Book description
Maybe it was the recent Atari 2600 milestone anniversary that fueled nostalgia for the golden days of computer and console gaming. Every Game Boy must ponder his roots from time to time. But whatever is driving the current retro gaming craze, one thing is certain: classic games are back for a big second act, and they're being played in both old and new ways.
Whether you've just been attacked by Space Invaders for the first time or you've been a Pong junkie since puberty, Chris Kohler's Retro Gaming Hacks is the indispensable new guide to playing and hacking classic games. Kohler has complied tons of how-to information on retro gaming that used to take days or weeks of web surfing to track down and sort through, and he presents it in the popular and highly readable Hacks style.
Retro Gaming Hacks serves up 85 hard-nosed hacks for reviving the classic games. Want to game on an original system? Kohler shows you how to hack ancient hardware, and includes a primer for home-brewing classic software. Rather adapt today's equipment to run retro games? Kohler provides emulation techniques, complete with instructions for hacking a classic joystick that's compatible with a contemporary computer. This book also teaches readers to revive old machines for the original gaming experience: hook up an Apple II or a Commodore 64, for example, and play it like you played before.
A video game journalist and author of Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, Kohler has taught the history of video games at Tufts University. In Retro Gaming Hacks, he locates the convergence of classic games and contemporary software, revealing not only how to retrofit classic games for today's systems, but how to find the golden oldies hidden in contemporary programs as well.
Whether you're looking to recreate the magic of a Robotron marathon or simply crave a little handheld Donkey Kong, Retro Gaming Hacks shows you how to set the way-back dial.
Publisher resources
Table of contents
- Retro Gaming Hacks
- A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
- Foreword
- Credits
- Preface
-
1. Playing Retro Games
- Hacks 1–14: Introduction
- Buy Retro Games
- Collect Original “Pong” Systems
- Buy and Run an Atari 2600
- Buy and Run Later Classic Consoles
- Play with Power: Set Up an NES
- Make Your NES Work Like New
- Take Your NES Games on the Go
- Buy a Famicom from Japan
- Buy Retro Games from Japan
- Find, Fix, Play, and Emulate the Vectrex
- Collect Classic Handhelds
- Buy Your Own Arcade Hardware
- Find the Holy Grails
- Find Classic Games for Cheap
- 2. Playing Neo-Retro Games
-
3. Playing Arcade Games on Your Computer
- Play Arcade Games Under Windows
- Run Arcade Games on a Mac
- Play Arcade Games Under Linux
- Run MAME on the Xbox
- Find Legal, Free MAME ROMs
- Buy Legal MAME ROMs
- Care for Your ROMs
- Buy or Make Classic MAME Controllers
- Add Sound to Your MAME Experience
- Add Cabinet Art to MAME
- Build a MAME Cabinet
- Make a Self-Booting MAME Disc
- Play MAME Anywhere
-
4. Playing Classic Console Games
- Hacks 33–52: Introduction
- Emulate the Earliest Game Systems
- Emulate the Atari 2600
- Emulate the Intellivision
- Emulate the Colecovision
- Emulate the Atari 7800
- Emulate the Nintendo Entertainment System on a PC
- Run NES Emulators on the Mac
- Run NES Emulators Under Linux
- Emulate 16-Bit Systems in Windows
- Emulate Other Classic Systems on the Mac
- Emulate Other Classic Systems in Linux
- Emulate the Game Boy on Your PC
- Play Games on a Smartphone or PDA
- Play Homebrews on Your GBA
- Play Classic Systems on the GBA
- Emulate Other Classic Portables
- Retro-Hack the GP32
- Retro-Hack the Dreamcast
- Use Console Controllers on your PC
- Use USB Gamepads Under Linux
- 5. Playing with Early Personal Computers
- 6. Playing with Text Adventures
- 7. Playing with DOS
- 8. Playing at Game Design
-
9. Playing Around with Other Neat Stuff
- Hacks 81–85: Introduction
- Learn the Patterns of Pac-Man
- Show Off with Super Mario
-
Hack the Leisure Suit Larry Games
- Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
- Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking For Love (In Several Wrong Places)
- Leisure Suit Larry 3: Passionate Patti In Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
- Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work
- Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up Or Slip Out!
- Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love For Sail!
- Play Retro Versions of Modern Games
- Remix Your Retro Sounds
- Index
- About the Author
- Colophon
- Copyright
Product information
- Title: Retro Gaming Hacks
- Author(s):
- Release date: October 2005
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9780596009175
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