Windows Media Center 2005 has earned all my respect. I tried the previous versions and it didn’t even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as TiVo. It’s funny how things change… I’m getting ready to demote my standalone TiVo and start using my newly built MCE 2005 box as my primary PVR/Entertainment machine. My setup includes a 3.0ghz HT P4, 1GB RAM, 400GB of hard drive space, a 9700 ATI AIW graphics card, 2 PVR-250’s, 1 VBOX-151 OTA HDTV card and, I know, it’s hard to believe, it works like a charm!!! Stable, fast, and multipurpose. There is no need to hack it like a TiVo… since it’s a full fledge XP machine. The best part is that I’ve started extracting my DVD’s as ISO and playing them directly from my HD… then I thought to myself… there has to be a way to play MAME games thru the MCE interface (I don’t ever want to drop down to the XP interface). Lo and behold, it exists! GameEX was my answer. It was a breeze to install and setup and once I moved over 4.7GB of roms, I was up and playing all the classics. Now, I just need to buy a real joystick, X-Arcade, for the ultimate classic gaming enjoyment!

– HTPC NEWS — More on Game EX MCE Plug-in
– HTPC NEWS — X-Arcade Joystick