Model A — has entered production phase. Model A of the credit-card sized computer has been stripped of its Ethernet port and a USB port, leaving just one USB port. This model comes with 256MB RAM, but as it is less complex compared to its predecessor it will consume less power, thus opening up quite a few new usage scenarios. The Foundation has posted the first image of the $25 Model A on its site and noted 'We're anticipating that those of you who buy the Model A will be using it for different applications from Model B owners.'

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...roduction-line

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Raspberry Pi's $25 Model A enters production

December 1st, 2012, 02:03 Posted By: wraggster

Raspberry Pi's Model B computer will be no stranger to regular readers. We've seen it turn up in all sorts of projects, and generally stretched in various directions. If you were holding out for the cheaper, lower specced Model A however, your time is near. A recent post on the official Raspberry Pi site confirms that the first Model A samples are rolling off the production line. The main differences? Whereas Model B has two USB ports and 512 MB of RAM plus Ethernet, Model A sports only the one port, has half the RAM, and no Ethernet connection, making it more power economical as well as $10 cheaper. Price likely isn't the issue here, but if you were after the even more stripped back version, it's estimated they'll be ready to purchase online early next year.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/30/r...rs-production/

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Cyber Monday set to be busiest day in UK online retail history

November 30th, 2012, 00:30 Posted By: wraggster

UK online retailers are getting ready for what is expected to be the busiest online shopping day the country has ever seen.
The US even saw sales up 28.4 per cent compared to last year, and the UK’s equivalent is set to follow suit.
Experian forecasts 115 million visits to UK retail websites, meaning a 36 per cent rise on 2011. The researchers also predict a whopping 15 million hours will be spent online on Cyber Monday alone.
Taking place on Monday 3rd December, one week after the US’s Mega Monday, consumers are expected to spend £320 million on Visa cards transactions alone.
A recent survey by bss digital revealed that nearly 10 million people would use their smartphone or tablet to do their Christmas shopping this year. So retailers need to make sure they have mobile friendly websites to make the most of this shift from PC to mobile device.
Experian reports that 2011’s Cyber Monday saw the UK make 84.6 million visits to online retail sites, with Amazon and eBay being responsible for 28 per cent of all retail visits on the day.
“Christmas 2012 is on track to be another record-breaker for online retail, outstripping 2011 on all fronts,” commented James Murray, Digital Insight Manager at Experian Marketing Services.
“Monday 3rd December will be the peak of pre-Christmas shopping in the UK so marketers need to make sure their campaigns are in place to maximise traffic on Cyber Monday: it’s not too late to promote special offers through email and social media. Understanding what people are interested in, the best channels to engage customers through and when to reach them will be crucial to success this Christmas.”

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...history/029714

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Black Ops 2 a hit on Japanese charts

November 28th, 2012, 23:53 Posted By: wraggster

This week saw the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in Japan, where the PS3 version of the title made it to number 2 in the software charts.
At first glance Animal Crossing: New Leaf still has the top spot, but the Japanese charts split release by format. The Activision shooter sold just over 197,000 units on PlayStation 3 and 22,000 on Xbox 360 in Japan, over 219,000 in total, which was enough to beat Animal Crossing. The Xbox version made it into the chart at number 6.

1. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 213,414
2. [PS3] Call of Duty: Black Ops II 197,350 (New entry)
3. [3DS] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Magna Gate and the Infinity Labyrinth - 121,480 (New entry)
4. [PS3] Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational - 100,862 (New entry)
5. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 34,971

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Kickstarted Oculus Rift VR Headset Shipping In March/April

November 28th, 2012, 23:32 Posted By: wraggster

After an amazing Kickstarter campaign garnering over $2.4M in backing, VR headset Manufacture OculusVR has announced manufacturing details and also a shipping delay until March or April 2013. Oculus says that due to the number of backers, mass manufacturing would be required. 'All together, preparing the factory for mass production of a product like the Rift takes approximately 90 days and the factory can’t begin until design and feature set has been locked down. Our manufacturer is already underway with the first tooling (T1), which takes roughly 50-70 days. Once the primary tooling is complete, we’ll do a series of pilot runs for minor tweaks and adjustments before mass production. Simultaneously, we’ll be testing and certifying the device for public use.' Additional details are included on their 1000hz 9DOF head tracker and 7" screen: 'Ultimately, we selected a modern, 1280×800 7’’ display for the developer kit. The bright side is that the new display beats the old display in almost every key area including response time, switching time, contrast, and color quality. The improved switching time of the panel actually alleviates most of the motion blur people saw in earlier prototype demos. The downside to our new 7’’ is the weight differential: approximately 30g more than the 5.6".' It looks like the VR revolution will have to wait a little bit longer.

