I was today years old that I realized I've never heard someone say sudo out loud, and my brain has always pronounced it like pseudo even though you're clearly objectively right.
That’s so cool. Lots of people don’t realise that barcode scanners just present themselves as a keyboard & output a string of numbers etc. Same as barcodes just being special fonts.
Depends on the scanner how it presents itself, and for most (1D) barcodes, yes, a special font is used, but only a few will allow you to just type the numbers or characters, as many use complicated encodings and usually a checksum.
Yep that is cool. I love the idea of scanning the barcodes to start up a game. And yeah most barcode scanners I’ve used just return an alpha numeric string of numbers and letters.
@@mycosys Even if its not, I would have thought you could redirect that keyboard to a specific application or script and again run it all directly on the MiSTer. Presumably he didn't do it that way as it would be more complicated to setup, but it would launch the games a lot faster.
Anyone remember the CueCat barcode scanner from 2000? It has a PS/2 pass-through connection and sits between the computer & keyboard to 'type out' the scanned barcode. It wasn't a laser based scanner so you had to manually drag the nose of the device across the barcode, at the right speed...
@@alexatkin On Linux you can easily stub devices so you get access to USB itself, without the host interpreting the HID telegrams as keyboard strokes. Obviously it's still easier to have a script simply wait for keyboard input.
This is such a brilliant way of bringing back the joy of cover art into the digital world. That is the thing I miss most about having all my games on hard drive and up in the cloud somewhere.
I wrote something like this about 10 years ago for a company I worked with that made bedside kiosks for hospitals. Allowed nurses to launch remote applications and login with their badges, scan medicine barcodes etc. Having the barcode act like a USB keyboard made it very flexible. Nice job Neil 👍
What a great idea! I'm really impressed with the thought and execution of this. Going to have to get myself down to the cave once "The Event" has passed.
This is a way to never ever let us forget to hold the physical box in our hands every once in a while in these fast-evolving emulation times, and you've made it MORE than just every once in a while! You are amazing!
This is absolutely brilliant!! Wow!!! I appreciate all the work that went into creating the system AND of course the store recreation itself. Just… wow!!! 🤩🤩🤩
Just when I thought The Cave couldn't getting any cooler. That is not only a brilliant idea, it's also extremely practical for how you're wanting to use the space. Well done!
I have really enjoyed watching this channel over the last couple of years in how things have evolved. The number one thing that sticks out for me is how Neil/Neal (sorry don't know the appropriate spelling) balances passion and policy. In crafting the physical space, it has a great flow and showcases effortlessly. I have seen others create a business with putting passion first but ultimately fail without keeping a policy in mind. Congrats on the physical cave and thank you for sharing your passions.
What a great addition to the cave!! Some Ideas that come to mind: 1. Put a barcode sticker under the screen that will load a random game. 2. On special days, when visitors pay for admission they receive a ticket or receipt with a barcode on it. Maybe have RMC stickers printed that come with admission and on the back is a barcode. If visitors scan the barcode on that system and they are todays "lucky winner" a video file plays and announces they are a winner. Or, maybe you can also attach a small thermal receipt printer behind the panel that if they are a winner, it will print out a receipt they can turn in for their prize. You could even have the prizes picked randomly from a list. You could set it up that today there will be 5 free shirts, 5 free magazines, 20 free stickers, and 1 free mug. You can add swag that vendors send you etc. 3. If someone scans a barcode that is not in your CSV file, have it autoload a jpg/png with a message or video that directs them to try again?
Well, for number 3, if the software isn't in his cvs file, telling them to try again might just be aggravating. 😀 Maybe a better idea would be to log to an error file so they can track it later since it was possibly missed during the data entry process.
It's brilliant in it's simplicity. A dream of an idea, and a "I can do that" matched up to perfection. The possibilites are endless too. (as are my ideas) A second screen for marque is one thing, but imaging setting up a trigger that would dim certain lights? Maybe have one of those ceiling projectors throw a pattern into the room. Imagine low blue lighting and starpatterns when you boot up an NES, or a pulsing green glow when you load an Xbox game. You could attach a 2nd barcode to a game case, and have it correspond to the games soundtrack. Or a special barcode for a romhack you love hidden on the inside of a case. TALK about a great use for "reproduction" cases as well. My god man, you've created a monster.
