One of the huge hurdles in Flash gaming is that we're still tied to the keyboard to one degree or another. Sure, there are controllers that let you configure or bind keystrokes to various buttons on a gamepad... but what I'm talking about is being able to pick it up, plug it in, and play. You with me?

The love of retro / arcade gaming has been around for a long time now and has given birth to projects like MAME, Build Your Own Cabinet (BYOC), and whatnot. It's amazing to think that what used to fill one of these stand-up cabinets is now mostly being done in software.

A quick Google and you'll find some impressive cabinets running an entire arcades worth of retro-gamer-goodness... that leave a lot to be desired on the inside. There is no better death for an old PC than inside a game cabinet.

Before I go any further, I would like to say something to everyone that has kept the arcade black light burning... I thank you muchly!

Fast forward some three decades from 1979 to 2009 and you'll find that arcade-style games are still alive and well... and that there is a perfect platform for the next generation - Flash. If you've happened past PushButton you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. IMHO Flash gaming is a mostly undiscovered frontier... and with the advent of full blown Flash Player on mobile devices - we'll probably see a feeding frenzy in those markets first due to all the hard working Flash Lite developers out there.

On the hardware side of things we've seen some sizable changes as well... as in small sizes. What used to clutter custom cabinets can fit in the palm of your hand. Netbooks, Nettops, or even custom form-factors like the fit-PC2 are really attractive these days. ROWR!

What we need to push things forward though is some standardization in input... using a keyboard to play arcade games is so 1985. A great year... but it's time to take full advantage of game controllers and be able to use them like you do on todays consoles; pick it up, plug it in, and play. Of course, we need to keep limitations in fullscreen Flash stuffs in mind.

When you are ready to put things together there are some really great ready-made components for anyone interested in experimenting with a Flash-based gaming rig. 3Tronics has a great USB keyboard emulator that will get you up and running in no time... for buttons and switches you should give SparkFun a quick look. If keyboard emulators don't do it for you, take a quick look at my Handy Hijinks with HID post from a while back. Adding a configurable microcontroller in the mix opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Here is a quickie example of the 3Tronics setup... and me getting pwnd in Space Invaders.