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We need a Dreamcast port of MAME. This would mean over 1500 new games for the dying console. :)

-jfedor

How could you forget xmame? That's 2000+ classic (and some not-so-classic) arcade games right there suitable for all manner of UNIX-like boxes. What better way to kill time than a game of arcade-perfect Mr. Do!

I think you might need X to run it (never checked), but at http://www.mame.net/downports.html there is a linux binary, as well as a win32 binary, amiga, mac, beOS and several other platforms.

Now why are you running plex86 again?

18 years ago tomorrow I got my first computer - A Timex/Sinclair 1000 (aka Sinclair ZX-81). I used it until March of '83 when I upgraded to an Atari 400, which I used until 17 years ago today when I upgraded to an Atari 800XL.

Recently I went to the local Goodwill store looking for old movie equipment and they had a TS1000 new in a box for $11. I did not find my movie stuff, but I did find my first computer!

Now, thanks to things like xmess I can still enjoy my old computers.

Also, for you Atari fans out there, you might want to check out Atari Magazines. They have the entire Antic magazine library online, including the source code, program disks, etc. It is a neat trip if you have a few hours to waste. Heck, even if you are not an Atari fan, it is still interesting.

3) -- A side scrolling RPG/action game where you had to go through forty levels to get to the top of a mountain. The main thing I remember about it is that you could get an NPC to follow you around, who would attack when you would attack -- there were like 6 different ones, from a ninja that tossed stars to an archer, to a wizard. Anyone know the name of this? About 1990-1991 when it came out.

I believe the game you are looking for is Capcom's Magic Sword, which runs beautifully with MAME.

I mean, it's not like I can port Quake III for Linux to my PalmPalm cellphone.

Hey, you never know what people will try to do.

MAME will probably never run Windows, for the simple reason that it exists to emulate arcade games. However, MESS, a console/computer emulator based on MAME, might do it someday; it already emulates a PC with CGA or MDA graphics.

There's always xmame/xmess ;)

http://x.mame.net/

Oh, and here's a link to the official mess site here http://mess.emuverse.com

Oh, and for all you DOS'sers, MESS 37beta8 is well on it's way, with a few little surprises in store ;)

lpopman

LCD panels can never be photographed perfectly. Take a look at the screenshots of DOOMD (DOOM for the Digita OS cameras); all of those shots were taken with a camera, so there's plenty of glare and not enough light from the screen. For this reason, companies have to insert a rendering (or a screendump) from the product and superimpose it over the screen.

At 1G of ram, how long until someone slaps on an lcd screen and ports MAME to it? Digdug never had it so good.

Does anyone remember the name of the game where you were this warrior, 2-d scroller, walked down the hallway with this shield, which you could turn into the SUPER MEGA SHIELD by slamming the joystick up and down repeatedly, and you fought other warriors at the end, knocking parts of their armor off until you hit a vital point?

Sounds like Taito's "Gladiator". You can download the ROMS for use with MAME and see for yourself (it plays great in emulation).

Check out DOOM for the Digital Camera, something that was on Slashdot a while ago. Pretty cool, considering the camera has better controls on it. This means you can download and play HOOVER.WAD on your trip to the Hoover Dam. "Who's that guy with the shotgun? I think that was the state trooper. I can't explain that red thing in the distance, though!"

I'd use a 2Ghz processor for emulation, encoding my CDs to ogg files and compiling software quickly. There's always a use for a speedy processor - but I wouldn't throw a lot of money at one just yet.

Benchmarks for the various cameras are here
HP C500 Photosmart is best -- 33 fps!

You know, this kind of makes the 486 that I had 5 years ago seem really obsolete.

--

One thing that's ticked me off about most office environments is how the size of the workspace is tied to the social status of the job. The higher-ups in the company (Often Senior VP and higher) often have their own private office that's 30 times bigger then the smallest cubicle... they often have room for a couple of couches, a mini kitchen (So they don't have to eat with the rest of the grunts)... maybe even a pool table and bar, etc. While I think that every office needs a pool table and some couches, these should be shared among the whole company. They should *not* be the privledge of just a few higher-up employees.

One of the things that I like about the company I work at now is that absolutely everyone, from the President to the VP of Technology to the Administrative Assistant, works in the same sort of cubicle. There are no private offices, but there are plenty of meeting rooms and public space. The President experiences the same noise and traffic levels level that I do. We're getting pool and foosball tables and a few couches (I'm working on getting a MAME box), which will be shared resources in a public space.

VP of marketting, programmers, administrators, mail carrier, receptionists, what-have-you-- all of these jobs are important to the survival of the company. *everyone* deserves a good workspace.