This is SOOO good Neil and team! Next level up could be building that scanner into the stud (?) wall above the shelf, facing outwards and above a wider shelf ; 'Customer' waves the back of the box against the wall to scan then simply place the box down on the shelf to sit in view alongside the TV as 'the game currently being played' - seeing the Box gives the extra nostalgia hit. For PC games I'm sure you'd have a desk-based setup with another scanner (built flat into the table?) and a **huge** Steam/GOG Library pre-installed on a suitable PC (a great future episode right there I think). Great stuff!
Love this! A superb addition. I wondered if you could have small barcodes next to the screen to zap for increasing volume or speed of game perhaps. Also, just like Marvel movies, it’s worth waiting for post the end credits for entertainment 🤫
That is one extremely great idea for the sort of environment you have built there! When I first read the tweet - about 1 AM with both eyes not fully open, I must admit - I did not understand it first. But this whole thing is a great outcome! I particularly like the reveal of the inner workings of the mechanism at the end. Mark really has gotten into miniaturisation and automation. Great video!
The post credit scene with Mark was awesome and very funny!!! I hope everyone will see it, I caught it by chance because was away from the pc playing the video doing a c64 re-socketing (how appropriate) XD XD
This is perhaps one of the coolest things I’ve seen, your ideas never cease to amaze. Hopefully I’ll find my way to the cave one day to try this out, excellent video Neil 👌 👍🏻 😃
I wish I was as smart as you, Neil. I live in the states, and love your whole concept. As a kid growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, video games were a huge part of my life. I still have my old SNES in fact after all these years. Sometimes I feel like I’m just holding on to the past and not thinking to the future, but it’s comforting, and I think it’s good to remember.
What a cool solution! Also, seeing that big ol' SCART cable - the kind I first used with a VCR - coming out of a modern FPGA board seems delightfuly anachronistic.
I saw the barcode scanner next to the controllers and thats exaclty where my brain went. What a fantastic idea and you just made a 10/10 space even better. You went to 11. Well done, love these update videos.
This is an elegant solution. And the way it is installed as service, with support for reading the keyboard events - this is a new one for me. Liked it!
Of course this is popular, this is absolutely brilliant! I didn't have such a nostalgic feeling for the store room (probably bad memory or different type of stores here), but to have it as an old shop backend AND frontend to try the stuff on the shelves, really brings the room to life!
Thank You, Master, Yie-Ar Ze Purr Dragon! Your passion stole my hearth from Bletchley Park, if I will ever go for GB history trip with friends or alone. Greetings from one moravian scrap collector.
Holy balls that is so meta! :) Hats off, I don't think I've ever seen this done before, yet the parts to make this happen have been around for many years (could just be done with MAME and a bar code scanner) - a real first!
Post credits scene reminds me of that bit in Black Books where Manny had to climb into the piano and play it from the inside... Mark even looks a bit like Bill Bailey.
You should put a cuff around the hole where the joypads and scanner come through so the cables don’t chip off the veneer of the slatted wall from friction.
That's really good. Imagine if shops could have had that setup back in the day. I remember most shops selling computer games in the early 1990s tended to have at least one "demo system". It would have been so good if you could just scan the back of the empty box to switch the game that was running.
This is awesome! The only suggestion I can think of is maybe have a way to protect a game in use...say somebody's been playing a long time and somebody comes along and grabs the scanner and *BEEP* ends the current game with the player in tears. Maybe require a 2nd scan or something within a certain window to prevent accidents.
That is a fantastic idea. Another limitation for doing the same for computers is that a lot of the earlier game didn't have barcodes unless you make up your own labels. Liked the post credit scene.
