Homework for our backers : )
almost 9 years ago – Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 09:51:46 PM

We would like to know your favorite game series or single game. 

You can name games for consoles or home computers/ PC. 

We will add playable demos, shareware and public domain games for all emulated platforms, so we would like to concentrate on your favorites (or similar titles).

We won't install illegal content, but most console games had also a version for PC or Amiga. On those platforms there was often a playable demo available and because the indieGO! can play old-school Amiga, DOS and Windows games(powered by exagear and wine),  we can add those versions instead : )

All you need to do is telling us your favorite game or game series.

Some of mine (and so pre-installed) are:

Alien Breed, Doom series, Quake series, Urban Terror, Whacky Wheels, Commander Keen series, Duke Nukem, Destruction Derby series, Fifa, NHL, Need for Speed series, Lemmings, Settlers, Command & Conquer series, Worms, Cannon Fodder and more : )

A list with pre-installed games/demos and home-brew will follow.

Support our friend's Kickstarter - and a information four those aiming for the OS reward
almost 9 years ago – Tue, Jan 19, 2016 at 05:48:56 AM

Hi Friends, I’d like to share some exciting news.

Our friend David, a surgeon resident in Philadelphia, is launching a digital magazine app here on Kickstarter, and it's something we at ARES are really excited about.

The app is called Invented Mag, and it highlights new tech innovations - and how to get started making your own. Think TED Talks meets Wired magazine. The app is designed to show you how to start with nothing more than an idea and then develop it into a physical reality and bring this to market. It's geared towards first-time makers, which is another reason we're looking forward to it!

His project can be found on Kickstarter at: http://bit.ly/InventedMag

David has also put together big discounts (including a lifetime access subscription) that won’t be available once it goes live on the web.

Let’s help make this a success!

Are you interested in our OS only?

Good news: EmuLA+free lifetime subscritption for premium features will be part of the OS rewards also if we reach the next stretch Goal.

See our last update for detailed information.

(EmuLA is the worlds most advanced emualtion tool)

 Have a nice day!

Stretch goal alert! : ) - Introduction of the worlds most advanced Emulation Laucher
almost 9 years ago – Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 08:24:12 PM

Thank you again ! We've reached the 45000€ stretch goal which means that you can test your mind with our game G.E.M.Z . 

The next stretch goal is about EmuLA 

EmuLA is the worlds most advanced Emulation management, downloader and launcher tool. Yep! It is still in development but will be ready before the indieGO! will be send out to you. You will get it including the lifetime subscription for premium functionality if we reach 50000€. Premium functionality would cost normally a small fee.. something we will gift to you. 

EmuLA recognizes thousands of ROMS by their individual CRC. So it can add them to your library, download images, point to youtube videos, compare your gaming skills with other players(!) and more. This are unique features i haven't seen anywhere else.

EmuLA can easily download demos and homebrew roms for you. No manual web searching and installing is required.  

EmuLA will be available for AROS, morphOS, AmigaOS, Windows, Linux and OSX.

Let EmuLA scan your devices to add roms, get artwork and links to youtube videos.

It is awesome. You can use EmuLA on the indieGO by switching to the desktop UI:

Than it will look like what you see in the video and screenshots but

Fabio will add meanwhile also a Console mode (like the Big picture functionality in Steam), so we can use the features of EmuLA also in the console interface of the indieGO! controlled with a Joypad. This will be nice addition to the already included App Store ; )

This is a giant leap for hassle-free retro gaming! EmuLA will take care of getting the correct emulator based on your ROMS! 

But exactly, what is EMULA?

EMULA stands for EMUlator LAuncher and it’s our attempt to create a cross platform software able to manage, recognize and run games (legaly) owned by the user. One of the most important goal is to let the software be easy enough for everyone, even for people with no emulators knowledge, and for people that have no computer-skills, but just want to play their games as fast as possible.

