I posted a while ago that there's an office at my company that randomly has a free print studio with a riso printer. I was slated to go to that neck of the woods again, so you better believe I demanded everyone at Arcade Commons and Wonderville give me things to print.
I love all these games and places, so even though I didn't do any of the actual art (besides adjusting some colors for riso), I like to think of these as kind of fan art for them. And since I'm also a riso fan, it's kind of like a riso fan's fan art.
Since the creators are distributed around, Iām handing these to AC to hold as a kind of central storage/distribution point. But itāll be up to the creators to decide what they want to do with them (keep em, use them as tournament prizes, sell them at MAGFest?). So if you want one, keep an eye on their various socials I guess? (And if you are one of the developers: surprise/enjoy!)
I'll try to credit everyone, but might update the post later if I got anything wrong or left anyone out. Apologies in advance.
Wonderville 6th Anniversary Commemorative Print
This art is by Jackie Vecchitto. The original is black and white; I threw a gradient on just to have an excuse to use flo pink.
As I printed these, I found that my original smaller sizes didn't look as "riso" as usual--they almost looked like a normal printer. So I redid them, hoping a larger size would help, which it sort of did. But I think I could have had an even better output if I hadn't used black ink for this--either gone with some dark color blended from two or three non-black colors, or just done 2 totally eye-bleedingly different colors like yellow and flo pink. Still, there's some nice halftoning and registration errors that make it look more riso.
Dyebreaker (game by Walt Mitchell, art by Ramsey Haefner)
Dyebreaker is inspired by screen print art, so of course I had to print it. With ~6 hours to go before I had to leave, I begged Walt for the in-game posters, and he delivered.
If I had more time, I would have liked to tinker more with the colors of these to make them really bring out the vibrancy of riso ink. I think Face is the most satisfying, combining flo orange and flo pink for some very satisfying eye-bleeding intensity.
For the next 4 pieces, Chris Hernandez arranged them for riso. For some reason they photographed less vibrantly than IRL. Such is the plight of riso printing.
Hoverburger (game by Nick Santaniello, art by Chris Hernandez)
Ziggurat of the Titan Beetle (game by Andy Wallace (@andymakesgames), art by Chris Hernandez)
Kick Kick Boom (game and art by Chris Hernandez)
Nightmare Kart Commemorative Arcade Cabinet Print (game by @b0tster, original logo by mino (art-mino on bluesky), AC remix and riso formatting by Chris Hernandez)
Celebrating the launch of the NMK cabinet. Love that there ended up being exactly 13 of these.
Particle Mace (game by @andymakesgames, art by Terence Tolman (twtdip on socials))
This art is from quite a while ago, but I thought it would be fun to revive as a print, since Terence's design and colors are so vibrant and dynamic. I had to play with them a bit in post to get the riso to capture it all well, but hopefully I did them justice.
I learned a lot on this trip and already have some ideas to make even better and cooler prints when I go back. I also might be in the middle of assembling a DIY riso-ish printing setup in my home, based on the excellent DIY mimeoprinting how-to posted by Rachel Simone Weil, so Iām not limited to using flo pink when Iām on the west coastā¦
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I have long been feral for the extraordinary vibrancy and saturation of risograph prints. My apartment is covered in riso prints bought from students and professional artists. I was devastated when I realized I missed this yearās student riso fair at SVA. Riso prints are so juicy, I just want to eat them.
Iām not much of a visual artist myself, but itās long been on my bucket list to try making one. And out of nowhere, while on a work trip across the country, I stumbled across a mini print studio in an auxiliary building that had a risograph machine!!
I didnāt have enough time to learn how to do it properly, but with enough grit and Spectrolite (and Austin, who kindly guided me through using the machine at 1AM), all things are possible.
I made a print of my games (original game art by Jenny Jiao Hsia) and also designed and printed one to celebrate the 10th anniversary of @andymakesgamesās PARTICLE MACE.
They both have flaws but I donāt care. I was l, and still am, absolutely giddy. And Iāve only eaten a couple.
Some photos of Ziggurat of the Titan Beetle being played at the Arcade Commons launch party for the new Nightmare Kart cabinet.
Photos by Sam Seddon (@samseddon_ on Insta)
Game art by Chris Hernandez
Console by Alex Panait
Setting Up A Windows 11 Computer as a Permanent Installation
Please be aware: the most up-to-date version of this post lives on the EMMA Blog which does not require you to sign into anything to read the full post.
