I have noticed something about 3d arcade games' preservation

[Xdqwerty]

Is it just me or 3d arcade games' roms very rarely get dumped and/or emulated? Like, I think they are gonna become lost media in the long run

 

[Evilengine]

Because most of newer arcade boards are based on PC's and just need to be "loaded" not emulated.
https://teknoparrot.com/wiki/index.html

 

[Robert Newbie]

I feel like the more recent 3D games are definitely at a greater risk. There are a bunch of interesting ones: Jurassic Park Arcade, Luigi's Mansion Arcade, etc. Those definitely need to be preserved.

Many of them are legit good fun, especially with multiple people.

 

[Xdqwerty]

(someone said something about a program to play 3d arcade games on pc but the post got deleted)


Alright, but I meant to talk more about the "dumping" part

 

[Kwyjor]

Does anything really get lost anymore? I expect they were all dumped and re-dumped a dozen times the day after they were released, just like everything else.

They're probably just a lot harder to find because no one can really do anything with them. Or more likely they're encrypted somehow.

 

[Jayinem]

I've been using Teknoparrot for about 5 years now and most arcades can either play on that emulator or work separate from it with some configuration. Games like Time Crisis 5 work with lightgun, Mario Kart DX which never came to home consoles and a bunch more. I have a huge rom collection that I run through Launchbox and I prefer arcades to home versions like Street Fighter V Arcade Edition.

 

[Robert Newbie]

I've been using Teknoparrot for about 5 years now and most arcades can either play on that emulator or work separate from it with some configuration. Games like Time Crisis 5 work with lightgun, Mario Kart DX which never came to home consoles and a bunch more. I have a huge rom collection that I run through Launchbox and I prefer arcades to home versions like Street Fighter V Arcade Edition.

Ha, that reminds me. I bought LaunchBox a long time ago, but I haven't logged in or downloaded it in ages. I wonder how it has improved.

 

[Jayinem]

Ha, that reminds me. I bought LaunchBox a long time ago, but I haven't logged in or downloaded it in ages. I wonder how it has improved.

Well to me it hasn't improved I'm stlll on a version from like 4 years ago I have like 1300 games on it and I made covers that look real nice no logos of the game companies on them and none of them say press start or the console name they're just clean it took me forever to edit them the way I wanted them I got them off Google but every time I try to update and copy over the data the system doesn't recognize about 500 of my games and it doesn't have my covers so I would have to manually re-add them all it's not even worth it to me. This old version I'm on still has Big Box which is cool I don't need to update ever.

Have you notice that often times these so called "updates" to anything make things worse not better? Or just little to no change at all.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Well to me it hasn't improved I'm stlll on a version from like 4 years ago I have like 1300 games on it and I made covers that look real nice no logos of the game companies on them and none of them say press start or the console name they're just clean it took me forever to edit them the way I wanted them I got them off Google but every time I try to update and copy over the data the system doesn't recognize about 500 of my games and it doesn't have my covers so I would have to manually re-add them all it's not even worth it to me. This old version I'm on still has Big Box which is cool I don't need to update ever.

Have you notice that often times these so called "updates" to anything make things worse not better? Or just little to no change at all.

I'm going off old memories, but I remember it being a slog to put games in manually without signing up for several different services. Like, for gameplay videos, you needed a subscription to A, for game covers: B, and so on. I grew tired of going one-at-a-time, so I can only imagine the frustration of updates removing entries.

It really comes down to this: If you have to do every step manually, you'll never get to the actual games part.

TL;DR: Unless you're the type of Resident Evil 4 player that spends more time rearranging items in the Attaché Case than blasting enemies, you'll want a frontend that works with you.

 

[Evilengine]

I'm going off old memories, but I remember it being a slog to put games in manually without signing up for several different services. Like, for gameplay videos, you needed a subscription to A, for game covers: B, and so on. I grew tired of going one-at-a-time, so I can only imagine the frustration of updates removing entries.

It really comes down to this: If you have to do every step manually, you'll never get to the actual games part.

TL;DR: Unless you're the type of Resident Evil 4 player that spends more time rearranging items in the Attaché Case than blasting enemies, you'll want a frontend that works with you.

Launchbox surely is a bit of work to set up, but they improved massively and listen to their community.
It is a very amazing piece of software and I spent dozens of hours with it. I recommend the Colorful bigbox theme!
Now you can even import several console at once. It is recommended to also have a Emumovies account, it is really the fastest way to scrape games.
I also use ES-DE Emulation station for the sake for flexibility and simplicity over OSes and I can use metafiles from Launchbox, too.

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2025

(someone said something about a program to play 3d arcade games on pc but the post got deleted)


Alright, but I meant to talk more about the "dumping" part

Yes that's the thing, the dumping basically became making an arcade pc exe run on an usual PC. Not as magical anymore as it was but I am pretty sure that a high percentage of all newer Arcade games are based of typical computers. There might be still boards based more on console architecture or their own but I guess since Arcade became more of a niche and big titles often are released for PC and coonsoles, that's the natural evolution. MAME btw supports more and more 3D systems, that weren't supported some years ago, it's worth to check the list from time to time.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Launchbox surely is a bit of work to set up, but they improved massively and listen to their community.
It is a very amazing piece of software and I spent dozens of hours with it. I recommend the Colorful bigbox theme!
Now you can even import several console at once. It is recommended to also have a Emumovies account, it is really the fastest way to scrape games.
I also use ES-DE Emulation station for the sake for flexibility and simplicity over OSes and I can use metafiles from Launchbox, too.

I could have sworn Emumovies was a paid service back in the day. I see that they have multiple donation tiers on their website. Is Emumovies free to use with a basic account, or do you need to donate to get any real function out of it?

 

[Evilengine]

I could have sworn Emumovies was a paid service back in the day. I see that they have multiple donation tiers on their website. Is Emumovies free to use with a basic account, or do you need to donate to get any real function out of it?

Well, I bought gold membership many years ago and still profit from a lifetime support. Same for Launchbox. Was worth to pay for it, as they update very often cool features. If you want more the free route go for ES-DE and create a free screenscraper account but be aware that scraping will take like 200x the time.

 

[Robert Newbie]

Well, I bought gold membership many years ago and still profit from a lifetime support. Same for Launchbox. Was worth to pay for it, as they update very often cool features. If you want more the free route go for ES-DE and create a free screenscraper account but be aware that scraping will take like 200x the time.

I appreciate the advice. I'm not even sure if I'm going to use any frontends in the future, but I like that there are options. It's nice that there are free scrapers available, but I understand I have to choose wisely.

 

[BeenASon]

That be awful. I'm pretty sure someone made a dump of them and uploaded it. But yeah Kwyjor says the truth. A lot of media can be considered "lost media" but really you have to be dedicated and dig deep to get your hands on said media.

 

[Evilengine]

@BeenASon
Yes, there are Arcade Punk y projects out there. If you are looking for 1G1R sets based on No-Intro and Redump collections, there are huge complete archives to be found.
I find it fascinating, that Archive.org as a nonprofit organisation, is able to handle copyrighted material in a different way.

Of course, those media sets often miss c ertain images or videos to certain games, thats why Emumovies really help having the most complete selection. Over the years the community really did an insane job to catalogue every game ever made. Screenscraper als ooffer a small pay variant to gain higher download speeds.
If you just scrape your personal little collection per system, it is totally alright to go the free route, won't take long.