It reminds me of CHiPS that used to be in Middlesbrough. I used to go in with my mate for his Speccy games and then Amiga games and it was always heaving on a saturday as you can imagine. Great times 🙂
The idea of a physical front end for Mister is absolutely brilliant!!! Can be used in so many different ways; you could put barcode stickers on loose games, or make little cards with game box graphics to save space. The only fly in the ointment imo is the Mister interface that shows up, and the script you can see running... you'd never see something like that in a store gaming qiosk from the period. Would love to see you guys tackle that issue... perhaps a vga switcher that can be controlled from the Pi, and switches to another input for a set amount of seconds when the scrips runs, and then back to the Mister?
Super cool idea. With regards to thinking about expanding it and having people use it without the boxes with barcodes etc... Have a think about using QR codes. You could create a set of your own static QR codes that people could download from your discord server and either print them as stickers or use them digitally and download your csv and people could set up their own system using a phone connected to the WiFi/blutooth to send the qr code over. In your shop you could also have a dummy phone that's only use was to scan QR codes and send over the network... Great content x
Regarding emulating computers, you could do something pretty neat. Your kiosk has those horizontal slats, you could separate one of them out to make a "stealth" drawer, which contains a keyboard and mouse for use with computer cores. This drawer could even open up on its own when a computer core is loaded. That would be pretty cool. I think it would be cool if you made the barcode scanner wireless, so that you don't have to carry the game box all the way to the kiosk and back before you can play it.
Hi Neil, really cool setup and a great idea. It feels like a real 90s computer game shop :-) One idea came into my mind while watching the video: Many people probably will play the same games, since these are the most beloved ones, e.g. super mario. Why not cache the game, meaning, not to delete it directly after deletion and add a timestamp to the unpacked game? -> If there is no unpacked game, unpack it and add a timestamp file -> If the game is restarted, you just refresh the time stamp file -> Games, having old timestamps are deleted after some time by an automated house keeping script (run every n minutes) -> If there is not enough space on the device to unpack a new game, you delete the game(s) with the oldest timestamp(s) Greetings, Nils
This actually reminds me of the music listening systems that Border's Books and music had, where you could scan the barcode on a CD and then hear samples of the songs, sometimes whole songs, play over a set of headphones so you could preview the CD before you bought it. It was sometimes very hard to scan the barcodes because of where they were, and many CDs weren't in the database for playback.
Wow! being a old Gamestation and Grainger games store manager this has blown my mind, absolutely wonderful use everyday technology. Being that my old profession is more or less extinct I had to take a punt on something new to do, I went for a fresh start in food testing and microbiology which unbelievably uses the same scanner to input samples via barcodes. In my middle age scanning and confirming agar plates for pathogens is the same process as selling a copy of FIFA.
Simply brilliant! I can see myself setting this up when I get myself a MiSter. Would make things much easier for my kids and friends to launch games. Could even put a folder of games together with pictures and barcodes so I don't have to have all my boxed cartridges out.
Woah… it’s like your own Electronics Boutuque (old computer software store from the 80s and 90s in the US) but connected to your entertainment system. Very nice.
Very clever! I'd seen a few projects already that can call up games on MiSTer from a tablet, or show artwork on a secondary display as you mention, but I had no idea how it had been done. I also love that the entire Cave is now part of your filming set!
I'm really loving this whole shop setup! I think you should get one of those old Photo Scan security cameras that they had in department stores in the 80s. The ones that looked like upside down Dalek heads. That would be way cool.
This is amazing. Something to consider for PC games: A small server running dockers and/or a slew of virtual machines would work. The logistics of getting it to work would have to be considered, but it is definitely possible and might be the best way to do it. Additionally, if they're already installed to a docker or virtual machine you're only talking 10 seconds or so to start them up.
