ROMS ROMS ROMS!!!!!!

So since I've finally got the M.A.M.E. PC up and running I've been working on organizing the roms into folders as well as setting up the HyperSpin game themes and wheel art. I've added all the roms that have themes to HyperSpin. There were about 900+ themes currently up on the HyperSpin site so it took a while go get them and the roms sorted into folders and named correctly but it was well worth it. There are still a few roms that have issues but for the most part everything is in order. I'm not sure if I'm going to add the rest of the M.A.M.E. roms I have that don't currently have themes associated with them or not. It looks kind a lame when a game doesn't have a theme in HyperSpin. I'll probably go through the rest of the roms and look for ones that I really want to play and then try my hand at making my own themes for them. HyperSpin comes with a free theme program that makes the creation process pretty straightforward.

On a side note I've been messing with some other things on the PC since I've got it. It's hard not to want to to more with the PC when I haven't owned a decent desktop PC in the last 5 years. I've been messing with the compatibility options in Windows 7 and trying to get some of my old classic DOS and early Windows 95/98 games working. It's pretty impressive that I haven't had an issue getting any of them to run at all. In fairness though I'm not leaving it up to Windows when it comes to the DOS games. I'm using DosBox to emulate the DOS environment for those but I have to say that it and the .NET created front-end that I downloaded work well with Windows 7. So my verdict so far is that Windows 7 rocks, and yes, I'm a PC! LOL

Anyway back to the M.A.M.E. machine issue at hand, what do I purchase next? I did some price figuring on the control board from MameRoom.com and I've come to the conclusion that it's going to be a little more costly than I had first figured. Amazing what happens to $$ figures when you actually add it up on paper rather than "guestimating" in your head! LOL It appears that just a bare bones version of the control board with the controls that I'm looking for is going to cost around $1,100. Considering I've spent more on things like a laptop in past it's not that bad of a figure. However, it does mean that the next phase in the project will probably take a lot longer to accomplish than I had anticipated. So here's the question I pose to those of you out there reading, should I save up for the control board and buy that next or should I take that $500 or so that I have now and save the extra $200 or so and purchase the TV for the machine?

I'm thinking about getting a 42" 120Hz 1080p LCD Vizio TV. I can get a decent model for around $770 at Walmart. Here's a link to the TV I'm talking about.

Vizio 42" Class 1080p / 120Hz LCD HDTV, VT420M

Right now I'm leaning towards getting the TV first instead of the control board because we could actually use it as a second TV in the house while I save up for the M.A.M.E. machine control board. I figured that would allow the whole family to enjoy the TV and allow us to put the 22" TV we are currently keeping in the back room up into our bed room which would be nice. Anyway, if any of you out there have suggestions on what I should do with the $500 I currently have, i.e. save it for control board Vs. getting the TV now, feel free to let me know what you think. In the meantime I'm going to start working on adding the game movies that play on each game theme screen in HyperSpin. I'm waiting for my friend Chad to get me the movies. He's downloading them, hopefully, as I type this. :)

Thanks again to all who read this, it's helping me keep on track to get this project done. I can't wait till Miriam, Lisa, and I can play some trackball bowling some night. I also can't wait to teach Miriam about the golden age of video games and just what the term "classic" really means! Of course after I school her in all things video games it will be Kain's turn!