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...-in-marchapril

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Oculus Rift: New dev kit date, new form

November 28th, 2012, 23:30 Posted By: wraggster

VR gaming system delays shipping to games makers, as new prototype headset and console are revealed

The team behind the Oculus Rift VR gaming system have confirmed a delay in the delivery of developer kits.
Citing unexpectedly huge demand, the Oculus Rift team now expect to ship 7,500 developer kits in March 2013, three months after the original intended delivery date.

"When we launched our Kickstarter campaign in August, we hoped to sell a few hundred kits to game developers and virtual reality enthusiasts around the world," read a statement in an update to the Oculus Rift Kickstarter page. "Instead, we were blown away by the overwhelming response from a community of almost 10,000 backers, who raised nearly $2.5 million dollars to help us develop the Oculus Rift.
"Designing, sourcing, and manufacturing thousands of developer kits is no small feat," continued the statement. "Since our Kickstarter, we’ve been up against the wall, working around the clock to produce and distribute over 7,500 units in just four short, crazy months. We’ve had to modify our original design for mass-manufacturing and, at the same time, balance additional features with our tight schedule."
Poised to enter full factory production, the Oculus Rift creators hope to produce over 500 developer units a day.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...-date-new-form

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Razer updates Orochi mouse with new laser, longer battery life

November 28th, 2012, 01:16 Posted By: wraggster

It's nearly vacation time, you've got your second-gen Razer Blade nestled in wrapping paper below the Festivus pole, and all you need is a fancy new mouse to go along with that fancy new gaming laptop. Razer's apparently got you covered in that department as well, refreshing its Orochi wireless gaming mouse just in time for the upcoming holiday. Sporting a new laser with a 6400 dpi 4G sensor, Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity (as well as wired support) and 30 hours of advertised battery life on two AAs (double the previous model), the Orochi promises to "take out the competition with deadly accuracy." Here's hoping Razer's not talking about beating your opponents to death with the mouse, and just means that figuratively. The company's already got the new Orochi up for sale on its website for $69.99 / €69.99, which we'd suggest heading to sooner than later should you want to beat the holiday madness.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/27/r...ate-late-2012/

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Square Enix dev says Japanese industry is "pushing back"

November 28th, 2012, 01:10 Posted By: wraggster

After years of stagnation, the Japanese game industry is ready for a comeback. At least, that's what Square Enix technical director Yoshihisa Hashimoto told 4Gamer last week in an interview translated by Edge.
Hashimoto acknowledged that in terms of influence on the industry, the Japanese industry is "being pushed around by Western games without a doubt." However, he has seen encouraging signs that things are changing, specifically pointing to Kojima Productions' Fox Engine work (as seen in the Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer) as an example.
"Recently, it feels like the Japanese game industry hasn't lost, and is gradually pushing back."
Given that Hashimoto is currently involved in the creation of Square Enix's Luminous Studio game engine, he found the glimpse of Kojima's new engine to be motivational as well as encouraging. Hasimoto called the Fox Engine tech amazing, adding that it spurred him to think, "We [Square Enix] won't lose to this though!"
For Luminous Studio, Hashimoto is trying to create technology capable of meeting the demands of Square Enix's AAA titles, but also adaptable for smartphone, tablet, and cloud-based gaming as well.
"The aim is to broaden the vision of the company, and establish a better integrated game development environment," Hashimoto explained.
The Luminous Engine was first shown off at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this year with a Final Fantasy tech demo trailer called Agni's Philosophy.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-pushing-back

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Injecting power into a WiFi dongle for the Raspberry Pi

November 28th, 2012, 01:09 Posted By: wraggster


So the Raspberry Pi sometimes doesn’t have the juice needed to run power-hungry USB dongles. The most common issue is with WiFi adapters. The solution has long been to use a powered USB hub, but [Mike Worth] didn’t want to take up that much extra space. The solution he worked out injects power directly into the dongle itself.
The red and white wires coming out of the side provide the 5V source. This is coming from the same USB mains power adapter that supplies the RPi board itself. To connect the wires to the dongle he made an adapter out of some strip board and the shielding from the dongle. The end of the strip board pokes out of the shielding far enough for him to solder on some wire, which is then soldered to the traces on the dongle’s PCB.
You can just plug this in and get down to business. But while he was at it [Mike] added an improvised antenna for better reception. It’s the same type of hack we saw him use for a Bluetooth dongle in this links post.http://hackaday.com/2012/11/27/injec...-raspberry-pi/

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Ed Fries: Consoles can't ignore Apple model

November 28th, 2012, 00:31 Posted By: wraggster

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft must respond to the free-to-play model, says Ouya adviser

Console manufacturers must adopt the Apple model by opening up more for developers and relaxing their stringent online game restrictions, former Microsoft exec Ed Fries has said.
Speaking to Game Informer, Fries, who currently acts as an adviser for tiny hackable console Ouya, said Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft could no longer afford to ignore the experience Apple offers developers and users.