I've done the same thing in my cave. However I added a simple what I thought I couldn't do without feature. I assigned all the picture in picture inputs on my house TV's (4 of them) with a Chromecast so that all the TV's can see the gameplay. I also got 2 Bluetooth/wifi extenders to allow game controllers at each tv so that my family of four can all play together from different rooms. A feature that no one really would ever really need, but it did help my son get an A+ on his final graduation electronics project that he needed to get his electrical certificate from high school. Now all his friends will be over my house and my daughter will have her friends over and they all play Mario Kart, smash, and Splatoon separately but together lol....pretty neat stuff. Also when people ask us why we can't just play together we just tell everyone we are prepared in case we needed to quarantine.
A pi and a Mister working together can give us the best of both worlds. I would love to see a board in the future that can integrate both and give us an attractive front end for launching games and the actual simulation handled by the de-10 nano.
An idea would be to have a catalog showcasing “upcoming games” or “out of stock” games that you could scan the barcode and play an trailer or ad on the monitors or use it to load games you may not have the physical copy of.
RMC right out of the gate with a very strong contender for the annual Retro Computing Golden Floppy Disk award! Oh, and don't mind that man behind the curtain, hee, hee, LOL
It would have been amazing even if it only pulled up a video recording of the game. Back in the day, a lot of games oversold on the back of the box. A lot of games would have never sold if you were able to see actual game play before.
Neil is back!!!!!! What a cool idea you've come up with. Scanning the game and it loading is just amazing. The cupboard did look a little cramped for Mark to hide in. Hehehe...
![АЛАУДИНОВ у Скабеевой: эти их ВСУ нас НЕ ДОГОНЯТ 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/an0anqU4WGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
🎵 You say SUDO I say SUDO let's call the whole thing off 🎵
😂
sudo make meASandwich
With great power comes great responsibility.
I was today years old that I realized I've never heard someone say sudo out loud, and my brain has always pronounced it like pseudo even though you're clearly objectively right.
@@jupo42 now try saying judo aloud.
Poor Mark. I hope at least you're going to feed him some Spangles and the occasional can of Quatro.
That’s so cool. Lots of people don’t realise that barcode scanners just present themselves as a keyboard & output a string of numbers etc. Same as barcodes just being special fonts.
Depends on the scanner how it presents itself, and for most (1D) barcodes, yes, a special font is used, but only a few will allow you to just type the numbers or characters, as many use complicated encodings and usually a checksum.
Yep that is cool. I love the idea of scanning the barcodes to start up a game. And yeah most barcode scanners I’ve used just return an alpha numeric string of numbers and letters.
@@mycosys Even if its not, I would have thought you could redirect that keyboard to a specific application or script and again run it all directly on the MiSTer. Presumably he didn't do it that way as it would be more complicated to setup, but it would launch the games a lot faster.
Anyone remember the CueCat barcode scanner from 2000?
It has a PS/2 pass-through connection and sits between the computer & keyboard to 'type out' the scanned barcode.
It wasn't a laser based scanner so you had to manually drag the nose of the device across the barcode, at the right speed...
@@alexatkin On Linux you can easily stub devices so you get access to USB itself, without the host interpreting the HID telegrams as keyboard strokes. Obviously it's still easier to have a script simply wait for keyboard input.
Neil, you never cease to amaze me. This is spectacularly nerdy and a great addition to the megacave. Very nicely done.
Thanks Adam!
@@RMCRetro Credit where it is due, sir.
Couldn't agree more. Freakin' awesome.
ha ha the ending with Mark (I won't spoil it for people who have not yet watched it).
I love the shelves with that beige panelling, it just screams 1980's/1990's computer shops.
This is such a brilliant way of bringing back the joy of cover art into the digital world. That is the thing I miss most about having all my games on hard drive and up in the cloud somewhere.
I wrote something like this about 10 years ago for a company I worked with that made bedside kiosks for hospitals. Allowed nurses to launch remote applications and login with their badges, scan medicine barcodes etc. Having the barcode act like a USB keyboard made it very flexible. Nice job Neil 👍
What a great idea! I'm really impressed with the thought and execution of this. Going to have to get myself down to the cave once "The Event" has passed.
Don't mention the event!
