Phillytron

A multi-game machine showcasing games and game jams from Philadelphia created with help from members of Philly Game Mechanics

History

The Phillytron is original an All-American Football cabinet with a custom control top featuring 4 players each with 1 stick and 3 buttons. Originally built in Philly Game Forge, a co-working space housing developers such as Cipher Prime, Flyclops, and Final Form. The cabinet was originally intended to be used solely for Final Form's game Jamestown, an up to 4 player shoot 'em up, but as the community meetup Philly Dev Night, which grew into Philly Game Mechanics, grew so did the scope of the Phillytron. It is the home of over 20 games and jam games most of which had their control schemes adapted for the Phillytron with only a few designed specifically for it.

Launcher

The Phillytron had multiple launcher softwares, which became the biggest challenge to stability. Like many multi-game cabinets it relies on [[Auto Hot Key] and a launcher software to manage launching and exiting games. Originally borrowing the open source Winnitron Unity launcher it had issues with instability in jam games locking up and creating a stack of crashing Unity games. While attempts were made at custom launchers made in Python the current Phillytron is using a heavily modified version of Coin-Ops Legends.

Photos

Phillytron debuting at MAGFest 2018
Phillytron in its original home, Indy Hall
The game Point Break: The Movie: The Game HD Remix
The final appearance of the Phillytron at MAGFest 2024
Phillytron at the Philly Indie Arcade event at Colorspace Inc.
Phillytron on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia for their The Golden Age of Video Games in Game Masters: The Exhibition in 2018