This guide covers setting up a brand new Windows 11 computer to serve as an arcade machine, but it is relevant for any project that where a single program should run in a gallery environment.
I'm a member of the arcade non-profit, Arcade Commons. As you might guess, we frequently make arcade machines that need to work as easily and reliably as possible. They are often on loan to venues, so the more automatic the machine is, the more likely it is to actually be running. This is equally true for setting up interactive projects in galleries.
The goal is for the computer to turn on as soon as it gets power, launch the game on startup, and not be interrupted by myriad updates and other popups that plague the modern Windows operating system. I also added an AutoHotkey script to handle restarting the game if it crashes.
This is an update to my previous post on how to do this for Windows 10.
That post was itself based on this excellent guide by Eva Schindlin on setting up Windows 7 for permanent installation.
I'm writing this post because I just got a new computer to serve as a dedicated device for Salmon Roll: The Upstream Team, a game I developed with Jane Friedhoff and Diego Garcia. I took notes as I setup the machine, following along with my old post and adding some new things along the way.
I am working with a GMKtec NucBox G5 running Windows 11 Pro.
Required software
Before we get started, get installers for Notepad++ and AutoHotkey on a thumb drive.
I say to put these on a thumbdrive, because I do not want to connect my new computer to the internet if I can avoid it.
AutoHotkey is used for automation. If you don't plan on using it, you can skip this. Note: the AutoHotkey scripts I provide in this post are for v1.1, NOT v2.0. Make sure you grab the right installer.
Notepad++ is an excellent free text editor for Windows. Maybe you can get by doing things with TextEdit, but taking the 30 seconds to give yourself a good text editor will pay dividends.
Finally, I add the game I want to run.
Initial setup
The first time you plug the computer in, you'll get the usual Windows setup flow. If you are not connected to the internet, you should be able to skip linking the device to a Microsoft account.
If you do need to be online, it is possible to circumvent the seemingly required Microsoft account login. Here are a few posts on the subject.
Set the username as something simple with no spaces. I went with "salmon".
Leave the password field blank. This prevents needing the password to login.
On the privacy screen I unchecked every option. No tailored experiences etc.
After that I hit confirm, and the computer thinks for a bit.
Prepping the computer
This is the bulk of the process! We're going to change a lot of settings to keep things running smoothly and without interruption.
1. Run those installers
Install Notepad++ and AutoHotkey.
2. Test the game
Now is a great time to make sure your game actually runs well on this computer.
3. Prevent sleeping
We do not want the computer to go to sleep ever.
Control Panel
Hardware and Sound
Power Options
Change when the computer sleeps
Set it all to āneverā
4. Disable Windows Fast Startup
If you set a wake time in BIOS (more on that in a bit) but it doesn't work, that may be because Windows Fast Startup is turned on. This makes the computer startup faster, but does it by hibernating instead of actually shutting down.
While in Power Options:
Select Change What Power Buttons Do
Click āChange settings that are currently unavailableā
Uncheck āTurn on fast startupā
Save changes
On this computer, "Turn on fast startup" was unchecked by default, but that is not always the case.
On this panel you can also set the power button to turn the computer off instead of just putting it to sleep, which can make resets easier.
5. Turn off screen saver
Go to settings and turn the screen saver off.
Right click on the desktop and select "personalize"
Then search for "screensaver" in the search bar of the personalize window
This computer already had screensaver set to "none" but it's worth checking.
6. Change the desktop background
The desktop will be visible during startup and might be seen if the game crashes. It really breaks the illusion of an arcade or art installation to see the default Windows desktop.
While in personalize, you can:
Search for "desktop"
Select "Choose your desktop background"
If you have a logo for your project you can set that image. Otherwise, from the dropdown, select "solid color" and pick one. I go with black.
For the DreamBoxXx we set the desktop to be an image that looked like a loading screen, which worked amazingly well!
7. Set the computer time
Make sure the system clock has the correct time. This is important to automate startup/shutdown.
Right click the time in the bottom right corner of the taskbar
Select āAdjust date/timeā
8. Disabling updates
Updates have a good chance at messing up the setup, so it is worth avoiding them. As much as possible, you want this install to be frozen in amber.
I'm trying to avoid this by simply never connecting to the internet, but that will often not be viable.
Poking around online and the consensus seems to be that there is really no way to stop them short of staying offline.