@@antoin1888 🤣
that "The Event", it stopping a lot of thing! 😞
I don't question when the algorithm brings me gems like this. This is fantastic!
This is a way to never ever let us forget to hold the physical box in our hands every once in a while in these fast-evolving emulation times, and you've made it MORE than just every once in a while! You are amazing!
This is absolutely brilliant!! Wow!!! I appreciate all the work that went into
creating the system AND of course the store recreation itself. Just… wow!!! 🤩🤩🤩
This should be in every game (or other media) shop, everywhere. Bad games would not sell and good games would sell a lot more. Fantastic.
Thank you Chrissy you are a star and a Genius. And Neil I love the use of the Shop as the front end. Beats any entice mode :-)
Just when I thought The Cave couldn't getting any cooler. That is not only a brilliant idea, it's also extremely practical for how you're wanting to use the space. Well done!
I have really enjoyed watching this channel over the last couple of years in how things have evolved. The number one thing that sticks out for me is how Neil/Neal (sorry don't know the appropriate spelling) balances passion and policy. In crafting the physical space, it has a great flow and showcases effortlessly. I have seen others create a business with putting passion first but ultimately fail without keeping a policy in mind. Congrats on the physical cave and thank you for sharing your passions.
This is put together with the spirit of a Unix system. That is, putting together simple executables to create more complex systems. Very elegant!
What a great addition to the cave!!
Some Ideas that come to mind:
1. Put a barcode sticker under the screen that will load a random game.
2. On special days, when visitors pay for admission they receive a ticket or receipt with a barcode on it. Maybe have RMC stickers printed that come with admission and on the back is a barcode. If visitors scan the barcode on that system and they are todays "lucky winner" a video file plays and announces they are a winner. Or, maybe you can also attach a small thermal receipt printer behind the panel that if they are a winner, it will print out a receipt they can turn in for their prize. You could even have the prizes picked randomly from a list. You could set it up that today there will be 5 free shirts, 5 free magazines, 20 free stickers, and 1 free mug. You can add swag that vendors send you etc.
3. If someone scans a barcode that is not in your CSV file, have it autoload a jpg/png with a message or video that directs them to try again?
Well, for number 3, if the software isn't in his cvs file, telling them to try again might just be aggravating. 😀 Maybe a better idea would be to log to an error file so they can track it later since it was possibly missed during the data entry process.
Love the "post-credits scene" ! :D
It's brilliant in it's simplicity. A dream of an idea, and a "I can do that" matched up to perfection.
The possibilites are endless too. (as are my ideas) A second screen for marque is one thing, but imaging setting up a trigger that would dim certain lights? Maybe have one of those ceiling projectors throw a pattern into the room. Imagine low blue lighting and starpatterns when you boot up an NES, or a pulsing green glow when you load an Xbox game. You could attach a 2nd barcode to a game case, and have it correspond to the games soundtrack. Or a special barcode for a romhack you love hidden on the inside of a case. TALK about a great use for "reproduction" cases as well. My god man, you've created a monster.
This is SOOO good Neil and team! Next level up could be building that scanner into the stud (?) wall above the shelf, facing outwards and above a wider shelf ; 'Customer' waves the back of the box against the wall to scan then simply place the box down on the shelf to sit in view alongside the TV as 'the game currently being played' - seeing the Box gives the extra nostalgia hit. For PC games I'm sure you'd have a desk-based setup with another scanner (built flat into the table?) and a **huge** Steam/GOG Library pre-installed on a suitable PC (a great future episode right there I think). Great stuff!
This is a very smart idea to integrate your MiSTer setup in the Shop in this way. A Videogame Museum should work like this.
Love this! A superb addition. I wondered
if you could have small barcodes next to the screen to zap for increasing volume or speed of game perhaps.
Also, just like Marvel movies, it’s worth waiting for post the end credits for entertainment 🤫
That is one extremely great idea for the sort of environment you have built there! When I first read the tweet - about 1 AM with both eyes not fully open, I must admit - I did not understand it first. But this whole thing is a great outcome!