He stated that anyone could develop for iOS devices, and that certification was relatively cheap and painless. He compared this to the problems faced by Polytron’s isometric platformer Fez, which recently claimed it could not make an update to the XBLA title as it cost too much to do so.
“I think it’s going to have an impact on the way consoles and developers interact in the future,” said Fries.
“It’s getting harder and harder for the traditional consoles to ignore the Apple kind of experience. Anybody can develop for the platform, certification is a relatively cheap and painless thing, and in the old days of consoles there are all sorts of myths and legends that say that’s a bad thing to do.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...re-Apple-model

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Gadgets and games top kids Christmas gifts lists

November 28th, 2012, 00:20 Posted By: wraggster

A survey conducted by YouGov has found that over half of parents believe video games and gadgets will top their children's wish lists this Christmas.
54 per cent of parents queried within the survey admitted that the latest video games releases such as Call of Duty: Black Ops II,Halo 4 and Resident Evil 6 would top their kids' most wanted lists.
Interestingly, research conducted by leading toy maker Hasbro found that whilst the majority of parents would be buying these gifts for their children for Christmas, a quarter of British parents believed they spent too much time playing them.
However, the survey also revealed that it's not just about video games and gadgets for kids this Christmas.
17 per cent of parents surveyed stated that traditional gifts such as board games would still feature on their youngster's letters to Santa.
Foye Pascoe, UK Country Manager from Hasbro said: “Over half of the parents we surveyed are most looking forward to spending time with their family this Christmas. While online games are a part of daily life, a bit of face to face competition is a great way to bring people together during the holidays.
Unsurprisingly, a number of parents who took part in the survey used it to share their concerns ahead of the seasonal period.
Almost half of all parents queried admitted they were concerned most over the costs of their children's gifts this Christmas heading into December.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...s-lists/029698

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Android VOIP phone and Raspberry Pi mate for an intriguing PBX setup

November 26th, 2012, 23:55 Posted By: wraggster


[Ward Mundy] has found something great by combining a GXP-2200 phone with Raspberry Pi to create a private branch exchange. So the idea behind a PBX setup is kind of like a company intranet. All of the phones in the system are assigned an extension number and have access to the internal system functions like voice mail, and sharing phone lines to the outside world. We’ve talked about using an RPi as a PBX before, but the high-tech phone he’s using this time around pulls everything together remarkably well.
The GXP-2200 is available for under $200. It runs Android and has a full color touch screen pictured above. It is marketed as a multimedia phone and indeed it brings Skype and Google Voice to the party. But it also offers six SIP lines. The hardware even seems to be planned for this type of use as the phone offers a second Ethernet port to which the RPi board can be connected. In this example [Ward] simply screws the RPi to the phone’s plastic stand and connects the two using a six-inch cable. From there the PBX can be configured with the phone’s browser. How’s that for slick?

http://hackaday.com/2012/11/26/andro...ing-pbx-setup/

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Extended console cycles are bad for the industry, Ubisoft argues

November 26th, 2012, 23:51 Posted By: wraggster

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has claimed that the length of the current console generation has damaged the games industry.
And with Wii U launching this week and at least one of Xbox 720 and PS4 likely to launch next year, he’s calling on platform holders to make sure the next generation is over far more quickly.
"I think that what has happened is the transition has been very long," he told Polygon. "You know, in the industry, we were used to changing machines every five years. This time we are in the seventh year of the 360.
“We need new consoles and at the end of the cycle generally the market goes down because there are less new IPs, new properties, so that damaged the industry a little bit. I hope next time they will come more often."
As well as helping to avoid the prolonged lull that normally accompanies the end of a console cycle, more regular reinvention also offers publishers and developers more chance to be creative, Guillemot argues.
"Transitions are the best times, are the best ways, to make all of our creators take more risks and do different things," he added. "When a console is out for a long time you don't take as much risks on totally new IPs because even if they are good, they don't sell as well.
"So, the beginning of the machines is always a good time for innovation."