I guarantee you some MBA from Namco is going to file suit against MAME in the next few weeks

That's a pretty safe bet, considering that it already happened over two years ago:
Anti-Piracy Forces Target Arcade Classics, TechWeb, April 22, 1998

I believe that MAME was never directly attacked - they couldn't prove that MAME in and of itself was illegal (a la Sony vs. Bleem), so their lawyers got very busy sending "cease and desist" notices to every site hosting ROMs for MAME.

A few games have been liberated - the original copyright holders have given permission for the ROMs to be distributed. However, I've never heard of these games before, and I suspect that the majority of people get their ROMs from so-called "underground" sites.

The main source I had used for ROMs gave a 10-day warning before removing them from their server - more than enough time to mirror their entire collection to my hard drive... And no, I'm not going to set up a mirror site, so please don't ask. :=]
________________________

..is they had to do more with less - the limitations of the technology in some ways enhanced the good games. You couldn't rely as much on eye-candy to sell the game.

I for one am very grateful for the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and themame.dk rom archive -I can finally play these old games again.

There 's even a version for kodak digital camera's (Digita OS). http://digita.mame.net :-)

(I submitted the patch way back on Nov.8th 1999 to XMame & didn't get credit, but it was trivial...so no fuss. Read the man page for XScreensaver and look at the text covering vroot.h. This is easy to do with other programs because -- duh -- the source is available.)

I just checked the list at mame.net, they don't even have Pong listed.

They better get with the program.

George

Check out the software for emulating arcade games at: http://x.mame.net/

I have the same question. I would like to be able to run one of my monitors on it's side, but I could not locate any information.

What I did locate, was the information that MAME does this. It is a video machine emulator (actually it emulates several video machines). Because some video games used their monitors sideways, MAME does this as well. But I don't know how.

-P

I completely agree with you, however: From what I've heard M$ is working closely with the game developers to ensure that the talent can make the games for the market. The Playstation II sounds like it is notoriously difficult to develop for, so It will be interesting to see how this shakes up - I'm happy with a cheap PC and M.A.M.E. so obviously I'm more interested in gameplay than graphics.

doesn't that seem a little altruistic? let's think of some other reasons someone might share an idea:

• because they're greedy, and think they can make a profit (many things on infomercials could count under this heading; also, bank robberies)
• they'd like to prove it can be done, either for their own glory, or for the sake of the idea itself (proving fermat's last theorem?)
• they're bored, and have this idea, and just on a lark, they set it in motion (seems like most of my programming projects are examples here)
• they're insane, and fear for their bodily fluids (e.g., dr. strangelove)

of course, i've only scratched the surface, but my point is that whether or not an idea benefits humanity, and whether or not it's actually a good idea, someone somewhere will try it. and this gives us things like MAME for Digita-enable cameras and Textmode Quake...

The point being, Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is available for many platforms (such as *nix - get XMAME) unlike Shockcrap, and the Shockcrap-recreations aren't true emulation like in MAME. I admit that they are very well crafted, but the feel just isn't correct and for example the sound is far from original. Actually, MAME emulates these particular games perfectly!

It would have been much more useful for them to release the ROMs to free redistribution, so that all MAME users could use them in good conscience. Now they'll just have to download the roms illegally or simply not play those games.

There are even two free games available for use with MAME. In fact, another one of them was previously owned by Midway, being Robby Roto. However its coder had quite a good contract - it said that when the sales of the game dropped below a certain level, the copyright would revert back to him. Being a good guy, he then released the game for free redistribution. The other free romset is Poly-Play, the only arcade game ever made in ex-GDR (East Germany), and thus there does not seem to exist a copyright holder for that piece of software anymore.

Other choice to get legal games for MAME is to buy the Hot Rod Joystick control panel which comes with a compilation of 14 good old Capcom arcade classics (such as 1941, Block Block, Commando, Exed Exes, Ghouls'n Ghosts, Magic Sword, Mercs, Section Z, Side Arms, Son Son, Street Fighter 2 HF, Strider, U. N. Squadron and Varth), which not recreations but actual ROM files that you can use with MAME. I'd love to see more people buy this pack - it would show the copyright holders that there actually still is a market for stuff like this.

The point being, Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is available for many platforms (such as *nix - get XMAME) unlike Shockcrap, and the Shockcrap-recreations aren't true emulation like in MAME. I admit that they are very well crafted, but the feel just isn't correct and for example the sound is far from original. Actually, MAME emulates these particular games perfectly!

It would have been much more useful for them to release the ROMs to free redistribution, so that all MAME users could use them in good conscience. Now they'll just have to download the roms illegally or simply not play those games.

There are even two free games available for use with MAME. In fact, another one of them was previously owned by Midway, being Robby Roto. However its coder had quite a good contract - it said that when the sales of the game dropped below a certain level, the copyright would revert back to him. Being a good guy, he then released the game for free redistribution. The other free romset is Poly-Play, the only arcade game ever made in ex-GDR (East Germany), and thus there does not seem to exist a copyright holder for that piece of software anymore.