We have another hidden desire: we would like to have a tool that let us access to the infinite library of homebrew, public domain and demo-scene easily, directly from EmuLa, and yes it is possible with just one mouse click! (in kiosk mode with a joypad ; ) )

Emula recognizes roms using the rom CRC and the rom size, without goin’ to deep into details you should know that any file (so even rom) rom have a unique CRC, like a footprint, and this “magic number” let Emula recognize the rom even if the file have a misleading name. This system also take some good things to the end user, for example he will never be prompted to make a choice in case of ambiguos roms and will never download wrong additional data (game art for example) for his rom. Have you ever tried to scan your rom folder with any of the existing front end and after the scan you came up with games informations completely wrong that you need to edit by hand? This is frustrating and time consuming, but this situation will never happen with EmuLa!

Another benefit using this system is that you don’t need that your roms are organized into folders or have correct file names, you can have all of your roms messed up in your hard drive or in your USB thumb drive and EmuLa will still be able to recognize your roms and which emulator is needed to let you play with it. Only one scan process is needed to find all supported roms, forget multiple scans (one for each supported platform), forget time spent watching your computer screen to resolve ambiguos rom manually, forget hours spent to edit wrong rom informations!

So let’s recap : 

• Only the first time (or when you add new roms) : press the [SCAN] button 
• Press one of the supported system buttons to populate the game list 
• Select a game and press the [RUN] button 

Isn’t it easy enough? 

55.000€ stretch goal

If we reach this you will get 3 retro games from Piko Interactive with every console bundle

BOOM! BADABOOOM! : D 

We wish you another nice week : ) 

Tomorrow we can show you a drawing of the paperboard box for the console. The dimensions are final and the designer can start to do some magic. We will let him also create a "template" for future indieGO! game releases on DVD/CD. We will make this template available for free, so indie devs can use it if they like. If they do , we would be happy to publish their games in the App Store and if the quality is fine also on DVD/CD ; ) 

Did you know that we will offer a "update/upgrade service" ? This means if we add support for more ARM devices, you can send us your indieGO! in and we will upgrade it. Before doing so we will send you an offer about your old ARM-Board, so you will pay less compared to buying the new ARM board on your own. Personally I thinks this is a great service.

Putting an Hard-drive into the indieGO!
almost 9 years ago – Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 04:13:22 PM

We have been asked if it is possible to install an Hard-drive.

The answer is yes but you would need an S-ATA to USB adapter to connect the drive with the ARM-Board with an extra USB-Power-lead because the ARM boards couldn't power the drive on their own. 

On the Odroid XU4 version you can also add an eMMC module as extra storage. The indieGO! has also an front SD-Card-slot to add more storage. 

We've decided to offer 2 "Mega packs". One Raspberry P2 and one Odroid XU4 version.

Both packs will include everything we have added to the other console bundles such as:
Tanks Furry, Decal/Skin , Wifi, Bluetooth and on top:

• 128GB storage
• Our game Projekt Lila
• Mini Wireless keyboard with Touchpad
• an extra USBtoS-ATA adapter and power power lead for mechanical Hard-drives
• and everything we will add or have added with our stretch goals

プロジェクト：パープル - Introducing Projekt Lila - an indieGO! game
almost 9 years ago – Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 12:37:29 PM

I am glad to announce a new joint-venture which will help to speed up development of my game project for Amiga and indieGO! called

プロジェクト：パープル / Projekt: Lila (german, Lila is pronounced like Leela in futurama and it means: "project: purple")

The game will mix the gameplay of Mega Man with the atmosphere from Einhänder (PSX). This means you will hear german voice over and boss enemies will  talking to you in german as well. Yeah I am a fan of Einhänder : )

Textes and story will be in english.

For the music we use an Amiga MOD's soundtrack which has been especially made for this game. Amiworx made them based on their Blue Metal Rose Album songs using voice samples which results in a CD-like soundtrack playable on 020 Amigas.

To speed up development and make sure that the game will be ready in 2016 we, Ares Computer and Amiworx, teamed up. 

The following teaser will show you the 8-Bit graphic style and gives you an idea of the Soundtrack. Yes this is Sound from the game.

We have added a new reward (this game) to the campaign and we will add Projekt: Lila to the upcoming new console bundle. The game will be released physically printed on CDROM and will work on PC/MAC, Amiga (68020, 2MB RAM, and 68030 as extended version) and indieGO!). 

If you like to get the game to your console-bundle, just add 25€. The normal retail price will be 29,90€. So you save 5€ + shipping.