I particularly like the reveal of the inner workings of the mechanism at the end. Mark really has gotten into miniaturisation and automation. Great video!
The post credit scene with Mark was awesome and very funny!!! I hope everyone will see it, I caught it by chance because was away from the pc playing the video doing a c64 re-socketing (how appropriate) XD XD
This is super cool, great idea!
This is such a clever way of fusing old and modern tech. And Neil is so casual about it! 😄
This is perhaps one of the coolest things I’ve seen, your ideas never cease to amaze. Hopefully I’ll find my way to the cave one day to try this out, excellent video Neil 👌 👍🏻 😃
that is brilliant you should have it as an ad on to the mister set up for people to get thier hands on.
What a ridiculously simple and stunningly clever idea!
I really want to be there in person now!
Great work Niel!
4 folders of Input magazine.
Very cool.
Now that's a pretty cool idea using the bar code on the box to launch games
I wish I was as smart as you, Neil. I live in the states, and love your whole concept. As a kid growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, video games were a huge part of my life. I still have my old SNES in fact after all these years. Sometimes I feel like I’m just holding on to the past and not thinking to the future, but it’s comforting, and I think it’s good to remember.
Decor and shelves, its perfect for 80s/90s game shop we all enjoyed.
What a cool solution!
Also, seeing that big ol' SCART cable - the kind I first used with a VCR - coming out of a modern FPGA board seems delightfuly anachronistic.
I saw the barcode scanner next to the controllers and thats exaclty where my brain went. What a fantastic idea and you just made a 10/10 space even better. You went to 11. Well done, love these update videos.
BAAAAAAA-rilliant. Amazing. You think just like I do and the polish plus attention to detail makes a fellow late 40’s OCD collector proud!
A nice addition would be a little screen below the CRT (plugged into the PI) that shows the box art & game info (release date etc, anything really!)
VFD font that displays the title and retail price... For great "ring it up on the till"...
This is possibly the coolest retro game related thing I have ever seen.
This is an elegant solution. And the way it is installed as service, with support for reading the keyboard events - this is a new one for me. Liked it!
Of course this is popular, this is absolutely brilliant! I didn't have such a nostalgic feeling for the store room (probably bad memory or different type of stores here), but to have it as an old shop backend AND frontend to try the stuff on the shelves, really brings the room to life!
Thank You, Master, Yie-Ar Ze Purr Dragon! Your passion stole my hearth from Bletchley Park, if I will ever go for GB history trip with friends or alone. Greetings from one moravian scrap collector.
ingenious ... you captured the whole 80s / 90s experience as a kid this way
Holy balls that is so meta! :)
Hats off, I don't think I've ever seen this done before, yet the parts to make this happen have been around for many years (could just be done with MAME and a bar code scanner) - a real first!
Post credits scene reminds me of that bit in Black Books where Manny had to climb into the piano and play it from the inside... Mark even looks a bit like Bill Bailey.
hahah I know exactly the scene you're talking about, with the spoons XD
You should put a cuff around the hole where the joypads and scanner come through so the cables don’t chip off the veneer of the slatted wall from friction.
That's really good. Imagine if shops could have had that setup back in the day. I remember most shops selling computer games in the early 1990s tended to have at least one "demo system". It would have been so good if you could just scan the back of the empty box to switch the game that was running.
Delightful! I was one who loved and commented on the original tweet.
This is awesome! The only suggestion I can think of is maybe have a way to protect a game in use...say somebody's been playing a long time and somebody comes along and grabs the scanner and *BEEP* ends the current game with the player in tears. Maybe require a 2nd scan or something within a certain window to prevent accidents.
That is a fantastic idea. Another limitation for doing the same for computers is that a lot of the earlier game didn't have barcodes unless you make up your own labels. Liked the post credit scene.
It reminds me of CHiPS that used to be in Middlesbrough. I used to go in with my mate for his Speccy games and then Amiga games and it was always heaving on a saturday as you can imagine. Great times 🙂
It is very generous of you to let people visit... I'd probably just move in and lock the door!
