39 replies to this topic

[Johnnyafc]

Bring back the Hovel

[captainhaddock]

I found my way into the emulation world when I was looking for rom carts to enable me to play different games on my barcrest machines,which led me to someone with username Chucky on a real fruit machine site, he was looking for mpu4 technical info and this in turn led me to find the emulator, I then found Gary P and took him a few roms and reel bands,It was a dream come true for me, at last I could play the machines I wanted without having to rewire my machine everytime I wanted something different

[cja272]

I found fme while searching for old fruit machines on the internet but also got a disc of e bay about the same time too where there was a link to this website.

[Pook]

I found FME emulation existed when I visited Maroney's Web Hovel back in the day. Then I joined up to the MSN site that was created, and I've been around ever since. Long may it continue.

My story is pretty much a carbon copy of that. No idea how I stumbled upon the Hovel, probably doing a search for a downloadable sim. But that directed me to the old MSN community.

Back then you could get various layouts from sites like the Hovel, mpu34.co.uk, mpuworld & FMW. Which is why I opened the first incarnation of DX'Cellent as purely a resource site. I didn't even open the tools back then to have a fiddle, amazing what you can learn by trial and error.

Considering all the shit that's gone on over the last decade, it's amazing some of us are still hear and can recall fond memories, good times.

Pook

[Daryl]

Now, you see with all these replies how much passion there still is within FME land.

Some established members posting, and newer members with their story of how they found FME. Yes, i suppose in a way I shall have to admit that eBay has made FME and the forums more popular, but I am still against the vast profits that some of disk creators are charging for the copied FME layouts and emulators, but that I realise will always be the case.

FME has found a lot of enthusiasm of late, with Guitar fathoming some sort of BWB cracking and his excellent progress with his emulator, layout creators busy with all their work making layouts for all of us to enjoy, and people who gather the resources, at their own expense, to provide us with roms etc... we really are working hard for FME...

... and long may it continue to be so!

[Chopaholic]

Bring back the Hovel

I've still got the complete offline archive of both the original (and best!) Hovel, and also the two shiny new PHP Hovels, happy to upload them here for history's sake if the upload limits for zip files can accommodate them

I still fire up a fruit machine emulator every couple of days and stick a few quid through a favourite machine, I was playing Pook's 006 Games Bond DX just yesterday

Attached Files

•  hovel.jpg   665.99KB   35 downloads

[andy-1]

I bought a disc off ebay and attached to the sleeve was a note saying for all the latest machines and help visit fruit-emu. Thats when i found out about all the hard work the layout creators and other members that work behind the scenes to produce all these great machines

[gambogaz1]

I didn't buy a disc off ebay but it was their advertisement on Ebay that made me search for fruit emulation as I never knew it existed.

I'm pretty sure I found fruitforums 1st and started following the soap opera that was Trouty vs somebody, was quite entertaining then I found fruit-emu that just seemed much easier to post on.

[todd1970]

Must admit i was a bad boy and was looking for fruit machine 'scams and cheats' when after searching a few results on google it came to this site.

Edit: Pmsl at option number 5..just noticed that.

[ZorroJnr]

I can't even remember, i've been around dx'ellent and fruitforums and fruit-emu for years, had a crack at excalibur layout years ago, just contacts really. I'd love to do some more classic layouts for new machine not yet released. Email me with info if anyone has something easy to get me started again, its been a while!!!!

robstreet82@googlemail.com

[fuzion]

Found my way into fruit machine emulation via the Hovel. Good times.

J

[piesthecat]

well was watching fruit machine videos then fruitvideos pointed me over this way
and here i am still pishing away

[Mr House]

...Mr House what did you do? lol

...plenty, including release the 1st non-official Fruit.Exe layout which was Ghost Train and the first ever cabinet style which was Cash Lines DX.

There was also, MPU3/4 Forums and JPEMU forums that I brought together and made into Fruit Forums.

Too much to list really.

[hitthesix]

Searched for fruities, and got the wrong kind of site , so changed it very quickly to "fruit machines"
and the hovel come up, so had a butchers at that and was very intrigued about how it all worked.
then found "dads" (my first port of call, then onto this site, must be around 5 years now, doesn't time fly.

Edited by hitthesix, 09 August 2010 - 07:08 PM.

[duplu]

I've still got the complete offline archive of both the original (and best!) Hovel, and also the two shiny new PHP Hovels, happy to upload them here for history's sake if the upload limits for zip files can accommodate them

Current limit is a least 16Mb, how much do you need?

edit - It's actually 64Mb, also if necessary the old sites can be hosted.

[flying_giraffe]

The Hovel here too, looking for emulators in general, found pinball and fruitmachines, couldnt see how they could emulate either because they where both mechanical so thought it would just be the displays, how wrong i was, left the pc on dial up leeching from the hovel while i was at work that day!

[Bandits]

Same as ady and most others i guess bought dvd from ebay full of layouts however most had roms missing so i joined fruit-emu and downloaded the missing files.

[spa]

Hovel too. Looking for snes roms at the time

[CrAzYbAr]

Dad bought me a disk off eBay once! I was amazed that it could be done! Until then, real machines on the PC were just a fantasy for me. Anyway, I'd played a few of them, and I typed "Fruit Machine Emulator" into Google and got all sorts of sites for it! Fruit Emu, DX'Cellent, DADs, Fruit Forums...So I had a look round just to see how you actually made these layouts! And I had a browse in a couple of WIP threads. Looked awfully complicated!
So then, I went to the Downloads. Well would you look at that! A layout I hadn't got! So I got a few, then I decided to join up, get some faster download speeds. I browsed some of the threads as they were interesting, so I thought, Go on then. I'll jump in. So I started my long and drawn out FME life all like that!

[cashbox1]

So I started my long and drawn out FME life all like that!

and doesnt time fly....for me it was somebody giving me none working discs full of roms- i hadnt got a clue how to get them running,i searched for days as there were no links on the disks,i saw a picture of Wayfinders Dx of razzle dazzle in google images and Bingo!! i finally got my link for this wonderful place aaahhh it seems so long ago....