Some possible solutions that I have not tested:
Reddit post
Microsoft Forum
9. Disabling startup processes
Press the Windows key and search for āstartupā
Select "Startup Apps"
Disable all of them
If your project requires QuickTime or some other Apple product, set Apple Software Update to never check for updates.
10. Hide the taskbar & widgets
Right click the taskbar and select āTaskbar settingsā
Turn Widgets off
Scroll down and expand "Taskbar behaviors"
Check "Automatically hide the taskbar"
11. Add shortcuts/aliases to the startup folder
We'll want to have items that run on startup. This means dropping them in the startup folder (which is different from the panel where you disabled the startup processes).
You can open this folder by pressing Win-R for the run prompt and entering shell:startup
If you don't mind doing this every time, it's fine to just memorize that command, but I like to make a shortcut to the startup folder.
With the startup folder open:
Go up one level by selecting the enclosing folder, Programs
Right click the Startup folder
Select "Show more options"
Select Send to->Desktop (create shortcut)
A shortcut is an alias, a link to another file or folder on the computer. It is not a copy.
You can move this shortcut anywhere. It does not need to stay on the desktop.
Double clicking it will open the startup folder, same as entering "shell:startup" on the run prompt.
I'll dive into some AutoHotkey stuff further down, but if you just want your game to launch on startup, you can make a shortcut for the game and drop that shortcut into the startup folder.
Go to the exe for your game
Right click and select "Show more options"
Select Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)
Find the shortcut/alias on the desktop
Drag it into the startup folder
This should be enough to launch your game on startup.
12. Bypass the login screen
If you kept the password blank and did not connect to the internet, the computer should skip the login screen. No muss no fuss.
But if you are getting a login screen, here's what I did on Windows 10. It may still work.
By default, you need to enter your password on startup, but this can be turned off. Here are the steps in this guide to bypass this.
Search for ānetplwizā in the start bar
Uncheck the box labeled āUsers must enter a user name and password to use this computer.ā
Hit OK
If you do not see this checkbox in the netplwiz screen, you may need to disable "Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft Accounts." You can follow these steps from Tenforums user Faslane to do it pretty easily:
Just open the sign in options at settings/accounts/sign in options and turn the "Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft Accounts" to off, then re-open Netplwiz. Voila! it's back ;-)
Modern Windows 10 PCs are set up with a PIN and not a password. Presumably this is true in Windows 11 as well. You will need to disable the PIN first, otherwise the option to bypass the password wonāt show up in netplwiz.
Furthermore,Ā if you donāt have a password OR pin, then the message āRequireĀ Windows Hello Sign-Inā will be checked ON but greyed out so youĀ canātĀ change it! So you need to then ADD a pin, uncheck the box, then you will see the checkbox in netplwiz.
Although I have not tested these steps for Windows 11, in favor of never connecting to the internet, they seem to match up with this Windows 11 answer from Tobias Schneider on the Microsoft forums.
13. Preventing the āLetās Finish Setting Up Your Deviceā blue screen
Fellow Arcade Commons member Mark Kleeb recommended I add this as it has come up in a bunch of our machines. This screen can be really annoying because it often waits a few days or months before popping up and ruining your installation.
This post on the Microsoft forums has a solution for Windows 10.
The exact options are a little different on Windows 11:
Open Settings
Select System
Select Notifications
Scroll down to Additional Settings and select it
Uncheck everything
While I was in the Notifications page, I went ahead and unchecked everything because why not.
14. Hide desktop icons
This is optional, but I like to put the various files I need on the desktop. I also don't want it to look cluttered if people see the desktop during startup:
Right click anywhere on the desktop
Select View
Uncheck "Show desktop icons"
You can still view the desktop files by opening a file explorer window.
15. Setting the computer to shut down automatically
For some installations, this will not matter, but we often have the arcade machines living at venues. We can't count on the staff there turning them on and off, so it's good to automate this so the computer is not running 24/7.
Shutting the computer down can be done via the Windows task scheduler. Turning it back on is done via BIOS (we'll get to that in a second).
You can ignore this if you're in an environment when you will be around to turn the computer on and off.
Eva Schindlingās guide has this process with pictures and it is relatively unchanged in Windows 11, but here are the steps:
Control Panel
System and Security
Windows Tools (in Windows 7 and Windows 10 this was "Administrative Tools")
Task Scheduler
Action Menu
Create Basic Task
Add title and description
Task Trigger: select Daily
Set your shut-down time and recurrence
Action: select Start a program
Program/script: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe
Add arguments: /s
Click Finish
Make sure you remembered to set the computer time!