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/exten...argues/0107013

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Black Ops II stays on top of UK chart; miserable start for PlayStation All-Stars

November 26th, 2012, 22:34 Posted By: wraggster

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II is number one in the UK all-formats software chart for a second week in succession, seeing off the challenge of Hitman: Absolution despite sales falling by 81 per cent week on week.Absolution has to settle for a debut in second spot, despite outselling its 2006 predecessor Blood Money by almost three copies to one. FIFA 12 stands firm at number three for a third successive week, with Assassin’s Creed III a non-mover at number four.After Hitman, the next highest new entry is Lego Lord Of The Rings at number six – look out for a review of that on the site later this week. We’re also taking a look at Family Guy: Back To The Multiverse, which debuts at number 35.It’s been a dismal launch weekend for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, however. Sony’s answer to Smash Bros, developed by US studio Superbot Entertainment, barely sneaks into the top 40, at number 38.01. Call Of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
02. Hitman: Absolution (Square Enix)
03. FIFA 13 (EA)
04. Assassin’s Creed III (Ubisoft)
05. Halo 4 (Microsoft)
06. Lego Lord Of The Rings (Warner Bros)
07. Just Dance 4 (Ubisoft)
08. Skylanders Giants (Activision)
09. Need For Speed Most Wanted (EA)
10. Dishonored (Bethesda)

http://www.edge-online.com/news/blac...battle-royale/

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Mojang ports Minecraft to Raspberry Pi, will release for free

November 26th, 2012, 22:33 Posted By: wraggster

Mojang has ported Minecraft to the Raspberry Pi, the studio revealed over the weekend, and will soon release the game for free. Based on Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Minecraft Pi Edition will ship with a revised feature set along with support for multiple programming languages and is intended as a learning aid for Pi owners.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/moja...ease-for-free/

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Black Friday online spending passes $1bn for the first time ever

November 26th, 2012, 22:21 Posted By: wraggster

The US holiday shopping season has been well and truly kick-started by Thanksgiving this year, as Americans spent $633m online during turkey day, a 32 per cent increase on 2011.
More impressively still, comScore adds that online spending crossed the big billion milestone to reach $1.04 billion for the first time ever on Black Friday, a 26 per cent rise on the previous year.
Meanwhile, there's been $13.7bn spent online between November 1st to 23rd already, a 16 per cent year-on-year rise, while 57.3m Americans flocked to their digital devices to splash their cash – an 18 per cent rise.
Amazon was crowned as the most visited retail site, followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple making up the top five. It should be noted that auction sites like eBay were excluded from the data, though eBay has reported mobile transactions rising by more than double on Black Friday and Thanksgiving.
Gian Fulgoni, chairman, comScore, said: "Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel – particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores.
"Meanwhile, Thanksgiving Day – which has historically been a lighter online holiday shopping day – continues to gain steam and grew well ahead of the current pace as more consumers opted to kick off their holiday shopping immediately after the big meal to take advantage of aggressive retailer promotions.
"We can look forward with anticipation to Cyber Monday, which according to norms we’ve observed over the past three years should be the heaviest online shopping day of the season with sales approaching $1.5 billion or even higher."

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/read/...me-ever/019950

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Tiny MAME cabinet built from Raspberry Pi

November 26th, 2012, 14:14 Posted By: wraggster


It’s been a while since we’ve seen [Sprite_tm] pull a project from thin air, and we haven’t seen him do anything with a Raspberry Pi yet. All things must pass, and finally [Sprite] has unleashed his tiny, pocket-sized MAME machine to the world.
The build uses a Raspi for all the Linux-ey and MAME goodness, but [Sprite_tm] didn’t want to fiddle around with the HDMI or analog video output. Instead, he chose to use an SPI-controlled TFT display that is only 2.4 inches across. This isn’t a new hack for [Sprite] – he figured out how to connect this display over GPIO pins with a Carambola earlier this year.
To make his cabinet portable, [Sprite] opted for using old cell phone batteries with a cleverly designed charging circuit. When the power supply is connected to +5V, the batteries charge. When this power is removed, an ATtiny85 provides 5V of power to the Raspi and display.
No arcade cabinet is complete without a marquee of some sort, so [Sprite] used an extremely tiny 128×32 white OLED to display the logo of the game currently being played. Everything in the Raspi is set up to be completely seamless when switching between games, automatically configuring the controls and marquee for the currently selected game.
You can check out [Sprite]‘s mini MAME booting straight into Bubble Bobble after the break along with some gameplay footage and finally switching it over to Nemesis. A very awesome build from an exceedingly awesome maker.

http://hackaday.com/2012/11/26/tiny-...-raspberry-pi/

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