NGALAC

You are standing at the NGALAC (Noisebridge Gaming Archivists Live Arcade Cabinet), an award-winning custom-built live-streaming arcade machine. You see console controllers and buttons built into the cabinet. You see the VR Cart. EXITS: Hackitorium, VR Cart, Noisebridge Gaming Archivists >

The NGALAC allows people at Noisebridge to play classic console games, with their classic controllers, and then live stream their gameplay and themselves to the internet with the push of a button. People who want to play classic games will have a nice place to do so. People who have never tried to live stream before can jump in and try it. People who want to raise funds for Noisebridge can turn on the live stream and raise money for Noisebridge.

Can't Make it to Noisebridge? Watch the Stream at: https://twitch.tv/noisebridge or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjDvPM0uHcvx9jJA5gnM-ng/videos

Our current prototype

How to use NGALAC at Noisebridge

Click here for NGALAC User Instructions

Press

Press Release and Info

NGALAC on Adam Savages' Tested Webcast!

Noisebridge Gaming Archivists Live Arcade Cabinet

The NGALAC will allow people at Noisebridge to play classic console games, with their classic controllers, and then live stream their gameplay and themselves to the internet with the push of a button. People who want to play classic games will have a nice place to do so. People who have never tried to live stream before can jump in and try it. People who want to raise funds for Noisebridge can turn on the live stream and raise money for Noisebridge.

The NGALAC combines several desires into a single cabinet:

• An arcade style gaming machine for playing classic games
• A simple reliable Live Streaming appliance within Noisebridge
• An additional means for us to include more people in our fundraising efforts

While including the possibilities of future features such as:

• A new test platform for Gamebridge game development and demonstrations

We meet on Friday evenings to coordinate our work for the week and tend to work on NGALAC on Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoon and evening. Please stop by.

Longer Project Narrative

Here is the desired experience of seeing and using the NGALAC.

• The NGALAC will automatically run an "attract mode" during Noisebridge's open hours. The "attract mode" will display streaming tips, the upcoming events calendar, and encourage people to donate to Noisebridge
• There are controller ports on the front of the machine and classic controllers on the sides of the machine. There is a typical Arcade cabinet control board as well with buttons and joysticks.
• A person presses the 'game' button and finds a game they'd like to play. They select a controller from the collection and plug it into the controller port, or opt continue using the joysticks/buttons. They press 'start' and the game loads. They play.
  • They can control the game volume with a knob.
• If a player decides they want to stream their session. They press the "Live Stream" button. The Live Stream "wakes up" and starts up.
  • During the Live Stream "wake up" process: The live stream computer comes out of standby, the live stream monitor turns on, the live stream software connects to the 'streaming service(s)', a notification is sent out that someone is streaming, the 'ON AIR' sign and lighting on the cabinet turns on, The microphone and player camera turn on, the player lighting turns on.
• The games on the NGALAC will be curated from the NGA archives and the Live-Streaming will run through Noisebridge's streaming profile(s) and channel(s).
  • When needed for legal purposes, copies of the games running on the cabinet will be kept on site.
• The cabinet will: be built for two players, be accessible, have decorative lighting, have Noisebridge NGA branding and theming.
  • The cabinet will be located so as to not display a large area of Noisebridge and will have integral signage requesting that potential streamers ask for the consent of others who may be in sight of the stream. The cabinet will have warnings that light up when a stream is happening.

Concept Drawing

The cabinet design is still far from established, but here are the ideas collected into a drawing.

Project Organization and Timeline

The deadline for the NGALAC is Maker Faire Bay Area 2018

The project is broken up into three sub-systems ideally with a couple persons acting as the leads for each, coordinating on the overall project.

• The Gaming system
• The Streaming system
• The Cabinet

While we'll be developing each of the sub-system projects at their own pace, there should be weekly build meetups where we gather the team of volunteers together and collaborate on the project.