BIOS settings
BIOS is short for Basic Input/Output System and it is the firmware that lives on your computer at a lower level than your operating system.
There's a good chance you've never needed to look at it, but this is where we can do things like ensuring that the computer turns on as soon as it receives power, or having it turn itself on at a given time (as long as it is plugged in).
Every computer has a different BIOS and there are different ways to open up BIOS, but it generally involves holding a function key during startup. Restart the computer, and start holding the key as soon as it shuts down. You generally need to be holding it the moment it starts to enter BIOS.
The specific instructions here are for a GMKtec NucBox because that's what I'm setting up, but the general principle can be applied to any computer.
You may need a wired keyboard to do this. Wireless keyboards may not be connected yet during the startup process. Often it's fine (it was on this computer), but if you're not getting a response, try a wired keyboard.
For this computer I had to hold the delete key during restart. Other computers I've worked on have used F12 or F2. Search for "enter BIOS [brand of computer]" for this info. Some computers will print the key you need to press for BIOS during the startup process, but many don't.
BIOS may be a keyboard-only DOS-looking screen, or it may have a simple GUI (although one that you can probably navigate with just keyboard). Likewise, the exact settings will be a little different, but I'll tell you what to look for.
Make sure to save and exit when you're done. The computer should startup normally after that.
BIOS to turn the computer on at a set time
You are looking for a setting along the lines of āResume by Alarmā or āWake Settings.ā
For example, on the computer we used for the DreamBoxXx, it was under advanced->S5 RTC Wake Settings.
On my GMKtec NucBox it was under Power->S5 RTC Wake Settings.
Then I set it to "Enabled" and selected "Fixed Time".
Note: Make sure you disabled Windows Fast Startup earlier or this may not work.
BIOS to turn the computer on when plugged in
It's very handy to not need to press the power button to start the computer. By setting the device to turn on as soon as it receives power, your whole installation can be turned on by flipping on a power strip.
In the BIOS settings, there will also often be an option to have the computer turn on when it is connected to power. The setting is often primarily for what to do after a power outage, but we can use it for our purposes. The name of the setting changes from machine to machine, but it is typically something along the lines of āAC Back Onā or āAction When Lost Powerā or "Wake on Power".
For my GMKtec NucBox, it was under Chipset:
Chipset -> PCH-IO -> Wake on Power -> S0 State
You really have to dig to find this option sometimes. Searching the web for "[Computer band] Wake on Power" can help.
AutoHotkey
This part is optional, but using an AutoHotkey script to automate things, like relaunching the game if it crashes, can be useful.
In the case of Salmon Roll, simply putting an alias to the game in the startup folder is not enough because when it launches, there's the little Unity popup where you have to click "Play".
So instead I made an AutoHotkey script that launches the game, waits a few seconds and then presses ENTER.
It also checks every 10 seconds to see if there is no window matching the window title of the game (which is what will happen if the game crashes or somebody closes it), and it will relaunch the game if that happens.
You can see my script here. Feel free to modify it for your own purposes: https://gist.github.com/andymasteroffish/41a02deb5d2924dadb4e3c005e564b8f
If you do not need it to press ENTER after launching the program, just remove these lines:
Full disclosure: I am script-kiddie-level with AutoHotkey and this is mostly clobbered together from old scripts and random things from the internet.
I HIGHLY recommend putting the hotkey to kill the script in writing on the computer. It can be super confusing to try to work on a machine where an AutoHotkey script is running in the background opening apps or taking control of the mouse etc. I always use Win-Z to kill my scripts, but it's up to you. Do not write an AutoHotkey script that has no way to exit.
It is easy to forget to do this and you will regret it.
Once you have your AutoHotkey script, you can put it directly in the startup folder. If you are using AutoHotkey, make sure that you do not also have an alias to the game in the startup folder or it may launch twice.
That's it!
Hopefully that gets your arcade game or art installation running from now until the end of time.
Remember: do not connect to the internet if you don't have to!
And if you are more technically inclined, consider Linux for tasks like this.
If you use this guide, hit me up on Mastodon or Tumblr and show me what you made!
Follow Arcade Commons on Twitter, Instagram or Bluesky to see our games in action!
