Torontron Indie Game Arcade Machine
Debuted last week at Canadian Zine fair Canzine, the Torontron is an arcade cabinet that was retrofitted to play six games created by independent developers from Toronto. Local indie games advocacy group The Hand Eye Society constructed the master work and showed it off at the event's Artcade portion, hosting a Q&A on how to go make your own similar machine.
The Torontron's six installed games includes Miguel Sternberg's Night of the Cephalopods, Jph Wacheski's lockOn 2, Rosemary Moscoe's Albacross, Jim McGinley's Mondrian Provoked, BananasInPajammers' Monster Puncher, and Team Entelechynt's Heavy Weather.
As Mathew Kumar noted in his round-up of the indie titles, all of the games have simple, accessible controls, as the arcade cabinet only has a joystick and two buttons. The easy controls also helped portray Toronto's indie development scene as accessible to those who tried out the machine.
The Hand Society plans to bring the Torontron to game developer/enthusiast event Gamercamp on November 21st. The group is also taking suggestions for possible places to setup the arcade cabinet and make the indie titles available to play for free.
[Via Jim Munroe]
Comments
This is cool as hell. It always been one of my dreams to make this.
Posted by: Kapser | November 13, 2009 5:51 PM
For vanity's sake (since we're getting, like, press coverage now) this is the Monster Puncher that actually made it into the machine:
http://willhostforfood.com/access.php?fileid=91912
The version up on the TOJam website was made in 48 almost-sleepless hours and is something of a half-finished mess. Nick and I spent an extra weekend plus change on getting it into shape for the TORONTRON and it's a lot less glitchy and a lot more filled-out now.
I've gotta say, Jim's a champ for putting this thing together. Definitely one of the coolest things I've ever been involved with.
Posted by: Adam | November 13, 2009 6:41 PM
Ha, this thing looks awesome. I bet there are a lot of people out there who'd love to have their games on it (myself included).
Posted by: Sparky | November 13, 2009 7:15 PM
The Torontron will be at Gamercamp for everyone to play, come check it out along with a lots of other good gaming content.
Posted by: Mark | November 13, 2009 9:30 PM
You'd be surprised at how few games these days can be played with one button and one 8 direction joystick. I know I was. Jph Wacheski deserves most of the credit for building the machine, and Jim Munroe the rest for acquiring the cabinet leading the charge.
My wife can finish the Torontotron exclusive version of Mondrian Provoked so I'm expecting everyone that plays it to finish it - even you Kumar. The ending is worth it.
@Adam > I'll get the latest version of Monster Puncher up on www.tojam.ca soon (sorry about that)
Posted by: Jimbo McJimmy Jim | November 15, 2009 2:05 AM