Genius idea makes the shop absolutely magical
The idea of a physical front end for Mister is absolutely brilliant!!! Can be used in so many different ways; you could put barcode stickers on loose games, or make little cards with game box graphics to save space.
The only fly in the ointment imo is the Mister interface that shows up, and the script you can see running... you'd never see something like that in a store gaming qiosk from the period. Would love to see you guys tackle that issue... perhaps a vga switcher that can be controlled from the Pi, and switches to another input for a set amount of seconds when the scrips runs, and then back to the Mister?
Super cool idea.
With regards to thinking about expanding it and having people use it without the boxes with barcodes etc... Have a think about using QR codes. You could create a set of your own static QR codes that people could download from your discord server and either print them as stickers or use them digitally and download your csv and people could set up their own system using a phone connected to the WiFi/blutooth to send the qr code over. In your shop you could also have a dummy phone that's only use was to scan QR codes and send over the network... Great content x
What a wonderful idea! I have 3 Pis around here somewhere, now all I need is a MiSTer and a bar code scanner!
I love NES Open. Played that so much growing up. Speedrunners on that are something to behold.
I worked at a Software ETC back in 1990. Loved that job, this brings back those memories.
Regarding emulating computers, you could do something pretty neat. Your kiosk has those horizontal slats, you could separate one of them out to make a "stealth" drawer, which contains a keyboard and mouse for use with computer cores. This drawer could even open up on its own when a computer core is loaded. That would be pretty cool.
I think it would be cool if you made the barcode scanner wireless, so that you don't have to carry the game box all the way to the kiosk and back before you can play it.
Having it wired is probably the easiest solution from a maintenance standpoint. Can't pocket it, never a flat battery, no interference issues.
Hi Neil,
really cool setup and a great idea. It feels like a real 90s computer game shop :-)
One idea came into my mind while watching the video:
Many people probably will play the same games, since these are the most beloved ones, e.g. super mario.
Why not cache the game, meaning, not to delete it directly after deletion and add a timestamp to the unpacked game?
-> If there is no unpacked game, unpack it and add a timestamp file
-> If the game is restarted, you just refresh the time stamp file
-> Games, having old timestamps are deleted after some time by an automated house keeping script (run every n minutes)
-> If there is not enough space on the device to unpack a new game, you delete the game(s) with the oldest timestamp(s)
Greetings,
Nils
It's only beginning of January and Neil already gets the the award for the most brilliant idea of the year in retro community. Well done 👏
ohh wow what a wonderfully amazing setup, that scanning system is a work of absolute GENIUS. Superb stuff
This actually reminds me of the music listening systems that Border's Books and music had, where you could scan the barcode on a CD and then hear samples of the songs, sometimes whole songs, play over a set of headphones so you could preview the CD before you bought it. It was sometimes very hard to scan the barcodes because of where they were, and many CDs weren't in the database for playback.
That scanning idea is genius!
WOW, the Barcode product scanner for the MiSTer is BRILLIANT!
Love the ending 😂🤣😂
Polish "microklan" on the shelf in the background! Awesome!!!
What an awesome idea! You never have to even open the box!
that is SO COOL !!!!!! love it ! Whoever thought of it and implemented it deserves a pint!
24:10 I love the "easter egg" at the end!
Now the only thing missing is a huge bouncer to drag people out of the museum after 24 hours max.
Wow! being a old Gamestation and Grainger games store manager this has blown my mind, absolutely wonderful use everyday technology. Being that my old profession is more or less extinct I had to take a punt on something new to do, I went for a fresh start in food testing and microbiology which unbelievably uses the same scanner to input samples via barcodes. In my middle age scanning and confirming agar plates for pathogens is the same process as selling a copy of FIFA.
if any video game store had this tech in my childhood it would have blown my mind!
Simply brilliant! I can see myself setting this up when I get myself a MiSter. Would make things much easier for my kids and friends to launch games. Could even put a folder of games together with pictures and barcodes so I don't have to have all my boxed cartridges out.
