Ongoing Where to go from here? (1 Viewer)

[Grayda]

I've had my HTPC for about 6 months now, and it runs like a charm with MediaPortal. I'm slowly turning this into a massive "party" PC so I can invite people over and play games, or take it to parties and have a great night out. Here's what it can do so far:

• Utilise a Playstation controller for games
• Plays NES, SNES, Sega, N64, PS1 and MAME games
• Works with a Guitar Hero controller to play Frets on Fire
• Works with a Wii remote to play FPS, strategy, racing and other games
• Plug in a microphone to play UltraStar
• Plug in a webcam to play Eye-Toy style games
• Plug in Buzz! controllers to play my own custom quiz game

And here's what I have planned for the future:

• Plug in a dance mat for StepMania moves
• Plug in a light gun to play MAME
• Support for more input controllers (ie. N64, SNES, NES, Wii Classic Controller etc.)

But I'm wondering, where can I go from here? What PC (or easily emulated) games would be great for a party? Something where people have to get up off their seat and play would be great, however any sort of retro-hit or other fun "using the PS2 / Wii remotes" would be fantastic.

What do you think?

 

[Deco]

Looks like a fantastic setup!

It would be great if you could post / Wiki how you got all these devices working with your HTPC.

Deco.

 

[Grayda]

The PlayStation controller requires an adapter that converts it from PS2 to USB (or whatever) and some setting up in your favourite emulator (most support USB joypads now, plus the adapter is only a couple of bucks from your local market), Guitar Hero guitars use a standard Playstation port so you don't need anything other than a PS2->USB adapter.

Wii remotes just require a bluetooth dongle and a set of instructions which I've partially posted here (excuse the lack of proper links. It's late and I have work tomorrow >_>).

SingStar works with your average microphone that can fit in the back of your computer.

The webcam games work by installing your webcam drivers, then heading to somewhere like Newgrounds and checking out their webcam games (I downloaded them, and ran them from within MP with my own custom application)

Finally, Buzz! controllers are USB devices, and work with Windows XP SP2 (I think SP1 too) and you just need a game that supports them, namely the one I wrote which can be found here: http://www.sf.net/projects/buzzmania

As for the dance mat, that's either USB or PS2 so the Playstation 2 > USB adapter works really well.

Light guns work the same as the dance mat and the guitar, so it all kinda pivots around a Playstation controller to USB adapter

I guess I'll eventually Wiki the information later, but right now, I need sleep. 6 hours of sleep ain't good. But thankfully tomorrow is Friday

 

[NickName]

To save others looking, I just found the webcam games on Newgrounds:
http://www.newgrounds.com/game/webcamgames.html

Enjoy.

 

[Grayda]

To save others looking, I just found the webcam games on Newgrounds:
http://www.newgrounds.com/game/webcamgames.html

Enjoy.

Thanks for that. It was late when I typed the reply and couldn't be stuffed finding the link ;P

There's also a game out called "Shoop" which is much the same as the Newgrounds games, but you play basketball instead. It's a little TOO reponsive for my liking, but eh that's how it goes. There was also a webcam version of Mortal Kombat coming out, but I think the project is on hold or the developers have lost interest. YOu can find it at http://sf.net/projects/camera-kombat if you're interested

I also just set up my PC so I can play Red Alert 2 with voice commands and my Wii remote. Let me tell you, that is SO much fun. I can control groups with a single spoken command Next up is a FPS game hopefully