Spam Spam Spam

No I'm not talking about the tinned porky ham that Monty Python likes to sing about. It's the electronic type. I added the option to add comments to my site a few months ago. Being aware that this could be abused I coded some email notification.

Late last night I received over 300 emails notifying me that comments had been added to one of my blog entries. Anything from Obama healthcare to Casio slot machines. All linked to various other sites with 404 errors. I don't believe they were malicious, just simply to increase other sites r... read more

I have been meaning to learn Java for a while a now, but as usual it’s all about finding the time. Over the last few weeks I have been fortunate enough to come across the brilliant Java tutorials over on Kilobolt.com. Not only do they cover Java basics, but they continue to step you through creating your own framework for game development. Then port them across to Android via the Android Studio IDE.

At the end of the tutorial you have a one level robot platform game, shown above. The development has gone fairly smoothly. ... read more

With all the thousands of arcade games, what games are on your list? Here are my favourites. What have I missed ? Comment below.

Ms. Pac-Man
1942
'88 Games
1941 - Counter Attack
64th. Street - A Detective Story
720 Degrees
A.B. Cop
After Burner II
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars
Alien Syndrome
Aliens
Altered Beast
APB - All Points Bulletin
Arkanoid
Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH
Arkanoid Returns
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Bad Dudes vs. Dragonninja
Bad Lands
Bagman
Balloon Brothers
Batman
Blasteroids
Bloo... read more

The cut perspex has arrived from acrylic-online.co.uk. I'm pleased to say that it fits the marquee and bezel gaps perfectly.

For the marquee I borrowed the great design from angel88888 over on the overclock.net forums. His post is here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1436501/hyperspin-arcade-machine-lots-of-pics

I had to crop the image a bit of fit my cabinet. Cropped version is at the bottom of this post.

To print, I just used my inkjet printer, it came out pretty well (in 2 piece's). You can just see t... read more

I have been a user of MediaPortal for a number of years now and I am happy that I made the switch from Windows Media Center. As much as I loved WMC, I started getting frustrated having to manually configuring EPG and guide data for my DVB-S2 satellite cards.

When I discovered the Custom Data Grabber plugin from DJBlu that just pulls all the guide data and channel line-ups from Sky automatically (saving me hours!) I was hooked on MP!

This new release has an improved TV experience that will display things like audio channels, bitrate, etc.

G... read more

It seemed crazy to me that the original code would generate a feed every time you accessed the page, generating lots of unnecessary database class. I have updated my code so that when I add a post it will replace a static blog.xml file.

So if you have subscribed to my RSS feed, please refresh your reader by re-pointing to digitalgeek.me/blog.php or digitalgeek.me/blog.xml.

I have also improved the site indexing files. This is using pretty much the same code to create a sitemap.xml. I hope this will help getting my pages listed on Google... read more

Continuing from my previous post regarding the dynamic backgrounds and colours. Starting from version 39 of Chrome on Android (Lollipop) you can also set the toolbar colour. It's easy too. You just need to add a meta tag for theme-color in the head. So now if you're on Android hopefully your toolbar should be not the boring grey. Head over to the htmlrocks.com website for more details.

http://updates.html5rocks.com/2014/11/Support-for-theme-color-in-Chrome-39-for-Android

#coding

I have finally ordered the Perspex bezel and marquee for the arcade machine. So while I wait for them to arrive, I thought it would be a good time to talk about the software that I am using for my arcade machine.

My original plan was to use the fantastic HyperSpin frontend. If you have not heard of it, I would highly recommend you check it out here - http://www.hyperspin-fe.com

I have spent a fair bit of time downloading and configuring this frontend for MAME and various old game consoles. It has been running really quite well on my main computer. However when I copied the files... read more

As much as I originally liked the green circuit board background, after a few months I think it's time for a change. Well, more like some variety. I have updated the site so that the background and highlighted colour is dynamically selected by a pool of images I have set. This is done via php, overriding the stylesheets.

Images are from places I have visited. Don't worry the circuit board is still there too. I'm sure you would miss it :) There is also a new section on the sidebar that tells you a little about the background. I hope you like it.

#coding

The monitor arrived and I'm pleased to say it fitted perfectly. Next step was to paint the cabinet before fitting buttons etc.

For painting, I used a wood primer then a black gloss, applied with a mini gloss roller. I am fairly pleased with the result. However the paint was a single coat gloss, so went on a little thick. I think a liquid gloss may have given a smoother result. But still, I'm pleased with the outcome.

Keeping my costs down, I had an old arcade joystick that I made many years ago. This allowed ... read more