Woah… it’s like your own Electronics Boutuque (old computer software store from the 80s and 90s in the US) but connected to your entertainment system. Very nice.
Very clever! I'd seen a few projects already that can call up games on MiSTer from a tablet, or show artwork on a secondary display as you mention, but I had no idea how it had been done. I also love that the entire Cave is now part of your filming set!
Cool idea! This setup could also be used in a game store to show you a video game preview, short review, trailer, etc.
I'm really loving this whole shop setup! I think you should get one of those old Photo Scan security cameras that they had in department stores in the 80s. The ones that looked like upside down Dalek heads. That would be way cool.
or maybe just the head of a real Dalek handing from the roof upside down?
I had forgotten about them - I will now have to spend the next hour trawling through google to find pictures of them to show the kids :-)
This is amazing. Something to consider for PC games: A small server running dockers and/or a slew of virtual machines would work. The logistics of getting it to work would have to be considered, but it is definitely possible and might be the best way to do it. Additionally, if they're already installed to a docker or virtual machine you're only talking 10 seconds or so to start them up.
Docker dos games?
lol love the bit at the end of the video, nice touch :)
I've done the same thing in my cave. However I added a simple what I thought I couldn't do without feature. I assigned all the picture in picture inputs on my house TV's (4 of them) with a Chromecast so that all the TV's can see the gameplay. I also got 2 Bluetooth/wifi extenders to allow game controllers at each tv so that my family of four can all play together from different rooms. A feature that no one really would ever really need, but it did help my son get an A+ on his final graduation electronics project that he needed to get his electrical certificate from high school. Now all his friends will be over my house and my daughter will have her friends over and they all play Mario Kart, smash, and Splatoon separately but together lol....pretty neat stuff. Also when people ask us why we can't just play together we just tell everyone we are prepared in case we needed to quarantine.
Also, saves you from having to drag all those chairs around...
Is latency an issue in this setup? Seems like a lot of things to add delays here. Cool setup idea though.
This is fantastic. I like it.
Also, the ending killed it haha!
"Do you think they bought it, Neil?" 😂
A pi and a Mister working together can give us the best of both worlds. I would love to see a board in the future that can integrate both and give us an attractive front end for launching games and the actual simulation handled by the de-10 nano.
This is brilliant! Truly an excellent solution for both archival and security.
Brilliant! Absolutely F**king brilliant! Im a putty/winscp guy, been for over a decade now myself.
An idea would be to have a catalog showcasing “upcoming games” or “out of stock” games that you could scan the barcode and play an trailer or ad on the monitors or use it to load games you may not have the physical copy of.
Thats awesome
Shh stop saying things are as easy as they should be- the developers can't watch UA-cam half their shift!
oh, you clever human ! That is awesome. and you made the data and script available for other people who have boxed games in their collections :)
RMC right out of the gate with a very strong contender for the annual Retro Computing Golden Floppy Disk award! Oh, and don't mind that man behind the curtain, hee, hee, LOL
I love this whole idea and the implementation looks first class. Well done Neil. 👏
I love your shop - that takes me right back in time! I'm gonna go home and play Twin Kingdom Valley this evening lol.
That's seriously cool. And awesome of you to share all the details and scripts. Greetings from Brazil!
Excellent,that's really cool, can you imagine how amazing that would have been in a store back in the day? Even if it was a 5 minute time game test
It would have been amazing even if it only pulled up a video recording of the game. Back in the day, a lot of games oversold on the back of the box. A lot of games would have never sold if you were able to see actual game play before.
Neil is back!!!!!! What a cool idea you've come up with. Scanning the game and it loading is just amazing. The cupboard did look a little cramped for Mark to hide in. Hehehe...
Brilliant, stay for the end.
Wow, this is SO FRICKEN COOL!
Wow .... impressive implementation.
Was always tempted to do this for my CD collection, so I could take a CD off a shelf, scan it and it would start playing.
this idea is mindblowing - simple and elegant.
Barcode scanner is amazing (conceptually) !