Notes and Project management

Meeting Notes Riseup Pad

https://pad.riseup.net/p/NGALAC

Trello Board

https://trello.com/b/JGpZ3hg9/nb-makerfaire-2018 https://retropie-roms.co.uk/

How to help

We need help with several tasks related to all three systems. Here a couple highlights:

• General
  • Documentation of project systems and construction

• The Gaming system
  • Emulator setup and configuration
  • Game and Controller curation and sourcing
  • Parts, Components, Cables, and connectors specification and sourcing
  • Wiring and mounting strategy inside the cabinet
  • The controllers need to connect to ports which then connect to adapters and then the emulator. These ports need to be sturdy and able to be mounted on the face of the cabinet.
  • Installation strategies for the Monitor, Speakers, and volume controls
  • Testing and QA
  • Attract mode content setup and creation
• The Streaming system
  • Streaming PC: sourcing, setup and configuration
  • A/V equipment and sourcing
  • Noisebridge branding and graphics for live streaming
  • Arduino programming and wiring: accepting inputs from buttons, communicating with Streaming PC, controlling lighting.
  • Testing
• The Cabinet
  • component mounting (pc, cable management, monitors, power supplies)

NGALAC graphics design guidelines

If you would like to use the NGA or NGALAC logos and read the design guidelines for NGA related materials, they are located here Noisebridge_Gaming_Archivists_Identity

Gaming and Streaming Systems and Experience diagrams

This is a diagram laying out the conceptual flow of the NGALAC user experience; which follows the project narrative. (note: It is a big jpg so open it up to read it.)

The current diagrammatic layout of the Gaming and Streaming systems shown in this image. Feedback is welcomed. This is being used as the basis for the parts list in the section below.

Diagram Comments: 1.

Streaming PC setup

Hardware:

Software:

 - Windows 10
 - OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software)
   - Needs Visual Studio x86 and x64
   - Streams to Noisebrige Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/noisebridge)

Config:

 - the bios setting in Power Management Config is set to "power on" when power is restored
 - See pics below

Emulator

 - Raspberrypi 3
 - RetroPi
 - EmulationStation

How To Add Roms

1. Acquire ROM files LEGALLY.

2. Get on same network as emulation machine. Open file browser window and in the address/directory bar, type: \\RETROPIE . You should now be able to explore the raspberry pi's home directory.

3. Go to 'roms' folder

4. Add your rom file(s) to its corresponding console folder.

On the Raspberry Pi:

5. Restart EmulationStation on the Raspberry Pi or reboot the machine.

6. Press f4 to exit to the console

7. type: sudo /home/pi/RetroPie-Setup/retropie_setup.sh

8. Go to Configuration/tools -> scraper -> Scrape all systems

9. Let it do its thing. Once done, select "cancel/ back/ exit" until you return to the main console.

10. Back out of console into EmulationStation by typing "exit" and enjoy your newly installed roms, complete with cool sidebar infos and videos!

Alternative Method

1. Put Rom files onto usb flash drive.

2. Plug flash drive into raspberry pi in back of cabinet.

3. hit 'f4' to exit to unix shell. If that doesn't work, hit button on kvm switch inside cabinet near the middle in order to switch to the raspberry pi for keyboard /mouse (inside drawer under joysticks/buttons). If you don't know what the kvm switch is, ask in channel #nbgamingarchivists on slack for help.

4. copy files to ~/RetroPie/roms/SYSTEMNAME, where SYSTEMNAME is the short name of the corresponding system.

5. Do steps 7-10 from above to scrape for video and game infos

Parts list

We are gathering a list of the various devices and components we'll need to gather to make this work. Please see the document here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSIfZdTOkio5JD_NZlhwIBADFQSSySD4NxKQm35nphQ1SVN5EUQtIxJA_I6CrGPB1cy2HmYPwAGNCbH/pubhtml

If you have parts suggestions, please add them below:

Recommended parts list: (Product, Description, Notes) 1.

Desired Initial Game List

Road Rash 2 - Sega Genesis - Jarrod

Mega Man X - SNES - Mark

Super Mario Kart - SNES - Mark

Super Mario World - SNES - Mark

Donkey Kong Country (1-3) - SNES - Mark

Super Mario Bros. (1-3) - NES - Mark

Super Ghouls N' Ghosts - SNES - Mark

Ice Climber - NES - Mark

Marble Madness - NES - Mark

F-Zero - SNES - Mark

Kirby's Adventure - NES - Mark

Kirby's DreamLand 3 - SNES - Mark

ExciteBike - NES - Mark

Dr. Mario - NES - Mark

Battletoads Double Dragon - SNES - Mark

Super Punch-Out! - SNES - Mark

Progress Photos

Progress Photos

Subsystems

Subsystems