Other choice to get legal games for MAME is to buy the Hot Rod Joystick control panel which comes with a compilation of 14 good old Capcom arcade classics (such as 1941, Block Block, Commando, Exed Exes, Ghouls'n Ghosts, Magic Sword, Mercs, Section Z, Side Arms, Son Son, Street Fighter 2 HF, Strider, U. N. Squadron and Varth), which not recreations but actual ROM files that you can use with MAME. I'd love to see more people buy this pack - it would show the copyright holders that there actually still is a market for stuff like this.

The point being, Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator is available for many platforms (such as *nix - get XMAME) unlike Shockcrap, and the Shockcrap-recreations aren't true emulation like in MAME. I admit that they are very well crafted, but the feel just isn't correct and for example the sound is far from original. Actually, MAME emulates these particular games perfectly!

It would have been much more useful for them to release the ROMs to free redistribution, so that all MAME users could use them in good conscience. Now they'll just have to download the roms illegally or simply not play those games.

There are even two free games available for use with MAME. In fact, another one of them was previously owned by Midway, being Robby Roto. However its coder had quite a good contract - it said that when the sales of the game dropped below a certain level, the copyright would revert back to him. Being a good guy, he then released the game for free redistribution. The other free romset is Poly-Play, the only arcade game ever made in ex-GDR (East Germany), and thus there does not seem to exist a copyright holder for that piece of software anymore.

Other choice to get legal games for MAME is to buy the Hot Rod Joystick control panel which comes with a compilation of 14 good old Capcom arcade classics (such as 1941, Block Block, Commando, Exed Exes, Ghouls'n Ghosts, Magic Sword, Mercs, Section Z, Side Arms, Son Son, Street Fighter 2 HF, Strider, U. N. Squadron and Varth), which not recreations but actual ROM files that you can use with MAME. I'd love to see more people buy this pack - it would show the copyright holders that there actually still is a market for stuff like this.

..when you can play more than 2000 retro arcade game with the mame emulator. This run on linux, freebsd and a lot of other platforms and the all games are emulated orginals not remakes. Head over to http://x.mame.net/ and to http://www.mame.dk/ for all the roms.

The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (also XMAME available) project includes sound emulation support for just about every classic arcade game that it emulates. Not to even mention that its sound cores seem to be the best ones available, for example the YM-2151 emulation is the most accurate sound simulation ever written.

Check out also Qplayer (For standalone playing of CPS2 system games' sounds and music) and NeoJukeBox (For standalone playing of Neo Geo music and sounds).

The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (also XMAME available) project includes sound emulation support for just about every classic arcade game that it emulates. Not to even mention that its sound cores seem to be the best ones available, for example the YM-2151 emulation is the most accurate sound simulation ever written.

Check out also Qplayer (For standalone playing of CPS2 system games' sounds and music) and NeoJukeBox (For standalone playing of Neo Geo music and sounds).

Unless you're planning to "go legit" (put your arcade machine in a public place and start charging people for real) don't waste your money on Ultracade.

ArcadePC is where it's at. Granted, after you add a sufficient computer to the ArcadePC it will probably cost nearly as much as Ultracade, but you won't be locked into buying stupid "game packs" since ArcadePC works with emulators. So the more games MAME supports, the more games your cabinet does.

As for why people like them, I guess that it's because you have to put a lot of effort into learning the moves for all the characters, and then you can beat the hell out of your friends and do really cool/difficult things with said characters. Also, they provide more interaction than an RPG--it's just more fun to beat up your friends than beat up the computer.

But really, this looks like more of the same. Ever since Street Fighter 2, it seems like 90% of the games that are released are just the same bloody idea run into the ground over and over again. They change the characters involved, they tweak the controls, they do it in pseudo 3D a la Tekken 3, War Gods, and Virtua Fighter... but the idea's the same and too often the gameplay's repetitive and bloody annoying.

No wonder I end up spending more money on pinball these days.

Er... It's been done, already... Long ago, in fact... See XMAME... It also comes with XMESS, which is an emulator for various console systems like NES, Genesis, etc... It's definitely something every classic arcade/console junkie should have...

It's an interesting problem, also encountered in the field of emulation (console and arcade games). There are programs which have both legal and illegal uses. For instance MAME allows you to play old arcade games if you have the corresponding copyrighted roms. It is perfectly legal to use it as a hardware behaviour documentation database (which is its main aim) or to play games you own legally. It is of course illegal to download the thousands of roms you find on the internet. Everybody knows that it is the main use of MAME, even if it isn't the main target of the developers.

So, is MAME legal, or is MAME a contributory copyright infrigement?

This case seems to me very similar. Napster can as easily be used for legal and illegal purposes. Most people use it for illegal purposes, but that does not mean it is the primary target of the developers. So the results of this suit is going to have a farther reaching impact than only mp3.

OG.